Summary
- Flyoobe returned after GitHub’s accidental abuse flag was lifted — the project was restored and now back online.
- OOBE Assist adds post-install setup: set a real default browser, tweak AI, remove bloat.
- The update checker is now lightweight, reducing GitHub API load and flagging risks.
So, there are two really good apps for getting around Windows 11’s system requirements and installing it on anything you want: Rufus and Flyoobe. The former is best for creating a USB stick with Windows 11 on it and installing it on multiple devices, and it even got a dark mode setting recently. Meanwhile, Flyoobe (previously Flyby11) is better for getting Windows 11 on one device, and then customizing your install afterward. It’s why the app adopted the name “Flyoobe” because it’s more focused on the “out-of-box experience” (OOBE).
Well, if you tried to download Flyoobe recently, you might not have found it. The project got taken offline for a while after GitHub’s systems accidentally flagged the account as malicious. Well, Flyoobe has made its triumphant return, and with it comes a salvo of new tweaks and features.
Flyoobe returns from a temporary setback with a new update
In a post on the Flyoobe GitHub page, the developers posted an update on why the app wasn’t available for a little while:
This issue was resolved at 03:58 UTC (05:58 in Germany). GitHub Support told me that “sometimes our abuse-detecting systems highlight accounts that need to be manually reviewed.”
I assume this may have been triggered because Flyoobe is currently receiving a lot of attention with over 10k unique visitors per day.
Flyoobe must be getting popular, as the devs received 50 emails asking if everything is okay, with some speculating that Microsoft itself was the one to drop the axe. Fortunately, it was just an automatic flag from GitHub, and everything was resolved in time.
So, let’s tuck into the new update. The spotlight feature is a new “OOBE Assist tile” that aims to give us the post-install experience Microsoft never gave us. This includes options for changing the default browser, tweaking AI tools, removing bloatware, and more. Flyoobe also now has a “Browse Extensions” link in the ExtensionsInputDialog that lets you find scripts not included with Flyoobe more easily.
The app itself is now less heavy on GitHub API, which should hopefully prevent it from being auto-flagged in the future. As such, even if you already have Flyoobe, the devs recommend you grab the new version to save GitHub’s servers. If you want to give it a spin, head over to the page linked above; if you want to read everything new in this update, here are the full notes: