Windows 11

[Mercutio]

I think I've mentioned this site before, but they've massively updated it and how it works.
Ameliorated.io is a set of scripts that strips BS out of a Windows 10 or Windows 11 install to suit your specific needs. These scripts are called Playbooks and each of them removes a subset of components that might not serve the needs of a particular audience. This usually means telemetry nonsense and network features end users are unlikely to need. The goal is to make a stripped down and less intrusive OS, especially for gamers or people using low-spec PCs.

I tried it on a system with a Celeron N CPU, 4GB RAM and an EMMC drive and while I wouldn't call that a fast computer, Windows 11 installs and runs better than the Windows 8.1 that was on it before.

In other news, Microsoft stopped activating Windows 7 and 8 keys for Windows 11 licenses. Completely fuckin' bogus.

 

[Chewy509]

Rumours of Windows 12 potentially being subscription based:

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/microsoft-windows-12-could-require-a-subscription

However, these rumours appear to have been debunked, as the subscription information appears to relate to IoT Enterprise services that MS are offering...

Or my tinfoil hat: It's a leak to see how the public reacts to it? (TLDR: It's all negative).

 

[sedrosken]

Since when does Microsoft care about negative press that doesn't come in the form of a lawyer serving them court documents? They've been a technological punching bag for over thirty years now. They don't care as long as people keep buying the product, which, they will, because of inertia and fear of learning new things.

 

[Mercutio]

My impression overall is that Microsoft doesn't REALLY want to make OSes any longer. It wants to make a framework for online services and get people to pay for it to host everything. On Prem Windows Server is disappearing and I think there's a constant sales pitch for more and more things to be added to Microsoft 365. If Windows became part of that, how shocked would any of us really be?

 

[LunarMist]

So where does that leave Intel and AMD, just making servers?

 

[Mercutio]

Both Google and Microsoft have an OS that's essentially just a front-end for web services (ChromeOS and Windows S-Mode).
Some people will always want local processing but we haven't had any major change from Windows since Windows Vista was released. The new features in Windows are generally tied to Microsoft services now. I think most people are just evolving back to using terminals again.

 

[LunarMist]

Sure, but that only requires the ARMs CPU right?

 

[Mercutio]

If you're not doing much local processing, an ARM CPU is definitely fine. New Intel 14th gen CPUs are actually exceeding the thermal loads of the brand-new Zen 4 Threadrippers, which is so far beyond ridiculous that those things don't even merit attention as a mainstream product IMO. Intel is in the process of disqualifying itself on the desktop.

 

[LunarMist]

I read it was somewhat ridiculous, a push by marketing instead of just waiting until the next generation of technology was ready.
Probably there will be some improvements with the 2024 CPUs.
I'd never use anything but local programs personally. I believe that the MACs still have strong CPUs for local processing.

 

[Mercutio]

Once again, MAC is an acronym for media access control.

Everyone has plenty-strong CPUs for local processing if you need it, but basically the only people who care are doing engineering and content creation workloads. Even gamers don't particularly get bottlenecked by their processor unless they have a really weird setup.
The daily needs of most home users line up well enough with "web terminal" which is why things like ChromeOS work well in the first place. And they DO work well for a lot of individual needs, even if they're more or less an 80% solution.

Don't think MacOS is particularly a good solution; over time, MacOS has borrowed a lot more from iOS than iOS has gotten from MacOS. I think, to the extent that Apple wants the OSes to converge, that it's to be even more of the walled garden.

 

[LunarMist]

I have little to no control of my media access. I'm not a normal home user.
I'm mostly bottlenecked by mental selection or by storage paradigm.
I just hope that MS still makes an OS I can use for a few more years after the 2025 Deadline. Does Windows v11 have an expiry date yet?

 

[Chewy509]

Does Windows v11 have an expiry date yet?

Typically 2 years from the release of the 'version' of Windows 11 (for Home/Pro, excluding Enterprise which has it's own release cycle).

Windows 11 Home and Pro - Microsoft Lifecycle

Windows 11 Home and Pro follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy.

learn.microsoft.com

 

[Mercutio]

Windows S mode is a reduced functionality mode of operation where only Apps installed from the Microsoft Store or already included in the system image can be used. It is most often found on less expensive notebooks or on managed systems belonging to a school or similar institution.

The normal way to deal with it is just to Sign in to the PC with your Microsoft Account, go to System Properties and click the button under Product Key and Activation to turn it off, but this is not always feasible.

S Mode is technically a flag set in firmware and it's possible to remove it by turning off Secure Boot, but for obvious reasons, this is not a good idea.

How to kill Windows S Mode without using a Microsoft Account

Boot to Command Prompt Only or use Windows To Go or similar portable Windows install (Linux probably won't work since these drives are often encrypted). Make sure you're looking at the registry on the primary internal drive if you're using Windows to Go (Load Hive > c:\windows\system32\config\System).

Open your registry editor, open
HKLM\Offline\Controlset001\Control\CL\SkuPolicyRequired

Set the value of that key to 0

Save changes if the editor you're using asks to do that.