Current Events > So what do people think of windows 11?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've had the same CPU for years now, like since 2012. I still have windows 7 on it. Never really bothered with 10, since 7 worked more than fine for me. Starting to get around the time to look into a new CPU. Wasn't sure how good 11 is, or of there is something else I should just wait on that may come out in the near future.

It freezes too much!

My only complaint is that you can't pin the taskbar to the side (instead of the bottom) of the screen. Quite a few nice minor quality of life improvements, and one really big one (tabs in file explorer). Overall I'd say upgrade if your PC is compatible (which yours may not be, at least officially, if your CPU is that old).

Its fine. I dont like how windows updates are handled, the settings menu sucks compared to the control panel, and sometimes explorer.exe has weird bugs

but its nothing too major. The worst is that it lies regarding windows updates. There will be two buttons, update and restart and restart, so youll click restart because you dont have time to wait for updates. But then it will update anyway.
and then there will be update and shut down and shut down, so at the end of the day you click update and shut down so that tomorrow you have an updated PC, but half the time it just restarts without updating, leaving your PC on overnight and you still have to update it in the morning anyway

thats my biggest problem with it. But its mostly fine

It's fine. I hate the stupid new context menu in file explorer where half the options are hidden behind the "show more options" option.

Everyone always hates the newest OS at first and praise it years later.

It's not terrible.

File explorer and notepad are tabulated now and that's great.

I seem to recall 10 having update issues when it first came out. One of the reasons why I didn't upgrade to it. As long as 11 isn't hated, I may go with it on a new CPU. I know mine won't handle it. I just wait for the day when it breaks down on me. But it has lasted like 4 years longer than I would have thought. So I'll keep going on it till it dies. I just wasn't sure if there was a lot of negativity surrounding 11 or not.

I hate the interface more than 10, and it has a lot of features that impact performance by default.

11 also periodically has update issues and then Microsoft tells everyone a week later how to do some voodoo workaround so your mouse will right-click again until they hotfix it (exaggeration about some of that...).

Hexenherz posted...

I hate the interface more than 10, and it has a lot of features that impact performance by default.

11 also periodically has update issues and then Microsoft tells everyone a week later how to do some voodoo workaround so your mouse will right-click again until they hotfix it (exaggeration about some of that...).

Yeah I'm so used to the interface of 7, so I'm sure there would be some annoyance for me. Just been debating if I should just take the plunge and get a new CPU, or just grind it out with my old one. Those update things do sound annoying, and makes me think I should run with my old one till it drops.

So much product placement shoved in your face, and spam popups built right into the OS that will make you think you have a virus

I personally have not had much of an issue with Windows updates, except for the time when it activated HDR for Windows (why the fuck is that a thing) which dropped my performance in a ton of games until I figured out what it was.

I liked 10 better

Still running Windows 10 here

and Linux

Exactly the same as 10 with some QoL improvements.

It's plainly worse than 10 and some stuff can be fixed w/ work on your end, other stuff I haven't been able to yet.

By far the most annoying is the merged Internet/Volume/Power in the taskbar that I can't seem to separate no matter what I try. And when you click on the time, instead of just the calendar popping up, you get an unwanted Notifications window on top of it, too, plus this stupid fucking "Focus" button.

Also, I hate that the tabs (a chore in itself to get instead of just icons in the taskbar) have a preview thumbnail when you hover over them. I fixed it with a registry edit (I swear I have done like 3x the regedits for Win 11 that I did for Win 10 and still hate the final UI more), but as soon as a windows update happened, it reverted back and I gave up.

What do people think of anything? That it's the worst thing to ever happen and actively ruining the world.

It's aight.

It really tries to be Apple with its layout, which includes putting the main menu button in the middle of the taskbar.

But hey, at least you can finally ungroup windows in the Taskbar (that literally wasn't a thing until like last year lol).

Hexenherz posted...

I personally have not had much of an issue with Windows updates, except for the time when it activated HDR for Windows (why the fuck is that a thing) which dropped my performance in a ton of games until I figured out what it was.

How old is your PC that HDR has a noticeable effect on performance?

Cynrascal posted...

It really tries to be Apple with its layout, which includes putting the main menu button in the middle of the taskbar.

There is legitimately nothing about Windows 11's design language that is remotely inspired by, let alone ripped off from Apple.

DarthAragorn posted...

How old is your PC that HDR has a noticeable effect on performance?

It's a really new laptop, actually. Also my issue wasn't just with the performance hit, but also with the fact that the image quality was really off when HDR was enabled. If you look around you'll see many other people had a similar experience.

How bad are your eyes that you didn't notice HDR was on?

myztikrice posted...

How bad are your eyes that you didn't notice HDR was on?

I didn't realize "HDR" was a thing for *Operating Systems*. I'm used to the concept in video games, sure, but didn't think it would be a thing for your standard desktop environment. And mileage varies, for some people the image quality is fine or even better with HDR on but for others, myself included, it can make the image quality much worse.

Hexenherz posted...

I didn't realize "HDR" was a thing for *Operating Systems*. I'm used to the concept in video games, sure, but didn't think it would be a thing for your standard desktop environment. And mileage varies, for some people the image quality is fine or even better with HDR on but for others, myself included, it can make the image quality much worse.

Not to blame the user, but I question how much of this is to do with the display you're using it on. Both of my displays "support" HDR, but it looks crap on my monitor (only HDR400, no local dimming etc) while it looks great on my TV (2,000 nits peak brightness, mini LED local dimming etc)

I recall reading a long time ago that HDR on PC is really shitty in general. Here's the article. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/pc-gaming-hdr-problem-a-way-out/

BewmHedshot posted...

It's fine. I hate the stupid new context menu in file explorer where half the options are hidden behind the "show more options" option.

Definitely annoying, but you can go back to the original one with a registry edit at least.

It sucks. Right clicking was heavily nerfed, and they destroyed the taskbar and theres no option to fix it back. Youre forced to use your computer the way Microsoft wants you to, not the way you want to. I dont understand why people want to switch to an OS with fewer options for the user.

Dakimakura posted...

Exactly the same as 10 with some QoL improvements.

What improvements? Its the same as 10 but with less QoL features.

Very Negative.

Windows has had an identity crisis with its core UX design since Windows 8 (the OS where touch was born) and have struggled to create a unity between finger based devices (tablets) and pointer based devices (laptops / PCs). Back with Windows 8, I was willing to give Metro a chance despite disagreements about what it could've been for pointer devices (see Zune Software) but after 3 OS generations, I think Apple was right in keeping those design cores separate. Microsoft have a direction with Mica material design but how long will that last? They "had" direction with Metro. With Modern UI. Given their track record to give up so easily, I have little faith they'll actually see this UX design shift through and we're stuck in this awkward limbo mix of relying on remnants of Windows Vista/7 and Windows 11 schools of thought with no timeline or game plan for us to see. Microsoft: pick a path and stick with it. Potentially across multiple generations. That's all I ask.

I hate how much Microsoft has become Big Brother. Awhile back, they laid off a lot of their QA workers in favor of this heavy handed metrics collecting of errors and user behavior being hover vacuumed up for data analysis and further use in their services (what services? don't know and they won't tell). The end results? An incredibly buggy OS and an increase in user complaints that never get addressed. The Feedback Hub has become largely a joke because if your feedback does not align with marketing, MS will silently tell you to fuck off.

Microsoft has grown incredibly tenacious with its dark pattern advertisements. Let's take a few steps to setup your Operating System? Let me rephrase it for you: Let's take a few steps to sell you on X-Box Game Pass and Office 365. Don't want it? We'll do this again on next major update because more ads = more sales. Don't like Edge? Tough Shit, it's the recommended Windows 11 browser and we'll take every opportunity to remind you for daring to use Firefox or Chrome. Don't like using the Photos app? No biggie, we'll just questionably bork some Windows stuff if you remove it (based off experience) and constantly try to get you to switch to it if you don't.

I hate how Microsoft fights tooth and nail to retain that draconian level of control. The EU file new regulations? Too bad non EU, you don't get to benefit unless you want to jump through hoops and lie about living in the EEA. Could've had the ability to uninstall stuff like Edge, Cortana, etc but you don't have the protection laws like the EU so tough shit.

From experience, if you have multiple monitors, expect instability with Auto HDR. It's a known issue that Microsoft doesn't seem interested in fixing.

I've got 10 and 11 each on multiple systems and strongly prefer 10. 10 is hardly perfect but I intend to skip 11 on my main system and see what 12 has to offer.

My expectations are low.

An update seems to have recently bricked my laptop's SSD, so I'm more than a little pissed right now. Just not sure who to be more pissed at: Microsoft, or the manufacturer.

xGhostchantx posted...

File explorer and notepad are tabulated now and that's great.

This is so good it's actually kinda ass going back to windows 10 on my work computer. Tabulated file system is amazing

The downside is I pretty consistently get a "something didn't go as planned" error when windows updates, not really sure what the deal is there. Never had issues with Win 10 updates.

It didnt let me make an offline user account so I booted linux onto the new laptop i got instead... Yes I know theres some way you can fenagle it but i couldnt get it to work