Never-ending nightmare for Windows 11 newbie, please help.

This is a long read and I truly apologize for it, however, I'm hoping detailed background information will help everyone understand where I've been and where I am today so that I can put my immediate miseries with Windows 11 to rest.

I purchased this CTO Envy laptop directly from HP in December 2021; however, I didn't unbox it and set it up until August 2023. The process was amazingly easy with nary a snafu of any type at all... wholly unlike my Windows 8 experience! Prior to reaching my desktop, all I knew about Windows 11 was that the Start button had been moved to the center of the taskbar, so I was expecting that. However, I was stunned by the changes in the Context menus, and I had a very hard time finding most of the settings I needed because nearly all of them had been moved from the Control Panel. I dived deeply into investigating tweaker programs to modify Windows 11 to resemble Windows 10. In the end, because tweakers seemed to frequently break after a Windows Update, I decided to simply adjust to Windows 11 in anticipation that Windows 12 would be similar whenever it was released. (It simply seemed best to not try to forestall the inevitable.) Having realized the learning curve was going to be greater for me than I had anticipated, I shut the HP laptop down and returned to my old Toshiba laptop to finish preparing my personal files for transfer to the new laptop.

My old (2014) laptop was an i3 with only 6GB of RAM. It made the transition from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 until update 1909(?). At that point, updating failed. I had tons of personal files on it. Because I didn't have an easy way of moving the files back then, I researched how to terminate updates. In the end, I managed this through disabling several processes and putting the laptop on a nearly zero metered network. Therefore, present day, I jumped straight from using Windows 10 1809 to Windows 11 23H2.

In October 2023, I returned to the new (to me) HP laptop to customize it as best I could. I uninstalled about 12 apps, mainly trialware. Easy-peasy. I left the HP apps in place until I could investigate their usefulness in detail. I needed to immediately move about 60GB of files from my 4T external usb hard drive. Yikes, compared to my ancient, crippled Toshiba, the process was slow as molasses! I tried to research and understand the issue. I found lots of theories and potential fixes. It seemed that everything I read had users jumping through a multitude of hoops without a solid fix. One solution I did try was turning off indexing on both the laptop and my external hard drives. No joy! At this point, I began to wonder if some of my own settings were the issue or maybe newer drivers were needed. I took the laptop to a big box store for a critical BIOS update recommended by HP, a reinstall of Windows, and removal of trialware after the reinstall. Turnaround time: 4 days! Although I have a yearly support subscription to its support services, I have been looking for a viable replacement. Thus, I went to a local repair shop affiliated with the company that I have my phone support subscription with. I explained the work I needed, and the turnaround time was 1 day. I enrolled and left my laptop for servicing.

Upon getting the laptop back, I had to customize Edge and Chrome again. Yikes, both browsers were being managed by your organization! What organization?!? My research showed lots of users with this issue. I eventually found a non-hack for Edge that corrected its issue. However, all I could find for Chrome was a registry hack. During this time of poking around, I also discovered that parts of Windows 11 was being managed by your organization! With the most recommended and reliable method of fixing the issue being that of a reset, I was too embarrassed to go back to the support company because I thought I had done something wrong while switching the local account to my Microsoft account. Please note, I have never had a local account. I have always gone straight to a Microsoft account when setting up a new computer. Beyond this, I also discovered through snooping around my laptop's "innards" that the support company had used BloatyNosy to remove the trialware. To be honest, I was a bit irritated that the support company had used and left behind remnants of an app not native to my "factory" reinstall. Also, restarting my laptop used to be as smooth as silk. However, upon its return, restarting resulted in a momentary blinking/flashing during the transition to the Lock Screen. So, between my embarrassment, BloatyNosy, and the restart blinking issue, I decided to do a reinstall of Windows 11 myself using the HP Cloud Recovery, which I thought would get me back to OOBE.

Yikes, upon reaching my desktop and watching Windows 11 Update, I observed multiple driver DUPLICATES trying to install... as many as three in a couple of cases! After Windows 11 Update finally quit brawling with itself, I installed HP Support Assistant. HPSA had its own recommendations for drivers. I installed the five presented to me. Then I proceeded to uninstall the trialware. Yikes, again!!! What had been less than a dozen (mostly Microsoft) during my original OOBE, was now nearly thirty!!! Well, so much for trying to recapture the original OOBE! After getting over my shock and dismay, I proceeded to uninstall the trialware one at a time. Again, leaving the HP apps alone, including new ones that weren't part of my original OOBE. Some uninstallers were easily found in Settings, but some were found in the Control Panel. At the end, I NEVER found working uninstallers for several. I finally resorted to AdwCleaner. It found the HP apps, but not the trialware apps installed by HP. I tried MalwareBytes. It didn't find the HP trialware either. The offending apps used wizlink.exe. Using the uninstall option on these popped open the Control Panel, however, none of the apps were listed! Okay, so I humbled myself and went to BloatyNosy. Surprise!!! BloatyNosy is known to cause the issue of being managed by your organization... with no fix!!! I have no desire to go there again! I would rather have the trialware than the managed by your organization issue. Because of the driver brawl, the apps that couldn't be uninstalled, and the still present restart blinking, I reinstalled Windows 11 again without using HP Cloud Recovery.

Thank goodness, no driver brawls this time! However, for the first time I noticed that certain folders had "stored locally" beneath them, while others had "*****-personal" beneath them! When I looked at OneDrive, a few text files on my desktop were showing up in OneDrive. I thought no problem, I'll just delete them. Whoa, I watched as they disappeared from my laptop's desktop too. This just isn't going to work for me! I'm a scrapbooker and I am constantly moving files to and from my desktop to local folders and my external hard drives. I DON"T want OneDrive involved anywhere in the process!!! It is hard to remember now, but I think I turned OneDrive off and signed out of it. Then, I deleted the three default folders from OneDrive, leaving only the Personal Vault. I also remember deleting some type of shortcut from within the previously synced folders themselves. All of my folders were now showing "stored locally." However, when I returned to File Explorer, I had a plethora of folders, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel all showing up in Desktop... which is one level up from "Home" in the Location(?) box. However, NONE of this, except for the Recycle Bin, was actually visible on my laptop's desktop. I searched and searched everywhere for a default view of the Desktop location within File Explorer, but I couldn't find a thing... not even in videos. I thought I had broken the file structure in File Explorer, so I decided to do yet another reinstall.

By the way, before doing any of the reinstalls, I always deleted Edge's history, deselected everything syncing and signed out of Edge. I also deleted my synced settings stored in OneDrive via my Microsoft account and then signed out of it too.

Before doing this last reinstall, I searched high and low for a OneDrive workaround. The most solid solution seemed to be a local account. However, apparently Microsoft has made that hard to circumvent. In my mind's eye, I just needed that nice little option "store my files locally" that I could checkmark as I had done during my original OOBE. Therefore, I reinstalled from the Microsoft Cloud and planned on using the Shift and F10 command to turn the laptop off at a certain point during the reinstall for an OOBE. When I came to the specified screen, I hit Shift and F10 and the Command Prompt window popped up on cue! BUT my integrated keyboard wouldn't work! At that point, I just proceeded with the setup, including signing into my Microsoft account, and when I hit the Desktop, I immediately headed to the systray to stop OneDrive. However, by the time it showed up in my systray, it had already synced my folders to OneDrive! In desperation, I immediately opened a new text file on my desktop to begin constructing this message. I totally forgot about the automatic synced upload to OneDrive until the little green checkmark appeared on the text file's icon. I immediately went to OneDrive and deleted it, which deleted it from my laptop's desktop too. Then I emptied OneDrive's recycle bin; however, in OneDrive's systray menu, the text file is still present, and I can't find any way of deleting it. Beyond that, when I try to use OneDrive's settings to choose which folders I don't want to sync, OneDrive gives me an error message that they are in use. My best guess is that I need to actually sign out of OneDrive before unsyncing the folders. However, I have read that although signed out, that abomination called OneDrive will sometimes reactivate itself during a Windows Update. So here I am with new issues and my original slow transfer speeds to my external hard drives still present.

As you can tell, I'm not at all tech savvy and I desperately need instructions to guide me, and I also want to learn. I'm so very tired of being clueless!

In a nutshell, can anyone help me with:

1.) Getting Windows 11 set up WITHOUT OneDrive syncing... presumably a local account?
2.) Bypassing Microsoft's insistence of a Microsoft account during setup... presumably using fake@fake.com or Rufus?
3.) Converting my local account into a Microsoft account?
4.) Getting rid of ALL the bloatware and their remanents?
5.) Accomplishing #1-#4 without leaving me with a managed by your organization issue?
6.) Accomplishing #1-#5 without inadvertently invalidating my OEM Windows 11 license. I would very truly hate to have buy a retail license for this horrid OS!
7.) Fixing my slow transfer speeds between my laptop and my external hard drives? (Personally, I am beginning to suspect Microsoft of intentionally throttling transfer speeds to external hard drives as a means of forcing users to OneDrive.)

Additionally, please know that I read about using Rufus to circumvent the Microsoft account requirement during setup, however, I have never, ever made an ISO. And, although the Rufus directions on this site easily opens the Microsoft window to obtain the ISO, there is no specific guidance within the Rufus directions for what to do with the ISO once you have it... presumably saved on the desktop with OneDrive signed out of.

One last thought that is likely important: I have used the word REINSTALL throughout; however, the more proper word may be RESET. I have reset the laptop from Settings, with the remove everything option. I have used both the local and Cloud options. I have also used HP Cloud Recovery via a usb stick. I don't remember its specific options, but I would have selected remove everything.

Please tell me there is hope for me!

(By the way, in order to keep this message from being synced to OneDrive as I drafted it, I went to my unsynced Music folder and created the message from there to copy at its completion to this forum. Not a viable long-term solution, but it worked in this pinch. Bite me, OneDrive! lol)

If you have gotten this far, thank you bunches and bunches!!! I truly appreciate it!!!

Edited: Fixed incorrectly numbered list.

Win 11 from OEM has a lot of bloat-aware. I suggest you do a Win 11 23h2 clean install using Microsoft installation files.
After installation you can install some applications from HP

This is what I would do:
- Backup all Win 11 drivers to an external drive.
- Download a Win 11 23h2 iso file using MCT
- Create a Win 11 23h2 USB installation drive using the iso file from Microsoft.
- Boot from the Win 11 23h2 USB installation drive and do a clean install disconnected from the internet.
- It isn't clear for me if you want to use Microsoft account or a local account, regardless of Onedrive.
- As soon as you finish installation, disable Onedrive or Uninstall Onedrive
- You can change from local account to Microsoft and vice versa at any moment.
switch-to-local-account
switch-to-microsoft-account
- Open device manager and see if there is some missing drivers. If positive, point to the driver backup folder.
- You can tweak Win 11 so it looks like Win 10 or even Win 7
Please ask any question you want.

Megahertz said:

Win 11 from OEM has a lot of bloat-aware. I suggest you do a Win 11 23h2 clean install using Microsoft installation files.
After installation you can install some applications from HP

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. To add to what has already been posted, I agree a CLEAN install would resolve all your problems. Use this tutorial.. Make sure all partitions are deleted and windows is installed on unallocated space. (It's in the tutorial)
Create a local account. Read step 16 carefully, then go to step 21 as instructed. It's a lot easier since you have PRO.
Clean Install Windows 11 Tutorial

You have a 11th gen core cpu. More than likely it is using Intel Rapid Storage Controller and the OEM set it as Raid. Pay attention in step 11. You can either disable raid or install the Intel driver.

If you decide you want any of the HP apps to keep your drivers and bios updated, the app can be downloaded from the HP site.

After install you can prevent Windows Update from updating your drivers if you wish.
I suggest using option 1 here

Regarding slow transfer on your old computer. Transfer speed is affected by multiple things, mainly your usb speed. Usb 2.0 is much slower than usb 3.1. If either the usb port you use on your old device or the external drive you are transferring to is usb 2.0, transfer speed is 2.0.
If that be the case the MAX write you can get on usb 2.0 is 480 Mbps. Usually you will get less.
You say you have a lot of data. What do you consider a lot in gb? As long as you can see the copying process advancing, I say walk away and leave it alone. I know of nothing you can do to make it faster.

Once you get windows installed I suggest you take advantage of the vast amount of tutorials in the tutorial index. If something can be changed in Windows 11, you will find it there and it's searchable..

Megahertz said:

Win 11 from OEM has a lot of bloat-aware. I suggest you do a Win 11 23h2 clean install using Microsoft installation files.
After installation you can install some applications from HP

This is what I would do:
- Backup all Win 11 drivers to an external drive.
- Download a Win 11 23h2 iso file using MCT
- Create a Win 11 23h2 USB installation drive using the iso file from Microsoft.
- Boot from the Win 11 23h2 USB installation drive and do a clean install disconnected from the internet.
- It isn't clear for me if you want to use Microsoft account or a local account, regardless of Onedrive.
- As soon as you finish installation, disable Onedrive or Uninstall Onedrive
- You can change from local account to Microsoft and vice versa at any moment.
switch-to-local-account
switch-to-microsoft-account
- Open device manager and see if there is some missing drivers. If positive, point to the driver backup folder.
- You can tweak Win 11 so it looks like Win 10 or even Win 7
Please ask any question you want.

Click to expand...

@Megahertz, many, many thanks for both your response and your invite to ask more questions. I'm not familiar with forums, so hopefully, I'm replying in proper form.

After the Windows Update brawl with my drivers and my very next reinstall after that, I immediately backed up my drivers using an easy-peasy video tutorial. (Note: As a general rule, I prefer non-video tutorials, but I went with what I found at the moment.) Later, I found the tutorial on this site using a choice of four different methods. For learning purposes, I did them all! Each one contained the same number of files in each folder as my video backup except for the one using pnp-something. That method lacked a file in almost all of the driver folders. I discarded the pnp-something backup, but I saved all of the backups from the other methods along with a PDF of each method's instructions. I feel certain only a few of these are the same drivers from my original OOBE, but device manager hasn't thrown any fits about any of its new drivers, so I'm guessing all is good.

During one of my many resets, Win 11 23H2 was offered in WU. I haven't seen it offered there since. And using winver.msc verifies 22H2 on my laptop as I write this. Therefore, I would love to avoid the KB interim step and jump straight to 23H2 during my next reinstall/reset. However, as I understand it, 23H2 won't be available via MCT until at least tomorrow. Of course, waiting until then certainly isn't a deal breaker at this point.

For long term use, I prefer a Microsoft account. However, if bypassing the syncing issue with OneDrive can be accomplished by starting with a local account, then I am all in. Also, I prefer not to uninstall OneDrive, but I absolutely don't want either my files or folders ever syncing to it in any way whatsoever. Thus, if the only way around this is to uninstall OneDrive, then I'm all in here too.

My subsequent questions of concern are:

1.) If I reinstall using MCT, will my OEM license still be valid?

2.) In the old days, using any reinstall method outside of the now defunct HP recovery partition would cause a computer not to be recognized by HP ever again. Thereby, effectively, locking a user out of any new driver updates. Primarily for this reason, I have stayed within the reset options from Settings. Will my laptop still be recognized by HP if I use the MCT?

3.) Bypassing the Internet during reinstallation will result in a local account. Again, I have no issue with this as a solid starting point. I will check out your link for switching to a Microsoft account from a local account to see if I did something wrong the first time around when I got the managed by your organization issue. However, I strongly suspect that issue was caused by BloatyNosy.

4.) Without thoroughly reviewing the tutorials you have kindly pointed me to, I am concerned if I have to go into the BIOS to change my boot order. The BIOS feels like a dark and mysterious place... much like the registry... that I should probably avoid unless I have absolute breadcrumbs to undo anything I do. lol

Thank you very much for your time and suggestions!

JDHinAL said:

1.) If I reinstall using MCT, will my OEM license still be valid?

Click to expand...

Yes. I did it a week ago on an HP Laptop 15. Beginning with Win8 the activation is done with a Digital License, something built into the motherboard on OEM computers.

glasskuter said:

Welcome to the forum. To add to what has already been posted, I agree a CLEAN install would resolve all your problems. Use this tutorial.. Make sure all partitions are deleted and windows is installed on unallocated space. (It's in the tutorial)
Create a local account. Read step 16 carefully, then go to step 21 as instructed. It's a lot easier since you have PRO.
Clean Install Windows 11 Tutorial

You have a 11th gen core cpu. More than likely it is using Intel Rapid Storage Controller and the OEM set it as Raid. Pay attention in step 11. You can either disable raid or install the Intel driver.

If you decide you want any of the HP apps to keep your drivers and bios updated, the app can be downloaded from the HP site.

After install you can prevent Windows Update from updating your drivers if you wish.
I suggest using option 1 here

Enable or Disable Include Drivers with Windows Updates in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable including drivers with Windows Updates in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows Update will include drivers when available in Windows 11 by default. You can enable the Do not include drivers with Windows Updates policy to not include drivers...

www.elevenforum.com

Regarding slow transfer on your old computer. Transfer speed is affected by multiple things, mainly your usb speed. Usb 2.0 is much slower than usb 3.1. If either the usb port you use on your old device or the external drive you are transferring to is usb 2.0, transfer speed is 2.0.
If that be the case the MAX write you can get on usb 2.0 is 480 Mbps. Usually you will get less.
You say you have a lot of data. What do you consider a lot in gb? As long as you can see the copying process advancing, I say walk away and leave it alone. I know of nothing you can do to make it faster.

Once you get windows installed I suggest you take advantage of the vast amount of tutorials in the tutorial index. If something can be changed in Windows 11, you will find it there and it's searchable..

Tutorial Index

Index of Windows 11 Tutorials.

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

@glasskuter

Thank you for the welcome. During my many visits to this forum, I have paid particular attention to your comments because they generally seem cautious... a bit like me. And, candidly speaking, I was inspired when I saw a comment referencing your age range... not so many years more than my own age.

However, in regard to the wiping of my hard drive and changing the CPU controller as set by HP, this is entirely out of my comfort zone. I did that on another laptop umpteen years ago, but I'm just not up for it this time around. Please remember, although my specs are old by today's standards, this laptop is still brand-spanking new to me. Even HPSA thinks my warranty is in effect until 2024 because I didn't unbox it and set it up until August of this year. (Of course, if push came to shove, HP wouldn't accept late unboxing and setting up as a valid warranty end date... most especially with a receipt dated from December 2021. lol)

Regarding the transfer speeds, my Toshiba had two USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port. If I remember correctly, this HP has two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port. I believe my portable hard drives are USB 3.0. I NEVER had any trouble moving files from my Toshiba laptop to either of my portable hard drives, nor did I have trouble moving files from one portable hard drive to the other. However, it has been a nightmare on this HP laptop. I never actually timed how long it took me to transfer 1GB using my Toshiba, but I'm guessing absolutely no more than a couple of minutes... tops. Because I was constantly moving files on my Toshiba, even as recently as the day before I moved files on my HP, I immediately noticed the slowdown. The slowdown is sooo dramatic that it can't be missed! So, like other users have reported, this seems to be a Windows 11 issue because updating drivers and/or changing the BIOS USB settings doesn't improve the issue. Moreover, I currently have a new WD 16T external hard drive (8T per drive) and a new WD 8T external hard drive (4T per drive) that I intend to set up on a network to replace my three portable hard drives. So, of course, I am concerned about speed.

In response to your question, I have one 2T portable hard drive with approximately 1T on it. A second 2T portable hard drive with approximately 1.75T on it. And a third 5T portable hard drive with approximately 1T on it. Once better sorted, the files from the two 2T portable hard drives will be transferred to the 16T WD with its second drive acting as a backup. And the files from the 5TB portable hard drive will be transferred to the 8T WD external hard drive with its second drive acting as a backup.

I have referred to a great many of the tutorials here. I also read any user comments made following them.

Many sincere thanks for your input!

From your specs, you will likely need the irst drivers in boot.wim

I have them in a zip but it might be a bit too large to upload here at 5.58mb.

here you go at onedrive

HP-winpe-18.36.2-plus-19.50.0.zip

from HP:
WinPE 10/11
EFFECTIVE DATE: November 6, 2023
RST 18.36.2.1023
RSTVMD 19.5.0.1037

you could preintegrate them into the wim or use the f6 load method.

Berton said:

Yes. I did it a week ago on an HP Laptop 15. Beginning with Win8 the activation is done with a Digital License, something built into the motherboard on OEM computers.

Click to expand...

@Berton

Thank you very much for sharing your first-hand experience. That is very reassuring to me! Times have changed since my last laptop setup (Windows 8.1). I am far behind and trying hard to catch up, whilst also trying hard not to make any irreversible errors. Again, many thanks!

Also when installing Win11 select English (world) to avoid a lot of bloatware.
To start with a local account just enter a fake username and fake password when prompted for Microsoft account credentials

THAT is a ton of data. Rather than trying to copy or move your files, have you considered imaging partitions from each drive and restoring the images to the 16TB drive. Once folders/files are on the destination drive, no matter what partition they are on, you can move and organize them where you want quickly and easily. It would be easy enough to do so long as the file system is the same and waaay faster than trying to copy the data.
There are many backup programs, some free, some paid. Some can 'do more' than others and we each have our favorite which causes contention when it is discussed here. But even if one pays for backup software, I promise you it's worth every penny.

.

Interestingly, Dell are using
RST 18.7.1.1003
RSTVMD 19.5.1.1040

HP are using
RST 18.36.2.1023
RSTVMD 19.5.0.1037

bfunke said:

Also when installing Win11 select English (world) to avoid a lot of bloatware.
To start with a local account just enter a fake username and fake password when prompted for Microsoft account credentials

Click to expand...

@bfunke

Many thanks for your input. Every bit helps in one way or another. I have seen this referenced in a lot of tutorials, however, I have never seen this option available during any of my resets. It automatically defaults to the US. Scrolling through the list below the default only shows available countries to select from. Maybe using MCT will have English (world) available? As far as the local account, I've seen Brink's recommendation of using fake@fake.com with what appears to be a single letter password. In order to bypass OneDrive, this seems like the best viable option to me at this point. Again, many thanks!

Disconect from the internet. It gets to screen that says ( in quite small blue letters ) at bottom " I dont have internet" . Click that. Then select "continue with limited setup" and you end up with a local account.

I just had those options using the latest iso downloaded from ms. I did it very recently (on Sunday) after the merry dance with an upgrade install attempt. Applied the image and booted into it with no internet connection. Pro edition 23h2

@JDHinAL Welcome to ElevenForum.

glasskuter said:

THAT is a ton of data. Rather than trying to copy or move your files, have you considered imaging partitions from each drive and restoring the images to the 16TB drive. Once folders/files are on the destination drive, no matter what partition they are on, you can move and organize them where you want quickly and easily. It would be easy enough to do so long as the file system is the same and waaay faster than trying to copy the data.
There are many backup programs, some free, some paid. Some can 'do more' than others and we each have our favorite which causes contention when it is discussed here. But even if one pays for backup software, I promise you it's worth every penny.

Poll on Backup software

A poll to see which imaging programs people use. You can select up to three options (eg some people use more than one program or use a regular imaging program plus a cloud based one).

www.elevenforum.com

.

Click to expand...

@glasskuter

Many thanks for your additional input regarding the WDs. If I ever get to that point, it is certainly something to consider... and, quite honestly, something that I had zero concept of! I have been in a very happy place whilst using my portable hard drives with my Toshiba laptop. I never encountered any issues, however, as I amassed more cost in my graphics stash, I began to worry about the possibility of a portable hard drive failure, so I purchased the two WDs, each with their own backup drive and plenty of room for the addition of new files.

I thoroughly perused the thread regarding Macrium Reflect. I managed to download and save the latest free version of it. (I think it was 8.0.7690.) However, I have no idea how to use it. And researching its use has only resulted in a multitude of obviously dated tutorials and videos. From the massive discussion here, I know the free version will cease having updates come January. However, the new trial version, seems to offer forever restores for now. And, until I actually use the software, I can't determine if a monthly subscription is the best path for me to take. Years ago, I had Acronis. I backed up each step of my Toshiba setup and software installs, but I never had to use Acronis for a restore before Win 8.1 updated to Win 10. So other than the Win 8.1 backups I created with it, I have no working knowledge of Acronis. And, honestly, this many years later, I don't even remember a thing about the process.

Perhaps it is my senior age, but most techy things overwhelm me these days. For instance, I bought a new M650 Logitech mouse a couple of weeks ago. It easily connected to my Bluetooth, then it popped up a window for software installation. Awesome! However, suddenly the software installation started showing a mouse of a different model than mine. (Possibly it was the mouse you dislike so much.) I nearly cancelled the installation because I thought it was installing the wrong software, but suddenly my mouse appeared, and then a keyboard too! Eventually, the scrolling pictures settled on my mouse and I could customize its side buttons. After completing the process, I read that the software was BETA. lol

I can't remember if you use Macrium Reflect, but if you do, I would love any pointers you have regarding its use. Thanks again!

Again, many sincere thanks!

JDHinAL said:

I can't remember if you use Macrium Reflect, but if you do, I would love any pointers you have regarding its use.

Click to expand...

If you go with Macrium Reflect, I would do the one time, lifetime price.

SIW2 said:

Disconect from the internet. It gets to screen that says ( in quite small blue letters ) at bottom " I dont have internet" . Click that. Then select "continue with limited setup" and you end up with a local account.

I just had those options using the latest iso downloaded from ms. I did it very recently (on Sunday) after the merry dance with an upgrade install attempt. Applied the image and booted into it with no internet connection. Pro edition 23h2

Click to expand...

Thank you for your recent responses. Your first two responses are a bit way over my head! I remember reading about it somewhere or another, but I don't relate to it in any way whatsoever and I would need very detailed directions to pull it off.

I understand this message. lol And, if I recall correctly, Brink's tutorial states when to select the option "I don't have Internet." I will reread the tutorial and most likely proceed from there tomorrow. Many thanks for the confirmation that it still works. In light of all of my recent mishaps, I desperately need a success somewhere!

Many sincere thanks for your input!

Ghot said:

Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite - GUIDES

How to use backup software... 1. When everything is working perfectly... make a full Windows backup. 2. Then, if something breaks... restore from the latest backup. 3. Then... try "whatever you were doing" a different way. If it still breaks Windows, then... go to step #2. 4. Repeat...

www.elevenforum.com

If you go with Macrium Reflect, I would do the one time, lifetime price.

Click to expand...

@Ghot

Wow! I missed seeing these at all! Thank you sooo very much for the direct link!

Even before seriously considering Macrium Reflect, I read the thread about the retirement of the free version and the various opinions regarding the subscription versus the one-time payment. I also took special notice of just how quickly Reflect acted in response to Microsoft's BlackLotus fix.

For the informal record, like many other forum members, I am hoping Microsoft pushes the fix via WU without any real interaction on my part. At this point, I can't even begin to imagine all of the damage I could do with the current convoluted fix! LOL

Again, many very sincere thanks for your help!

I just reinstalled Windows 11 on my laptop last Saturday. There is no need to disconnect from the Internet to start with a local account. I used a rather simple trick. When it said to log in with your Microsoft account I used the following:
Username: username
Password: password

When I clicked next it said "Oops, something went wrong". The setup then asked me to create a local account.

Even though the default location for the Start button is in the center it is easy to move it to the left like you are used to. In the settings just change the Taskbar alignment from Center to Left.

Note to get to these settings right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings. Then scroll down to Taskbar behaviors.