lots of folks around these parts bitch about windows cause they don't know how to use it
microsoft literally gives you the policy templates to manage practically every setting in windows, including copilot
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/manage-windows-copilot
b e a r d
@skylar @mona @SuperSnekFriend and if you don't know how to do this stuff manually, you have wonderful tools like chris titus' winutil: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
i'd also recommend explorerpatcher for those on windows 11 who want to bring back windows 10 features: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
if you want to go even further, you can use the answer file method when installing windows, customizing it exactly how you want it to start as: https://github.com/memstechtips/UnattendedWinstall
a good windows install using these simple tools is a much better experience than linux is in my personal opinion. that isn't to say that linux is a bad experience if you know what you're doing and really like tinkering around with things, but at the end of the day i just like the way windows works more. it makes it easier for me to do everything that i need to do instead of fiddling with things as much. and as much as it sucks, most software either works better on windows or the commercial software is leagues better than the foss stuff. i still have yet to find a colorblind filter better than windows' for instance, and the one that someone made for me for linux just didn't work and neither of us could figure out why... which seems to be a trend when it comes to me and linux lol.
right now i'm running win11 and i don't even have notifications, the action center, copilot, cortana, bing search, any telemetry garbage, stripped out services, and more and it only took a little bit of work to setup. explorerpatcher was a godsend too, because i'm much more familiar with win10. win11 gets a little toooo modern with things, i think win10 is a really good sweet spot between looking nice and being functional.
that being said, i had to upgrade to windows 11 because my win10 install decided to shit itself. i had that happen with a mint installation though recently too so it's not like linux is free from random issues popping up like that either. don't know what happened to the windows one, but the mint one i think it's because something updated without another thing updating first and it destroyed it to the point i had to just do a fresh install.
@beardalaxy@gameliberty.club @skylar@misskey.yandere.love @SuperSnekFriend@poa.st also another QOL thing you can do for windows is startallback it is paid but its like 5 bucks there's a FOSS version i forget the name also https://github.com/files-community/Files for a new file manager makes it much more windows 11 like but cures so many issues with explorer
>Later in the thread
>You need pay actual money for this basic bitch program [every OS should be competent with]. There are so many issues with the native explorer. Like shit guys, why doesn't our lords and saviors Gate and Nadella fix this? I could have used some FOSS file manager, but I'm too busy shilling Microsoft for free to look that up.
@SuperSnekFriend @mona @skylar I would rather pay for quality and convenience in a lot of cases. When it gets exorbitant, like in the case of Adobe, then switching to free alternatives and accepting the downsides is sometimes necessary. However, I'm running an old 2015 version of photoshop and it still blows GIMP out of the water.
The default file manager in win 11 is fine, honestly. Just about as good as whatever mint uses, maybe a bit better. A lot of it will come down to taste and use cases. There are plenty of tools out there to get the job done though no matter what you use. It's just for me, I have an easier time working with windows and I'm able to cut out all/most of the shit I and others would criticize about it anyway.
paying for shit you want or is useful to you is ok. just because its free somewhere else doesn't mean jack shit because the "something else" comes with a baggage of shit