Legal: Review and advice is at your own risk. Neither myself nor McNeel accept any responsibility in your computer maintenance or data safety. Something as drastic as upgrading an operating system is not a trivial matter, as it requires a fair amount to knowledge, experience, patience, and the attention to detail.
I tried Windows 11 on my newish laptop. From the getgo, you need Secure boot and a Trusted Computer Platform Version 2.0 for the privilege to install it. Some later AMD systems emulate this in the CPU, but it needs to be activated in the UEFI/BIOS.
Anyway, if you are going to play with Windows 11, I suggest that you first associate your computer with your Microsoft Account. This will help if there is a problem with Activation.
You should also first back up your computer twice, making sure you get all of your Documents, Pictures, Music, Media, and Downloads. Also be careful to grab things like email, and browser data, and little things like spell checker dictionaries. Make sure you copy the files and folder from your desktop! Oddly it would be easy to miss them, because we âthinkâ we put all of our documents in the documents folder.
[Hint: Except for Downloads, Trash, Networking, My Computer, and (USER), if you copy the relative links you might have made on your desktopâwhen you put the data back on your system, those relative links to your Documents may indeed work on the new installationâif you recreate your user the same name.]
I recommend making at least 2 copies, and set them aside. If you are considering upgrading your SSD/nVME/Drive, this is a great time to do it, so that you can put the old drive away from the computer setting it on a shelfâso that at any time, you can pick its bones clean of any data you might have forgotten
Using a blank reliable 32GB Flash-Drive (smaller might work, but use a good drive), I used the Windows 11 Media Creation Wtility, to write an installer on the drive, which is similar the the Windows 10 process.
On installation, I always set my machines for local login. The web login is a fool-hearty choice for most occasions.
Like Windows 10, the user is faced with a desperate struggle to retain any privacy, so check all of those little switches. Comment: We really need legislation to ban Opt-Ins by default.
For my Thinkpad P15 Gen2, the installer did grab all drivers, but there are some Lenovo utilities that are helpful. Lenovo wanted to update the UEFI to a current one; the machine is backed up, under warranty, and plugged in with a full chargeâso I did that as well.
Windows 11 sped up the transition times for its effects so it appears to do things faster, though itâs actually a slower operating system, as tested. Daring to turning on Windows virtualization-based memory security would just about put an end to your computerâs performance, so obviously I did not turn it on.
As for the GUI design, the rounded corners are nice. The icons are more colorful.
As for the restâŚ
The Task Bar is larger, and cannot be made smaller. This is a problem when doing graphics. In the screenshot below, this is how needlessly huge the Task bar isâon a 4K (3840x2160) screen. The start menu is now disembodied from the the Start button, so the context is lost, as in: poor UI design.
There is an intolerable issue with the file manager. If you click on a file to copy, cut, or paste it, you have to first expand the menu. I hate this F**king thing! There were hacks to make it work, and Microsoft worked to kill them both of the fixes, just to screw the user. The user can still use the keyboard combo to copy, cut, and past, the filesâso why kill trash the menu in such a way that the user might actually have to do dozens of clicks a day that they would not have to have done with Windows 10, OSX, or Linux?
Also, for some reason, the separated the Log-Off button with the Power Down button. Someone thought so hard about thisâand made the wrong decision. No, actually, we want all these severe options in the sample place: User-Change, Reboot, Shut-Down. When it comes down to it, the power button often doesnât really power down the computer anymore, unless you hold [SHIFT]âotherwise it does a âHybrid Shutdownâ which does not benefit people who use heavy-hitter applications, such as Rhino in any way.
Well, apparently, (Check the date for yourself, please ) we have until September to âupgradeâ to Windows 11, so, until then I am going to reinstall Windows 10.
Yes, I hate it so much, I am going to reinstallâand then see if they fix it, later. AFAIK