This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
So as somebody who has avoided Win11 just because I use a taskbar in a configuration that Win11 doesn't support (docked to the left edge of the screen, no grouping, full text labels) what's the reason other people are avoiding Win11? Something about ads?
Because on the "windows login" thing, I actually like that part. Having automatic cloud sync of my documents and config across machines through OneDrive is handy. I agree it shouldn't be mandatory, but it suits me.
So I just had it forced onto my work machine and here's my take away so far:
It's slow. I don't care about the bells and whistles they added visually, it's slow. Really slow. My workload and usage has not changed one iota from 10 to 11. Every single aspect of my job is the same, i use 90% Microsoft Apps, plus chrome (no choice) and acrobat. WHY IS IT SLOW. My laptop was built for windows 11. Windows 10 ran fine and was not noticeably different in any way other than some visual changes I don't need. Why the fuck is it SLOW. Why. Seriously, why?
I do not care about tabbed explorer, it's fine but it's not a feature I've ever had in an OS or needed. I don't care about most of the other obvious changes, but I do care that my job is now significantly more difficult because my every day tasks take longer and the OS locks up due to high CPU and memory usage even though all apps combined are only using about 20% of my resources. So the OS eats 80% because....i don't know or car why, it fucking sucks and I hate it.
WHY IS IT SLOW.
Because it is a data collection/ ad delivery system before it ever gets around to being your OS and doing what you, the user, need it to do.
If you were to install a 3rd party firewall or a packet sniffer on that machine you could see for yourself just how much of your OS is dedicated to collecting data and sending it home to the mothership. But you couldn't turn it off without a lot of tinkering, if at all, because MS apps often require ongoing verification to remain active, especially Office 365. And on top of that, you mention
chrome (no choice) and acrobat
Google is equally horrible, and Acrobat is almost as nasty. I've had rashes that were less persistent than Google Update and Acrobat Update services. You can turn them off, it's easy to do, but expect them to be turned on again with every Windows Update. Those are sucking down some serious CPU cycles and network bandwidth too.
Turn off what you can of these. It will help . . . some.
Am I missing something? Microsoft literally won't let me upgrade because my fully functional processor is deemed to old for them. Of coarse the adoption rate is low if they start by excluding a good portion of their user base.
I don't even understand why they make that distinction. I recently bought a used notebook with Windows 10 preinstalled that can't be upgraded. But if you just boot up the Windows 11 ISO it works fine without issues from there.
Granted I don't know why someone would want this; I was genuinely surprised when I noticed installation without a Microsoft account isn't supposed to be possible. Then you get that system that just feels sketchy to use, Teams in autostart, online services in your menus and all that. And that's just the stuff you can see. It's a total disaster in my opinion. But it went downhill ever after Windows 7 as far as I can tell.
That is mentioned in the article.
Just so everyone knows at one point Microsoft was forced to buy your unused windows key on a new computer. It would be a damn shame if we forced them to do that again.
