The Windows 11 racket

[rze99]

We have 4 adults and 7 personally owned Windows 10 devices in our home, all functioning perfectly well.

Not a single one of them can run Windows 11.

My main PC is five years old, works and performs perfectly, and has a decent spec of Intel i7 and 32GB RAM and tons of storage. But MS checker says Windows 11 can't use the CPU.

These devices will carry on working, of course, but less and less safely.

And the "Extended Support Program" is, for the UK, £60 (ex. VAT) per device for a year, then doubling each year and this is just to get critical security patches.

So 7 working electronic devices that could and should carry on for a few years more will ultimately end up being compressed to landfill.

Hardly an environmentally sustainable or responsible business practice, Microsoft.

 

[sadfield]

You can still install windows 11 on most PCs that fail the minumum requirements. On of my PCs doesn't meet the processor requirement, but still installed Windows 11. Stupid really as it's an old 6 core server, likely replaced because of this.

Windows 11 on devices that don't meet minimum system requirements - Microsoft Support

Installing Windows 11 on devices that do not meet minimum system requirements is unsupported and is not recommended by Microsoft.

support.microsoft.com

 

[tintag27]

The issue is not confined to PCs I'm afraid. My 2011 iMac works perfectly with GarageBand, my 3D programme Cinema 4D, and Photoshop -
but none of those programmes or the OS can be updated to current spec. The problems usually seem to be security patching updates...
(and of course they would always prefer you to buy new hardware and software...)

 

[rze99]

You can still install windows 11 on most PCs that fail the minumum requirements. On of my PCs doesn't meet the processor requirement, but still installed Windows 11. Stupid really as it's an old 6 core server, likely replaced because of this.

Windows 11 on devices that don't meet minimum system requirements - Microsoft Support

Installing Windows 11 on devices that do not meet minimum system requirements is unsupported and is not recommended by Microsoft.

support.microsoft.com

this is what I'm planning to do and see how we go but I'm expecting failed security patching. I'm not buying 7 new devices nor falling for the taxation racket

 

[trev333]

can you update the processor on your best pc/mboard?...

I have 3 towers I use..a W7 and a W10 I built up myself with similar chips /ram...and the latest one, an ex gov dell cheap pc with the newest specs and w11...

the w11 machine blitzes the others, W7 machine is pretty quick... the W10 is a slow PIG....

 

[Pops_Caster]

It’s definitely a racket.

 

[toanhunter]

I left my PC last year, bought a mac pro 6,1, currently it works great on os monterey, I'm much happier with this mac, it was a bit of a learning curve but I am not going back to using a PC for anything now.

 

[msalama]

Windows is a bloody racket itself, am very glad I don't need it for anything these days. But I of course understand it's a necessity or preference for many, so am absolutely not criticizing anyone's choices here! Yet, I do admit feeling relieved after my complete Linux migration still...

 

[sadfield]

Mines has happily installed Win11 updates for a couple of years. They supported Win10 for 10 years, same with Vista, 13 years for XP.

 

[Telecastoff1]

I've begun migrating some of my pc's to Linux Mint because of Win 11 issues. It works great and zips right along. And.....there are security updates that don't mess things up. My main pc is still running Win 11, but that will change also, soon.

 

[trev333]

happy with W11, as well... trouble free so far...

I don't use it for business/work programs, etc...

also, I don't want to type code or do command line stuff.... as I found with the few Linux issues I tried. you need to be a certified geek to use that...

 

[msalama]

Linux Mint

I run the K Desktop on Fedora and it works perfectly for my needs. And yes indeedy, the updates work unobtrusively and never mess up anything.

 

[msalama]

need to be a certified geek

Not so much anymore if you're using a GUI, but yeah, there's still a learning curve you've got to get through if you want to use it effectively, or sometimes, at all. Linux is not for everyone, you're absolutely right about that.

 

[trev333]

which is the best edition for a windows type interface user?...

 

[chillybilly]

The biggest racket of all is...the core functions of Windows haven't been improved substantially or at all since Windows 7 or even before.

I'm talking about file operations, searches etc. Explorer.exe remains a kludge. And when it hangs all too frequently it must be terminated and restarted via task manager. This is akin to swapping oxygen tanks while underwater or in outer space. And no sentient being can explain why certain options are still in System Settings while others are in Control Panel.

One internet questioner called it The Green Bar Of Slowness as the OS plods along redrawing icons or file lists in a window even for a small number of items eg 2 dozen. Microsoft's stock advice is to enable indexing but with drive sizes a minimum of 500 GB and often 1TB or 2TB that's a lot to index anyway and it doesn't really matter as it's still slow. SSD, NVMe are fast but not fast enough to compensate for the liabilities of Windows' disk-churning nonsense. And if you use Dropbox or similar cloud storage the overhead is even worse.

A utility like Everything from http://voidtools.com is indispensable especially with external drives etc. It creates its own indexes but does so quickly and file searches - including across multiple drives - produce quick results. Now why didn't Microsoft think of that?

Microsoft support and their so-called MVPs are a bad joke with boilerplate advice that is too general to be relevant or effective. Questions are posted in detail and MS will suggest doing things that have already been done. They don't even bother to read the posts. Telling some poor bugger to run yet another file system integrity check is a hiding to nothing and takes forever. And why are critical system files so vulnerable to corruption, mismatched versions etc?

Updates to the OS require huge downloads, interminable install times and a demand that you reboot. If you don't, MS will reboot your machine in the middle of the night without warning. Sorry if you were in the middle of anything important or had unsaved data. The updates then are applied during the shutdown process AND during the bootup process. Countless users can relate horror stories of updates that get snagged somewhere along the way resulting in a system that won't boot.

The marketing tail is truly wagging the technology dog at MS with Copilot (ugh), the Microsoft Store (double ugh) and all other manner of frippery. Meanwhile an OS entering its third decade of use still requires a bewildering amount of nuts-and-bolts knowledge, third-party software and, above all, a plethora of registry hacks to make it useful, responsive and especially to curtail its worst excesses.

A different third party issues O&O ShutUp10++ which, as the name suggests, allows the user to impose some sanity on his own computer by disabling or muting dozens of resource-eating, intrusive and intelligence-insulting 'features' that are little more than officially-sanctioned spyware and adware. MS market research consists largely of snooping on its user base's every web search and app launch.

The 'access to security patches' sales pitch prompts the biggest question of all: why does a mature operating system still require so many patches beyond antivirus/antimalware definitions?

A secure platform is all well and good but MS have long relied on bloatware as a subtle but constant push for users to buy new hardware - which in turn means another license/copy of Windows sold with it. And the speedy new hardware (and a fresh Windows install) masks the gross inefficiencies and liabilities of the OS. For a while.

 

[burntfrijoles]

The issue is not confined to PCs I'm afraid. My 2011 iMac works perfectly with GarageBand, my 3D programme Cinema 4D, and Photoshop -
but none of those programmes or the OS can be updated to current spec. The problems usually seem to be security patching updates...
(and of course they would always prefer you to buy new hardware and software...)

A lot has happened in the 14 years that elapsed. Apple ditched Intel. They converted to 64 bit. Programs have become more resource hungry. It would seem that you've got your money's worth out of the iMac. Apple supported it until around 2022 I think.

I have said that on the day Apple stops supporting my 2021 Apple Silicon iMac, that I will disconnect it from the internet and run it as a stand alone for Logic until it totally bites the dust. It won't matter if I can't get any more Logic Updates because it's fine as is for what I do. I will then conduct all my business on an iPad, which is cheap and will work perfectly fine for daily use.

Note: Rumors say that Apple plans to release a budget MacBook some time within the next year. Don't know what the specs will be.

 

[stxrus]

And this is why I’m moving to Apple. I know it has its issues but I’m done with Microsoft

 

[andy__d]

Same here, multiple perfectly good computers on the theoretical scrap heap. I was surprised when I put Linux on one of my PCs that still had a halfway ok GPU, many of the games that I’d run on it under Windows 10 ran perfectly well - and even, in a couple of cases - better (presumably because the underlying OS was dragging the CPU down less) on Proton / Linux than native Windows.

What really irks me about windows 11 is the way things that are “muscle memory” have changed recently. I’ve been using notepad and paint for close to 35 years (win 3.0) - they worked perfectly well, and I use them both every single day for simple tasks like adding labels to screenshots or stripping formatting out of copied text. I know there’s other apps out there that I could use, but, I’ve got my familiar toolbox that has always worked for me in pretty much exactly the same way. Why, why, why did you feel the need to shove copilot into these apps (and take away the one feature I used notepad for most?)

 

[rze99]

The biggest racket of all is...the core functions of Windows haven't been improved substantially or at all since Windows 7 or even before.

I'm talking about file operations, searches etc. Explorer.exe remains a kludge. And when it hangs all too frequently it must be terminated and restarted via task manager. This is akin to swapping oxygen tanks while underwater or in outer space. And no sentient being can explain why certain options are still in System Settings while others are in Control Panel.

One internet questioner called it The Green Bar Of Slowness as the OS plods along redrawing icons or file lists in a window even for a small number of items eg 2 dozen. Microsoft's stock advice is to enable indexing but with drive sizes a minimum of 500 GB and often 1TB or 2TB that's a lot to index anyway and it doesn't really matter as it's still slow. SSD, NVMe are fast but not fast enough to compensate for the liabilities of Windows' disk-churning nonsense. And if you use Dropbox or similar cloud storage the overhead is even worse.

A utility like Everything from http://voidtools.com is indispensable especially with external drives etc. It creates its own indexes but does so quickly and file searches - including across multiple drives - produce quick results. Now why didn't Microsoft think of that?

Microsoft support and their so-called MVPs are a bad joke with boilerplate advice that is too general to be relevant or effective. Questions are posted in detail and MS will suggest doing things that have already been done. They don't even bother to read the posts. Telling some poor bugger to run yet another file system integrity check is a hiding to nothing and takes forever. And why are critical system files so vulnerable to corruption, mismatched versions etc?

Updates to the OS require huge downloads, interminable install times and a demand that you reboot. If you don't, MS will reboot your machine in the middle of the night without warning. Sorry if you were in the middle of anything important or had unsaved data. The updates then are applied during the shutdown process AND during the bootup process. Countless users can relate horror stories of updates that get snagged somewhere along the way resulting in a system that won't boot.

The marketing tail is truly wagging the technology dog at MS with Copilot (ugh), the Microsoft Store (double ugh) and all other manner of frippery. Meanwhile an OS entering its third decade of use still requires a bewildering amount of nuts-and-bolts knowledge, third-party software and, above all, a plethora of registry hacks to make it useful, responsive and especially to curtail its worst excesses.

A different third party issues O&O ShutUp10++ which, as the name suggests, allows the user to impose some sanity on his own computer by disabling or muting dozens of resource-eating, intrusive and intelligence-insulting 'features' that are little more than officially-sanctioned spyware and adware. MS market research consists largely of snooping on its user base's every web search and app launch.

The 'access to security patches' sales pitch prompts the biggest question of all: why does a mature operating system still require so many patches beyond antivirus/antimalware definitions?

A secure platform is all well and good but MS have long relied on bloatware as a subtle but constant push for users to buy new hardware - which in turn means another license/copy of Windows sold with it. And the speedy new hardware (and a fresh Windows install) masks the gross inefficiencies and liabilities of the OS. For a while.

You're right about a bunch of stuff here.

If Intel i7 and 32GB RAM and tons of storage is not good enough for Windows 11, then Windows 11 is the problem.
And I don't believe the upgrade checker, I think it's a racket to generate sales. Instead of buying more Microsoft, I am increasingly alienated by their cynical manipulation and BS and I will be going in an other direction eventually.

 

[tintag27]

A lot has happened in the 14 years that elapsed. Apple ditched Intel. They converted to 64 bit. Programs have become more resource hungry. It would seem that you've got your money's worth out of the iMac. Apple supported it until around 2022 I think.

I have said that on the day Apple stops supporting my 2021 Apple Silicon iMac, that I will disconnect it from the internet and run it as a stand alone for Logic until it totally bites the dust. It won't matter if I can't get any more Logic Updates because it's fine as is for what I do. I will then conduct all my business on an iPad, which is cheap and will work perfectly fine for daily use.

Note: Rumors say that Apple plans to release a budget MacBook some time within the next year. Don't know what the specs will be.

Thanks for that viewpoint! Fortunately this rundown coincides with my age... At 76 I am technically still available for freelance graphics work, but last month, my (even older) iMac expired taking away my only working vector graphics proramme and most used piece of software, Adobe Illustrator. There's not much I can do without Illustrator!
But I can exist on my pension, so it's probably time to hang up my mouse on the graphics side...