This seems applicable to W10 and, maybe, W11. It would be nice if W11 has "safeguards" against this since Windows forces automatic updates so often.

Just got the upgrade to W11 offer on our main HTPC -- the one we use virtually all the time for TV (off the internet).

After some thought, I accepted. I'll use it to get used to W11 idiosyncrasies.

The HTPC has: Radeon RX580 Polaris GPU, R7 3800X CPU, Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini-ITX gaming motherboard, 16GB RAM @ 3.2GHz. All but the MB are "old, left over parts" -- I needed a new Mini-ITX MB for this build.

The article is simply "a word to the wise".

One can download legitimate W11 Pro from the Microsoft site. Professional is recommended because it gives the PC builder more "say" in what is installed -- and "not" installed. One can buy an inexpensive key for nominally $20 or less -- if one finds a legitimate key sale site (such sites sell unused OEM keys direct to the public). The legitimate keys do NOT have a Windows installer. Rather, they are just a key one uses after installing W10 or W11 using the Microsoft site installer download.

One of the main reasons I use W10Pro and W11Pro (instead of the "Home" version) is to "sidestep" Microsoft's intrusion into my Personal PC.

We'll see where this leads. No operating system competition is not good.

Agreed. If most PC games could run on Linux I would have dumped Windows a long time ago.

Allowing Microsoft to control our logins is dangerous, because they could--or the Government--decide in the future that we are not allowed to access our PC.

For me, the best reason yet to avoid W11 on my main PC as long as possible.

I have W11 on two of the 11 operational PCs and laptops in the house (yes -- overkill^2 ). So, I'll see how W11 develops on those two "sacrificial PCs".

I bought another R5 5600G CPU/GPU to update an HTPC (replaces R7 1800X CPU and RX550 GPU -- i.e. made the HTPC from old parts). Cost $178 (free shipping) from Amazon. Most AMD 5000 series CPUs prices are well below MSRP now.

With the updated AMD R5 5600G APU, the HTPC will run W11 -- I'll switch it to W11. That will bring us to 3 HTPC with W11 and one 4 year old gaming PC with W11. Still not convinced in W11 for my main PC.

Link to Article

A nice/long explanation of how Windows 11 became less user friendly than Windows 10.

Basically, Microsoft "took the average" of all the feedback and partly cemented it in place in W11 -- with less customization possible than in W10.

Anyone who does statistics knows the "true average" of "real people" represents only a tiny proportion of all humans. So, one can't provide the "average" in an attempt to satisfy the majority. Rather, ideally, one must allow each user to extensively modify/customize the provided interfaces to their personal preferences.

Meantime, I now have W11 on 6 operational in-house PCs (mostly HTPCs) with one more to come. However, its not on my main machine.

My new HP laptop came with Win 11. It's not a patch on 10 in my opinion for usability. Who are these people that were ok with these new 'features'?

Who the hell ever believed it was actually going to be anything even remotely close to an improvement on (any prior version) of Windows? (I'm laughing...but it ain't funny)

Anyone who's ever believed that 'improvement' is Microsoft's goal in releasing a new OS (since XP or maybe 7, anyhow) is a fool.

Simple question: If each of these successive versions of Windows were so great, why is it progressively becoming a matter of being forced to upgrade, rather than choice?

Article with links to many "deals"

As usual, I can't vouch for the source.

I bought my first W11 Pro key a couple days ago (from a different seller). Cost more than W10 Pro (as I expected). It was an experiment on a "new build". Worked fine.

FWIW: My experiment of a few months ago to buy 2 W10 Pro Keys at once at a good price, use one, keep one for future is over.

The second key (bought but not immediately installed) didn't work. This is my second try at that experiment. From now on, I'll only buy keys for install the day of purchase (that always worked for me). Once its working, Microsoft remembers it and it has always worked on that PC (so long as the motherboard remains the same -- the BIOS can update with no loss of W10 or W11 user rights).

I've now been using WIN 11 since February and I have only had one minor issue where one specific game was giving me corrupted graphics but that was fixed with a subsequent patch.

My next main PC build is W11. I'm already "building" -- and its functioning on a placeholder CPU & GPU -- building is a hobby.

I'll keep W10 on my current main PC for a while.

The planned Windows 11 22H2 (2022 second half of year) complete version has not yet been released. We're still on W11 21H2 (2021 second half of year).

The current W11 21H2 version receives updates almost weekly -- but was considered an experimental "Beta" version -- for testing. It is not "feature complete" -- some aspects don't work or are missing.

W11 22H2 will be officially "complete" (it has been said -- we'll see). It will be updated often during 2022 and 2023 (like W10 is). It will get major version changes at the middle of each successive year -- the first major change will nominally be 23H2.

Thus, its time to start expecting the "final cut" of W11 soon.

So far, we have W11 Pro on all but 2 of our operational PCs (my and my wife's office/main-gaming PCs are W10). There are 6+ with W11 -- one W11 used for gaming; others are HTPCs.

So far, in our limited use, no functional issues with W11 -- other than the annoyance of it trying to get us to use features favorable to Microsoft.

I've now got used to 11 (more or less) on my new laptop. I still don't like the layout compared to 10 but it's ok. No real issues so far that I can recall.

I understand that you can skip the M$ account creation on 11. Never tried it but I have no problem with it at the moment. It's useful for keeping my 2 machines sync'd.

I bought W11 Professional because it allows one to bypass some things like that -- or use them if they are useful to one. Since I buy the "key" for under $20, W11 Pro only costs a few dollars more than W11 non-Pro (or less). I skipped everything, on principle. I don't know how the skipped features would hurt or help -- because I haven't used them.

I realize your W11 version may have been included with your Laptop. I assume W11 non-Pro will meet most folks needs just fine.

Yes, I have always used the 'Home' versions. I just can't see the need for the 'Pro' version as a gamer. Maybe BitLocker could be of some use but I doubt I'll ever own that version.

I've been on WIN 11 now for almost 5 months and the only issue I've run into is one game that needed to be updated in order to fix a serious graphics glitch. This OS has been rock solid for me and I've not had a single blue screen crash.

FWIW: Today I switched my wife's gaming PC over to Windows 11 Pro (from W10 Home).

The W11 Pro key cost me $17.36 (was actually a W10 Pro key -- worked on the W11 Pro clean install).

Now, my personal gaming PC (in signature) is the only PC in the house on W10.

I'll change when they release the W11 22H2 version. W11 22H2 will be the first nominally "complete" and nominally "debugged" W11 version.