Microsoft Windows 11 Announcement Re-Cap and Opinions

Brent_Justice

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Introduction




Windows 11, the OS we never thought there would be, or did we?  Summer, 2015, the release of Windows 10, and Microsoft decreed: “Windows 10, the last version of Windows.”  The entire quote goes:



“Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.”



Constant Windows 10 Updates, and Windows as a service, are the future, Microsoft said.  Fast forward to June 24th, 2021:



“Introducing you to Windows 11.  The Windows that brings you closer to the things you love.”




This is one of those memes, right? Microsoft: Windows 10 is the last version of Windows. Everyone: They’re really going to do it...
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Continue reading...
 
Thanks for the writeup Brent!

And I wish I didn't feel so cynical about '11', but it comes off with a really Windows 8 feel. UI changes for the sake of UI changes, features that have been tied to a new version "because", it makes one wonder if Microsoft isn't just iterating the version for PR.

This announcement seems fairly squarely targeted at the Mac and Mac-curious crowd :)
 
MS has always been a company that keeps me inspired. They push innovation sometimes whether or not it’s needed.

Events like this make me remember to fulfill your dreams, with that said, I’m invigorated and will finally complete my novel, “How to be a stripper”

It’s a children’s pop up book….
 
It’s also beautiful on the inside. It’s faster. Waking from sleep is faster, Windows Hello is faster, browsing on edge is faster, browsing on any browser is faster, Windows Updates are 40% smaller, and they are more efficient as they happen in the background. The product uses less energy, which uses less battery life. It’s the most secure Windows yet.
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Allegedly... ;) ;)

Looks to me like a return to windows vista with looks over function.
 
BTW I'm stunned at how little coverage it has got. Anand doesn't even have an article yet when they usually do live coverage.
 
Stoly said:
BTW I'm stunned at how little coverage it has got. Anand doesn't even have an article yet when they usually do live coverage.
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Anandtech these days is not what it was in the past, they are usually pretty late on coverage for everything, very slow at GPU reviews, never do launches. /shrug

And I can say this knowing that Anand is not there anymore, when he was at the helm it was at its best.

As for Windows 11 coverage, there's just not much to report I guess. Only what the event stream said, and what's on their website. Then there is the leaked version, but it's probably a very early build. The release version will be more complete. Plus, there aren't a lot of "game changing" features, so to speak. All the things Windows 11 does, Windows 10 can do. Except for maybe Direct Storage, I don't know if that is coming to WIndows 10 or not, same with Auto HDR. But DirectX 12 Ultimate of course is supported on both, and WIndows 10 may get patched to update schedulers for upcoming CPUs.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Anandtech these days is not what it was in the past, they are usually pretty late on coverage for everything, very slow at GPU reviews, never do launches. /shrug

And I can say this knowing that Anand is not there anymore, when he was at the helm it was at its best.

As for Windows 11 coverage, there's just not much to report I guess. Only what the event stream said, and what's on their website. Then there is the leaked version, but it's probably a very early build. The release version will be more complete. Plus, there aren't a lot of "game changing" features, so to speak. All the things Windows 11 does, Windows 10 can do. Except for maybe Direct Storage, I don't know if that is coming to WIndows 10 or not, same with Auto HDR. But DirectX 12 Ultimate of course is supported on both, and WIndows 10 may get patched to update schedulers for upcoming CPUs.
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Yup, Anand is now mostly mac and mobile stuff. with the occasional server articles. They pretty much left the PC gaming space.
 
Stoly said:
BTW I'm stunned at how little coverage it has got. Anand doesn't even have an article yet when they usually do live coverage.
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I agree with Brent:
Yeah Anandtech is very nearly a zombie site these days.

And this announcement was ... not really that much. It doesn't really include anything under the hood. I would expect ReFS or something similar to come to the consumer space. No mention about kernel improvements (although some rumor about better big/LITTLE use). Better use of sandboxing/virtualiztion would have been a nice security feature as well - I know it's been around for a while, but the average Joe has no idea what that is, and if they could have brought that main stream it could have done a lot for them. No mention of UWP, if the Store will still require that, or if UWP is undergoing any changes.

I have a feeling this is a bigger push to leverage Microsoft Store more (*sigh*) and with all the UI changes, finally kill the old MSC/Snap-in stuff and finally bury all the old Windows XP style control panels and dialogs they have slowly been replacing over Win10's lifecycle.

It really doesn't look like much more than just a reskin or fancy theme, from what they announced. Teams integration with OS is likely to trigger more anti-trust lawsuits (actually it already has from Salesforce / slack). Running Android on the desktop .. could already be done via third party, so that may trigger other blowback, and depending on how they do it, security concerns. And they are pulling over a couple of Xbox tricks that are low-hanging fruit.

There really isn't anything there.
 
Wasn't Anandtech and Tom's Hardware bought out by the same company? That would put 2 competing sites under the same umbrella. It explains why Anandtech has gone the way it has, and that Tom's Hardware is doing the majority of the hardware reviews.
 
Thanks, @Brent_Justice for the write up/recap/summary.

I remember the widgets/gadgets from Vista too. I also remember how Windows pulled claiming they added security exploits. I was bummed because I really liked having them.

Yeah, I'm always a bit skeptical with new releases anymore. It seemed like a ridiculously short span between 7>8>8.1>10 to me and then the first couple of years of updates for 10 had some rocky patches as well and how it seemed like the customers became QA for each one for a while. I still cringe a little when a build update comes out. I usually upgrade OS's just to get the latest APIs. Been doing that since DX10. My biggest complaint is how sometimes things got moved around under the hood. Could always Cortana search it or find my way back to the trusty control panel but was always annoyed when things moved. We'll see how this one rolls out one way or another.
 
Brian_B said:
I would expect ReFS or something similar to come to the consumer space.
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Man I tried Storage Spaces to use ReFS once.

ReFS comes across as 'ZFS for Windows', but that was really only interesting until ZFS on Linux hit full stride. On another note, BTRFS on Windows actually works, but man is that a slow filesystem.

I think people are about as interested in ReFS as they are in Windows Server, and that includes Microsoft, unfortunately.
 
If anyone asks, all you have to do to fix the TPM missing/disabled problem in regards to Windows 11 capability, all you have to do is enable it in the BIOS. It is usually disabled in the BIOS by default. BTW, on DIY systems TPM 1.2 and up is supported, it is only OEMs that TPM 2.0 is required. But yeah, just go into the BIOS, enable Secure Boot and Windows 11 should show compatibility, and work.
 
I've been running Windows 11 for about a week now .. it boots faster, feels snappier. Playing Hunt:Showdown seems to be about the same as in Windows 10

My only gripe with the "leaked" iso alpha version of Win11 is I can't get the taskbar to work on my secondary monitor ... other than that ... I like it!
 
Brent_Justice said:
If anyone asks, all you have to do to fix the TPM missing/disabled problem in regards to Windows 11 capability, all you have to do is enable it in the BIOS. It is usually disabled in the BIOS by default. BTW, on DIY systems TPM 1.2 and up is supported, it is only OEMs that TPM 2.0 is required. But yeah, just go into the BIOS, enable Secure Boot and Windows 11 should show compatibility, and work.
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I know I've picked up a few TPM modules for boards in the past- usually they went for ~US$20, so not that big of a deal.

Do you know if they're coming built in more often, or if we'll still need to pick them up separately?
 
I don't know, but it's a question I'll be asking for every motherboard that comes in for review now, and we'll have the answer in the review for said motherboard whether it has a TPM module or not.
 
Brent_Justice said:
I don't know, but it's a question I'll be asking for every motherboard that comes in for review now, and we'll have the answer in the review for said motherboard whether it has a TPM module or not.
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I didn't know there were many recent ones that ~didn't~ have TPM modules of some sort. I thought it was built into most CPUs anymore.
 
There is no reason why Windows 11 could not run on any PC that currently runs Windows 10, like this Jan 2009 build I'm using at the moment, but for the artificial hurdles Microsoft puts in the way. However, I did use Rufus to install Windows 11 on a fast 256GB USB stick and then booted it up on my PC with an i7-5960X Haswell-E (4th gen Intel.) Rufus can take .esd/.wim install files so it was easy to avoid the TPM/CPU compatibility check. The CPU has no firmware PTT and mobo has no TPM 2.0 module, although there is a 20-pin header for one. Apparently supermicro TPM 2.0 modules work on the Asus Rampage V Extreme. In any case it's all artificial blocks imposed by MS.
 
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