Windows 10 share down, Windows 7 up It appears Windows 7 is doing better than some of Microsoft's numbers seem to imply: https://www.askwoody.com/2018/april-windows-10-share-down-windows-7-up/
I ended up reading the full (source) article, here (http://www.computerworld.com/articl...sy-turvy-world-with-windows-10-down-7-up.html), because of some of the comments on the askwoody lounge. I can't really tell if he's trying to tear-down the statistics as invalid or to support what he wants to say (after discrediting the data a little). Anyone surprised about this? Man, what a mess. The MS-Hobson’s choice: It’s the Win10 way or the highway. (Damned if you do, damned if you don't.)
Enterprise x64 Here's Luna for Win8.1 on mine: But I've since changed the start button to the Aero 7 Orb:
Speaking of ClassicShell, any way you can include custom startmenu buttons to the patch folder like you did with skins? Here's the one I use for the Aero 7 Orb (above)
Cool. I was trying to think if I even have any build files for automated Win8. I found an autounattend for Win8/Last8 so that's a big part of it. I think the rest could be built on the LTSB layout, shouldn't be too hard. I liked the original Win8 start screen better than the 8.1 one; at some point I even kind of enjoyed it. But then at or before 8.1 somewhere they changed the start screen icons to where it became hard to glimpse a quick overview of the programs, in that Windows would color the tiles around the icons by averaging colors in icons, which sounds good on paper but didn't do anything for clarity. I kind of liked how the start screen would be able to show the same wall as the desktop, but dimmed it, so when you would click the Win button it would overlay (seemingly) the desktop and show the program icons. But they even messed that up, lol. WOW: I never even saw this: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8147 I have never tried adding start buttons (I don't know why not) but I'll look into it.
So even ClassicShell has thrown in the towel. Sort of exactly what WinXP4Life was saying. Well at least he's making it open-source but it sounds like it will eventually become impossible to mod Windows 10 -- even with something as simple as themes.
Yeah, MS already working hard on that Explorer replacement, too. It exists in the various Win10 builds already but you have to summon it by a command, it's not openly in use in the OS yet. Yes I think it will suck.
Windows 8.1 Pro VL would seem like a good option. We could use KMSpico for automatic activation (like I did for both Win10 and 7 images). I messed with an Enterprise eval a bit yesterday but it was unyielding, being an expired eval (couldn't find any other Enterprise .iso) and even KMSpico wouldn't activate it: also tried a reg tweak to get it out of eval mode, but nothing. I'm getting some images and will look into it (if Glenn doesn't beat me to it ).
If it's any help, I'm using Gen2's "Windows 7 8.1 10 x64 Enterprise ESD en-US June.2016" iso, available in the LastOS Archive under "BootRack/Microsoft".
I found some updated images as of March 2018 (x64 and x86 direct links) but these are Pro. Is there anything about Enterprise that you need over Pro or does it matter?
Nah, at the time I had just figured that maybe Enterprise editions would have less bullshit than the consumer editions
The Pro Win8.1 working nicely, the install.esd already had many updates installed and I further updated the VM with another bunch so it's up-to-date as of now. EDIT: Relatively small image compared to Win7, plus it will allow .esd format so it'll be even smaller. I also got the x86 image; these images will be good for future bases. I want to say DART was integrated into the boot.wim's but I haven't tested that yet.
Question (I guess the golden question): Do ANY of the modern apps need to stay in the image? It is true that LTSB, Enterprise, etc., images are usually packed with fewer apps and also that the app packages can be uninstalled inside the VM for sysprep of, say, a Pro image. Talking only about Win8.1, do we need to keep any modern apps in? I could leave the basic structure and store components, but remove all other apps. Freezer, Glenn: what do you think?
No, I don't have any use for them. The ones I tried were worthless. Plus, they don't run from desktop anyway -- unlike Win10's universal apps which were not only also worthless but lame, IMO. Android just does it better. I've got Defender turned off at group policy and with ClassicShell I don't see the startscreen anymore. It also disables active corners (like Charms). Now the only time I see a modern app is with control panel stuff like PC settings and whatnot. And even those are dummied-down to a couple options -- no advanced settings there whatsoever.
Having support for universal apps should be in but any that can be re installed from the store can be removed IMO. I will work on a ssWPI to remove store and the apps features so it can be killed post install BUT MS ditched One Note Desktop in favour of the modern version in office 2018 due for release soon. So taking support out isn't going to be for everyone. I think I still have an awaken builder but I will just build a new script based of Last10s method as we no longer integrate updates with DISM or ImageX so a bit pointless to have it there.
That's the hard thing to figure out, though, which apps can be reinstalled from the Store But with .esd compression the images can be kept quite small anyway so maybe not that big of a deal to keep them in -- or uninstall them via ssApp as you brought up. So basically we have to keep Store apps in for you as I doubt this would be a public release
Classic Shell is back as Classic Start: https://betanews.com/2018/07/11/classic-start-classic-shell/ https://www.ghacks.net/2018/07/08/miss-classic-shell-classic-start-comes-to-the-rescue/
