I'm getting mentally, intellectually prepared to move to Win11 at some point. Currently running Win10 on my self-built desktop, and I'm aware that MS uses FUD to scare nervous people into the next O/S, and I'm one of those people that wait until the very last minute to make the move. Let all the bugs get worked out, other people can be "beta testers", etc... I came here prior to my move from Win8 to Win10, and learned quite a bit. So I'm coming back to the well, so to speak. Activated a Win10 that I downloaded via P2P, using KMSPico about 2 years ago and it's been running without issue the entire time. I did a small dab of research and it appears KMSPico works for Win11 too, and that is my primary question of the thread. Secondary to that is whether or not this is the best way to go about it. Today I tried to use someone else's Win11 machine to do a simple print job of two MS docs, and two .pdf files and it would not allow me to "select" the batch, right-click and print without launching the applications because (I concluded) that the MS Office install on her (my neighbor's) machine is expired, now it's crippled, and part of that crippling is the removal of the "print" option in the right-click menu. So at this very moment I am once again filled with rage against MS, whom I shall eternally hate, and if I make it to heaven, and if there is (by some chance) an MS employee in heaven with me, I will do my utmost to torture, torment, kill, re-kill and then kill again, any and all MS employees up there with me, and frankly IDGAF about what God, Jesus or St. Peter has to say about it. Conversely, if I'm in hell, I shall make the best of it by tormenting those MS employees who are there with me, with the same degree of passion and intensity. All of this to indicate that I am mentally deranged, unmedicated and am in dire need of mental health care, or at least a weapon and a MS employee that I can use it on, for the soul-satisfying catharsis of giving back at least a small amount of the pain they have inflicted upon me, and everyone else, over the years. (Cue Patsy Kline's "Crazy") So, please be entertained by all that, then ignore it, and help me out here. What's the best way to go about moving to Win11, is the point of the thread. My plan is to buy a 2 Tbyte M.2 SSD, and replace the one that's inside the machine currently, and install Win11 on the new SSD, doing whatever tweaks and adjustments I need to do while the "real" boot SSD is safely off the system. Assume we're talking an image file, a USB drive and something like Rufus? Or whatever. I defer to experienced experts. Just letting people know I know at least a little bit. Thanks in advance.
Thanks you hit all the right notes. Disabling telemetry was near the top of the list, and I love the Classic Start Menu (the one that looks like a clam shell). I assume Winaero Tweaker does the same thing. I want all those things you listed. Also as an aside, I've spent more time in the last 5 days or so in Win11 than ever before and learned that when the MS Office subscript6ion expires, MS removes the right-click (from explorer) option to "print" multiple files as a batch; instead you have to launch (in my case) Adobe in order to "print" two documents, then launch a crippled version of MS Word to print the other two, but only after clicking out of several nag windows. Irritating as f**k. Point being I've seen how they f**ked-up the explorer options, specifically print) and I wonder why. I've used Libre Office for years, so it won't effect me when I move to Win11. What's a realistic time-frame for being forced to move to Win11? I know MS lies, and I know that normies haven't got a clue either, and so I assume the people cracking the thing open and looking inside and making adjustments probably have the best estimate for when End of Life actually happens and when late bloomers like myself really have no choice but to move. Glad you are still around with the straight dope. Thanks.
Do it with full-intent to use it; if you install 11 with the lingering idea you can go back to 10 worst-case, you'll probably be back on 10 2032 at a minimum, unless you play the newest games before then (they might require 24H2+; iirc Diablo 2 Resurrected or 4 and Call of Duty didn't like 10 21H2) I use Rufus to make USBs for Legacy/CSM boot. My Dell Latitude 5591's UEFI can boot directly from FAT32 and NTFS so I just format a large NTFS GPT partition on USB and extract a Windows iso as-is to it.
Loving LTSC (and running it on my 2 main pc's and on most of my ancient systems, the 2021 version) but at some point MSFT looses interest, like with the offline updating problems for 2015 and 2016 LTSB, that way they will kinda force you to switch to the newer one, the 2024 LTSC version.
I've seen this acronym "MAS" slide by a couple of times, both here and on Reddit, but I have zero experience. No clue what they are, where to get them, and since they are a "script", I assume something runs the script. Is it "power shell", another thing I'm vaguely aware of, but have never used. Also to your comment about not toeing the Win11 water, and diving in forever, can I assume that you (and I suppose others) think that Win10 is going to remain viable for a medium to long term period. My primary concern is the updates and virus definitions are going to get turned off. I hate AV softwares and have become very comfortable allowing Windows Defender to delete all my Potentially Unwanted Programs, and then going into it and making exceptions. Meaning that, Windows Defender has kept me infection-free for years. It works, I don't want to fix it, and the updates are necessary (I think) to keep it working. Please correct me where I'm wrong here.
I'm thinking Defender updates have to last as-long as an OS version is supported (LTSC is 2032). My server is on 11 for the seemingly tighter-intergrated Defender (security benefits), but my main computer has Defender disabled for performance and is on Win10. I VirusTotal anything that looks a little suspicious, but otherwise been fine for years without antivirus and don't need it slowing my computer down
Okay I just looked up "LTSC". I hate AI, and anyone that uses it. Or even talks about it as if it were anything other than satanic. Anyways... So based on what I've read here I am getting the message that the people here who actually know things do not feel any pressure to move from Win10 any time soon, and so this plan I'm making to move to Win11 can happen farther down the road, say a year or more from now? I feel no reason to move, other than what I read from the nitwits on Reddit. I love my computer, except for the motherboard, (a Gigabyte B650 something-or-other) and have been dreaming about replacing it. I'd rather do THAT as a major project, than change the O/S. Bought the thing because NewEgg said it had two NVME slots, then find out one of them has the NVME drive standing straight-up perpendicular to the motherboard, and completely unfastened to anything, and threatening to fall out when installed, and I bought this board BECAUSE it said it had two NVME slots. Bitterly disappointed in Gigabyte over this, and cannot help but believe that the Japanese have some form of affirmative action program going on, and that's why this abomination was birthed into existence. I don't get infected either, despite regular P2P and other bad behaviors. It's not like it was 10 years ago. No clue how other people are getting all these ransomware lock-ups. One neighbor got a warning screen from MS, called the toll-free number, talked to an authorized agent from Microsoft and obediently installed the disinfection software that was recommended. Fortunately, it only cost him $250 on his Visa to get the code in order to unlock the computer, so in the end it all worked out well for him. So maybe that's why.
@Barney Billirubin Regarding the motherboard's vertical NVMe slot(s), they are usually single lane PCIe 3.0 ones driven by the chipset. If you refer to the manual or the support site, you can see that they are clearly meant for 2260 or lower (e.g. 2242 or 2230) modules, instead of the usual consumer-oriented 2280 SSDs. Moreover, Gigabyte is a Taiwanese company, not Japanese.
See? This is why I come here. Get caught being stupid in a no-stupid zone and get slapped around by the first response I get. So I apologize to the Japanese, first and foremost. And I remember something about 2280 which I thought was the physical length of the NVME? I thought the magic "M.2" incantation was all I needed to know. It's still crazy stupid IMO, the idea of first mounting it standing straight up and then when you stand the desktop up, it's at a 90 degree angle to the floor. Marketing FRAUD IMO, selling something that says "2 NVME slots" and giving me a board with THAT monstrosity as the 2nd one." My tech knowledge might be limited, but I know what dishonest and FRAUD are all about, end rant. So, while I'm contemplating the actual topic of the thread, do you (or anyone else)... wait, check that. I'll make two new threads I have two different questions that have been simmering for a couple of days and don't want to crap in my own thread. Thanks for the post, I think about these answers all day long and for several days so if I don't respond it's because I'm still thinking about it all, assimilating new information and perspectives into the old and bad way of thinking.