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Windows + Office

Installation

  1. Download the latest Windows 11 Business ISO from here: Massgrave Windows 11 Links

  2. Download the latest Rufus portable

  3. Run Rufus and select your flash drive.

    • If you're using usb drive like an NVMe drive to USB or an external HDD, expand "advanced drive properties" and check "List USB Hard Drives".
    • Boot selection Disk or ISO Image, then hit SELECT and pick your Windows ISO file.
    • Leave everything defaulted, GPT partition etc.
    • Flash the ISO to the USB drive, selecting all the optional checkboxes it pops up with when you select "Start". This will give you an offline account and bypasses Windows 11 restrictions.

  4. Go into your BIOS and select the UEFI boot option for your windows installer USB drive under boot overrides.

    • I prefer just doing a one-time boot override as opposed to changing the boot order of stuff.

  5. Install Windows

    • Select custom install
    • Determine the disk you want to install windows onto. Delete every partition on that disk until it is just "unallocated space".
    • If not using Rufus: "Discovered by user @witherornot1337 on X, typing start ms-cxh:localonly into the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup experience will allow you to create a local account directly without needing to skip connecting to the internet first."

  6. Activate with Massgrave's Microsoft Activation Scripts

    • irm https://get.activated.win | iex
      • Powershell as admin command to automatically download and run this tool:
    • select HWID Activation

  7. Microsoft Office

    • Can be activated with the same tool from step 6.
    • Download the latest non-365 ProPlus ISO from here: Massgrave Office Links

Setup

Here's how I like my Windows installations set up. My "design philosophy" is to be minimally invasive, and open source wherever possible.

  1. Rename your computer (set your computer's name)
  2. Choose a web browser. I recommend Brave or Firefox (https://docs.proxius.net/Software/webbrowsers/). The subsequent tools in this page are going to mess with Edge.

Note: Windows wallpapers reference the file on disk over and over, their caching sucks. If you have it on your desktop your background will go black constantly. I recommend putting wallpapers in C:/ or C:/Windows or make a folder "Wallpapers" in either of those locations.

Windows Core Tweaks

  • AlchemysWindowsTweakingScripts
    • A shitpile of scripts that set various things on Windows
    • If you're going to install Microsoft Office, do it before using the debloaters in here.
    • Programs / Tools included in this project will not be mentioned here.
  • TrayAppDotNET
    • My replacement tray app project. Pairs with my Windhawk configuration in ALchemysWindowsTweakingScripts
  • MSEdgeRedirect
    • Reroutes Microsoft Edge calls to alternative apps etc.
  • For those with logitech products
    • Start Menu->"services.msc"->LGHUB Updater Service
      • Stop it, then "Properties" and "Startup type": Disabled

Tweaks for Developers

  • Add2Path
    • Shift-right-click menu has a new entry to add current/selected folder to system PATH.
  • sshfs-win-OpenSSHTerminalHere
    • depdenency: sshfs-win
      • run this with an interval of like 5-10 after install (fixes ctx menu initial lag): https://github.com/winfsp/sshfs-win/blob/master/ServerAliveInterval.reg
    • SSH connections turned into network drives. Right-click menu lets you instantly open a logged in ssh terminal to the cwd.

Hardware Control Programs

  • MSI Afterburner
    • Lets you slide up the power settings on your GPU and overclock it, as well as control the fans.

Software to Avoid

  • ExplorerPatcher: way too unstable, and everything it does (old taskbar, explorer tweaks), can functionally be reimplemented with Windhawk + accessories.
  • "Files" and other file-explorer replacements: Performance is extremely poor, UI/UX is rough, cluttered, generally no features worth remembering.

Graphics Driver Setup (Nvidia)

  • disable vsync (turns on multi-pane overlay)
  • set power plan to high performance
  • turn low latency mode "On" or "Ultra". Ultra has a good chance of producing stuttering on underpowered systems.

Notes to Self

VPN and Local Network Devices

For when you have things like a NAS or whatever and want to access them while on your VPN, and "local network sharing" or whatever feature just isn't working.

Run PowerShell as Administrator The command for my network to add the route is route add -p SUBNET_I_WANT_TO_REACH mask SUBNET_MASK MY_DEFAULT_LAN_GATEWAY Example: route add -p 192.168.0.0 MASK 255.255.0.0 192.168.5.1

Network Drive Notes

Add your NAS ip to trusted intranet sites to disable warning popup for file transfers. I have a script in AlchemysWindowsTweakingScriptsDevExtras which can facilitate this.