Windows 11 General Discussion

[lexluthermiester]

Yes, workstations from Lenovo, IBM or any third-party manufacturer do not use the clean Windows 10/11 image. They have a custom image full of useless programs that hinder Windows functionality.

In the same way that Xiaomi and Samsung fill Google's Android with junk.

I prefer clean Androids like those from Asus, Motorola, Pixel, Sony and Nokia.

Surface uses a custom Windows image, but has much less junk programs installed.

You can still format and install a clean Windows 11 image if you want.

And IT managers hardly know this. I've had to format entire PC parks and teach IT managers about the proper use of Windows, basic router and switch configurations and AccessPoint.

Just because you know an IT manager doesn't mean they know exactly what to do. Most have no idea how to set up a business network from scratch.

Or how to set up a business email on Gmail or Outlook...

Ok, just stop.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I used to be first in line to install the latest patches or updates, but that’s when I had the time and energy to deal with the headaches that came with it. Not anymore. I’m at a point in life where the OS needs to get out of the way of whatever I actually want to do. I delay all updates for at least a week or two, as by then we should know if it screwed something up.

As for MS’s quality assurance, I have no confidence there. I don’t have to look far. Take New Outlook. It forgets my preferences every single week. No, I don’t want smart suggestions, and yes, I do want new emails to pop out in a new window. I feel like I spend way too much time fighting MS for control of my PC, and it’s not like I’m trying to hack it. MS just simply ignores my preferences.

 

[Onasi]

Curious. This mirrors the switch to displaying memory speed in MT/s that rolled out earlier last year. I am quite happy that MS catches up with the times and actually started working on the TM to make it a more useful monitoring tool overall:

Windows 11 Build 27808 (Canary) changes how Task Manager calculates CPU usage

Microsoft today released Windows 11 Build 27808 to Insiders in the Canary Channel. Besides a good set of fixes, it makes the Task Manager calculate CPU

winaero.com

 

[R-T-B]

Sorry for the delay, I fell asleep lol. I am putting together a guide with screenshots now.


No one is angry. Maybe you, but no one else. We're just commenting on the fall in Q&A quality since they fired most of their Q&A team and began to rely more on "user feedback" and telemetry. And that is valid.

...And then I forgot. Here's the guide I keep putting off. I had to load up a VM since I only run Gentoo now, but glad to help. I made it as "idiot proof" as possible.

To disable automatic updates completely on Windows 10/11 Pro or better without breaking Microsoft systems:

1.) Start by searching for gpedit.msc. Click the first result.

2.) Drill/Travel down the tree as shown:

3.) Set the following setting to "disabled" (by double clicking it and choosing the setting).

4.) Now search for "device inst" and select the first result in the start menu:

5.) Choose this setting and save:

6.) Finally download, unzip and double click this nice handy-dandy reg file:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/regkey1-zip.388771/?hash=5721db099b4b1ffdfa129094d67d0157

7.) Done! Maybe reboot to be sure it's working? I do this all before I connect a machine to the internet for the first time, works well.

PS: For those curious, this is the regkey you have to change to zero:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching

 

[Klemc]

Finally fixed WIM WDefend removal (AnWave) to not letting PC updazte (KB wouldn't install) by slipstreaming 2025-3-11 KB/MSU in ISO, then upgraded keeping files & apps, it worked (fixed).

Strange it broke the update for my offline PC only, while the online PC updated OKay by WAU.

 

[iameatingjam]

Just checking in, its been a little over a week since I installed win 11 on an unsupported 7300U laptop. Everything has been running smoothly, that wau updater is such a life safer, it respects my decisions without me having to spend 10 minutes modifying far off operating system settings like I do with normal windows update. And it gives me the security patches which is all I really care about. I'm on 23H2 and I plan to stay here for a while on both my windows computers.

This machine doesn't get a whole lot of action, mostly just browsing the web, posting on forums, watching youtube, using local network to grab video files from my main pc and watching them with vlc media player as I fall asleep.

And thats about it, and as for those tasks, it handles them very well, it doesn't even seem any slower than win 10. Only thing I've noticed is a few more instances of the fans turning on, implying there is a harder load being put on it, but its still powerful enough to handle it. Or maybe its something else idk but due to the infrequency I don't really see a problem. Perhaps if I was doing more demanding tasks there would be more problems but I can't say.

I guess so far you could say its a success **knock on wood**

 

[razaron]

I feel dirty... Recently upgraded to 11 for HyperV nested virtualisation support on AMD and mirrored networking for WSL.

I think I like it...

• After a short 13 years, they finally migrated network adapters to the new settings menu. Haven't touched old control panel once (so far, touch wood).
• There's a `sudo` option in developer settings
• The partition manager is actually pretty good now
• Tabs in notepad
• Sticky windows that can be maximised together

Main issues are that start menu web links only go to Edge (can remove web search results with regedit) and the start menu being in the middle. I'm usually in bed with my wireless mouse around bedtime, so use the right click context menu for putting PC to sleep. Can no longer blindly move mouse down and left, actually have to aim now.

So far the issues aren't big enough to make me want to fix them, can stick with an unmodified install.

I've also been using Edge on corporate devices, even when given the option of (unextendable) Firefox... It's got decent performance and vertical tabs with grouping. I'm a complete shill now

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

and the start menu being in the middle. ... Can no longer blindly move mouse down and left, actually have to aim now.

First thing I fix on W11. They at least have it in settings.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I can't do taskbar in the middle. It is simply less efficient, and anytime something happens in the tray (like a location check), everything moves over for a second, then moves back. It's so distracting.

 

[Onasi]

I feel dirty... Recently upgraded to 11 for HyperV nested virtualisation support on AMD and mirrored networking for WSL.

I think I like it...

Nah, don’t be actually. After some elbow grease and tweaking Win 11 is quite good, I do prefer it to 10. My issues are with MS bullshit around the OS mostly, not the OS itself.

 

[razaron]

Forgot to mention, built-in RGB control. I disabled it since I'm already using GHub for macros and what not but it did successfully detect my keyboard and mouse. Had me tripping for a while, thinking my keyboard was dying since the lights kept turning off randomly.

First thing I fix on W11. They at least have it in settings.

I first started using W11 a year ago on a corp laptop where that setting was hidden/locked. Can't believe I didn't check again on my PC lol

Thanks for that, saved me having to improve my hand eye coordination/eyesight. Can safely continue growing old

Nah, don’t be actually. After some elbow grease and tweaking Win 11 is quite good, I do prefer it to 10. My issues are with MS bullshit around the OS mostly, not the OS itself.

I think corp devices desensitised me to the in OS ads. That said, I might eventually get annoyed since this is a personal PC.

Trying to avoid regedit, random apps and control panel for as long as I can. As that's the true test of a new Windows version

Also scripting all my changes this time. I regedited away so many "Update to Windows 11!" messages that I had to download that hard to find windows update assistant tool. Ended up clean installing afterward upgrading anyway...

Also sucks when you clean install and have to have to try to wrangle/remember all your drivers, core apps, tweaks etc.
This time it was something to do with brightness autochanging when switching to certain browser tabs or something. This time either the problem fixed itself or I've successfully darkmoded all the things. I'll go with that... Windows, Firefox, websites, AMD drivers and even my monitor have features that control it...

 

[Epaminombas]

Nah, don’t be actually. After some elbow grease and tweaking Win 11 is quite good, I do prefer it to 10. My issues are with MS bullshit around the OS mostly, not the OS itself.

All of this can be disabled and/or uninstalled manually and it doesn't take 5 minutes.

Have you ever looked at the settings menu? Can you read it and understand the options to disable it? Or is this something that only a professional expert would be able to do? Do you need a college degree to do this?

Uninstall or remove apps and programs in Windows - Microsoft Support

Uninstall or remove apps and programs in the Settings app.

support.microsoft.com

Windows 11 has got a new 'System Components' page in Settings

Windows 11 now includes a new System Components page that lists and allows managing all pre-installed apps. You can enable it with ViVeTool.

winaero.com

How to add or remove optional features on Windows 11

Here are the steps to manage optional features on your Windows 11 installation.

www.windowscentral.com

General privacy settings in Windows - Microsoft Support

Get a detailed description of each of the general privacy settings in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

 

[rusty caterpillar]

RTX 2000/3000/4000/5000 GPUs

So Win 11 is not for Nvidia 1000 series cards? minimal Nvidia GPU being 2000? TBH I'm not sure, I've seen Win 11 update pushed on Windows 10 Home and Pro with cards like 1050 Ti and 1070.

 

[Epaminombas]

So Win 11 is not for Nvidia 1000 series cards? minimal Nvidia GPU being 2000? TBH I'm not sure, I've seen Win 11 update pushed on Windows 10 Home and Pro with cards like 1050 Ti and 1070.

you can install it without any problems, but new GPU features are not present in GTX 1000. So you can stay on Windows 10 22H2 without any problems

you will not have better performance with GTX 1000 and Windows 11.

 

[lexluthermiester]

So Win 11 is not for Nvidia 1000 series cards? minimal Nvidia GPU being 2000? TBH I'm not sure, I've seen Win 11 update pushed on Windows 10 Home and Pro with cards like 1050 Ti and 1070.

Windows 11 works fine with ALL Geforce cards from GTX600 onward. All features work properly and as intended. Ignore that user, they're giving bad and incorrect info.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

you will not have better performance with GTX 1000 and Windows 11.

I didn't expect that anyway.
Maybe security features of the NVidia drivers on 1000 series can not be used in Win 11 IDK.

Windows 11 works fine with ALL Geforce cards from GTX600 onward. All features work properly and as intended. Ignore that user, they're giving bad and incorrect info.

Damn I have a GTX 465 1GB, prepared for PhysX. Neh, not gonna touch 5000 series . Never been excited about Win 11. My 10 LTSC doesn't have DX 12_2 nothing to lose atm.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Damn I have a GTX 465 1GB, prepared for PhysX. Neh, not gonna touch 5000 series . Never been excited about Win 11. My 10 LTSC doesn't have DX 12_2 nothing to lose atm.

Fair enough. Win11 LTSC is a thing though and when you're ready chime in here and I'll walk you through a debloated and secure install of it.

 

[iameatingjam]

The location of the start button has never bothered me with win 11.... the thing that bothers me is the new context menu, Thats the first to go on new installations. And earlier on, I didn't like how I couldn't right click on the taskbar to get to the task manager.

I had to put task manager in the taskbar to kind of work around that, but its been muscle memory for so long its hard to change. But thankfully newer win 11 returned that ability, so all good there.

Its been a while since I really messed around on win 10 so I may be mistaken.. but wasn't there the ability to move the taskbar to other sides of the screen? I swear I remember noticing the removal of that feature at some point. I find windows lacking in the customization features like that. I remember messing around on a very old versions of ppc linux as a kid and there was a feature on kubutu ( I think it was?) where you could turn your screen into a cube and have a workstation on every side on the cube, and you could zoom out and move it around in a 3d space however you liked, and if you say moved a window outside the bounds of your screen it would just appear on another side of the cube. It was so awesome, and that was like 20 years ago it did that.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

The location of the start button has never bothered me with win 11.... the thing that bothers me is the new context menu, Thats the first to go on new installations. And earlier on, I didn't like how I couldn't right click on the taskbar to get to the task manager.

I had to put task manager in the taskbar to kind of work around that, but its been muscle memory for so long its hard to change. But thankfully newer win 11 returned that ability, so all good there.

Its been a while since I really messed around on win 10 so I may be mistaken.. but wasn't there the ability to move the taskbar to other sides of the screen? I swear I remember noticing the removal of that feature at some point. I find windows lacking in the customization features like that. I remember messing around on a very old versions of ppc linux as a kid and there was a feature on kubutu ( I think it was?) where you could turn your screen into a cube and have a workstation on every side on the cube, and you could zoom out and move it around in a 3d space however you liked, and if you say moved a window outside the bounds of your screen it would just appear on another side of the cube. It was so awesome, and that was like 20 years ago it did that.

Yes you could move the taskbar in win 7 and 10.

Fair enough. Win11 LTSC is a thing though and when you're ready chime in here and I'll walk you through a debloated and secure install of it.

Thx

I don't think so.
But it certainly is useable, unlike during Windows 7 times .

Play some with Core Isolation can be good if you mix the right settings for offending applications.

 

[95Viper]

let's stick to the topic, please.

 

[tpa-pr]

<snip>

These sorts of guides are great because they're a non-destructive way of modifying Windows. A lot of those "de-bloat/optimize Windows" scripts and programs have a habit of yanking out system components without understanding the ramifications of doing so (and because Windows is a bit of a tangled mess, it's hard to know what affects what when removed) and can lead to problems later. That's primarily why I recommend against them.

Stuff like taking advantage of local group/security policy are fine though. In fact if people are interested I have a big spreadsheet of policies we set for our business clients, would you guys like a copy? It's just a collected list of keys to disable advertisments, telemetry collection etc. All totally non-destructive and easily reverted.

 

[Onasi]

Stuff like taking advantage of local group/security policy are fine though. In fact if people are interested I have a big spreadsheet of policies we set for our business clients, would you guys like a copy? It's just a collected list of keys to disable advertisments, telemetry collection etc. All totally non-destructive and easily reverted.

Sure, I’d be interested to compare notes. Would also like to hear your opinion on MS either accidentally or deliberately overruling some GPs nowadays, like the Web Search one, to the point where it just sometimes doesn’t work properly. Funnily enough, the REG tweak that does the exact same thing still works.

Windows 11 works fine with ALL Geforce cards from GTX600 onward. All features work properly and as intended. Ignore that user, they're giving bad and incorrect info.

Yuuup. So far, purely on the GPU side there is no difference. I would assume that would change if the recently announced additions to DirectX with Neural Rendering come through as another feature level to 12 (12_3?) and it wouldn’t surprise me if THAT becomes exclusive to 11, especially since 10 is going out of mainstream support.

 

[tpa-pr]

Sure, I’d be interested to compare notes. Would also like to hear your opinion on MS either accidentally or deliberately overruling some GPs nowadays, like the Web Search one, to the point where it just sometimes doesn’t work properly. Funnily enough, the REG tweak that does the exact same thing still works.

That sure sounds like Microsoft and sure sounds like one of the reasons why I swapped away from Windows for my personal use Unfortunately I don't have a permanent fix, you can only a) re-apply the same key or b) check admx.help to see if there's an updated entry for it that refers to a different registry key.

Anyway, err, I just realized that you can't upload files to TPU like .csv files, so I have copied them into Pastebin:
User Profile Changes: https://pastebin.com/ZZEaP4Px
System-Wide Changes: https://pastebin.com/uuLApgrD

If you copy and paste these into text files and change the extension to .csv, you can then re-open them in Excel for a nice table. Note that user profile changes go under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" and system-wide changes go under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE".

 

[Onasi]

@tpa-pr
I’ll look through them, thanks. At work, the setup is just getting pre-configured GPs for new workstations directly from our domain, but, as I mentioned in this thread a couple of pages earlier, 24H2 sorta messed with that and now it requires additional steps. It was a change that I have no idea if it was intentional since MS never documented it anywhere. And the fix is an extremely ghetto tweak to the REG for kerberos encryption. I suppose it MIGHT work correctly on the 2025 domains, we are still on 2022, but switching the whole setup is a headache and damned if we go for it just because MS breaks things for no real reason.

 

[Klemc]

Microsoft emergency update fixes a Windows 11 bug removing Copilot app

Microsoft has rolled out an emergency update to patch an issue where the Copilot app is automatically uninstalled from Windows 11 version 24H2, 23H2 and Windows 10. The post Microsoft emergency update fixes a Windows 11 bug removing Copilot app appeared first on Windows Latest

www.newsta.ru

On March 15, Windows Latest reported that Copilot is automatically getting deleted from systems after the mandatory security updates, which cannot be skipped.