More Windows 11 Bad News From Microsoft

[Judge]

Apparently Microsoft is presently contemplating whether or not to force Bitlocker Encryption on all versions of Microsoft Windows 11, as yet another disaster of their 24H2 update. Hopefully if they do this, that in fact you can go into a menu and simply turn it off, provided of course you have the key. (Whatever you do, if this is a certainty you must not lose that key!)

Be advised of a performance hit your operating system will get if this function remains operative on your hard drive.

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 24H2 turns on Device Encryption by default

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 24H2 turns on Device Encryption by default when you clean install or reset your system.

www.windowslatest.com

I was considering installing Windows 11 on a removable drive just to run some very Windows-centric games. Maybe now I'll hold off and see the fallout from this 24H2 update. (For now I'd just assume pass on using Lutris or Proton in Linux, but that too may change.)

 

[Outdated]

I was considering installing Windows 11 on a removable drive just to run some very Windows-centric games.

Unless you want to play online you're better off just loading your games under Wine. I can help out with things if you run in to trouble. For most games it's pretty straight forward if you have Q4Wine installed. Simply double click on the Setup.exe file or whatever it's installer is called the same as you would in Windows.

And exactly the same as all Windows users are trained to do, just click next next next on any boxes that appear without bothering to read any of the messages or care what they say.

For older 32 bit games that require Win98 I run a virtual machine with a genuine copy of Win98 in it.

 

[Judge]

Unless you want to play online you're better off just loading your games under Wine. I can help out with things if you run in to trouble. For most games it's pretty straight forward if you have Q4Wine installed. Simply double click on the Setup.exe file or whatever it's installer is called the same as you would in Windows.

And exactly the same as all Windows users are trained to do, just click next next next on any boxes that appear without bothering to read any of the messages or care what they say.

For older 32 bit games that require Win98 I run a virtual machine with a genuine copy of Win98 in it.

The thing is, with Photoshop I have carefully downloaded only that in which allows me to use it, without maintaining any connective functions to the Internet. I'm still very aware of how Wine is a way hackers can get to a Linux user. So I'd prefer to keep much of anything else contained to a totally separate, but removable hard drive.

I've tried on occasion to get some of my old games to run under Wine, without success. And while I'm aware of all the great things the YouTube gurus have to say about running Windows games in Linux using Proton and Lutris, it all seems very complex to me. I may still give it a try if decide to install Nobara 39 for the timed being. But it would all seem much easier just to contain whatever games I play through Windows, as crappy as Windows 11 may be. I'd simply use it as a game platform- not a comprehensive operating system. I have Linux for that, both in efficiency and security.

On my legacy system I continue to consider putting Windows 98SE on it, which might be a better platform than Windows XP. But recently I believe my power supply died after more than a quarter of a century...and I'm not 100% sure replacing it will solve the problem. Another reason to get back into gaming, but with a far more powerful system in comparison.

But who knows? If I keep hearing endless streams of bad news about Windows 11, I may just give up the idea of games altogether. Though I could still get Perfect Gold ported for Linux. I dunno....

 

[Outdated]

And while I'm aware of all the great things the YouTube gurus have to say about running Windows games in Linux using Proton and Lutris, it all seems very complex to me.

I never had any luck with either of those programs. I think I've tried just about everything there is over the years and the only program I've consistently had a good run with is Q4Wine.

I have several different wine prefixes labeled Win98, WinXP, Win7, etc, to suit the needs of different games and programs. I also have a couple of prefixes for individual games because their requirements conflict with too many other things. None of them interfere with each other. Once they're set up you can just copy them over to new computers very easily.

 

[Eren]

Apparently Microsoft is presently contemplating whether or not to force Bitlocker Encryption on all versions of Microsoft Windows 11, as yet another disaster of their 24H2 update. Hopefully if they do this, that in fact you can go into a menu and simply turn it off, provided of course you have the key. (Whatever you do, if this is a certainty you must not lose that key!)

Be advised of a performance hit your operating system will get if this function remains operative on your hard drive.

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 24H2 turns on Device Encryption by default

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 24H2 turns on Device Encryption by default when you clean install or reset your system.

www.windowslatest.com

I was considering installing Windows 11 on a removable drive just to run some very Windows-centric games. Maybe now I'll hold off and see the fallout from this 24H2 update. (For now I'd just assume pass on using Lutris or Proton in Linux, but that too may change.)

Have you considered installing windows 10 instead of windows 11? Many people still stick to Windows 10 and it is a good operating system for gaming.

 

[Judge]

Have you considered installing windows 10 instead of windows 11? Many people still stick to Windows 10 and it is a good operating system for gaming.

LOL...no, never. I have Windows 10 on another drive on my other computer, but plan on gutting it to replace it with a more recent motherboard, memory and cpu. I stopped using Windows 10 other than to simply keep it updated. Even that I have stopped, as I want to use that SSD for another Linux distro- Nobara 39.

Windows 10 support ends October 2025. After that, continued support will cost you $61 the first year, $122 the second and $183 for a third year. Guessing that it's Microsoft's intention not to offer extended support beyond those three years.

Besides, I know firsthand how vulnerable an officially expired and unsupported OS can be when connected to the Internet. And in the case of Windows 10, Microsoft has decided not to even bother attempting to fix their recent update error involving BitLocker encryption. Another very bad sign from Microsoft in general.

Microsoft won't fix Windows 0x80070643 errors, manual fix required

Microsoft has confirmed that it won't provide an automated fix for a known issue causing 0x80070643 errors when installing recent Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[Judge]

I never had any luck with either of those programs. I think I've tried just about everything there is over the years and the only program I've consistently had a good run with is Q4Wine.

It's a bit humorous at times. I mean these techs like Chris Titus certainly know what they are doing, but they go out of their way to make it sound so simple when it's painfully not simple at all when it comes to so many different choices and controls offered by technologies like Lutris and Proton. All on top of Wine and Bottles. Watching these guys do their magic is interesting, but at the same time it made my head spin just trying to keep up. I figure I was lucky just to get an ancient version of Photoshop 5.5 to run in Linux.

Besides, I'd prefer to contain all the risks associated with Windows on a separate drive. I run only a single Windows application (Photoshop) on multiple Linux distros, but it's deliberately cut off from Internet access for security purposes.

 

[Eren]

LOL...no, never. I have Windows 10 on another drive on my other computer, but plan on gutting it to replace it with a more recent motherboard, memory and cpu. I stopped using Windows 10 other than to simply keep it updated. Even that I have stopped, as I want to use that SSD for another Linux distro- Nobara 39.

Windows 10 support ends October 2025. After that, continued support will cost you $61 the first year, $122 the second and $183 for a third year. Guessing that it's Microsoft's intention not to offer extended support beyond those three years.

Besides, I know firsthand how vulnerable an officially expired and unsupported OS can be when connected to the Internet. And in the case of Windows 10, Microsoft has decided not to even bother attempting to fix their recent update error involving BitLocker encryption. Another very bad sign from Microsoft in general.

Microsoft won't fix Windows 0x80070643 errors, manual fix required

Microsoft has confirmed that it won't provide an automated fix for a known issue causing 0x80070643 errors when installing recent Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Oh I understand, I didn't know all that, so yes, or Windows 11 or some Linux distribution.

 

[Judge]

It does appear that this is a "done deal" for Microsoft.

That the Windows 24H2 update will automatically install and activate BitLocker Encryption on all existing Windows 11 devices. And that turning it off could be "difficult" by some accounts. Beyond that while the security factor may be attractive, what won't be is the potential performance loss that may be as high as 45%. Which could be quite a turn-off for Windows gamers. (The sole reason for my even considering Windows 11 is as a platform for gaming. Absolutely nothing else.)

The one real question I have that could be a dealbreaker for me in considering this OS now rests with whether or not installing Windows 11 manually on a non store-bought system (like mine) actually gives you the option of installing BitLocker or not. Supposedly that is how it will work, but I'll have to hear this is confirmed. The YouTube below mentions it briefly, but I want to know positively that in manually installing Windows 11 on the computer I built that it's an option NOT to install BitLocker.

But if you bought a computer with Windows 11 preinstalled or upgraded from Windows 10, it sounds like you may be stuck with encryption whether you want it or not. Along with a potentially nasty drop in performance.

Here are more details: