Windows 11 is dying....

[SteveThackery]

When I first booted my Crosshair Hero motherboard, there was no CPU or RAM in it.  Note, I said, "booted".  It presented a basic VGA display and told me there was no CPU or RAM.

[snip]

Without a CPU.

That's fascinating - I had no idea a motherboard could start up without a CPU or RAM. It never occurred to me to try.

[m k]

Search AMT SOL.

No idea what else is available.

[paulca]

When I first booted my Crosshair Hero motherboard, there was no CPU or RAM in it.  Note, I said, "booted".  It presented a basic VGA display and told me there was no CPU or RAM.

[snip]

Without a CPU.

That's fascinating - I had no idea a motherboard could start up without a CPU or RAM. It never occurred to me to try.

If you take another step up from "high end consumer" into server motherboards and chassis, they have an always on, always active little SOC monitoring the server.  Even if the server is dead, you can log into it and use it to reboot and/or access the BIOS settings etc.  Has it's own network port and often its own PSUs.  If you have ever rented a rack serve (co-loc) the management interface is usually the bit the host retains control of and why you need to phone them to get it rebooted if it's not answering on normal network.

[madires]

It's called BMC (Baseboard Management Controller).

[paulca]

The tangent thought that led me to when it popped up in my "OS Whiteroom Design" was...  oh....  there be mainframe distributed achitecture dragons if I want to wake them to play.

Instead of writing a boot loader and a ROM/RAM shadow/clone/swap in hardware....   Just boot an STM32 first.  Let it setup the hardware with a UART console enabled.  Turn the CPU on and OFF literally.  HALT it, give it it's BIOS and kernel source in RAM and unhalt it.

Now zoom back and there are multiple CPU boards and separate MCU controlled IO controllers.

Start designing your comms and bus archs for that...  it's mainframe world.

Just back then those IO controllers were Z80s.  Well maybe in Mini-computer days.

[Randy222]

The Jan2026 goof was not good, now there's the Feb2026 goof.
When will it die?

The February 2026 Windows cumulative updates, including KB5077181 (Windows 11) and KB5075912 (Windows 10 22H2 Extended Security Updates), have been released and address 58 vulnerabilities, including six actively exploited zero-days.  While Microsoft states there are no known issues with these updates as of February 15, 2026, some users have reported post-update problems:

Boot failures (e.g., UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME, black screen) on certain Windows 11 24H2/25H2 devices after failed January updates — resolved in KB5077181.
DHCP failures causing internet loss despite active connections.
BSODs (KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE) on specific Dell Optiplex models running Windows 11 24H2.
WDAC (Windows Defender Application Control) blocking updated Appx packages, breaking the Start menu and taskbar.
HP and HPE server boot failures (including safe mode) after update installation, requiring cold boot via iLO.

[Zucca]

After one month trying Linux, I have sold my soul to the penguin.
It's now official, I wasted my last 10 years on f Windows.

Win 11 should die, killed by me.

[Randy222]

After one month trying Linux, I have sold my soul to the penguin.
It's now official, I wasted my last 10 years on f Windows.

Win 11 should die, killed by me.

I run Linux, but keep a copy of windoze as VM for the rare times I need the hyper to power on the doze. 
A true statement.

[tom66]

I'm very tempted to move my laptop over to Linux.

I'll probably keep Windows on my main PC for gaming - yeah, lots of compatibility now but it's still a bit ropey.

[iMo]

The Jan2026 goof was not good, now there's the Feb2026 goof.
When will it die?

All Jan and Feb2026 win11 updates went fine here, no problems. Unsupported 10y old hw here..

[Randy222]

The Jan2026 goof was not good, now there's the Feb2026 goof.
When will it die?

All Jan and Feb2026 win11 updates went fine here, no problems. Unsupported 10y old hw here..

"Unsupported"? Because you dont have TPM2.0?
"Unsupported" is a royal BS term Mycrudsoft uses to avoid user complaints.

It does seem the Feb issue is less widespread than the Jan issue.

But we should be able to ask why these issues even happen.

With Linux, if the install goes ok, then even the updates from the repos that come almost daily, always seem to install ok and cause no issues.

[iMo]

"Unsupported"? Because you dont have TPM2.0?

i3-6320, Z170 mobo, none TPM.. Ran all win7/win10/win11 versions/updates on it. Tons of linux distros as well.. Btw., I've been messing with linux since its introduction in mid 90ties (and still using it daily).. So I can compare in detail, but I am not going to.. 

[madires]

After one month trying Linux, I have sold my soul to the penguin.

You regained your freedom by overcoming a Microsoft addiction.

It's now official, I wasted my last 10 years on f Windows.

Not wasted, it's a valuable experience.

[Zero999]

I still use MS-Paint with WINE though.

Try KolourPaint.

Thanks. I downloaded it and gave it a very quick look over and it looks good and very similar to MS-Paint. I do not see that it has in B&W graphics the fill with checkered patterns like MS-Paint has. I find that quite useful when doing monochrome drawings of parts.  I will have a longer look at it tomorrow.

I've recently found this.
https://jspaint.app

[soldar]

I've recently found this.
https://jspaint.app

It seems to be just like the original MS-Paint with a few extras added.

Thanks!

[SteveThackery]

I've recently found this.
https://jspaint.app

Good grief! How old is that? It looks like a museum piece. Works like one, too.

[Randy222]

It's not really a battle of Win vs Linux, unless you want to strictly limit the argument to kernel.
It's really open source vs closed source.

If someone wanted to make a desktop that looks and feels and works just like Win using GNU linux, it can easily be done. But if you get too close then you end up in court.

Pros & Cons to open vs closed. Take for example backdoors. In closed you really have no easy way to know if that MS dll has hidden backdoor. On flip side open source a trust issue, like xz liblzma as example. However, open source does have advantage of having code scrutinized by more people and code auto-checkers. Cant do that with closed code, at least not as easy.

GNU vs crapple or mycrudsoft, is a choice. I prefer GNU model.

If I were to estimate, there's probably the same number of complaints by linux users about linux based OS as there are of windoze user complaints about windoze.

With things under GNU, if there's something you dont like, you either make request and hope & wait, or you fix it yourself. In closed world, if you dont like something, well there's a few lakes MS knows about that you can go jump in, and 10,000 win forums where you can post your gripes.

Lets also be clear, GNU is not a money maker. You like closed, then be ready to pay for it, pay for product and optional pay for that extra support.

Anyone here signed up for the netfilter email list? If so then you know what "its" all about. GNU is it, its how things should be done.

[SteveThackery]

If I were to estimate, there's probably the same number of complaints by linux users about linux based OS as there are of windoze user complaints about windoze.

I expect so. But the weird part is the number of complaints by Linux users about Windows.  It's like it's an obsession.

[Siwastaja]

If I were to estimate, there's probably the same number of complaints by linux users about linux based OS as there are of windoze user complaints about windoze.

I expect so. But the weird part is the number of complaints by Linux users about Windows.  It's like it's an obsession.

SteveThackery's countless complaints about Linux users and their perceived "obsessions" in this thread alone resembles an actual obsession. 

[SteveThackery]

If I were to estimate, there's probably the same number of complaints by linux users about linux based OS as there are of windoze user complaints about windoze.

I expect so. But the weird part is the number of complaints by Linux users about Windows.  It's like it's an obsession.

SteveThackery's countless complaints about Linux users and their perceived "obsessions" in this thread alone resembles an actual obsession. 

Now come on, mate, I've got to keep stoking that fire - it's all part of the fun! 😄😄

[Cyclotron]

If I were to estimate, there's probably the same number of complaints by linux users about linux based OS as there are of windoze user complaints about windoze.

I expect so. But the weird part is the number of complaints by Linux users about Windows.  It's like it's an obsession.

SteveThackery's countless complaints about Linux users and their perceived "obsessions" in this thread alone resembles an actual obsession. 

Now come on, mate, I've got to keep stoking that fire - it's all part of the fun! 😄😄

You can't say they ol' Thackery is missing any ops for swings.     
 

[eutectique]

I've recently found this.
https://jspaint.app

If you close it (File -> Exit), you actually get into https://98.js.org/
Internet explorer showing Altavista site of 1998!

[PlainName]

I've recently found this.
https://jspaint.app

If you close it (File -> Exit), you actually get into https://98.js.org/
Internet explorer showing Altavista site of 1998!

Blimey! You can even plain Pinball with only slight lag. Very impressive.

[soldar]

I've recently found this.
https://jspaint.app

If you close it (File -> Exit), you actually get into https://98.js.org/
Internet explorer showing Altavista site of 1998!

It's Win 98 online!

You can open Solitaire, Minesweeper, Calculator, Notepad, etc.!!

The credit text file says:

98.js is a simulator (not an emulator) of Windows 98.
It includes projects from several different people!
This project exists to bring these fantastic clones
together under one roof.

You can find more information about the project here:
   https://github.com/1j01/98#readme

Join the Discord chat server:
   https://discord.com/invite/SyFweYjTKx

This file lists the included projects.

--------------------------------------
Apps
====----------------------------------

Paint, Sound Recorder, Notepad, 3D Pipes,
Explorer, and the 98.js desktop
by Isaiah Odhner
   https://github.com/1j01/98
   https://github.com/1j01/jspaint
   https://github.com/1j01/pipes

Minesweeper by Jon Ziebell
   https://github.com/ziebelje/minesweeper

Solitaire by Radovan Janjic
   https://github.com/rjanjic/js-solitaire

3D Pinball decompiled & ported
by Muzychenko Andrey and Alula
   https://github.com/alula/SpaceCadetPinball

Webamp by Jordan Eldredge
   https://github.com/captbaritone/webamp
   
   Featuring:
   Butterchurn Visualizer by Jordan Berg
      https://github.com/jberg/butterchurn

3D Flower Box by Kevin Shannon
   https://github.com/kevin-shannon/3D-FlowerBox

MS-DOS Prompt
   https://js-dos.com
      Emscripten  https://emscripten.org/
      DOSBox  https://www.dosbox.com/
      Em-DOSBox  https://github.com/dreamlayers/em-dosbox

Calculator by:
   Isaiah Odhner - Windows 98 interface
   Muzam1l - Web port of the Windows 10 Calculator
      https://github.com/muzam1l/mcalculator
   Windows Calculator engine developers
      https://github.com/microsoft/calculator

Clippy by Smore:
   https://github.com/smore-inc/clippy.js

--------------------------------------
Assets
======--------------------------------

Many icons and other assets from Microsoft.
Microsoft® and other trademarks are respective of their own respective holders,
respectively, in the United States and/or other countries, respectively.

--------------------------------------
Libraries
=========-----------------------------

OS-GUI.js
   https://os-gui.js.org

BrowserFS
   https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS

jQuery
   https://github.com/jquery/jquery

FileSaver.js
   https://github.com/eligrey/FileSaver.js/

and many more!

[m k]

32-bit W10 Pro Explorer has recently stopped waking correctly, its taskbar is staying down.
Desktop icons have their functionalities and open applications are fine, if you can bring them back to front.