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Windows 11 First Impressions


Dave-H

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It looks like I will finally get started to make some Windows 11 images after getting a few more things from Microsoft. Apparently the Windows 10 National Academic version has reached EOL (End of License) so it cannot be purchased, and if someone wants the NA product they need to get the Windows 11 version.

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  • 1 month later...

 

Hi Guys!

With the crap coming in Windows 11....I have a hard time deciding what the future might be regarding Windows.....

I would even go as far as saying that Windows 11 is worse than Windows 10 when that was released...

I am so fed up with the replies one gets from Microsoft...."we have designed a more logical operating system that makes more sense to the user2.....as far as the user is concerned...Microsoft doesn't give a crap and we all know that....not news....Microsoft doesn't seem to want to listen to the user at all...and every small concession from them is rewarded with something worse...?!!

Typical scenario at the moment (that isn't ever likely to change): Customers daughter lives in England was experiencing problems with Windows 11 and some games... Can I help from Sweden...   I would say 85 to 90% of my customers would not have been able to fix this... I checked at Lenovo for info regarding the release of the computer and what OS it came with and IF there were drivers available for Windows 11.....nada(not Lenovo's fault...just because of everything else happening in the world - they hadn't caught up with the latest crap from Microsoft) My customer was of the opinion that the computer came with Windows 11 - but after several emails back and forth she accepted that she might have upgraded by mistake.. I proceeded with the help of Lenovo to guide my customer with downloading a recovery image and creating a USB to fix her computer....I really thought that it would be tough - but the next email I receive is with windows 10 back on the computer and her games were and are working well again...

I give praise where it is due and she exceeded all of my customers in this adventure...

Mind you I was worried by her reply after a few days of testing... "It must have been something do with Windows 11...I suppose?" 

I kept my reply to "Yes Windows 11" did not have that heart to say any more on the subject!

bookie32

 

Edited by bookie32
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On 3/3/2022 at 7:54 AM, bookie32 said:

With the crap coming in Windows 11....I have a hard time deciding what the future might be regarding Windows.....

I shall watch from the distance, I won't try to predict the future.

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i'll be staying on win7 as long as i can get hardware for it
with this dark future in mind, later it will most likely be Linux with win7 in virtual machine

but new versions of windows ? - no thanks, its been downhill ever since 8 came out,
and if they didn't give a bleep for so long, they never will ...

Edited by vinifera
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  • 2 weeks later...

Didn't think I'd read something like this on VOGONS. :D

Quote

Same here - I don't mind Win 11. And I think that's generally what you'll find in the real world, you know, outside of retro tech forums. People don't like or dislike Windows. It's simply the Main Program that runs all of their other crap, so they tend to forget about it. And with the "Windows" name not even appearing on startup anymore, really young users may not realize that it's even there! All of that boring memory management, processor scheduling and thread spawning (which I'm sure they're totally aware of)? Why, that's probably being handled by the Dell itself! What the hell's an operating system?

Now I'm really going to fan the flames.

Not only do I think that modern Windows is a fine OS, I also don't mind modern office suites, browsers, modern games and their modern launchers, etc. In fact, I prefer all of that new "bloated" software *. Yes, it all updates in the background & probably consumes a billion times more MIPS, FLOPS and RAM than the old stuff, but I don't notice it, so I don't care. It just works, and that is super great. The horsepower's there, so why not take advantage of it? Both hardware and software developers have worked their butts off to get us to where we are now, so jeez, why not cut them just a bit of slack? They more than effin' deserve it.

*By the way, I still try to get in at least a couple hours of DOS-Win98 gaming every weekend (on real hardware, to boot)! So please, don't take my VOGONS posting permissions away just yet. 😀

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=86945

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They do have a point, though. People tend to forget that outside of a small percentage, nobody cares what their Windooz is like, as long as it runs what they want to run.

Edited by i430VX
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Much as I dislike Windows 10 and 11, I have to agree:  most people don't care what OS their computer is running, as long as it lets them run whatever programs they want to run.

How else does Microsoft get away with all the Telemetry, forced updates and other junk?  Because most of their user base either doesn't know the difference or doesn't care!

Either way, they just blindly accept whatever MS dishes out because newer is ALWAYS better!

c

Edited by cc333
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

A couple of months ago, i installed Windows 11 (21H2). Upgrading from Windows 10 (20H2) I was on unsupported hardware, so let me tell you my experience with Windows 11. I will being reviewing as many features as possible. So be warned, this for some may be a long read.
                                                                                      

PC Specs:
Intel Celeron N3450 1.10ghz, 4 cores
4GB Ram
64 GB EMMC Hard Disk
Intel Based HD Graphics
                                                                                      

Upgrading:
I firstly, downloaded a iso of Windows 11, then mounted it with Windows Explorer. Opening Setup, I ran into my first problem. Setup didn't support my CPU, which was expected. Meaning i had to go into my registery and Add a DWORD to bypass the CPU check. It was easy, laughable. The only error i got from then was a warning about the CPU and how Windows Update may no longer support unsupported hardware, Since i am careful, i consent then start upgrading.
                                                                                      

Setup:
Since i upgraded, i had virtually no OOBE (Out of box experience) Since then, i setup a VM and installed Windows 11 again for OOBE. There were new animations, left and right. The option to select a offline account disappeared, so i had to use a (I'm assuming is a devloper command) to contiune with limited setup and make a offline account. The classic privacy settings were there, Unticking all of them is a chore. (Why can't there be a disable all button?) and i eventually made it to desktop.
                                                                                      

Appearence:
The dumbest decision from Microsoft, was to place the start menu in the center. We all know it's always been intended to be on the left. And due to Microsoft's Activation blocking appearence settings, it's stuck in the center. Rounded courners are a nice addition, but maybe they should fix the dark mode's eye sores. I have since installed Simple Classic Theme and RetroBar for my classic XP hybrid. Many elements have been recycled for 7/8/10 Such as but not limited to, AutoPlay dialogue, Ease of access, Recovery screens,Windows PE, and more. It makes 11's updated design a lie.
                                                                                      

Compatablity:
It's mixed bag, a very mixed one, at the very least, Windows XP era apps work with their features intact, But Microsoft added a unnesacery feature, Blocking certain file names such as 'Setup.exe' even when most programs work due to 'Compatablity issues with security' Changing the filename is all you have to do to get around the check. Just shows how 'great' Microsoft is at placing restrictions on programs.
                                                                                      

Gaming:
I don't have a lot of games, as i have multiple gaming consoles and my PC has very low specs, But i tried Need For Speed Most Wanted 2005, and it worked perfectly, without compatablity too. Other games will obvisouly not go as well, with people saying that performance dropped when they upgraded. So, take that with a pinch of salt as you like.
                                                                                      

Performance (General):
I never noticed a major downgrade in performance, But i must mention that i had mutliple programs in the background, and my general test was a VM. Startup took around a minute due to a long log in time, and RetroBar and Simple Classic Theme having to load.
                                                                                      

Verdict:
Windows 11 does need help. With useless requirements (A camera requirement will be introduced next year, Desktop PC's excluded.) Hate from all sides, even veteran Windows fans, restrictions on appearance and a internet world transition that is too strong, It's a no brainer that 11 is having a vista like hate, Microsoft is begging that 22H2 will pull them out of this vista like period. Time will only tell.
4/10 Rating

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  • Tripredacus changed the title to Windows 11 First Impressions

It's buried pretty deep, but there is an option to return the start menu from the center and place it back at the left where it is suppposed to be.

I cannot claim to have tried it, but most of the settings like that are simple registry keys that still work regardless of the settings GUI being blocked due to not being activated yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/24/2022 at 9:24 PM, Nerdulater said:

The dumbest decision from Microsoft, was to place the start menu in the center.

Being a Mac user off and on since the 90s (and largely on for the past 10 years or so), this reminds me of the Mac OS X Public Beta, where Apple thought they'd try putting an ornamental, nonfunctional Apple logo in the top center of the menu bar, instead of a traditional Apple Menu (before Mac OS X, it was basically equivalent in concept to the Windows Start menu with some differences in execution) in the top left where it belongs.

Needless to say, the criticism was fierce, so they reversed it and to this day, macOS still has an Apple menu in the top left (although since Mac OS X RTM (10.0), it doesn't function much like either the old Apple menu or the Start menu did at all, in that you can't add anything to it).

Be that as it may, I feel like Apple in recent years has moved in a similar direction as MS, and I'm lagging behind at macOS 10.14 as a result, because in my opinion it is the last fairly hackable version (the OS has become increasingly locked down since then, and when run on Apple's M1 hardware, it's basically almost as locked down as iOS;  I'll cut MS a little slack here in that at least there's still a freely viewable registry in which one can tweak otherwise hidden or inaccessible settings.  At least for now...).

Incidentally, after trying Windows 8.1 (and even 10 for a time), I have settled back to XP for doing tasks that are better suited to Windows, and 7 for the few of them that XP can't do.  Since I use mostly macOS for modern stuff anyway, I have the freedom to stay with XP and 7 indefinitely if I want (so long as I have access to viable XP or 7-era hardware and/or continue to use an Intel-based computer that can run them in a VM), and if either one or both can no longer browse the internet, it'll be sad, but it won't much affect how I use them (this is especially true if they're running in VMs, as I can simply switch to the host OS to do anything they can't do).

Anyway, this is a bit off topic in that I'm not discussing my impressions of Windows 11.  The thing is, since I haven't used it, and probably never will (save for maybe a VM just to poke around in for curiosity's sake), I don't really have any reason to discuss it other than to say that, based on what I've read and heard from others who have tried it, I'm pretty much not going to bother, as it seems like it'd just be a waste of time (and besides, absolutely NONE of my computers are supported (my newest is Skylake-based), and even though the installer's CPU check is easily bypassed and there's no apparent negative effects from doing so, there's no guarantee that MS won't fix that loophole and make it harder).

c

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  • 4 months later...

Peeked at Win11 22H2, still looks confusing as the first release. Noticed they changed Task Manager, now looks like UWP app and it's got icon buttons on the side instead of labeled tabs on top (can be expanded to see the labels) and huge context menus. Was looking for the Startup folder the other day, then I remember Win10's start menu hides Startup folder as well. I'm so used to the sane menu provided by Open-Shell (formerly Classic Shell).

Hopefully don't need Win11 any time soon.

Somewhat off-topic, but I really dislike the idea of running multiple OSes on one machine on a regular basis. Virtual machines cost a lot of resources, no proper graphics support, sound latency. Rebooting also couldn't be more annoying, close everything, wait for the other OS to boot and then you end up in another world.

Edited by UCyborg
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I haven't been able to try Windows 11 22H2. I went to make a base image but it stops during setup saying the computer doesn't meet system requirements. MS has changed their online support and now it is a gauntlet for me to get answers as to why it is giving this error.

In regards to multi-boot, I only use it on specific devices. Regular computers I want to have maximum uptime, makes no sense for me to multi-boot or VMs in. The only systems I use multi-boot on are my notebooks which are for specific purposes, and are supposed to be turned on as needed and off most of the time.

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On 10/21/2022 at 4:20 PM, Tripredacus said:

I went to make a base image but it stops during setup saying the computer doesn't meet system requirements.

Admittedly, I only tried current version on a virtual machine on a work laptop, which isn't too old (cca. 5 years), I got past system requirements page by inputting some registry settings. They're making it difficult to skip finishing setup with Microsoft account. Rufus is supposedly able to modify an installation image to bypass all these, not personally tested on 22H2 though.

The darn OOBE phase even refuses to continue if you're not connected to the internet. This craze with forcing online connectivity all the time and online accounts for everything has really gotten out of control.


Microsoft Defender Antivirus also keeps insisting on running. The group policy setting for turning it off is "unsupported" in any other state but "Not configured". Then if you do set it to enabled, connected DisabeAntispyware setting in registry gets deleted right away. Oh, but it can be there as long as it's set to 0! This happens even with tamper protection disabled. Registry modifications listed here are yet to be tried (another article predating 22H2 release).

Something about aesthetics, MS really hates proper window borders. In Win10, they just "deleted" them from resource file, but Win11's compositor doesn't draw them at all, even if present. Some time back, I modified Win11 RTM's theme resource file aero.msstyles by transplanting image resources from Windows 7 plus some community contributed images (those whose original image's dimensions don't match and the elements they represent would come out weird with Win7's image due to under-the-hood changes), Seems Win11 RTM's theme file is usable even with some Win10 builds, at least I haven't noticed any bugs on either 20H2 or 1809.

So this is the run dialog with said file on Slovenian Win11 (ExplorerPatcher was also used to disable rounded corners, to make it closer to Win10):

spacer.png

But on Win10, it comes out like this:

spacer.png

Registry settings for window captions are the same on both systems. Win7 and Vista also have an emphasized edge, not just rounded corners they're selling with Win11!

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