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Without even getting into Recall, every time I install Windows 11 (not even a consumer edition) it takes a solid 10 minutes of clicking multiple times on hard t

Without even getting into Recall, every time I install Windows 11 (not even a consumer edition) it takes a solid 10 minutes of clicking multiple times on hard to find options to disable the pre-AI spyware that merely monitored what you did for advertising purposes. And I know exactly where to click because I have to do it a lot. I run a lab with public computers for students to use in their projects. It is unhelpful to train a public computer with student data, even if it were ethical (it is not). Again, not going to get into the issues with Recall on public PCs... but you can use your imagination when students check their email on a public Windows computer. I set up dozens of computers in this lab each year from scratch, it actually hurts my mouse hand to have to click so many times in order to keep students' information private. Windows 11 has ~10x as many individual dialogs I have to click on than even Windows 10, and now I have to figure out how to disable even more unsafe stuff, or guess when they will silently re-enable something I previously disabled. The number of times OneDrive has reinstalled itself after a Windows Update is nauseating. And that's a fancy Enterprise edition for a university that had the leverage to get the worst stuff removed, I am sure I was able to add/remove programs to remove a lot of things that are just impossible to disable on a normal install.

justinclift 2y ago
> I set up dozens of computers in this lab each year from scratch ... Have you looked at automated solutions for that? If it's a cost issue, then I think even Clonezilla will let you take an image of a "golden master" (aka pc set up how you want) then deploy it over the network to image a bunch of computers at the same time.
- neltnerb 2y ago
  > Have you looked at automated solutions for that? Sure, I look forward to IS&T releasing one but it's more likely to happen if I have one to suggest they review for security. > If it's a cost issue, then I think even Clonezilla will let you take an image of a "golden master" (aka pc set up how you want) then deploy it over the network to image a bunch of computers at the same time. We used to do it that way with Acronis disk cloning. It is better to do PXE boot installs to avoid weird config problems according to IS&T, I didn't second-guess them on that. I don't hate the idea, just was told to avoid it.
  - justinclift 2y ago
    Ahhh yeah. I'd forgotten about PXE, it's been years since I did anything serious with that. That can work well if the network card(s) in the computers all support PXE booting.

justinclift 2y ago

> I set up dozens of computers in this lab each year from scratch ... Have you looked at automated solutions for that? If it's a cost issue, then I think even Clonezilla will let you take an image of a "golden master" (aka pc set up how you want) then deploy it over the network to image a bunch of computers at the same time.

neltnerb 2y ago
> Have you looked at automated solutions for that? Sure, I look forward to IS&T releasing one but it's more likely to happen if I have one to suggest they review for security. > If it's a cost issue, then I think even Clonezilla will let you take an image of a "golden master" (aka pc set up how you want) then deploy it over the network to image a bunch of computers at the same time. We used to do it that way with Acronis disk cloning. It is better to do PXE boot installs to avoid weird config problems according to IS&T, I didn't second-guess them on that. I don't hate the idea, just was told to avoid it.
- justinclift 2y ago
  Ahhh yeah. I'd forgotten about PXE, it's been years since I did anything serious with that. That can work well if the network card(s) in the computers all support PXE booting.