Setting up a new Windows 10 install on a 11-year-old Macbook

My brother owns an old computer of mine, a 13-inch Macbook Pro from 2013, which he used in recent years but had not seen system updates since 2019. The software support started declining since, to a point where most stuff are not installable anymore in 2024.

Two weeks ago, he asked me if I'd help him install a more up-to-date system on the laptop. I took it back to Taipei, and pondered on three possible choices:

1. Install Opencore and upgrade the macOS version to a newer and supported one.
2. Install Windows.
3. Install a Linux distribution.

At first I decided to go with the third route and install Linux Mint, but after installing and playing around with it, it seemed like Linux Mint (Cinnamon edition) was a bit too heavy for the computer. Window movement was laggy, items in the settings took seconds to open, and in general the performance wasn't as good as I imagined. Therefore I decided to go with Windows 10, as it has official Boot Camp drivers from Apple, and requires the least amount of effort.

In the main blog I've written about installing Windows 10 in a virtual machine on Slackware, and this time I wanted to use a similar approach. I still have my Win10 LTSC ISO at hand, but unlike Linux distro ISOs, writing a Windows installation image to a thumb drive won't make it bootable. After some searching, I found out that one way to create bootable Windows USBs on Linux is to use the software WoeUSB. I installed it, ran the command, and the USB was made.

(For more info on the system I'm using, please refer to the About page.)

Next I held Option to make the target Mac boot the USB, and after some seconds, the installation dialog showed up. Since I have no plan to make it dual-boot Mac OS and Windows, the installation process is pretty straightforward. It took around 15 minutes and after some reboots, I'm up and running on Windows 10.

Boot Camp

The next obvious step that's not required in the virtual machine install, is to install the drivers. Luckily Apple has a package of required drivers available on their website, and can be installed independently instead of being bundled with the Boot Camp installation. I downloaded the drivers and installed them, and after a reboot, the performance is stellar, even better than that of macOS Catalina, the latest supported version of Mac OS on the machine.

Debloating and installing new software

Next I started installing and removing software. Windows 10 LTSC is already one of the Windows versions with the least crapware, but I still ran the debloating tool by Chris Titus for good measure. I disabled telemetry along with other things (like Microsoft Edge), and installed a lot of programs, some FOSS, some proprietary, including:

• Ungoogled Chromium, which is Chrome  with the looks and functionality but without Google's 24/7 tracking.
• Microsoft Office. My brother would probably do a lot of schoolwork on the computer, and having the Office suite is probably mandatory.
• Notepad++, as an upgrade to the default Notepad.
• The Affinity suite. I wanted to install cracked versions of Adobe apps, but remembered that I have an education account that could access Affinity apps without additional costs, so I opted for that instead. They're probably good enough to replace their Adobe counterparts.
• Inkscape, Krita, and GIMP, the trinity of FOSS graphic design tools.
• foobar2000, a no-nonsense music player.
• SumatraPDF, a no-nonsense PDF viewer.
  
• VLC, a no-nonsense video player.
• Faststone Image Viewer. For image viewers I didn't find a good enough FOSS one, so I installed the tried-and-true freeware instead.
• 7-zip, an essential program for every Windows install. It enables right clicking to compress and decompress all major archive formats.
• Chewing, a FOSS Zhuyin input method that is leagues better in terms of word choice and typing habit adaptation than the default.
  

The list goes on. Most of them are installable through the Windows-native "package" manager winget, and it did save me a lot of time searching for and installing programs.

During the process I also tried out Affinity Designer for the first time, and I can see why it is highly regarded as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator. The UI and tool selection is revolved around designing efficiently, the on-canvas measurments and snapping tools are great, and in general designing in it feels intuitive, even better than that of Inkscape, which is already pretty great.

Wrapping up

This installation revived my appeal of a debloated Windows 10, where with a careful selection of apps, can be really satisfying to use. Gone are the quirkiness and constant fixing of Linux, and what was in place is a stable system that gets out of the way. That realization made me a lot more pitiful of Microsoft's management, who went too far to extract value, thus degrading the experience of what should be a pretty solid system. Also I doubt installing and using Windows 11 would be as satisfying as this one.

— ltlnx 2024-10-27

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