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. ®
It’s not that they love what they have, its the constant changes from Microsoft that make you have to relearn how to do things again and again and again...
And these discussions of the latest GUI changes leave out the fact that there’s (other than that) no significant changes to the operating system that you need to pay more money for.
Ignoring the user interface, what does Windows 11 do that Windows 10 did not do?
WinME for me!!!
Pay more? It’s 100% FREE.
But to answer your question.
It makes performance improvements in memory management, also better larger monitor support, improved external monitor support, and improved multi-desktop. Also it has a better tablet mode for 2 in 1 devices. Oh you can install android apps right from the amazon appstore.
Plus Auto HDR feature and dynamic refresh rates.
A greatly improved focus assist on notifications.
There are widgets too. I don’t think it’s an improvement the way it’s implemented but some may.
Updated to Win11 on Weds after opening screen gave me an ultimatum - update now or stay with Win10...or so it seemed.
After updating (relatively painless and fast) and cleaning out some of the crap, I have noticed both the browser and apps are running noticeably faster.
My only gripe is uninstalling “Widgets” - truly a useless and very annoying addition. I have removed it from the taskbar but would like to completely uninstall that garbage without going into the registry.
Aesthetics are similar to Win10 - not much different.
Overall, considering the minuses, a slight improvement over Win10.
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