I got a laptop with Windows 11 for an IT course so I can get certified, and doing the first time device set-up for it made me want to commit unspeakable violence
Windows 11 should not exist, no one should use it for any reason, it puts ads in the file explorer and has made it so file searches are also web searches and this cannot be turned off except through registry editing. Whoever is responsible for those decisions should be killed, full stop.
Switch to linux, it's free and it's good.
u r absolutely right I have SO many complaints about Windows omg.
For anyone who'd like to follow along, I'm gonna share how to get around those things with group policies bc they're more user friendly and descriptive than registry editor imo :3 I'll also show how to get around needing a Microsoft account to get setup.
For the Device Setup
"OOBE" stands for Out Of Box Experience which is what that setup workflow is. But it also happens to be a folder with a little program in it that'll let you skip connecting to the internet; this makes it so you don't have to sign up with a Microsoft account and can just use a normal local one instead. And it already comes preinstalled! Here's how you get to it:
- Hold Shift + F10, or Shift + Fn + F10 depending on your keyboard.
- Click inside the window that pops up, type the following and press enter afterwards to run it: OOBE\BypassNRO
- I believe it should restart your computer automatically, but if not then restart your computer or type: shutdown /r /t 0 /f
Now when you're brought back to the setup workflow, the page where you connect to the internet will have a new button on it that lets you say you don't have internet. Clicking that and proceeding through the rest of the setup lets you get around the Microsoft account thing.
Group Policies
You don't have to know much about them, these are just a bunch of specific settings for what your computer can or can't do that lets you decide how it works in different ways.
I'm gonna show you how to turn off the recommendations and internet stuff basically. For now bring up search and type gpedit, pick this
It'll open up to Local Group Policy Editor and we can get started :3c
Start Recommendations
In the side menu, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar. Click on Settings to sort them with all the "Turn off" ones bumped to the top.
Here's what you should set:
- Turn off user tracking: enabled
- Turn off feature advertisement balloon notifications: enabled
- Remove Recommended section from Start Menu: enabled
- Remove Personalized Website Recommendations from the Recommended section in the Start Menu: enabled
- Do not search Internet: enabled
Windows Spotlight
Back in the side menu, go down to Windows Components > Cloud Content
- Turn off all Windows spotlight features: enabled
- Do not use diagnostic data for tailored experiences: enabled
Cortana
In the side menu, this one's back at the top under Computer Configuration. You're gonna want to go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
- Allow Cortana: disabled
- Don't search the web or display web results in Search: enabled
News and Interests
In the side menu go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests.
- Enable news and interests on the taskbar: disabled
Microsoft Account Login Nudges
When you don't use a Microsoft account they'll nudge you repeatedly to sign in so you can "get the most out of your experience" *gag*. The group policy for turning that off has a note that suggests it might not work with Windows 11 though (implicitly), so you can close the group policy editor window now and for this last one let's just open up the regular settings.
Go to System > Notifications > Additional settings, then uncheck all the boxes. And there ya go! (✿◠‿◠)ﾉ u are done.
Group policies are kind of a rabbit hole so while there is a lot more you could change or read into, for your own sanity's sake I would advise against it and say call it a day lol
This is all extremely good information, thank you very much for the addition!
cooking show but the judge is just a random kid with autism related food issues. no one can figure out what criteria they use to judge "good food" from "bad food" least of all the judge themself.
starts off as a cooking show and devolves into a heartfelt comedy of errors as all these professional top chefs use their decades of training & skill to try to help this one kid eat a balanced diet
by the end of the season the chefs have combined their knowledge to more-or-less figure out how to consistently make food that the judge is willing to eat. at which point we start over with a whole new season and a new judge with all new food issues!
spin-off series where there is an entire panel of judges consisting specifically of one large family whose members have multiple dietary restrictions. the contestants must planning a week's worth of dinners that account for everyone's needs, using commonly available ingredients on a normal household budget. they are not allowed to repeat meals
Now THIS is a cooking show i would watch!
I. I want this. This is a fucking insanely good idea.
you know there actually is a meaningful difference between 'men's' and 'women's' deodorant beyond the selection of scents. 'mens' plays better with pit hair and doesn't pill up in it and 'womens' tends to have a more powdery finish to help prevent chafing. so really the two genders are actually hairy and bald.
realizing this was such a paradigm shift for me and i have to wonder what other "uselessly" gendered products are like this, where they actually are different in a way that would be useful to consumers but some marketing department decided instead of just saying what the difference is, to prescribe which you need based on the most arbitrary metric, so nebulous that what it even means varies from person to person. as if they think you're too dumb to look at "anti-chafing powder formula" and "lightweight gel formula" and decide for yourself which one would work best.
today's children are gonna become teens and clown the shit out of us for 'eepy' and 'blorbo' but they'll say it in cocomelonese so we won't understand them
today’s eepy blorbo is yesterday’s heckin doggo is last week’s smexy bishie
I hate that you're right and that I understood all of that.
