Removing Ads In Windows

[Zema Bus]

This is a Linux youtuber I often watch. He also discusses data collection and attempts to force a Microsoft account in this video (15 mins).

[Grogan]

Well... once I got Windows activated the ads seemed to be gone?

What's worse is that they are going to be forcing BitLocker encryption enabled. Similar to the Microsoft Account, it's an impassible screen that you can't skip, without workarounds. You have to get to the advanced recovery options and use the registry editor if you want to skip that during setup, I was reading. Apparently on new installs and reinstalls. Currently, with 23H2 it doesn't do it for Home Edition unless the OEM has set it up. That's why I didn't see that in my VM. Apparently 24H2 is going to force it.

Can you imagine foisting that on the general public, just to have something else that locks them into a Microsoft sign-in, forcing you to have OneDrive for the backup key. Most people don't know how to work with encryption, and having it an automated black box like that is going to cause people to lose their data. It would make data recovery difficult too.

[Zema Bus]

Oh yeah I heard about the forced encryption. Doesn't seem like they thought that through.

I'm even getting big popup ads on my work laptop with Windows 10 now, they randomly popup over my work area. So far only once or twice a week but because of their size they're really intrusive.

[Michael_horatio]

I've watched a few of that guy's linux videos. There's something about him that I don't like, but can't put my finger on..There are all kinds of programs and scripts available to do that. I usually run this one on new installs which runs very well but really has to be run after every update.
https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
The last Dell laptop I debloated a week ago came with some amd processor and 8 gigs of mem.
I had it soon after my God daughter brought it home untouched from the store.
CPU utilization was around 89% and over half of the memory gone with only Windows 11 running.
Of course on bootup there was a shitload of stuff there: McAfee, OneDrive etc.
Even after letting it sit for 10 minutes it was still using everything up.
Most people just seem to put up with that bullshit though

[Grogan]

Yeah, manufacturer's like Dell are the worst. Acer tends to have cheap housings and shit, but they give you a much cleaner load (and it's a pretty good deal, hardware wise, inside of it). The decrapification of unwanted vendor supplied things doesn't really take that long on those (and stuff like antivirus and orifice 365... bigger than a circle lol isn't fully installed and removes easily), it's the Microsoft induced annoyance that bites the biggest length of the weenie.

I don't need to lecture you on how serious that is. Somebody else's computer. PowerShell console as Administrator, blindly downloading and running a set of powershell scripts from a web server.

I read the README, so I see how this works. I'm not fluent in powershell scripting, but I can follow flow. I had a look at the main script winutil.ps1 too. I didn't pore over the whole thing, it's long and involved and that's just the main script that hooks the rest. Maybe I'll get a better look at that in a Windows VM so I can let it in my fake ass first lol

His own URL redirects to the github content. I'd at least use the raw.githubusercontent.com URL directly, per the fallback instructions in his README, and skip that part of the gamble

[Michael_horatio]

Ya, it's not perfect, but I use the lowest basic cleanup settings and have tested it many times on computers of my own. I don't let it tear much of anything out. It's nothing you couldn't do manually yourself in half an hour. I'm a bit afraid of those types of scripts too, but have never had any bad results with this one. Very important to know for sure what the user is going to use as far as Microsoft programs are concerned. I never let it try to tear out Edge or things like the Microsoft store. 'proceed with caution'

[Grogan]

So far the only users of mine for this shit are family, so shortcuts to Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Store shortcuts are removed (you don't need to actually yank those out, just put them out of mind. Those things anyway). There's nobody that's going to disagree with that, either, they think that's bollocks too. I'd certainly have to ask the user what they want to do with the computer in any other circumstance, though. Old school users would think that Microsoft Account shit is bollocks.

[Grogan]

Yeah, what I have to come up with is a method that I can write up and show, so that a somewhat competent user can bypass this shit on unboxing a new laptop, or new install/reinstall of Windows 11.

I am also thinking that the article I am writing will be inapplicable by the time I'm finished it. I've kind of gotten soured on it because Microsoft is changing things in 24H2 again and I think I need to get a copy of that and start over. I also think I'm wrong, in that "oobe\bypassnro" will always work. That was before I knew about the forced BitLocker prompts, which indeed, also are going to force a Microsoft Account.

I'd like to find a legit ISO of 24H2 as I intend to use my legit Home Edition product key (actually I won't even need it because they'll already have me fingered from my fake TPM 2.0 device lol) for the article, to be on the same page as Joe Laptop buyer. I'm not any kind of "MSDN-like" (whatever they call it now, I'm way out of the loop) subscriber.

I used to be an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Solitaire Engineer) you know but now I use kpat

[Grogan]

Looks like I'm kind of buggered for legit, unless I want to create a Microsoft account and sign in and join their Insider program, then Windows Update will deliver the changes to me. Or, I can use this https://uupdump.net/ site that requires installing their scripting and aria2 (an open source distributed downloader tool) to generate an ISO (a non official one) from the Windows Update sources. It can only be done from Windows, too.

So illegit it will be. Fine... I'm sure I can find an ISO somewhere.

[Zema Bus]

Back when I was playing around with the insider program (almost 10 years ago) I was using an old 'Games for Windows Live' account. I don't remember why I had it originally, maybe some game required it.

[Grogan]

I can create a disposable microsoft account I guess, what do I care, it's their resources if they are going to try to force this.

I don't actually think there are official ISOs for Windows insider builds anymore. I couldn't even find a torrent for 24H2 (lots of 23H2 of course). So I guess what I'll do is subscribe through windows update and use that uupdump site's utils to make a bootable image file or something. I don't want to update to it, I want to blow it away (virtual disk and all) and start over with it and get screenshots etc.

By the way, I still haven't found these Ads. Once I got Windows activated, my start menu had only pinned apps. I reduced my search to an icon and if I click it I get some unwanted news feed garbage and suggestions for free games to go and get from the store etc. but I wouldn't exactly call them "Ads". I haven't customized much (wanting defaults for screenshots) but I could probably remove those tiles.

[Grogan]

I heard something (someone in the register's peanut gallery), about those ads that might explain why mine went away. It depends on the product key. Not the edition, but the specific OEM key. So some Home and Pro keys might be super discount ones sold to OEMs and those get the ads etc. The keys I bought were "Windows 11 Home Edition OEM Global" so it wasn't one of those vendor specific keys. Input key (which I didn't have at setup time, or I could have input it then) and Activate, and the ads went away. It makes sense.