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  Right-click requiring two clicks to get to the options you most likely want to use (e.g. 7z unzip or opening in a specific program)

This one you can still change. It is some hidden registry tweak, but there is the capacity to always "show more options".

Or hold [Shift] while right clicking

Microsoft's own "you're holding it wrong moment": "You're right clicking wrong"

Changing the registry is far too much of a hurdle.

Guess that depends on how much it angers you. Within minutes of seeing that, I jumped to the web to find a workaround, because that was way too annoying to accept.

That solution doesn't work in window's last remaining relevant market: enterprise. I run regedit on a work computer, and work is the only place I am forced to put up with Windows.

> And then there's little bugs everywhere that just grind away at you on a daily basis:

When I create a new folder or file in a directory in explorer it hangs for a bit and doesn’t show up unless I click refresh. Ditto if I save a file to a directory that is open in explorer.

Thinking about trying to get a copy of Win 10 IoT LTSC instead at this point.

Go here [0] to get the links to Windows 10 and Windows 11 LTSC.

Also, the script to activate it, go here [1] for that.

[0] - https://massgrave.dev/windows_ltsc_links

[1] - https://massgrave.dev/

I'm using Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC to write this and using Massgrave(l) it's activated to 2038 or something now. The only thing I wanted that LTSC didn't have out of the box was the Microsoft Store but you install that from PowerShell with the command "wsreset -i" and wait for 30s or so :)

You don't need IoT, just the normal LTSC (2027, and then security updates until 2032, iirc). And there are easy ways to swap to it, present on GitHub...

Main downside is other applications dropping support for 10, if relevant. I only swapped my main system due to Fusion 360 notifying me they were dropping 10 in January 2026.

The Win 10 IoT LTSC iso is on archive.org (from microsoft)

I'd love to know how many people are verifying checksums, and sourcing the checksums themselves from reputable sources. An event like this seems like a prime opportunity for someone to insert something extra into one of the components needed and a proportion of users will pick it up, whether the security cure is worse than the disease of an unsupported OS.

Just as an example of this everyone points out Massgrave for activation on a version of windows I doubt many are properly licensed for, and one of the methods used relies on periodically talking to KMS servers they provide including some on a Chinese TLD [0]. Personally I'd be charitable and say it's probably well intentioned using the cheap resources they can get (there's no mention of donations on the site), but I wonder how many are aware of what is involved and this is just something they rush through to get rid of the big scary warning that windows puts up and tech news hysteria.

[0] https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts/b...

I largely agree with your points, but in this context -

* A microsoft account is only needed for Windows 11 Home. A "semi-power user" is hopefully not using that edition of Windows...

* I'm also greatly annoyed by the right click - but holding shift when right-clicking opens the expected menu, removing the extra click requirement.

Some of my own annoyances though:

* The taskbar/windows button seems to just...crash...sometimes. It'll eventually restart, but extremely annoying. Left clicking taskbar icons still works, but right clicks or the start button don't work as expected.

* Additional clicks to change audio devices...drives me crazy on my main system.

* I like the autosaving aspect of notepad, but they've killed the main reason I used it - an instantaneous, lightweight text app. It's still quick, but is noticeably slower.

* Settings and Control Panel is still a mess, and even less usable than Windows 10 was.

> * A microsoft account is only needed for Windows 11 Home. A "semi-power user" is hopefully not using that edition of Windows...

Both Home and Pro require Microsoft account to install and start using. Then you can create local only users in both editions and delete user joined to Microsoft account. This is standard operation even in OEM installs.

Pro does not. We only use Pro and Enterprise, and Pro certainly does not actually require a Microsoft account (as of last week, anyways). The options given do make it appear to be required, but it is not.

Neither Home nor Pro really require a MS account. You can skip that during setup (for example with "bypassNRO"). This might change in the future, but as of 25H2 the workarounds still work.

bypassnro no longer works for Windows 11 Home, unfortunately. If you're using an ISO built prior to the change (a few weeks ago?), you'll be fine.

This is the ISO I used, which, according to the MS website[1], is still the latest right now: Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso (SHA256: D141F6030FED50F75E2B03E1EB2E53646C4B21E5386047CB860AF5223F102A32)

I installed it offline in a VM, Home edition, US region. Shift+F10, oobe\bypassnro worked (with a warning/error at some step, but the local account was created fine). I read somewhere that it doesn't work if you connect to the internet during setup (which is always a bad idea IMO).

[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Oh goodness yes. I was forced from Linux to W11 Pro for my new job. Use wsl2 they said, it'll be fine.

And wsl2 is mostly fine. But that doesn't stop the rest of the OS from being a dumpster fire. Why is it asking me to install or play Xbox games constantly? It feels like I have malware...

> Why is it asking me to install or play Xbox games constantly?

Because Microsoft got too large and some manager of Xbox pressured the Windows team to allow such notification to boost up their KPIs (games installed, game hours played).

Telemetry and KPIs are the single worst combination of bullshit that has happened to the entire IT industry.

     It feels like I have malware...

You do; it's called Windows.

I jumped ship over a decade ago and have been using Linux Mint as my daily driver; there hasn't been one day I've regretted it. Seeing the recent news about the constant full-screen Windows Backup/OneDrive popovers and needing a Microsoft Account just to install the OS (they recently killed the OOBE workaround) is just the stale icing on this dumpster fire of a cake.

Don't even get me started on all the AI crap in Edge.