SORTED :) Windows After XP Sux big time.

[StainlessS]

Originally Posted by kalehrl

There seems to a stripped down version of Windows 10 called AtlasOS:
https://atlasos.net/

Interesting,

By downloading, modifying, or utilizing any of these images, you agree to Microsoft's Terms. None of these images are pre-activated, you must use a genuine key.

Anybody actually tried this, I believe M$ owns GitHub, so is likely to be kosher.

EDIT: From on their forum:- https://forum.atlasos.net/d/71-activation-of-windows

Activate using your key

Make sure your key is pro

My main i7 machine is Home

EDIT: On GitHub:- https://github.com/Atlas-OS/Atlas

EDIT: Seems to be some kind of NtLite project, take official ISO image and strip bits out of it.
NtLite:- https://www.ntlite.com/

I have sometimes used NtLite (and older NLite for XP), can take lots of testing to do it right, these guys must have spent a long time and a lot of testing on it.

MSMG_ToolKit is a similar-ish thing to NTLite [The GUI aint as pretty as NTLite, text console based]:- https://msmgtoolkit.in/

[StainlessS]

Just a little hint here:

One of my pet hates about W10 (and W7) Windows Explorer [renamed/rewritten as File Explorer in Vista+] requires clicking upon folder to reveal contents
and so requires a click even when traversing folders with keyboard.
I've only just discovered that Open Shell Menu (fork of Classic Shell) has separate settings for the file explorer,
is the torquoise shell icon in uppen RHS corner.
Can change "Basic Settings", "Auto Navigate to the selected folder" and set to Always, and no longer has the brain dead W7/W10 behaviour.
[EDIT: Might also want to enable "Disable Breadcrumbs" and enable "Show Status Bar" if not set as such]

Anyways, I guess many already know this, but if I totally missed those settings, I presume that it is always possible that others have too.
Above one of the main reasons I always disliked Vista/W7/W10 file explorer,
I've used Classic Shell/Open Shell Menu since 1st installing Vista, and cannot believe that I've totally missed this bunch of settings until now.

EDIT: Not this link [latest is Beta], see link at bottom of post.
https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/

Enjoy, I will.

Shell icon @ top RHS

It went a bit weird for me after change and until after reboot.

EDIT: Latest STABLE is OpenShellSetup_4_4_170.exe (I was using a recent beta by mistake)

Latest STABLE:- https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-S...s/tag/v4.4.170

EDIT: To see that Shell icon, you have to tick Menu/View/Options/Classic Explorer Bar.
[Thats why I've never noticed it before, musta switched it on by accident - I guess there is something to be said for reading the docs]

[Katie Boundary]

I'd be much more interested in Atlas if it came with OpenShell and other programs to restore the Windows Classic theme.

[StainlessS]

Oh no!, its started again.
Microsoft reportedly shows full-screen Windows 11 upgrade ads with two 'yes' buttons:- https://www.neowin.net/news/microsof...o-yes-buttons/

[hello_hello]

There's a few different stripped down versions of Windows 10 and 11 floating around, similar to Atlas. Tiny11 and and Windows X-Lite are a couple that come to mind.

The hard drive in my old Win7 laptop died a few days ago, so after I replaced it I installed Atlas to give it a try and it's been okay so far. I might replace it with one of the stripped down Windows 11 versions at some stage though.

And yesterday I finally pulled my finger out and built a new PC. I've put the full version of Windows 11 on it for the moment at least, but through Atlas I discovered Rufus. It's great for creating a bootable USB flash drive for installing an OS, and for Windows 11 it removes a couple of annoyances such as the Secure Boot requirement and the need to create a Microsoft account.

I'll confess I'm not overly hating Windows 11 so far, although I've only started playing with it today. I expected to hate it, probably even wanted to hate it, so I'm somewhat surprised I'm not hating too much. At least not yet.

[hello_hello]

I've played with it some more and I'm still not hating Windows 11 as much as I expected to, although the logic behind removing an optional "show desktop" icon for the taskbar eludes me.

I'm pretty sure I've disabled all the security annoyances I need to, except for the firewall nag that pops up after each boot. Anyone know how to disable that notification after disabling the firewall?

There's also an Edge security annoyance I haven't found a fix for... being questioned about the trustworthiness of downloaded files such as exe's.... although that's probably no big deal because I won't be using Edge for browsing anyway.

The Windows 11 taskbar and start menu were close to being deal-breakers. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here, but ExplorerPatcher can return the traditional taskbar buttons along with some other tweaks. I removed most of the crap from the start menu so it just opens up with an alphabetical programs list and none of the "recommended" crap.

I guess the days of opening menu items with a mouse click are behind us (referring to a program's menu bar items) and we'll spend the rest of our days navigating through iphone/android style menus no matter how dumb it is if you're using a mouse and monitor. Now if only there was a home-screen button like the one on my phone.....
Many/most sub-menus seem to ignore mouse clicks now and simply open when the cursor is hovered over them, so one of my favourite tweaks for fixing the menu hovering lunacy now breaks them instead (using a long value for HKEY_USERS\......\Control Panel\Desktop\MenuShowDelay).
Menu lists that expand/collapse by clicking on an arrow still respond to a mouse click, obviously, but so many more of them feels wrong to my brain for a desktop OS, although I'm not quite sure why that is yet.

Switching to Linux for my day-to day OS has been fairly painless so far. I've not used Linux before so I had no idea what the degree of difficulty would be. Obviously there's some learning involved but that's what search engines are for. I went with MX Linux rather than Mint because Mint doesn't include drivers for my MB and CPU/graphics yet, whereas MX Linux does, so that was the easiest way to jump that hurdle. The one program I didn't want to replace is working fine under WINE (aside from MPC-HC which I'll miss), so now I'm ready to tackle the frame serving obstacle.... Avisynth (and/or VapourSynth, which I haven't used before anyway).

The internet seems to be generally of the opinion that Avisynth running on WINE works quite well, but what about the native Linux version? I know nothing about installing or using it, or even if it uses the same plugins as the Windows version, so any advice would be very welcome.

[Emulgator]

And may i mention WinSetView for useful Explorer settings which are hard to tweak via registry in Win10
Finally getting rid globally of "File Type" column, making room for my preferenced columns: file name, file size, change date.

[VoodooFX]

Originally Posted by hello_hello

The internet seems to be generally of the opinion that Avisynth running on WINE works quite well, but what about the native Linux version? I know nothing about installing or using it, or even if it uses the same plugins as the Windows version, so any advice would be very welcome.

For Linux you would need Linux plugins.

[Katie Boundary]

Originally Posted by StainlessS

Oh no!, its started again.
Microsoft reportedly shows full-screen Windows 11 upgrade ads with two 'yes' buttons:- https://www.neowin.net/news/microsof...o-yes-buttons/

Windows isn't the product anymore... we are.

[flossy_cake]

Originally Posted by StainlessS

Windows 11 upgrade ads with two 'yes' buttons:- https://www.neowin.net/news/microsof...o-yes-buttons/

It's not just that there are 2 yes buttons

It's that the word yes has been replaced with got it

[kromak]

Following this thread with interest. Although I stopped using Windows in 2010, part of it still misses it and someday, when I have time and more free space on HD, I will reinstall it.

I miss RealPlayer, Quick Time player, RealOnePlayer and even Windows Media Player, besides countless games and also hardware and gaming utilities

And I also follow this thread not only with interest, but also with sympathy
As a user of a very old linux distro, I definitely know how frustrating and annoying can be trying to use an old operating system with contemporary software

[StainlessS]

Was getting a
"Some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization message showing on Privacy Settings page"
message from Windows 10 settings for Location,
I musta done something to disable location, but turning location back on in "OO ShutUp" (windows privacy blocker whotsit)
did not re-enable location stuff in settings.
OO ShutUp:- https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

So, I found this with search,
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...7-db047ac044aa

And from it I extracted this registry editor stuff to force re-enable of just Location. (it would re-anable ALL telemetry stuff if following above link instructions).

ForceAllowLocation.reg (works OK on Home/Pro)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\LocationAndSensors]
"DisableLocation"=dword:00000000
"DisableWindowsLocationProvider"=dword:00000000
"DisableLocationScripting"=dword:00000000

And after a reboot, it re-enabled my location again in settings.

Reason for wanting Location available to apps:-
I was trying to download W10 Home/Pro,
English International, 20H2, v2 (October 2020 Update) December 2020, (actual English version rather than the "English" version which is actually USA version).
I was using Heidoc Windows ISO downloader (allows to find Windows 10/11 current and older version ISO files for both x86 and x64, also for Dell ISO's and Office ISO's + more).

HeiDoc Main:-
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool :-
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techno...-download-tool

It provides with either download direct, or copies to clipboard the web address on M$ servers (you can check address is M$).
Anyways, for the said ISO's it was giving me some message from M$ about the ISO not being available in some regions (Russia ???),
and because location was OFF, would not give me the address of ISO. (hence my need to switch location on).

Anyway, perhaps of use to somebody.

EDIT: The ISO addresses provided by M$ are valid only for 24 hours.

EDIT: x86 Heidoc Windows ISO downloader, dont work properley on 32 bit system (Just hangs, long time broken, x86 on x64 system unknown if broken).

EDIT: If you use M$ ISO download site, it will only give you the most recent ver$ of W10 ISO link, you currently cannot download older version W10 ISO's.
The Heidoc utility is the only way I know of to obtain older W10 ISO's.
You should also do google search on the MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, or SHA-512.
Here is one of the many HashCheck utilities:- http://code.kliu.org/hashcheck/
And another:- https://github.com/gurnec/HashCheck

[StainlessS]

Further to previous post,

EDIT: x86 Heidoc Windows ISO downloader, dont work properley on 32 bit system (Just hangs, long time broken, x86 on x64 system unknown if broken).

Just tried Hiedoc ISO downloader on x64 tablet/laptop, same thing, just hangs, but works fine on my x64 desktop machine.

No idea what the problem is.
Anyways, I can just copy the (valid 24 hour Microsoft) links and download lotsa ISO's for free in the pub.

I also had to force enable Location on my tablet/laptop, and it actually did not require a reboot for location to work ok after registry fix.

EDIT:

No idea what the problem is.

The Tablet version of the ISO downloader does seem to attempt to display some kind of an advert,
I think it is quite typical of some mobile devices being lumbered with ads where desktop apps are not,
so perhaps the problem lies in the fact that I have both AdBlock Origin ad blocker, and also have ads blocked via
the hosts file on both x86 and x64 tablets, think that is maybe why it stalls on my tablets.

[StainlessS]

By the same guys that do OO ShutUp posted 2 posts previous.

O&O AppBuster: Bust Apps you do not want!:- https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooappbuster

Did you notice that Microsoft, along with Windows 10 and 11, also installed a set of apps by default? Some of them make sense and are useful, but some of them are not manufactured by Microsoft, rather by third-party vendors. O&O AppBuster gives you the control back over your Windows again! Now you decide which apps you want on your computer. To make it as easy as possible for you, we’ve divided the apps into categories and give you tips on which apps you can safely remove or reinstall with one click and which ones you should leave.

O&O AppBuster is entirely free and does not have to be installed – it can be simply run directly and immediately on your PC. And it will not install or download retrospectively unwanted or unnecessary software, like so many other programs do these days – no crapware!

Seems to work just fine and maybe easier than using NTLite or MSGM_Toolkit to remove junk apps from a W10 install ISO.

You can uninstall an app (eg games) first for current user, and if nobody else is (no other account) is using it, then can remove entirely from the machine.
Last update about Apr/May 2022. (4/5/2022, which ever way around they post dates)
Removing apps from the computer makes then unavailable, they are deleted from their secret hiding places,
although for some you may be able to re-install via the MS Store.
(I've even managed to remove Cortana without any sign [so far] of problems, and Cortana is supposed to not ever be removeable)

Maybe a good idea to do a system restore point beforehand (although I never have).



Might be a good idea to run as Administrator, though (IIRC) it seems to work ok without that.

[StainlessS]

Here an old-ish (circa 2019) tutorial for using previously posted Heidoc Windows ISO downloader tool:-
https://dellwindowsreinstallationgui...of-windows-10/

[kolamorx]

In Windows XP, how can I get rid of the blue borders around a non-maximized window? (Like in Windows 10)
Attachment 18379

[StainlessS]

I've no idea what you are talking about, but, for those that may,
best post your image on some image host, I use PostImages.org [no account necessary].
https://postimages.org/

Images can take forever to get admin approval on the D9.

[kolamorx]

The borders are the frames around the edge of the window. These consist of the top, bottom, right and left sides of the window.
How can I get rid of the borders?

[StainlessS]

(Like in Windows 10)

Just for us stupids, how do you do it in W10 ?

[StainlessS]

Maybe in Windows 10 you use that Snip And Sketch thing [I aint ever looked it and usually uninstall it during Windows setup].

Not sure if this is using the above Snip And Sketch thingy in W10, [no idea if works in XP]

How to take a screenshot of part of your screen

Here are instructions for taking a screenshot of part of your screen in Windows and on a Mac.
Windows

Press “Windows + Shift + S”. Your screen will appear grayed out and your mouse cursor will change. Click and drag on your screen to select the part of your screen you want to capture. A screenshot of the screen region you selected will be copied to your clipboard. You can paste it in any application by selecting Edit > Paste or pressing Ctrl + V, just as you’d paste a full-screen shortcut taken with the Print Screen key.

https://www.contractsafe.com/support...of-your-screen

ALT / PrintScreen key copies to clipboard, the Active Window, but has Window border. [
https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-...ts-on-windows/

EDIT:
How can I take screenshots in windows xp or older versions?
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-take...older-versions

EDIT: Snip & Paste, * Free. Customizable. Portable.
https://www.snipaste.com/index.html#