It’s not a big deal. They’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script, which is just this:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
You can still use shift-F10 at the same point, type those two lines (not the @ECHO OFF), and it will achieve the same result.
Their intention is clear. I wonder for how long this workaround is going to stay.
You’re doing the lord’s work
Sure, but when are they going to remove that registry option?
Steam OS 3.8 … Any moment now 😁
Even MORE reason not to upgrade!
Are they trying to kill windows on purpose?
The sad thing is they know the large majority of users will comply. Most people put familiarity and convenience above their own privacy and general well-being.
Games. Most of the games I play don’t play well with Linux.
I keep a Linux laptop for banking that only connects via ethernet cord while I’m banking. Which is nice, I don’t worry about key loggers now.
Do you play exclusively esports games or something? It’s rare I encounter a title that doesn’t work just fine on Linux. It seems I barely need to tweak any settings anymore.
I do play eSports games
What games do you play? I’ve been gaming exclusively on Linux since Windows 7 went EoS, and especially since the Steam Deck came out, I’ve had very few problems. That said I don’t play competitive stuff, which is what tends to have anti-cheat rootkits.
The fact that Facebook still exists is proof of this.
Once valve drops better nvidia support into the kernel, and steamos starts coming pre-loaded on laptops and pre-built desktops it’s over for their consumer division.
No it’s not, multiplayer games with anticheat that hard-locks you into Windows and productivity software with DRM that hard-locks you into Windows is still a thing, if that were to stop being a thing, then Windows’ dominance on the desktop might finally be threatened, but until then, sadly, no.
There’s nothing special about SteamOS. Linux has been available as an option from several manufacturers for years.
What we need to see is a major studio pushing for Linux like valve has been doing.
Imagine if call of duty or fortnite had a Linux promotion to have a penguin hat. That would help
There kind of is though. I’m not here to argue it’s enough to unseat windows but it is markedly different
From a technical standpoint it’s just another linux distro with some nice tweaks for gaming but from a human perspective it has brand recognition, familiarity, a known company behind it. Those things do really matter for adoption. No idea if that’d be anywhere near enough, I’m not inclined to make predictions, but it does have explicit advantages over consumers hearing they can get a laptop with Ubuntu or fedora on it
Yeah I agree. I just don’t wanna see more apps made exclusively for SteamOS and winderp. So I feel it’s important to highlight it’s just another Linux distro.
https://youtu.be/5KYQRk_SIB8 this is what pulled my attention to the matter.
That’s very fair! I was concerned by that video too, though I would point out that if I remember right, the games in that video don’t work on non-steamdeck devices including if you install steamos on a laptop or desktop
What we need to see is a major studio pushing for Linux like valve has been doing.
That’s it. That’s literally what makes it special. You, me, and half the fediverse probably aren’t going to use steam os unless maybe we buy a steam deck.
The fact that there’s a multi-billion dollar company throwing money at both it and proton is what makes steam os special. Its what’s going to give Linux a unified brand name that every machine can put on their case badge.
Normal people and the companies that sell them computers need that unified brand name. Why on gods green earth, I don’t fucking know, but I know that they do. Its how you get them to use shit.
Call of duty is a Microsoft game now.
Also, I will not be surprised if they audaciously disable Win 10 Home edition for security purposes once end of life is reached.
I’ve still got a windows XP computer that I fire up once in a while for the LOLs. it continues to remind me that support ended in 2014, but it keeps working.
I also have a Windows 8.1 tablet that continues to work, and receive Windows Defender updates.
They won’t disable anything, stop spreading FUD, that’s Microsoft’s job.
They already said they are going to charge $30/year for patches. They want recurring revenue from ads in 11 or from you paying yearly for 10.
They have done that for years, and every time there is an army of geeks and gamers who look for registry hacks or PowerShell scripts to install Windows anyway. If even those geeks do not want to spend 5 minutes looking for doc on how to install Ubuntu (which is a billion times easier to use than Windows), you can be sure Windows will never die.
companies do things like this when they feel they have the power in the business/customer relationship and there’s no regulations to stop them.
I wouldn’t say that, more just abusing a monopoly.
Yeah, they probably want to kill it and switch people over to a cloud service with a monthly subscription.
I don’t know what is going on at Microsoft. I’m starting to think that they are trying to pivot to a completely different business model. In addition to this Windows 11 crap and XBox seemingly being given up on, they appear to be losing their embedded market as well. In the past, if you saw any screen in an industrial setting, there’s a good chance that there was the embedded Windows version behind that screen. Lately, all the new products are moving over to Linux.
They are, and have said they are.
Subscriptions are the wave of the future.
What advantage embedded windows gave to a manufacturer for it to be worth paying license fee for? I kinda feel this part is difficult for Microsoft to compete at
It was because developers historically were familiar with Windows and would just default to making a Windows product. You want a POS interface? Your developer is probably going to hand you a .exe and not a .deb. Then your next move is to tell the hardware division to put that .exe into production systems, at which it is too late for the hardware division to argue you just chose the more expensive option without thinking.
This is changing, particularly as many platforms make it trivial to compile for different OSes.
To be far this command was only needed for win 11 Home. Pro did not need a command as the option is available through normal prompts windows gives you.
I think that option was removed even on Pro a pretty long time ago, no? At least the last couple of times I installed W11 Pro the graphical option was nowhere to be found. It used to be available easily enough that anyone could choose it if they didn’t blindly click Next, then it got more and more hidden away and now I’m 99% sure you need the command unless you prep the ISO using Rufus and its function to create a local account for you. On that note, I wonder if this will affect the Rufus method too…
It is under sign in option when you get to it then choose domain join. This get you to create a local account. Just did this to 5 new computers last week.
And it still tries to convince you to go MS account with it’s, “even better, create a Microsoft account” link that’s conveniently located where the Next button should be.
All I know is i been doing this for 6 months upgrading companies from win 10 to 11. I am sure you’re not doing something wrong.
Upgrades are a different process than a brand new install. Going from 10 to 11 on a Pro is an easy process. Long, as in a couple hours, but easy. The post is talking about brand new installs (the OOTB experience).
The last 5 msi laptop OOTB have been able to create local accounts as a mean to join to domain. The 4 Dell i did the week before was able to do the same.
Just one more reason not to use Windows, As if forcing data scrapers down our throat in the guise of AI wasn’t enough.
I’ve used the unpatchable Win11 account loophole, that exploits a functionality of your pc, where you wipe your boot drive, and install NixOS on it
That’s a neat trick!
The company is cracking down on the ability to install Windows 11 on older PCs that don’t support TPM 2.0
But still runs fine in a VM (where it belongs to) on Linux on a system without TPM, right?
No, your guest VM still requires TPM enabled
Guest VM? Nested VM? Does the VM or the host system need TPM?
The guest VM requires TPM to install Windows 11.
It depends on your hypervisor platform. Some platforms can enable vTPM (emulated TPM) without host hardware support, like KVM with swtpm.
Hyper-V can do passthrough TPM or emulate vTPM but still require the host to have hardware TPM enabled to do so.
Will people just stop using windows already. I get for work but if you just waiting on that one game then fuck off it’s not worth it. I gave up some of my favorite games because it wasn’t worth using Windows
Proton is amazing though. I got Lego LotR working on my steam deck by installing some DirectX 9 dependency to fix a graphical glitch with the game. Runs like a dream.
Can I run multi-monitor high refresh rates without the desktop slugging? Last time I seriously tried switching to Linux, this seemingly simple setup in 2024 was too much for it to handle.
I don’t know about high refresh rates, but multiple 4k screens was a pain point in 2023 and it’s a complete non-issue in 2025.
I run 2x 1440p monitors at 165hz and 144hz fine
Sure, as long as you run a wayland capable DE. Like GNOME or KDE. It’s still experimental in linux mint afaik. You might have a few problems if you have an NVIDIA card (no proper wayland support) or HDMI cables (limited to 144 fps because of copyright issues iirc).
I have Nvidia yeah and quickly learnt that I wasn’t going to get it working smoothly and went back to Windows. If I manage to get a RRP 9070XT, then I will try Linux again.
I hate the “stop using windows” comments, when it’s quite impossible to have the same experience without specific hardware and setups.
The nvidia support is getting better, but yeah they’re years late compared to AMD which basically has better drivers on linux than windows.
It’s not the fault of the creators of an operating system that Nvidia refuses to write comparable drivers. Nvidia are the only ones with the technical knowledge of the GPU’s internals that is necessary to write the 100% functional driver. Open-source Nouveau drivers exist but are less functional because of this, its programmers have to try to reverse-engineer and do a lot of guesswork and testing, and for free.
Basically: If you value FOSS software at all, buy from manufacturers that are friendlier to FOSS software, or you may unknowingly lock yourself out of it.
Edit: Buying newer (especially of Nvidia) is probably a bad idea if you intend to run Linux. Older cards have had more time for them to fix the inevitable bugs. I run a GTX980Ti 😅 with the closed-source drivers on an Arch-based system and I’m honestly surprised a video driver update hasn’t seriously broken anything yet.
Never said it was the fault of the creators, I love the idea of Linux and wish it was the mainstream desktop OS, then none of these issues would really exist. I only have issue with people pretending it’s so simple to change to it from Windows, which is just almost never true.
I have an Nvidia card because it was the best option for me at the time I bought it, Valve’s Proton hadn’t matured enough for Linux to even be considered for gaming at that time (other Linux quirks aside). As much as I support FOSS, I love playing a variety of games with friends and that just wasn’t going to be feasible with Linux 5-6 years ago. I wasn’t going to dual-boot when I would end up spending most of my time in Windows anyway and the rest of my time troubleshooting Linux.
Now AMD has released a good card, Proton is really good and Linux has progressed further to where I can seriously consider it. With Windows 10 support ending, I am very likely to jump ship.
For people with “that one game” there is a middle ground. Mine is Destiny 2 and they use a version of easy anticheat that refuses to run on Linux. My solution was to buy a $150 used Dell on eBay, a $180 GPU to be able to output to my 4 high-res displays, and install Debian + moonlight on it. I moved my gaming PC downstairs and a combination of wake-on-lan + sunshine means that I can game at functionally native performance, streaming from the basement. In my setup, windows only exists to play games on.
The added bonus here is now I can also stream games to my phone, or other ~thin clients~ in the house, saving me upgrade costs if I want to play something in the living room or upstairs. All you need is the bare minimum for native-framerate, native-res decoding, which you can find in just about anything made in the last 5-10 years.
I loved destiny 2 but I gave it up. Fuck Bungie because someone got it to work and they banned them
Windows 11 is enshittfying a feature that let you skip making a Microsoft account
There, FTFY.
I didn’t know Gentoo was named after a penguin.
Now I want a Chinstrap and a Southern Rockhopper Linux.
Chinstrap Linux haha. It’s like Fedora, but for a totally different demographic.
GalapagOS
Ah sweet vindication for getting my gaming PC and daily driver laptop on Linux
Describing the ability to make a local account as a loophole is letting a little too much real intention slip out.
This is only for the Home version of win 11.
But not for the home version of Wubuntu 11.
no that’s sketchy in terms of it’s ownership. use mint
Why the fuck is a Microsoft account so important to Windows that running it without one is considered a “loophole”?
My guess is that’s it’s easier to neatly package your data up for when they go to sell it.
They want to make money off of services, every service they offer requires a Microsoft account to purchase and use. Everyone that they force to make an account during setup is one step closer to paying for a Microsoft service.
There are obviously tradeoffs (less sales of these versions of windows and some users pushed away from Windows altogether among others), but the motivation is clear.
because microsoft is shifting focus from selling you a product, to selling you as a product
And they need a unique account to track every single click and thing you do on your PC, and the web, and everywhere else to facilitate doing that with greater control and ease.
Its literally what, and for the same reason, google has done for the past decade+
Because we need your data silly 😊
Is it possible to skip account creation by installing while not connected to the internet?
Nope, you need an internet connection to get past initial setup. Unless you use pro, there you can select to domain join computer instead and it’ll let you create a local account
You are wrong for now, it is still possible.
- Ctrl + Shift + F3 during setup gives you access to sysprep
- In an admin CMD you can excecute the BypassNRO.cmd script. In C:\Windows\System32\oobe\
- I have encountered one 24H2 installation where the oobe folder was empty, but if you copy the file from another device it works just the same
- Reboot from sysprep and you can now select “Install without internet” when selecting a WIFI
This will not work if you’re already connected to a wifi. BypassNRO sets a registry flag, so it’s only a matter of time till they patch it out, but it works for now.
Edit: Rufus also allows the creation of a local user when making the installation USB, skipping the entire setup process.
this does not work for Windows HOME edition
Yes it does, a client needed this documentation and I’ve tested it extensively. The only exception is when S-Mode is enabled.
