Windows 11

[maflynn]

Another update, and another splash screen on reboot with Microsoft forcing attempting to make me use Edge, Bing, and subscribe to office/OneDrive.

Just use one of the many debloater scripts out there. I think O&O Shutup 10 and Chris Titus has scripts that fixes all of that. As long as you expect MS to keep doing this, its a simple process to just fix it. I run the scripts after every update and its a non issue.

 

[maflynn]

Not for nothing, I find Chrome taking over my PDFs immenselly more frustrated. I have to continue to change the default app for pdf documents back to adobe as it seems without my permission chrome changes pdf to using it as the default app.

I just made a change in chrome to only download PDFs and not open them - I'm hoping that will prevent chrome from taking over PDFs as the default app.

 

[c0ppo]

Not for nothing, I find Chrome taking over my PDFs immenselly more frustrated. I have to continue to change the default app for pdf documents back to adobe as it seems without my permission chrome changes pdf to using it as the default app.

An 3rd party app can change permissions without user approval?
Since I don't use Windows as my primary OS, I'm just asking out of curiosity. If that is the case, then MS really has a lot to change in Windows.

 

[maflynn]

An 3rd party app can change permissions without user approval?

It seems as though it does, I keep needing to change he default app for PDFs from Chrome to Adobe.

 

[JuicyGoomba]

Just use one of the many debloater scripts out there. I think O&O Shutup 10 and Chris Titus has scripts that fixes all of that. As long as you expect MS to keep doing this, its a simple process to just fix it. I run the scripts after every update and its a non issue.

Used to use them all the time, maybe with age I just got to the point where I can't be bothered with the hassle of them anymore. It seems unfathomable to me that entities such as Microsoft aren't regulated at this point especially with their incessant forcing of first party applications. Almost like the system is flawed and they'd happily take the penalty like with IE as the exposure is worth more to them than the fine.

If the games I played were single player only I'd have gone Linux only by now. Even as someone less than versed in Unix it's surprisingly easy to get up and running now especially with Pop OS existing, as ugly and tragic as the default UI is.

Many people share similar frustrations but if Apple had something similar, or indeed just implemented, Proton then that would be a hell of a proposition despite the walled garden.

 

[maflynn]

Many people share similar frustrations but if Apple had something similar, or indeed just implemented, Proton then that would be a hell of a proposition despite the walled garden.

Here's my take at least as of today. Maybe my opinion will change tomorrow, maybe not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Apple isn't interested in gaming simply because they can't make money off of it. Apple makes a ton of money off of gaming on iOS, every game sold, every subscription signed up, every addon bought, Apple get a cut. Apple will not make one red cent, if you, or I buys Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[hwojtek]

Apple will not make one red cent, if you, or I buys Cyberpunk 2077.

Apple Arcade works on Macs, too. Only a matter of making it competitive with, say, GOG or Steam.

 

[maflynn]

Apple Arcade works on Macs, too. Only a matter of making it competitive with, say, GOG or Steam.

You mean iOS games being played on the Mac? If that's the case, you're not refuting my point, I don't think Apple Arcade for macOS will ever be competitive with steam, not when something like 95% (my estimation) of the AAA games being released omit the Mac.

Also many indy publishers don't have the staff to develop a Mac version when they have their hands full with windows, and consoles. Paradox the maker of Cities:Skylines announced Cities: Skylines 2 - there's no Mac version and the publisher stated they just couldn't afford to hire another team of developers for the Mac. Yet here's the rub for many Mac owners. Cities:Skylines 1 has a Mac version. They chose to drop the Mac when producing this new version.

There is no incentive for apple to embrace gaming (non-ioS gaming) on the Mac. Apple is about making money, that's their goal, and since they're not going to get a cut of traditional games being released they're not pushing to gain market share.

 

[diamond.g]

Apple Arcade works on Macs, too. Only a matter of making it competitive with, say, GOG or Steam.

You mean GamePass equivalent, GoG is popular cause no DRM (which Apple adds to all their App Store apps), Steam is popular cause Steam (which Apple doesn't really have an answer for). Apple has shown they are not terribly interested in doing what is needed to get folks talking about Apple Arcade (RE8 would have been a good addition to Apple Arcade).

 

[nathansz]

Paradox the maker of Cities:Skylines announced Cities: Skylines 2 - there's no Mac version and the publisher stated they just couldn't afford to hire another team of developers for the Mac.

I missed this info about c:s 2

That’s a massive bummer

I can boot in to windows and play it, I mean I will, but I wish I wouldn’t have to….

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Ok, so I have been using Win 11 for quite some time now, installed on an external USB, plugged in to my 2015 iMac.

It installs, but I have to use Winclone (on Mac) or WinToUSB (on Win) to a) install it onto an external USB and b ) to bypass the TPM requirements. It may be that Rufus (Win) can also do this.

Things I have found --

1. I have to dedicate an entire USB drive to the Windows. If I use This PC/Manage to make the Windows partition smaller, it will run for a little while, but in a day or so the installation will fail in an unrecoverable way.
2. I can't update from 22H1 to 22H2. If I want 22H2, I have to install that version from scratch.
3. Installing Windows Support files from Apple to support the iMac hardware doesn't always work. I don't know why, but it is something to do with the graphics drivers for my iMac.
4. Some things are faster, like opening apps from MS Office (whodathunk that opening a Microsoft application in a Microsoft OS would be tweaked?) than on MacOS
5. Most things are slower, especially non MS apps like LibreOffice (again, whodathunk?)
6. Compiling LaTeX documents on Windows is very slow, about 3 times longer than on MacOS or Linux. Curiously, if I install VMware Workstation for PC in Windows, and then install Linux in that, the LaTeX files are compiled three times faster than back in the Windows environment. I did, once, try installing WSL on Windows, and TeXLive within that, and it made no difference. It still took three times as long.
7. MS Word has a practical limit for its file sizes of about 1 million characters (0.5Mbyte Word DOCX file). Yes, I know it has a theoretical limit of 32 Mbytes, but it is not really practical. It takes bout 4~5 seconds to open a 0.5Mbyte DOCX file, but that blows out to 2 ~ 4 minutes by the time the file gets to 2.5 Mbytes. Who knows how long it will take to open a 32 Mbyte file. OTOH, LibreOffice will open that same 2.5 Mbyte file in about 5 seconds. I have tested this on my 8 Gbyte RAM iMac and a 16 GByte RAM PC, with the same results.
8. I don't run games on my iMac, so I am not able to comment.
9. VMWare Fusion on Mac has improved to the point that it is practical to run Windows in that environment. There is still tiny bit of lag in opening windows (i.e. this browser, or VS Code) but you have to look for it to see it. Many processes run almost nearly as fast as a native install except where lots of RAM is needed, such as opening a 2.5 Mbyte Word document.

 

[maflynn]

I missed this info about c:s 2

That’s a massive bummer

I've played Cities:Skylines on my 14" M1 MBP, my Razer and my desktop (11th gen i7/RTX 2060) and the game on my MBP is night and day compared to my PC. Not just performance (it is faster on my Razer/Desktop), but stability, usability, and general feeling.

Bottom line, I'm not surprised and even if CS2 was going to be on the MacOS platform, I'd stick with my PC, simply because it would be a better experience.

 

[nathansz]

I've played Cities:Skylines on my 14" M1 MBP, my Razer and my desktop (11th gen i7/RTX 2060) and the game on my MBP is night and day compared to my PC. Not just performance (it is faster on my Razer/Desktop), but stability, usability, and general feeling.

Bottom line, I'm not surprised and even if CS2 was going to be on the MacOS platform, I'd stick with my PC, simply because it would be a better experience.

Totally get that

I don’t spend very much time (or have very much time to spend) gaming so I take the minor performance hit playing in macos over windows (even though its a pc) because I do everything else in macos so I can just ctrl-arrow over to other spaces for work, communication or what have you while I’m playing

 

[1BadManVan]

Totally get that

I don’t spend very much time (or have very much time to spend) gaming so I take the minor performance hit playing in macos over windows (even though its a pc) because I do everything else in macos so I can just ctrl-arrow over to other spaces for work, communication or what have you while I’m playing

I gave up trying to find that balance and just got myself an xbox for games and then the mac for my other stuff. Though at this point i feel i have too many devices now lol. M2 macbook air, M1 ipad pro, xbox series x and now a Lenovo Slim 7 laptop. I like the variety but its a bit overkill as well.

 

[maflynn]

I figured I would post my recent experience here in the windows 11 thread. I did mention in the Flip Flopping between macOS and Windows thread issues with my VPN.

Context: I recently subscribed to Proton for my emails, the tier I chose provides ProtonVPN. Most of the time, I use a VPN with my laptop, but its nice having it on my desktop. Anyways for my desktop it failed to connect to Proton. I also tried ExpressVPN that too failed. Lots of research these past two days showed it was the desktop, not my ISP, or anything since my laptop works.

I finally came to the decision to try out the Reset this PC option in windows 11. I will say it worked amazingly well in that my account was untouched, my files were not deleted (you obviously have choose keep files) and the whole operation was done within 20 minutes. The only downside is of course no apps - I need to reinstall of my apps.

So in the end, this is a good news bad news sort of thing. The good news is that windows provides a nice way to easily reset the machine w/o losing your data. The bad news is networking in windows is a bitch. Something messed up, whether drivers, or configuration. No amount of googling really presented my situation. The only solution was to nuke c:\windows and reinstall.

 

[maflynn]

So the Reset PC worked well, but I had an odd issue. Nothing I could do would fix the desktop icons from showing up. Not just the "This PC" or "Recycle Bin" but all of my icons. I scoured the web, resetting icondb cache, I was looking at registry settings. I created a test local account that worked fine.

I was about to create a new account and transition everything over to there when I came across a web page that told me to ensure the show desktop icons was checked. D'oh. for some reason during the reset process that was defaulted to off. I didn't even know that existed. SMH

 

[TheOtherAndy]

So the Reset PC worked well, but I had an odd issue. Nothing I could do would fix the desktop icons from showing up. Not just the "This PC" or "Recycle Bin" but all of my icons. I scoured the web, resetting icondb cache, I was looking at registry settings. I created a test local account that worked fine.

I was about to create a new account and transition everything over to there when I came across a web page that told me to ensure the show desktop icons was checked. D'oh. for some reason during the reset process that was defaulted to off. I didn't even know that existed. SMH
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What are fences? Are you running a StarDock product or some other third party software? I haven't seen that option.

You may be interested in checking out thurrott.com. Paul Thurrott and the team over there cover Windows changes extensively.

 

[TheOtherAndy]

I gave up trying to find that balance and just got myself an xbox for games and then the mac for my other stuff. Though at this point i feel i have too many devices now lol. M2 macbook air, M1 ipad pro, xbox series x and now a Lenovo Slim 7 laptop. I like the variety but its a bit overkill as well.

Lol, only 4 devices? That's cute. 😆

 

[1BadManVan]

Lol, only 4 devices? That's cute. 😆

Just for me personally lol. Other ones around the house is an Hp Aero 13, Blade 15, Asus vivobook, Nintendo switch, 5 other iPads and my collection of iPhones since the 3gs lol.

But I know I have nothing compared to some people on here lol.

 

[maflynn]

What are fences? Are you running a StarDock product

It’s an app from stardock. Allows me to organize my desktop

 

[twokatmew]

Nope, both my wife and I had to support Windows for 25 years and we have had our fill. I would go Linux before going back to Windows.

Agreed. This retired IT pro is sick of Windows.

 

[maflynn]

Sometimes, windows 11 frustrates me. I get why MS did this, but in the latest update the print-screen key is mapped to the snipping tool, however I use snagit. So that stopped working, and to fix it was an exercise in frustion.

First, turning off the hotkey for the snipping tool is buried in the accessibility keyboard settings, I turned that off. But it wasn't as simple as then reassigning the key, it still failed. I had to uninstall snagit and reboot. I got it working but its the fact they making changes to the keyboard hotkeys was buried for no reason.

 

[tarikfransson]

Will Windows 11 persuade anybody to switch over from macOS?

Microsoft will unveil 'the next generation of Windows' on June 24

Microsoft's Windows event is now official, and it's happening this month.

www.windowscentral.com

Probably not, but we will have to wait and see!

obviously no !

 

[pshufd]

obviously no !

I only use it when I have to. Until they implement independent virtual desktops, it's unusable to me.

 

[polyphenol]

obviously no !

There are two things I use Windows for. Neither of which would justify a complete new machine which is what I'd need to be able to run Windows 11.

Neither in 2021 and still less in 2023.

Just adding:

Since moving to Apple, I've also found life much, much better if I want to use a tablet or phone. Have had Android phones and tablets in the past, and even a Microsoft Surface! But the Apple ecosystem, despite its imperfections, makes things so much easier.

At one point I was trying to choose a satnav app. I had a Windows phone (yes, 'tis true), as well as an Android phone, partner had an iPhone, and I also had an Android tablet. Eventually I found that Here We Go (and its previous existences) was the best answer in that versions of it ran on all three. But on a desktop, it was back to Google maps.

Life now - approaching seamless across macOS, iPadOS and IOS - is a dream. Favourites propagating without needing to do anything.

Even if I needed Windows for something important, I don't think there is much to draw me back except for whatever single function that might be.