You can go online if you wish, and as far as I know, you can run it without registering it, but like you said, it will be limited as to what you wish to ‘personalize’.
If you have had a legal version of Windows, but are no longer using it, you can use that number (you may have to re-register it through MS), and you can also purchase another new number, if you wish, through a web-site like Kinguin, which purchases overstock versions of software and resells for really cheap (I bought Win 10 & 11 for around $30 each).
Or, you can leave it unregistered and I believe the only limitation is personalizing it & a constant reminder in the lower right corner.
If I remember correctly, some of the updates may install stuff that you previously avoided installing (like the ‘call home’ Windows defender), so it would be a good idea to keep the utility handy and run it every once in awhile to make sure that stuff isn’t installed by an update.
thanks bikuri- i had a respopnse, but it didn’t post-
Im trying Chris Titus’ newest program which has soem improvements- it’s pretty easy to use=- just gotta take some time- my clean install went from 147 processes down to 67, but I’m sure it iwl lgo back up with more programs isntalled- but sitll it’s startign out pretty clean-
Here is a video of Britec09 using it plus doing a bunch of other tweak stuff after running it, which i am doing tonight-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmIT1oSkdSk&t=461s
I’m also trying to make a Virtualbox .vmd to .iso- it’s a little complicated- but I think I’ve got it- but we will see- only 1/2 done now-