install-windows-the-arch-linux-way/

[utterances-bot]

Install Windows the Arch Linux Way

Having Fun with Technology

https://christitus.com/install-windows-the-arch-linux-way/

[MNS1968]

Brilliant Chris.

I'm no longer a Windows user but with your video, I'm going install it this way for the hell of it!

[AmjadKh]

How to choose English (World) as language (or locale) when using this method?
BTW, I'm a technical person and I use this method with a specific script on many PCs. This reduces the effort of walking through the wizard each time. So, not only to bypass rules.

[hl2guide]

The text guide is missing running diskpart before:
List Disks with list disk

[hl2guide]

also exiting diskpart using exit is missing too.

[Leowhyx]

Great guide

[Delander-sudo]

Chris, thank you for the Windows Toolbox. It makes the OS salvageable. I hope you develop this tool forever.

[quendin7]

not original idea

[JustaMushroom]

From my testing, in order to use the English (World) locale debloat trick you can run the command: dism /Image:c: /Set-UserLocale:en-001 after applying the image. That should set the default user locale to English (World)

[jacobseated]

This IS the only proper way to install Windows. You really do not want to tolerate Microsoft's tyrannical installer not even allowing you to use a local user account. I can not imagine why they thought that was even remotely okay to do. It shows why GNU/Linux (or OSS in general) is always to be preferred to proprietary software.

[nyreed]

Brilliantly succinct guide. Excellent for reference! Thanks!

[ann3nova]

ipconfig /release

[MrRar]

This IS the only proper way to install Windows. You really do not want to tolerate Microsoft's tyrannical installer not even allowing you to use a local user account. I can not imagine why they thought that was even remotely okay to do. It shows why GNU/Linux (or OSS in general) is always to be preferred to proprietary software.

Actually you can still setup a local Windows account using the OOBE in all cases even Windows 11 Home. Just type in no@thankyou.com for the email and a random password. The installer will then go to a local account creation screen. This works because the Microsoft account no@thankyou.com is banned or something so Microsoft doesn't want it to be used for Windows accounts.

[jacobseated]

Wow what? That's hilarious! haha I just installed Windows 11 on a laptop, and I had to escape to a prompt and disable wifi to get around it. But, I also did not know about the "English (World)" debloating trick. Probably though, Microsoft still installs software from the manufacturer automatically, and on some Lenovo computers at least, this means that users will get sabotaged by a humongous popup "feature" telling them whenever they press caps lock. The specific Lenovo background service can be turned off, but the option is severely hidden. I am seriously tempted to just block Windows update in my Firewall to avoid having all that malware installed.

…

On Thu, Sep 21, 2023 at 3:13 PM Johannes Fritz ***@***.***> wrote: This IS the only proper way to install Windows. You really do not want to tolerate Microsoft's tyrannical installer not even allowing you to use a local user account. I can not imagine why they thought that was even remotely okay to do. It shows why GNU/Linux (or OSS in general) is always to be preferred to proprietary software. Actually you can still setup a local Windows account using the OOBE in all cases even Windows 11 Home. Just type in ***@***.*** for the email and a random password. The installer will then go to a local account creation screen. This works because the Microsoft account ***@***.*** is banned or something so Microsoft doesn't want it to be used for Windows accounts. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#157 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHRXUI56KKGLNADIIGCAHALX3Q4PTANCNFSM6AAAAAA4HS6QGY> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[AldoMX]

You can use clean in diskpart to erase all partitions.

[papalii]

Hi all, sorry but I'm not entirely clear on the advantages of this Windows installation method, is it just to avoid having to create a Microsoft account or are there other advantages?
Thanks in advance.

[AmjadKh]

@papalii
I'm a technical person and I use this method with a specific script on many PCs. This reduces the effort of walking through the wizard each time. So, not only to bypass rules.

[chrisjlocke]

You can use clean in diskpart to erase all partitions.

Just beware that there is no confirmation on this, so make sure (several times!) you've selected the right partition before issuing the command.

[chrisjlocke]

Hi all, sorry but I'm not entirely clear on the advantages of this Windows installation method, is it just to avoid having to create a Microsoft account or are there other advantages? Thanks in advance.

If you install Windows regularly (especially on virtual machines) its quicker than going through the GUI, and this can be scripted, so you can run it and walk away, rather than clicking 'next', 'next', 'next', etc.

[jacobseated]

I just realized recently, Rufus allows the creation of a local-only account when making a bootable USB. This may be easier for many users. Not sure if you need the international version though, because I don't think I have noticed this option previously, and last time I re-installed Windows I actually used an international .iso, officially downloaded from Microsoft. Would be lovely to block malware from Lenovo though; they tend to occasionally sabotage the Caps Lock button with their huge popup software haha

…

On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 10:43 PM Chris Locke ***@***.***> wrote: Hi all, sorry but I'm not entirely clear on the advantages of this Windows installation method, is it just to avoid having to create a Microsoft account or are there other advantages? Thanks in advance. If you install Windows regularly (especially on virtual machines) its quicker than going through the GUI, and this can be scripted, so you can run it and walk away, rather than clicking 'next', 'next', 'next', etc. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#157 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHRXUIZFRTKEJSJ5VVP7APLYCANRNAVCNFSM6AAAAAA4HS6QG2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTOOBWGA4TKMJSHE> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[hierocles]

For those needing to use a FAT32 formatted USB drive, you can get an ISO for your specific edition via UUPDump.net. The ISO from Microsoft contains multiple editions, so the install.wim file is too large for a FAT32 filesystem. Removing the unnecessary editions should get you below 4GB.

[Malcolm-SA]

Great work as always Chris, I have been implementing custom Windows 10 install.wim with embedded programs already installed and most settings to speed up deployment times. This post offers a further insight but I have a question.. How do I set the recovery partition in order to ensure that automatic repairs works correctly. Forgive my ignorance here, but I was looking at (help create part primary) which details roughly.. create partition primary [size=20000] [ID= | ]
The help command above lists the GUID for recovery partition, is this all that is needed? Or do I need to place a copy of the windows install files and modified install.wim in that location.

From my research a recovery partition can be created (they dont mention the GUID route above), rather a partition with the windows install files and modified install.wim file in the \sources
directory. The problem is this seems to create a second operating system option in the recovery area, and requires the user to choose which operating system they want to boot into.

I want to have access to the reset your pc option - which the above Arch Linux way seems to remove - I assume it is because I also need to add a proper recovery partition.
I also want to have the ability to repair this pc, as usual from the recovery environment.

[AmjadKh]

@Malcolm-SA You can create recovery partition and use it as in the traditional method.
There is some articles in Microsoft website that explain this.

Capture and apply a Windows image using a single .WIM file

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

Sample scripts

[Malcolm-SA]

Thank you, very informative links @AmjadKh

I also found this very clean and informative article https://superuser.com/questions/1667319/how-to-restore-the-recovery-partition-in-windows-10

That helps me to understand the recovery and WinRe environments a lot better.
I have created the recovery partition and marked it with the recovery GUID as mentioned in the original post and after researching your links :-)

Before restarting to allow the Windows installation build (Thats the point where we can use the very helpful English World tip from Chris ) I tried the suggestion from @JustaMushroom Dism /Image:c: /Set-UserLocale:en-001 but received an invalid locale which I suspect may just be because I am using a custom install.wim file with embedded apps and have already set the locale and language packs during my initial install creation. As Chris mentions, Shift F10 after the reboot and we can use the oobe \BypassNRO option.

Interestingly I am hoping to see a response improvement (Ultimately this is all about saving time on installs) using the optimise-image switch .. below is a direct copy and paste from MS.

This command should be the last command run against an image before the image is applied to a device, and can reduce time on the factory floor when building devices for build-to-stock scenarios.

DISM.exe /Image:C:\test\offline /Optimize-Image {/Boot | /WimBoot}

/Boot tries to reduce the online configuration time that the OS spends during boot. This optimization may be rendered invalid if any servicing operations are performed on the image after optimizing it.

Once again Chris ! You rock - I look forward to learning more and diving deeper - nice forum too.. Thank you.