Solved New to Win11 - Seeking general feedback

glasskuter said:

Or you can use the same install media you used before, paying special attention to step 15 in this tutorial. Clean Install Windows 11

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I had seen videos on youtube stating MS had closed some of the loopholes allowing a local account. Does this step for a local account still work? Just want to confirm before starting.

It worked 2 weeks ago.

glasskuter said:

It worked 2 weeks ago.

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I will give it a try this weekend. Thank you!

These options still work

Update - I did the clean install with a local account based on the tutorial. It went smoothly. I did not expect such a difference in appearance and performance between a MS Account and Local Account. The system immediately felt "snappier". It is a noticeable improvement.

Only one thing has cropped up that I did not have at all with the MS Account install, my secondary drive. In preparation for the build I had downloaded all the programs I needed to reinstall and saved them on my secondary drive. It may not be related, but when I did the install with a MS account Windows immediately recognized the secondary drive and I had no issues installing all the programs. However, after reinstalling using a local account I keep getting messages like these. Admittedly I am not good with drive sharing and ownership privileges. Does anyone have a pointer?

Go to This PC. Is the D: drive listed?
If it has changed drive letters, press the Windows key +X and choose Disk Management.
In the lower pane, is the D: drive showing? If it is a different drive letter right click it and choose Change Drive Letter or Paths and choose D: or whatever drive letter you want.

I would bow to anyone with more experience than myself, however, when this happens to me, which it does on occasions, I right click on the folder that is concerned and select "Take ownership" which solves the problem. See Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10

QuicktellPro said:

I would bow to anyone with more experience than myself, however, when this happens to me, which it does on occasions, I right click on the folder that is concerned and select "Take ownership" which solves the problem. See Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10

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My thoughts exactly, but that did not work for me .

Is your local user an administrator or standard user? Your screenshot suggest a standard user with insufficient access rights. If it is an administrator you should see "Access Denied" when you try to open the folder in File Explorer, but also something similar to "get access rights and proceed?". You reply Yes, wait several seconds and the folder opens. Unless the folder you are trying to access is not a real folder but a symbolic link, such as "C:\Documents and Settings" in Windows 7 and higher. This is a symbolic link to "C:\Users\username" and cannot be opened directly.

spapakons said:

Is your local user an administrator or standard user? Your screenshot suggest a standard user with insufficient access rights. If it is an administrator you should see "Access Denied" when you try to open the folder in File Explorer, but also something similar to "get access rights and proceed?". You reply Yes, wait several seconds and the folder opens. Unless the folder you are trying to access is not a real folder but a symbolic link, such as "C:\Documents and Settings" in Windows 7 and higher. This is a symbolic link to "C:\Users\username" and cannot be opened directly.

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I assumed from this below that my account was properly setup as administrator. As I dig further into it I see now i can access some files in those folders and not others. I want to clean up permissions. Is there a safe way to take the entire drive and reset permissions so that I have full access and control?

Since the shortcuts refer to protected locations, before they work you need to gain full access to these locations. Open File Explorer and then open the parent folder (top folder). You should see a message that you have no access rights and if you want to get full access rights and open the folder. Reply Yes, wait a little for the folder to open. You should then have full access rights and the shortcuts work.

SJMaye said:

Update - I did the clean install with a local account based on the tutorial. It went smoothly. I did not expect such a difference in appearance and performance between a MS Account and Local Account. The system immediately felt "snappier". It is a noticeable improvement.

Only one thing has cropped up that I did not have at all with the MS Account install, my secondary drive. In preparation for the build I had downloaded all the programs I needed to reinstall and saved them on my secondary drive. It may not be related, but when I did the install with a MS account Windows immediately recognized the secondary drive and I had no issues installing all the programs. However, after reinstalling using a local account I keep getting messages like these. Admittedly I am not good with drive sharing and ownership privileges. Does anyone have a pointer?


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I will say you're having some odd issues with Win11. I have installed Win11 dozens of times always bypassing the requirement to use my MS account, using a Local acct only and never had an issue with secondary drives already within the system with previous data on them. After installation they are recognized and accessible right away.

If the second drive contains another Windows installation and you attempt to open the user folder (such as when trying to backup your data by connecting the disk to another computer), you see a message that you don't have access rights to that folder. You also see the option to gain full access rights and open the folder anyway. Just reply Yes, wait several seconds and then you will have full access rights. This is only done once. Similarly if the user has moved his user folders to a second drive. If he reinstalls Windows or connects the drive to another computer, he must gain full access rights the first time he tries to open the folder. If he tries to access the folder from any other application without gaining access rights, it will fail.

BamaInArk said:

I will say you're having some odd issues with Win11. I have installed Win11 dozens of times always bypassing the requirement to use my MS account, using a Local acct only and never had an issue with secondary drives already within the system with previous data on them. After installation they are recognized and accessible right away.

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Yeah. Pretty much the story of my life. I will say the installation with the local account went really smoothly. It may be my imagination, but the system actually feels more responsive.

I think I have a solution to my access issues. I failed to mention I back up my secondary data drive every night. I thought to check that backup drive files that had been giving me access problems. They seem to work fine off that drive. I am cloning that drive now.

The clone worked. All the files open like they should. I am not sure if those few files got corrupted or something.

Same steps for optimizing Windows 10 (and also - most tricks) - can also make a big difference on Windows 11. You just need some patience - but usually - it's enough to make this changes once and they stick. Even power settings (be it for higher performance or saving energy) - can be tweaked from same old power plan menu which is around for over a decade - just pres Win Key and type "Edit Power Plan" - and you can tweak your own power plan - based on needs.

SysMain service is still worth disabling - especially if you have SSD (a standard this days). Win Key - type Services and you'll find it on that list.

Yes, there's more added stuff compared to Windows 10 - but it's added "on top" of Windows 10... and top of Window 8.1/8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, etc. New and old menus pilled-up on top of each-other. Like renovating an old house - but keeping and still using an old pick-up player or a CRT TV in one room - while in next you have your OLED and accesing audio through bluetooth.

So hey, with a bit of patience - you open Settings and starting with System - you check every sub-category (on the right) - and disable ALL the stuff you dislike or simply don't need/use. At the same time - you can also tweak all kinds of settings - and customize it the way you want it. Might take over 30 minutes - to go through all those settings - maybe even a hour if you have to google some settings - to see what they're actually doing (and if you have some use for them or not) - but it's worth it. Also worth making a backup - after you do this - in case something goes wrong with Windows in the future (the usual). Just my 2 cents.

I am so used in Windows 11 that sometimes I search settings in Windows 10 or earlier because I don't remember where they are. Also before Windows XP we used the English version of Windows 95/98 because the Greek version was released much later and full of translation bugs. If any friends had the Greek version it took us enough time to find out the settings because they appear in different order, let alone we were not familiar with the Greek terms.

glasskuter said:

Or you can use the same install media you used before, paying special attention to step 15 in this tutorial. Clean Install Windows 11

Click to expand...

The clean install and a local account seems to have fixed all my performance issues. Thank you.

One question - I have my wife on an i7 chromebox that is currently running Win10. Considering its age. I doubt it has TPM. Is there a way to install win11 with a local account on this computer?

SJMaye said:

The clean install and a local account seems to have fixed all my performance issues. Thank you.

One question - I have my wife on an i7 chromebox that is currently running Win10. Considering its age. I doubt it has TPM. Is there a way to install win11 with a local account on this computer?

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if you burn the Windows 11 ISO to USB using Rufus it will be able to disable the checks that Windows uses for installation
and that includes TPM checks.

but then again i have never installed Windows on a chromebox.
best of luck, Steve

XxXxX said:

if you burn the Windows 11 ISO to USB using Rufus it will be able to disable the checks that Windows uses for installation
and that includes TPM checks.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way

rufus.ie

but then again i have never installed Windows on a chromebox.
best of luck, Steve

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I have used Rufus before. Can you explain how the checks are disabled? Are they doing this through the use of RUFUS? Is there a setting within RUFUS that allows this?