Windows 11

[Juan]

So the timing of his divorce might suggest that his marriage ended because of Windows 11?

It might have...it would be a asset after the divorce

 

[harshness]

It might have...it would be a asset after the divorce

Microsoft Windows isn't something that Bill Gates or the Gates family owned.

You (and you're not alone) have suggested before that ownership of stock (or a subscription to a service) makes one somehow omnipotent or all-knowing but that's never been the case.

 

[KE4EST]

Paul Thurrott gives us a first look. Apparently, it got "leaked".

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/251941/windows-11-first-impressions

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

So what does it offer that Windows 10 does not besides centering all the menus?


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[harshness]

So what does it offer that Windows 10 does not besides centering all the menus?

An opportunity to charge users for upgrading to a new version number?

Maybe they're trying to distance themselves from the many Linux distros that have effectively emulated the Windows 10 interface.

The visual nod to the MacOS Dock seems very odd though it may make use with tablets and touch screens easier if the start point isn't buried in a corner. Of course Apple buries their start point in a different corner and they don't offer touch screen Macs.

 

[Yespage]

So what does it offer that Windows 10 does not besides centering all the menus?


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

Buggier icons for access to volume control and battery available, promising that now up to 75% of the time you won't be able to find it.

Display settings will now be partially hidden behind four different Control Panel items, making controlling the displays as unintuitive as humanly possible.

OneDrive will back everything up to the cloud, to protect every file possible, and Windows 11 will dedicate 80% of the computer's resources to scanning files that need to be uploaded.

Notifications, Notifications, Notifications!

Security of your computer will still be at the whim of a single click of an email attachment.

 

[harshness]

OneDrive will back everything up to the cloud, to protect every file possible, and Windows 11 will dedicate 80% of the computer's resources to scanning files that need to be uploaded.

The remaining 20% to be dedicated to scanning temporary files in the web cache with Windows Defender.

 

[rvvaquero]

Why do all these software developers think that we need to change the gui every few years? If I like the way it is now, and it works for me, at least give me the option to keep it.

I use Win10 from an upgrade, with the Classic Win7 shell and desktop and control panel still intact. Remember when you used to be able to really customize display settings for the various components on a page? Now it's either big fonts or little fonts, without regard to where they are.

 

[arlo]

I'm compelled to reply. In no situation has an upgrade ever been better than a wipe and format. Except in cases where drivers are discontinued for hardware.
Since this is a Windows 11 subject, Microsoft will do what they want to.
I can lay out many graphics cards, TV cards, Capture cards...etc. that were obsoleted after Windows XP was discontinued. But they work "well" under various Linux distros. I'm not a Linux anything fan. But you definitely can make and old 486 pc work well using one (distro) tailored for older hardware.
Windows 10's free upgrade was a disaster. It rendered many computers useless. It was hurriedly released and the banner telling you of it baited people. It was a lucrative time for me.
A library with public laptops using fingerprint readers in my area linked the users accounts (library cards) to them.
Not being a managed system, suddenly 8 dead laptops.
The same for a municipal department here. 4 desktop computers unusable. $$$ for me, lost time and revenue for them.

I'm using an I7 laptop, have a smoking gaming laptop, and my file server/NAS is an 8 year old I7.
Right now I use a core 2 Duo on my work station with 2 gigs of RAM that was given to me. It runs a version of Windows 10 released by Ghost Spectre. At one time it was the guys gaming PC.
Intel doesn't support the mobo or RAID. ATI still supports the GPU and Creative still supports the sound card.
Consider it a sttp version. Stripped to the tits! It has the bare minimum of what will run the OS.
But unlike other "tiny" versions you can add what you think you need to after install or during. It activates fine seeing as it was previously running Win 7 and was "upgraded" to 10. It was a dog before. One you wanted to take a walk in the woods with for one last time. Well, it's revived and works pretty ok. In my garage to access tech documents and service manuals from my file server in the house.

The fonts issue. There are themes apps, fonts customization apps a-mundo if you do a search.
Industry and the medical field rallied heavily to keep XP going as long as they could because upgrading just the OS required better, faster hardware where a networked pc simply needed to perform the function it was designed for. A customized vitals monitor card would be obsoleted on a pc that it was all it did.
Medical equipment is very very expensive.

Way back in the 98 days I was on the MS beta list and tried many versions of Windows Server 3XXX.
It was what would be Windows XP and was buggy. But the GUI was "exciting". People who glimpsed at my monitor asked what it was. Much like ones who saw Linux with Compiz Fusion and the amazing cube desktop.

So enough of the rant. Sorry. But MS will do what they want to. And you can still run Windows 95 is you wish. Not that you can browse the web. But Solitaire still works.

 

[HipKat]

Why do all these software developers think that we need to change the gui every few years? If I like the way it is now, and it works for me, at least give me the option to keep it.

I use Win10 from an upgrade, with the Classic Win7 shell and desktop and control panel still intact. Remember when you used to be able to really customize display settings for the various components on a page? Now it's either big fonts or little fonts, without regard to where they are.

Why do you think you wouldn't be able to keep it or at least a large part of it?

 

[TheKrell]

I use Win10 from an upgrade, with the Classic Win7 shell and desktop and control panel still intact.

I am fascinated by that remark, because I loath the W8 and 10 GUI, not to mention the damnable control panel, compared to 7. I still haven't gotten my wife's new W10 computer to serve it's printer to my LAN. Oh, and the parental controls in W7 worked great locally. I never did figure out how to do the same thing on W10 without resorting to MS usernames and passwords. Now I don't need it any longer since my daughter is 16.

How is this done?

 

[rvvaquero]

How is this done?

Just lucky, I guess. I installed Win10 on a spare desktop and hated it, couldn't make it work in any reasonably traditional way. So, I formatted, installed Win7 and upgraded to Win10. That's what I've done on three computers now.

I began using pc's in the mid 80's, before hard drives. I learned DOS, then adapted to Windows when it came along. I think they got it right in a desktop around Win95, really liked Win7. I just no longer want to learn a new OS every time there's an upgrade. MS has gone from making you learn how to do all your own tweaking to taking everything over for you. I thought Win7 was a good compromise between totally setting it up for those who didn't care, and allowing some flexibility for those who do.

As far as finding an app to customize fonts and such, I refuse to join MS membership pseudo Apple app store. I have downloaded a few themes, but none which let me fine tune fonts to my liking. It was so easy to right click on the desktop and be able to change a variety of settings.

Overall, it's not a major obstacle in my life. I'll probably adjust to Win11 also, if I live that long.

 

[harshness]

Why do all these software developers think that we need to change the gui every few years?

Microsoft isn't about software developers. Microsoft is about consultancies and keeping their products in the press. These groups need something new to teach users about every few years or they'll talk about someone else where they can more readily keep up the revenue stream. It is all about keeping up the buzz and judicious refinement doesn't support buzz.

 

[Altitudinous]

How is this done?

Some of this can be done by using Open-Shell, which I've been using (originally as Classic Shell) since W8.

Welcome to Open-Shell

Classic Shell Reborn.

open-shell.github.io

 

[arlo]

I am fascinated by that remark, because I loath the W8 and 10 GUI, not to mention the damnable control panel, compared to 7. I still haven't gotten my wife's new W10 computer to serve it's printer to my LAN. Oh, and the parental controls in W7 worked great locally. I never did figure out how to do the same thing on W10 without resorting to MS usernames and passwords. Now I don't need it any longer since my daughter is 16.

How is this done?

From another post here.
Before installing Win 10 on a desktop first pull your NIC card (desktop) or disable networking hardware in UEFI (or BIOS on a laptop/desktop). Wa-la. No Microsoft account login prompt during install. Turn it back on later.
Control Panel. View by: Small icons. Bang! There's your old control panel.
I don't know about printer sharing. Usually you simply share it on the machine that it's on. Then browse the network on your pc and install it or add in devices and printers. Works fine here.
Browsing networked computers is a bear. Enable Samba in Turn Windows features on or off on both computers.
Turn on a few services in the admin tools>services. Just keep your donut handy because it's a pain.
I assign I.P. addresses in my router based on the MAC address. Makes peeking around in my other pc's easier.
I also use WakeMeonLAN to kick sleeping pc's out of bed. Of course you have to enable WOL on those machines. Printing to a sleeping one just don't work.
I hate logging in every time I power up a home pc. They killed "control userpasswords2". But reading showed how to re enable it. Reading also showed how to kill having to login after the pc resumes from screen saver or sleep.
Sometimes it's enabling services, sometimes it's a few registry edits. But it's not that hard to do. Just a PITA until everything starts working.

 

[TheKrell]

Thank you Arlo. A few observations:

1. Windows 10 Pro installations that I have used this year (and last) do allow you to create a local username. It's not easy, but it's possible. My MS account can rot in hell for all I care.
2. I have had no issue deleting the password on dedicated computers, allowing me (or the computer's primary user) to log in without typing one.
3. I fiddled with the W10 printer problem until I was blue in the face! Yes, I turned on network discovery and file and printer sharing. Yes I rebooted multiple times. Yes, after hunting around for 15-20 minutes found where I could enable sharing on the USB printer which works. I still cannot see it when browsing the network from W7. When I enter the computer's name into the search field, it presents me with a username/password prompt on my daughter's domain! Confusing as hell.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I use Win10 from an upgrade, with the Classic Win7 shell and desktop and control panel still intact.

Yep, when the first beta of Win 10 came out I joined the "Insiders" program and found The Classic Shell desktop, which is still around but now is called The Open Shell Desktop. Went through all the beta testing of 10 and when it went RTM I already had two desktop systems running it and now have 4 desktops and 2 laptops with it and I STILL use that Open Shell Desktop with all of them.

That and I do some computer repair for the local "old people" with Win 10 who all also run The Open Shell desktop!! Most of all those were upgrades from Windows 7.

But personally..........I run Linux Mint Mate and have now for a long time and each one of my desktop systems are MULTIBOOT with various versions of Windowz and Linux Mint Mate, which is now version 20.1.

The only Windows 10 computer here in the house that gets used every day is the Dell laptop that my Daring Wife uses primarily for her website work for the "Fundraiser Alley" online business she runs.

Ennywho, I'll soon be 76 years old and I have some serious reservations as to whether I'll get involved with Win 11?? Just don't know if I'm up to it at my age.

Just saying..................

 

[navychop]

For me, the expression that comes to mind is “kicking and screaming.”

 

[EarDemon]

For creating local accounts:

Home: During initial set up, do not have it connected to your network via ethernet and/or do not join it to wifi when prompted to. This will prompt you to create a local account

Pro: Doesn’t matter if its network connected. Select the ‘Domain Join Instead’ option at the bottom left of one of the first set-up screens. Since you can’t join a domain without a local account, this will allow you to create a local account and you never have to join it to an AD domain.

Classic Shell, now Open Shell is a wonderful utility that allows you to customize the start menu thousands of different ways. Most people discovered it because of Windows 8, but it was Windows 7 that inspired the creation, since Windows 7 did not include a classic style start menu option like XP and Vista did. I’ve been using Classic Shell since the very beginning in December 2009, since I very much prefer the clean and organized look of the NT4/95 style of start menu with cascading folders and that's how my start menu looks to this day.

I've probably done 200 - 300 clean Windows 10 installations by now, I'll be doing two more tomorrow an then over the weekend popping in an SSD to my neighbors laptop that's still running 7 and installing 10 on that. I've had very little problems along the way. Using SSDs is the only way to go. Windows 10 runs like garbage on mechanical drives, and I wouldn't run it on anything less than 8 GB of RAM.

Windows 11, if that truly is the name, will just be Windows 10 21H2. No different than Windows 2000 being NT 5.0. It's all marketing.

 

[EarDemon]

1. I fiddled with the W10 printer problem until I was blue in the face! Yes, I turned on network discovery and file and printer sharing. Yes I rebooted multiple times. Yes, after hunting around for 15-20 minutes found where I could enable sharing on the USB printer which works. I still cannot see it when browsing the network from W7. When I enter the computer's name into the search field, it presents me with a username/password prompt on my daughter's domain! Confusing as hell.

Is it a networked printer? If so, when you go to Control Panel -> Devices and Printers -> Add a Printer -> The Printer I Want Isn't Listed -> Add Printer By Using TCP/IP Address or Hostname and type in the IP address of the printer, what happens?

If it's a USB printer what happens when you type in \\printserver\printersharename in a Run window?

You said you don't use passwords for computers, is that correct? I could have sworn that starting with Windows 7, if you have a blank password you can't access network shares. I thought I ran into this 10+ years ago, but I've always used passwords so I'm not 100%.