I installed with a local windows 11 account using Rufus and I have no ads. Also went back to old taskbar using StartAllBack. It’s just a good old windows box again. Really works nicely.
This makes sense to me because most ads/unsolicited information seems to stem from there.
It’s funny that on Windows you have to install a third-party app to change the OS’s behavior. I doubt I’ll be allowed to do that :(
This was also on my work machine. I had to use some utilities to extract my windows key and change some stuff in the bios to disable bitlocker, so it was not a small job but it’s increased my productivity a lot.
So you’re saying you installed windows from a selfmade installation medium, that you further had to massage, without internet connection? That’s not really an option on our work laptops.
I actually also did this to some machines; I gave them to their respective owners right away so I don’t know if they have no ads.
Yes fortunately I had the bios password, so I was able to manage it. I work remotely. To IT it just looks like the machine vanished. They haven’t asked me about it.
Been here more than 20 years and my whole department does it. The computers are unusable otherwise. If I were sitting in an office it wouldn’t be possible, but they have a BYOD policy which allows for this kind of use.
shouldn’t need to worry about a windows product key if 10 or 11 was previously activated on the system and no significant changes were made to its internal hardware (like motherboard or nic). activation servers retain activation state and hardware hash, and that state is restored on reinstall. just choose ‘i don’t have a key’ when prompted during install and when windows is back it will automagically reactivate itself.
Interesting. I thought that since I completely wiped the disk and removed all bitlocker that it would be an issue. Didn’t think there would be some other place to store the CD key.
Amount of ads my operating system shows me: 1. I’ve got Ubuntu on an old laptop because I couldn’t get Debian to install and I didn’t know much about Mint at the time
So I’ve seen a couple Ubuntu Pro popup ads.
Number of ads my OS shows me: 0
Number of ads my Win11 shows me: 0
Answer: Live in Europe.
That’s the worst thing about dealing with Windows machines at work: it’s not just the browser that needs an adblocker!
And I’m not going through 20 laptops to disable that (is it even possible) unless I get paid for it.
Remember when a “pop-up blocker” was a browser plug-in because the browsers didn’t yet consider it a competitive feature?
(Well, okay, Opera and iCab did.)
I installed with a local windows 11 account using Rufus and I have no ads. Also went back to old taskbar using StartAllBack. It’s just a good old windows box again. Really works nicely.
I don’t really understand this, sorry.
This makes sense to me because most ads/unsolicited information seems to stem from there.
It’s funny that on Windows you have to install a third-party app to change the OS’s behavior. I doubt I’ll be allowed to do that :(
https://rufus.ie/en/
This was also on my work machine. I had to use some utilities to extract my windows key and change some stuff in the bios to disable bitlocker, so it was not a small job but it’s increased my productivity a lot.
I know the Rufus software.
So you’re saying you installed windows from a selfmade installation medium, that you further had to massage, without internet connection? That’s not really an option on our work laptops.
I actually also did this to some machines; I gave them to their respective owners right away so I don’t know if they have no ads.
Yes fortunately I had the bios password, so I was able to manage it. I work remotely. To IT it just looks like the machine vanished. They haven’t asked me about it.
You know this is more than enough reason to fire you once your IT department finds out
Been here more than 20 years and my whole department does it. The computers are unusable otherwise. If I were sitting in an office it wouldn’t be possible, but they have a BYOD policy which allows for this kind of use.
shouldn’t need to worry about a windows product key if 10 or 11 was previously activated on the system and no significant changes were made to its internal hardware (like motherboard or nic). activation servers retain activation state and hardware hash, and that state is restored on reinstall. just choose ‘i don’t have a key’ when prompted during install and when windows is back it will automagically reactivate itself.
Interesting. I thought that since I completely wiped the disk and removed all bitlocker that it would be an issue. Didn’t think there would be some other place to store the CD key.
Yes but you are missing all the hot singles, and only getting the neckbeard ones.
Amount of ads my operating system shows me: 1. I’ve got Ubuntu on an old laptop because I couldn’t get Debian to install and I didn’t know much about Mint at the time So I’ve seen a couple Ubuntu Pro popup ads.