I uninstalled windows 11 and went back to windows 10 immediately after seeing that they've made it more difficult for user to change the default browser. Glad to know that I'm not the only one annoyed by this 'new design'

As a visitor from the Linux world I am astonished at the abuse you folks take from MS.

MS should be prosecuted for loading spyware onto the Windows OS, spyware should be illegal.

The only way to get a "good" version of Windows 11, is to get an ISO that has been hacked to hell and back, to physically remove all the trash requirements and spyware. Doing anything through the menu, is redundant, as everything is silently re-enabled anyways. TPM 2.0 is another step in their glacial maneuvering to lockdown Windows. One step at a time, MS is turning Windows into a closed platform. Not happening overnight, but, it is happening.

I don't think that Microsoft are being transparent of their own volition, I think it might have more to do with EU data protection laws. For example the EU telling facebook to "Well go on, fuck off then" when they threatened to pull facebook and instagram from Europe if they didn't let them hold private data outside of the EU.

FYI open power-shell in a folder location has been a thing since windows 7. All you have to do is shift+right-click. There is also an option to add it to the context menu without the shift.

Windows 11 Made me learn Linux. It was a nightmare trying to get into My BIOS due to the whole booting restrictions Windows has implemented over the years.

I had no idea that Windows 11 has been out for 3 months but that fact is extremely frightening to me. I literally refuse to upgrade and it's serious this time.

What I love about Windows 11, is that it is basically clumsy, unfriendly, unfinished, and barely in beta state. It is a truly great downgrade experience compared to Windows 10. It is such a wonderful decision by Microsoft to release this version of Windows far too early to the public. They are obviously a real pro OS developer. Perhaps in a year or 2 it will be ready, and that is fine, because the best thing about Windows 11 is, that it is a completely superfluous release. Nobody needs it. Thank you Microsoft.

"This actually delete everything from their servers" "I'm glad Microsoft are transparent on the data they're taking" *Oh boy, how naive you are*

I used Windows 11 Home since it became available for download. Last month I went back to Windows 10 Home, and just so happy. So, I did give Windows 11 a fair chance, but you simply need to sacrifice too much. Windows 10 is way lighter on resources and it's just great to have a functioning Start menu back again.

11 years later, and I'm still sticking to Windows 7 as my daily driver. Got no trouble whatsoever with it. It's very secure, "offline" if you catch my drift, uses way less resources, and generally stays out of my way. Games still work just fine. Multimedia editors still work great. Browsers and such are exactly the same no matter the system. There's plenty of functional antivirus software to choose from. Seriously, when Win7 finally becomes obsolete for real, probably around the time when Wee10 is killed off (circa 2025), I've probably been already using a Linux distro of some sort for a while.

To enhance your privacy, you can edit all the settings in Group Policy Editor - > Administrative Templates -> System. You can turn off cortana, disable completely diagnosis data...

Love the linux gag at the end! Vista was enough to push me to Linux and I'm so pleased I did. Having to go through the OS and switch all that off looks to be a complete nightmare. I think I read somewhere that as soon as you get a feature update release to the next sub-version of Windows, a lot of those settings get switched back on again. That's horrendous. I don't really know what the answer is. I'm pretty sure Apple and Google are hoovering up information about us by the bucketload through our phones. Don't think we can escape it unless we completely opt out

It's funny how new versions of Windows keep removing options or making them more difficult to find and/or use. It already took years for me to move to 10 because it's vastly inferior to 7 in pretty much everything, but Microsoft's constant chase after Apple just makes 11 even more unappealing. I'm stuck with Windows at work because of Adobe, but as soon as Linux gets more support I'm switching for good this time.

at 08:00, the Windows Terminal is great, but you can download it from the store on Windows 10. Also, before Windows Terminal you could do an easy regedit to re-add a feature they removed which allowed you to open a terminal in a specific folder by shift + right clicking in a folder to open a cmd prompt in that folder (You can do it with powershell without a regedit).

8:00 you could also do that in previous versions of Windows, like Windows 10, 8 and 7, but is a little hidden, you need it to press SHIFT in the keyboard and then right click so you get an extended context menu with that option and more, also at least they made an improvement recently readding in Windows 11 the drag and drop over the task bar, and btw although is very annoying for me that they don't at least let you customize the right click in the task bar to add previous options like task manager, you still can right click on the Windows start button on the task bar and options like the task manager is there. And before they finally added the drag and open apps things I said above they suggested you use an alternative that is click to drag the file, but instead of going over the task bar press Alt+Tab to switch to where you wanted to drag the file and you'll be still holding it so you can drop it where you want without the task bar, although an option I find very inconvinient converting a simple mouse movement in a combination of mouse movement with a multi key combination

8:08 fun fact! In file explorer, you can type cmd into the folder path/URI and it will open a command prompt in that directory. That being said windows terminal is much more convenient as you can have bash, wsl, vs20xx and cmd all in one app that is easy to open in a specific directory. It's worth noting that the Linux in windows or WSL is also on win10. wsl is very nice if you are testing an application between operating systems

In previous Windows, shift-Right click in a folder gives you the option to open powershell or cmd at that location. You can also open a command window, type cd then drag drop the folder into the window and hit return.

Thanks this really helped me a lot of my new laptop. Love your cursor btw may I know where I can download?

You could open the command prompt from the directory on windows 10 too, but it was just a bit more hidden. What you do is open the folder, go to the address bar and type cmd and press enter. then it opens the command prompt at that specific address.

8:00 You could already do this in Windows 10 and I think 8/7 too, you simply had to hold shift then right-click, although it doesn't give the option for powershell and the new terminal is nice. Although it wasted resources I definitely prefer the Wnidows 7 theme over 10 or 11 and one feature I miss from Windows 7 is if you crtl+shift right-click on the start menu it gave you an "exit explorer" option, that was rather handy as explorer occasionally has problems, so that made it a tad easier to restart it by having "explore.exe" already in the run prompt or task manager. Oh and it wasn't the biggest loss, but I quite liked the left sidebar on Vista, so instead of that useless gadget/news panel 11 has, you could pin apps and stuff to it, so it was a bit like having a second start window.

You've been able to open the command prompt/PowerShell in a specific folder for years. Shift + Right Click will show the option in Windows 7/8/10. You can even make this show up in the normal right click menu if you make some changes to the registry.

As someone who has stuck with Windows 10 and seen both of your videos on the topic, I can say I'm happy with my choice. (wall of text warning) I was expecting so many different things, but now I'm seeing it, the new skin is really the only plus Windows 11 has. (Starting from items in your last video) Clipboard, while different, I've been using it on windows 10 for coming up on three years now. The widget menu as I'm sure everyone knows has been on windows 10 since they announced 11, not that anyone uses or likes it. The fancy window snapping, or FancyZones, has been a feature of Microsoft PowerToys since late 2019! though the grouping is quite nice. The multiple desktops thing isn't new with windows 11, I don't think it was even new with Windows 10, I might be mistaken, but I think it was from back in 8 or 8.1, though I don't know anyone who uses it other than students wanting a quick way to hide their games. Windows Sandbox is available in windows 10 in the "turn windows features on and off" page, assuming you have Pro and your device has that capability. I'm not sure if you've never seen it, or if they have changed it, but the Microsoft store _definitely has_ been around since 8, and the HDR display settings have been around for several years. Now for this video, I feel like there _was_ a way to turn off the web searching from the taskbar in settings, though I can't find it now, but you still can do it via group policy or regedit, which should work for Windows 11 too. Not only could you shift right click anywhere to have the option to "open in PowerShell" since Windows 7, but Windows Terminal has had a public preview on GitHub since before PowerToys even existed (if you check the releases, the first few were actually color picker! before it was moved to PowerToys), and 1.0 came out May 2020, which was when I first got it, while less stable then, it was more than usable for an entire year before Windows 11 was even teased, no features excluded. So, other than the grouped tabs, and new coat of paint, I really see no benefit to Windows 11, and when weighing it against its negatives, well, let's just say, at least Windows 8 tried something new.

you can update to windows 11 on the "outdated cpu" without TMP 2.0 by using a registry tweak. and using something like winaero tweaker you can put the taskbar on the top, but not the sides. (unless you also use winaero to revert to the windows 10 taskbar) i also use StartAllBack to get a better start menu (and I don't think that searches the web when you search) you can also get back the old right click menu with winaero the program "Everything" has amazing search functions, for finding specific files and also using PowerToys adds a lot of useful features, such as a macos-like search bar when you press Alt+Space, an a lot more. also, SuperF4 is a great tool that adds a new shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+F4, which will force-kill the focused app instead of asking it to close, so it works on most stalled apps, and just works faster overall. those are my personal suggestions as a power user, there may be some I'm missing but those seem to cover every major issue i have with windows.

Hey Barry, you should check out "Microsoft PowerToys". They are a great set of productivity tools. It includes a better searchbar, a color picker etc.

I had a feeling that an ending joke was coming, but that was way better than I thought! Nice work 😂

So I’m pretty confident that the decision to hold back on the ‘free upgrade’ to my two machines from Windows 10 to 11 was the correct one, based on this review.

I've been using Linux for about 2 years now. You'll definitely want to keep a windows partition installed in-case you have a game that won't work on Linux, but most of them work just fine through wine or proton. Configuring the system to get games to work just fine on Linux does take a lot of time and knowledge of how Linux works, but the customizability and privacy you get with Linux is unmatched. I tried using Windows recently, and there are just a lot of things I didn't even notice until I was without them for so long. Windows stutters and slows down randomly a lot, but that just doesn't happen on my Linux installation. And I know that you mentioned this line in your video, but if you try out a tiling window manager, you'll never want to go back. (my personal favorite choice is bspwm running within XFCE for those nice Desktop environment GUI tools)

While neither of these are optimal, they might still help if you're not aware: 5:10 -- I think you can use alt-tab when dragging. 5:50 -- There's a registry tweak to go back to the old context menu, which works well. I've personally switched back to windows 10, windows 11 is half-baked at best.

I'm so glad you mentioned the hover to open apps, best thing about "downgrading" to windows 10 was getting that back

I'm running it on an old machine (3770K), after spending the best part of a day disabling all of the "features", about the same time it takes on Windoze 10, it feels quicker. I've picked up maybe 5% in benchmarks but that's down to it being a "clean" install, if that's even possible with software these days. Putting the file manipulation tools on a second menu in File Manager is ludicrous, but there is, as with anything, a fix for that, and I look forward to more "features" as part of Critical Updates in the future.

For the record you *could* open the terminal in windows 10 by holding shift and right clicking. Maybe they thought normal users were too dumb so they made it an obscure shortcut.

About the context menu and "Show more options", I think this is because Microsoft has changed the context menu registration API. So, applications that use the old API cannot add context menus to the new context menu, and what Microsoft want is that the developers adopt new API. So, I think instead of somehow making old application entries show up in the new context menu, Microsoft just shows the new context menu with new API's, and for the old applications, it shows the old menu as it was. That is why we see duplicates, and I think this is probably transitory. That is, old context menu will be removed or difficult to open.

3:50 You can right click start button for the settings that usually appeared when clicking the taskbar

Useful video as a new Win 11 User Something to note: As of Feb 2023 Win11 Home has the drag-icon-into-app feature working again. As well the taskmgr is in the right-click context menu from the taskbar.

100% agree with you on all of your points. I've been an avid techy and always loved getting the new OS and learn about it as soon as I can. I've tried 11, dual booted it with 10 and it broke because of a windows update, to funny. Windows 11 is a lot of hard work to adjust to. I know of no customers of mine presently that want to go to windows 11. Linux is looking pretty good and the gaming experience is gaining steam!

There is register edit to disable the bing search when you look for your files. It's 100% mandatory as your search is 3-5 times slower with the Bing integration, not to even mention all the times it accidentally opens the webpage when you look for something.

I got Windows 11 installed on an HP Pavilion G6 from 2013. You can make your own Windows 11 setup disk that bypasses TPM and other restrictions. Works perfectly on old hardware, so shouldn't be a problem with anything newer.

Thank you. I literally just commented on a CNet video on Windows 11 and the taskbar being glued to the bottom. It's bad design as tabs and menus are at the top, so it forces moving between the top and the bottom of the screen way too much rather than having everything right next to each other.

Take a look at the latest update. They have done some nice updates. Now we can drag the file we want to drop on programs like in the good old days. We can pin shortcuts on taskbar by drag and drop. And for task manager, yeah we can right click on start button, still I don't like that, but I've got used to it, mostly using the shortcut key. Another thing I like is that we can make folders with programs in start menu, main menu of stat. I like a the way the task manager is looking, still it needs some work, but it's on dark mode (this makes it be 100% better ;) ). In future it will be way better than Windows 10.

One of the biggest problems with Windows 11 for me is the new Explorer and the task bar system. The design is a step forward, don't get me wrong, but functionality-wise it just got downgraded to almost mobile-like functionality. You can't drag files to different apps anymore. The performance of Explorer is somehow horrible. Every time you try to open up a new folder, there's a delay. Does anyone else experience this delay, or is it just me? I switched to the Files app from GitHub (which also has a far better design and more functionality), but of course that doesn't work as flawless as the native Explorer app from Win10. I feel like apart from the design overhaul, Windows 11 is a step backwards functionality-wise.

good review - can you bring some on middle button support and high contrast mode in win 11?

This video is amazing! Thank you so much for the advice with the privacy settings! However, i don't quite get how right clicking to open the terminal is any easier than typing wt in the adress bar You can still easily access command prompt including the terminal app via the file explorer on Win 10

you should try out linux, daily drive it for a while and come back to windows and compare what you like. that would make for an interesting experience and video.

MS definitely trying to re-invest the wheel. It's like MS is punishing users for sticking with windows.

My next build will be on Windows 8 with Classic Start Menu and with the Direct x 12 patch. It's either that or Windows AME which is a version with everything stripped out.

Dude, i used to watch you years ago, and now you have just popped into my recommended section. Thing is, i didn't even realize it was you, not by the voice at least. The moment you dragged that thumbnail into ps it finally clicked. It was like "hold the f on! There's no wa... Oh!" moment haha. Good to see you still doing well!

MS's reasons for the CPU requirement is apparently security and stability. You don't need a dedicated TPM switch. Firmware TPM will do. However if you update your BIOS or similar stuff, you may run into problems. If your motherboard dies, I'm pretty sure your storage is encrypted and can't be used on another.

Does Cloud-Delivered protection for Defender really send out more telemetry data? I was just under the impression that gave you more *inbound* sample updates from their cloud.

You have to index all your drives in order for the files to appear in the search. You can open a terminal in the same directory on Windows 7 and 10 by ctrl+shift + right click as well :)

Each new macOS focuses on increasing the efficiency as well as adding new features, however, windows only focuses on adding new features on the expense of increased resource utilization, because why not make the resource sucking OS even more resource hungry. MS engineers should be given Celeron processor and 4gb ram to develop and test their unnecessary changes they make to their OS.

"Terminal illness" on Linux - good one :) But with TTYs and shells, transition to *NIX is actually even more binding. Bash has a fully-fledged scripting language, which compares to DOS like a handy toolbox to a pile of unfit Mesolithic rubble. Write one longer script and you'll feel like having a terminal aversion to returning to DOS. You''ll then most probably install MSYS or Cygwin and work with MinTTY+bash. Each time I must script something in DOS I feel like going to puke 1st.

hi, is it possible to have the text of the program shown too not just the symbol of it, as it is on w10, in the taskbar? i dislike this the most and prevents me from switching basically, if it is only in registry or something i dont mind just the some possibility would do cheers

I use windows 11 for almost a year and am very happy with it, just upgraded to 22H2 on unsupported hardware, i have all core i7 intels and 2 intel core i3 nucs and works on all of them.

Just upgraded my Acer Swift 3 314-43 Ryzen 5 notebook to Windows 11. It feels super smooth! Windows 11 (to me) felt like a cleaner and smoother version of Windows 10. Though, I'd advise you (yes, you) to make a backup/restore point before you decide to upgrade to Windows 11, just in case anything goes wrong. Overall, Windows 11 is a pleasant experience. Update: After 1 month of using Windows 11, my conclusion is that its amazing.

to repeat what many have already said in the comments, Linux (PopOS or Manjaro/KDE imo) duel booted with windows is defiantly worth the hassle of setting it up. after 4 years, I dont think i could go back even if I wanted to, I just cant justify the price or performance hit on my older (7th gen) hardware.

Not sure if anyone has asked already, but what mouse cursor are you using? It looks cool and I’d love to switch to it.

Hello Barry, I have a question. Can you tell me which Wallpaper are you using at 6:30 minutes in your video? Or maybe someone else knows? Thank you!

Sadly as MS stops support for pre -Windows 11 OS' , businesses will be forced to upgrade to 11+ requiring business employees who must sync with their employer computers to require upgrades as well. Businesses can stop this insanity by taking a stand against MS now before it is too late.

Windows 11 was the main reason i finally did the 100% switch to Linux, i have previously just been playing around with disros but kept using windows. Sure i will admit its not completely painless and i do miss some windows apps that doesn't work well in wine and well learn to use wine and some other things. but that pain compared to win 11 and having Microsoft breathing down my neck is much nicer. though i still have a Win (10) partition for Fusion 360 since i have to have it for work if only it worked well in Linux i could delete that partition for more storage but overall and 99% games i tried work through Steam Proton and got 100% running with just a few lines in the startup so far.

Every single thing you listed is so valid and what I have issues with. I'm liking Win 11 but it feels like it's in BETA

I know this is a bit late but, for a long time now, current and previous versions of windows, you can click in the "folder URL" bar at the top for the folder/file location and type cmd and hit enter. It will open the terminal in that folder.

As of late, Pro version also requires Microsoft account. 👏 Microsoft well done

You don't need a dedicated TPM chip if your motherboard is new enough; it's called either Platform Trust Technology (PTT) on Intel or fTPM on AMD. TPM is mostly used for BitLocker and Windows Hello; it is designed to act as a hardware root of trust. Also it appears Valorant uses it, perhaps to log the TPM serial number for HWID banning.

can you provide the link to your wallpaper ? its rocking. Thank you

the terminal on right click is interesting, but we already had that, you could just go into the nav bar and type "cmd" and it would open cmd prompt in that folder. I've not seen how to use that short-cut for cmd admin, but not a new feature

Based on what you have shown I will pass until Win 12. Most of Win 11 looks more like a big piece of crap then a rose. I have used MS since Dos and ever version in between and MS just becomes much worse with this version. To help with how it looks, it is how it works and what you can do with it that makes a good OS. MS has apparently forgot that with it's need for your information. Other companies make spy ware and adware, so why do I want MS to make more of the same. It seems like it has became the time to break MS up into little bitty pieces.

The terminal is a feature that has been there at least from windows xp, I remember using it when I was a kid, it is not a new feature, also, in plasma there is this useful integration when you use f4 that puts the terminal alongside the folder, if you enter another folder it also moves the one in the terminal with you, that one is not implemented in windows yet.

Did you know you could instantly open any directory in terminal by typing cmd in the address field? It used to work like that back in Windows 10, not sure about Windows 11 though.

Thanks, I learnt something about windows 11. The info grab reminds me of the book 1984.

7:48 This isn't even a feature from Windows 11. This is part of Windows Terminal and already existed in Windows 10

This video was great, and fully sold me on upgrading to Windows 7!

On windows 10, hold down shift first, then right click in a folder. the open command window here option will be there now.... however by default it opens powershell sooo yeah..

I'm about to build a pc for the first time and have been trying to decide whether I want Windows 11. I already spend time after every fresh Windows 10 install using Powershell to strip out the "crapps" (crap and apps) I don't want. Even if there's still a path to do the same in Windows 11, some of the UI changes you've detailed here - taskbar position, 2nd clock, right-click context menu, search - now make it a hard pass for me. Despite really wanting the unified terminal window, it's not worth the sacrifices I'd be making. Thank you!

Does anyone know what cursor pack he's using? It looks great!

Removing Microsoft spyware... so you went Linux? From what I've heared it's already happening. Windows 11 adoption is at best 9% apparently lol

About the Task Manager; that's odd, 'cause when I right-click start, it's there in the context menu. I don't usually use that, though; I'm a Ctrl+Shift+Esc user :)

Can you still not remove the XBox thing and does it still require like 5 windows of Edge open at all time on the background?

Pulled the plug and updated to 11. So far so good. The only Windows I never was fond of was Vista, most fond XP and W7.

~4:13: Strange, I have the clock on my second screen. However, I do wish I had access to other system tray stuff on the second screen, so I don't have to minimize the game played on the primary screen to access systray functions.

I mean opening terminals is specific directories has been a feature already in Windows 10 as all you do is go to where your files are and in the search bar and type cmd or powershell and it starts in that directory

Yeah Barry you should try Linux. It's actually pretty decent.

As I always say, never activate windows. Remember to use the command to set your "KMS server" and "activate" windows without paying. Windows is not worth ANY of your money.

I've got my tpm turned on on bios and everything, the pc also says that the PC can do 11. But I don't know if my Motherboard has this UEFi thing, would I be safe? R5 3600 on an msi Pro M2 motherboard

Thanks for this. I just got a new PC and it has Windows 11. I'll be checking your other videos.

4 months later of using Linux and I have to say I've never felt so free before, it's been a great learning experience and it's made windows easier as well. It's a stark reminder every time I have to use windows again just how much better things can be once you are given choice. And I mean isn't choice the quintessential aspect of PC gaming? picking your hardware and your budget. Why shouldn't I be able to pick my software too?

Microsoft clearly want people to not use windows. Might as well try Linux, some games work really well, and console emulators are better compared to windows if not the same in terms of performance.

I don't like the new update they did to the groove player . It doesn't work right on my desktops it can't find my music collection in the music library. It does play the videos in the video library But on the laptop I got a month ago the new player works. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

@BulletBarry Tech question : how can I turn off S mode *_WITHOUT_* going online, or using a live account (not even a temporary one) So far I've just been giving people Ameliorated to replace it with, but this question is coming up more and more, I notice.

Two words, Winaero Tweaker. It can fix a lot of the issues you're having and makes it seem more like Windows 10. Makes a world of a difference

Regarding hardware requirements, I post this here I posted elsewhere: Whilst the hardware requirements seem arbitrary they are there for a reason, they are setting the baseline for when Windows 10 sunsets in 2025. That means they need to force the manufacturers to support these features today to ensure that businesses lifecycles actually integrate the new hardware. It's also down to the underlying CPU tech such as the integration of Pluton, the standardising of HVCI (Intel's MBEC or AMD's GMET) and the TPM V2 is to prevent channel attacks and to protect biometric data that's impossible to change alongside protecting O365/Azure credentials on a host system. Windows 11 is becoming a on-line first OS with large parts of the OS becoming sandboxed/virtualised to reduce attack vectors. Yes early CPUs can run Win 11 but it comes at a performance penalty as they just don't have the required hardware support to mitigate the new security layers.

Also about that no offline account on windows 11 home, you can just disable ur internet and it will prompt you to make an offline account. Also the taskbar file dragging is coming soon as Microsoft announced Keep in mind that windows 11 isn’t fully out it’s just like a preview

Can't you open taskmanager by right-clicking the Start icon instead?

Windows 11 was the reason I decided to finally switch to Linux. Yeah, I still need a Windows VM to run OneNote, but so far I’m happy I made the switch.

A pro-Windows 11 article said that Windows 11 is "simple" and has a low system load. What he didn't say is the reason for this. To use Windows 11, you need to have a Microsoft account and give M$ permission to set up your computer how they want, including all the back doors they choose to install, and including disabling your machine. If anybody else did that, it would be called Ransomware. No, thanks! They tried thi once before. They thought that they had all business users corralled and at their mercy. When they started charging exorbitant fees, the business community dumped them overnight.

I was looking at the aes-128 documentation , it claims there’s code for it but I can’t find it anywhere. I’m wondering if anyBody had found it used the code. Does anybody know if Dr. Starling or Mr. Stepp still work there?

4:07 Ref Taskmanager: It's there when you right click the Windows icon, just not on the taskbar in general.

I'm 100% with you on the hover to open app thing, I do that all day long when I'm working. That one thing has put me off 11, let alone the other stuff.

Was looking at these issues and someone recommended Zorin to me. Tried it out yesterday and so far looks appealing and totally open-source and while Linux based it is very friendly towards Windows programs (.exe and .msi)