r/Windows11

Link to the "FluentWeather" app - https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PFD136M8457

>Edit • TLDR: i have no affiliation with this app, just found it on ms store, and wanted to share! Gabboxl is the dev!!

Recently microsoft's 'boosting cpu to open apps' clip is going viral, and people have been dismissing that under-the-hood change to continue maligning win11 using other issues. The botched weather app is in that clip which intensified the bad faith discussions and comparisons so wanted to find a weather app that felt closer to win11 design, faster, and with appropriate number of features as a counter to "windows can't even open a weather app fast enough" arguments. I found this app after testing around 5 weather apps, some didn't open as quick, some had web-ui, some had large app size, and one even had no access without your own weather key.

But this app opened fast, has good ui, has all basic weather app info, and is also free and open source! So while I have no association with this app, i felt the need to make this post for everyone who either has been burnt by MS botching the once amazing weather app, or for those want a decent working weather app on their Windows desktop. Please try it and rate it on Store, and share compliments & feedback to the developer on github. I'm sure they'll appreciate it!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share an absolute plot twist of a success story. It completely breaks the rules of official hardware sheets, storage limits, and developer warnings.

I managed to get Windows 11 running 100% stable on an ancient Dell Chromebook 11 3120 ("Candy"), and yes, I installed it directly onto the tiny internal 16GB eMMC storage.

The official Chrultrabook docs clearly state that Windows 11 isn't supported on this Intel Bay Trail board and that you must stick to Windows 10. But honestly, that's just wrong. CoolStar's Windows 10 drivers for the touchpad and audio work absolutely flawlessly on Windows 11. No glitches, no broken audio, just fully working hardware right out of the box on internal storage. Windows Update runs completely smoothly too; it only grabs built-in screen controls like brightness, night light, and sleep support, and leaves the custom core drivers completely alone.

and the way i did it was easy AF:

First, I cracked the case open, yanked out the physical hardware write-protect (WP) screw from the motherboard, and flashed MrChromebox’s full UEFI ROM (Version MrChromebox-2603.2) through Developer Mode.

Since 16GB of space is basically a crime for modern Windows, standard Win 11 was out of the question. I used a stripped-down Tiny11 build paired with the CompactOS compression engine (compact.exe /compactos:always) to shrink the OS footprint down under 10GB so the drive could actually breathe. To get it to install without Windows yelling at me, I loaded the ISO onto a Ventoy USB and turned on the VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_CHECK plugin. That effortlessly skipped Microsoft’s artificial CPU, TPM, and 64GB storage capacity requirements.

Once I booted into the desktop, the real trick was dealing with the drivers. Windows 11 loves to block older, unsigned CoolStar packages, so I manually disabled driver signature verification through the advanced startup command prompt. After that, I installed the missing required Windows runtimes (Visual C++ Redistributables). Older drivers depend heavily on these, but Windows 11 leaves them out by default. Once those runtimes were in, I executed the standard CoolStar Win10 Bay Trail driver packages and everything immediately kicked into life.

According to all the official documentation, the installer should have blocked me for lack of space, and the audio/touchpad drivers should have completely broken down. Instead, it runs cleanly as a fully operational, hyper-compact laptop built straight from recycled hardware.

Don't let the official sheets fool you!, you can absolutely beat the developer limitations if you use the right workarounds!

if I knew this earlier....

A symbolic link (symlink) is a special file that serves as a "pointer" or redirection to another folder or file within the system. Unlike a standard shortcut, the operating system and software applications treat a symlink as if it were the actual file or folder itself, allowing you to access data stored on separate drives or paths without duplicating storage space.

How to create in Command Prompt (CMD)

Open CMD as Administrator and use the following structure:

• mklink /d "Path\To\Symbolic\Link" "Path\To\Target\Folder" for directories (folders).
• mklink "Path\To\Symbolic\Link" "Path\To\Target\File" for files.

How to create in PowerShell

Open PowerShell as Administrator and use the command:

• New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "Path\To\Symbolic\Link" -Value "Path\To\Target"

Step-by-Step via Graphical Interface

1. Install the tool: Download and install Link Shell Extension (it adds options directly to the Windows Explorer context menu).
2. Select the Target: Right-click the original folder or file (the target) and select Pick Link Source.
3. Create the Link: Go to the folder where you want the symbolic link to be, right-click an empty space, hover over Drop As... and choose Symbolic Link.

Yesterday, I was messing my taskbar with Windhawk and ran into an issue where some of the pinned icons to the taskbar kept changing back to their original icons instead of retaining their custom ones.

I thought about editing the registry, but was being lazy so just executed System Restore. The problem was, the most recent restore point had been created before the feature update. However, since I had an experience that had been able to revert to a previous version via System Restore after a Windows feature update, I proceeded without much caution.

But after the restoration process and re-booting finished, Windows immediately displayed a GSOD with the message 'Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart,' forced the system to reboot again, showing the same screen repeatedly, and it eventually threw me into the purgatory of WinRE Advanced Options screen.

I tried Quick Machine Recovery and other restore points, but they were no use as well. In panic, I had no choice but to try Point-in-Time Restore, which I had set it up as soon as was released and forgotten about, and hadn't never touched until now.

It took so long, and when it got stuck at 21% for like half an hour, my heart sank, but in the end it completed, and booted the Windows successfully. The most recent captured snapshot was two days ago with older version of Windows, so I expected major registry-related issues to occur, but no, it was perfectly restored to that exact moment without any error or problem.

I'd like to thank Microsoft for creating Point-in-Time restore system. If it weren't for this method, I would've lost my sanity while formatting and resetting my OS by now.

Hi everyone,

After installing the recent Windows 11 Security Update (KB5101650), I noticed an issue in the Microsoft Store. Turning off the "App updates" toggle displays an error asking for administrator privileges, even though my user account is an Administrator.

Temporary Solution: Uninstalling update KB5101650 immediately fixes the issue and restores normal toggle functionality.

Has anyone else run into this issue after the KB5101650 update?

Lenovo released driver updates a few days ago, but other brands might've done the same.

Always check for Windows Updates via settings everytime, as the picture above confirms Lenovo released a Driver Update.

If you have it in Updates, install it.

If you don't have it, keep checking.

>So recently, I have been down the rabbit hole of cyber privacy and security, and I am shocked, to be honest, by the extent to which my data is being collected and may or may not be used against me.

So what specifically I am looking for is

- Settings which I need to change in my Windows 11 Home/Pro -- All the things I can opt out of to keep my data secured

- Any apps to monitor where my data is being sent to off-system (whether it is being sent to Microsoft or any other vendor)-- I want to keep a track of all the outward data that is being sent, which I do not have an idea of and if I can turn it off

>- Any setting or tech stack for my online and offline activities where I can avoid fingerprinting and other methods for targeted ads

>- Any setting or tech stack for my online and offline activities to make my device more secure and private

>- I want privacy from Microsoft, Google, any AI intrusion or AI data leak, my ISP, and any middleman in between to a maximum sensible extent

>Essentially, I want my computer to be mine, not for Microsoft or any other company to have my data, whether personal or behavioural. I want to have a secure device that is immune to any kind of attacks (to a certain logical extent, where we are not diving into social engineering attacks and stuff)

>Privacy and Security are my 2 major concerns here.

>I do not love Windows or hate Windows at this point; it is more convenient than Linux and more affordable than Mac.
(Sounds like I am in a Pickle)

>So moving to Linux would be a last resort, just making it clear before anyone comes and says - * USE LINUX BRO! *

>And given the rumours/news, whether true or not, about Windows 12 being a more compromised piece of tech in terms of privacy and AI intrusion, I would like to create a safe moat for my data.

>If anybody from Microsoft is seeing this, please make Windows more private.

I thought after setting up DNS on my PC and in my browser to use encrypted DNS over HTTPS but after reading this article I found that I was still vulnerable. Here's a link to the article:

https://www.howtogeek.com/encrypted-dns-doesnt-hide-your-browsing-from-your-ispheres-what-actually-does/

To quote the author: "The bottom line here is that encrypted DNS may prevent your ISP from reading that DNS request itself, sure. But it can't conceal the rest of your connection, because your browser still needs the internet to load the website contents in the first place."

The article goes on to suggest that the best way to ensure your privacy was through VPN but instead of using a VPN provided by someone else that you can create your own private VPN by paying a small amount of money to have a small Virtual Private Server (VPS), installing a Linux server on the VPS and then installing TailScale that's free on both the server and your devices. Since the cost was inexpensive actually now have my own personal VPN. It's very fast and I'm not seeing any lag. My only comment in setting this up is it's not as easy as the article leads you to believe. In the end I also had to also add CloudFlare WARP (also free) onto the VPS as the VPS provider I went with (Vultr) only allow IPV6 traffic through the tunnel and WARP was needed for the IPV4 traffic. That being said, when finished I now have my own private VPN for $2.50 a month.