It looks like MS recently went all-in on OEM certified driver segmentation, ripping everything else out of its official images.
If you have a Latitude or Optiolex or ThinkPad you’re still fine, but good luck trying to get a Vivobook or any consumer product to work without using the OEM recovery image filled with crapware.
It’s that or find about 7-8 drivers exactly matching your hardware IDs, so 3-4 tries for each driver or research and write down each one individually. Also, you get to do all that with the keyboard if you don’t have a very generic usb mouse lying around.
I did 6? weeks ago when I upgraded my mobo to an AM5. I forgot to pre-download the WiFi driver, so I had to string a 50' piece of Cat5 from my office to install. My dumbass should have just downloaded the driver to one of the three laptops I have scattered around me and put it on a USB key, but noooo, I had to do it the hard way.
Other than that, it was mainly just the AMD chipset and graphics driver, and the printer/scanner driver. Everything else was detected properly.
Back in July, but it was for a new build. I think that is my last "Windows" install (famous last words). If I need a laptop, which is uncertain at this point, I'll just take it as is and try my best to debloat it with available tools.
If I ever build again, I'll go Linux. Not scared - did it before. Windows 7 was great. Windows 10 was great. Windows 11 is back to being a necessary evil. It's a hell of their own making.
Microsoft Windows is a full-fledged surveillance mechanism with just enough productivity (and gaming capabilities) to keep people around.
And I say this an Azure tenant global administrator. I install Windows VMs on the regular, but that's easy compared to dealing with driver nightmares.
I use Windows in my work life out of necessity. In my personal life, I moved to macOS, Linux, and a couple of Windows VMs for the stuff that I can't do on any thing else, like Office applications. I RDP into them when needed.
I'm not a gamer, and if I was, I would just let my kids kick my arse on their XBox.
quote: Microsoft Windows is a full-fledged surveillance mechanism
Let me guess, you prefer Android and have a Gmail account? You personally may not, but the hypocrisy of people bitching about MS versus the amount of data they deliver to Alphabet with no concern is idiotic. MS was under an FTC consent decree for 20 years, but Google escaped it, and people raved about how Google "just worked." MS apps couldn't work the same way because of the fear of the FTC about data sharing (the consent decree has ended.)
Which surveillance mechanisms can't you turn off through group policy or other mechanisms? Remember, we exist in a world where nobody says "only accept necessary cookies" except for us dorks, regardless of the OS.
Not a Vivobook, but I installed Windows on a some Asus NUCs a few weeks ago. I used the Asus Download Center to download the driver package for my specific model. I installed Windows then installed the driver pack from Asus.
You don't have to hunt for specific drivers. Asus has already assembled them for you. If you're worried about bloatware, just have Windows search the driver pack for missing drivers.
I use a Startech.com USB to Ethernet adapter, Windows 11 install will pick that up automatically. Then once the install happens Windows will usually grab the rest of the drivers from Windows Update.
Ironically, Windows 11 installer doesn't have all of the drivers for the Surface laptops.
NUC is more of an enterprise/enthusiast product so it is supported better than Vivobook. Due to the new MS driver fiasco, cheaper consumer products are relegated to the Asus bootable cloud refresh tool or are a lot more work. Not a big deal for me, just wanted to sell it and thought Windows would be more appealing than Ubuntu.