What's everyone's opinion on Windows 11?

[darealsoulless]

What's everyone's opinion of Windows 11? I've been using it on my i7 10700 and 16GB of RAM for a few weeks now and it seems to run well.

Unfortunately, I still have no graphics card so I can't game at all on it. Has anyone ran into any compatibility issues, especially with hardware? For instance could an older GPU that is technically still supported run on a Windows 11 system? Like an RX 580 for example?

[GuiltySpark_]

Like I’ve said in the many similar threads asking the same thing, it’s been perfectly fine. RX580 should have no trouble. 

[Shimejii]

If you want to deal with Beta Software and an OS, be my guest. I still recommend people to avoid it and wait until its actually done. Microsoft has not shown an ability to actually fully test things before deploying, and at this point its still better to use windows 10.

 

The ONLY people that i can sort of say you should probably try windows 11 are those on 12th gen with how the CPUS are supposed to function. Other then that, there still is not a good enough reason to actually use it

[Elijah Kamski]

At the moment, I don't see anything worth it in W11, it's just W10 but beta mode and with so many ads.

If I wanted the look of a mac, I would've gone with Apple as well, the look of W11 looks like a scuff hackingtosh.

Also I've modded my W10, less bloat (only things I need or want) and also TranslucentTB to give a much more premium feel that W11 could never give with it's scuffy middle search bar.

[cmndr]

I'm running linux right now. If I find myself REALLY needing to play a specific game I might dual boot.

for most of the last 10 years I mostly jumped between a handful of pretty old games. They all mostly "just work" using Steam or Lutris.

I see few reasons to get Windows 11 at the moment. F' MS's telemetry.

I want windows 10 with the telemetry stripped away and without ads. Ideally for free. Either that or better *nix support for a lot of things... perhaps browser based apps will be a solution.

[Origami Cactus]

2 hours ago, cmndr said:

I'm running linux right now. If I find myself REALLY needing to play a specific game I might dual boot.

for most of the last 10 years I mostly jumped between a handful of pretty old games. They all mostly "just work" using Steam or Lutris.

I see few reasons to get Windows 11 at the moment. F' MS's telemetry.

I want windows 10 with the telemetry stripped away and without ads. Ideally for free. Either that or better *nix support for a lot of things... perhaps browser based apps will be a solution.

I don't understand the hatred against the telemetry. You do know that 99.99% of the people don't go to microsoft forums to report weird problems that they might encounter? Telemetry is an important part of anything that has a lot of users. For example if Microsoft pushes a new update and a lot of users with a really specific configuration suddenly get BSOD's, Microsoft can see that and fix it.

They can also see exactly what features are being used and which aren't, to focus their development in most beneficial areas.

I just don't get the chase of "privacy" at all costs.

 

Anyways to the question at hand.

Quote

What do you think of Win 11?

I didn't like it, too many removed features, too dumbed down. Yes it looks slick and runs smoothly, but at the cost that anything more advance than everyday office work will take you more clicks and Google'ing than on win 10.

[M0nkeyKiddi3]

Is painful my friend but I was too late to realize. Now i cannot revert back to 10. Next big move for me will be Linux.

[M0nkeyKiddi3]

2 hours ago, cmndr said:

I'm running linux right now. If I find myself REALLY needing to play a specific game I might dual boot.

for most of the last 10 years I mostly jumped between a handful of pretty old games. They all mostly "just work" using Steam or Lutris.

I see few reasons to get Windows 11 at the moment. F' MS's telemetry.

I want windows 10 with the telemetry stripped away and without ads. Ideally for free. Either that or better *nix support for a lot of things... perhaps browser based apps will be a solution.

Use W10Privay to block as much as possible. https://www.w10privacy.de/deutsch-start/download/

Doesn't Linux Kernel 5.16 have anything good to do with gaming ?

[Thaldor]

12 hours ago, GR1MES said:

What's everyone's opinion of Windows 11?

UI upgrade aimed for touch screens for Windows 10 with quite many features cut out because [silence].

 

There's nothing new, there's nothing meaningfully better and it just feels like something Microsoft farted out because they found a memo from a decade ago how touch screens will change the PC. The so much marketed performance upgrade was about 5% at the BEST, welcome to the red team with worsened performance with certain platforms because microstuttering, Win11 not able to use bigger caches and who knows how many other problems are waiting down the line.

 

The biggest "new" features for me would be the DirectStorage and Auto HDR... If the DirectStorage wasn't only a marginal tech that basicly is same as getting 10 more FPS in CS:GO with RTX 3090, so basicly nothing. Auto HDR, if I want half-baked HDR I can add that to almost any game with ReShade without changing my OS.

 

In summary, I don't see any reason why to upgrade to Windows 11 and limit my PC usage with UI that is meant for touch screens. Because Windows 10 will loose its support? Thanks, but I rather take that bullet to the head than agree to this offer you think I cannot refuse.

[TetraSky]

It was fine. It's literally just windows 10 with a new UI to me.

I hated the taskbar, made multitasking a huge pain in the butt, could no longer drag files over the icon on the taskbar to have it open up whichever windowed folder was hidden to drop the files in. I also much preferred having text on my opened task to know what was open instead of those mobile style icons, but MS decided no one wanted that apparently. But other than that, it was ok (and yes, I started using ExplorerPatcher when I found out it existed, made things 1000% better for me).

 

That said, I went back to Windows 10 when I found out all my documents were somehow deleted for whatever reason the day a cumulative update was installed. Thank god I had backups... I can't trust an OS that may randomly delete my stuff after an update. It may have just been a coincidence, could've been some other random apps that did that, I don't know. All I know is that it happened and I did nothing out of the ordinary with it that I wouldn't have done on Win10 (no, I didn't have a ransomware or anything of the sort, files were deleted nearly a month prior from the moment I noticed they were gone... (sorry for not checking my document folder all the time?))

 

Oh, also, might be because my GPU doesn't have official drivers for Windows 11 due to support being dropped last year.. But I was getting like 30 fps in Ghost Recon Wildlands on Windows 11. After switching back to Win10, I'm getting over 60fps with the same/higher settings. So that's another reason for me.

[FliP0x]

The way I see it, if you're building a new PC or upgrading a current one, you might as well install Windows 11 on it.

 

Is it perfect? No, it isn't. 

Is it good enough and as usable as Windows 10? Yes, it is.

 

Windows 11 is missing some QoL changes (that I am sure it will get in time), eg. the Task Manager, that is no longer available when right-clicking the Task Bar, or the options when right clicking any file, you have to click to reveal the "additional" options, which is the same window as on Windows 10.

 

It's not bad, it's just unfinished, but just as good as Windows 10. If you don't need to upgrade (in case of building or upgrading new PC), then hold off for a while longer.

 

Source: using Windows 11 since November 2021

[steelo]

I tried it for a while on a ryzen 5 1600 af using the tpm 2.0 workaround. It worked until it didn't. After about 2 months, I was receiving bsod at boot (probably due to an update conflict)

 

Anyways, there really wasn't any 'must have' feature that win 11 offered and file manager taking 15 seconds to respond was utterly annoying. I reverted back to win 10 and have no reason to change as it works perfectly.

[Needfuldoer]

I don't have any computers that support it officially, and I'm too lazy to bother with the workarounds because 10 still works fine. 

 

Requiring a Microsoft account is kind of a pain, though. If they keep that up after 10 falls out of support I'll probably end up on MacOS or FreeBSD for my web browsing machines.

[darealsoulless]

12 hours ago, Elijah Kamski said:

At the moment, I don't see anything worth it in W11, it's just W10 but beta mode and with so many ads.

If I wanted the look of a mac, I would've gone with Apple as well, the look of W11 looks like a scuff hackingtosh.

Also I've modded my W10, less bloat (only things I need or want) and also TranslucentTB to give a much more premium feel that W11 could never give with it's scuffy middle search bar.

Hmm, now that someone mentions it kind of looks like Apple told Microsoft, "Yeah you can copy my homework just make it look a little different so the teacher don't notice." Also I haven't noticed a ridiculous amount of ads. Given, I don't use the widgets bar whatsoever. I could see that being where some ads would hide. Where are you seeing these ads in the UI?

 

I like the new start bar and search bar. It's a welcome change since I'd been using Windows 10 since it came out.

 

So far I've not ran into any significant bugs or issues with Windows 11. It has performed as expected. Though I use my PC mostly for reading and responding to work emails, watching videos, and want to play games as soon as I can get a GPU.

[darealsoulless]

1 hour ago, steelo said:

I tried it for a while on a ryzen 5 1600 af using the tpm 2.0 workaround. It worked until it didn't. After about 2 months, I was receiving bsod at boot (probably due to an update conflict)

 

Anyways, there really wasn't any 'must have' feature that win 11 offered and file manager taking 15 seconds to respond was utterly annoying. I reverted back to win 10 and have no reason to change as it works perfectly.

My 10th gen i7 is perfectly compatible. I just use it cause it's a welcome change from Windows 10, which I've been using forever. I haven't had any slowdowns whatsoever, but I also use only NVMe storage which is most likely a major contributor to how snappy the system feels.

[da na]

I absolutely hate it. Used it for about a month on my Ryzen 5 laptop. I'm never switching over my Xeon e5 workstation, not just because of CPU incompatibility but becuase I hate all of the design decisions, mainly hiding every useful option behind the "More" in the right click menu... not a big thing but it wastes my time.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

3 hours ago, Thaldor said:

The biggest "new" features for me would be the DirectStorage and Auto HDR... If the DirectStorage wasn't only a marginal tech that basicly is same as getting 10 more FPS in CS:GO with RTX 3090, so basicly nothing. Auto HDR, if I want half-baked HDR I can add that to almost any game with ReShade without changing my OS.

 

you dont understand direct storage

it has nothing to do with fps and everything to do with load times.

The load time improvments are insane.

[darealsoulless]

4 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

I don't understand the hatred against the telemetry. You do know that 99.99% of the people don't go to microsoft forums to report weird problems that they might encounter? Telemetry is an important part of anything that has a lot of users. For example if Microsoft pushes a new update and a lot of users with a really specific configuration suddenly get BSOD's, Microsoft can see that and fix it.

They can also see exactly what features are being used and which aren't, to focus their development in most beneficial areas.

I just don't get the chase of "privacy" at all costs.

 

Anyways to the question at hand.

I didn't like it, too many removed features, too dumbed down. Yes it looks slick and runs smoothly, but at the cost that anything more advance than everyday office work will take you more clicks and Google'ing than on win 10.

Privacy is little a concern to me. Most all of what I do is known by the public anyways and I think MS using telemetry to report bugs without the user having to do much or anything at all is great. It'll definitely help the OS get to maturity faster. I'm a fairly light Windows user so I haven't noticed really any cut out features.

[Just that Mario]

It is fine, but lately been having annoying issues, mostly with UI.

[Origami Cactus]

2 hours ago, GR1MES said:

Privacy is little a concern to me. Most all of what I do is known by the public anyways and I think MS using telemetry to report bugs without the user having to do much or anything at all is great. It'll definitely help the OS get to maturity faster. I'm a fairly light Windows user so I haven't noticed really any cut out features.

As a step-up above Chromebook, Win 11 will work great, if you like the more minimized modern UI then go for it.

Just make an image backup of your old OS, reinstall Win 11, try it out, and if you don't like it, you can just flash the system image to go back to win 10.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Windows

[Thaldor]

2 hours ago, Helpful Tech Wiard said:

you dont understand direct storage

it has nothing to do with fps and everything to do with load times.

The load time improvments are insane.

That depends a lot who do you listen. Couple days ago came the first demo (Forsaken) that uses DirectStorage and behold from almost 30 seconds loading time to less than 2 seconds!

 

And then you look at what they were comparing... 22.5 seconds with SATA HDD and 1.9 seconds with NVMe with DirectStorage. That is a huge leap but the funny thing is those are the extremes: HDD with DirectStorage 21.5 seconds, SATA SSD 4.5 seconds, SATA SSD with DirectStorage 3.7 seconds, NVMe SSD 2.1 seconds. With NVMe SSD Direct Storage only shaved off 0.2 seconds in more real-world application. That I call adding 10 FPS to already 500 FPS running game and calling it "a lot" better, completely meaningless. It is better but does someone really even notice it?

 

And then we get to the point of loading times. In single player games, if the developer isn't called Bethesda, seemless loading (progressive/background) is already pretty easy and often used as long as devs are somewhat competent. Open world without loading is already done and seen even with HDDs. On multiplayer titles the loading time hardly ever comes into the play, you are more restricted by the loading time and lag of the other players than the couple seconds difference between your own storage medias. Not to even go to the world of that the DirectStorage needs to be supported and will end up being yet another DLSS with "over 150 games supported" (vs. FSR that can be just a DLL you drop in and it works, that is a lot more than 150 games even when that DLL hack has been only done to work in VR games).

 

The almost doubled datarate from NVMe drives may come handy at some point, but probably not with 4K resolutions, maybe not even with 8K resolutions and the next step is probably so far away we then have the Windows 12. And for that we probably need couple more generations of GPUs if this shortage ends and common mortals would have access to cards and other parts needed to run those resolutions.

 

And DirectStorage is supported on Windows 10 with the difference that Windows 11 has "optimizations" in storage usage. So the real world difference between DirectStorage and non-DirectStorage was 0.2-1s, want to take a guess what's going to be the difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11 DirectStorage?

My guess, <0.1s maybe around 0.01-0.05s, eitherway in the world of no one notices except if someones virtual member gets a bit excitement from that.

[steelo]

5 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

I absolutely hate it. Used it for about a month on my Ryzen 5 laptop. I'm never switching over my Xeon e5 workstation, not just because of CPU incompatibility but becuase I hate all of the design decisions, mainly hiding every useful option behind the "More" in the right click menu... not a big thing but it wastes my time.

That was one of my main gripes, the 'new and improved' start menu seemed to make it even HARDER to access the apps you want. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 hours ago, Thaldor said:

Not to even go to the world of that the DirectStorage needs to be supported and will end up being yet another DLSS

The thing is it’s not going to be.

because direct storage is a thing on the Xbox. It’s going to just be in the planning for the games already

[steelo]

5 hours ago, GR1MES said:

My 10th gen i7 is perfectly compatible. I just use it cause it's a welcome change from Windows 10, which I've been using forever. I haven't had any slowdowns whatsoever, but I also use only NVMe storage which is most likely a major contributor to how snappy the system feels.

Also, the fact MS in their infinite wisdom is abandoning many existing Windows users with an OS that won't run on a system older than 3 years (that doesn't have tpm 2.0) looks a lot like MS is giving customers the middle finger.

 

Maybe MS has since made the requirements less restrictive, I just don't much care to check after being underwhelmed by Win 11 in the first place.