Windows 11 - Full production release - Easy upgrade, no problems - and no thrills.

[Xulonn]

I am now a contented Windows 11 user. No drama, no fuss, and life goes on. I could care less about this new technology, but it was placed in my lap for free, so I did the upgrade. I've been running Win 10 with the OpenShell Win 7-style start menu. Microsoft put a discreet notice in the task bar that I could upgrade for free to Win 11, so last night I backed up my PC's SSD and ran the upgrade process, which took about an hour to download and install.

Then I uninstalled OpenShell (which is no longer supported and requires registry hacks to work with Win 11), and downloaded and installed the Stardock Start 11 Windows menu utility and got my Windows 7 look and feel back. (The image below is from the Stardock website.) I'm on the 30-day free trial of Start 11, and will gladly pay the five dollars to purchase it when the trial is over.

Bottom line - quick, easy and free upgrade, not a single glitch so far. Everything - including the few legacy apps that I use - works great. Win 11 has lots of features - old and new - that I neither want nor need, but over time, I will find instructions on the internet and disable or remove them to simplify my system.

Details about my system:

My desktop PC is a fairly new Intel NUC8i7BEH with an Intel Core i7-8559U CPU, a 1Tb M.2 SSD hard drive, and 16Gb RAM, and a "hat" with 2 additional USB ports. I can backup my SSD to an external SSD via USB-C in about 15-20 minutes. My system is very compact, and I like it a lot with its 24" HP 1080p monitor, I.AM.D Chinese DAC/Amp, and Q-Acoustics 3010 speakers. I've been using Windows 10 since shortly after it was released, and with Open Shell, it had a Windows 7 look and feel, and was a pleasure to use. Windows 10 was the most stable and reliable OS I have used since getting into personal computing with DOS 2.1 and an original dual-floppy IBM PC back in 1984.

I also have a fairly new QNAP single-bay NAS with a 10Tb WD Red Plus HDD - which has much faster transfer speeds than my old Synology single bay unit. I will soon get another identical 10Tb HDD, and use a SATA to USB-C connection to periodically sync/mirror it so my backup is physically separate from the NAS unit and PC.

 

[the_hamster 2]

Transitioned largely to iOS for daily email, web surfing, etc., but keep two vintage PCs going for Word, TurboTax, a few other MS applications, and both units dual-boot 7/10. However, can’t qualify YET for Win11, lacking imbedded TPM 2.0 and insufficient processor power, per PC Health Check. Unless MS loosens up specs for older machines, I’m defaulting to Win10.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I've installed 11 on three machines with no problems, and it seems to work OK. On the latest edition of Security Now, Steve Gibson goes into a lot of things about Windows 11 which Microsoft has not handled well.

 

[Xulonn]

As part of a routine update, Microsoft fixed the Snipping Tool bug within a couple of days of starting this thread, and today there was another update that supposedly fixed another 55 bugs and other issues. Still no problems for me, and with the Stardock Start11 start-menu utility, it's as if I am still using Windows 7 with some updates in function and style.

A couple of nights ago I transcoded a couple of thousand FLAC files to MP3 with the great little freeware Format Factory utility, which took about 25-49 seconds per CD or album. No problems - fast and functional.

Tonight I will use Revo Uninstaller to uninstall Microsoft Teams and any other superfluous software that loads on startup, and then make an image backup with Aomei Backupper, another great Windows freeware utility.

[I am not "in love" with Microsoft and their Windows OS, but I elected to go with Microsoft in 1984 when Apple was a consumer and counter-culture toy and IBM was trying to take over desktop computing in the business world. I made the right decision, and eventually became pretty good with DOS and Windows, and worked my way up from scientific software sales and tech support to being a senior corporate LAN administrator with certification from Novell for their NetWare OS. I left the field in 2001 shortly after a one-year contract working with the Pacific (Stock) Exchange Y2K remediation team, but still enjoy playing with computer-based technology as I approach my 80th birthday, which will be on December 16.]

 

[NiagaraPete]

My question is why support a corporate predator?

 

[Doodski]

I made the right decision, and eventually became pretty good with DOS and Windows, and worked my way up from scientific software sales and tech support to being a senior corporate LAN administrator with certification from Novell for their NetWare OS. I left the field in 2001 shortly after a one-year contract working with the Pacific (Stock) Exchange Y2K remediation team, but still enjoy playing with computer-based technology as I approach my 80th birthday, which will be on December 16.]

I was wondering. You seem to handle yourself very well around PCs. I think I'll wait till the first service pack is released before installing Win11.

 

[litemotiv]

My question is why support a corporate predator?

How is that iPad working out for you?

 

[Slayer]

I have had the notice for some time now that my computer meets all system requirements for windows 11. Although I have yet to receive the option to download it. So patiently waiting my turn so to speak. No big rush currently, windows 10 hasn't really given me any problems to speak of.
Glad to hear it seems to be running ok for most users, so when i get the update option, I will most likely try the install.

 

[Doodski]

Waiting for the Win11 auto-download. I would rather it get the auto download or wait for a couple more months for the smoke to settle. Here's what the update window looks like anyway for you peeps that are not compatible.

 

[litemotiv]

I've been running Win 11 for about 2 weeks now, everything seems to run well. Some nice improvements overall, mainly UI differences but notably the file explorer experience is smoother and the WSL2 integration is nice (in case you use the linux subsystem).

Some very small issues with scaling in a few apps that use older .net libraries, likely due to the somewhat unconventional resolution/scaling factor that i'm using (1.75 scaling on a 3.5k screen).

 

[Blumlein 88]

I use Linux on the desktop I have. I've a couple laptops with Win10 I use for on location recording and for things one must have Windows to use. None of my Win gear will do Windows 11. Been trying to decide if I want to get a new Mac for various things one needs outside of Linux. I've one older Macbook Pro which I like and it too won't get the latest Mac OS update. I wish various issues with software not working with Linux were better handled. It is by far the best experience to me currently of all the OS's which are available. Seems like there is alway some 5% or even less of things you need, but can't get done on Linux.

Anyway good to hear Windows 11 upgrades well apparently.

 

[Ron Texas]

I just did an upgrade installation today on a 13" notebook by a well known manufacturer with a high res screen and a 10th gen processor. No drama.

My initial impression is the interface is very clean and friendlier to use on smaller screens such as my notebook, 2 in 1 machines and tablets. I do have a touchscreen, but don't use it. It does look like there is enough space between things to make a touch interface easier to use.

I hope it's more secure, but all I have seen about that is aimed at enterprise users.

Feature wise, I have no idea one way or the other.

 

[Ron Texas]

I use Linux on the desktop I have. I've a couple laptops with Win10 I use for on location recording and for things one must have Windows to use. None of my Win gear will do Windows 11. Been trying to decide if I want to get a new Mac for various things one needs outside of Linux. I've one older Macbook Pro which I like and it too won't get the latest Mac OS update. I wish various issues with software not working with Linux were better handled. It is by far the best experience to me currently of all the OS's which are available. Seems like there is alway some 5% or even less of things you need, but can't get done on Linux.

Anyway good to hear Windows 11 upgrades well apparently.

Lots of people are using Linux for streaming on Raspberry Pi and other sorts of hardware including fancy prebuilt streamers.

 

[SIY]

If you're not a Linux user, what does 11 do that 10 (or 7) doesn't?

 

[litemotiv]

If you're not a Linux user, what does 11 do that 10 (or 7) doesn't?

Functionally not much, but it will be more secure. In Windows 11 many processes are sandboxed, which means they run in their own secure space and cannot interfere with other processes as easily. This is one of the reasons why the specifications for Win 11 are more strict, it requires a modern CPU to run these types of sandboxed processes with hardware acceleration (encryption). Without that support in the CPU it has to fall back to software implementations which are a lot slower and potentially less secure.

 

[Xulonn]

Functionally not much, but it will be more secure. In Windows 11 many processes are sandboxed, which means they run in their own secure space and cannot interfere with other processes as easily. This is one of the reasons why the specifications for Win 11 are more strict, it requires a modern CPU to run these types of sandboxed processes with hardware acceleration (encryption). Without that support in the CPU it has to fall back to software implementations which are a lot slower and potentially less secure.

Good response - interesting perspective. Thanks...

Windows 11 was free for me. I use it on my desktop PC out of habit and decades of experience with that OS. Rather than "supporting" Microsoft, I am more of a parasite since I do not give them my money.

I tried Linux Mint a couple of years ago, and it was o.k. But, even though it had a familiar Windows-like interface, I didn't like the frequent requirement to precisely enter many lines of code to accomplish simple tasks or make apps and applets work properly. Also, Linux does not have a huge repository of excellent freeware like there is for Windows, and I became frustrated trying to do everything I did with Windows freeware on Linux.

Indeed, I use freeware almost exclusively in lieu of Microsoft or other commercial software. Although I don't use it much, I installed LibreOffice as an MS Office alternative. The Mozilla FireFox browser and Thunderbird email front-end are free, have excellent flexibility, good support via regular updates, and a great universe of add-ons. LibreOffice does what I need, as does Photoscape X, and a whole battery of audio, video, networking and system utilities.

My A/V system includes an older Intel NUC5, and runs LibreElec, a free, standalone, boot-able Linux-based Kodi derivative that again, although not perfect, does everything I need with its free official and/or side-loaded add-ons.

I occasionally send a few dollars to freeware developers (and ASR). Those coders, like Audio Science Review founder @amirm , contribute a lot to the user world in electronic audio, video and computer technology, on both the software and hardware sides. $20 goes a lot further with them than with Microsoft and other corporate entities.

 

[trl]

I've one older Macbook Pro which I like and it too won't get the latest Mac OS update.

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/install-macos-old-mac-3654960/ - I did it few months ago on mu iMac and it works fine.

 

[NiagaraPete]

How is that iPad working out for you?

Apple is a proprietary dictatorship. I'm so thankful they have kicked Facebooks ass to the tune of 10 billion since the privacy update.

 

[pseudoid]

I guess basically, there appears to be 4 different OperatingSystem (OS) user types:

• Those who don't care which OS; as long as it works for them
• Those who hate the corporate OS bastards (not solely Microsoft but Apple and Google+Android, as well)
• Those who are truly penguinados, and
• Those who are willing to put up with WinOS

I will probably relent and upgrade at a much later date to Win11; but the 2 InsiderPreview versions I had installed with the the TaskBar permanently affixed to the horizontal axis needs to go first.

 

[pseudoid]

Apple is a proprietary dictatorship.

The "walled garden" is not that bad of a deal.
In the early days of the GUI, Apple was the kind of platform which allowed an artist (or a creator) to be one; without having to learn what was under the hood of the OS. It just worked and works to this day! And w/o geeking out as we do with our audio habits.
I usually recommend Apple (pc/phone) products for those in my circles that I know could not be bothered.
But I never recommend the 'free-lunch' program that google/android offers to anyone!