Devices > PC's and Other Hardware
Dedicated Mini/Micro PC
Shasta Mike:
--- Quote from: Awesome Donkey on June 12, 2024, 07:15:59 am ---Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Windows 11 is unsupported on those older PCs and eventually will either break or not update anymore.
If you're running Windows 11 it's best to do it on supported hardware. For older hardware like those eBay PCs it'd be better if they ran Linux since Windows 10's going EOL in a year and a half. Having them with Windows 11 pre-installed is such a risk and I'm a little surprised eBay hasn't started cracking down on those listings (older, unsupported PCs running unsupported Windows 11) because they're misleading buyers into thinking e-waste that should be recycled is as good as other "modern" PC hardware just because it's running Windows 11 but it's really not. Using those eBay PCs are as risky if not more risky than using mini PCs from AliExpress and Amazon since most users who buy them are probably using the unsupported Windows 11 OS they ship with instead of reinstalling it themselves with the (supported) OS of their choosing from scratch.
Who knows what little surprises may be included? At least the Intel N100 and N305 CPU mini PCs from AliExpress and Amazon actually support Windows 11 and they support TPM 2.0 and secure boot, just make sure if you get one to do a clean OS install of course. And I can say after doing a clean Windows 11 install on a N305 that it runs beautifully AND Windows 11 is fully supported with no hacks or workarounds needed. Just my two cents. :)
--- End quote ---
thanks for the explanation. looks like i'm going to have to teach myself how to do a reinstall. think i found a good reference procedure on the Microsoft site.......... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/cleaninstall looks straight-forward from my first read through.
WinoOutWest:
This a great tool as well:
https://www.geeksinphoenix.com/blog/post/2023/04/10/create-custom-windows-installation-media-with-rufus
FYI your windows license will be picked up automatically when you install a clean Windows. In my experience even v11 installs without needing a new license on these older brand name boxes where they were never built to run v11.
eve:
--- Quote from: WinoOutWest on June 12, 2024, 02:25:45 pm ---This a great tool as well:
https://www.geeksinphoenix.com/blog/post/2023/04/10/create-custom-windows-installation-media-with-rufus
FYI your windows license will be picked up automatically when you install a clean Windows. In my experience even v11 installs without needing a new license on these older brand name boxes where they were never built to run v11.
--- End quote ---
Unless you go changing major things about the system itself (I find motherboards, and cpus are the major culprits), the Windows activation should carry over since it's tied to a HWID (hence why certain things will trigger an issue).
eve:
--- Quote from: WinoOutWest on June 12, 2024, 02:25:45 pm ---This a great tool as well:
https://www.geeksinphoenix.com/blog/post/2023/04/10/create-custom-windows-installation-media-with-rufus
FYI your windows license will be picked up automatically when you install a clean Windows. In my experience even v11 installs without needing a new license on these older brand name boxes where they were never built to run v11.
--- End quote ---
Rufus is my go to. For Windows specifically, if you need an up to date unmodified image, use MS's media creation tool, if you need your own images, that's on you and Rufus will possibly come in handy depending on how you go about it. I have a few pre-built Windows images for things (this lets me pre-configure them and remove as much telemetry as possible, set up all my group policy stuff, chop out things I don't need, etc). I deploy Windows much more infrequently (at least for myself) now.
newsposter:
NTLite and BCForward should also be mentioned as good tools to trim down windows installs, both before and after installation.
For additional tweaking on already-installed images, I use the WinAero tweaker.
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