OpenWin installs Windows 11 the way an open-source operating system would ship: open-source apps out of the box, without 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.
It comes in three editions: with Brave, with Google Chrome, or with Microsoft Edge. The Brave and Chrome editions uninstall Edge.
| Edition | For a USB drive made with the Media Creation Tool | For a virtual machine |
|---|---|---|
| Brave | OpenWin-Brave.zip | autounattend-Brave.iso |
| Chrome | OpenWin-Chrome.zip | autounattend-Chrome.iso |
| Edge | OpenWin-Edge.zip | autounattend-Edge.iso |
Each contains the same two things, autounattend.xml and the $OEM$ folder,
and always ships the latest 7-Zip, plus the latest Brave or Chrome in those
editions (see Always up to date).
| The Start menu and taskbar in the Brave edition | Brave's New Tab page |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Open-source apps by default
- Brave is the default browser and PDF viewer in the Brave edition, pinned
to the Start menu and taskbar, and follows the Windows display language. It
skips its welcome page the first time it opens, and 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.
- 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.
In the Chrome edition
- Google Chrome replaces Brave as the default browser and PDF viewer, in the Start menu and on the taskbar. Chrome itself keeps all its default settings.
In the Edge edition
- Microsoft Edge stays installed instead of Brave, as Windows ships it,
pinned to the Start menu and taskbar. It skips its welcome screens the first
time it opens and doesn't prompt you to use its recommended browser settings.
Each user starts with these settings, which they can change later in Edge's
settings:
- No Copilot button on the toolbar.
- The Downloads button is always shown.
No bloat
- Microsoft Edge is uninstalled, except in the Edge edition.
- These preinstalled apps are removed: Clipchamp, Clock, Camera, Copilot, Dev Home, Family, Feedback Hub, Get Help, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Bing, News, Outlook (new), Phone Link, Power Automate, Quick Assist, Solitaire Collection, Sound Recorder, Sticky Notes, Teams, To Do, Weather, Widgets and Xbox.
- OneDrive is removed.
- The Start menu pins only the edition's browser (Brave, Chrome or Edge), Microsoft Store, Settings, Photos, Paint, Calculator, Notepad, Snipping Tool and File Explorer, and the taskbar pins only File Explorer and the browser.
- 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.
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.
- Make a Windows 11 USB drive with the Media Creation Tool.
- Download OpenWin-Brave.zip, OpenWin-Chrome.zip or OpenWin-Edge.zip and extract it.
- Copy
autounattend.xmland the$OEM$folder to the root of the USB drive, next tosetup.exe. - Boot the PC from the USB drive.
- Download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft and autounattend-Brave.iso, autounattend-Chrome.iso or autounattend-Edge.iso.
- 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.
- Add a second CD/DVD drive with
autounattend-Brave.iso,autounattend-Chrome.isoorautounattend-Edge.iso. - Start the virtual machine and press a key when it says Press any key to boot
from CD or DVD. Windows Setup finds
autounattend.xmlon 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.
- Your language, time format and keyboard.
- Which edition of Windows 11 to install, such as Home or Pro, unless the PC has a license in its firmware (see Activation).
- 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.
Setup doesn't ask for a product key. It lets you choose which edition of Windows 11 to install instead. A PC that came with Windows usually has a license in its firmware, and Setup then installs that license's edition without asking.
Windows activates on its own once it's online if the PC has a license for the edition installed, either in its firmware or as a digital license from an earlier Windows 10 or 11. Otherwise, enter a product key in Settings → System → Activation.
Every 5 minutes, a GitHub Actions workflow checks for new releases of Brave, Google Chrome and 7-Zip. When one is out, it verifies the official installer, commits the update to this repository and publishes a new release with the downloads above. It checks Brave's installer against the checksums Brave signs, Chrome's against Google's digital signature (Google doesn't publish checksums), and 7-Zip's against the checksum GitHub lists for it.
Brave's and Chrome's offline installers are larger than GitHub's 100 MB file
limit, so this repository keeps only their versions, download links and
checksums, in Brave.json and Chrome.json. The downloads above include the installers
themselves. Edge comes with Windows and updates itself.
Changes are tested on the dev branch first. Each push there builds every edition and attaches them to its workflow run in GitHub Actions, without publishing a release.
$OEM$/ Files for every edition
$$/Setup/Scripts/ Scripts that run during setup
$$/Setup/Files/ 7-Zip installer and registry tweaks
Brave/ The Brave edition
autounattend.xml Answer file for Windows Setup
$OEM$/$$/Setup/Files/ Brave.json
$OEM$/$$/Setup/Scripts/ RemoveEdge.cmd, which uninstalls Edge
$OEM$/$$/System32/ Default apps
$OEM$/$1/Users/Default/ Brave settings, Start menu and taskbar layout
Chrome/ The Chrome edition, laid out like Brave's, without browser settings
Edge/ The Edge edition: its answer file, default apps, Edge settings,
Start menu and taskbar layout
.github/ The workflow that keeps everything up to date
docs/ Screenshots and the banner for this README
Each edition's $OEM$ folder is added to the shared one.
Windows Setup copies $OEM$\$$ to C:\Windows and $OEM$\$1 to C:\.
OpenWin is under the MIT License. Brave, Chrome and 7-Zip, which it installs, keep their own licenses.
- Brave by Brave Software, under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.
- Google Chrome by Google, under the Google Chrome Terms of Service.
- 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, Google or 7-Zip.