I might start a project to teach a couple of non-tech people how to work with computers at some point. I’d love to hook them up with Linux and libre/open office but the pragmatical reality is that they’re gonna need the Windows know-how for employment reasons at least at first.
Problem with that is that Windows is expensive (only in hardware. who buys Microsoft software?). They’re bloated and require progressively more advanced hardware to do the same thing they’ve done in the 90s. I’m trying to come up with ways to reduce costs to work with minimal hardware but my experience on that is only on the Linux front.
Does anybody have any experience with something like that, for example running some cracked Windows 7/XP, that could help?
You can run Windows 10 for free. All not having a key does is force watermark in the lower right corner that tells you to activate windows. You also can’t change desktop background or colors or any theming stuff.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone run under Windows 10 on a network connected machine because of vulnerabilities.
That said you can activate any version of Windows you’d like for free too: https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/wiki/megathread/tools
Use the tool at top and find download links to untouched isos of Windows below.
There’s the LTSB version which is slightly lighter because of less bloatware, there are more versions like IoT but I’ve got no clue how usable that is. With XP there was also a light version aimed at thin clients but I don’t think something like that still exists.
if it’s a relatively short project, you can renew a Windows 7 “trial license” for at least four months (indefinitely if you reinstall, or possibly by some registry edits)
That sounds doable but wouldn’t I run into security issues due to lack of updates? I have no issue with cracking a Windows install for educational purposes, but I wouldn’t want to accidentally brick the hardware due to yet another leaked NSA backdoor becoming a worm.
I wouldn’t trust any version of Windows not to have backdoors, but it depends on what you want to do. If you’re installing it on their computers and they’ll be using it at home, Windows 7 is probably not the best choice. Actually, Windows 7 might not be a good idea if they’re going to be using Windows 10/11 at work since the UI changed quite a bit
I just remembered that you can use Windows 10 without a license (with some options disabled) and still download updates. You could also try something like Windows 10 AME, which disables Windows Update (I think) but fixes a lot of issues (apparently you can use it after installing Windows 10/11, although I haven’t tried it yet); it seems like there’s also a new variant called ReviOS which is intended for older systems
It doesn’t get security fixes if updates are disabled. Quite frankly it is irresponsible to give non-tech-literate people patched OS’s like that which are inevitably in only a matter of time going to be exposed to zero-day exploits.
Frankly if you can’t give them Linux. Give them something that will continue to receive patches and support for years to come. Install Windows 11 pro with MAS and forget about it. If you can’t do that without fiddling with privacy settings then install and run something like O&O shutup10 (or maybe it’s 11 now) or W10privacy and run the green privacy setting baselines to disable as much data collection as you can (avoid yellow or red so you don’t risk breaking things they can’t fix years down the line).
Worrying about NSA backdoors for random people and compromising their security to random hackers and botnets (and guess what, the NSA because if you’re not patched for the little fishes they’ll happily use that if they’re targeting you but you have bigger issues then) is the height of ridiculousness. Like get that fucking idea out of your head right now. Unless these people are elderly members of a revolutionary communist party (in which case teach them Linux) there is no reason to worry about this stuff. Yes they might have their data collected by Microsoft but you know what Microsoft won’t do? Steal their login credentials for their bank or credit cards and leave them lacking enough money to make rent or get groceries which is what could happen very easily if they’re running unpatched systems in 6 months, 12 months, 3 years.
My issue is not with privacy from Microsoft/NSA and I don’t really care about data collection in this case as it’s only for teaching how to use basic stuff like browsers and MS office.
It is two separate issues, Windows 11 is so horribly resource intensive that the hardware I’ll have access to will probably not run it properly, but running old but lightweight versions will put that same hardware at risk from worms and other annoying exploits that Microsoft leaves either intentionally or through sheer incompetence. I’d rather avoid the nuisance of dealing with some WannaCry interrupting my work.
Well you can use something like W10privacy to gut a lot of stuff out of Windows on Pro versions and above (Enterprise/Edu). You can disable lots of unnecessary services and features when you really dig in. Uninstall Cortana, various things like that.
There’s also Windows LTSC which is a special version of enterprise that’s stripped down and made for low power devices like embedded. You could use that. MAS supports it too.
But really if you’re dealing with very low resource devices it might be Linux or nothing.
Also as far as I know w10-11 are more efficient than win8. At least 10 can be. It shouldn’t be noticeably worse than Win7 after you make necessary privacy changes and uninstall system app crap.
I’m vaguely aware of stripped down versions of Windows made by fans over the years. I think the most recent being Windows 10 Lite. Maybe do some research into one of those?
That looks pretty cool, I will definitely check it out. Don’t think I’ll be running into any surviving 32bit hardware so it might be just what I need.
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W10 22H2 will have security updates till Oct. 14, 2025.
Check the TeamOS forum
This looks good to me
