Windows 9.11

About This Release

This is a customized edition of Windows 11 Enterprise, lovingly dubbed "Windows 9.11." It revives the familiar Windows 10 interface with some Windows 7 style while harnessing the performance and security/privacy enhancements (not to mention the continued support) of Windows 11's kernel.

License Key Required: You must provide a valid Windows 10/11 Enterprise license to activate this operating system.

Architecture: 64-bit only. Not compatible with 32-bit systems.

Changelog (June 07, 2025 - Version 1.2)

• 1.0 – Initial Official Release.
• 1.1 – Installed May 2025 Cumulative Update, which removed the win7 icon pack (oh well). Added classic open with dialog, Did some wimscript exclude stuff on the capture to shrink the ISO. Enabled verbose status messages.
• 1.2 – Removed AuthUX, It didn't work that well. Rip Win7 Login Screen. Added some more excludes to the wimscript to shrink further. Removed preset KMS server (oops).

What's Inside

Windows 9.11 is essentially a lean Windows 11 install with targeted theming and usability tweaks. Key changes include:

• Disabled modern UI elements from Microsoft; reverted to classic styles
• Debloated default installation; removed unwanted apps and processes
• Resolved common Windows 11 annoyances (context menus, taskbar behavior, etc.)
• Applied Chris Titus’s WinUtil defaults, followed by Winaero Tweaker adjustments
• Custom default user profile with minimal registry tweaks to ensure things don't break down the line - this part took longest. I basically went thru every registry key.

Pre-installed Utilities & Software: Brave with uBlock, 7-Zip, Open Shell, Explorer Patcher, OpenWithEx, WinAero Tweaker, and Win10-style versions of Task Manager, Notepad, Sticky Notes, Paint, WordPad, and more.

Installation Note: Windows Setup introduces telemetry. I left OOBE in to preserves language/keyboard selection options for end users. To avoid re-enabling data collection during OOBE, be sure to turn things off and not blindly click next. This system uses the Windows 10 installer to deploy this image. This bypasses TPM/CPU requirements.

DIY Version: For sysadmins who prefer building from scratch: install any Windows 11 base of your liking in Hyper-V, take snapshots, customize, debloat with winutil, apply your registry tweaks (feel free to grab the default profile's ntuser.dat from this - this is the most time consuming part), sysprep, capture the image, and replace the install.wim in a Windows 10 LTSC ISO. I accomplished in ~1.5 days.

Why Windows 9.11?

Watching discussions on system administration, it’s clear many IT pros lament Microsoft’s modern direction. Linux alternatives haven’t reached parity in ease-of-use for AD/GPO management. While LDAP, Ansible, or Chef are powerful, they often add complexity.

Windows 9.11 strips away distractions, delivering a streamlined environment that boots directly to the desktop, great for Enterprise Environments. It’s the perfect blend of classic Windows usability while still being up to date and secure. Janice from accounting wont call the help desk after upgrading from 7/10 to this one!

Installation Instructions

1. Click the download button above to get the .7z archive.
2. Extract the .iso file using 7-Zip or a similar tool.
3. Write the ISO to a flash drive using Rufus or Win32DiskImager (minimum 8 GB recommended) or burn to a Dual Layer DVD (Who still uses Discs?).
4. Boot your PC from the install media.
5. Follow the on-screen setup wizard to install Windows.
6. After boot un-install whatever you don't like from add/remove programs. Removing mods *shouldn't* break the OS.
7. ExplorerPatcher can be removed to get the win11 taskbar and explorer
8. Open-Shell can be removed to get the win11 start menu