Windows 11

[pxr5]

I have my main PC and 2 laptops. Only one of the laptops is eligible for the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The other laptop has no chance, but my main PC could get the upgrade if I replaced the CPU and installed a TPM 2.0 module. I'm happy with Win 10 but support ceases October 2025. I'm not sure to even bother updating the laptop that can be done as there are rumours of a Windows 12 announcement soon.

It's a mess, as we all thought Win 10 was supposed to be it - with regular updates. But no we are screwed again with PCs that can never be updated unless MS allows older CPUs with no TPM requirement - highly unlikely. I'm even starting to think of running Linux on my computers in future once I can confirm my programs (or similar) will still be available on the switch.

I'm interested in what others are planning to do regarding Windows 10/11/12.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Mac mini M2 😁

[pxr5]

Mac mini M2 😁

Apple. Er - no.

[Fishy]

Main pc is win 10 which is fine .. it won't take a WIN 11 update.. have a few WIN 11 vms running torrents streaming my music and tv/ film stuff.. ..

Have dabbled with the odd Linux box.. actually have a raspberry pi running pi-hole as a DNS for blocking adverts.. works great...

[R6GYY]

I suppose I could look it up myself, but apart from the end of support for Windows 10 in 2025, are there any tangible benefits to changing to Win 11 from Win 10?

I ask, as I have just been offered the free upgrade on my laptop. I would also need to look into the Win 11 compatability of my existing software - both free and paid for. For instance, FL Studio.

Edit: FL Studio is fine - just checked.

[R6GYY]

So . . . having done a bit of research, I cannot see any good reason (at this point in time at least) to switch from Win 10 to Win 11.

My older Dell desktop computer (2nd gen Intel i5 I think) is not compatible anyway.

[pxr5]

I've put it on my laptop. Not a big difference from Win10 though. The taskbar is not as configurable as Win10, which pisses me off somewhat and took a bit of frigging to get it similar. Thank God too for Open Shell (previously Classic shell) which brings back the Windows classic start menu. I've used this since 7/8/10 and now 11 (I can't be doing with that tile crap).

It seems a little quicker too and less resource hungry, but as I said it doesn't look, or act, much different to Win10. The update was painless too and took about an hour - I now get 10 days with Win11 before I can revert back to Win10. I'll keep it on I think as everything seems to work as it should - so far lol.

My i5 Kabylake PC will never be upgradeable without a CPU update and a TPM module install (my motherboard has the TPM 2.0 slot though) so I'll run it, as my other laptop, on Win10 and I'll decide what to do come Oct 2025.

[Slim]

I've been Linux-only for a long time. Not helpful I know, except that unless you need a particular Windows application, it's usually a very good choice. Especially for slower / older hardware.

I've never had to pay for it, never had to install A/V software.

[Fishy]

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement

[R6GYY]

So my 'trusty' old Dell, is no longer so trusty and has started to fail quite frequently.

So I bit the bullet and have built a system from scratch to replace it and decided to put Windows 11 on it.

So far one definite improvement - you can now open an explorer item in a new tab which is lovely.

Not keen on:
The right click context menu has changed dramatically.

I use right-click + Print a lot. Can't do that now. To get Print to appear, it is right-click, then 'show more options', OR as I have discovered, you can do Shift-Right-Click to get there. Not impressed at all with that. Annoying when MS introduce things to slow you down.

Start and task bar items now in the middle of the screen instead of left hand side. Ffs. I believe I can do something about that.

Oh yes - Windows still doesn't understand, even at version 11, that uploading a file to Google Drive (or similar) counts as the computer being in use. So it then puts the PC to sleep after 10 minutes or however long of me not touching the keyboard or mouse, thus cancelling the upload. So off I go to the settings to stop it going to sleep. Grrr.

[pxr5]

Yeah, the right click context menu in Win11 has got to be one of the daftest things MS has done. Get it back by:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/restore-old-right-click-context-menu-in-windows-11/a62e797c-eaf3-411b-aeec-e460e6e5a82a

Another minor annoyance, right click an image and save as, gives an output file as jfif, not jpg. Another registry hack fixed that one.

Something else I've found too. Opening a local network folder with a lot of files within seems to take a few seconds to rearrange in alphabetical order. Not a biggy, but a bit of a naff when working fast - like I do lol.

Openshell is an absolute must have for me too (used to be called classic Shell):

https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu