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Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

How do I make Windows 11 think I'm in the EU?

When you're at the point of tricking your operating system into thinking you're in a different country in order to make it function properly, it may be time to try a new OS. GNU/Linux has excellent compatibility with 95% of windows software through wine

That last 5% is killer, because it’s just enough to make rebooting into Windows a pain in the rear, and much of it is the type of software that refuses to run in VMs due to things like anticheat.

The games with kernel anticheat are exactly the user-hostile games you wouldn't want to play anyway. (PUBG, Valorant, Fortnite, etc.)

Normal, enjoyable games don't have kernel anticheat.

You're missing the point. These are all games you likely play because your peer group does.

Also, the experience on Wine/Proton isn't always the best. If you have high-end hardware, you probably want features that just don't work because of your GPU driver of implementation gaps in Wine/Proton.

"You're missing the point. These are all games you likely play because your peer group does."

No, I'm not missing the point. I'm not really big on activism or proving points or things like that - but this is something which is something you don't do if you have principles.

These games make people addicted because your friends play them. Learning to say "no" to these exploitative practices is a very useful thing. Make your friends play better games, or simply refuse to play their games.

(Full disclosure: I use windows myself, I'm not disagreeing with you on that regard about proton)

> The games with kernel anticheat are exactly the user-hostile games you wouldn't want to play anyway. (PUBG, Valorant, Fortnite, etc.)

Oh? Tell me more about me not wanting to play games that are fun and very widespread in my group of friends?

Bullshit as hell.

Cheaters are serious problem.

I used to run Debian, but gaming was always worse than Windows for me (new AMD graphics card, yes photon is great but it's not a replacement for me). My end users are all on Windows too, and I could never properly emulate their experience on Debian (short of _emulating_ Windows).

WSL2 works really well for my needs. I get the best of both worlds. I also hate all of the data collection and dark patterns.

Region settings, possibly: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/adjust-region-settings-on-w...

Probably a combination of different inputs, like timezone, regional, GPS (if computer supports that) and figuring out public IP. Knowing Microsoft, they'll try their hardest to avoid flagging a computer as within EEA if they possibly could.

I wonder how this works, if I buy a laptop in the EU as a EU citizen and travel to for example the US, I still expect them to adhere to the rules where I bought it.

I don't think that's how regulations apply in general. Usually they're scoped to the geographical location + your sovereign status, but not just your sovereign status.

For example, I don't think it's realistic to expect a US citizen traveling to a EU country having to follow US regulations and laws, nor the opposite.

So I'm not sure it would apply in this case either, but I'm not even sure what regulation/law made Microsoft add this change to the update in the first place. If we can figure that out, I guess we could figure out the real answer to your question without guessing.

hopefully the "inside EEA" flag will be stored somewhere in registry

Or better yet, a registry flag to enable browser choice.

That’s what the “default browser” setting is for. Microsoft just deliberately choses to ignore it in some parts of Windows, and instead hardcodes Edge.

When you're at the point of tricking your operating system into thinking you're in a different country to make it function properly, it may be time to try a new OS.

macOS has excellent compatibility with 95% of windows software through Parallels, and also respects your choice of browser.

I have Firefox, Chrome, Tor Browser and Brave running next to my current browser of preference, Safari. But switching back and forth is easy, and macOS respects my choice when I change the settings.

MacOS, run by Apple, the same company that mandates the Safari engine on iOS? The same company that fights tooth and nail against allowing non-“approved” apps to run on their devices?

Let’s not delude ourselves to thinking that two of the richest tech companies in the world are all that different. Both are working against your interests to monopolize their turf.

The group that truly puts users first is FOSS: Linux and BSD.

I was talking about a full OS, macOS. Not the sealed and sandboxed iOS that you are trying to shift the focus to.

Please, name me one, just one, software that I should want to run on macOS but can't?

> Let’s not delude ourselves to thinking that two of the richest tech companies in the world are all that different. Both are working against your interests to monopolize their turf.

I never said they were. All I was talking about is free choice of browsers, which I have on macOS.

Except you can't just try the new OS, you also have to spend thousands of dollars on "compatible" hardware.

Thousands? The OS is specifically tied to the hardware. You buy the hardware and the OS is free of charge. They don’t sell separate licenses.

Let's please stick to the facts.

> Thousands of dollars?

What is the price of a Mac Mini in your country? Here it reads $599.

Or a laptop, a MacBook Air, is $999.

A Mac Mini is not a laptop competitor.

The Macbook Air starts at €1349 ($1450) here

Many people still prefer the Windows UX over the macOS UX (and vice versa, of course). Which of the two is the lesser evil overall remains subjective.

You bypass a lot of Microsoft anti-user crap by setting your Windows during install to en-gb and then set your OS language to “English Worldwide” so presumably you could install Windows 11, set region to “English $SomeCountryStillInEU” and set your language to “English Worldwide”.

I can recommend https://github.com/rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect

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