Windows 11 forced update has completely fucked me. It enabled bitlocker and has locked me out of my drive with all my work on it. I have no key to unlock it and have no way to get through it. This has put me off windows forever. If anyone can help me get my files from this thing I would be eternally grateful and willing to pay.
I’m no fan of apple either for other reasons.
How stupid is it for me to jump into Linux? Anyone have resources to teach myself?
If you were signed in to a Microsoft account you can get your bit locker recovery keys by signing in online
Unfortunately I was never able to get my device in my Microsoft account. I spent two hours on the phone with them two days ago, they couldn’t do a single thing to help at all. I’m now trying to find anyone that can brute force their way through the BitLock, I would be willing to pay for that.
Damn that sucks. Best of luck
When bitlocker was enabled, you were given the option of saving a recovery key to your Microsoft account, a USB drive, or a printout. You may have missed it – MS bombards you with so much “do you want to enable a free trial of X?” garbage on every upgrade that people get used to just clicking through as fast as they can to get it out of the way. If you didn’t avail yourself of one of these options, getting around it is effectively impossible.
As someone who has been using Linux since the 90s, my recommendation for new users is almost always Linux Mint ( https://linuxmint.com/ ). It’s an easy GUI install, and their Installation Guide is well written and concise. Once installed, using it isn’t that much different than using Windows. There’s a Software Store app that will let you click-to-install most popular Linux desktop applications. System settings are managed through a “control panel” like app. File manager will feel familiar and you can have just about any major web browser you want.
At some point you may have to learn about the “guts” of the OS, but just as you shouldn’t need regedit on a new Windows install, you should get a perfectly usable LM system without ever dropping to the command-line.
I think you are right. My computer is 12 years old and hobbles through everything, I was trying to limp through this year with it and I probably clicked through something like an idiot to get things done without paying attention and now I have fucked myself over. I absolutely hate Microsoft for forcing this down everyone’s throats, reddit is filled with horror stories like mine with this exact issue.
Looks like I will need to find a cheap replacement machine and install Linux mint. Hopefully it can run Onshape and Fusion well enough.
You can get a decent laptop workstation like a Dell precision for fairly cheap if you don’t mind it being a few years old. I’m seeing some pretty good ones on eBay for around $350. If you’d prefer a desktop you’re looking more like $400-500. If you already have a decent GPU to add on your own you can get one for $300ish.
This guy refurbishes older but capable laptops. He doesn’t have anything in stock at the moment but they are some of the best value for money for a laptop. They are solid machines and much better than a lot of the cheap crap you can get for the same price new since these are more heavy duty laptops for businesses. https://salemtechsperts.com/collections/laptops-for-sale?page=1
Teach what? I never used Windows for personal use so I don’t know what I’m missing. Linux is awkward but it works for my browsing and slicing without much work. You will encounter someone compatibility issues.
I’d recommend Fedora KDE, but any of them work. Pick one and switch if it doesn’t suit your fancy, don’t think too hard about it.
I’m a bit of a Debian nerd, but Arch is a close second. I never could get into RPM-based distros.
Linux is great. I’d use Ubuntu. It’s been rock solid for me for years.
I’ve been on many distros over the years:
- Mint
- RasberryPi OS
- Void Linux
- Fedora
- Debian
- Arch Linux
- Oracle Linux
- Amazon Linux
I always find myself back on Ubuntu for Desktop/Laptop and Debian for server stuff…
