On 18/10/2025 at 6:25 PM, aussievintage said:

By the way, there are some pruned down versions of WIndows 11, that run reasonably well.  Try a lightweight version of Ghost Spectre, for example.  It runs quite reasonably, even in a virtual machine

I looked at tiny11, but was too pruned down for me, didn't look at Ghost Specter..

2 minutes ago, muon* said:

I looked at tiny11, but was too pruned down for me, didn't look at Ghost Specter..

 

Running a tidied up version of Windows in a virtual machine makes it finally manageable.  If it stuffs itself up (as it invariably does) you just spin up a previous version of the virtual machine.  Meanwhile your computer is running a rock-solid operating system that is easy to maintain, boots so fast, and let's you do 90% or more of your daily tasks.  I hardly ever need to spin up a Windows VM.

Not running VM and not interested in doing so..

6 minutes ago, muon* said:

Not running VM and not interested in doing so..

 

That's a personal choice.  I ran whole businesses on VMs so I am comfortable with it.

13 hours ago, aussievintage said:

 

That's a personal choice.  I ran whole businesses on VMs so I am comfortable with it.

Yes, some things are very suitable for some people.

On 09/10/2025 at 1:02 PM, Tweaky said:

If the link isn't visible: 

Restart your PC:

Sometimes, restarting your device can make the enrollment link appear, according to Microsoft Learn.

Check for Updates:

Manually checking for Windows updates may also trigger the appearance of the link.

 

Thank you for the tip, it worked for me. Just enrolled for free ESU and now have some time to decide on the next step including Linux. 

 

 

Handy tool for windows 11 👍

https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/how-to-enroll-for-windows-10-esu-get-a-year-of-free-windows-10-extended-security-

My reaction to Microsoft's paid "Extended Windows 10 Support" feels like an extortion attempt. They provideded free support for their operating system, and now remove it unless you pay. If they are continuing to put the work in to support the "non-supported Win10" then continue to make these updates free. Unethical business practice, IMHO, something that Microsoft have been accused of in the past. This rant over.

I bought my PC just as Win11 was released, I try to buy one with decent specs so I can get longevity from it. The Win10 it came with included a button to see if it would support Win11, and I was surprised to find the that new PC "doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11". Some Google research when I bought the PC suggested that this was a Microsoft ploy to get users to upgrade, and that my PC probably would support Win11. But I have used Win11 on other PCs and don't really see any benefits, and dislike some of the so-called "improvements" to the interface. #@%#&*#!!#$!@%$#$#% Microsoft.

On 18/10/2025 at 8:49 PM, aussievintage said:

 

Running a tidied up version of Windows in a virtual machine makes it finally manageable.  If it stuffs itself up (as it invariably does) you just spin up a previous version of the virtual machine.  Meanwhile your computer is running a rock-solid operating system that is easy to maintain, boots so fast, and let's you do 90% or more of your daily tasks.  I hardly ever need to spin up a Windows VM.

I endorse this message 1000%

I jumped off the MS bandwagon finally after giving up gaming many years ago and seeing the trajectory that Windows was taking with Win10. I have some virtual machines configured for different versions and the applications that go with them to be used very seldomly and it gets me by. I'm still forced to use Win11 through work so get a front row seat to the disaster-clusterfck that all MS software is becoming, made even more painful by the juxtaposition of having a relatively pain free experience with my Linux PCs at home. I lose hours of productivity every week due to the buggy mess that Office has become (looking at Excel primarily) not to mention the lost work thanks to forced Windows updates that can't be deferred. I've actually come back to gaming in the last couple years and I can't believe how good Proton is and I'm not even running gaming focused distros, Manjaro on my Alienware laptop and Mint on my headless remote-play gaming tower. DayZ was the only title that gave me issues and only because I wanted to play modded servers (worked around by 3rd party scripts) , oh and EA games with their forced separate launcher I can't get working with remote-play.

I get the need for a lot of people to use Windows, my brother in law for instance does audio production and is heavily invested and locked into Windows with all his instruments, interfaces and DAWs (he's going to dual boot soon thankfully). If the only thing keeping you on Windows is 'convenience' then please reconsider, even if some small sacrifices are required (not being able to play competitive online games due to kernel level anti-cheat not being supported) I believe the reward far far far outweighs the impost on your current lifestyle.

2 minutes ago, rundllexe said:

not to mention the lost work thanks to forced Windows updates that can't be deferred.

This is one that beggards belief.

For all the managerial rahrah about productivity, none of the so-called managers at my previous employer (a major university) ever considered the organisational cost of having thousands of highly educated, high-performing and often highly paid (!) academic staff waiting for twenty minutes + for their win10 to update.

From one person who managed all the admin for an entire deparment on a single computer to a department where every staff has now major admin workload baked into their work, several admin support officers, and software that is buggy, insecure, and with dubious privacy data protection policies. . . .that is what the triumpant march of the M$ paperless office looks like.

Edited January 9Jan 9 by Steff

Is there any indication when MS will release Windows 12?

I can't upgrade to Win11 because it says my hardware doesn't support it (see my previous post). And I don't want to buy a new PC with Win11 only to find it won't support Win12 that is released a few weeks after I make my purchase.

21 minutes ago, rundllexe said:

I can't believe how good Proton is and I'm not even running gaming focused distros

It certainly is good. This is maybe the final straw for most people needing Windows. Steam have removed this last obstacle for most.

Just now, audiofeline said:

Is there any indication when MS will release Windows 12?

I can't upgrade to Win11 because it says my hardware doesn't support it (see my previous post). And I don't want to buy a new PC with Win11 only to find it won't support Win12 that is released a few weeks after I make my purchase.

https://iboysoft.com/howto/ghost-spectre-windows-11.html

"The official Windows 11 has strict system requirements that leave many older but still capable PCs behind. Furthermore, even for compatible computers, performance can be hindered by the sheer volume of pre-installed apps and features running in the background.

If you want to install Windows 11 on an incompatible PC or improve its performance, the Ghost Spectre Windows 11 ISO file is a modified operating system distribution designed specifically for these purposes.

It's essentially a lightweight version of Windows 11, where developers have already removed unnecessary components, services, and features that average users are unlikely to use."

12 minutes ago, Steff said:

This is one that beggards belief.

For all the managerial rahrah about productivity, none of the so-called managers at my previous employer (a major university) ever considered the organisational cost of having thousands of highly educated, high-performing and often highly educated academic staff waiting for twenty minutes + for their win10 to update.

From one person who managed all the admin for an entire deparment on a single computer to a department where every staff has now major admin workload baked into their work, several admin support officers, and software that is buggy, insecure, and with dubious privacy data protection policies. . . .that is what the triumpant march of the M$ paperless office looks like.

I used to work for a tertiary educational instution. They didn't have a clear computer upgrade policy for staff. When I started staff computers were replaced by the computers that were upgraded in the classrooms, but they decided that was too much trouble, and left it to managers to decide when to replace the computers.

My computer was so old that every morning it would take 20mins to boot up. I couldn't believe the amout of productivity that affected, but they accepted it. Then it became unreliable, about once a week i would get a blue screen of death. Microsoft would then force it into a "what went wrong" checking routine that took about 35mins, and any attempt to stop this useless activity would then restart it. It was not unusual after this to reboot the computer, to experience another blue screen of death and need to wait another 40mins to reboot again. My manager complained that I was complaining a lot about not having a usable computer, but wouldn't approve a replacement.

IT support were sympathetic to my situation, but couldn't do anything without my manager's approval. They eventually said they had two computers that had been recently replaced. So my computer (the 5th oldest in the institution which had thousands of PCs) was replaced by the 10th oldest, which had problems, so I tried the other option (the 7th oldest) which was slow but would boot reliably. I used this computer until I resigned, due to my manager's other incompenticies.

As stated earlier here, there are more than one easy work around on the hardware restrictions (including TPM2 and Secure Boot) installing Win 11.

I found the "software update" on Win10 gave me an option to enrol in the extra 12m of updates for free, probably because I have an Office subscription. Clicked the button and I'm now covered to October 2026. At least that is something from Microsoft.

20 minutes ago, audiofeline said:

I found the "software update" on Win10 gave me an option to enrol in the extra 12m of updates for free, probably because I have an Office subscription. Clicked the button and I'm now covered to October 2026. At least that is something from Microsoft.

I stumbled across the same thing. Free coverage for Win10 for 12 months. At least it buys some time to consider what to do.

So many people from IT backgrounds, and that includes myself and many people I know from when I worked in the industry, hate the company, and have sworn off ever giving them any more money. It's not just about business tactics, it's also about sheer ineptitude and crap software.

So, while you are thinking about it, do yourself a favour and discover what life without Microsoft is like. Install a good Linux system somewhere and try it. I would suggest Linux Mint, combined with Libre Office, and Steam for gaming.

Edited January 14Jan 14 by aussievintage