My laptop wants to install Windows 11. Has anybody installed it? Any problems?
Do you have to install it? I’d do so only if you had to, for some reason.
My desktop PC is running 8.1, and I am soon retiring it and building a new PC. The other day I had the bright idea of getting a new HD and installing Windows 10 on it from a USB key, and partly upgrade my old PC. Then I went online to purchase this, and… the Win 10 USB installer was sold out pretty much everywhere. Why? It’s already time for Win 11 apparently.
So I decided to wait a month or two and just build the new PC as Win 11. As far as I know, Win 11 is largely the same as Win 10, and should work fine for all the apps I currently use (MS stuff, Chrome, then various Steam Games). I have not heard of any issues with Win 11. Hopefully another doper can help in that regard.
I don’t have to, it’s just sitting there letting me know it’s ready to install.
My new laptop (bought within the last couple of weeks) came with Win11. I wound up having to install a couple of utility add-ins to get the start menu to behave the way I wanted it to and get the right-click menu showing all my options without extra clicks.
Dunno about any super-technical aspects of the switchover (previous laptop was Win10), but there were cosmetic/function quirks I didn’t care for. Fixable, but it would be nice if M$ would quit “fixing” things that work fine (they’re apparently following the Facebook model here) and meet the user’s needs. At least allow configurability, guys! It’s not YOUR computer, it’s MINE.
^ This.
The two I had to track down and install were Explorer Patcher (to allow me to customize more than the taskbar color and number of lines) and Open Shell (because I’m a dinosaur who thinks hierarchically, and the native Win11 main menu has accurately been called a solid slab of sadness).
I suppose there have been improvements under the hood, but they aren’t obvious to me. So unless and until it becomes a requirement, I’d hold off — which is what I intend to do with my Win10 desktop even after I upgrade it to Win11-compatible.
I went with Ultimate Windows Tweaker to fix the right-click menu and Start11 for the Start menu, but I’m sure the ones you chose work fine too. I just went with the first likely candidates that came up in Googling solutions to those annoyances.
Whatever does the job for you. I think it’s more than a little interesting that there’s a cottage industry for Win11 applications whose function is to make it behave almost but not quite entirely unlike Win11.
the only thing i hate about win 11 is the “info button” they put the temperature on the left side where the start button is and it openes the old “news button” and I click on some click bait news story and then realize "the new start button is the blue windows on the many
I concur with others that there’s no reason to upgrade to Windows 11 unless it has something you actually want or need. The chance of having problems is small, but not completely zero. And it really isn’t a significant difference.
@Limmin: If you already have a licensed copy of Windows 8.1 on your desktop, you don’t need to pay for Windows 10 at all. You can just make your own USB drive with the Media Creation Tool, which will let you choose Windows 10. Then, when you actually install Windows 10 to the SSD, you type in the key for your copy of Windows 8.1.
Just follow the directions here, under “Create Windows 10 installation media”:
Apps for making appear the Windows GUI more like the previous version have been around at least since Windows 8. Same old, same old.
According to Microsoft, my computer can’t run Windows 11.
Just as well, as I refuse to upgrade until the task bar can be moved again.
Going back to Win95 there were tweak apps to make it look more like the prior Windows 3.11
There are always people who want to upgrade for some funtional reason, or who are badgered into it for security updates, or (nowadays) just want to stop being annoyed by the auto-upgrade alerts, but who totally want their UI to be utterly unchanged.
Whether wanting your UI unchanged is smart or not is a separate debate. Those folks exist, they will always exist, and a cottage industry has sprung up to sell them a product that makes them happier.
OTOH, if you (any “you”) managed to run a copy of Win XP now, I’m sure you’d find it unbearably weird and difficult to use. Despite grumbling at each UI upgrade since then.
The difference is that these sorts of things used to be a lot more rarely used. It wasn’t like it is now, where you’re constantly getting advice to try out these programs that not only restore the old UI, but give you back features that were removed.
I’d say that started with Windows 8, where so many were telling you how to get the Start Menu back. Or how to get the old Windows games back. Then it quieted down (but not back to previousl levels) for Windows 10, where Microsoft actually listened and removed a lot of the dumb ideas of Windows 8. But then it has come back anew with Windows 11, mostly due to common features being removed.
Granted, it’s not as bad. At least it’s not like with Windows 8 or Vista, where the common advice was not only “don’t upgrade” but “downgrade if you can.” Most people say Windows 11 is fine if your computer comes with it—especially if you throw in a few tweaks.
I put off installing W11 for a couple of iterations as I have always had a policy of avoiding the Mk1 of anything. That said, when I eventually let it install, it went smoothly and it works fine.
Sure, some things are different and we all hate change, but it does everything I want it to and M’soft keeps the security etc up to date.
I guess people who like to individualise their OS will have to do it all again, but I suspect the vast majority of users, like me, are happy to work with it as it comes.
Please consider this post a “thank you” or “like” if that were possible.
I hate they moved the start button for a news &“infotainment” button since I click on it 50 times a day to start a program
You should be able to turn off that button if you want, as well as be able to move the start button over to the left (where it makes more sense to be, since it’s an easy motion with the mouse to get to the bottom left. They moved the button for touch users, because the UI was originally designed for Windows 10X, a tablet OS.)
I’m happy with 11. However, I haven’t relied on the Start menu as something I click on and navigate in many years. I click the Windows key on the keyboard and type the app and hit enter when it shows up. Windows key + E + X + Enter and Excel opens for me. And I use Windows combo keys for a lot of things like Windows key + E to start File Explorer. All of this is the same in 11 as in the last several versions.
With that said, I have no motivation to upgrade from 10 on my older home system. It will be retired long before support/updates are available.
As am I, I don’t use the start button much either, I pin almost everything I run to the taskbar. At first the centering of the task bar was “annoying” then I realized that on my ultrawide monitor, centered is actually better, it’s where my eyes are looking, less mouse movement, etc.
Plus, windows 11 fixed a weird window resizing issue that I couldn’t resolve in Windows 10.
About the only reason I might be interested in W11 is the presence of the Intel Thread Director in the scheduler, since I’m running a 12th Generation Intel Core CPU. But I really haven’t noticed high intensity threads being routed onto E-cores, which is what the Thread Director is supposed to fix, so I’m not in a terrible hurry to fix an issue I haven’t seen occur yet.
And I have to be assured that I can alter the UI to resemble what I have now. A sane Start menu, Explorer I can understand, and my desktop widgets (don’t judge).