It’s okay, you can find alternative install media here: https://distrochooser.de/en/
Christ, is this a blowjob piece. I mean, suggesting Rufus is a great alternative, but shit like:
If you’ve still yet to upgrade, I’d encourage you not to worry too much, as I’ve found Windows 11 to be perfectly usable. Although I miss the Windows 10 era and all it represented, there’s little to get up in arms about over Windows 11. There are some quirks that weren’t present in Windows 10, but the transition should be relatively painless. Well, once you’ve managed to actually get the installation media onto that memory stick, that is.
is just shoddy journalism. This smacks of “don’t consider Linux,” which, fine, this is PC Gamer after all. Other than ads being introduced to the OS, the shedloads of telemetry, constant UI changes (Start menu, Settings app), and the nags for OneDrive, Xbox and more, I guess there’s little to complain about
As a daily windows user for work…Win11 is a night and day difference to Win10 and while I didn’t love windows before, I absolutely loathe it now.
So, yes, I absolutely agree with you.
There’s plenty wrong with Microsoft and their messaging around this transition, but IMO Windows 11 really is more of the same, it just has some cosmetic changes and under the hood security features (related to TPM 2.0) that bring it up to speed with MacOS.
ads being introduced to the OS
“Ads” for first party Microsoft products (365, Game Pass) were present in 10 as well. Not aware of any ads for third party stuff, other than maybe the placeholder app icons for stuff like TikTok and Facebook on a fresh install - in both 10 and 11.
shedloads of telemetry
Also in 10
constant UI changes (Start menu, Settings app)
Not sure what you mean here, these things have remained pretty consistent since Windows 11’s launch in 2021
nags for OneDrive
Trivial to disable, and I’ll never be against reminding users to have some kind of backup. Ultimately, Windows 10 was also like this.
I do wish the article mentioned Linux as an alternative to upgrading / buying new hardware. Equally irresponsible is the omission of Windows 10’s ESU enrollment option, which currently delays this whole ordeal by another year.
Windows 11 also comes with some new, great features that you’ll miss by not upgrading! Your windows will sometimes decide not to repaint their surfaces, especially under load or while screen sharing. You’ll have a OneDrive ad in the main settings page. Copilot and Teams will randomly install themselves when installing your forced updates. And we can’t forget about all the work being done to ensure you have no choice but to link your account with a MS account!
Look, it used to be tolerable. The bugs made me install Linux, and I haven’t missed it at all.
Windows 10 Home Edition famously advertised candy crush in it’s start menu
Windows 10 reset a lot of UI from 8 to 7 that a lot of users wanted. Some changes were added, but the muscle memory learned since 95 could be used with little modification. Windows 11 broke a lot of those workflows without providing anything better on the higher end of usability.
I agree that 10 started adding things that people don’t like about 11, but 11 actively broke things that people liked about 10.
very glad that Windows magically let me stay on W10 security updates for another year. I think maybe my VPN tripped them up, but i’ll take it.
Well, as much as I hate being on Windows 11, I’m glad I figured it out a couple days ago since I have a couple programs that just don’t have versions that will run on anything other than Windows.
My old-ass laptop will be getting Linux whenever I get around to actually digging it out of the pile of shit that was my CNC router.
