No surprise, Windows 11 is already pissing me off, and I’m not even talking about everything being different. Why does it demand a PIN every time I turn it on? I went into security settings and there’s an option to remove the PIN requirement, but it’s greyed out!. I changed the timeout option for “require PIN when you’ve been away for ‘x’ minutes” to “never”, but that won’t fix the larger problem.
In addition, absolutely everything is so different from “real” Windows that it’s virtually unusable for me as a general-purpose OS. I only bought the stupid laptop because a few essential apps, like my tax software, will only run on W11. And I’ve already been accosted by the first ad pushing Microsoft services. What a fucking disaster of an operating system!
The PIN exists to make it easy for people who don’t want to type long complicated passwords. My advice is set the PIN to be the same value as the password. Then you don’t care which prompt it is, just type what you always type.
Separately, if you configure the face recognition, then you’ll rarely need to type either. The only time I do is if I’m using my tablet in the dark and the computer can’t “see” my face.
Then set the various screen lock timeouts to “never” and the only time you’ll be bothered for PIN, PW, or Face is when you open the lid. Just like XP worked.
I’ve removed the requirement for the PIN, but in order to do that I had to enter my “Microsoft Account” password. I entered it (it’s recorded in my password keeper app) and it told me it was wrong! I then used the “forgot password” option to reset it via an email code. Assuming I had entered the password incorrectly during setup, I entered the one I had previously recorded.
The stupid thing told me I couldn’t use that password because it had been used before! WTF??? So I created a new variant and that finally worked.
I can deal with many Caesars and rum and my faithful Win 7 desktop, but I absolutely cannot deal with even one or two Caesars and Windows 11! It’s a battle of wits in which I have to be maximally alert! I like to think of my computer as a friend, not an evil entity that’s out to screw me at every turn, take control of my security, and hurl unwanted advertising at me.
I love when Windows 11 randomly asks me for my PIN on a site, I’m not even sure why, but I type it in, then it says, “something went wrong”, and then I close out that error and nothing else happens, and I just go back to what I was doing.
Sometimes this OS does weird and dumb stuff (but so far nothing particularly awful).
I guess I’m not allowed to do work on my PC anymore, so I have to replace my ultra-wide monitor (which doesn’t work with our outdated laptops) with a dual monitor setup I can use with my work laptop. One thing I’ve learned today is we’re now being surveilled by executive leadership. I really can’t take this kind of corporate bullshit. If this is the new normal I’ve got one foot out the door. Shame to lose all that vacation time.
They’re just making the wrong call here. Dumping all of these bullshit federal and state funding cuts on development. Tightening the screws. Acting like we’ve done something wrong. They want to apply to everything whether we fit the funder’s priorities or not. That is a terrible idea. And they keep trying to get me to use AI. Our CEO sent me a grant clearly written with AI and it was so bad. Next thing you know they’ll want ten AI-written grants a week and none of them will get funded and I’ll get blamed.
I’m ready to nope right out of this, but it’s a lot to leave behind. But they seem to want to take away the one thing that’s kept me working here - my autonomy.
Do you have bruxism (chronic grinding of teeth - often in your sleep)? If not, the filling could be fine. The dentist should be able to tell if you have it or not.
If you have it, the filling will probably end up broken. Of course, it’s possible to pop off a crown, too. But dentists are usually a bit more apologetic about that, and may re-attach it for free.
My phone doesn’t recognize me when I have my CPAP on. I’m usually sleepy in that situation, so it took me awhile not to be surprised by the request for the PIN.
I’m not sure. But I meant that because of seniority I get a lot of vacation every year. If I go somewhere else I’ll have to start over.
I’m seriously thinking of dropping down to part time somewhere. There are a fairly high number of remote part-time grant writing jobs out there. If we can absorb the income loss, it might be better for all concerned.
I try not to make decisions like this when I’m emotional, though. I mean, I have in the past, and it never went well. Right now I just want to crawl in a hole and die. I know I might be feeling a lot disproportional to what’s actually happening, but right now I feel attacked.
In Windows 7, I can click on the time icon on the bottom right and get a monthly calendar view along with a link at the bottom for “Change date and time settings”. In Windows 11, the same link produces only a calendar view, with no provision for changing the time (which mine was helpfully set to US west coast time, which is not where I am).
I had to use the search function for “change time” to find the right screen. Not a huge deal, just an example of enshittification. People pay good money for new computers and new software and then get this shit. I’m staying with Windows 7 on my main computers, TQVM.
Did you right-click on the timestamp in the corner? Evidently not. That brings up a menu with “Adjust date and time” and “Notification settings”. The notification settings in question being the ones relative to quiet times of day, the focus and do not disturb features, etc. All of which are connected to the clock in some fashion.
That’s actually more consistent with the Windows UI guidelines that have been in effect since XP. Namely: Left-click to select and right-click to activate a menu of verbs you can apply to the thing you clicked on.
Yes, and a right-click produces exactly the same result as a left-click, namely a Dell support link at the top, and some stupid “Focus” thing at the bottom with an up-arrow that produces the current month’s calendar, nothing else.
But after rebooting, the behaviour changes, and a right-click does indeed produce an “adjustment” menu. Which just reinforces the belief that W11 is a piece of shit.
This is what I get when I right-click my clock on the Task Bar.
It could be that Dell is preempting that. One thing I will often do with machines made by a big-box company is to go through the junk apps they have installed and remove all of them. I’d bet there is a “helper app” that is taking over the interface.
This is what I now see when I right-click. I swear it did not appear previously until I rebooted. I admit to a considerable consumption of Caesars and martinis, but I can definitely still tell the difference between a left-click and a right-click!
I’m now on to the several tasks that will make this laptop worthwhile – e-filing my 2024 tax return which will pay for the laptop 8x over, and hopefully recovering my most important movie files.
I’ve had many Dell computers and have had no issues with any of them. This Windows 11 thing is my third Dell laptop – the other two are still alive and well (running Windows 7). My current desktop is a Dell Optiplex business computer with a large Dell Ultrasharp IPS monitor and is, without a doubt, in terms of features and solid reliability, the best computer I’ve ever owned.
I bought it from Dell as an off-lease refurbished unit, and it needed a fair amount of driver setup and tweaking as it came with a plain vanilla Windows 7 Pro, but once done, it has been a stellar performer! And their refurbishment is amazing – the thing looked absolutely brand new outside and inside.
Such issues as I’m having with the new laptop are entirely due to Windows 11. I wish that whoever designed Windows 7, which was an amazing recovery from the disaster of Vista, was back in charge. Or better still, that Microsoft had left good enough alone and just continued incrementally improving W7 instead of going on their usual mercenary blitz of new-everything just for the sake of profit.
The new laptop has confusing “sleep” behaviour, the mystery of which I’ve unraveled and may be useful to some.
If you just close the lid, it goes to sleep. When you open the lid, it’s alive again. But this condition persists for only some limited number of hours. After a sufficient length of time, you can open the lid and it’s dead to the world. Pressing keys does nothing. Pressing the power button also does nothing, unless it’s plugged in, in which case it wakes from sleep and resumes the previous session.
But I discovered just by chance that when it’s on battery power and goes into total-off mode, the way to revive it is to press and hold the power button for about 3 seconds. Why this should be so I have no idea, but some genius somewhere thought that’s the way things should work.
