Feedback on Win 11?

[SiliconWizard]

Just curious, now that Win 11 has been released for a while. Probably a number of you have it installed. If so, would you care to share some feedback? The good, the bad and the ugly?

[gmb42]

Medium use on a home machine (i7-8550U laptop), media consumption, browsing, 3d cad modelling and slicing and some simple software development tasks, wsl2, it all works for me.

Sure there's the odd niggle, pointy-clicky file explorer ops are more difficult but as I always have Windows Terminal open with a couple of instances of Pwsh or bash (using wsl2) I don't notice that and the new task bar UI doesn't make much sense to me but I've pinned the applications I use and can just Windows key and type the name of anything unpinned (as I've done over many versions of the OS).

Nothing to get hung up about at all in my opinion, but I'm sure some folks will find a way.

[Fred27]

Professional developer. Use it on my home and dev machines without a problem. Like it. The "I hate everything apart from Win 7" crew just like moaning loudly online. It's fine.

[MK14]

Professional developer. Use it on my home and dev machines without a problem. Like it. The "I hate everything apart from Win 7" crew just like moaning loudly online. It's fine.

To help (as a yard stick), to get an idea of how you rate things.  How does the Windows 11 experience, compare to the previous Windows 10 experiences. I.e. Better, about the same or worse ?

[nctnico]

Is it possible to kill font anti-aliasing (Cleartype in Microsoft speak) entirely on Windows 11?

[james_s]

Professional developer. Use it on my home and dev machines without a problem. Like it. The "I hate everything apart from Win 7" crew just like moaning loudly online. It's fine.

I really dislike it when people blow off a person's concerns as nothing with this sort of passive-aggressive swipe. I thought every version of Windows up to and including 7 were quite good, some better than others but the UI was fine in all of them, then everything later has been shit. That's great that it works for you but recognize that many of us have perfectly legitimate reasons for disliking it and it is NOT just that we "like moaning loudly".

[SiliconWizard]

Agree with james_s, and most of all, let's stick to factual points, not general, useless, finger-pointing without addressing anything related to the question. I know it's hard for some, but that's worth a try.

[thm_w]

Is it possible to kill font anti-aliasing (Cleartype in Microsoft speak) entirely on Windows 11?

Its the exact same as windows 10, which I already linked to: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-font-smoothing-windows

The real question is if they will add additional support for non-standard RGB subpixel layouts.

[nctnico]

Is it possible to kill font anti-aliasing (Cleartype in Microsoft speak) entirely on Windows 11?

Its the exact same as windows 10, which I already linked to: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-font-smoothing-windows

Unfortunately that method doesn't kill anti-aliased fonts entirely.

[xrunner]

Just curious, now that Win 11 has been released for a while. Probably a number of you have it installed. If so, would you care to share some feedback? The good, the bad and the ugly?

I waited until just a few weeks ago to install it on the only two PCs that could accept it (the other PCs I have are either Linux or have a processor that isn't on the "accepted list" - Ryzen 7 1700s).

The install went smoothly with no problems. I run the usual things everyone does like office programs and web browsers. I also use VS code for compiling Marlin for my 3D printer, and Fusion 360 for 3D modeling designs. It all works just as well as it did before.

I think it looks fine. The designers thought that having the task bar icons in the center at the bottom was "better"  I simply set the damn alignment back to where it has been for years - to the left.

I really don't notice a lot that seems to be blowing my mind as far as "greatness" goes. I do think it has better security and it's using the fTPM in the processor - you can check that by typing & entering this -

Code: [Select]

tpm.msc
What it has in there right now I don't know ...

So I guess I'm OK with it and I've already moved on to bigger and better things like deciding what beer to drink tonight while watching the NBA playoffs. 

[SiliconWizard]

I think it looks fine. The designers thought that having the task bar icons in the center at the bottom was "better"  I simply set the damn alignment back to where it has been for years - to the left.

I think the new UI looks ok, just looking more and more similar to a mix of Gnome 3 and MacOS. As to the task bar, believe it or not, the CEO of MS said in interviews that it was not just a random change, the point was that they thought that would make the user more at the center of the Windows experience. (Interviews can be found on YT.) Feel free to chuckle.

The deal with context menus seems horrible though, and the new Start menu, basically useless.

[gmb42]

I thought every version of Windows up to and including 7 were quite good, some better than others but the UI was fine in all of them, then everything later has been shit. That's great that it works for you but recognize that many of us have perfectly legitimate reasons for disliking it and it is NOT just that we "like moaning loudly".

Very insightful comments.

[50ShadesOfDirt]

Win11 "pro" installed cleanly in a VM just as easy as win10 did ... no surprises during install steps that I couldn't easily google my way around. No forced account issues, etc.

Afterwards, I applied all my usual steps to thin it down, and add back in my set of software and tweaks to it that makes the OS my own, vs the MS oobe thing. Was able to crank down on  telemetry & services, rip out the MS store, and install all my usual suspects for applications (my own start menu, chocolatey, my set of FOSS applications, virtualization software, and so on).

When that was done, it wasn't much different than win10, albeit slightly faster/prettier/etc. If it survives in the vm for a few more months or so, then I'll replace Win10 on one of my physical machines with Win11 as the main OS, and ensure my set of physical things (graphics cards, printers & such) work well with it. Long before then, all the tweaks will be understood and in place.

Really like Windows Terminal, VSCode (and all its plugins), and Powershell, but then, I have all this on win10 as well. If an application is free, doesn't require annual subscriptions or other nonsense (like an MS Store system or a cloud service), then it's all good.

There wasn't anything that stumped me for longer than it took to open a browser and do some searching ... but I do this for linux as well. The smart folks out there in the world solved the majority of potential problems long before, and a bit of googling is all it takes to find their answers.

[Coordonnée_chromatique]

Sometimes wordpad take a while to open.

[Bicurico]

I have it on my work laptop. Had to install it to antecipate issues at customers with the software we sell.

Installation was withou issues. It works just like Windows 10.

However, there is no single good new feature that I noticed or remember that is noteworthy to mention.

On the other hand, things I dislike:

The start menu is horrible a d does not allow to configure tiles in groups as before.
Worse, half of the start is reserved for last used items or apps. Because I share my screen a lot, I switched this off, as I don't want people to know what I have been doing. Well, half the start menu is now empty, which looks really bad.
Next issue I hate is the right mouse button context menu: it moved to a sub menu of a new useless context menu.
If you want to right click on i.e. an NC file to open in Notepad++, you get soon poor suggestions from Microsoft, need to pick one of the last items in the list that says other options, or similar, and then you get the regular context menu. I hate Windows 11 just for this alone.
Apart from this, it is basically the same as Windows 10 with round window corners. I would not pay money to move from 10 to 11. But I would do the upgrade, just for the sake of getting updates.
And yes, after some weeks you just resign and accept it.

[xrunner]

I was just researching over the last fews days what exactly I need to do to replace a MOBO or CPU when the system is using active fTPM (internal to CPU) or a TPM device on the MOBO and Winows 11. Why am I doing this?

A. This weekend I'm going to swap out the motherboard on my "main" Windows 11 PC. I want an M.2 nvme device and current MOBO lacks this capability

B. Later this year I will also upgrade the CPU and the fTPM function would have to be restarted on the new CPU.

From the understanding I got from several sources the "wrapper key" the TPM uses to keep other keys safe is generated from a unique number assigned to each TPM and from information gathered from the current computer system BIOS and hardware. This then provides the unique fingerprint for each person's system. As usual, if my understanding of that is flawed please let me know.

Nevertheless, in order to do this with the least amount of irritating/confusing error messages, you still need to do the following from the research I have done -

1.Turn off all Windows Hello sign in options (Facial, Fingerprint, and PIN); these are dependant on the TPM. Your Windows sign-in password is not dependant on TPM.
2.Clear TPM using tpm.msc app or the security center from within Windows
3.Reboot into BIOS, disable TPM function
4.Reboot and check logging in to Windows is OK (password)
5.Turn off system
6.Swap CPU or MOBO
7.Turn on PC, check logging into Windows is OK
8.Restart PC, enter BIOS, turn on TPM
9.Reboot
10.Set up Windows Hello log in options if any (Facial, Fingerprint, or PIN)

At this point I am sitting at step 4, no problems or errors at all were observed. I plan to swap the MOBO Saturday morning so we'll see how it goes then ... 

[SilverSolder]

[...]
And yes, after some weeks you just resign and accept it.

Or, you keep using Windows 7 and moan! 

[Mechatrommer]

[...]
And yes, after some weeks you just resign and accept it.

Or, you keep using Windows 7 and moan! 

20yrs WinXP user here, 2yrs Win7, and now moving to Win10 just because i need the built in mixed reality environment, my next OS maybe is Win13 or Win17.. if i still live to see it...

[Bicurico]

There is a real risk in using older Windows versions for which Microsoft discontinued the release of security patches.

Also, you may need to use software that requires newer Windows versions.

I don't think that it is wise to use Windows XP or Windows 7 with computers connected to the internet.

[Ian.M]

Carefully decrapified Windows 10 + OpenShell + 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is quite tolerable for long-term Windows XP or 7 power users who prefer a classic windows UI.  You can even fairly trivially reactivate the QuickLaunch toolbar, which I have been using for a curated set of utilities I very frequently use since the days of Win98, and prefer to pinning stuff to the taskbar, though I do pin there stuff temporarily.   

However Windows 11 + those utilities is a whole different kettle of fish, and rather unfresh fish at that!   To get OpenShell to 'play well' with it, and and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to work at all, you have to revert it to the Windows 10 UI e.g. using ExplorerPatcher, and unfortunately the settings it tweaks for Win10 compatibility are per machine not per user, so you cant easily share a PC with anyone who *likes* and wants the new Windows 11 UI.  

With the additional barrier of MS's Win11 min. processor and TPM shenanigans, when Win10 goes out of support, I'll probably migrate to Linux with a bunch of Windows software under WINE or in a VM, rather than upgrading to Win11 capable  hardware, as I'm committed to *NOT* contributing to Microsoft's SaaS/WaaS revenue stream.

[Mechatrommer]

I was dependent on WinXp due to its windows explorer, but i found alternative that works on any windows, so now any windows are the same to me.. i just dont want win11 yet due to the notion that, any newer released windows are unstable, experimental in its nature and nothing prohibits crackers from making malicious trojans for it. Having said that, any windows's built in explorer later than winxp are simply said... crap.

[CatalinaWOW]

I can see no great harm, and absolutely zero benefit in W11.  They have moved a few things around and it takes a while to figure where they put them.  I am sure that something is more secure or something, but as a simple software user I find nothing worth the annoyance of moving things around.