Wait for Windows 11.1

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LANGALIST By Fred Langa Microsoft’s incremental rollout of Win11 is continuing — newer, more-compatible PCs are receiving the upgrade now, while older
[See the full post at: Wait for Windows 11.1]

7 users thanked author for this post.

Alex5723, oldfry, lmacri, AlexEiffel, rc primak, geekdom, abbodi86

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Nice review

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What abbodi86 said.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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There is a VERY old joke about Microsoft new software releases and how they go about debugging.

They call it version 1.

Part of the OTHG (over the hill gang). Which way did they go --- I'm their leader!

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deeppow wrote:

They call it version 1.

I remember the joke a bit differently (but I’m old, too, so maybe I forgot). My recollection is “Microsoft gets it right on the third try.”

This was based on DOS 3 and Windows 3. There are quite a few other examples in Microsoft’s opus, one of which is Visual Basic versions 3 and 6.

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What I retain from all this is:

-Microsoft is able to make gorgeous looking design.

-Microsoft seem to forget more and more how it was good at designing functional UIs in the past. Windows was and might still offer the best UI there is, but from maybe Windows 2000 or XP, it went mostly downhill in many ways, even if they added a few nice things here and there.

-Microsoft seem to think they must emulate the inferior functional interface of their small market share competitors (vs the desktop and laptop PC market) just to look contemporary, to remain relevant. Why can’t they do the best of both worlds? It’s like Firefox copying Chrome thinking people will find them more interesting because they remove UI features their users loved and unfortunately betting that privacy will be enough of an incentive to keep or gain users.

-There is a difference between cluttering the UI with useless things and removing advanced features. I am for a clean UI, but it needs to offer an easy way for basic users to do what they want and a complete set of features for advanced users, with an ability to use shortcuts or customization options to add frequently used items somewhere else. Preventing power users from using a functional Start Menu or taskbar serves nobody. Lambda users don’t mess with that. Power users get angry.

-Settings need to be easily found in one giant place, with redundancy some other places acceptable, but no scattering of settings in different unusual places without a mirror in the normal settings spot. Windows 11 seem to improve on that. You need to be able to see all Windows settings and choose everything you want in a dedicated space, organized.

-Microsoft should abide by the click rule: is there a way to do the same features with the same number or less mouse clicks for a frequently used feature? If no, then it is not a great idea. If it is a feature frequently used by some users, maybe make it customizable so it can be added to a place where it is quicker to access.

-Microsoft pretend Windows 11 is designed to diffuse a sense of peace and whatever in a sea of crazy changes and distractions. The irony is Microsoft is responsible for those with their two times a year release schedule, which they reduced to one time a year with Windows 11, which is still too much for many. They also bloat the OS with mindless ads, sleazy marketing tactics to push bing or prevent you from easily choosing your default browser. Oh, the coherence!

-Windows was by far and is still the productivity desktop of choice. It is not great at security although they have very competent people on the security front. They seem to be going in that direction of being more secure, but it still has the legacy hindering those efforts. Windows should focus strategically on its core business, productivity and flexibility, while working on ease of deployment and security, then it would secure its position even more in the market as the no nonsense choice for serious work. They can switch the look to keep mass appeal, but not hinder productivity while doing so. The more Microsoft makes it annoying to deal with Windows, the more Apple and its new chips, less hassle experience for some and simple, beautiful interface can be attractive. I worked on the ugly classic look of Windows 7 for years because the classic theme was better for identifying the active window.

What Windows need is more customization and an easy way to save and copy settings from one computer to another. That way, advanced users could easily make a smarter set of settings targeted to their audience and simply dump them on others computers. I do that with registry scripts, but it is not user friendly. There are many things from the newer Windows versions I need to repair to get back to a productive state and I don’t think it is because I am a dinosaur. Group policy is incomplete. You need registry hacks to switch many settings quickly without going into the UI. You shouldn’t have to rely on images to deploy a fresh Windows and push sensible settings onto it, whether you are a home user that reinstalls or a SMB business user.

To give examples:

-I want to open an explorer Window on This PC so I can see drive instead of the stupid quick access when pressing WINDOWS+E because I only use this to reach drives, relying on search for finding documents and folder hierarchies otherwise or using one of the few shortcuts to my documents or pictures on the taskbar’s quicklaunch bar. Windows in its default state now needs more clicks to do all kind of things.

-The search tool since 10 is inferior to Windows 7’s one and it often needs more clicks to reach what you are looking for.

-The taskbar is awful after Vista, I need to tweak it to get back the view where I see what Windows are open and what is in it, to avoid clicking or hovering, wasting time to see what I am looking for. I need to re-enable the quicklaunch bar to have icons on the bar to quickly start apps (yes I could use keyboard shortcuts, but users click so that’s better for my users). It would be nice to be able to assign shortcut keys to quicklaunch icons with a vanilla Windows version. I like Windows showing in the taskbar, because they don’t move. You get used to have this third window you are working on there and you go there when you need it, you don’t alt-tab, look where your window is right now among the high number of open windows, just to find it.

Conclusion:

The only way we have a little chance of signaling Microsoft their approach to software development is insane is to not buy into it. I won’t run Windows 11 in production for a while, until it gets better than 10 in terms of quality/stability or until 10 runs out of support.

If enough people reject the OS, they will have to look into why and stop arrogantly or mindlessly prevent people from customizing their experience or change settings as much. Maybe they will look into adding more function into design, thinking in terms of productivity and not just look. They might have listened a bit with Windows 11, reducing the number of feature updates and cleaning the interface, they just didn’t do such a good job with the feedback and forgot to not create more hassle at the same time when people want another browser, for example. Let’s hope they won’t think Windows is dead because people don’t rush to upgrade but realize they just need to get better at releasing quality software from the start and focus on productivity.

 

 

6 users thanked author for this post.

Cee Arr, Charlie, Cybertooth, Tom-R, NaNoNyMouse, abbodi86

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AlexEiffel wrote:

They might have listened a bit with Windows 11, reducing the number of feature updates and cleaning the interface

I suspect Microsoft looks jealously at Apple’s cash mountain, forgetting that its own foray into PC/laptop hardware has been less than stellar.

I believe MS has no option but to keep on developing Windows for consumers… for the moment – but only as a continuity platform for the remaining MS Office cash cow. I can’t think of any other reason now that MS are no longer charging for the Windows OS itself.

As Enterprise/Education users are already managed, it seems apparent that MS no longer has any interest in local, consumer installs of Windows except to limit MS’ exposure to issues, hence the move to locking everything down/removing functionality and obfuscating choice.

“If Joe/Josephine Public cannot change anything then they’ll have fewer problems.” seems to be the new mantra.

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It seems that to judge Microsoft to Apple based on Windows 10/11 might be a little short-sided.  Click on the link for a look at the numbers in dollars.

Microsoft And Apple: An Updated Comparison After The First Half Of 2021

They’re doin’ alright.

Operating System Market Share Worldwide – October 2021
Android – 39.75%
Windows – 32.44%
iOS – 16.7%
OS X – 6.85%
Unknown – 1.9%
Chrome OS – 1.1

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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AlexEiffel wrote:

What I retain from all this is:

-Microsoft is able to make gorgeous looking design.

What I take from all this is :

Microsoft is able to copy bluntly MacOS and Linux desktop.. design.

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bbearren wrote:

They’re doin’ alright.

Based on a dubious ‘Seeking Alpha’ article written by some unknown who is “focused on growth and dividend income.”? I’m convinced… I’m going to invest all my worldly wealth, based on your recommendation.

Alternatively, I’ve no doubt that I can find similar flaky sites arguing the opposite. 🙂

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NaNoNyMouse

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Legacy programs were left intact and some show improvement:

Paint (not Paint3d) with improvements
Backup (Windows 7)

There may be others.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Based on all I have read waiting is not the option I would chose.
The option would be running. 🏃🏻‍♀️
Likely in the direction of Linux …🐧

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, we all do have things to be thankful for if we can even be on this board.

The 🦃🦃 maybe less so

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Cybertooth

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I upgraded my work machine almost 2 weeks ago just to get used to it before we get clients rolling in with their Christmas presents. Much better than playing with a VM a couple hours per week. Bear in mind I run a decrapped Win 10 with quite a few modifications. I have had no issues with installed software and it has been perfectly stable.

Getting used to the new menus and icons is a bit of a pain but wouldn’t be a showstopper as I can tweak most of it. The settings app has so much stuff buried it’s kind of a pain to find things. Had to go to a tethered connection today due to internet outage and it was a chore. Required a reboot which was never needed with 10.

I’ll probably be going back to 10 in the next week or so. Not because 11 is THAT bad but it’s what most of my clients run and I like my machine to be as close to theirs as possible. I also won’t be recommending they upgrade for at least a year or two.

Funny thing… I upgraded my family machine just to bug my wife. She’s been using it all this time and never noticed!!! Grandkid noticed immediately though 🙂

Never Say Never

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I have a EVOO latop and the windows 11 checker said all compatible except for the Intel i7-6660U processor. I then did the registry change and downloaded the 11 install.

Upgrade went with no problems and it then downloaded some updates.

After a few days I started getting concerned about pauses and delays. Mostly related to screen display and response to clicking with mouse. When using RDP it is even worse. I doubted it was my internet connection.

Today I reverted back to windows 11 which was smooth.

The delays and pauses are gone. RDP to work is back to normal.

Question would be why? Does the CPU lack some function that the newer generations have that Windows 11 counts on?

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RDP as host or guest? I’ve been logging into many machines and have not noticed any issues. As to delays I would be thinking drivers. On my work machine I can’t say it’s any faster but definitely not any slower. The grandson said on the family machine it is faster in his opinion than 10.

Never Say Never

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anonymous wrote:

Does the CPU lack some function that the newer generations have that Windows 11 counts on?

Yes, it does. Example VBS (Virtualization-Based Security) support.

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Product Key? We don’t need no stinking product key!

Fred writes: …these [Windows 11] ISOs now require a product key in order to complete installation.

I have used the downloaded Windows 11 ISO on two computers without the product key and both installs are registered and legal.

Both computers started out with Windows 7, then updated to Windows 10 with Microsoft’s free upgrade offer. Hopefully users kept their Windows 7 install disk with the product key or know how to find it in Windows 10 and write it down before doing a clean install from the Windows 11 ISO.

There have been a few changes in the way Microsoft handles a license. One change is a user can now change out everything including the motherboard and processor without triggering a call to Microsoft, which is like building a completely new computer and keeping your activation license, which in the past was impossible. I have done this twice.

Starting with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, your product key is no longer only attached to your hardware when you link it to your Microsoft account. This new change allows you to re-activate Windows 10 and 11 without having to contact Microsoft when you make significant changes to the hardware on your PC, including replacing the motherboard, processor, or hard drive.

I always like a clean install. I’m sure upgrading to Windows 11 from 10 works but I prefer to get rid of all the old junk like unused old programs before updating so I always use the ISO even though I have to reinstall all my apps, the resulting OS is then stable without unexpected surprises.

So save your data, email and calendar info, and make an image file for safety, I use the free Paragon Backup and Restore. I use the Firefox and Thunderbird for email, both have backup instructions online but the Thunderbird calendar is especially tricky to save and restore, you are forewarned.
<h4 class=”article-header__title”>How to link your Windows 10 product key to a Microsoft account</h4>
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-link-your-windows-10-product-key-microsoft-account

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Fred — congrats on the well-deserved Crystal award! On your Upgrade #3 issue with the D drive, the exclamation mark alert appears because BitLocker is enabled but not yet “activated” for that drive.  Remedy is to either activate or disable BitLocker for each drive with the alert showing.  Activation can be done through Control Panel -> BitLocker Drive Encryption.   To disable, open an elevated command prompt and enter  manage-bde D: -off

It’s annoying that Microsoft thinks non-activated BitLocker is worth an “Eeek, it’s broken!” icon, but even more annoying that there’s no easy, obvious “don’t want it, stop bugging me” option.

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