Any time I need a Windows install, I go for one of the custom builds. Not from crustywindo.ws, but there's a lot of Windows modding forums out there with varying "distros".

(It bears noting if you need to trust your OS, you shouldn't be using Windows at all)

That just sounds like an easy way to get hacked with extra steps.

Just download the official ISO.

Windows Update has fucked up my computer a lot more often than pirated software has.

Then use the LTSC editions which only receive security updates and don't come with any modern Windows crap

Good luck getting your hands on one of these legally

If you're a business you'll easily get it.

Sure, sure, let me go pop down to the county office and create a whole ass LLC and spend several hundred dollars so I can save an hour or three every year troubleshooting my windows install.

Brilliant. it's like saying to someone that has to get somewhere, "A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step" while I'm over here passing you both in a bus.

I tried!

I really, really tried!

They won't sell it to peasants like me. They refuse to even give a quote. Businesses only, and even then you must be a big business. Small/Medium need not apply.

The company I work for uses a really hacky way to "break" windows updates instead. Then "authorises" specific packages while breaking others in the registry. (Windows10 Pro)

It's a constant process running in the background that is literally fighting the windows update system and deletes registered updates.

While I've seen similar sites occasionally get taken down in the past, I think ultimately Microsoft would rather you pirate Windows than use Linux.

Amusingly enough, there's also https://crustywindo.ws/collection/Linux/