←back to thread

Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11

(schneegans.de)
215 points nixass | 1 comments | 29 Mar 25 20:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.285s | source
Show context
chem83 ◴[01 Apr 25 19:49 UTC] No.43550684[source]▶
My favorite trick is to install with English (World) language to avoid auto-install of all sorts of crap. Windows Store won't work in this mode, but it's just a matter of reverting to your preferred language after first boot.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/15gk07n/english_...

Edit: in my experience, changing the language to something else immediately after install is done still adds the crapware automatically. I think I needed to reboot once or twice for whatever post-install service Windows runs to no longer get executed.

replies(2): >>43550792 #>>43551345 #
accrual ◴[01 Apr 25 20:04 UTC] No.43550792[source]▶
For all of Windows faults, one thing I love about it is that (with persistence and skill) you can usually bang and hammer it into whatever shape you need it to be. Someone got XP running on a 486 using only a handful of MB memory recently.
replies(2): >>43557308 #>>43558546 #
1. thewebguyd ◴[02 Apr 25 16:36 UTC] No.43558546[source]▶
Yep, mostly thanks to enterprise. There's a group policy for just about anything you could ever imagine you'd want Windows to do (or not do).

Granted, a lot of it isn't super discoverable, or exposed to the user in a pretty GUI (it mostly lives deep within the registry, a good chunk undocumented), but it truly is a general purpose OS in every sense of the word.

Unlike most here I actually like and enjoy using Windows (doubly so with WSLv2 and the new windows terminal), although I'll admit since WSL I pretty much use Windows as if it were another Linux distro. But over the years I've come to learn a lot of the ins and outs of what it can do.

That said, if Microsoft continues down this MS account, consumer hostile behavior even more it's going to be time for me to say my goodbyes to windows.