Windows 11

[HipKat]

They are kind of last decade. Many of the mainstream software titles are either downloaded or come on thumb drives and putting ISOs on a Ventoy thumb drive is very, very slick.

I agree. I have a box in one of my drawers that’s full of thumb drives that have operating systems on them. Most of them are different Linux live ISO’s from when I was distro hopping last year, but I have a Windows 10 pro that I use the last time I reformat it my last computer. And then there are the rescue drives and the portable oh esses. Can’t live without those lol.

 

[TheForce]

On my older computer, I used the CD ROM drive mostly for my cloning software. (Apricorn) This has been a real life saver for many years. So much faster than trying to figure out what is wrong with a C drive, rather than just plug in a week old clone and be up and running in a few minutes of cable swapping. I suppose I could put it on a thumb drive but why bother?

So after a couple days of rebuilding my system with windows 11, I kind of like it. Just have to get used to the unnecessary changes in the User interface and location of features I was accustomed to.

One issue I have with w11 is the desktop. I like my stuff laid out in sections. eg. I have pdf's of many instruction manuals in the lower left quadrant and my frequently accessed spreadsheets in the upper right quadrant. etc. In windows 10 all the icons would snap to a grid line and w11 they don't, only when I switch to auto arrange and then they all line up in random order or alphabetical order on the left side of the screen. A mess! I'm sure there must be a way but I haven't located it yet.

I also had a real problem trying to recognize my Brother MFC laser printer on my network as it is located in another room. I finally got it working with wifi, even though originally I had it on ethernet.

Question on memory- The Dell 3020 uses DDR4 3200, as a single 16GB stick. Not sure of the brand. I can increase it to 32GB with one more but of a different brand for about $20. If I have to match as a purchased set of the same brand for trouble free, I will just upgrade to 2 x 32gb for 64GB total and max out the MB for $100. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[HipKat]

On my older computer, I used the CD ROM drive mostly for my cloning software. (Apricorn) This has been a real life saver for many years. So much faster than trying to figure out what is wrong with a C drive, rather than just plug in a week old clone and be up and running in a few minutes of cable swapping. I suppose I could put it on a thumb drive but why bother?

So after a couple days of rebuilding my system with windows 11, I kind of like it. Just have to get used to the unnecessary changes in the User interface and location of features I was accustomed to.

One issue I have with w11 is the desktop. I like my stuff laid out in sections. eg. I have pdf's of many instruction manuals in the lower left quadrant and my frequently accessed spreadsheets in the upper right quadrant. etc. In windows 10 all the icons would snap to a grid line and w11 they don't, only when I switch to auto arrange and then they all line up in random order or alphabetical order on the left side of the screen. A mess! I'm sure there must be a way but I haven't located it yet.

I also had a real problem trying to recognize my Brother MFC laser printer on my network as it is located in another room. I finally got it working with wifi, even though originally I had it on ethernet.

Question on memory- The Dell 3020 uses DDR4 3200, as a single 16GB stick. Not sure of the brand. I can increase it to 32GB with one more but of a different brand for about $20. If I have to match as a purchased set of the same brand for trouble free, I will just upgrade to 2 x 32gb for 64GB total and max out the MB for $100. What are your thoughts on this?

I use 32GB of DDR4, and could expand to 64, but I'm good. No issues when I'm (rarely) on Windows. But for the low cost you posted, I would do it

 

[harshness]

RAM should usually be done in matched sets. If the specs don't line up, the chipmakers claim that there will be least common denominator compromises.

 

[TRG]

Question on memory- The Dell 3020 uses DDR4 3200, as a single 16GB stick. Not sure of the brand. I can increase it to 32GB with one more but of a different brand for about $20. If I have to match as a purchased set of the same brand for trouble free, I will just upgrade to 2 x 32gb for 64GB total and max out the MB for $100. What are your thoughts on this?

I've mixed different brands of RAM before. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the motherboard. If I was in your shoes I'd just buy, "2 x 32gb for 64GB total and max out the MB for $100."

 

[harshness]

In windows 10 all the icons would snap to a grid line and w11 they don't, only when I switch to auto arrange and then they all line up in random order or alphabetical order on the left side of the screen. A mess! I'm sure there must be a way but I haven't located it yet.

In the interim, consider creating folders for each discipline.

A lot of the Windows 11 stupidity seems to demand manual registry changes as Micro$oft struggles to migrate the preferences to the new model.

 

[TheForce]

Thanks for the advice on the memory. For now just using this for internet and browser as well as email it seems to perform just fine. The upgrade may be necessary when I decide to do some simple video editing or photo retouch work. There was a time when most hours in the day were doing this but not anymore. When the times comes I will just do the 64GB upgrade.

In the interim, consider creating folders for each discipline.

Not sure I understand that. I might look for some YT tutorial on win11 to learn what I may be missing out.

 

[harshness]

Not sure I understand that.

Creating folders on the desktop to categorize your data files and applications has always been an option.

 

[HipKat]

harshness-

I took your advice and went to Best Buy and bought the Dell 3020 this morning. It is up and working and had no trouble so far. It is a snappy machine. I'll be configuring everything over the next couple days. I'm actually on it now.

One nice thing is I had the failed computer settings uploaded to One drive and during this setup, one of the early steps was to see if I wanted to use those files to configure this computer and it saved a lot of work. It auto installed Office 365 too. But many others like adobe apps I need to do manually.

Some of my subscription services are giving me fits to delete the failed computer and add this new one. That's the only difficult part.

I saw this same computer on Amazon for a few$$ less but in digging through the specs it was lacking the optical drive so no real bargain.

You know, it’s hard to really notice it happening but I built a really nice computer in 2013. Spent a fair amount of money on it because I did not want to have to upgrade anytime soon until 2021. I just knew it was time. I thought that computer was still pretty relevant though until I built a new one and realize just how much of a dinosaur it has become. Now it’s 2023. I don’t have the money to do it but if I could, I would definitely upgrade this one and I’m sure that when I was done, this one would feel like the dinosaur.

 

[TheForce]

You know, it’s hard to really notice it happening but I built a really nice computer in 2013. Spent a fair amount of money on it because I did not want to have to upgrade anytime soon until 2021. I just knew it was time. I thought that computer was still pretty relevant though until I built a new one and realize just how much of a dinosaur it has become. Now it’s 2023. I don’t have the money to do it but if I could, I would definitely upgrade this one and I’m sure that when I was done, this one would feel like the dinosaur.

Well, I feel that way about somethings but a computer, not so much. I have always been happy with what does the job I need it to do. I don't upgrade just to have the biggest best technology can supply. I would have been happy with my older system and windows 10 but to put it in simple terms, it broke, and wasn't worth the unknown cost to repair. The hard drives were fine. The bios button battery was dead and after replacing it, nothing would come on except the fans. Maybe I caused it to fail but the red LED lights on the MB indicated no BIOS and all the fault lights were on. One M.2 card normally has a green LED and it was out.

So far, I don't see any benefit to windows11. Just making me locate same stuff in different places. That's not an improvement. I have this theory about software developers for these large companies like Microsoft. They need to justify their job so they take a perfectly good software and rearrange things, claiming improvement, to make us feel the need to pay more money to upgrade. Look how many windows 7 computers are still in operation. I have one here for some old software that doesn't run on windows 10.

 

[arlo]

In the interim, consider creating folders for each discipline.

A lot of the Windows 11 stupidity seems to demand manual registry changes as Micro$oft struggles to migrate the preferences to the new model.

Kind of easy. Right click in an empty space on the desktop and set your options. Arrange icons however you wish. Once set to your liking once again right click and select refresh. Next boot they stay where the were put.

 

[HipKat]

Well, I feel that way about somethings but a computer, not so much. I have always been happy with what does the job I need it to do. I don't upgrade just to have the biggest best technology can supply. I would have been happy with my older system and windows 10 but to put it in simple terms, it broke, and wasn't worth the unknown cost to repair. The hard drives were fine. The bios button battery was dead and after replacing it, nothing would come on except the fans. Maybe I caused it to fail but the red LED lights on the MB indicated no BIOS and all the fault lights were on. One M.2 card normally has a green LED and it was out.

So far, I don't see any benefit to windows11. Just making me locate same stuff in different places. That's not an improvement. I have this theory about software developers for these large companies like Microsoft. They need to justify their job so they take a perfectly good software and rearrange things, claiming improvement, to make us feel the need to pay more money to upgrade. Look how many windows 7 computers are still in operation. I have one here for some old software that doesn't run on windows 10.

Well, most of the benefits of windows, 11 are under the hood, but the problem with windows 11 is that thanks to integration , there are a lot of liabilities also.

Specifically, a lot of things that windows considers, security features, many people feel are unnecessary and intrusive. They’ve locked a lot of things down and getting back to windows 10, I have always hated the fact that window eliminated the super admin profile.

I have this OCD, where I have to set all of my programs to open as administrator. And of course, every time there’s an update windows removes that and I have to manually go in to the shortcut and reenable it, whereas with the super administrator, everything opened as administrator

 

[harshness]

Once set to your liking once again right click and select refresh. Next boot they stay where the were put.

Wouldn't it have been more intuitive to offer a "snapshot" function? I've always thought of "refresh" as a way to re-paint icons that aren't rendered correctly.

 

[TheForce]

Well, I got adobe Premiere Pro to install and it was a bit of a puzzle. Between adobe's antitheft and having to figure out where the "create shortcut" was I spent an hour doing the install. Some software plants a shortcut on the desktop but adobe doesn't. So two layers deep in right clicking on the application file in /program files I found it. Also, I discovered the Hipcat complaint too for most software installing. Where I now need to right click and select install as administrator. Adobe support was of no help.

 

[HipKat]

Well, I got adobe Premiere Pro to install and it was a bit of a puzzle. Between adobe's antitheft and having to figure out where the "create shortcut" was I spent an hour doing the install. Some software plants a shortcut on the desktop but adobe doesn't. So two layers deep in right clicking on the application file in /program files I found it. Also, I discovered the Hipcat complaint too for most software installing. Where I now need to right click and select install as administrator. Adobe support was of no help.

If you right click on the shortcut in the start menu and then then on open file location, you can right click on the exe, properties, run as administrator and it will stay - until it updates

 

[TheForce]

FYI on optical drive need. I just received my external drive mini tower. The manual pdf and RAID drivers came on a CD. This is the company's latest update to their equipment. I don't think CD's are dead yet. Besides, I have my entire production music library on a couple hundred CD's. So a CD player drive is important to me.

I don't use RAID as I have each drive for different class of archived records.
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[Tweek]

Well, most of the benefits of windows, 11 are under the hood, but the problem with windows 11 is that thanks to integration , there are a lot of liabilities also.

Specifically, a lot of things that windows considers, security features, many people feel are unnecessary and intrusive. They’ve locked a lot of things down and getting back to windows 10, I have always hated the fact that window eliminated the super admin profile.

I have this OCD, where I have to set all of my programs to open as administrator. And of course, every time there’s an update windows removes that and I have to manually go in to the shortcut and reenable it, whereas with the super administrator, everything opened as administrator

I hope this is ok. Is this what you need? I use mine this way and it does what you describe. Works fine on Win 11.

https://www.ghacks.net/2014/11/12/how-to-enable-the-hidden-windows-10-administrator-account/

 

[HipKat]

I hope this is ok. Is this what you need? I use mine this way and it does what you describe. Works fine on Win 11.

https://www.ghacks.net/2014/11/12/how-to-enable-the-hidden-windows-10-administrator-account/

Next time I'm on Windows, I'll take a look. Thanks!

 

[arlo]

Wouldn't it have been more intuitive to offer a "snapshot" function? I've always thought of "refresh" as a way to re-paint icons that aren't rendered correctly.

Nah. Besides multiple desktops now like the beloved 'nix flavors. There is DesktopOK if you use different...profiles?....for different workspace scenarios. Like I have one desk setup for ham radio sw, another for graphics. Pretty cool. But the refresh click assures the next boot, icons stay put. Only time it doesn't is when you update some applications like Filezilla and Notepad++ and such. Slide the new icon to its home, refresh.

 

[harshness]

The manual pdf and RAID drivers came on a CD.

This is done mostly as a bootstrap for those who don't have Internet access. Most companies suggest downloading the latest drivers before setting anything up (assuming that the device isn't supported by the OS).