Windows 11

[TheOstrich]

I'm pleased to advise that my current desktop

"doesn't currently meet the minimum system requirements to run Windows 11".

Not surprising really, it dates from around 2006!

[Suff]

Adding toolbars was the big one for me. I add a folder with structured folders full of links. I try not to use the W10 start menu, it sucks and has never improved. I have over 200 apps installed and the last thing I want is them sorted by some arbitrary alphabetic naming standard.

Looks like they have found out how to get toolbars back, that was the truly unmovable target for me and I never found out how to enable it.

All the rest I have done. Its still crap just as W10 was. I'll go look for enabling toolbars then. Thanks for the tip.

[Workingman]

Have you tried the new version of the virtual desktops - one for each project. They are way different from the W10 versions. They can have their own taskbars or use the main one and they can be 'tiled' on the main desktop so that they are all visible - one in each corner, say, (if needs be) and opened and closed with the new minimise / maximise button same as you could do with apps, or you can get to them with the task-view button.

[Suff]

No I've never, bothered much with virtual desktops much. I either have virtual machines or my desktop runs over 2x 32" 2k monitors. There is little advantage to the virtual desktops for me.

I never even looked at them with W11 because I could not build my toolbars as I wanted them, just this dumb useless bar which Google and Microsoft want to push on me.

I didn't look much further because I couldn't find a way to reset my taskbars. W10 has been bad enough, W11 was like going back to W8.

When I get a chance (I. E. Mrs S is not whinging that I am spending too much time doing something other than what she wants), I'll have a look again.

[Workingman]

The new laptop came with a slimmed down pre-installed version of W11 and has been updating every night since then. Last night was the final upgrade and so W11 is now complete.

How I long for W95 colours to adjust title bars and taskbar and so on.

At least the graphics editor is now working as it should.

[Suff]

Good luck with it.I just bought a Minisforum Hx90 barebones which will form the core of my portable computing needs. My mobile needs will be supplied by my existing Teclast machine.

I will revisit W11 in the coming weeks when I get. More spare time.

As I completed the install of the Hx90 it offered to install W11 directly. I declined.

[Workingman]

I have to say that W11 is more than a GUI upgrade from W10.

I use 'upgrade' loosely. Two clicks in W10 are now five clicks in W11 and getting into the 'bones' is even harder. However, the deep operating system is so much quicker and some of the improvements to the likes of security, video, audio, streaming and gaming are well worth a look. It is well locked down compared to other iterations.

I remember Win 95 (fondly) where any Sharon or Tracy could get in and do all sorts of damage when they were bored.

[Suff]

I've noticed the speed, been completely irritated by all the "mobile phone" ui style crap in it and their attempt to lock down the UI even more.

From the outset Windows has been highly customisable for the user. With the attempt to push into the mobile space, Microsoft has tried to do an Apple on the OS and it doesn't go down well with me.

Until W8 I always engaged with the changes and leveraged them. Since W8 I find myself rejecting their changes because they become more Apple like in each new iteration. If I wanted to be locked down with a crappy interface for uneducated users, I'd buy a Mac.

It is also not about the amount of change. 2000 was the biggest step change with the introduction of AD and P&P into NT. Nothing since has been so deep.

[Workingman]

Yep, the default UI stinks.

One of the things I had always liked about Windows, certainly from W95 to XP and even W7, I jumped a few like 98 and Me and then 8.x, was that I could get in there and make them work my way even without VB scripts or batch files. A few reg tweaks was all it took.

Being ever so slightly colour deficient, R & G, colours have always been my big thing. I like strong colours and different ones for different things. ATM it looks as though I am stuck with W11 'Themes' and I don't like. I have looked for others but some of those from the script kiddies are even worse than Microsoft's own.

Older versions had a colour palette where you could change the RGB values for things like title bars, scroll bars, backgrounds, fonts, taskbar, links and so on. One thing I really once liked was the ability to fade a title bar / toolbar from one colour to another, L to R or vice versa.

I have now got it looking something like, but it has been hard work. And that bloody taskbar! I don't need big or medium icons FFS! Tweaking the reg value to 0 brings the small icons back but the clock still shows the date under the time and it is only half visible - the top half. I have not yet found a way to remove it. I know what the date is.... the laptop tells me when I sign in FCOL!

I have also created a shutdown icon pinned to the taskbar so that I do not have to jump through multiple hoops to turn the damned thing off.

[Suff]

It is annoying, I always set font values too.

I found some reg tweaks for the fonts but they did not apply to the damned Taskbar.

W10 onwards is not the friend of those who know what they like.

I also came across a variant of winaero which gave a lot of power back. It didn't do what I wanted, but it did have a lot of other tweaks.