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
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
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.
Also the case of how its been in Windows for decades, if it was truly better they would have changed it ages ago, but it isnt better, its just UI designers justifying their paychecks.
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.
You say even more, as if it was comical to begin with. But yeah, it’s annoying sometimes but I’m not dropping 1k for a new GPU anytime soon, I’ll have to suffice with the one I have. Yeah I do update them weekly almost, every time I do yay there’s a new driver version, it updates and it works. No major issues besides the explicit sync but that’s being fixed soon and I installed a patch so yeah.
For sure I spent more time customising it than I did in windows, but that’s kind of the point isn’t it? Linux is about that, windows is not supposed to be. I don’t mind spending time customising and tinkering if I know that a megacorp isn’t taking my data. That was the trade-off, data and money for convenience. Now that convenience has been reduced and the data has increased, it’s not worth it for me anymore.
So yeah, with windows you need to work against the system, disabling stuff that they intend to ship that is harmful, while on Linux you work with the system, tinkering and customising stuff the way you like it, with the defaults being a community thing, not a megacorp thing.