Maybe even Microsoft don't want us to use windows any more?

Microsoft has been weirdly protective of their installation image downloads for some time now. I don't really get why.

It's so you can't reinstall your Windows and get stuck with the OEM's (bad) install. It also brings more repairs.

Rufus like tools are becoming a near necessity to install windows these days.

I recently wiped my drive and performed a clean install. I started with fedora and about 15 minutes later I was 100% back together - programs and all.

Then I moved/installed my RETAIL copy of win11 pro to a virtual machine. It took like 4 hours, and I swear I’m not dumb! :)

• getting the iso onto a flash drive without a windows machine was way more difficult than it needed to be. Ventoy ftw.
• then you have to either: bypass the tpm stuff with Rufus, or set up a vm based secure boot/tpm module via vm additions. Not too hard, but annoying. Why it can’t be a normal option to install in a vm without a tpm module is beyond me.
• the install took forever. It asked SO many questions and shoved so much crap in my face “subscribe to 365”. “Turn on one drive”. “Try this syncing thingy with your phone.” “Here let me turn on all the telemetry - oh you don’t want that, here’s more screens to click through.” It was endless and annoying.
• activation was surprisingly difficult. It of course detected the hardware change being moved to a VM. Then I had to pick some obscured hyperlink to get to a screen where it showed literally dozens of machines (like every install I’ve ever done over decades) to pick the install I was transferring. It was not as easy to find the right install as you’d think. It kept complaining “that copy was already in use”. Or “already transferred” but they were all the same pc installed with the same retail license. I realized right there how screwed up it all is behind the scenes. I eventually clicked on one that activated thank god.
• mind you, it was REAL EASY to skip the above step and PAY for a new license. That screen is shoved right in your face.
• once it was finally installed and booted, then the worst part came - updates. It literally took like 2 hours to update. No my internet connection isn’t slow, and no, the VM isn’t resources strapped. I couldn’t believe how many times it updated and rebooted and started another update. Why a freshly downloaded iso required so many sequential updates is beyond me. It was connected to the internet during install, why didn’t you grab the latest then? /facepalm.

The whole process was extremely painful. And I gave in years ago and I login with a Microsoft account - you’d think the ONE advantage I’d get for that would be: “oh hi sir, I see you are installing your one and only retail copy of win11, HAVE A NICE DAY!” NOPE.

I’ve been installing OSes since the days of dos 5.0 and I couldn’t believe how low Microsoft has fallen with the shovelware and bad updates process.

And after all that - I don’t even use the win11 VM. I just installed it because I had a valid retail license and “why not? I can move the VM around I the future if I want”. My software runs just as fast, if not faster in Linux - but I’m much faster because my OS gets out of my way, doesn’t shove ads and crap in my face, and I’ve tailored it to match my workflow.

Windows is dead folks. If you’re stubbornly hanging on, you really shouldn’t.

I have a work-supplied laptop with Windows on it. I use it maybe once or twice a month, just for the things requiring a VPN. The rest of the time it sits there gathering dust while I get real work done on my Linux laptop.

The specs on the work laptop say it should be a performance beast, but my Linux machine (with half the RAM) runs circles around it.

Yeah remember that tool that could pull any ISO you could imagine off their official servers? Pepperidge farm remembers

That's a solid plan except when your OEM doesn't fucking provide any (thanks lenovo)

Yeah I consider the bridge burned; their install media maker .exe thing doesn't run on Linux so I Just Can't Help You Install Windows Anymore^TM.^

Same 👌🏻😁

For Anyone who needs windows still I'd recommend making an unattend XML- https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

That at least makes it less painful. Still painful though.

I decided upon seeing this article I should update my current windows 11 iso.

They have definitely changed the download flow since the last time I attempted.

In order to download the latest windows 11 iso on a non-windows system, you need to go to the download page, select the last option, verify the connection select region and then verify the connection again, upon finishing it they now give you a 24h time limited link.

This seems very counterproductive to convincing people to go back to windows if they had already bailed, I would have thought they would want as less restrictions as possible on the iso itself in hope to get people to go back.

I don't think that is much different to any other software firm that sells propriety commercial software.

The most annoying thing is that users from Europe get to skip most of this. No privacy option nagging, no OneDrive nagging.

I could do what you did in 40 minutes, including the updates (no idea why yours took 40 minutes, I'd say about 20 for a fresh install).

So it is possible, but it's Microslop so...

i can't say I've ever had much experience with timed download links for software. generally the software that I've used has relied on a permanent link that you can always access and then premium features for the link is locked behind a license key.

Sequential updates are frustrating… I need to do that to my car, manually over USB, like 10 times (if I ever want CarPlay).

Do they include migration steps from the prior version in each build? So effectively, you can only get to version n from version n-1?

It’s like they want us to use something else…
(Linux / FOSS ftw)

I thought Rufus was the correct way. I didn’t even know Msft maintains its own tool anymore.

I use linux to download the ISO. Microsoft wants you to download the ISO if you are on linux. Then I copy it to my ventoy directory and move on. Rarely do I make a dedicated windows usb drive.

Over the past few years i have also realized rufus is the only thing making windows 11 installs easy or even possible. I had several devices i needed to get onto 11 and i remember 1 laptop i tried for days doing so many different things and it would just fail most of the way through and i couldnt figure out why. I then found rufus and saw that it allows some changes to get it working on some older devices andbit worked perfectly on the first try. Idk what MS is doing but they continue to screw up time after time.

Yeah you can still get the windows update tool for win 11 but it’s hard to find.

Absolutely insane! I needed a fresh machine to test something so i installed Windows 10 LTSC IoT on a 13 year old machine (processor, mobo, RAM, PSU… the video card was updated and it has some SATA SSDs.)

The install took less than ten minutes and I was in. Cracking took five minutes, and ninite took a minute or two to install all my software.

My only real complaint about IoT was its complete lack of support for winget out of the box.

I haven’t used winget! I’ll look it up hahaha. It also doesn’t seem to support WMR, which MS is killing anyway… but it’s supposed to work until later this year at least! I want it working because I don’t like using my index to play rhythm games cuz I don’t wanna smash it, but I can be more carefree with my WMR kit I got for less than 200USD… I think it needs the M$ store to download, but LTSC IoT doesn’t come with that and I don’t want it.

There’s a way to “sideload” it (not technically side loading) but it’s quite annoying.