Bought a cheap new laptop for my dad, came with W11 home. Turn it on, expecting the setup to take ~10 minutes (all he needs is Chrome & Chess Titans installed). Created a new MS account (usual workarounds didn't work, though hadn't tried too hard, just wanted to get this done), went through setup, downloaded Chrome installer, clicked, and ... S mode, won't install.
No problem, takes a few mouse clicks to switch S off. Or, rather, it should. Clicking the "Get" button in MS Store brought up "We couldn't complete the upgrade," with "Try again" replacing "Get." Surprisingly, trying again solved nothing.
Googled workarounds -- found out command prompt & powershell don't work in S mode. Tried starting from scratch with "Reset your PC" (wasted another half an hour to net the same results). Finally gave up & installed a fresh copy of W11. This installed in normal (not S) mode, and even (verily, we live in an age of miracles) let me create a local account -- guessing because 11 didn't have a network driver for this laptop, so no viable way to connect. Finished installing, stuck in a USB WiFi dongle, let 11 update (bringing in WiFi & the rest of the drivers), after ~2 hours, everything works as it should. Two hours to set up a new laptop with 11 Home preinstalled. Reject modernity >:(