I fire up a Win10 VM for just this purpose. I pass-through the USB and the 8bitdo software is able to change settings just fine. I really wish there was a build of the software that ran on Linux.
I'm riding out windows 10 to the end of 2026 when security updates stop. My plan is to switch to the hopefully released Steam OS for desktop Linux. Already have amd cpu and GPU for Linux compatibility.
That's for my gaming desktop computer. I already run Linux Mint on my laptop. My desktop is pretty much just for gaming.
Dual boot CachyOS now, to get accustomed to it; it's more-or-less exactly what SteamOS will be. It's built on Arch, too. They ship a bunch of extra Proton stuff with the OS. There's even a "deckified" kernel option.
They’re official, so that’s the first place to look.
But in general, I guess it depends on what you already know and have. Do you have a laptop with a single disk? Or a desktop with more than one? Do you know anything about disk partitioning and such? Do you want to clean install Windows, or keep it as-is?
My solution to dual booting Windows today would be to generally follow the wiki guide, use refind as your bootloader, KDE as your desktop, read up on partitioning, and make a second EFI partition to install CachyOS onto.
To simplify, an EFI partition is the “thing that your motherboard uses to boot into your operating system,” so you just make two of them so they can’t touch each other.
This is less convenient; if something messes up, you might have to mash a function key on boot to switch between Windows/Linux. But it heads off several potential issues. Like Windows Update messing with EFI randomly so Linux won’t boot (which it rarely does), or your default Windows EFI partition being too small (which it probably is).
Meh. Like I said, it's pretty much just a gaming PC. I also have a steam deck, my laptop is running Mint, and like 15 years ago I ran Linux Ubuntu. It isn't that I need to get familiar. It's that I just don't want to mess around with swapping an OS again and again. All my games are running on windows and I play a couple games that aren't compatible on Linux every so often, so I'm not in a hurry to change.
What I did for many games is just leave them on a shared NTFS partition so I can play them on either Windows or Linux.
Or you can literally just mount your windows partition.
I sympathize, I still mostly use stripped Windows 11 for gaming (and Linux for other stuff). But we’re going to have to switch sooner or later, and it increasingly seems to be “sooner”
I know exactly when to switch (November 2026), how to do it, and what to do. I'm not going to screw with dual booting for no reason for only a year, won't use win 10 after it stops getting security updates, and won't go to windows 11. In November I'll switch to a Linux distro and be done with the setup within the day. Whatever distro at the time seems best suited for having as a gaming PC.
Yes, and it will work out great for me with Nexus mods behind using it as their Linux game testing machine. But I'm in no hurry to drop windows 10 from my current game PC before November. That's when I'll pick which distro I want to use. If the official steam OS isn't fleshed out by then, I'll likely go with Bazite.
Finally someone who agrees with me!
Windows itself is a virus that has spread too wide, but thankfully we got a cure that is slowely but surely starting to work
Yes, and it won't get better. There is no effective regulation against this kind of stuff. US big tech companies are basically (not theoretically/legally, but in practice) allowed to steal everything from their consumers what they want these days, just like AI companies violate copyrights on a massive scale.
In the EU, the US big tech companies already managed to pull off a regulatory capture of the Irish Data Protection agency, the one responsible for all US big tech companies operating in Europe, the one that is theoretically supposed to ensure data protection. Because that agency is being headed by a former Meta lobbyist. That means there will be effectively zero repercussion for US big tech breaking copyright, privacy, data protection or other such laws in the EU, despite the EU having some of the strongest data protection laws in theory. They will all be not mostly, but fully, ignored. There were never many repercussions before, and fines had symbolic character at best, but now they can all go completely unhinged, and on top of that the US will also add political pressure on countries which dare to hold US-based companies accountable under local laws. Since many EU countries and/or UK are essentially digital colonies of US tech companies I don't think there will be much resistance. There are tons of self-inflicted painful dependencies on the US dollar, on US-based credit cards, on US-based cloud providers, on US-based payment providers, ... for the EU, the US turning rogue is massively painful, but this outcome was already predictable decades ago, yet nothing was being done about it.
And so MS will absolutely enshittify Windows even more to harvest more and more data and feed their AI models, and there will be zero repercussion, except that Windows will continue to slowly decline and desktop Linux will continue to slowly climb up. It's just a matter of time. It's just sad that MS gets away with all that crap. The people who value data protection or privacy have already left the MS world long ago. The rest will simply get looted - all your personal and work life (including a lot of your customers' data) belongs to MS (and, by extension, to the US) if you continue to use their software and services.
I have to use Teams for work. Every time I upload a PowerPoint it's 30s of waiting before I can put it into presentation mode, and the error message if I hammer the button is " we're still loading your PowerPoint", and I can SEE it's already loaded. The event that marks when I can hit the button? Is when the search bar turns into a copilot prompt bar.
You also need to go through the settings with an electron microscope and turn off all the data collection stuff. The text prediction, dictionary, pen and tablet stuff, it all collects and sends data to MS. There's a bunch of services that you need to turn off as well- some of them you can't.
Optimally you would take a scalpel to the registry and group policy editor.
There's a bunch of super useful scripts you can find on github, too!
Edit: Oh shit how could I forget, remove all the microsoft bullshit rules in the firewall as well.
Before you make any changes, do a full system backup so that in case things start getting wonky, you can revert it. This often happens because a lot of the crap is deeply hooked into the system (guess why), so when you remove or disable stuff, sometimes you get some unpredictable or annoying behaviors.
It takes years to learn all the ins and outs of properly performing Windows debloating surgery, but the satisfaction is real, and worth it.
I would specifically add details about how Copilot is interfering with your work flow by causing the software to lag every time you paste something. Add some back of the envelope math showing how much time and money it’s costing them per day/week/month to have you let copilot lag your computer.
Honest answer? Uninstall and reinstall with modified install instructions to only install the last version pre-copilot integration and disable updates.
The other options are more like 'turn off this copilot button' not an actual disable.
I did this and annoyingly it just so happens the last pre-copilot version (i beleive) also has the old grey toobars & interface, rather than the white & colorful versions.
Maybe it's an O365 thing. I don't have any Copilot options in Word, checked instructions from various sources, nada. But it is slow to paste. Oh well, got the license free from work, not a subscription. Only use word for unserious shit like making a flea market sign.
Once again, a "Windows evil" post that I cannot replicate, don't have the invasive things I'm supposed to be seeing, no issue. I have a feeling I disabled a bunch of BS on the original install, which started on 10, same SSD in 3 PCs. Also, it's a vanilla ISO, that probably helps a lot.
77 Comments
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone · 198 pts · 239d
Every day I become more grateful my computer is ‘incompatible’ with Windows 11.
archonet@lemy.lol · 89 pts · 239d
Every day, I feel more vindicated in my choice to switch and wipe my windows partition even with compatible hardware.
TheLowestStone@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 239d
Same. The only thing that's mildly inconvenient is there seems to be no way to remap the buttons on my 8bitdo controller in Linux.
TunaLobster@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 239d
I fire up a Win10 VM for just this purpose. I pass-through the USB and the 8bitdo software is able to change settings just fine. I really wish there was a build of the software that ran on Linux.
Edit: Spoke too soon! I searched again and found this write up for getting it working with WINE. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems reasonable. https://gist.github.com/pocobio/3921e097d0f8fb36f34a3d90a61d5e84
Minnels@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 239d
Ooooh. Have to try this. If it works, windows goes bye bye. I never boot it anyway.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 17 pts · 239d
I'm riding out windows 10 to the end of 2026 when security updates stop. My plan is to switch to the hopefully released Steam OS for desktop Linux. Already have amd cpu and GPU for Linux compatibility.
That's for my gaming desktop computer. I already run Linux Mint on my laptop. My desktop is pretty much just for gaming.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 239d
Why wait?
Dual boot CachyOS now, to get accustomed to it; it's more-or-less exactly what SteamOS will be. It's built on Arch, too. They ship a bunch of extra Proton stuff with the OS. There's even a "deckified" kernel option.
tomiant@piefed.social · 8 pts · 239d
It's built on Arch, btw?
brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 239d
Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 239d
brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 239d
The wikis are very good: https://wiki.cachyos.org/installation/installation_prepare/
And more general info: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_page
They’re official, so that’s the first place to look.
But in general, I guess it depends on what you already know and have. Do you have a laptop with a single disk? Or a desktop with more than one? Do you know anything about disk partitioning and such? Do you want to clean install Windows, or keep it as-is?
My solution to dual booting Windows today would be to generally follow the wiki guide, use refind as your bootloader, KDE as your desktop, read up on partitioning, and make a second EFI partition to install CachyOS onto.
To simplify, an EFI partition is the “thing that your motherboard uses to boot into your operating system,” so you just make two of them so they can’t touch each other.
This is less convenient; if something messes up, you might have to mash a function key on boot to switch between Windows/Linux. But it heads off several potential issues. Like Windows Update messing with EFI randomly so Linux won’t boot (which it rarely does), or your default Windows EFI partition being too small (which it probably is).
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 239d
Meh. Like I said, it's pretty much just a gaming PC. I also have a steam deck, my laptop is running Mint, and like 15 years ago I ran Linux Ubuntu. It isn't that I need to get familiar. It's that I just don't want to mess around with swapping an OS again and again. All my games are running on windows and I play a couple games that aren't compatible on Linux every so often, so I'm not in a hurry to change.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 239d
What I did for many games is just leave them on a shared NTFS partition so I can play them on either Windows or Linux.
Or you can literally just mount your windows partition.
I sympathize, I still mostly use stripped Windows 11 for gaming (and Linux for other stuff). But we’re going to have to switch sooner or later, and it increasingly seems to be “sooner”
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · -1 pts · 239d
I know exactly when to switch (November 2026), how to do it, and what to do. I'm not going to screw with dual booting for no reason for only a year, won't use win 10 after it stops getting security updates, and won't go to windows 11. In November I'll switch to a Linux distro and be done with the setup within the day. Whatever distro at the time seems best suited for having as a gaming PC.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 239d
Trying to use Linux for gaming teaches you a lot, though.
You might start at least a month early so you can make a more educated switch before you literally cannot fall back to Windows.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · -1 pts · 239d
What part of I've already done this shit are you not getting? Lol
Sprinks@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 239d
I thought security updates stopped this last October?
rapchee@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 239d
there is an opt-in, free, extended update coverage until fall 2026, i think it was in the "updates and security" settings page
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 239d
Of course the security updates are opt in only, while all their bs is hidden opt out.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 239d
There was an opt in for security updates for an extra year (free).
hayvan@piefed.world · 3 pts · 237d
Bazzite is a generic SteamOS clone.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 237d
Yes, and it will work out great for me with Nexus mods behind using it as their Linux game testing machine. But I'm in no hurry to drop windows 10 from my current game PC before November. That's when I'll pick which distro I want to use. If the official steam OS isn't fleshed out by then, I'll likely go with Bazite.
krigo666@lemmy.world · 165 pts · 239d
Windows is malware.
gunny@lemmy.today · 24 pts · 239d
Finally someone who agrees with me! Windows itself is a virus that has spread too wide, but thankfully we got a cure that is slowely but surely starting to work
tomiant@piefed.social · 4 pts · 239d
I've said it for decades. It checks all the boxes for being classified as a virus.
AceTKen@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 239d
It self-propagates? Well that's new.
BlackVenom@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 239d
Windows 7 users found themselves on 10 somehow
AceTKen@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 238d
Updating to a new version isn't self-propagation though. Maybe if it randomly installed itself overtop of Linux or MacOS, they'd have a point.
It also doesn't modify other computer programs and maliciously insert its own code into those programs or require a host program.
So I guess maybe it doesn't have... Any features of a virus at all.
It just sucks.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
gunny@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 238d
The "YOU WILL UPGRADE! YOU WILL BE HAPPY! YOU WILL NOT COMPLAIN! they feed people is sad
kyub@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 239d
Yes, and it won't get better. There is no effective regulation against this kind of stuff. US big tech companies are basically (not theoretically/legally, but in practice) allowed to steal everything from their consumers what they want these days, just like AI companies violate copyrights on a massive scale.
In the EU, the US big tech companies already managed to pull off a regulatory capture of the Irish Data Protection agency, the one responsible for all US big tech companies operating in Europe, the one that is theoretically supposed to ensure data protection. Because that agency is being headed by a former Meta lobbyist. That means there will be effectively zero repercussion for US big tech breaking copyright, privacy, data protection or other such laws in the EU, despite the EU having some of the strongest data protection laws in theory. They will all be not mostly, but fully, ignored. There were never many repercussions before, and fines had symbolic character at best, but now they can all go completely unhinged, and on top of that the US will also add political pressure on countries which dare to hold US-based companies accountable under local laws. Since many EU countries and/or UK are essentially digital colonies of US tech companies I don't think there will be much resistance. There are tons of self-inflicted painful dependencies on the US dollar, on US-based credit cards, on US-based cloud providers, on US-based payment providers, ... for the EU, the US turning rogue is massively painful, but this outcome was already predictable decades ago, yet nothing was being done about it.
And so MS will absolutely enshittify Windows even more to harvest more and more data and feed their AI models, and there will be zero repercussion, except that Windows will continue to slowly decline and desktop Linux will continue to slowly climb up. It's just a matter of time. It's just sad that MS gets away with all that crap. The people who value data protection or privacy have already left the MS world long ago. The rest will simply get looted - all your personal and work life (including a lot of your customers' data) belongs to MS (and, by extension, to the US) if you continue to use their software and services.
tomiant@piefed.social · 3 pts · 239d
Always was.
mycodesucks@lemmy.world · 125 pts · 239d
I have to use Teams for work. Every time I upload a PowerPoint it's 30s of waiting before I can put it into presentation mode, and the error message if I hammer the button is " we're still loading your PowerPoint", and I can SEE it's already loaded. The event that marks when I can hit the button? Is when the search bar turns into a copilot prompt bar.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world · -135 pts · 239d
User/IT error.
mycodesucks@lemmy.world · 78 pts · 239d
Don't you ever get sick of just being the eternal contrarian for absolutely no reason?
I'm not in the mood today, CallMeAnAI. Go troll somewhere else.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world · -101 pts · 239d
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 239d
AstaKask@lemmy.cafe · 90 pts · 239d
Microsoft is a criminal organisation. Their employees and shareholders should be shunned and shamed by the public.
kambusha@sh.itjust.works · 56 pts · 239d
Word
trainden@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 48 pts · 239d
PowerPoint
TwoTiredMice@feddit.dk · 33 pts · 239d
Trivago
bananasuit@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 239d
Eeeeeey macarena!
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz · 15 pts · 239d
Venusaur
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io · 12 pts · 239d
And my axe!
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 239d
And my Bunny Bracelet
snooggums@piefed.world · 7 pts · 239d
Excel
tomiant@piefed.social · 52 pts · 239d
You also need to go through the settings with an electron microscope and turn off all the data collection stuff. The text prediction, dictionary, pen and tablet stuff, it all collects and sends data to MS. There's a bunch of services that you need to turn off as well- some of them you can't.
Optimally you would take a scalpel to the registry and group policy editor.
There's a bunch of super useful scripts you can find on github, too!
Edit: Oh shit how could I forget, remove all the microsoft bullshit rules in the firewall as well.
knexcar@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 239d
Do those all degrade the speed of copy and paste as well?
tomiant@piefed.social · 22 pts · 239d
I have no clue, but it sure as fuck doesn't improve any performance metric.
aramis87@fedia.io · 1 pts · 234d
Is there a list somewhere of everything you should turn off?
tomiant@piefed.social · 2 pts · 234d
Here's a powershell script you can run that takes care of most problems: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
Make sure to read the whole readme before you run it! It works for Win10 too.
And here's a great tweaking tool from MajorGeeks.com, which can keep you occupied for a few hours:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/majorgeeks_registry_tweaks.html
Before you make any changes, do a full system backup so that in case things start getting wonky, you can revert it. This often happens because a lot of the crap is deeply hooked into the system (guess why), so when you remove or disable stuff, sometimes you get some unpredictable or annoying behaviors.
It takes years to learn all the ins and outs of properly performing Windows debloating surgery, but the satisfaction is real, and worth it.
Happy slicing! :)
aramis87@fedia.io · 2 pts · 234d
Thank you so much!
tomiant@piefed.social · 2 pts · 233d
My pleasure! <3
red_tomato@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 239d
Microsoft is run entirely by incompetent idiots.
Junkers_Klunker@feddit.dk · 31 pts · 239d
No, it’s the exact opposite but their end goal is something entirely different than most want them to.
TipsyMcGee@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 239d
Junkers_Klunker@feddit.dk · 12 pts · 239d
Microsoft isn’t run by incompetent idiots, it is run by people with a malicious agenda.
tomiant@piefed.social · 7 pts · 239d
The purpose is to make a fuckton of money. They do that. Ergo, they are supremely competent. At making money.
OS and software? Not so much. But that isn't important.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 239d
They used to be good at making money. Now they're mostly good at throwing away what they've made chasing next quarter bumps.
TotalCourage007@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 239d
Couldn't happen to a better company. I hope SteamOS destroys these dumbfucks when it gets fully released.
ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 239d
How does one disable copilot in Word? The things I've thought of don't seem to work or it wouldn't let me do.
knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de · 58 pts · 239d
Installing Libreoffice should work
FinalRemix@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 239d
Work computer. Not allowed.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 239d
Open a request ticket. You never know until you ask.
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 239d
I would specifically add details about how Copilot is interfering with your work flow by causing the software to lag every time you paste something. Add some back of the envelope math showing how much time and money it’s costing them per day/week/month to have you let copilot lag your computer.
FinalRemix@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 239d
They won't even let us have Firefox.
bhamlin@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 239d
Then it's work's problem. Don't use it for personal things (which, really, you shouldn't do anyway for basically the same reason).
FinalRemix@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 239d
True. I keep that shit on-campus and don't cross-contaminate.
Also pretty funny when coworkers are annoyed by work emails showing up on their phones and I'm just like "give me a work phone, then."
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 239d
PortableApps. Scoop.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 239d
Switch workplaces
/s but honestly do it if you can
JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone · 31 pts · 239d
Honest answer? Uninstall and reinstall with modified install instructions to only install the last version pre-copilot integration and disable updates.
The other options are more like 'turn off this copilot button' not an actual disable.
ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 239d
Thanks! I wondered if it would be something like this.
JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 237d
I did this and annoyingly it just so happens the last pre-copilot version (i beleive) also has the old grey toobars & interface, rather than the white & colorful versions.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 26 pts · 239d
I'm quite sure they still upload it, but they don't wait for it to process (and give you hints and tips or whatever).
DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 239d
If you use Wireshark you can see what is going on.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 239d
TLS encrypted traffic
bhamlin@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 239d
To be fair, you can see TLS traffic. It isn't invisible, just opaque.
A stream suddenly as soon as you paste that goes off to Akamai is certainly suspicious, and probably related.
DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 239d
You can use Charles Proxy with their certificate on windows
BlackVenom@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 239d
Netsh trace
Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 239d
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 239d
Soon we will need a program to make settings in our program.
A "Windows Manager Manager"
gunny@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 239d
Neovim meanwhile insert Street Fighter Kai music
shalafi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 239d
Maybe it's an O365 thing. I don't have any Copilot options in Word, checked instructions from various sources, nada. But it is slow to paste. Oh well, got the license free from work, not a subscription. Only use word for unserious shit like making a flea market sign.
Once again, a "Windows evil" post that I cannot replicate, don't have the invasive things I'm supposed to be seeing, no issue. I have a feeling I disabled a bunch of BS on the original install, which started on 10, same SSD in 3 PCs. Also, it's a vanilla ISO, that probably helps a lot.