Windows 11

[Brian G Turner]

I'll revert back

Was fairly quick and painless going back to Windows 10.

Though you only have 10 days from a Win 11 upgrade to do it...

 

[Astro Pen]

Unless I’m missing some trick, it seems you have no choice with Windows 10 and 11. Setting up an account appears to be part of the activation process.

Yes there is a trick. I just used it. You have to disconnect from the internet at a critical point, take one back step and procede without a microsoft account.

 

[Dave]

Windows 11 isn't a terrible operating system, but it seems like just a very minor update from Windows 10 that simply integrates a little more MS office software while allowing Android games to be played. And not much else.

Aside from a few minor cosmetic changes that seems to be it.

It has to be more than that surely, because my laptop is about 5 years old but cannot be updated to Windows 11. Windows checked and said so.

However, that could be a problem with the gaming aspect of Windows 11. The processor is too slow for the latest gaming, and it is always chronically short of RAM when running that kind of thing, but then I didn't buy it to play games on.

At least I don't get the constant nagging to update like I did from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

 

[Lumens]

I was hit by this issue yesterday on my Win11 laptop:

Microsoft Secure Boot fix sends PCs into BitLocker Recovery

Have your BitLocker key handy when updating, but maybe not on a Post-it stuck to the screen, OK?

www.theregister.com

I had jump through hoops by accessing my MS account to get an insanely long recovery key. I'm considering nuking the windows installation to go with Linux instead...

 

[Droflet]

I miss my windows 7. It never gave me grief unlike windows 10. If you bring out something new shouldn't it be better?

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I have a big old windows 7 machine not hooked up to the internet. My artwork, writing, printing, is done on that machine. Internet access is through the really cheap windows 10 laptop which doesn't recognize any of my old printers. The easy solution, buy a new printer. At this point I would just get a cheap chromebook if I get sandbagged with win 10 antics. The laptop is so cheap it has no optical drive and not enough power to run an external drive. I don't use microcrap one drive and mistakenly activated one drive at some point. I haven't been able to turn off the one drive which automatically backs up everything. When it gets full, it wants you to buy more space. If you don't get more space, it marks every file it can't back up with a red x. It helps me to find recently added files.

 

[MaxRelaxman]

Work made me switch to 11 from 10. I miss being able to customize my start menu with the tiles. Visual Studio and other dev tools in one pinned group, sql stuff in another, etc. Don't get my started on not being able to move the task bar to the left side of the monitor without a registry hack.

Otherwise, it seems on par performance wise if I ignore some stuff randomly taking a minute to launch.

 

[Foxbat]

My other PC has been giving me a lot of issues (a 12 year old Vista machine) and I was planning on replacing it next year but, with the cost of living crisis I thought I’d get it now before everything goes to hell in a handcart.

It’s my first experience of Windows 11 and, frankly, I feel like somebody has taken everything Windows 10 can do and just jumbled it up. It’s just like somebody coming into your home and rearranging the furniture. Everything is there, but nothing is where you left it and they’ve even changed the curtains. It just irritates me no end. Other than that, it seems fine I suppose.

I had jump through hoops by accessing my MS account to get an insanely long recovery key. I'm considering nuking the windows installation to go with Linux instead...

I took this into account before buying but could not find the key anywhere. I may have to contact the vendor to get this. I have 30 days in which to return the machine if I’m not happy so I just held my breath and applied every update available, hit restart and said a prayer. It seems to be working fine (so far)…

 

[.matthew.]

I actually quite like Windows 10. Once I set it up to ignore all the Microsoft cloud nonsense and removed the tracking and Cortana that is.

Plus, I still subscribe to the notion of alternating goodness.
95 tolerable
98 good
2000 (ME) awful
XP good
Vista heinous war crime
7 good
8 when hell freezes over
10 good once you disable a bunch of rubbish
11 ???

Therefor... no Windows 11 for me

 

[Lumens]

I took this into account before buying but could not find the key anywhere.

It's in your MS account. You access it by searching for your Bitlocker recovery key.

Finding your BitLocker recovery key in Windows

Learn different ways to locate your BitLocker recovery key in Windows, and learn about how BitLocker might have been activated on your system.

support.microsoft.com

You can write it down and keep it somewhere safe. But chances are they won't make that mistake again. Next time it'll be something else...

 

[Foxbat]

It's in your MS account. You access it by searching for your Bitlocker recovery key.

It's not. I did exactly that but was informed that there was no key. What it did say was that if the software had been pre-activated by the vendor then it would be in their account and I would have to contact the seller for the key. I already know that there are reports that others have had no luck because the seller invariably says that it's a microsoft problem and you end up in a loop of nobody taking responsibility. luckily, I seemed to get past the update that caused the problem so I'm just going to monitor the situation for the next thirty days and see how it goes.

 

[Lumens]

Maybe your hard drive isn't encrypted? If that's the case you don't need a key. Just a stab in the dark...

 

[Foxbat]

Maybe your hard drive isn't encrypted? If that's the case you don't need a key. Just a stab in the dark...

I thought it was part of the Windows setup but if it’s related to the hard drive then you might be right. Fingers crossed that you are

 

[Foxbat]

Update. I‘ve found out what’s going on. The reason the key is not available is because it doesn’t exist. A bit of detective work and I found out that bitlocker is not available to Windows 11 Home Edition users. This also applies to the home edition of Windows 10.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I think Microsoft reached a peak with XP and have been going downhill ever since...

Nah, Windows 7!

I use Linux myself.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm bumping this thread because I've finally found out how to make the Win 11 scroll bars more visible. I found it really irritating they way they'd disappear and not always re-appear when I wanted them to. What made it worse was that it was also happening in my browser (Firefox).

Two things I've learned today.
1) it happens in Firefox because that browser defers to Win 11 scroll bar settings
2) open Win 11 control panel and go to 'Accessibility'. From there, select 'Visual Effects' and within that selection, switch on 'always show scroll bars'.

This not only displays them all the time but makes them a little thicker and easier to use. Because Firefox respects Windows settings, the Firefox scroll bar also changes to this set up.

Job done

 

[Wayne Mack]

So, how is the current Windows 11 treating you? I've head the update indicator on my Windows 10 machine for quite awhile, but haven't felt and pressing need to update. I'll probably do it eventually, I just want to feel comfortable that the release has settled down.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm used to it.

I found the disappearing scroll bar quite annoying but now that's solved, it's a big step forward. I've allowed the updates to install as they come (there's been quite a few these last few months). Nothing has gone awry and everything seems fairly stable. My biggest gripe is finding functions. The scroll bar being a perfect example of this. I never looked in the accessibility section before because I assumed that was for people who needed to adjust Windows to their own particular needs (visual imparement for example). Of course, with hindsight, I realise that it also was there for me to adjust to my own needs. It just didn't seem logical to me to put it there because I see that kind of function as a more general thing that almost everybody might want to adjust and not just those with accessibility problems.

There's a big update (22H2) that I haven't installed. It appears to be optional so I'm not going to do it unless I have to. My reason is quite simple: I've just got used to this version and I don't want a newer version shifting everything around again. I'm sick and tired of MS doing that every time they bring out a new operating system.

 

[tinkerdan]

Just bought two new computers with Win 11 and so far not much difference from 10--would not update old computer for a number of good reasons. The 22H2 does make some changes to things one of those being that it requires extra clicks on some of the popup menus for things like file explorer--in order to find things that used to be in the single popup menu before you have to ask to show more to get to those things.

As to what windows hides now. Most can be located by using the search in the start area. Click on start and the in the search area type what you are looking for. Such as Updates for the window update. And cleanup for the disk cleanup utilities. And try to avoid systems that are setup in S-mode although that's an easy thing to change--you can't change back to s-mode once you change out of it--but that's more of a relief than a problem.