Win 11... Your thoughts ?

[Jaws]

How does the panel rate Win 11 ?
I have had the misfortune to be tasked with setting a machine up using the OS and personally not impresses
It seems to be a fiddled with win 10, aimed at low end users

 

[dna]

I've got it running on a desktop and a laptop. It has been stable and a couple of tries on a benchmark programme have suggested it is performing ok. (It feels like a reskinned windows 10, with a few things moved around such as access to the task manager)

It does have the same weird behaviour as Windows 10 when trying to share printers / folders etc across the home network.

I have not gone into the more expert level options so cannot comment on them.

 

[Gromett]

Fortunately no one is being forced onto it until Oct 14th 2025. So stick with Windows 10 until then would be my advice.

Windows 10 support ends in 4 years, but this is what you should know now

Now that Microsoft's Windows 11 is here, there are some things to note about Windows 10 and what it means for your devices.

www.cnet.com

I do not know why MS has so drastically changed the start menu in windows 10 and now moved it in windows 11. It adds nothing and removes familiarity. It is change for change sake in my view.

Glad I don't use windows anymore myself on a day to day basis.

 

[daveinspain]

I got it pre-installed on a new laptop - not impressed. Win 10 was bad enough, Win 11 is worse.

 

[kevenh]

When operating systems had major upgrades I used to hate it and spent ages making them look & work like they used to.
I eventually got over that attitude & instead of fighting the new ways, learnt them & embraced them.
The changes were more often than not improvements. Users with predefined Document, Photo, etc. folders. Plug n play, etc.

Well except Microsoft Vista, that was worse in most regards.
My current Desktop is just too old to have the TPM 2 security hardware so I'll limp along in Windows 10

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[Trevor Wbm]

Bought a new laptop with Win 11 loaded. Don't have any issues with it. All good as far as I'm concerned, maybe I'm a 'low end' user, whatever that means.

 

[GarryP]

Been running it on two desktops and a laptop since it came out. No issues and it does seem a little faster than W10. Personally, I don't mind the changes to the start menu.

 

[peterc10]

Been using Windows since 3.1. I have been using 10 on a MS Surface Pro for 6 years now without any problems. Much quicker on start up and closing down. And much preferred the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen.

Now got a new Surface Pro with 11 on it. The really disappointing thing is that there is no migration tool to move data and setting over. So still trying to work out a migration strategy. Also changing to 365 and reluctantly ditching my Office 2007 which complicates things more with regards to file structure.

 

[drpeej]

I run Win 11 under parallels on an M1 MacBook Pro. I need it because I need to use some Windows-only software. Win11 was the only version that ran on the ARM processor of the M1 Mac.

It works really well for me although I prefer MacOS.

 

[kevenh]

Also changing to 365 and reluctantly ditching my Office 2007

Did you consider Microsoft Office 2021 or Microsoft Office 2019?
Those are the applications that superseded Office 2007

Or is Microsoft 365 a Surface bundled app?

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[peterc10]

Did you consider Microsoft Office 2021 or Microsoft Office 2019?
Those are the applications that superseded Office 2007

Or is Microsoft 365 a Surface bundled app?

Yes I did.

But I was attracted by 365's ability to allow me to run all of the Office apps on my Android phone and be able to access all of my data to do so. I especially liked the idea of having Outlook on the phone, with easy access to past emails. In addition the 1Tb of storage for all of my data would ensure that I have my backups on the cloud and can move back in case of a hacking or ransom attack. It will also make it easier to migrate all my settings and data to any other new PC I get.

And finally I also liked the idea of improvements of the apps being kept up to date, rather than waiting for another version to come out. I think that Office 2021 may be the last of the line and MS will move over to 365 only in the future.

I bought Microsoft 365 for £40 on Ebay.

 

[peterc10]

Bought a new laptop with Win 11 loaded. Don't have any issues with it. All good as far as I'm concerned, maybe I'm a 'low end' user, whatever that means.

How did you get on in migrating all your data and settings over from the old laptop please?

 

[Trevor Wbm]

How did you get on in migrating all your data and settings over from the old laptop please?

Everything I have is saved in Chrome, One Drive or Dropbox, so just had to load the Apps and log in.

 

[Guigsy]

I don't see what the whining is about. Windows 10 used to be very schizophrenic with some new bits, stuff lifted from Win 8, bits from Win 7 and some even older pieces, particularly around admin settings. It got better over time, but the touch focused stuff always stuck out. Windows 11 is a minor continuation to the evolution of Windows 10. It's a bit more refined, but not really that different. The only brain hurt is the task bar is centralised, and that's optional.

Does anyone use the start menu anymore? Regular apps are pinned to the task bar. Less frequently used stuff, I just press the Windows key and start typing the name of the app I want. Search is your friend!

 

[peterc10]

I don't see what the whining is about. Windows 10 used to be very schizophrenic with some new bits, stuff lifted from Win 8, bits from Win 7 and some even older pieces, particularly around admin settings. It got better over time, but the touch focused stuff always stuck out. Windows 11 is a minor continuation to the evolution of Windows 10. It's a bit more refined, but not really that different. The only brain hurt is the task bar is centralised, and that's optional.

Does anyone use the start menu anymore? Regular apps are pinned to the task bar. Less frequently used stuff, I just press the Windows key and start typing the name of the app I want. Search is your friend!

Once it is on the PC Windows 11 looks good. My problems are the lack of migration tools and the Office 365 apps. Very disappointing as they look low budget compared with the real ones, and Outlook 365 is awful, the design seems to be based on a phone app. I need to keep my emails where I can easily get them so I have a considerable number of folders under the inbox to ensure I can find them quickly. I have been self employed for the last 30 years and I do need to keep my past records readily accessible.

I copied over my .pst file to the new PC and pointed Outlook at it. All the emails I kept from the last 3 years (over 1000) are now in the inbox with none of my folders being migrated over, so no way way of me finding anything without hours of scrolling, or days trying to recreate the folder system, all of which Outlook should have picked up on. God knows what would happen if I try to access my archived pst file, covering over 20 years, which is 10 times larger than the active pst file. The only good thing to say is that it looks like it has dealt with my Calendar and People properly.

So at the moment I have 2 computers on the go. The old one for Outlook and the new one for the rest of the apps. Any suggestions as to how to sort it out would be welcome. Is Office 2021 better than 365 and would it keep the same folder layout?

Edit I haven't used the start menu for many years. Either shortcuts pinned onto the Desktop or onto the Task bar once it came in.

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[Guigsy]

Once it is on the PC Windows 11 looks good. My problems are the lack of migration tools and the Office 365 apps. Very disappointing as they look low budget compared with the real ones, and Outlook 365 is awful, the design seems to be based on a phone app. I need to keep my emails where I can easily get them so I have a considerable number of folders under the inbox to ensure I can find them quickly. I have been self employed for the last 30 years and I do need to keep my past records readily accessible.

I copied over my .pst file to the new PC and pointed Outlook at it. All the emails I kept from the last 3 years (over 1000) are now in the inbox with none of my folders being migrated over, so no way way of me finding anything without hours of scrolling, or days trying to recreate the folder system, all of which Outlook should have picked up on. God knows what would happen if I try to access my archived pst file, covering over 20 years, which is 10 times larger than the active pst file. The only good thing to say is that it looks like it has dealt with my Calendar and People properly.

So at the moment I have 2 computers on the go. The old one for Outlook and the new one for the rest of the apps. Any suggestions as to how to sort it out would be welcome. Is Office 2021 better than 365 and would it keep the same folder layout?

Edit I haven't used the start menu for many years. Either shortcuts pinned onto the Desktop or onto the Task bar once it came in.

I agree, the web and 'Microsoft Store' versions of Office apps are pretty poor and very limited, the full Windows native apps are fine. I'm also paying for an O365 licence because I'm self employed and I need it for work.

Outlook has been terrible for a long time. If anything, I actually prefer the web version because the search actually works. One of the companies I was working for was using Google Mail and I hated it at first, but I quickly saw the light. I moved my business stuff over to Google Mail several years ago and haven't regretted it. With the bonus that I never have to move the email anywhere as it's all in the cloud and accessible from the web... provided I keep paying the subscription... I hate having to use Outlook again, which happens with many of the contracts I work on. With Outlook, it's so hard to keep track of email chains and tag things compared to Gmail. The only thing Outlook does well is meeting invites.

 

[ambulancekidd]

Had it for some time, no problems to report at all.