[avree]

Xbox/Microsoft Store Auth is used for a ton of logins, not just games. Similarly, you can be dismissive of Edge (another thing not included), but the Microsoft Webview Framework is Edge-based (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview...) and will break a variety of useful applications if it's not available.

Be derisive as you want, but your advice is awful. The IoT enterprise release is for IoT use cases. The types of things people do on consumer OSes are not fully supported.

[Krssst]

Using Windows Server 2025 (it has an evaluation version), I encountered a few problems (Xbox Controller needing to dig out de Windows 7-era drivers, Meta Quest audio not working, using pnputil to import missing drivers from a normal Win11 install) but otherwise it's been quite smooth sailing.

Not having Store login sounds bad, but it also means the system cannot trick you into linking your account to a Microsoft account, which is a plus (though accidental login is reversible IIRC). (I am not sure if Minecraft, which is the only game I know to require such login, actually worked or not).

Using not-for-purpose OS for gaming does lead to some hiccups, but to me those hiccups are preferable to the constant fight against your OS trying to shove things down your throat or disregarding your choices (of not wanting copilot, of wanting a local account, of not wanting ad-like stuff in the OS).

(Fedora would be easier to setup at that point, but anticheats...)

I also tried the IoT LTSC evaluation which generally worked better (basically, it has all the drivers the Server version is missing, plus QoL features like Win+V are enabled by default) but buying legitimate keys was not possible as a regular consumer.

[ptx]

WebView2 installs its own copy of Edge, as far as I can tell. Multiple copies even.