# The annoyance that is Windows 11 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2026, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530 "2026-04-24T08:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/41 "2026-04-24T15:27:19Z")
Users should not need to go through various settings to disable features in software they never wanted to run in the first place. That process is still there to create friction. And you kid yourself if you think Microsoft is doing this because it wants to help its users keep their data safe. They want your data. Microsoft does not use end-to-end encryption. And, even if they did, there is no reason to believe that filenames and other metadata are encrypted. And even if they don’t use that data, they clearly want to be able to upsell you when you use up your limit and try to get you to pay for more data, and choose them because it’s easier than enabling a different solution. That’s the point of this type of bundling. I actually have no problem believing that @puzzlegal didn’t do anything to cause OneDrive to react the way it did, as there are so many stories of it misbehaving. I have a friend who suddenly had all his files wind up on OneDrive and then being deleted off his computer. It’s shitty software. You want backup? Get your whole PC backed up for $9 a month using Backblaze. Nothing ever gets moved off your computer, period. Also, anyone who “really loves” Windows 11 is an extreme outlier. The general range is “it’s okay” to “i hate it.” And, to think, I came in planning to actually defend Windows 11 a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/42 "2026-04-24T15:30:37Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > If you’re saying that Microsoft has never produced a bad OS, I beg to differ. I just LOVE (not!) this kind of comment. The discussion is very specific, so I’m not saying anything other than what I said about this very specific discussion. For the record, I do agree with you, however. Windows 8 didn’t even have a desktop. I hope they fired the idiots that dreamed that up. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/43 "2026-04-24T15:32:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Also, anyone who “really loves” Windows 11 is an extreme outlier. The general range is “it’s okay” to “i hate it.” I use Windows 11 at work, and in a corporate setting, it’s fine. I don’t love it, but it’s certainly “okay”. And it supports a lot of stuff that matters to a corporation but not to me, like automatically deleting old files. Companies that might be sued and be subject to expensive discovery really want old, unneeded files to be unrecoverable, even if they never do anything wrong. It also handles permissions (who can see which folders) very well. Again, not a big deal for a home laptop, but of critical importance to a corporation. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/44 "2026-04-24T15:36:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I actually have no problem believing that @puzzlegal didn’t do anything to cause OneDrive to react the way it did, as there are so many stories of it misbehaving. See my post just above yours. I confirmed on a Microsoft website that the problem i experienced was default behavior, and not any choices i made. Could i have made choices to avoid the problems? Yes. But i would have needed to understand OneDrive to a level that MS never explained to me when it imposed it on me, and i would have needed to individually mark each file for local storage. Or to have successfully set up a directory that wasn’t “backed up”. (Something i had attempted to do, but failed at. Because the directory structure in Windows 11 is really confusing.) Fyi, switching to Linux was much easier than i expected, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/45 "2026-04-24T18:24:32Z")
My way with Win11, exactly. Just after I had “applied” to keep Win10 for now, my laptop died. I had to get a new one with Win11, and this is how I kept my cool / sanity. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/46 "2026-04-24T18:57:38Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Work installations are often different. Although my current employer is cheap, and it’s much like using a consumer laptop. But it was a much cleaner experience on my prior employer computer, because they didn’t want their employees to be coaxed to browse the news and shop while they were working. But i had no complaints about Windows 11 using it as an employee at a large corporation. > > But I will say again, that if you use a computer that’s never offline, you may never have noticed that it “backs up” your files. It doesn’t tell you it is doing this. And if you have little enough on your computer that it can all be “backed up” in the free account MS gives each user, you may even have benefitted from OneDrive. Or if you pay for the service, of course. Except that it’s a little opaque about how you can control where the files live, it’s a pretty good backup solution if your MS cloud account holds your files. We all use consumer laptops for work. We also each have a 1TB hard drive. Mine is currently about 800gb full. Again, nothing is backed up to OneDrive and it never asks me to do so or to “finish setting up the machine.” Never. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/47 "2026-04-24T18:58:50Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > We all use consumer laptops for work. Did your company’s IT department set up the laptops before issuing them to you? If so, even if they are “consumer” laptops, IT may have already disabled all the Win11 BS that others are dealing with. Your posts come across as incredulous that others have these kind of issues with Win11, because _you_ have not. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/48 "2026-04-24T19:21:54Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > This, exactly. I read of this trick somewhere (perhaps here on the Dope) to not connect to wi-fi when requested early in the setup process. I followed that instruction last month when I bought a new laptop for my spouse, and it worked beautifully. Not ever seeing OneDrive is a huge improvement. Perhaps that was what I did when I set up my computer (& my co-worker’s laptops), I honestly do not remember. I don’t remember the set-up being any problem. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Did your company’s IT department set up the laptops before issuing them to you? If so, even if they are “consumer” laptops, IT may have already disabled all the Win11 BS that others are dealing with. > > Your posts come across as incredulous that others have these kind of issues with Win11, because _you_ have not. I bought them and set them up. And I am not the only one in this thread that is incredulous at Windows 11 “reminding to finish updating the machine” every time it’s rebooted. Anyway this whole hijack started because **Puzzlegal** said Windows 11 “installed a ransomware attack” on her machine. _That_ was what made me incredulous. I really don’t love or hate Windows 11. It’s fine. I switch between using that and a Mac. It does what I need it to and I don’t even remember now how it was different from Windows 10. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/49 "2026-04-24T19:56:27Z")
I’ve found [winget](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/) to be easier to view and uninstall Windows bloatware from the command-line. It lists packages that don’t show up in the GUI or cannot be removed from the GUI (e.g. Bing and Start Experiences App). To see what is on the system: > winget list and to remove something > winget uninstall “Microsoft Bing” Obviously caveat emptor – just like with the GUI. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/50 "2026-04-24T19:56:53Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Nevertheless, if you insist on living on the edge, you can easily access the entire contents of your hard drive, and that includes “Desktop”. Right click your desktop, click “Themes”. I right-clicked my desktop. No ‘Themes.’ There’s View, Sort By, Refresh, New, Display Settings, Personalize, Open in Terminal, and Show More Options. Show More Options doesn’t actually show any new options, just most of the above all over again. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/51 "2026-04-24T19:57:35Z")
“Personalize” and then “Themes”. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/52 "2026-04-24T20:14:55Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Anyway this whole hijack started because **Puzzlegal** said Windows 11 “installed a ransomware attack” on her machine. Yes, well, i posted a link to a Microsoft website that explains that moving my files to cloud storage (off my hard drive) is the default behavior. And i can’t imagine you are surprised that if you have more stuff than fits on a free account, it threatens to delete it from that storage. I didn’t have to pay Bitcoin to recover my files. But i did have to spend several hours cursing Microsoft after i got home, and had reliable Internet service, to turn that stuff off. It’s not a huge exaggeration to consider that ransomware. And once the backup was off, it nagged me regularly to reinstall OneDrive, because my files aren’t “protected”. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/53 "2026-04-24T21:11:45Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > “Personalize” and then “Themes”. Sorry! Gotcha, and that did get me the rest of the way. But at the end: > [@Jasmine](#): > > If you open the “This PC” icon, you will see the entire contents of your hard drive. “Desktop” is at the very top followed by “Downloads” followed by “Documents”. Easy-Peasy"!!! All the files on my desktop say they’re on OneDrive, not on This PC or any file below it in the directory structure. So I don’t know where the heck anything really is. Anything I keep in plain sight on the desktop is apparently Somewhere Else. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/54 "2026-04-24T21:28:47Z")
My desktop files are in the local OneDrive folder (C:\Users{me}\OneDrive\Desktop), not in the cloud since I have OneDrive disabled. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/55 "2026-04-25T22:13:12Z")
I’d rather still be using windows 7 if there were some sort of modernized version, but windows 11 is better than the previous versions since then (8 and 10). I haven’t had a lot of problems with bloat and ads and one drive, but I usually run one of those third party tools that sort of de-bloats and purges what tracking it can when you install windows. I can’t even remember which one it used but it should be easy to google them. The interface is their best desktop interface since 7, it’s pretty fast, I’ve had basically no technical problems / crashes / errors with it. Edit: I think I had to get a third party tool to put my taskbar on the right. Taskbar on the bottom is a bad default, and an insane forced position. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2026, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/56 "2026-04-25T22:36:46Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I haven’t had a lot of problems with bloat and ads and one drive I’m running Win 11 on 3 computers, including the one primarily used by my wife. I have had very few problems with ads, and once I figured out how to remove OneDrive, that’s no longer a problem. Agreed that it’s the best desktop since 7, and it has run flawlessly on all 3 computers (2 laptops and a desktop). Of course, I had very few issues with 10, either. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2026, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/57 "2026-04-25T23:04:40Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Edit: I think I had to get a third party tool to put my taskbar on the right. Taskbar on the bottom is a bad default, and an insane forced position. This was my main problem (and not just mine) with Windows 11 is how they broke the taskbar. They decided you could also have it on top after people complained, but you couldn’t have it on the left or right and you lost a lot of other features it provided, which, given how I customized mine (without hacks) to support how I work, I lagged behind when the office wanted us to upgrade until I could find a good alternative. I also find that windows exploder is slower than previous iterations, though the ability to have tabs is nice. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/58 "2026-04-26T13:23:02Z")
Why am I shown as being the OP of this thread (at category level) ? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/59 "2026-04-26T13:29:35Z")
> [@icon](#): > > I also find that windows exploder is slower than previous iterations, though the ability to have tabs is nice. Do you mean Edge? ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530/60 "2026-04-26T14:49:14Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Do you mean Edge? No, I mean windows explorer, which now tries to look for things on the web, and for which you need to do some customization to get it to show you all the files, and stop creating the thumbnail db files, etc…I seems to be much slower on Windows 11 than on Windows 10. Anyway, my friends and I have called windows exploder from time immemorial `//i\\` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-annoyance-that-is-windows-11/1029530.md?page=4)