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Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems. |
TAME YOUR TECH By Susan Bradley I’ve been promising a step-by-step guide to help you migrate to Windows 11 as neatly and safely as possible. This isn’
[See the full post at: Decisions to be made before moving to Windows 11]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
What camp are you in?
I’m in the camp of being in control. I don’t like someone else decide on my behalf what’s best for me. Yet we’re all heading in that direction, by making everything as-a-service. This as-a-service thing isn’t exactly new. For example, car rentals. The rental company buys the car, pays taxes and maintenance and I pay rent and gas. New-style as-a-service means I buy the car, pay rent, maintenance and gas. And I need to pay the rental company to be able to drive. And I shouldn’t be surprised if the rental company occasionally changes something on my car. Like changing it from stick-shift to automate. Would anyone buy a car under these terms?
The problem with your analogy is that you are not purchasing Windows. You are buying a license to use Windows under the terms that Microsoft sets. You have to agree to the license terms to use Windows. One of the terms is that Microsoft gets to do whatever it wants to the product. Your choice is to use it or not. Of course, there are many tools available to change much of Windows’s behavior. If that is not acceptable to you, you must investigate an alternative OS.
--Joe
…without a Microsoft account, you can’t set up Windows Hello
I have Windows Hello setup on all local accounts on all my installations, use a PIN for all of them, and do not have a Microsoft account on any of them.
I have Windows Hello setup on all local accounts on all my installations, use a PIN for all of them, and do not have a Microsoft account on any of them.
To add to that correct statement, while you DO need a local password to setup up Windows Hello, after Windows Hello is setup (with a PIN and/or Biometrics), you can remove the password by entering blank in both fields and STILL have a functioning Windows Hello.
I have a fingerprint reader and a few of my apps and logins like ID.me utilize it. It is especially useful for my PW Manager. But, when I start my machine, it boots right into Windows with no password. (I do utilize a Disk Protection PW prior to Windows.)
Sorry, Still don’t fully understand what you input after selecting to join a Domain. Doesn’t Windows request information regarding the Domain you are trying to join? Like a name, a number, an email, or something? What do you input at this point? Just ignore and it sends you to Local Account setup?
I didn’t say I selected a domain. I didn’t join any Domain (don’t have one, didn’t try to connect to one, didn’t enter any information or “something”). I said I chose a “School or Work” account. Didn’t run into BYPASSNRO (never saw it). Didn’t have to enter “Shift-F10” (or whatever it is). Why do you have to invent what I said/did?
My Local ID is my initials-space-my last name (7 characters including a space). Exactly like the post says.
Read my post, please. there are no hidden sentences between the words.
A few useful posts.
I set up Win11 Pro 24H2… Used the “for Work or School” option in the setup… No hassle trying to use the Local ID.
Here’s a new one I just read about in PCWorld newsletter:
Press: Shift+F10
Type: Start ms-chx:localonly
Follow the prompts to create a local user. Setup continues normally
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
You could just type those two commands into the Command Window yourself.
cheers, Paul
I just set up a new PC with Windows 11 Home preinstalled.
I was not connected to the Internet for the complete process.
I created a local account using the
WinJS-Microsoft-Account-Bypass
that Susan posted the link for.
The whole process took about 5 minutes.
It came with 23H2. I paused updates for a few weeks until I can enter the stop for updating to 24H2.
I then connected to the Internet.
Currently set up with KVM switch to share the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and all external drives to both my Windows 10 and my new Windows 11.
Since I stopped the Updates, I did have to trigger a reset of the date & time for my time zone.
HTH, Dana:))
Good , useful post. Thank you,
However I will not ever be going to Windows 11. I will use Windows 10 until the end of MY life thank you. Fortunately I can now do all critical communication and financial tasks on my iPhone — quite easily (and safely) and avoid the life-shortening frustrations of Winnows 11. I do use Windows 10 for a couple spreadsheets and documents (I wont tell you which version of office I use! – grin). BTW I cant stand the Windows 10 interface as well so I use Open Shell to configure it to look like Windows 7 (which is still the best looking version of Windows).
Did it come pre-encrypted? Have you kept / removed encryption?
This is Windows 11 Home and is not encrypted and does not have Microsoft encryption software to encrypt it. This no encryption and no Group policy editor are just a couple reasons I chose Home over Pro. Contrary to what Susan has said, I found it hard to find a high end PC that had Windows 11 Home. Very happy with my choice:
Dell Inspiron 3030
14th Gen i7 14700 (up to 5.4 GHz) – 20 cores
64GB DDR5 RAM
1 TB NVMe SSD
UHD 770 graphics
Wi-Fi 6
Also contrary to what others have said, I placed this in my wish list several months ago and when I purchased just recently it was the same price it was several months ago and the price did not go up.
The only thing I did not research properly before buying was the KVM switch. I did not get a KVM switch with EDID emulation. When I switch from the Windows 11 PC to the Windows 10 PC all the open app windows shrink to windows default (aka: smaller) size. I’m using the work around for this, but I wish I had gotten a KVM with EDID emulation.
In the process of making images before I start making it a useful PC.
HTH, Dana:))
What happens to the encrypted disk if you don’t sign on to a Microsoft account
The disk remains encrypted and the recovery keys remain on the disk. Windows will decrypt the disk and work as expected.
If you do something that requires the recovery keys, Windows will collect them from the disk.
If you (anyone who uses your computer) signs into an MS account, the keys will be uploaded to that account (removed from the disk) and if you later need the keys you may be stuck.
There are 2 solutions:
1. Decrypt the disk.
2. Login to an MS account – the keys will be uploaded. Save the keys from the MS account or run our script to back them up.
cheers, Paul
Susan mentions OpenShell and Start11 while noting that Start11 is better for someone who likes the taskbar at the top of the screen.
I used and liked OpenShell on Windows 10, but I do like the taskbar at the top. However I also like to add an Address Bar to the taskbar. For that reason, I chose to use StartAllBack which provides both of these things.
I like the use of classic Toolbars I create on the right side of the Taskbar.
I used ExplorerPatcher to get that classic Toolbar function in my W11.
This worked so well that I was able to copy a toolbar folder from my W10 directly into my W11. The Toolbar folder contain shortcuts to open Windows utilities. Most of the shortcuts still work and open those utilities in W11.
I really like Winaero Tweaker as it allows quick Font size change in different areas of Windows such as just the Taskbar or menus and has numerous other tweaks to make W11 look like W10.
HTH, Dana:))
I came here to comment on start menu replacements and got immersed in the discussion of device encryption.
I set up a new Windows 11 Home computer without a microsoft account late last year.
At some point I saw something about encryption. I think it was a warning from my backup program that the disk was encrypted, but I no longer remember for sure.
I also think (thought?) that after seeing this I somehow disabled encryption somewhere in settings, but I don’t remember the details.
Now if I search for encryption in settings, I get, among other things the following:
which says, among other things:
Your security processor, called the trusted platform module (TPM), is providing additional encryption for your device.
Is this telling me that my disk is still encrypted despite the fact that I think I disabled encryption?
Bob, run our test script and it will show you what you have.
BitLocker on my new machine, is the disk encrypted?
cheers, Paul
I have several partitions on my internal SSD. I ran that script which produced one line for each one that has a drive letter. All say that the drive is not encrypted and protection is off which is actually what I suspected.
I still think that
Encryption was originally on
Yes, this is how the machine is delivered to the customer. You always have the option of turning it off.
cheers, Paul
Wow, I’m so glad that Win 7 had just come out when I retired. I was using Win XP and then got myself a new computer with Win 7 on it and once I got accustomed to it, I loved it. Things really started going downhill from around 2015 on. I refused to get Win 10 and started learning Linux Mint which is what I’m using full time now and mostly loving it.
I’m so glad I don’t have to go through all the rigamarole that one must put up with to use Windows now! I don’t think my brain could take all that additional stress in addition to everything else that’s going on.
Decisions to be made? I’ve already made mine.
It’s ironic how when Msft. finally gets things almost fixed, and third party companies make software that improves the way Win 10 looks and works (at the customers’ time and expense) that they come out with yet another bomb and you have to start all over again.
It took me 30 minutes to change everything I did not like in Windows 11, using the free program Winaero Tweaker. It then took me a couple of days to get used to the general layout of the settings. The one thing I really dislike about Windows 11 is the acrobatics we have to do to set up a local account. What a pain.
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