Windows 11 has arrived!

[HenryBHough]

The latest versions of Apple's software don't even come with a plastic toy in box. They really should - so you'd get something of value.

One of the recent new versions broke hundreds of programs folks used regularly and forced them to buy new versions with features they didn't want and without features they had depended upon.

When it came time earlier this month to replace an ancient MacBook Air the choice was a dirt-cheap Chromebook. It does everything I need for travel and, yeah,I knew I was getting screwed but at least the price was about 80% LESS than the MacBook I would have had to buy to get the same level of utility that suits my travel needs.

As to Windows....well is it said: Friends don't let friends do Windows. But at least the latest versions are consistent. Consistently crap. With Windows you always know exactly what you're going to get.

Screwed.

It can be said with surety that Apple placed the PC on the backburner 10 years ago. They focused on phones. And it worked obviously.
They went from a company barely getting by to the most profitable company in the world.
The iMac has remained nearly unchanged for 15 years.

This is a 2010 iMac:

View attachment 510407

And a 2020 iMac:

View attachment 510408

Only difference is it is thinner.
If you listen closely, you can hear Jobs screaming.

My Daughter's Mac Book is still humming after 15 years; show me a Windows laptop that can do that.

The old MacBook Air does continue to chug slowly along. Too slow for comfortable use anymore. Because my wife's travels usually extend to a month or more I'm also uncomfortable with the batteries. They seem OK but their age gives me concern that they'll suddenly fail while she's away from home. Doing a 2-week trip starting next week and will bring both the Air and the Chromebook to see which works best in today's environment. If the Chromebook loses....what the Hell, it wasn't even $200. If it comes out second-best then it'd make a good donation to some kid who school is still in Xiden Panic Mode.

 

[Bleipriester]

As for the Release Build it is still possible to get rid of the next abomination (third iteration now) that is called Start Menu by Microsoft. They definitely unlearned how make a proper Start Menu. The W11 Menu is a mess, you can´t do anything, and half of the space is reserved for recommended and recently used applications. You deactivate this features and the space will be vacant, you can´t put shortcuts there. That´s even too much for free.
Fortunately you can switch to the old task bar. Once done, you got no Start Menu and have to install one, Classic Shell for example, or in my case, Startisback:

The way to go is quite easy, almost too easy.
Get free Winaero Tweaker and activate the old taskbar, this is just a simple registry entry that you can do also without that tool. Note that the Explorer will also turn into the old and better one. Good as the new one is still buggy and I like the ribbons better anyway.
Once done, install a Start Menu that is compatible with latest Windows 10 builds. In case you want to undo this all, uninstall the Start Menu first.

 

[Weatherman2020]

As for the Release Build it is still possible to get rid of the next abomination (third iteration now) that is called Start Menu by Microsoft. They definitely unlearned how make a proper Start Menu. The W11 Menu is a mess, you can´t do anything, and half of the space is reserved for recommended and recently used applications. You deactivate this features and the space will be vacant, you can´t put shortcuts there. That´s even too much for free.
Fortunately you can switch to the old task bar. Once done, you got no Start Menu and have to install one, Classic Shell for example, or in my case, Startisback:

The way to go is quite easy, almost too easy.
Get free Winaero Tweaker and activate the old taskbar, this is just a simple registry entry that you can do also without that tool. Note that the Explorer will also turn into the old and better one. Good as the new one is still buggy and I like the ribbons better anyway.
Once done, install a Start Menu that is compatible with latest Windows 10 builds. In case you want to undo this all, uninstall the Start Menu first.

But the million dollar question- why pay to upgrade?

 

[Desperado]

I tried to upgrade but windows 11 did not like the processor in my HP Pavillian laptop and itrefure the upgrade,

 

[Bleipriester]

But the million dollar question- why pay to upgrade?

It´s actually free.

 

[Bleipriester]

I tried to upgrade but windows 11 did not like the processor in my HP Pavillian laptop and itrefure the upgrade,

Workarounds are provided in this thread.

 

[Weatherman2020]

It´s actually free.

Ok, but why would I?

 

[boedicca]

What does Windows 11 do that 10 can't do? Bring back Windows 7, the apex of Windows technology where I had direct access to BIOS.

Windows 11 makes it even easier for Big Tech to spy on you.

 

[woodwork201]

As for the Release Build it is still possible to get rid of the next abomination (third iteration now) that is called Start Menu by Microsoft. They definitely unlearned how make a proper Start Menu. The W11 Menu is a mess, you can´t do anything, and half of the space is reserved for recommended and recently used applications. You deactivate this features and the space will be vacant, you can´t put shortcuts there. That´s even too much for free.
Fortunately you can switch to the old task bar. Once done, you got no Start Menu and have to install one, Classic Shell for example, or in my case, Startisback:

The way to go is quite easy, almost too easy.
Get free Winaero Tweaker and activate the old taskbar, this is just a simple registry entry that you can do also without that tool. Note that the Explorer will also turn into the old and better one. Good as the new one is still buggy and I like the ribbons better anyway.
Once done, install a Start Menu that is compatible with latest Windows 10 builds. In case you want to undo this all, uninstall the Start Menu first.

Windows 10/11 makes your PC Microsoft's PC. Windows 95 was all about personalization. You could set just about anything you wanted.

Then two things happened. First was the Netscape lawsuit because Microsoft used it's unpublished APIs to embed Internet Explorer in ways that other browsers could not do, forcing users to have Internet Explorer regardless of other browsers they might have.

The FTC was on the verge of making them spin off IE or offer the same connectivity to the OS to Netscape and other browsers so Microsoft changed it's defense to "the browser is the OS and the OS is the browser". This is when Microsoft got the idea that the money was not in personalization but was, instead, in content control.

Realizing that the future was in content and not in selling OS installations, Microsoft started with things like Microsoft Reader and Microsoft Music, both effectively short-term rental of content; one for books and one for music.

Even though Microsoft terminated those rental agreements, completely in violation of their terms and conditions that they strictly held consumers to, they have continued down the content path. But unlicensed music and low cost e-books, combined with Google's success in advertisement and paid content pushes, Microsoft realized that even content rental was not the real money; the real money was/is in advertising hits and pushing potential customers to paid referrals, bypassing the consumer choice of typical advertising.

Now, Windows 11 is pretty near the culmination of turning the PC and the Internet into nothing more or less than revenue generation for Microsoft. You think you're Microsoft's customer when you buy their OS but you are not. Microsoft's customers are the companies whose advertisements you see or whose websites are at or near the top of results in bing. You are nothing more than the product Microsoft is selling to those customers.

Switch to Linux, Tor, VPN, and quit being the product.

 

[woodwork201]

It´s actually free.

Free? Where have I heard that it's free recently? Oh yeah:

Dems: Tax Cuts ‘Cost’ Us, but a $3.5 Trillion Bill Is Free | National Review

The notion that allowing Americans to keep more of their own earnings is tantamount to government ‘giving’ them something is specious.

www.nationalreview.com

As Milton Friedman stated, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Like this guy is about to learn:

 

[Bleipriester]

Ok, but why would I?

Why would I make decisions for you?

 

[Bleipriester]

Windows 10/11 makes your PC Microsoft's PC. Windows 95 was all about personalization. You could set just about anything you wanted.

Then two things happened. First was the Netscape lawsuit because Microsoft used it's unpublished APIs to embed Internet Explorer in ways that other browsers could not do, forcing users to have Internet Explorer regardless of other browsers they might have.

The FTC was on the verge of making them spin off IE or offer the same connectivity to the OS to Netscape and other browsers so Microsoft changed it's defense to "the browser is the OS and the OS is the browser". This is when Microsoft got the idea that the money was not in personalization but was, instead, in content control.

Realizing that the future was in content and not in selling OS installations, Microsoft started with things like Microsoft Reader and Microsoft Music, both effectively short-term rental of content; one for books and one for music.

Even though Microsoft terminated those rental agreements, completely in violation of their terms and conditions that they strictly held consumers to, they have continued down the content path. But unlicensed music and low cost e-books, combined with Google's success in advertisement and paid content pushes, Microsoft realized that even content rental was not the real money; the real money was/is in advertising hits and pushing potential customers to paid referrals, bypassing the consumer choice of typical advertising.

Now, Windows 11 is pretty near the culmination of turning the PC and the Internet into nothing more or less than revenue generation for Microsoft. You think you're Microsoft's customer when you buy their OS but you are not. Microsoft's customers are the companies whose advertisements you see or whose websites are at or near the top of results in bing. You are nothing more than the product Microsoft is selling to those customers.

Switch to Linux, Tor, VPN, and quit being the product.

While it is correct that companies collect personal data to get user profiles to provide accurate ads, I don´t understand why people single out Microsoft to unload their rancor. MS provides opt-outs and you can even view and delete the data that MS has collected about you.
Second, Microsofts big business is the cloud services nowadays, not the little consumer, who has little to offer.

 

[Bleipriester]

Ok, next step to improve the Win 11 experience is the successor of Startisback, which is StartAllback, made for Windows 11. With this tool, you basically do what you like:

There is no need to switch to the old task bar anymore, but it is still recommended, since the new one is terrible like the menu.
More annoying than an inable Start Menu is the desire to cash in on it. Here is a little patch, you might have to boot another OS to copy it into the StartAllBack folder or use the tool Unlocker, since the file is in use while you try to change it.

workupload - Are you a human?

workupload.com

Also, if you like to have the Windows Store as an installer:

workupload - Are you a human?

workupload.com

Next problem to solve is the long time it takes to log in. I guess it will take until an update fixes this unless this is a local problem on my machine.

 

[turbofish]

Here is what is kind of funny about Windows 11. I have three machines here at the house [many more but who knows what those are for].
An MSI laptop with an i7, 7 gen, 32 GB of ram and a 1060 video card. Can't upgrade because the processor is 4 years old.
A AMD Ryzen 9 3900X with 128 GB of ram and 6-7 hard drives along with a 1080 video card. Can't upgrade until I turn on TPM in the bios and need to research that one.
A Eluktronics Max-17 with 64GB of ram [expandable to 128 GB], 2TB SSD [empty slot for expansion] and a 10th gen i7. The only machine that I can upgrade.

Stupid rules.

 

[Ringel05]

As with all these "new versions" (regardless of OS) I will wait from six months to a year before I upgrade, that way most of the bugs will have been worked out and the third party customizations made simple.

 

[woodwork201]

While it is correct that companies collect personal data to get user profiles to provide accurate ads, I don´t understand why people single out Microsoft to unload their rancor. MS provides opt-outs and you can even view and delete the data that MS has collected about you.
Second, Microsofts big business is the cloud services nowadays, not the little consumer, who has little to offer.

I don't single out Microsoft. This thread is about Microsoft. You created the thread, you should know that.

And Microsoft's marketing of Azure and Azure-based services has nothing to do with their sale of information collected from unknowing Windows desktop users. You seem to enjoy being the product.

 

[Bleipriester]

I don't single out Microsoft. This thread is about Microsoft. You created the thread, you should know that.

And Microsoft's marketing of Azure and Azure-based services has nothing to do with their sale of information collected from unknowing Windows desktop users. You seem to enjoy being the product.

I also turned invisible so people won´t get telemetry of me doing things like walking somewhere or shopping.

 

[Bleipriester]

Yawn! Another boooooring day!

I wish I could compress days into esd files (end sucking day), too.

 

[the other mike]

I thought they said windows 10 was the last one?

They had to find a way past those ghost McAfee Virus Alert popups.

 

[Bleipriester]

Done!