*** Microsoft Windows 11 Thoughts & Discussion Thread ***

I just got Win11 a few days ago on a new system.

What is the point in telling Windows where to install different things, ie to D drive instead of C, in Settings - Storage section, when it just ignores it.

I had to manually move the Download and all sub directories individually to D using Windows explorer.
 
Some time ago there was a 'search images' application within Windows 10 Pictures.
Search in Pictures for 'Birds' or 'Boats' and it would find them!
MS advice is that it was discontinued.....is there a free alternative?
Please?
 
Might switch to Start11 (new v2) from StartAllBack purely for the customisation features that set it apart. I like the full floating style look. The trial is free so will give it a go I think.

 
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Neil79 said:
Anyone noticed that games are not as snappy with this installed?
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Installed ok with no issues with games, my PC updated by its own to 23H2 build last night, so far all good.

I did turn off fast boot and startup for improved stability over speed, I've always done that.
 
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Nexus18 said:
Switched to this, it's much nicer than startallback
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I've been using it today and this evening went back to StartIsBack.

A couple of things I don't like about Start11 v2:

1: You cannot have the taskbar background only covering the centralised area of the taskbar items, it's either a long bar semi transparent regardless of how many items you have on there, or fully transparent in which case it's hard to see text on a light wallpaper, or overlaid over an app if you have auto hide enabled to maximise use of screen space for vertically maximised apps (efficient productivity). What I was expecting was something like MacOS where the taskbar is floating and the background dynamically expands or contracts as you open or close folders/apps so it's always centralised and not taking up massive amounts of screen width which is rather annoying looking on an ultrawide display.

2: You cannot have a one-piece fly out menu for "All Programs", it splits into two menus beside each other like how Windows 98 used to do, no setting to tweak this.

3: I noticed various glitches and bugs like icons on the taskbar doubling up randomly or the Windows 11 default start menu flicking up instead of Start11's custom option I chose.

4: When I click the clock on the system tray I want to just see a bigger clock and calendar, not the default Windows style calendar and no large format clock. Here's how I have had StartIsBack set up:

WIpbyR9.png


I only see action centre notifications if I actually click the notifications icon on the tray, which is logical behavious as opposed to Windows 11's default "show everything when clicking the clock". So here's my configuration when doing that:

vL8VNnL.png


5: Taskbar jump lists cannot be customised, they retain the large spaced Win11 design which is a waste of pixels.

6: Explorer tweaking and additional dark mode theming is not possible on Start11, you need the additional Stardock apps for that, so more cost...

For these reasons I feel StartIsBack is far better integrated and customisable for useful things whereas Start11 seems more like style over substance.

If StartIsBack ever adds rounded corners to the taskbar divisions then that would be perfection for me.
 
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dave28 said:
So is Win 11 worth getting now. I must have declined dozens of upgrade offers and i think i might just give in now and get it
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Worth getting... not really - it needs a ton of tweaking to remove the ******* stupid bits of the OS so as to actually utilise the advantages over 10... but it isn't like there is any better offering from MS.

EDIT: I mean if you are using 10 might as well put 11 on, but worth is not a word I'd use in the same context as either OS.
 
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Rroff said:
Worth getting... not really - it needs a ton of tweaking to remove the ******* stupid bits of the OS so as to actually utilise the advantages over 10... but it isn't like there is any better offering from MS.

EDIT: I mean if you are using 10 might as well put 11 on, but worth is not a word I'd use in the same context as either OS.
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I was disappointed with Win11, things seem all over the place, going from 10 you have to relearn the OS on 11, 10 is better IMHO, only reason I upgraded was because of a new PC upgrade and EOL for 10 is not that far away, I'm actually looking forward to Win12, can't be worst then 11( famous last words) :) .
 
11 seems a bit snappier, when things are going right, sadly there have been some updates or just random background tasks, which can erode that :( and is a little less disruptive than 10 when you take the time to tweak stuff... but then any future update might undo all of that :(

The Start Menu is utterly pants on head stupid, not to mention not being able to remove the Recommended section and put that screen space to proper use, massive step backwards from 10 in terms of usefulness, then you've got other clown like stuff like the huge window controls yet pencil thin scrollbars... the whole notification area is a joke, the quick settings for networking, audio, power, etc. is a good idea, stolen from Android, and poorly implemented... not to mention the context menu situation...

Total clown show development wise

I've stuck it on the gaming PC I just built, due to Windows 7 support being deprecated in several games and launchers, etc., as no real point putting 10 on there now, but for anything serious I'm still using 7.

EDIT: I've also managed to break the OS very badly in ways even 10 holds up better - weirdly there is a Windows 95 like UI underneath which the 11 theme is skinned over, if things don't load in properly you get some very odd stuff happening.
 
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Yes for the taskbar, start menu and even explorer, StartAllBack solves all of that in one utility that integrates into Windows itself to a level you would think it was baked into Windows. Yes it costs a couple of quid, but it's something you will be using every waking hour of the PC, so actually well worth the cost of a burger? Yeah it might be arguable that all these features should be in Windows anyway, but this is MS, and Windows 11 was free so.... No real reason for a moan really.

I'm still confused as to how you keep having all these OS breakages in 11 though, it's every other day I see a post from you complaining about something not working in 11 and how 10 was so much better :p

You still have not posted a screenshot showing your claim that 10 (or was it 7 I can't remember now) is as visually appealing as 11 from the last conversation :p

And here I am on 11 since launch day without as much as an issue with stability or speed etc and my machine is on 24/7, I only restart it for Patch Tuesdays and Nvidia driver updates.
 
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mrk said:
Yes for the taskbar, start menu and even explorer, StartAllBack solves all of that in one utility that integrates into Windows itself to a level you would think it was baked into Windows. Yes it costs a couple of quid, but it's something you will be using every waking hour of the PC, so actually well worth the cost of a burger? Yeah it might be arguable that all these features should be in Windows anyway, but this is MS, and Windows 11 was free so.... No real reason for a moan really.
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Until an update breaks compatibility with whatever 3rd party UI replacement you use, which wouldn't be the first or second time - I'll even link to Neowin - https://www.neowin.net/news/startal...2-build-breaks-the-taskbar-issues-urgent-fix/ they managed to break it again 2 months later for some of those programs as well.

mrk said:
I'm still confused as to how you keep having all these OS breakages in 11 though, it's every other day I see a post from you complaining about something not working in 11 and how 10 was so much better :p
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I spend quite a lot of time tweaking stuff for my uses - for example earlier I was tweaking the shell stuff in the registry to add options on the context menus for drives to run my custom backup scripts (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell). I also tend to have a much wider range of uses for the OS than typical.

mrk said:
You still have not posted a screenshot showing your claim that 10 (or was it 7 I can't remember now) is as visually appealing as 11 from the last conversation :p
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My 7 setup, I'm not where those systems are at the moment to post a screenshot.
 
The fix for that 22H2 issue was issued basically right away with minimum "downtime" - Yes it can happen, but it's rare. It did not happen for 23H2 for example, nor any other update. It did not affect me during 22H2 because by the time I read about it online, the fix had already been issued and I was already on the updated version by the time I go round to getting 22H2 via Windows Update, the same went for most people.
 
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mrk said:
And here I am on 11 since launch day without as much as an issue with stability or speed etc and my machine is on 24/7, I only restart it for Patch Tuesdays and Nvidia driver updates.
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I wouldn't say I've had stability problems as such with 11, though performance wise there are far too many times the OS does things in the background especially when it "thinks" you are idle which impact on that and there has been some updates which can degrade performance.

But I've found loads of ways to break the OS for example as I mentioned:

"Which then lead me to an interesting bug, trying to pin the Snipping Tool from Search to the taskbar to try and open its folder location to create a shortcut, using shift+right mouse menu and selecting create shortcut"

Will do some funky things with a disappearing pop-up and depending on what you are trying to do, some other variations of that can even cause an unexpected restart the whole OS, though I've not been able to reproduce it reliably to see what it is tripping. (EDIT: Can't remember if that was before or after I re-enabled the old context menus which may or may not be involved in that).
 
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Trig said:
I've done a fresh install today, lets see how long it takes for me to install some sort of add-in or tweak...
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First one I'd recommend doing is reinstating the old right-click context menus:

reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

www.howtogeek.com

How to Get the Old Context Menus Back in Windows 11

Begone, weird new context menu!
www.howtogeek.com www.howtogeek.com
 
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mrk said:
Yes for the taskbar, start menu and even explorer, StartAllBack solves all of that in one utility that integrates into Windows itself to a level you would think it was baked into Windows. Yes it costs a couple of quid, but it's something you will be using every waking hour of the PC, so actually well worth the cost of a burger? Yeah it might be arguable that all these features should be in Windows anyway, but this is MS, and Windows 11 was free so.... No real reason for a moan really.

I'm still confused as to how you keep having all these OS breakages in 11 though, it's every other day I see a post from you complaining about something not working in 11 and how 10 was so much better :p

You still have not posted a screenshot showing your claim that 10 (or was it 7 I can't remember now) is as visually appealing as 11 from the last conversation :p

And here I am on 11 since launch day without as much as an issue with stability or speed etc and my machine is on 24/7, I only restart it for Patch Tuesdays and Nvidia driver updates.
Click to expand...

I think it's down to the user in question, in my case I have had two issues, first time activation became deactivated and screwed due to 23H2 update within two weeks of fresh 11 install (11 was a clean install on brand new NVMe), I had to reformat and as I stated in my other post even Microsoft could not get my 11 activated again, they even tried their keys with no luck, on second clean install I have it 99% working ok, the 1% is I can't change English USA language to UK for " Windows display language" in "Time and Language" in System, I can live with that since keyboard and local region are set to UK. I have read about others having issues wth the Language section.

Right now it feels like a beta OS in some ways where little things not working right, how many times must a user do a clean installl and hope it all works right?.... I'm only using it as a gaming PC and general browser use, nothing hard for Windows.

Start menu well it has to be the worst in Windows history IMHO,
I'm still on my first month of Win11 Home and it has not given me a great impression, I had a smoother launch with Windows Vista, in fact that OS worked out of the box for me.

Btw Windows updated on my PC with the 23H2 update yesterday but I was lucky that I had no issues with my key this time.



:)
 
Rroff said:
First one I'd recommend doing is reinstating the old right-click context menus:

reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

www.howtogeek.com

How to Get the Old Context Menus Back in Windows 11

Begone, weird new context menu!
www.howtogeek.com www.howtogeek.com
Click to expand...

Yeah this was one of the first ones I used last time, I suspect it'll be back on by the end of today...
 
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