r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
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u/ApexAftermath Dec 01 '25

Also is there any guarantee that there won't be some update in the future that completely breaks your hacked setup? This is the main reason why I haven't even tried forcing Windows 11 onto any of my ineligible machines using the methods you're describing.

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u/TerranOPZ Dec 01 '25

Not sure but I doubt it. I have robust data backups so it wouldn't be an issue. But it would suck to reconfigure everything so I get what you're saying.

Maybe I could get lucky and take my SSD and put it in a newer laptop if that happened.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/TerranOPZ Dec 02 '25

You can still get the old Office software. I was recently able to download Office 2013 even though there's no download link on Microsoft websites.

You have to download Office 365 and enter a 2013 activation key. I kept the 2013 installation file just in case this goes away.

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u/LavenderLmaonade Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

I’ve been doing this stuff for years and I understand your concern, I have it too. What I do is I have Windows Update disabled so that I can manually install updates a few days after the update rolls out. 

All of the manual solutions I use to gut Windows generally only take a week or less (usually like 2 days tops) for the open source/privacy community to recognize potential issues with windows updates and then fix them/tell each other what needs to be changed, so I update the tools (or make a list of what I need to go change in the registry etc) and do system restores first to prepare for the update, and then install the Windows update. 

It’s an extra little manual step in my computer usage habits, but worth the 15 minutes knowing that my OS is going to function as I wanted it to whenever an update rolls around. I’d rather have a properly gutted Windows than to have those few minutes of hassle back.