Do Or Don't - The Neverending Story Of Windows 11

[PCSarge]

Windows 11 is on our doorstep, but i'm sure we're all weary of "this is microsoft's last OS" and then them dropping another one 7 years later.

 

The real question is how bad with the compatibility nightmare be for older software and games, is it going to destroy everything that finally (somewhat) works on windows 10?

 

i'm looking at this from an IT standpoint because my boss is currently discussing upgrading, before the OS is even out. And frankly i'm already a bit weary from the jump that windows 7 to 10 did to us. the nightmares we endured for months to get everything running again properly.

 

anybody else unsure of microsofts promises except me?

 

 

[Andrew]

Well, the beta has been out for quite a while and I don't think anyone has really complained about compatibility, at least no more than Windows 10. I haven't tried it myself personally, but I do think if it works on Windows 10, it will work on Windows 11.

[ENTERPRISE]

I use Windows 11 as my daily driver, this is obviously with the Insider Previews.

 

I can honestly say that with my use cases it has not caused me any issues so far as device and driver compatibility, which would again improve over time.

 

I think the only issue I have had, is with Solidworks 2021 SP4. Seems to be visual glitches which I can only put down to Windows 11 behaviour as on Windows 10 it is fine. Granted though as with anything cutting edge, Solidworks does not yet support Windows 11, so likely some updates required.

 

Other than that, it has been awesome. 

 

I would not recommend you or your boss deploy it in a production environment, not unless you first do your own internal environment testing to ensure all is good. Plus as with anything just released, there will be bugs here and there to iron out. I would personally suggest you stick with Windows 10 for 3-6 months after the official release of Windows 11. Let it mature a little prior to production roll out.

[PCSarge]

  On 30/09/2021 at 11:03, ENTERPRISE said:

I use Windows 11 as my daily driver, this is obviously with the Insider Previews.

 

I can honestly say that with my use cases it has not caused me any issues so far as device and driver compatibility, which would again improve over time.

 

I think the only issue I have had, is with Solidworks 2021 SP4. Seems to be visual glitches which I can only put down to Windows 11 behaviour as on Windows 10 it is fine. Granted though as with anything cutting edge, Solidworks does not yet support Solidworks, so likely some updates required.

 

Other than that, it has been awesome. 

 

I would not recommend you or your boss deploy it in a production environment, not unless you first do your own internal environment testing to ensure all is good. Plus as with anything just released, there will be bugs here and there to iron out. I would personally suggest you stick with Windows 10 for 3-6 months after the official release of Windows 11. Let it mature a little prior to production roll out.

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my possible thoughts were to deploy it on the machine i have at home for work use, and attempt software testing. because i can remote into servers and production machines from here for testing purposes if need be to pull the current running versions of software. my biggest worry is the software for our engineering team's 3D printer for making mock up parts. if they lose use of that they'll throw a fit for one. secondly itll slow down machine repairs and product deployments.

 

EDIT : in other news give me your GPU. just kidding.

Edited September 30, 2021 by PCSarge

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 30/09/2021 at 14:04, PCSarge said:

my possible thoughts were to deploy it on the machine i have at home for work use, and attempt software testing. because i can remote into servers and production machines from here for testing purposes if need be to pull the current running versions of software. my biggest worry is the software for our engineering team's 3D printer for making mock up parts. if they lose use of that they'll throw a fit for one. secondly itll slow down machine repairs and product deployments.

 

EDIT : in other news give me your GPU. just kidding.

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Good bet is to have a works machine at home on Windows 11 and test then I reckon. The likelihood is you would be fine, but everyone's use case is different. Good luck with your tests

[Supercrumpet]

  On 30/09/2021 at 11:03, ENTERPRISE said:

I use Windows 11 as my daily driver, this is obviously with the Insider Previews.

 

I can honestly say that with my use cases it has not caused me any issues so far as device and driver compatibility, which would again improve over time.

 

I think the only issue I have had, is with Solidworks 2021 SP4. Seems to be visual glitches which I can only put down to Windows 11 behaviour as on Windows 10 it is fine. Granted though as with anything cutting edge, Solidworks does not yet support Windows 11, so likely some updates required.

 

Other than that, it has been awesome. 

 

I would not recommend you or your boss deploy it in a production environment, not unless you first do your own internal environment testing to ensure all is good. Plus as with anything just released, there will be bugs here and there to iron out. I would personally suggest you stick with Windows 10 for 3-6 months after the official release of Windows 11. Let it mature a little prior to production roll out.

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That's funny, when I started reading your post I was thinking about any potential issues I could possibly have as far as compatibility with stuff I use. First thought was Solidworks, but you answered that just as I had formulated the thought, haha! I'll keep waiting then. Any big upsides or new features that you've found particularly useful?

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 02/10/2021 at 17:07, Supercrumpet said:

 

That's funny, when I started reading your post I was thinking about any potential issues I could possibly have as far as compatibility with stuff I use. First thought was Solidworks, but you answered that just as I had formulated the thought, haha! I'll keep waiting then. Any big upsides or new features that you've found particularly useful?

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Ha ! Glad to have helped. New features and upside, are you referring to Win 11 or SW 2021 ? 

[Supercrumpet]

  On 02/10/2021 at 17:17, ENTERPRISE said:

 

Ha ! Glad to have helped. New features and upside, are you referring to Win 11 or SW 2021 ? 

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Referring to Windows. I always end up on the new version of SW every year whether I like it or not haha.

[pio]

From what I've been hearing about Win11 here, it seems like its decent so far.

Personally, I'm not really all that happy with 10 and not sure I'd want to jump to 11 or not myself.  I dislike all the integrated cloud features, don't like having to rely on daddy MS so much.  Granted....I do use some of the stuff but only because I'm too lazy to setup my own versions of the same things, and lack of knowledge on how to.  If they weren't pushing cloud computing so hard these days, I'd be more into it.  If I want something on my desktop or laptop, I'll put it on there.  If I don't want something on there, I expect to be able to not have it on there.  Windows 10 doesn't allow that, and I doubt 11 will either.

From an IT standpoint, I expect it to be just like jumping from Vista to 7.  It'll be a jump, but compatibility will probably be just fine between the 2 OS's.  It's going to be nowhere NEAR the headache of jumping from XP to Vista / 7.  They've been building up Windows since Vista now right?  Just like in the past they were building on what, basically Windows 3.1 (up until Vista).  I think at the base level of the OS, it'll be very near the same.

Note:  I haven't tried 11 yet, so this is just my opinion.  I HAVE, used every Windows OS to date, on release.  I think this will be the first time I'm personally skipping one.  If its forced on me, I might actually finally jump to Linux since it can now do everything I want it to.

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 04/10/2021 at 00:05, Supercrumpet said:

 

Referring to Windows. I always end up on the new version of SW every year whether I like it or not haha.

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To be honest. Thus far Windows 11 brings the new taskbar UI which I rather enjoy. So far as anything else, Its like Windows 10. However my reason for looking forward to this OS was direct storage.

 

It is a feature that is coming to Win 11 , but it is not out just yet. 

 

Technically speaking Win 11 has had a few tweaks under the hood over Win 10 but from a real world usage, it is Windows 10 with enhancements and upcoming features like direct storage. 

 

Compatibility is great however, all devices have been supported moving to Win 11 and no issues with drivers. I kind of expected that however, as I say, its Win 10 with a facelift.

[BWG]

Seems cool for me so far. All I had come up was I had to update 1 driver for compatibility. 

[Sir Beregond]

  On 30/09/2021 at 05:56, PCSarge said:

And frankly i'm already a bit weary from the jump that windows 7 to 10 did to us. the nightmares we endured for months to get everything running again properly.

 

 

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I've been out of that side of IT for years now, but I feel like the absolute worst for us was going from XP to 7 when it came to app compatibility with actually managed users instead of everyone being a local admin in the XP days. Plus yeah, plenty of other compatibility issues too.

[Andrew]

Well, it's not officially out and I have it. The only real issue I have is there doesn't seem to be a way to get the time on the taskbar that's on your secondary monitor. This is kind of important for me because I almost exclusively use my PC for gaming. Being able to see what the time is without having to alt+tab all the time is a nice feature which seems to be removed. I do like the new UI and the dark mode is actually good now. I also like that the search feature is instant now vs Windows 10 where it takes a little while to catch up with what you're typing.

 

I'd still avoid moving fully over to Windows 11 if it's work related though. Dual booting might be good to see if you have any compatibility issues. If you do, stick with 10. If not, switch fully over to 11.

[ENTERPRISE]

  On 05/10/2021 at 17:42, Andrew said:

Well, it's not officially out and I have it. The only real issue I have is there doesn't seem to be a way to get the time on the taskbar that's on your secondary monitor. This is kind of important for me because I almost exclusively use my PC for gaming. Being able to see what the time is without having to alt+tab all the time is a nice feature which seems to be removed. I do like the new UI and the dark mode is actually good now. I also like that the search feature is instant now vs Windows 10 where it takes a little while to catch up with what you're typing.

 

I'd still avoid moving fully over to Windows 11 if it's work related though. Dual booting might be good to see if you have any compatibility issues. If you do, stick with 10. If not, switch fully over to 11.

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Right now you also cannot display seconds on the time which im hoping will be changed. Useful for telling if your system is hanging.

[t4ct1c47]

I saw a video on Youtube showing how to avoid using a Microsoft account when installing Windows 11. The idea of having a cloud account for managing my private physical computer at home is not something I'll be doing, despite being used to having nearly all my games on Steam. Games are one thing, but my core system where I keep personal stuff. No sir!

[SamsTechStuff]

  On 08/02/2023 at 10:54, t4ct1c47 said:

I saw a video on Youtube showing how to avoid using a Microsoft account when installing Windows 11. The idea of having a cloud account for managing my private physical computer at home is not something I'll be doing, despite being used to having nearly all my games on Steam. Games are one thing, but my core system where I keep personal stuff. No sir!

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I similarly very much do not wish for Microsoft to have any involvement in my PC outside of security updates. I'm currently trying to suss out wether or not now is the right time for me to switch to Linux or Windows 11 (away from currently being on Windows 10). The main application I use are HitFilm and OBS. HitFilm is not available in Linux but I have been slowly learning Davinci Resolve which is supported. I don't play many games on my main workstation but it looks like most of the games I play will work but, guessing I would have to Play any Forza releases on test machines. 

[Sir Beregond]

My Windows 11 PC uses a local account. It was a trick of not connecting to the internet during setup. I heard they were getting rid of that trick though, but I am sure there are more.

[The Pook]

gonna just ignore this: Posted September 30, 2021

 

If it's the same story for 11 as 10, then you should only need to yank the internet for Home editions. Haven't tested Pro, but for Win 11 Education (=Enterprise) a local account was an option during install even with internet connected. 

[J7SC_Orion]

  On 08/02/2023 at 13:26, SamsTechStuff said:

 

I similarly very much do not wish for Microsoft to have any involvement in my PC outside of security updates. I'm currently trying to suss out wether or not now is the right time for me to switch to Linux or Windows 11 (away from currently being on Windows 10). The main application I use are HitFilm and OBS. HitFilm is not available in Linux but I have been slowly learning Davinci Resolve which is supported. I don't play many games on my main workstation but it looks like most of the games I play will work but, guessing I would have to Play any Forza releases on test machines. 

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I switched one machine back from Windows 11 Pro back to Windows 10 Pro as the former is even more of a big-data sucking apparatus that has zero problems violating privacy and IP. I also build two Linux systems using older hardware and my plan is for emails and documents just to use those. A quick anecdote: 

 

As context, my firm is among other areas active in developing Intellectual Property protection software. I was emailing one of our shareholders about some things, and after I sent that somewhat lengthy email, I wanted to check s.th. I had written after I had sent it. To my horror, the Windows email program in Win 11 Pro had 'hidden' it, with a link to their servers. I hasten to add that I never use Microsoft's OneDrive (as an aside, no Facebook, either for me). In addition to this, I noticed that after a few months or so, my general sent and received emails 'disappeared' from my system and are only accessible on the cloud (see above re. no cloud account). This is just one of many horror stories as to how deep Microsoft (and others) are burrowing into your private and business life...I did switch to Mozilla Thunderbird as my main email program, but the Microsoft email program can be hidden but not truly removed (somebody please correct me - would love to know for sure).

 

At the end of the day, Ai is fast becoming all the rage and is creating all kinds of headaches re. copyright and various other legal concepts. The point is that if AI is the engine, big data is the fuel and big corporate  tech along with a few governments have no problem adding your data to big data, whether you like it or not, never mind agreed to it. Thus my ongoing switch to Linux for emails, browsing and office suites (LibreOffice).

 

> related...will get worse before it will get better

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[SamsTechStuff]

  On 08/02/2023 at 18:57, J7SC_Orion said:

 

I switched one machine back from Windows 11 Pro back to Windows 10 Pro as the former is even more of a big-data sucking apparatus that has zero problems violating privacy and IP. I also build two Linux systems using older hardware and my plan is for emails and documents just to use those. A quick anecdote: 

 

As context, my firm is among other areas active in developing Intellectual Property protection software. I was emailing one of our shareholders about some things, and after I sent that somewhat lengthy email, I wanted to check s.th. I had written after I had sent it. To my horror, the Windows email program in Win 11 Pro had 'hidden' it, with a link to their servers. I hasten to add that I never use Microsoft's OneDrive (as an aside, no Facebook, either for me). In addition to this, I noticed that after a few months or so, my general sent and received emails 'disappeared' from my system and are only accessible on the cloud (see above re. no cloud account). This is just one of many horror stories as to how deep Microsoft (and others) are burrowing into your private and business life...I did switch to Mozilla Thunderbird as my main email program, but the Microsoft email program can be hidden but not truly removed (somebody please correct me - would love to know for sure).

 

At the end of the day, Ai is fast becoming all the rage and is creating all kinds of headaches re. copyright and various other legal concepts. The point is that if AI is the engine, big data is the fuel and big corporate  tech along with a few governments have no problem adding your data to big data, whether you like it or not, never mind agreed to it. Thus my ongoing switch to Linux for emails, browsing and office suites (LibreOffice).

 

> related...will get worse before it will get better

 

 

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I don't have experience beyond the various versions of Windows 10. That...sounds like an interesting feature (I guess). I will soon get to experience corporate versions of Windows 11 and O/M365. Should be interesting.

 

As for my email, I still entrust Google and believe it or not, I cruise the internet in FF with NoScript and ublock origin.

 

EDIT: Ah yea..this is an old thread. I suspect the topic will regain relveancy in the next year or two though!

Edited February 8, 2023 by SamsTechStuff

[Kaz]

I picked up Windows 11 on my new system, mainly because I wanted to be familiar with it when people ask for help.  My overall impression is that it's not much different than Windows 10.  I like the start bar of 10 better than 11.  With 10 it's easier to change audio output device.  11 has some useless features (like airplane mode on a desktop PC), that really shouldn't take priority over things like quick audio swapping.

 

Bitlocker is probably the number 1 reason to switch to Windows 11.  I DO NOT recommend bitlocker on personal devices for personal use, the only time it's worth using is on a laptop containing sensitive information.  Bitlocker makes sense from a corporate standpoint.  Employees can't steal a hard drive and copy it.  For anything else, Bitlocker only serves to make it impossible to recover data if the hardware has a problem.

 

Windows 11 will let you switch from a cloud account to a local account, the same way Windows 10 does.  I don't see the value of circumventing login during install.  A fresh install doesn't have anything to report, and Microsoft very likely knows your e-mail address.

 

I do recommend O&O ShutUP10++.  It's a stand alone exe that can backup your registry and can be used to neuter a lot of Microsoft's data collection.

 

Overall opinion, it's ok.  If you have 10, stay with it until end of life.  If your buying a new computer/license, 11 has a longer shelf life. 

 

[Kaz]

  On 08/02/2023 at 13:26, SamsTechStuff said:

 

I similarly very much do not wish for Microsoft to have any involvement in my PC outside of security updates. I'm currently trying to suss out wether or not now is the right time for me to switch to Linux or Windows 11 (away from currently being on Windows 10). The main application I use are HitFilm and OBS. HitFilm is not available in Linux but I have been slowly learning Davinci Resolve which is supported. I don't play many games on my main workstation but it looks like most of the games I play will work but, guessing I would have to Play any Forza releases on test machines. 

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Make the switch!  I am!  Admittedly, I'm duel booting because I like gaming, and also because I'm new to Linux and I can only beat my head on the wall so long before I have to take a break.  I just figured out how to auto-mount drives, name them whatever I want and put them anywhere I want.  I also had to change my spare drives ownership from root to user. 

 

I'm in the process of fighting with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is supposed to have native Linux support.  Something about the initial game login contacts Square Enix servers, which claim to be down.  My research suggests that it's a problem with my steam account linking to Square Enix, and that I'll need their tech support to resolve it on the back end....  I could have just left it on Windows but....  I really do want to be using Linux over Windows. 

[SamsTechStuff]

  On 08/02/2023 at 22:13, Kaz said:

Make the switch!  I am!  Admittedly, I'm duel booting because I like gaming, and also because I'm new to Linux and I can only beat my head on the wall so long before I have to take a break.  I just figured out how to auto-mount drives, name them whatever I want and put them anywhere I want.  I also had to change my spare drives ownership from root to user. 

 

I'm in the process of fighting with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is supposed to have native Linux support.  Something about the initial game login contacts Square Enix servers, which claim to be down.  My research suggests that it's a problem with my steam account linking to Square Enix, and that I'll need their tech support to resolve it on the back end....  I could have just left it on Windows but....  I really do want to be using Linux over Windows. 

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The main reason for hesitence for me is that I do use my computer to make money, I'm sensitive to a sense of stability. It seems quite possible for me to switch though, more research and some testing seems to be in order. I casually use Linux personally and professionaly but don't spend more than maybe 30 minutes per day (mostly Ubuntu).

[Diffident]

  On 08/02/2023 at 13:26, SamsTechStuff said:

 

I similarly very much do not wish for Microsoft to have any involvement in my PC outside of security updates. I'm currently trying to suss out wether or not now is the right time for me to switch to Linux or Windows 11 (away from currently being on Windows 10). The main application I use are HitFilm and OBS. HitFilm is not available in Linux but I have been slowly learning Davinci Resolve which is supported. I don't play many games on my main workstation but it looks like most of the games I play will work but, guessing I would have to Play any Forza releases on test machines. 

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Forza 4 and 5 have Silver ratings on ProtonDB.  They're playable in Linux and on SteamDeck.  If you want to find out if your games work in Linux it's always good to check out ProtonDB.  If a game needs a tweak, someone will post how to get it working.

 

[The Pook]

  On 08/02/2023 at 23:11, Diffident said:

Forza 4 and 5 have Silver ratings on ProtonDB.  They're playable in Linux and on SteamDeck.  If you want to find out if your games work in Linux it's always good to check out ProtonDB.  If a game needs a tweak, someone will post how to get it working.

 

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kinda surprising considering Forza 4/5 doesn't even work on LTSC because it's missing the Windows Store.