I bought a new PC 18m ago, and due to the particular software I need to run, I needed a primary Windows installation. The PC came with a Windows 11 license, but I downloaded a stripped out ‘gamer’ focused ISO and installed that instead.
It’s brilliant. Thanks to the nature of the ISO, it is totally debloated – far beyond just the obvious removal of things like ads and spyware. As a result, it boots faster than any operating system I’ve ever had – once you get past the bios shenanigans, it takes about 5 to 7 seconds and it’s fully ready to go. (That’s a clean boot, not from sleep). It’s similarly fast in regular use, and it has been perfectly stable.
(The only downside of this approach is you have to be careful what’s been stripped out before you make your choice. In my case, I’ve not been able to install a printer, and WSL has also been removed. These are minor irritations, which so far I haven’t led me to abandon this installation – because otherwise it’s just great.)
I just bought a new HP ENVY laptop with a Win 11 Pro license. I replaced the RAM and M.2 before first power-up and made a USB boot drive with the Windows 11 media creation application to do the install. The installer lacked wifi drivers so I had to google how to get past that to create an account, but now I have a local-only login and I've turned off the location/weather/ads things and Win 11 is fine. I'm not a fan of the Start menu (Win2k was my preferred) but the laptop is very usable.
Coming from Windows 8.1 on the previous PC, my setup of Windows 11 is fine.
I don't know how normal people buy a new PC and not accidentally sign up for a subscription or three, there's SOOOO many nags with unintuitive choices, but once past all that it's fine.
I bought a new PC 18m ago, and due to the particular software I need to run, I needed a primary Windows installation. The PC came with a Windows 11 license, but I downloaded a stripped out ‘gamer’ focused ISO and installed that instead.
It’s brilliant. Thanks to the nature of the ISO, it is totally debloated – far beyond just the obvious removal of things like ads and spyware. As a result, it boots faster than any operating system I’ve ever had – once you get past the bios shenanigans, it takes about 5 to 7 seconds and it’s fully ready to go. (That’s a clean boot, not from sleep). It’s similarly fast in regular use, and it has been perfectly stable.
(The only downside of this approach is you have to be careful what’s been stripped out before you make your choice. In my case, I’ve not been able to install a printer, and WSL has also been removed. These are minor irritations, which so far I haven’t led me to abandon this installation – because otherwise it’s just great.)