fix: Improvements on Windows overview

[dngray]

Changes proposed in this PR:

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[dngray]

Added a few comments for discussion

[rollsicecream]

Some fixes here and there.

[jonaharagon]

Going to give this some thought. I don't think these changes capture the original intent of the Windows guides being added though, and omit some key details. This almost reads as if Windows is recommended, which I don't think is our goal.

[dngray]

This almost reads as if Windows is recommended, which I don't think is our goal.

I don't think it does that at all. I reworded some sentences to a more neutral tone which brings it more in line with the other content already on the site. The main thing people will care about is the guides that we actually provide (which are currently marked as "coming soon").

I also haven't really removed anything except for some of the repetitiveness, and mentions of "editions". I did remove the recommendation to stick with Windows 10, as this isn't helpful to anyone who buys a device shipped with Windows 11 OEM.

Also in some cases Windows 11 has things which Windows 10 does not, for example DNS over HTTPS as part of the system resolver.

[dngray]

Minor changes

[jonaharagon]

Looks good, just some minor suggestions mostly around wording and breaking large paragraphs into smaller ones for readability.

[dngray]

Those changes look good to me.

[privacyguides-bot]

This pull request has been mentioned on Privacy Guides. There might be relevant details there:

https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/windows-guide/250/288

[privacyguides-bot]

This pull request has been mentioned on Privacy Guides. There might be relevant details there:

https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/2024-07-28/19709/1

[ave9858]

I still don't think "The official Media Creation Tool is the best way to put a Windows installer on a USB flash drive. Third-party tools like Rufus or Etcher may unexpectedly modify the files, which could lead to boot issues or other troubles when installing." is accurate. Etcher doesn't even work for Windows ISOs because it only copies raw data, and rufus won't make any modifications that the user doesn't approve of and is probably safer than using the media creation tool

[jonaharagon]

and rufus [...] is probably safer than using the media creation tool

why's this?

[dngray]

You can do it without any tools at all if you like 😄

Assuming:
J:\ = USB stick
V:\ = Mounted ISO.

1. Open up cmd.exe and start DISKPART

   C:\Users\user>Start DISKPART
   Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
   Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
   On computer: DESKTOP-PC
   DISKPART> LIST DISK
     Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
     --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
     Disk 0    Online          119 GB      0 B
     Disk 1    Online         2794 GB      0 B        *
     Disk 2    Online          111 GB  1024 KB
     Disk 3    Online          698 GB  1024 KB        *
     Disk 4    No Media           0 B      0 B
     Disk 5    No Media           0 B      0 B
     Disk 6    Online           29 GB      0 B
   

2. Select a disk

   DISKPART> SELECT DISK 6
   Disk 6 is now the selected disk.
   

3. Clean disk

   DISKPART> CLEAN
   DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
   

4. Create a primary partition

   DISKPART> CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
   DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
   

5. Select it

   DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 1
   Partition 1 is now the selected partition.
   

6. Make the boot portion active

   DISKPART> ACTIVE
   DiskPart marked the current partition as active.
   

7. Format the disk ready for use

   DISKPART> FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
     100 percent completed
   DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.
   

8. Set disk as active

   DISKPART> ACTIVE
   DiskPart marked the current partition as active.
   

9. Run cmd.exe as Administrator:

10. Mount Windows .iso

11. Create a BOOT directory

12. Create a boot sector on V:

    C:\Windows\system32>cd V:\BOOT
    C:\Windows\system32>V:
    V:\boot>BOOTSECT /NT60 J:
    Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
    J: (\\?\Volume{9dffb40d-f33e-11e1-896c-abac436880d7})
        Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode.
    Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
    

13. Copy files to V:

    V:\boot>XCOPY V:\ J:\ /S/E
    

Been doing that from windows 7, 8, 10 & 11.

[ave9858]

why's this?

Rufus can be used with ISOs download from Microsoft, which can be hashed to check integrity and also has features to guard against bad USB hardware like bad block checking and the new runtime UEFI media validation. Rufus is also FOSS and is even recommended by Microsoft in some of their documentation, gives the user more control, and has some QOL features.

Edit: Rufus is recommended on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-insider/build-expiration#reinstall-windows-with-a-windows-insider-beta-channel-iso, which links to https://aka.ms/WIPbootISO which is a post by a Microsoft employee showing how to use rufus