Making Every Windows 11 PC an AI PC
56 comments
·October 17, 2025lo0sr
For anyone that has a need for Windows (I dual boot for gaming), but hates most of the "features" like myself, look into installing with a autounattend.xml file, that worked for me like a charm. I generated one using the following page: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/
qingcharles
That looks good, thanks. I'll try that on my next build. I normally just use tiny11 and then run debloat on it.
franczesko
Windows isn't a must for gaming nowadays
strken
DRM is an issue on Linux. Consider the recent BF6 release.
You can avoid titles with DRM, of course, but then you'll inconvenience your friends who do use Windows, or be unable to join them.
Rhedox
DRM is almost never an issue. The problem with BF6 is the anti cheat, not DRM.
jonathantf2
For some games it is
dijit
Vote with your wallet.
Yeah, I know this sounds stupid, but I mean, the majority of games are there now.
The signal is all that's needed, I work in AAA games and we shifted heaven and earth to make Stadia work. Which means somewhere in Ubisoft there is a fully functioning version of Watch Dogs Legion and The Division that run natively on Linux.
And the answer was the same when I asked why we didn't release it: we don't see a market, and we don't want to maintain another channel of support.
Right now it's not costing them any meaningful sales, so why would they put the investment in?
herbst
How can anyone at Microsoft really think this title is not sounding like a threat to any of their serious users?
pavel_lishin
For the past few decades, I've assumed that they don't really have serious users in any numbers that matter to their bottom line; what they care about are their serious buyers, who are large corporations who are basically locked into Windows, and who will continue buying Windows desktops & laptops for their employees to use.
PaulHoule
They had "Hey Cortana" a few years back and gave up on it because it didn't really work.
candiddevmike
Between Cortana and all of the post-Bungie games, it's almost like they were hellbent on destroying the Halo IP and all of the goodwill associated with it.
josu
I know what 99% of the people in HN are thinking while reading this post, and I agree, so I would like to hear the contrarian views:
Who is this useful for? What is the strategy behind this?
mcmcmc
Their investors and investments. Artificially increasing the demand for AI by ramming it down users’ throats is great for the bottom line.
Edit: To give an actual contrarian view, this could be useful for people who are completely computer illiterate, but need to use a computer for work/school etc and have no desire to learn the basics of using a desktop OS.
altairprime
This is useful for corporations that want to reduce their workforce’s mean skill level in order to lower wages without impacting growth in revenue growth year-over-year. Such firms are the majority of Microsoft’s revenue, I expect.
null
ReptileMan
>Who is this useful for?
Middle manager careers
>What is the strategy behind this?
We must do something, this is something, so we do it.
ACCount37
Imagine someone who doesn't know much about computers, and doesn't really want to learn. Then imagine a PC with a built in AI assistant a few generations more advanced than today's SOTA.
-
User: hey, why is the game running so slow?
AI Assistant: starts checking things.
Telemetry, apps: GTA 6 was launched 1 hour ago, then stopped 4 minutes ago. Likely the source of the performance complaints.
Telemetry, frames: FPS was at 60 when the game started, started dropping after 30 minutes of gameplay, deteriorated sharply. Reached the low of 18 FPS with unstable frame timings 12 minutes ago and remained there. Confirms GTA 6 as the source of the performance complaints.
Game settings: "medium" preset, locked to 60 FPS, lines up with recommendations for this system.
Expected performance of this game on this hardware with those settings: should stay at 60, with dips down to 50 in heavy areas. Does not match the observed performance.
Telemetry, resource utilization: normal until 30 minutes into gameplay, then increasingly GPU bound, causing poor performance.
Telemetry, power: the laptop was at 100% of charge and plugged in throughout. Temps were at 40C when the game was launched, then started ramping up, fan reached its RPM limit at 20 minutes, temperature kept climbing. Progressively more throttling was applied to GPU and CPU. 80C on GPU die (thermal limit) was hit 34 minutes in. GPU performance was choked by the thermal throttling.
Local temperature: no dedicated air intake sensor to query the air temperature from. 19C outside according to the weather report, but the laptop is plugged in, so it's probably not outside. Inside would be warmer. No smart thermostat to query the air temperature from. Anything else to get the air temperature from? Paired smartphone: is in proximity, was not used or moved for the past hour, reports that its core temperature is 24C. That's the room temperature.
Cooling system analysis: cross-referencing power draw logs to estimated room temperature to internal temperature. Not enough heat is being rejected by the cooling system. It underperforms the factory specification by at least 60%.
Past performance data: this laptop was used 7 times in the past 10 days. Seems like the cooling system was underperforming every time.
AI Assistant: your computer was overheating while you were playing GTA 6, which caused the performance issues. Check the air exhaust - the port at the left side of the laptop, with hot air coming out of it. Is there anything blocking it?
User: uh, no? The laptop was on the table the entire time. There's nothing to the left of it.
AI Assistant: it's likely that the laptop's cooling system needs cleaning. Should I check the prices at the nearest repair shop?
KORraN
I'm not going to lie, seeing all these comments complaining about W11, people not wanting to upgrade from W10, exploring possibility to migrate to Linux and then THIS title, I laughed. Well played, Microsoft, well played...
tester756
It happens every time there's new Windows release.
Sometimes there are reasonable concerns, sometimes people just dont like to change, that's it.
If Windows has 1.4 bilion users, then 100 of them complaining on HN will make you think that a lot of people hate windows, but in reality... :D
dzikimarian
I use Windows for well over 20 years. I never had serious complaints - even Vista and 8 were pretty ok IMO.
Right now I seriously consider moving to Linux. Thing is, main issue before were either unfamiliar UI or bad performance. Windows 10/11 has fair share of these too with aggressive push for control panel replacements. But that's honestly minor obstacle. There are lots of pluses on functional front too like windows Terminal, winget, wsl.
Actual problem is Microsoft simply stopped understanding word "No". Always pushing some links that open Edge for no reason. Enabling click bait news I spend a while to get rid of. Randomly switching default save location to one drive. Full screen ads for O365 & One Drive every few updates.
I simply need OS to get out of my way and stay there.
pants2
About a year ago I switched my Windows machine to Kubuntu, and WOW! What an incredible OS that is. The best I've ever used.
Unfortunately... it's not compatible with many things I need. I then sold my computer and switched to Mac as a happy medium and it works well enough but I miss many things from Kubuntu.
ptk
I’m right there with you. I have 35 years of Windows experience — 20 as an IT professional — and I just gave up on Windows in my personal life a few days ago and installed Linux. I’ve dabbled in the past with old machines running Linux or dual-booting (and never actually using it), but this time I went all in and installed it as my only option.
I can’t leave it behind professionally, so I’ll be riding along for this train wreck, but I will have some peace at home at least.
wartywhoa23
I'd argue that it's not Microsoft that stopped understanding the word "No", it's that it became owned by the entities that own all of the Fortune Global 500 companies and never knew such a word to begin with.
Hint: Blackrock, Vanguard.
zokier
Windows 11 has significantly worse adoption rates than 10 or 7, more comparable to the notoriously poor Vista. It is not just few HNers complaining here. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/windows-11s-adoption...
dijit
> It happens every time there's new Windows release.
Such a lazy argument.
Listen, the "users hate change" argument is weak for the current Windows drama. There has always been an N+2 as an option and so this is way worse...
There's an old, reliable pattern:
XP was good, Vista (N+1) sucked, so everyone jumped to 7 (N+2).
7 was good, 8 (N+1) had the bad UI, so everyone jumped to 10 (N+2).
People skip the bad one and wait for the fixed one. That's the de facto N+2 path.
The reason the Windows 10 -> 11 complaint is so loud is that Microsoft added a massive blocker in terms of hardware, shitty unfixable UI problems and they're shoving additional services down our throats (online accounts, AI, Teams).
It's not that 11 is just bad like Vista; it's that Microsoft made it physically impossible for a huge, happy Windows 10 user base to upgrade. Now those users are stuck waiting for N+2 and hoping it's fixed.
Some are being forced to either buy a whole new PC to get to 11, or pay Microsoft an ESU security tax to keep using their old one.
This isn't just whining about a UI change; it's a forced mass-migration with a financial penalty. That's why people are genuinely waiting for the next version, the true N+2 successor to 10. They're just following the cycle, but this time, the N+1 skip is non-optional.
zokier
The difference is that Windows 11 was released 4 years ago, and Windows 10 just reached EOL. And we havent heard anything yet about Windows 12, and MS still seems very intent on doubling down on their chosen path.
In contrast Windows 7 was released 2 years after Vista, 10 was released 3 years after 8. In both cases the "good" versions (xp and 7) were still well within their supported lifecycle.
So you can't just skip 11 like you could do with Vista or 8. And that is really the crux of the issue.
pessimizer
Windows 11 took four entire years to surpass the usage of Windows 10 (it's still only 20% higher.) It still isn't a majority, because fully 9% of Windows users refused to leave Windows 7.
This time around the Linux desktop is even getting marketshare, which is insane. 6%?! Firefox has less marketshare, and people bring it up in antitrust suits.
I think the secret is that they don't care about these users. Western markets have been bifurcating into, on one side, captured luxury markets where everything is grossly overpriced, low-quality, surveilled, censored, resold, walled-off and milked for every penny from a stupid, wealthy satisfied-enough clientele, and on the other side, people who don't matter and can do whatever who cares.
Getting 80% margin out of 20% of the market is better than getting 10% margin out of 80% of the market.
Spooky23
Eh, not really.
I've working in spaces where I've run infrastructure ops including end user for huge orgs. Think >100k people, mostly in the US. What I am now, other than a pilot of a few thousand Copilot for O365, all of this crap is turned off. Nobody understands wtf this is, the terms are difficult to find, and both IT and end users struggle to figure out where one thing starts and the other ends.
We are growing non-windows platforms significantly. New task based workflows like call centers and shared devices are web on linux/chrome first these days - you have to justify Windows. Why? The arbitrary rate of change and re-engineering is way too high (ie. $$). Some populations can pick their own devices, and MacOS grows 25% year over year in those programs.
ReptileMan
Windows has been enshitified for a long long time now. While there are improvements from their best windows (choose Windows 2000 or 7), usually there are enough "features" to offset the improvements. Lets take two thing - they can't get file search right - they have some slow, tedious indexing functions that take forever, whereas Everything just reads directly from the NTFS index/Fat table.
The start menu is also going downhill - it is slower than ever before. why - because it is connected to some strange online functions that are almost impossible to be completely disabled. Even in my quite cleared windows install finding a program to launch takes around 5 seconds for something that should be instant.
Their appstore is a failure (thank god, we don't need another walled garden)
Their mobile tablet strategy failed gazzilion years ago and yet they still try to move the control panel to their modern settings menu while severely limiting it's functionality.
They try to push online accounts for no good reason.
There seems to be something in this corporation that just prevent the top people to understand that some things - they got them right 2-3 decades ago, so just don't fuck them up.
Windows still lags on interrupts - and we have such cute situations where task manager shows in details sub 10% CPU usage, but performance tab shows 90%. Why - usually the answer is some form of I/O hiccup.
Findecanor
I'm starting to think that the only proper way to run Windows these days is in a VM under Linux.
Run it with a very restrictive firewall, and be sure to take snapshots regularly so that you could revert unwanted changes that slip through.
grigio
2025 is the year of Linux on the Desktop and the merit goes to M$
PaulHoule
A better strategy than slapping an "Copilot+ PC" label on trash laptops with trash silicon from Qualcomm [1] [2].
[1] Take a hint. Maybe someday Qualcomm silicon won't be trash. Often you see companies change their name for no good reason but Qualcomm is never going to be able to sell laptops until they change their name to something else or at the very least change their branding so nobody draws a line between the terrible past and a possible future. They should ask Copilot for a better name.
[2] Personally I think "Plus" is a bad smell in branding, right up there with "One". Sure, Purina One is a premium product but all XBOX ONE does is prove that nobody gets a game console bought by their mom anymore because how could you explain to your mom that an XBOX ONE > XBOX 360?
nxobject
Numbering product lines is hard: when Nvidia reaches GeForce 70xx series, we'll be in an awkward situation where, numerically, my 2006 Apple TV with a GeForce 7300 > hypothetical GeForce 7090.
recursive
It's not that hard. I have no idea how to interpret Nvidia model numbers. PlayStation seems to have figured out a good system though.
Evil_Saint
It's not hard. They make it hard for dumb reasons.
baal80spam
I distinctively remember having NVIDIA GeForce 6800 back in the day...
Great GPU, btw!
bitwize
> Personally I think "Plus" is a bad smell in branding, right up there with "One".
But the OnePlus One was a pretty good phone...
ReptileMan
They still are decent
SteveNuts
If you absolutely cannot live without running Windows for your home/work compute needs, consider Windows 11 LTSC.
It at least claims to have a lot of the bloatware disabled... but IMO it's only a matter of time until they "accidentally" enable some of this.
orphea
> IMO it's only a matter of time until they "accidentally" enable some of this.
tsimionescu
Hopefully in the EU this will be part of all of the "essential" services that I can just uninstall. It's been so nice running Windows 11 with things like Edge and the nagging it would occasionally do completely removed.
theothertimcook
I wish there was a way to buy windows 11 LTSC with a version of MSOffice stripped of copilot, OneDrive, and all the modern windows fluff.
It’s wild how unreliable and complex windows has become, how can it be that Dropbox from 10 years ago was better than MS baked in cloud “backup”.
On the other hand, even though SharePoint is hot garbage the browser based Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook are getting better all the time and increasingly can work from the browser so maybe it will be a non issue and Debian or something becomes and option.
benjiro
> I wish there was a way to buy windows 11 LTSC with a version of MSOffice stripped of copilot, OneDrive, and all the modern windows fluff.
Its called Windows 10 LTSC + cleanup script + any old office ... I am still using Office 2007 + pdf plugin. Thing uses no resources, still works perfectly.
Do you really have a reason to upgrade? Probably not... So unless Microsoft start forcing people with DX13 or whatever, there is no reason to give up on Windows 10.
> the browser based Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook are getting better all the time
Again, why? Same privacy issues anyway and AI will get pushed in those also, you can bet on it.
Just find a old version of Office, and use that. Or LibreOffice or whatever. Word, Excel etc are things that really did not change in the last 20 years beyond a ton of corporate fluff and spyware/"cloud".
> It’s wild how unreliable and complex windows has become
Because Microsoft wants to keep all the users locked into their eco system. So the more used you are to their products, the harder it is for the average person to jump ship (for any product, not just windows).
nxobject
I actually did look into buying an Office 2014 LTSC lifetime key a while ago from a reseller – but I decided against it because I wipe my PC annually, and the activation process did seem a little fiddly. It's been long since the days of "punch in the key on first startup and wait for internet verification".
iAMkenough
If only!
My organization doesn't have Copilot access, but there is no way to remove the empty Copilot menu from the Outlook app. You can customize the rest of the toolbar, but Copilot gets special screen real estate even if it isn't usable.
skywhopper
This all sounds like a nightmare of confusion. Especially for my parents and in-laws. Not to mention all of this is gated by a subscription fee and usage limits. It’s so depressing to see this rush to destroy anything useful about computers.
I do not want an AI PC, and I sure as hell don't want my PC unwittingly turned into one.