 |  |
|---|
Posted on 12/03/2021 9:06:20 PM PST by dayglored
If it's not broke, don't f- ... never mind
Microsoft's long-suffering unpaid testers are to start seeing some improvements in the Windows 11 User Interface.
Build 22509 arrived last night for Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel and, as well as making things a bit more accessible by improving the web browsing experience with Microsoft's Edge browser and the Narrator, there were some much-needed tweaks to the Start Menu and Taskbar.
Starting with the most jarring change in the user experience for Windows 11, the Start Menu, some easy-to-access options were added. One can opt for more pinned applications or more recommendations to control how many rows of either are displayed. It's not quite the "make it like Windows 10" that some users have requested, but it's a step in the right direction.
And for those Windows 10 Start Menu fans, companies such as Stardock will happily sell you something to give you that old Start Menu feeling. Just like it brought back the look of Start Menus of yesteryear for Windows 10 refuseniks.
Then there are people (like this writer) who never really got over the arrival of the Start button in Windows 95 and the eventual disappearance of progman.exe.
Infuriatingly not available to all Insiders yet is the clock and date appearing on the taskbar of the second monitor (or monitors). Microsoft said it was planning to "monitor [sic] feedback to see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone."
The same staggered rollout applies to changes with notifications; if you're one of the chosen few, three high-priority notifications will now be stacked and shown at the same time.
Other tweaks have resulted in more settings moving from the venerable Control Panel to the Settings app, and the OS will remember if Bluetooth or Wi-Fi has been turned on while in airplane mode. Usefully, Windows Sandbox now supports reboot inside of its virtualized environment.
There was also the usual raft of fixes. However, it is the changes to the Start Menu that will have users sighing with relief, even if the modifications are not earth-shattering. Hopefully they are a sign of things to come and perhaps a tacit acknowledgement from Microsoft that maybe the Windows 11 user interface still needs a bit of work. ®
| |
|---|
I figure on giving Win11 a wide berth. I've accepted Win10 because my dayjob requires it. But Win11, in my opinion, won't be ready for real use for at least a year at the rate they're going.
THIS is better than Linux Mint?
But I love the windows 11 start menu. It’s way better than windows 10. I guess everyone just wants what they used to have. They complained when Windows 7 came out. Then complained when windows 8 changed it. Then complained when windows 10 changed it. And now I guess they are complaining again. I actually LOVE windows 11 start menu. I thought they actually did it right.
Oh nevermind...this is the register they complain about anything Microsoft does.
I didn’t think anyone was really complaining about windows 11 start menu. But maybe that’s why MS is changing it...they aren’t used to people not complaining.
I stopped being M$ BetaTester after Win7 (XP-W7).
i never complained about windows 7 menu- infact, i revert back all my windows 10 menus to 7
I pretty much stopped using the start menu with Windows 8. Way too cluttered and messy. I just start typing the name of the application I want to use in the address bar and Windows finds it for me way faster than I can find it myself.
"absence of pop-ups: notifications, widgets, banners, assorted crapola"
What dummy said that?
See...keep reading what I wrote ;-)
All those that like software.
While that's true, they also complain about anything Apple does, too, and nearly everything that the Linux community does. It's their job to poke holes. Surely you don't want to read only glowing, fatuous, paeans all the time?
> I didn’t think anyone was really complaining about windows 11 start menu. But maybe that’s why MS is changing it...they aren’t used to people not complaining.
To be honest, I think it's still way too early to judge whether the majority of users are going to find Win11 (and its form of start menu) preferable to Win10. Like any other data set, you have to throw out the 10% at each end of the spectrum -- the 1/10 who are die-hard fanbois, and the 1/10 who are die-hard complainers. It's the middle 80% that makes or breaks a release.
Bring back XP!
Whenever possible, I revert my entire desktop back to Win2K. Seriously. It's easy in Win7, it's mostly possible in Win10. I don't run Vista or Win8 period, so I don't know how tough those would be.
Clippy!!!
WinXP never went away, you just have to hunt around to find a legit, non-malware installation .ISO file. Minimum of SP3. Put it up behind a real good firewall, or run it as a VM, and get all the Windows Update patches that are available.
And then never, ever, connect your WinXP machine to the internet ever again. :-)
How about win 3.1 or win 95
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.