One “simple trick” and your next Windows install will be blissfully free of bloatware.

Basically, install Windows as you normally would, but when asked for Time and Currency format, select English (World) instead of your country.

Then let the installer do its thing. Eventually, you will see a window with an ice cream cone on the floor with the words “Something went wrong” and the error message “OOBEREGION.” This cryptic message means that the “out of box experience” (OOBE) didn’t launch because it didn’t know which region to launch.

Click Skip, though, and Windows will install just fine. You won’t be prompted to buy Microsoft 365, you won’t be prompted to pay for a OneDrive subscription, and your Start menu won’t be cluttered with apps.

  • stephenc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    1 year ago

    Pop!OS is becoming more and more out of date and problematic. Honestly Fedora is the only version of Linux worth using these days (there’s some gamer variant of it I can never remember that’s probably fine too).

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      The gamer variant you’re talking about is Nobara.

      Which is pretty good.

      I switched to it about a month ago, reminds me of what Ubuntu used to be with its easy to use-ness

    • Kogasa@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Honestly, there’s a half dozen that are just as good as Fedora out of the box, and dozens that are just as capable once broken in.

      • stephenc@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I have yet to find a distro besides Fedora that is actually reliable and works well with everything with minimal tweaking. Ubuntu and its derivatives are horribly unstable and finicky and everything else has its own issues. Fedora just works.

          • stephenc@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            1 year ago

            If you would do any searching regarding Pop!OS you would see tons of posts and articles saying that it hasn’t been updated in forever and it’s not just graphics drivers and such that need updating, it’s essential OS packages. You’re running the Windows 7 of Linux distros and spouting the same arguments as they do.