OpenWin installs Windows 11 the way an open-source operating system would ship: open-source apps out of the box, without Edge and most of the preinstalled apps, and with a local account instead of a Microsoft account.

It's an answer file for Windows Setup (autounattend.xml) plus an $OEM$ folder with everything it installs. You add them to the official Windows 11 installer from Microsoft, either on a USB drive or in a virtual machine.

Downloads

File	Use it for
OpenWin.zip	A USB drive made with the Media Creation Tool
autounattend.iso	A virtual machine

Both contain the same two things, autounattend.xml and the $OEM$ folder, and always ship the latest Brave and 7-Zip (see Always up to date).

What you get

The Start menu and taskbar	Brave's New Tab page

Open-source apps by default

• Brave is the default browser and PDF viewer, pinned to the taskbar, and follows the Windows display language. Each user starts with these settings, which they can change later in Brave's settings:
  • No Brave VPN, Leo AI, Wallet or Rewards buttons, and no Leo AI, Brave Talk or Wallet in the sidebar.
  • No Leo suggestions in the address bar or Leo items in the right-click menu, and no Brave Commands suggestions.
  • A New Tab page with a clock, without sponsored images, Brave News or the Rewards, Talk and VPN widgets.
  • Downloads go straight to the Downloads folder without asking where.
  • No welcome page the first time Brave opens, and Brave's anonymous usage statistics (P3A) are off.
• 7-Zip opens archives and disk images: zip, 7z, rar, tar, gz, xz, zst, iso, cab, wim, vhd(x), dmg and more.

No bloat

• Microsoft Edge is uninstalled.
• These preinstalled apps are removed: Clipchamp, Clock, Camera, Copilot, Dev Home, Family, Feedback Hub, Get Help, News, Outlook (new), Phone Link, Power Automate, Quick Assist, Solitaire Collection, Sound Recorder, Sticky Notes, Teams, Terminal, To Do, Weather, Widgets and Xbox.
• OneDrive isn't set up for new users.
• The Start menu only has Brave, Microsoft Store, Settings, Photos, Paint, Calculator, Notepad, Snipping Tool and File Explorer. The taskbar has File Explorer and Brave.
• No web suggestions in Search.

Sensible defaults

• Dark theme and the classic right-click menu.
• File Explorer opens to This PC and shows file extensions and hidden files.
• Mouse acceleration is off.
• Windows Update doesn't replace your drivers.

Easier setup

• Works on PCs without TPM 2.0, Secure Boot or 4 GB of RAM.
• Uses a local account: no Microsoft account and no internet connection needed.
• Skips the privacy settings screen, leaving its optional settings off.

Install from a USB drive

1. Make a Windows 11 USB drive with the Media Creation Tool.
2. Download OpenWin.zip and extract it.
3. Copy autounattend.xml and the $OEM$ folder to the root of the USB drive, next to setup.exe.
4. Boot the PC from the USB drive.

Install in a virtual machine

1. Download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft and autounattend.iso.
2. Create the virtual machine with at least 2 CPUs and the Windows 11 ISO as its boot CD/DVD drive. Windows 11 Setup refuses machines with a single CPU.
3. Add a second CD/DVD drive with autounattend.iso.
4. Start the virtual machine and press a key when it says Press any key to boot from CD or DVD. Windows Setup finds autounattend.xml on the second drive by itself.

Tips for some hypervisors:

• VirtualBox: turn off VirtualBox's own unattended installation when you create the machine: untick Proceed with Unattended Installation (VirtualBox 7.2 and later) or tick Skip Unattended Installation (7.0 and 7.1). Otherwise VirtualBox installs Windows with its own answer file and OpenWin is ignored. Then add the second drive in Settings → Storage.
• VMware Workstation: choose I will install the operating system later to avoid Easy Install, then add the second CD/DVD drive.
• Hyper-V: use a Generation 2 machine and add the second DVD drive to its SCSI controller.
• virt-manager / QEMU: add a second CDROM device.

What Setup still asks you

• Your language, time format and keyboard.
• Where to install Windows. Setup can erase the drive you pick, so back up first.
• Your region and keyboard layout.
• On a PC without a wired connection, a Wi-Fi network. Choose I don't have internet to stay offline.
• A name and password for your account, plus three security questions if you set a password.

Activation

OpenWin installs Windows 11 Pro with Microsoft's generic installation key, which doesn't activate Windows. A PC with a Windows 10 or 11 Pro digital license activates on its own once it's online. Otherwise, enter your own Pro key in Settings → System → Activation.

Always up to date

Every 5 minutes, a GitHub Actions workflow checks for new releases of Brave and 7-Zip. When one is out, it verifies the official installer against the checksums the publisher provides (signed by Brave, for Brave), commits the update to this repository and publishes a new release with the downloads above.

Brave's offline installer is larger than GitHub's 100 MB file limit, so this repository keeps only its version and checksum, in Brave.json. The downloads above include the installer itself.

Repository layout

autounattend.xml          Answer file for Windows Setup
$OEM$/$$/                 Copied to C:\Windows
  Setup/Scripts/          Scripts that run during setup
  Setup/Files/            7-Zip installer, Brave.json and registry tweaks
  System32/               Default apps
$OEM$/$1/                 Copied to C:\ (Brave settings, Start menu and taskbar layout)
.github/                  The workflow that keeps everything up to date
docs/                     Screenshots and the banner for this README

License

OpenWin is under the MIT License. Brave and 7-Zip, which it installs, keep their own licenses.

Credits

• Brave by Brave Software, under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.
• 7-Zip by Igor Pavlov, under the GNU LGPL with the unRAR restriction.

Windows is a trademark of Microsoft. OpenWin isn't affiliated with Microsoft, Brave Software or 7-Zip.