Modifying Windows 11

Microsoft is famous for release a bad operating system followed by a bad. Windows 7 was good. Windows Vista was abysmal. Windows 10 was okay. Windows 11 is, well, it’s the worst yet. At-least Microsoft does not deviate from tradition. We can give them that.

Here is a collection of all downloadable files mentioned below:

WronexWindows11Mods.zip

Installing Windows 11

If you are reading this in the future (in 2026) this no longer works. You will need to run a much longer command line argument to modify the registry.

While installing Windows 11 you will be delighted to encounter an un-skippable network setup page. Microsoft has decided that all devices are required to have network access during setup. How would you otherwise log into your Microsoft Live account?

To bypass this step, press Shift-F10 (or perhaps F11) to bring up the terminal. From here navigate into the oobe directory and run the BypassNRO.cmd script:

cd oobe
BypassNRO.cmd

Your computer will restart. Run the setup from the beginning and delight in the fact that a new “Skip step” link is available at the network setup page.

Remember to also unplug your network cable!

If BypassNRO.cmd is missing in a future version, run the following instead:

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Creating an unattended installation

Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11

Restoring the old context menu

The context menu in Windows 11 Explorer is awful. Luckily we can restore the old version using a simple registry entry.

Restore Context Menu.reg

Hiding various menu options

It is also possible to remove superfluous items from the context menu:

• Remove Add To Favorites.reg
• Remove Give Access To.reg
• Remove Include In Library.reg
• Remove Print.reg
• Remove Share.reg

Restore Photo Viewer

We can also restore the Windows 7 Photo Viewer. This is a two-step process. First enable the Photo Viewer:

Enable Windows Photo Viewer.reg

Then, optionally, set it as default for .BMP, .TIFF, .JPEG, .PNG, and .WEBP files:

Use Windows Photo Viewer.reg

Text file associations

The easiest way to associate a lot of different text-file formats is using another registry file. This one is more tricky as it contains hard coded paths to sublime_text.exe and icon files.

You will need to modify the registry file!

1. Download the files:

   • Associate Text Files.reg
   • Download icons or in grayscale (GitHub repository)

2. Open the registry file for modification

3. Replace C:\\Users\\wronex\\FileIcons\\Icons\\ with the path to your icons

4. Replace "C:\Program Files\Sublime Text\sublime_text.exe" "%1" with the path to your text editor. The path is encoded as HEX:

   @=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,20,
   00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,75,00,62,00,6c,00,69,00,6d,00,
   65,00,20,00,54,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,5c,00,73,00,75,00,62,00,6c,00,69,00,6d,
   00,65,00,5f,00,74,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,22,00,20,00,
   22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00

   Use the following tool to convert your text editor’s path into HEX:

5. Apply the registry file

Bask in the glory of your new custom icons. As a bonus, a new “Edit” item was added to all context menus to open your favorite text editor.