AOS-GUI is coming along nicely! I'm pretty proud of my changes to the shell so far, and I'm really excited to publish the new version! Unfortunately school has started back up again, and the workload is already annoying.
Thankfully, I'm working on a couple of ways to increase my productivity (non-school wise) on school laptops. USB booting has been patched, so sadly that is a no-go :(. I have 16 GB of free storage to work with though, so there should be plenty of space.
Current ideas:
- PowerShell. This is the most viable option for expanding my horizons (don't worry, nothing to do with gaining admin, just simply trying to bypass UAC prompts).
- Online tools. Incredibly, there are many programs available online that I can use to my advantage, namely copy.sh/v86, Distrosea, github.dev, and Infinite Mac. With just these websites I can get my Linux and coding fixes easily.
- Remote desktop software. As an easy solution, I can simply wire into my computer at home and do what I need to do there. Without admin access or the ability to run executables not signed by Microsoft, my options are pretty limited. However, there are ways to pull this off (VNC, noVNC, anydesk, chrome remote desktop [this one may not be a very good option due to some recent... changes on Google's end]).
- Microsoft MSIXes. There's a way to install Microsoft store apps by opening a downloaded .msix file (package file). I've already done this to install Python, so it's probably also possible with all of the other apps (this solution requires further testing).
- Just ask for the apps I need ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I attempted this earlier today, I emailed an IT guy about installing Git onto my computer along with Neovim. That should hold me off if successful.
So there are plenty of backup plans in case something goes wrong or one of these methods get patched. I'm also constantly looking for other ways to make school more livable and the laptops less annoying to work with, so maybe I'll discover the Holy Grail of workarounds sometime soon!!
- Regarding PowerShell: via VSCode you can use pwsh, or you can download the .msix bundle and install a new, unblocked pwsh that way.
- Regarding MSIXes: if there's a way to package regular installers into MSIXs then all restrictions will be removed (candidate could be packaging into MSIX from a personal computer and sending it over through USB/FTP/etc.)!