I haven’t had anything to do with windows in like 5+ years. I need to set up a laptop with it for someone tomorrow, I’m guessing W11 is nowadays recommended? what’s currently the best option for a hassle free experience (no ads, no random game installs, no migrations to onedrive, etc)?
last time I did it, I used the W10 ISO from Microsoft, applied the hwidsomething and ran some debloater from github. back then there were some ESR LTSC ISOs available on torrent sites, is that still a thing?
the install is going to use firefox, chrome, skype, libreoffice, etc., they all autoupdate themselves, so it’s going to be reasonably secure. what’s my best bet for a set & forget situation? thanks.
thanks everyone for the input.
ran it off my ventoy stick that also has all my linux ISOs, really didn’t feel like creating an USB installer. install went OK, managed to get the local user going, no extraneous apps installed and killed off what I perceived to be unneeded junk. got the 3rd party apps sorted, everything looks fine.
on a side note - holy cow what a bloated and inefficient mess this is. and with the fucking updates, a neverending torrent of updates and drivers for this and that, it took like 4 hours from start to finish with like a million restarts inbetween… I can’t imagine having to use this thing daily.
the new owner is in my thoughts and prayers, hopefully it’s another five years before I have to regedit this and that. thanks everyone all around!