I have not used windows in a while but thinking of building a PC. Is there a way to install way older version of windows 10 without Microsoft's AI nonsense and the online account requirement?

I just did it today with the current ISO you can download from Microsoft themselves. Then installed all the Windows updates, graphics drivers and even enrolled in the free extended security support. Then I just uninstalled Cortana and Copilot manually. Ezpz

Be warned that they employ extreme amounts of dark patterns to try and trick you into converting the offline account into an online one.

Online activation of the Windows license is separate from an online user account.

Were you able to enable extended security updates without logging in?

I've held out for literal years, but that was the thing that finally made me log into an online user account (and start figuring out how to finally cut the last bit of Windows out of my life)

Just pirate the updates with Massgrave.

Were you able to use the online activation system without a Microsoft account? I wasn't able to - though as you say, that account doesn't have to be tied to the license or an account on the machine being activated.

  > Be warned that they employ extreme amounts of dark patterns to try and trick you into converting the offline account into an online one.

This would be an extremely valuable comment if you would document that.

Just get Windows 10 LTSC from the pirate bay and install IOT version. It's an actually good version of Windows MS dont sell to normal people.

It's based on 20H2, so there's software that doesn't support it like Starfield.

I thought it worked just fine on LTSC 2021 (21H2)

I played starfield just fine on LTSC 2021.

If you're willing go through a little bit of trouble -- and it sounds like you are -- it's pretty easy to configure Windows 11 to look and act pretty much like Windows 7. You'd be hard pressed to tell what version of Windows I'm running if you gave it a cursory glance.

The main tool for me is https://www.startallback.com/

O2O Shutup ( https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 ) is also pretty useful for disabling anything you don't like all in one place -- it doesn't even install.

I also found Winscript and Windhawk useful.

https://github.com/flick9000/winscript https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk

Only Aero, Classic theme not really.

Look into LTSC, and the resources at https://massgrave.dev/ .

Disclaimer: I have no personal knowledge of that site, but it is commonly recommended when this subject comes up.

Nah, it's been hosted by Microsoft for years, on Github for a decade, without as much as a takedown notice, 161k stars now, they don't mind.

https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts

If they wanted it removed from GitHub they would have done so.

I'd feel bad only if there were a legitimate way to acquire the LTSC for home use

If you're a midsize business with revenue, theoretically one of their enforcement partners may take a run at you, but this is not a thing with home users (or even most small business abuse).

Hot take but legality is completely irrelevant for home use

It's possible, but it won't get security updates anymore.

Windows 10 is outdated, not recommended at all. Just install Win11 Enterprise and get your favorite LLM to give you instructions to remove the stuff you don't want, after like 15 minutes it will be totally cleaned for perpetuity.

Not recommended by whom? Win10 still works perfectly fine, has less bloatware, will be supported for a while, and probably won't get updates that just add useless AI and advertisements.

If someone wants/needs Windows, I would absolutely recommend windows 10 right now, it's probably the best time for using that version.

Going Postal is awesome. The flood of the mails and the test to be the post master where you would have a slide mail into the hole where a vicious dog is barking.

What a shocker right? I guess everyday normal people do dot use a command prompt much less open a terminal to open a browser profile.

They like to click and icon and create/switch profile. Chrome, edge and many other browsers had this feature for ever. Not having ability to easily switch profiles is only reason I did not switch to Firefox full time even though I quite like the multi containers extension in Firefox for managing bazillion AWS accounts.

It's actually astonishing that it took mozilla folks the guts of 20 years to get around to this glaring UX gap.

Command prompt, terminal? What are you talking about?

You just have to add the -p in the shortcut properties.

Haven't read the article but sounds like the Cory doktrow's radicalized where a lady cannot go to work because her toaster is not working because the cloud provider used by the toaster company went bankrupt.

I am out of the loop with the entire thing. I used to an android dev back then. Google's shenanigans is the reason why I left mobile dev. Does this mean I cannot even compile and install apps on my phone from android studio?

No, they're not removing ADB install capabilities

So I can just adb install any apk I want, no matter if it's a Google authenticated developer who signed the app? So f-droid would continue to work fine so long as they install via adb instead of the intent mechanism or whatever it currently is?

AFAIU your device will no longer pass their treacherous "Play Integrity", which means that many banking and government applications will no longer work. For me it's a complete deal breaker because that's 99% of why I own a smartphone at all.

Apple is prohibitively expensive here, there's no official warranty and much difficulty with doing quality battery replacements, so I will probably have to own two phones.

It seems that won't affect Play Integrity for now. But I wonder if we'll eventually see rooted (GrapheneOS etc.) phones installing patches to banking apps to fool them into thinking they're legit. Hacked Nintendo Switches already do something similar.

In case there's a misunderstanding, GrapheneOS doesn't provide root access, and fooling apps won't be possible as the platform keeps moving towards stronger hardware attestation.

However banks can use the hardware attestation API instead of Play Integrity API to allow alternative distributions like GrapheneOS [1]. All of my financial apps happen to work on GrapheneOS.

[1] https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu...

Thanks, I was confused. I thought you needed to root the phone to install GrapheneOS, but it seems you only need to unlock the bootloader.

That's available right now as Frida plugins etc. The problem is that remote attestation is done on the server and bank backend API would be able to call Google Play API to check the attestation and deny access. Nothing you can patch on the app side could change that.

That's not true - you can enable developer mode and install apps via ADB without affecting Play Integrity for other apps on your device. You can test this today.

Play Integrity is focused on checking the OS is original and the runtime environment of the app (your banking app in this case) isn't being messed with. Installing other apps as a developer isn't related to that. If you're not flashing a custom OS or modifying your bank's APK you'll be fine.

(You _should_ be able to use custom OSs and Play Integrity is awful, to be clear - but not because of anything directly relate to normal app development & sideloading)

You are describing the status quo rather than what the Google has said they will do in the future.

That's not true. Enabling developer options or installing via ADB won't impact Play Integrity

I somehow wish both things we working - as in "sandboxed" / "isolate" one from another (if that makes any sense).

So I can install my F-Droid on one of the partition, and actual personal stuff on the other. Bit like my Chromebook with Crostini.

In the newest android there is now an option to enable a "Linux development environment" AKA crostini for Android.

It works the same way, there is a Linux terminal application that runs Debian inside a VM. They recently added a button to launch a display window. This then functions as your "monitor" and applications you launch that provide a GUI display there.

Still experimenting with it not clear if you can launch android inside that with waydroid or similar

The terminal has a nasty bug where sometimes it starts typing a bunch of stuff with each keypress. The only way to fix it that i found is to close the terminal, which isn't much of a fix

You can. Install a work profile on the device (You can use a third party app like Island) to do this. Then you can install apps into their own sandbox.

I do have work profile, and used it in the past, but as soon as you really want to use it as work profile, then some admin program would like to take over your phone, and not just your work profile - so no "dev mode", etc. (Or maybe I have old info... not sure).

But good suggestion to try this again!

The target is more the likes of f-droid or the Amazon Store or Epic going "We don't like the Play Store policy, download Fortnite.apk from us", than developers compiling stuff and loading them on their own phone

You don't know how incredible the corruption is. It goes from all levels. From president and prime minster to all the way down to a lowly clerk in your local government office. Nothing works without bribes. The big heads are raking out millions. I left the country only a few years ago. It is the sole reason I never want to be back there.

The desperation from the youth is so heart breaking when there is no jobs creation, no industry. Depending on their ability they go and work in middle east doing all those dangerous work in the desert heat. The country is empty of youth. If you go to the airport you will see thousands leaving the country each day. Coffins of workers who died in middle east.

The political parties? They are profiting for everything. In the last 10-15 years there were basically 3 guys who would become the prime minister in round robin always blame opposition when in government and always blame government when in opposition. Its like 1984 but without the surveillience but that also caught up with the ban of social media.

Say what you say but EU/Europeans are overregulating everything with UK trying to end privacy. Regulations like USB C on all electronics is nice but these are not.

UK is not in the EU. DIfferent issue altogether. But, yes, it's scary. As you said, USB-C for everyone it's fair. This is bullshit. You can't ban a text mode browser, or Dillo. What's next, enforcing an OS?

I recenlty wrote a guide on how to create a free 3 node cluster in Oracle cloud : https://macgain.net/posts/free-k8-cluster . This guide currently uses kubeadm to create 3 node (1 control plane, 2 worker nodes) cluster.

Opening a business is easy but opening a legit bank account with brick and mortar presence seem to be difficult.

When have corporations cared for population? They exist to make money and they will try to abuse the outdated system as much as possible.