Raising this dead article as Microsoft now delivers extended support pricing details for those who choose not to migrate to the newer version of Windows. The one they were told they’d not ever have to migrate to
I wish. Most stuff I used to do now has extra clicks required, the right click 7z panel, the process monitor kill process button (now hidden on a submenu on a right-click), and I can’t put the taskbar vertically!!! I use two monitors, I’m used to having it on the right monitor, on the left vertically. The reasoning was that not many people move their taskbar and while that might be true, after some regex modifications, the only thing that’s completely broken if you put the taskbar vertical was the news button pop-up (it didn’t align correctly), which is basically ads, and I’m completely against them gutting features because their ads need extra work (not that much work, just work).
Besides that, having a fat suggested apps bar on the windows menu that takes 30% of the space is a thing again, which is ad space too. Great
Anyway, KDE is cool. Thanks Microsoft, I would have persevered if it wasn’t for the vertical taskbar, now I’m happier.
Classic right click menu is a regkey away.
Classic control panel is still there too.
I have 4 monitors, task bar on all of them, not sure why yours doesn’t. Apps even go to the appropriate task bar per monitor when minimized.
Suggested apps size can be minimized.
They only show you “ad” apps on first boot, otherwise gone once you remove them.
Me thinks you just like to complain lol
For your first two points, I’m kinda against having to fight against the system, at that point I prefer to work alongside the system with Linux, but W/E. In any case, I would have fixed these if the taskbar wasn’t impossible. No I’m not going to install a 3rd party program to fix the taskbar.
About the 4 monitors, it’s cool that you like having 4 taskbars, wasting tons of space. I don’t. I’m not asking that, I’m asking having a single taskbar vertically. It’s one of the big complaints I’ve read about win11, not being able to have vertical taskbars on the side of the monitor.
I’ve not seen a way to remove the “recommended” space in the start menu, and I’m sorry but any recommendation I didn’t agree with is an ad. You might think otherwise, and that’s cool, but I don’t like ads in products I pay.
That last sentence wasn’t very nice, especially considering that you didn’t understand one of the complaints (the taskbar thing).
Anyway, happy that you are enjoying win11 and I wish I was, but yeah, I don’t fancy paying for less features.
Recommended space isn’t for ads, it’s for newly installed programs. It might show some icons there like Spotify when the OS is installed, but once you remove them they are gone. New “ads” don’t show up later.
If you want less space dedicated to recently installed (recommendations) change the start menu density to “More Pins”
It’s just a different way of doing / labeling. Old start menu had “recently installed” this is the same as “recommend”
Edit: I’ll make an admission here, it looks like I had the “Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more” turned off. But as a point of fact, I did that inadvertently as part of my normal debloat process.
Edit 2: Seems there is a local / group policy setting to remove the recommendation section completely if that’s your jam. I personally prefer to see my new apps there for a bit.
Edit 3: I feel like your comment about working against the system is even more comical considers you are talking about Linux. Ever tried to get nvidia drivers working on Linux? Ever tried updating once they were working? Linux is litterally the poster child of working against the system. If you don’t like how it’s setup out of the box, sure it’s changeable, but how long did you work on the changes to get it flawless. I would wager there is jank you have just decided to put up with because after a week you said “good enough”. There is a reason 90% of my Linux systems don’t even run a GUI.
I really don’t think it’s reasonable to be needing to mess with the registry to get basic behaviour that you want. It’s just the same shit that people accuse Linux of needing to use the terminal all the time except in windows flavour.
I don’t disagree and I’m glad you aren’t making the “it would be easier in Linux” argument.
What I do think the changes are there to encourage access to BASIC functionality for the majority of users, but it does come across as dumbing down to folks that are power users. I really do think this is a case of “what would 90% of the population use” kinda thing.
There’s no reason 7zip can’t be in the default right click menu other than laziness. Devs have had the option to add stuff to that menu since the start, but it wasn’t until 2023 that they really started actually supporting it. Nanazip is 7zip with a Windows 11 UI and it supports the menu.
Cool, as stated though, I would have persevered if it wasn’t for the vertical taskbar being removed. Oh you can’t have the main taskbar only be shown in the secondary monitor either. Look, I get that they are implementing features and apps are adapting and all that, but these features missing make it feel like a regression, alongside weird interactions with sound volumes I’m having in my work laptop where even if I change the volume, it gets lowered again and I have disabled all the features that let apps take control, dunno.
I’m a developer, I get that beginnings are kinda rocky, but that’s what I expect from a FOSS product, not a paid one. Is it weird that I feel that it’s unreasonable to get out of beta with all these kind of issues? To suggest very aggressively to upgrade? Specially when the upgrade was free for all the win10 users? It’s not like they had a big monetary incentive to push the release forward.
Win10 might have had tons of security holes and the cortana stuff, but it was really configurable, you could format the start menu as the win8 panel, as the simple win7 panel, or as the hybrid win10 panel natively, you could move the taskbar to wherever you wanted, across multiple screens, configure it as you liked natively. Now you need to install 3rd party stuff to emulate half baked imitations of those features, and if security holes appear in those products microsoft won’t fix them. Win 11 feels way too restrictive, in a way that I feel like it takes a lot of decisions not for me, but from me, and I really dislike that.
Yeah, I know that the win10 panels can be re-enabled through the registry, but until how long will they be patched? They are clearly deprecated.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling, I’m happy that you like the product.
