Setting up W11: what to look out for?

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Fluke031

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Sep 28, 2012
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So yeah... I realize this is a very general question, but hear me out:

Back in the days (I'm showing my age here) installing W without internet connection and/or MS account was the default. There was also very little tinkering involved. Gradually that became less, especially with W10 where internet connection and an MS account was almost enforced. From what I've read, that's even more the case with W11.

Today my kid's new laptop arrived with W11 Home pre-installed. I have NO experience with W11, and really don't have any current knowledge on Windows or hardware. I kinda stopped with all that with my last build... but that was... almost a decade ago!

So here I have this pristine laptop, sitting in a box next to me on the couch. We're eager to set it up for her.

- What are the pointers with a clean W11? (no, I will NOT install Norton :) )
- Can I still avoid an MS account? Any reason why I should / shouldn't?
- Though it's a standard laptop, probably with it's own recovery partition or something like that, can I still make our own recovery image? Any reason why I should / shouldn't?
- Are there other things I should be aware of? Settings to adjust? Privacy stuff to take care of?

All this info will undoubtedly be around on the web, but since I don't know what to look for I will probably never find it.

All tips appreciated!
 
There are ways to avoid all the bloatware and telemetry.
You can use Tiny11 to build your own customized stripped down ISO that you can make bootable on a flash drive, or you can go with a pre stripped down ISO from someone like ReviOS (Revision OS).
What they do is they strip out all the telemetry and disable Windows updates (so to update you have to manually upgrade via a new upgrade ISO from Revision or by building a new ISO to upgrade from with Tiny11) and they tend to get rid of all the unnecessary bloatware but leave things like the Microsoft Store intact and some other stuff so you can still use it properly and you can sign into a MS account if you want, but otherwise you can keep the account strictly local and offline.

This is what I do with my builds. I personally use ReviOS because it's already done, and I just install Xbox gaming services for my PC gaming stuff with Game Pass and I unhid the Windows Update but made sure not to click on anything that checks for updates and re-enables auto updates and instead I just look at it ever so often to see if there's any updates to things like Windows Defender and I manually click on just that update to install it.

There just so happens to be a toms article on how to get Tiny11 setup and going.
You can also read up on it via it's GitHub page
www.tomshardware.com

Make a Windows 11 Image That Runs on 2GB of RAM With Tiny11 Builder

Free tool outputs a Windows 11 image that requires just 2GB of RAM.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

Here's a link to ReviOS if you wanted to go that route instead.

Revision | Revision

ReviOS aspires to re-create what Windows as an operating system should have been - easy and simple With the main audience being gamers, power-users and enthusiasts, we understand that performance, speed and low latency is obligatory, which is why great effort has been invested into making ReviOS...
revi.cc revi.cc

And as for a program to help you make a bootable flash drive...

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way
rufus.ie
 
Thanks for the reply and your time!

Interesting stuff as well... but isn't this more aimed at people making a new rig, instead of this laptop with pre-installed win11?
 
Fluke031 said:
Thanks for the reply and your time!

Interesting stuff as well... but isn't this more aimed at people making a new rig, instead of this laptop with pre-installed win11?
Click to expand...
it's for anyone on any hardware. I never use the OS that comes pre installed on my laptops, I always wipe it and do a clean install to make sure it only has the things I want/need in it and no bloatware and telemetry.
 
understood... would I need to purchase a new W11 key, or could I somehow use the OEM key that's used with the pre-installed version?
 
For the stated user, this would be problematic for me.
With Tiny11 - "and disable Windows updates"

Sorry, but I can't buy into that for the vast majority of users.

And some of the other things that Tiny11 strips out are things that people actually use.


There's nothing really disastrous in a regular WIn 10/11 install.
Turn off location tracking, and whatever advertising linking is in the initial account setup.
 
Fluke031 said:
- Though it's a standard laptop, probably with it's own recovery partition or something like that, can I still make our own recovery image? Any reason why I should / shouldn't?
Click to expand...
You can make your own "recovery" image without relying on any recovery partition the laptop right now.

You could also just do a clean Windows 11 install. That would wipe the drive and you'd end up with only Windows per se. No recovery partition. None of the fabulous software doo-dads the laptop manufacturer probably blessed you with.

The latter is not a necessity, just an idea. The former is a strong recommendation.
 
Lafong said:
You could also just do a clean Windows 11 install. That would wipe the drive and you'd end up with only Windows per se. No recovery partition. None of the fabulous software doo-dads the laptop manufacturer probably blessed you with.
Click to expand...
My last couple of laptops were blissfully bloatware free.

Surface Go 3 and a Lenovo SomethingOrOther.
Base Win 10 and 11 installs.
 
USAFRet said:
My last couple of laptops were blissfully bloatware free.

Surface Go 3 and a Lenovo SomethingOrOther.
Base Win 10 and 11 installs.
Click to expand...
You were lucky I guess, cuz my Lenovo Ideapad 3 I bought not that long ago at Micro Center came preloaded with ALL the fun stuff. Thing was sucking back 6GB of RAM on desktop idle with it's stock out of the box experience.
Thing only has 8GB.
 
Fluke031 said:
Today my kid's new laptop arrived with W11 Home pre-installed. I have NO experience with W11, and really don't have any current knowledge on Windows or hardware. I kinda stopped with all that with my last build... but that was... almost a decade ago!
Click to expand...
One thing you might look into...is it Win 11 S Mode?
They sometimes come like that.

It can be promoted to a Win 11 Home install for free, from the MS Store.
 
Lafong said:
You can make your own "recovery" image without relying on any recovery partition the laptop right now.

You could also just do a clean Windows 11 install. That would wipe the drive and you'd end up with only Windows per se. No recovery partition. None of the fabulous software doo-dads the laptop manufacturer probably blessed you with.

The latter is not a necessity, just an idea. The former is a strong recommendation.
Click to expand...
Will the clean w11 install need a new key?

And more importantly, will I miss specific drivers that I can't get from anywhere else but from Asus?
 
Fluke031 said:
Regular W11 Home
Click to expand...
OK.

And still, nothing really wrong with a base Win 11 install.
Certainly nothing to warrant going all the way to a seriously cut down Tiny11.

That could be good for a secondary system, or experimental, to play with.
Or, if you really know what you're doing and understand ALL of its limitations.

The user in question is still in school?
And may be doing some gaming on this?
Or even just collaborative schoolwork?

If so, Tiny11 or similar is not the solution.
 
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