How to Actually Clean Install Windows 11

TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 679 points – How to Actually Clean Install Windows 11
wired.com

Basically, install Windows as you normally would, but when asked for Time and Currency format, select English (World) instead of your country.

Then let the installer do its thing. Eventually, you will see a window with an ice cream cone on the floor with the words “Something went wrong” and the error message “OOBEREGION.” This cryptic message means that the “out of box experience” (OOBE) didn't launch because it didn't know which region to launch.

Click Skip, though, and Windows will install just fine. You won't be prompted to buy Microsoft 365, you won't be prompted to pay for a OneDrive subscription, and your Start menu won't be cluttered with apps.

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After the install. Create admin and user accounts not tied to ms. Use the user account normally, and when you need admin you enter the second account details.

Use Sophia script to clean up all the advert apps bundled with win11.

I wish I could find a script to remove the advert features from edge for when I have to office. Mozilla Firefox is your day to day browser.

Use chocolatey.org to install ur apps. When you do updates, one command can do it all.

Check start-up scripts, and ensure there is nothing that doesn't need to be there. Teams no, zoom also no.

Isn't it ironic how you need instructions now to install Windows with a bearable level of bloat? Kinda like installing Arch just for uninstalling/skipping instead of installing.

The sad truth is that most people don't care about all the bloat and adware.

I do, i slipstreamed windows 11 both DISM and NTLite and guess what, unbootable! Great!

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Any reason to use chocolatey over winget?

Such a shame that winget is no longer preinstalled in Windows 11. have to install the msix bundle first and remove msstore as source.

Because you like poorly maintained hacky amateur install scripts

I’m not OP but some applications are not available on Winget.

I actually managed to excise Edge from my system entirely, so pressing F1 in explorer doesn't launch it anymore.

Dsspite some people warning that Edge was needed for some "core web functionality" it has broken nothing except the handful of places where they want to force you to launch a link in Edge. In that case nothing happens, but that's not a big deal since I know how to use search engines to find information, which is the only purpose those features served.

It took quite a few steps but I got there. There are a few extra steps to stop it coming back in the next update but you can do it.

Check start-up scripts, and ensure there is nothing that doesn't need to be there.

Nothing better than Autoruns for this.

I grew up on Windows, but Microsoft is seriously pushing me towards Linux. Gaming is all that keeps me here. I have a Steam Deck and I love what Valve is doing for gaming on Linux, so I hope that gets better and multiplayer games become possible.

Does the Sophia script allow you to pick and chose what apps to remove? Some of them are actually useful.

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According to the article, "The only downside is that the Windows Store appears not to work out of the box."

“The only downside is that the Windows Store appears not to work out of the box.”

This is a feature, not a bug.

Can be a major deal breaker though for anyone using GamePass.

If you're gonna buy into the Microsoft ecosystem with a subscription service and a Microsoft Account, you'll be stuck with their trash. Should maybe consider what else might "break Gamepass" in the future (purely by accident of course).

Like how if you don't want OneDrive, whoops, now your Office documents can't autosave. Better put OneDrive back like a good consumer and here's some ads about increasing storage, you're welcome.

Article's author didn't fully catch the meaning of "downside".

I'm of the opinion that MS will eventually get this right, but it won't be called Windows 11 by the time it does. The redesign, efforts into command-line and WSL, they are moving in a positive direction, but the ads, bloat, spyware, needs to go. If they can release Win12 or whatever its called with the simplicity of Win11, have the features of Win10 (and finally put a nail in the old interfaces from XP and before), they could have another solid performer like Windows 7.

they are moving in a positive direction, but the ads, bloat, spyware, needs to go

They're going nowhere. It's making money, Microsoft is using that income to offset development cost instead of just selling the OS at a flat reasonable rate. It's part of the Windows business model now.

Windows is entrenched, they own most of the business world, they will never face serious kickback for their design decisions. Not at this point. Not until Gen Z gets old enough and numerous enough to start pushing workplaces to adopt Apple, and that's an even worse direction.

This isn't ever going to change. The only thing they'll do is give tools to Enterprise editions for businesses to control the install, and only via Azure, at a price point far too high for the average user. Anything less than Enterprise will be locked down and monetized to hell and back.

Effectively, if you're not a business, you will not have true control over Windows. Users no longer get to be admins. You have to pay for that privilege.

They're not offsetting anything, they still charge money for the boxed copy sold in stores. This is pure profit for them.

Yeah windows 11 is laying ground work for all of this.

It seems like they have decided that plebs and OEMs paying licenses was not a good business model.

Really makes you wonder where the entire business world is heading. It seems every company starting to prefer this route.

Not until Gen Z gets old enough and numerous enough to start pushing workplaces to adopt Apple, and that’s an even worse direction.

I am a bit weirded out by such an association. Around me, I do see a few people with Apple tech, but they're a minority. How would people that are able to afford these products be numerous enough to matter?

Not until Gen Z gets old enough and numerous enough to start pushing workplaces to adopt Apple, and that's an even worse direction.

Elder millennial here. This was said of us, too. I remember main framers sometimes noting this direction and poking fun.

Yet here I am and the world keeps chugging along in similar ways.

I don't know why gen z is being portrayed as tech illiterate everywhere on lemmy. We grew up with technology and half of us are adults already

Growing up with technology doesn't automatically grant you knowledge of it. Kids that grow up with iPads are capable of using iPads, but sit them in front of a computer and they'll be lost. Being technically literate is more than just being able to install an app from the app store.

Technically true yes but that is not going to be that way for everyone gen z are also people who are capable of learning. I personally am a tech and privacy nerd and know that not everyone of my generation is as interested but I am also sick off people branding gen z as dumb children on here, hell most of us are adults already.

Of course everybody can learn, but is anyone teaching them? I'm a millennial, I grew up with computers, but I had to learn a lot of things the hard way because it was just expected that we'd somehow become experts without anyone teaching us. We weren't told about cybersecurity, or how to troubleshoot issues, I had to learn all those things by myself. And learning to troubleshoot and other more technical things I only learned because I'm actually interested in computers. Many of my peers aren't, and so don't know even the most basic things.

the ads, bloat, spyware, needs to go

They just introduced them. What makes you think this isn't an integral part of the future of Windows?

I think they'll go even harder, making Windows only run stuff purchased through the Windows Store so they can completely lock in the market.

They already have a Windows "S" mode or whatever it's called that does this. People will reject it, even casual users. I had one person ask me to turn off this mode to their kid could play Roblox. They just want to run apps, they don't care how they work.

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(and finally put a nail in the old interfaces from XP and before)

that's probably not going to happen because it will break some programs

Honestly, there are some apps out there they need complete overhauls or to be completely replaced.

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Now that I can get the Windows Terminal and WSL without the Microsoft Store it seems like this is yet another bonus.

It also talks about just setting your region again after the install to get the windows store working again. Most of the other bloat still stays away though.

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I choose antartica as region, and appers to be the same

How has it been like 20 years since Slashdot was relevant, and we're still getting the same, "LOL install Linux instead" comments?

Like, I've been using and loving Linux since the late '90. But damn, I'm expecting to see "Micro$oft" in these comments any moment.

Slashdot or not, Microsoft sucks. The underlying truth of the "meme" will keep it alive forever.

Lmao I'm surprised I don't see Micro$oft anymore, was literally just thinking about that the other day for some reason.

Reminds me of the PC Master Race people that comment on Console related posts. Like, cool we get that you're insecure about your platform of choice, we don't need to be reminded.

I would rather go for Linux but when Windows needed I'd go for LTSB/LTSC version, choose this oobe during install, after install run christitustech debloat script, activate through github script and in register turn off auto download/install updates. 1.4GB ram idle usage while having all you need.

1.4 GB ram idle usage

That is still comically high. Arch Linux with DWM gets 100 mb, I've seen gentoo builds with DWM get as low as 40 mb.

KDE looks better than windows and it gets a third of the ram idle usage at most.

Idle RAM usage means literally nothing.

Unless you don't have a lot of ram and don't want to spill over into swap?

Aside from that, why would you say that? So if it idled at 8 GB of ram (which it is on its way to eventually doing) would you still say that?

Do you have any idea how ridiculous of a concept it is that a clean operating system alone idles alone on 4gb of ram? What in the hell are the services doing that would make it idle that high? The bloat stacks too you know, if the code that is used to run services in an operating system is inefficient, it will get proportionally worse the more services and programs you open up.

Unless you don’t have a lot of ram and don’t want to spill over into swap?

That has nothing to do with idle RAM. If you are swapping while idle, you have HORRIBLY fucked up. RAM usage is (and should be) determined by memory pressure. When idling, there should be none.

Aside from that, why would you say that? So if it idled at 8 GB of ram (which it is on its way to eventually doing) would you still say that?

Yes. Idle RAM usage means nothing. You need to measure how much it contributes to memory pressure.

Do you have any idea how ridiculous of a concept it is that a clean operating system alone idles alone on 4gb of ram?

No.

What in the hell are the services doing that would make it idle that high?

Preloading and caching in otherwise wasted space.

Memory pressure? You mean niceness?

Niceness just gives a program a higher CPU (and thus, RAM) priority.

Your system is still going to swap. The idling ram doesn't magically go away. That's how it works. If it didn't, you start experiencing bugs, crashes, and data loss, because there is no more room in the pool.

Just because a computer is "idle" doesn't mean it isn't doing anything, it is still performing work to stay on, composite your window manager, display it, run services in the background. Those services are still programs that are often vital to the operating system actually functioning, you can't just make that utilization magically disappear because you need more RAM because they tend to have lower niceness values than programs in userspace, even Windows understands that.

Yes, if you are swapping at idle then you indeed did do something horribly wrong, it is a bit comical that you don't realize that proves my point. The explorer.exe devs indeed did something horribly wrong, they released shitty half baked code because managers think more code = harder/better work when it is actually the reverse.

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I exactly do this. It switches every services to manual and turn off so many notification bloat. After doing this windows never bothers me. Every app , games, hardware like capture card just works on windows.

But i use linux on my laptop because linux is good for browsing and wordprocessing.

but when Windows needed

the irony is that the only reason ever for "Windows needed" is because some obnoxious asshole decided they want to force others to use Windows. There's literally nothing that Windows can do better. There is only a quasi monopoly and probably bribes to companies to release no builds for other platforms (e.g. for games).

ive heard this for years and i always laugh, "there is nothing windows does that linux doesn't!" yeah, totally man.

name one thing. Besides bluescreens.

Sure, games. Proton/wine came a long ways but it's far from perfect or has the same depth of software as native windows. Also potentially having to mess with lutris can be annoying. Graphics drivers are also better on windows too. If you'd like to try to argue this just look at protondb. Is it a 100% compatible with every title? No? Hmmm.... Not to mention proton triggering some games anti cheats.

It's also why there are several memes including the one posted just yesterday or the day before about "cheating" on Linux with windows for gaming. Plus the whole standard advice ive seen on Lemmy being "Linux for daily driving, windows partition for gaming." Now again, why would that be the standard advice? https://lemmy.world/post/5834366

^---thread in question where Linux gamers commiserate their difficulties getting certain games to run on their Linux systems.

Linux is fine, windows is okay if you disable the telemetry, just use what ever os and software you want but it's really silly to make false claims.

Sure, games.

That's not something Windows can do better. That's developers targeting a release only for Windows. Which is exactly the point I made in my original comment that you responded to. Games that have a native release (and even wine, sometimes) typically run faster on a Linux machine than on Windows, because there's less OS garbage overhead.

Graphics drivers are also better on windows too.

The only graphics drivers that are "better" are those for new cards when the manufacturer - again - targeted the windows platform.

The whole philosophy of device drivers is unfathomably better on Linux, because it works with chipset drivers and doesn't give a shit about which vendor a specific chipset came from, as long as the API is compatible. Also, almost everything that's not brand new hardware works out of the box on a vanilla install of e.g. debian (and definitely Linux Mint) whereas on Windows have fun installing drivers that come with tons of crapware.

As you said yourself: it's silly to make false claims. Just because some hardware vendors choose to build hardware for which they tailor drivers to windows, that's not a virtue or merit of windows, that's an abuse of monopoly if anything.

A vendor could also release a new graphics card with an internal electronic black box, release a linux driver and then say "haha, look, Windows can't support that". Except that with Linux, at some point, someone will decode the interface and get a working driver in a release somewhere.

You can make up all the reasons you want, the end result is the same. People use windows because the product works better and more reliably. If you want to split hairs be my guest but every metric windows wins against Linux in gaming. It has a higher user base, more software, better support, and as you said even entire businesses developing stuff for it because businesses go where the customers are. Sure you can say "oh they just greased some palms", but if you knew anything about the gaming world that doesn't mean jack shit if your games and hardware sucks. The graveyard of failed hardware and software prove that. As much as I love steam and I'm glad the steam deck is having success every other Linux based hardware attempt they've come up with has failed hard like their console and steam link. And what's your point about some games running better? Some games run worse too, beyond the fact your statement admits not every game runs better, how does that make Linux superior? Your example about companies also doesn't disprove anything because a company can do that...but hasn't in the entire 40+ years of Linux existence...curious isn't it? Also you can program driver's for windows too for devices lol, how else do you think people tinker with stuff? I mean I'm using a PS3 eye as a webcam on my Windows PC rn with custom community made drivers just like Linux does .....

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The cleanest windows 11 install topped off with formatting the drive and installing Linux.

Really cleanse yourself by booting into Linux

Can't play the game I want on Linux.

Some may have that problem. Check https://protondb.com to be real sure of it though. Pretty much every game I've wanted to play has been compatible on Linux. If you really can't even with WINE then you could boot windows from a separate drive.

Pretty @#%^ing ironic posting this shortly before the W11 23H2 build releases and literally un-does everything all over again.

The only answer is refusing to use Microsoft malware full stop.

If you really need to use Windows for some reason--for instance, my job requires me to use software that isn't available for Linux (or, for that matter, Mac)--what you want to look for is a long-term service channel release of Windows. They're difficult for end users to find, but It's more or less just the OS, and not much of anything else. Updates are security only, not features. You'll typically need a Windows license, and then will have to buy an additional Win LTSC license on top of your existing license.

If you really need to use Windows

What if I want to use Windows for many reasons? I mean in cases where Linux could work, but it is a personal preference?

I get you're trying to help with your suggestion, but the way you started that comment isn't needed at all - it stinks of elitism.

You could have just said:

Another way to get Windows without all the bloat is to install it using a Windows long-term service channel release.

This falls a little flat to me. I've been using desktops since the IBM 8086 clones of the 80s; I don't recall ever seeing anyone that was passionate about Windows (or MS-DOS before that). Perhaps there were, but I don't remember them. Microsoft products were just kind of the default after a little while; people used them because it was convenient. Plenty of people are deeply passionate about Macintosh, or whichever Linux distribution they like, but I just don't see that in Windows. Most people seem to use it because that's what they have to use in order to play games, or run work applications.

But hey man, if Windows is really your jam, but you don't like the bloat, then you go right ahead! You are more than welcome to like what you like, and it's really not my place to tell you that you're wrong. I use Windows 99% of the time because I've got, uh, fuck, 35 years (?!?) of experience using Microsoft products, and the documentation for Tails is really, really spotty. (OMG, I just realized that I went to college the first time using DOS 6.22; I didn't even have Windows 3.1.)

You can have a preference without being passionate or evangelical about the thing you prefer.

I feel an operating system is a really weird thing to be passionate about anyway. And judging others for their personal preference in OS says more about the person doing the judging if you ask me...

I find merit in each of the major operating systems I use: Windows 11, Mac OS 13, Ubuntu, Debian, Manjaro, Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS, and Alpine Linux - and those are just the ones I run currently. In the past I used OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, HPUX, Slackware, SUSE, Fedora, Redhat, Windows 3.11/95/98Se/2000/XP/7/10, and Mac OS 9 through 12 (with the exception of Cheetah and Mavericks).

But to act like you're better than someone else, and make it clear you think less of them, because of your choice in operating system is telling. As mentioned else where ITT it's like the console vs PC master race crap you get in gaming communities - it says more about the insecurity of the person trying to elevate themselves than anything else.

This is my opinion ...

To clean install Windows 11, first, create a bootable USB drive using the Windows Media Creation Tool. Boot your PC from the USB drive, select your language and region, and click "Install Now." Enter your product key if prompted or choose to activate later. Follow the on-screen instructions, format your desired drive, and complete the installation process.

Get the N verison and you won't get any bloatware either

I'm not sure I follow, this is just a regular install. Are you saying you don't agree with the article and want to have Office 365 and all that other stuff installed?

Microsoft is a "New Oil" drilling company. Expect the Enron like approach

I've created a powershell script for fresh installations that removes all the unnecessary preinstalled garbage and copies a cleaned up startmenu layout file to the appdata subfolder of my user and the default user because in a professional setting, people shouldn't see tiktok and Disney+ and shit like that. Fuck Microsoft. In private, I've switched to Linux and couldn't be happier.

post a link to your script somewhere

See my other comment, it's not worth posting a script for that. The garbage removal is also just using winget remove or remove-appxpackage to get rid of OneDrive, the preinstalled Teams, Xbox stuff and so on. You'll write that yourself in 5 minutes.

Got a GitHub link fren?

No, sorry. But the line in question is just

copy-item start2.bin C:\users\default\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperiencehost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\

Replace default with your actual username. Default is the one that gets used for new users when they log in for the first time.

You need a clean start2.bin file ofc. To get that, just manually create a start menu you like and copy the file from the above location.

The old export-startmenulayout commands from windows 10 don't work for windows 11.

Warning: had to type the directory structure on mobile, might've made mistakes.

Have you tried with the newest version of powershell (whatever they’re calling it now) think you still have to go out and download it but I’m not sure.

Thanks for the direct info share!

I think it is still called PowerShell, but to differentiate the installation source, Microsoft seem to be referring to the cross-platform version you can download from GitHub or via WinGet as PowerShell Core and the version that ships with Windows as Windows PowerShell

Not quite what I’m referencing, but yeah there are two versions of powershell in this sense, I’m just talking about the latest version (7.X), windows only comes with 5.X AFAIK, but 7 has some cool new features and what not. Wasn’t sure if the 7.x reincorporated/added whatever way it might be worded to mean “working again in”

I should’ve clarified that in the original, my b

This is gonna be a very simple patch for Microsoft to eliminate

Consider permanent solutions such as automated scripts (learn how to read scripts or ask the ai overlords to do it for you and verify)

But if you’re reeeally over windows shit it’s a good time to consider swapping OS or even doing a dual boot with a steam os just for gaming but dual boots with windows can get hairy and you run the risk of getting fawked up

It has been ages since I installed Windows 11. Does it require (as in, you can't continue without) an internet connection be enabled at an earlier stage in the installation process?

If not, then MS can patch all they want, if you have the installer on a USB drive already, they can't force you to update it and the installer won't fetch a patched OOBE installer with the internet disabled.

It tries to, however you can bypass the 'Let's get you connected' screen. Since you'll probably need to manually install the wifi drivers, you can start that way with internet disabled.

If anybody needs the actual method: Shift + F10 at the Connection Screen, then in the command prompt, type: OOBE\BYPASSNRO

It'll restart and you'll have to go through a couple windows again (keyboard layout, language, etc.), but then you'll be set. One thing to remember, once you log in with your account and get the internet going (if you decide to), Onedrive will immediately start trying to sync and download everything. Literally the first thing I do is quit one drive and uninstall it so it won't!

Yeah, you’ve got a point here. You do still have to use the older version of the installer but that can be pretty trivial, good point!

It has been ages since I installed Windows 11

Ages? Really? It was released two years ago.

Rufus can bypass all that crap and you get to install on unsupported hardware as well.

The stuff Rufus doesn't block is the everything horrific. It's great at removing/side-stepping the annoying and does nothing to remove the excrement.

I do like rufus though.

Look for Tiny10 and Tiny11 versions.

Do not recommend Tiny10/11. They are modified Windows ISOs and we have no way of knowing what actually was modified and if there's anything malicious under the hood.

Besides it also completely breaks a bunch of actually useful features.

The developer behind tiny10/11 publishing scripts on his GitHub that you can use to make your own tiny windows install.

What's that?

A barebones stripped down version of windows. Basically the smallest install possible to run windows. I use it on my Mac to virtualize windows.

You can do that but you have to change region to activate windows.

But then you can just chnge it back to (world) again