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| I'm a computer geek who builds my own rigs, and I stayed with W7 until about a year ago. Hated 10 with a passion, even kept "GWX control panel" running in the background to make sure Microsoft was never trying to download anything affiliated with 10. Steam was going to cease functioning (or they couldn't guarantee it anyway) on W7 by the end of last year. So, I upgraded to 10, and used a program called O&O ShutUp10++, and disabled everything except "app access to microphone" so I could still chat in Discord. Finally made a new rig (old one was from 2012), went with W11, used the same program, and all is well. Get a gray market key for "W11 Pro with Online Activation" for $20-30, and you can make your own W11 Pro .iso on a thumb drive with Rufus. Then, before ever turning the machine on and initiating the OS install, disconnect ethernet and wifi, new Motherboards can have on board WIFI, and you don't want MS to see it during install. This process worked to bypass the MS account requirement for Win11 23H2:
"Lets connect you to a network" screen = press Shift + F10
Enter "oobe\BypassNRO"
System will restart
Select "I don't have internet"
Create a local user account
If/When after installing Windows asks for a MS account:
ctrl + shift + esc
Select "more details"
Select "processes"
Select "end task" on all search processes
Install O&O ShutUp10++ immediately from a flash drive, select your settings, then you can re-enable your internet/wifi. Always keep it running in the background. About every other restart, Windows will re-enable updates (but doesn't seem to update if you catch it quick), so you have to revert changes and restart. | |
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Windows 11
