Is Windows 11 A Thing

I didn't like the new centered taskbar or the new Start menu when I installed the first Windows 11 beta back in June. But after a few weeks of resisting the temptation to realign it back to the lower-left corner, it no longer bothers me. The centered taskbar and the redesigned Start menu sans Live Tiles that emphasizes pinned apps and recommended apps and files is the most notable UI/UX change to Windows 11 and it will take some getting used to. Even as a longtime macOS user who's used to a centered dock of app icons, the centered taskbar threw me off.

Maybe it's because the System Tray area is in such close proximity to apps in the taskbar; the entire taskbar feels unbalanced. Open a lot of apps and the apps get pushed to the left until there's no room and things feel really cramped. Not everyone will make use of these features, and thus, appreciate them.

But if you do, they're going to make your life just a little easier. Some of the changes are baffling, but relatively minor complaints that will either be addressed by third-party software or hopefully will be added in by Microsoft in future versions. Few people are gonna turn down free unless they've got some special app or workflow that doesn't work with Windows 11. Windows 11, unfortunately, ditches a couple of its best tablet- and touch-friendly features. Most importantly, you can no longer swipe in from the left to open the task-switching view, a gesture I use all the time on my Surface Go tablet. You can no longer swipe down from the top to close an app, either.

This omission is less of a big deal because you can still hit the X in the window's upper right corner as you'd do in desktop mode. Again, though, for a handheld device, the down-swipe is more direct and requires less dexterity. There are, however, new three-finger swipe gestures to show the Task View and to minimize and app on the desktop. And you can, of course, use the Task View button in the Taskbar, but that's not as immediate as a swipe of the thumb. I'd argue that switching tasks is more important to tablet users than accessing Widgets, the new result of that gesture, too. Pinned app buttons (they're larger than icons but smaller than Windows 10's tiles) are at the top of its panel.

Recent and frequent apps and documents are in a section below them. The Start menu's new mini-tiles are still good for touch input, but you lose info that live tiles offer, annoying as those could sometimes be. Another quibble I have with the new Start menu is that it's harder to get to the All Apps view than in Windows 10.

With that version of Windows, you can see all installed apps as soon as you open the Start menu; they're in a list on the left while tiles for your pinned apps are on the right. If you right-click on the taskbar, you now see just one option that lets you enter the taskbar settings, instead of the plethora of options in previous versions of Windows. However, this means you cannot reposition the taskbar to either side or the top of your screen anymore with Windows 11, which is kind of a bummer. The Start button follows all the new design fundamentals of Windows 11 with rounded corners, colourful icons, pinned apps, and a huge search bar. The search button feels more useful and responsive compared to Windows 10's version.

If you hover over the icon, it will show you your most recent searches, which could save you some time. Minor complaints aside, we like to see Microsoft giving its marquee software some attention. For the last few years, the company has focused more on its Azure cloud computing services—justifiably given that business's profitability.

Windows 11 brings slick new looks, useful new tools, updated default apps, extra capabilities, and performance advances. Perhaps that's enough to lure away some Chrome OS users or Mac users. Regardless, it's still early days for the desktop OS that's used on 1.3 billion PCs, so we look forward to Microsoft fine-tuning and perfecting Windows 11's design in future updates. As with Windows 10, you can let the company know what you'd like to see added to the software, and you may be surprised at how often it listens. Anyone can sign up for preview builds of the OS through the Windows Insider Program. It lets you experience new features before they're available for general release.

The next major update, 22H2 is expected to add Start menu options along with some redesigned included apps like Notepad and Photos. For new users, Windows 11 will seem like a good option with the new design. You get rounded corners, a departure from the sharp edges we've seen in Windows for a long time. The Start Menu is now cleaner, featuring pinned apps and a recommended tab that shows you files based on your recent usage.

The desktop more or less stays the same, but the right-click menu gets a simplified look, with the most common options like cut, copy, paste, and rename, at the top in a grid. Perhaps the most important thing to know about the release of Windows 11 is that we should expect it to change significantly over the next few years. I've been using beta versions of Windows 11 for a month in the lead-up to writing this review, and it seems like every few days there's a minor new feature or redesigned app to check out. We may not see that feature fully realized in Windows until next year. Apart from this, Windows 11 also offers what Microsoft calls the Desktops feature that gives the user the ability to set up and manage multiple iterations of your desktop. It's a simple and easy feature to use, which when gotten used greatly improves ease of use.

This can be accessed by going to this new icon that all Windows users of the past will instantly notice on their home screens. This Task View button sits alongside the Start button and looks like contrasting windows over one another. Hover your pointer over it, and you'll see a small preview of all the desktops you have open, as well as the option to set up a new one. Apparently, a lot of people don't know how to snap windows to one half or quarter of their desktop just by dragging them to the top, sides, and corners.

In Windows 11, there's a new feature called Snap Assist that makes this windows management easier. Hover over a window's maximize button and you'll see options to snap it to different areas of your desktop. It's a nice feature for beginners but does nothing for veteran Windows users like myself. File Explorer is a good example of Windows 11's new look, particularly its updated left panel controls and folder icons.

Note the simplified ribbon along the top, which is far less busy and distracting than the previous File Explorer's. The New button at the top left works for new folders or documents supported by your apps, and the same viewing options for files are available. The overflow menu offers file compression, selection, and Properties options, as well as the old Folder Options dialog. The right-click context menus, which have grown longer and longer over the years, get shorter, smarter, and clearer in Windows 11.

Is Windows 11 Free For Everyone Anyone with one of the newer chips should have no trouble installing Windows 11 via Windows Update. Microsoft made a downloadable ISO disk image file for the beta Insider version available for installing Windows 11, allowing in-place upgrades or clean installations on a PC or in a virtual machine. A similar installation option is now available for the release version of Windows 11 via the Microsoft's Download Windows 11 page. The second feature here is DirectStorage that promises to greatly enhance the gaming experience by cutting downloading times of games.

This appears to be an extension of the attempts being made by Microsoft with the Xbox Series X/S consoles where it has used clever tricks to greatly improve load times of games. However, do note that this feature will only be available on select games that support DirectStorage API on a PC with an NVMe SSD and a GPU that supports DirectX12 Ultimate. Windows 11 is a free upgrade, but the minimum system requirements are quite a bit higher than ever before.

Microsoft calls Windows 11 the most secure Windows yet, and that tag comes at the cost of backward compatibility. Trusted Platform Module 2.0, aka TPM 2.0, is one of those requirements. There are ways to manually install Windows 11 on incompatible systems, but those include giving up on official future updates via Windows Update and/or modifying the Windows 11 ISO file to remove security checks. Widgets are also a part of Windows 11 but this time around, they make sense on the new operating system. A button on the taskbar will reveal a widgets tab that you can customise with feeds for the weather, news, calendar and stocks.

My early observation is that Windows 11's Widgets tries to deliver the experience users get on a smartphone or tablet. This is refreshing, but at the same time, a lot depends on how developers and content creators take advantage of live-updating widgets. In Windows 11, the Settings app has been given a 360-degree change. Not only is the settings app visually appealing but navigating different sections has also been simplified.

The settings menu shows your PC at the top, with info on name and model, alongside the status on Windows update and if you are signed in to OneDrive. The good thing about the new layout is that each category is listed with its name and the subcategories that can be found within it. I can easily jump into what I am looking for, for example, Windows 11's new personalisation page. It gives access to different Windows themes — a total of six and some of the darker themes automatically turned on dark mode. Interestingly, the touch keyboard now also supports themes, and there are over 13 themes to choose from. Visually, the biggest changes you'll notice can be found along the taskbar.

Microsoft has centered the app icons here, cleaned up the tray area, and included a new Start button and menu. On the touchscreen, you can slide from the left on the desktop to have widgets appear. Windows 11 features a new version of the Microsoft Store, with a new interface and a broader selection of apps. This new store is meant to have an easier to use and better-curated digital storefront. It should also be faster, "We rebuilt for speed", said Panos Panay during the Windows 11 announcement.

So far our experience of it is much the same as the rest of Windows 11... But it's also still mostly filled with apps you'd likely download direct from your browser, or wouldn't want to touch at all. After the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has, for the first time, completely revamped the Settings app. It's built from scratch, following a mobile-driven design that plays well with both desktops and tablets. The Settings page has been neatly categorized with menus and sub-menus, along with a static menu pane at the left.

You also have breadcrumbs for easy navigation and expandable settings options for improved clarity. Of all the new Windows 11 features, the new launcher-style floating Start Menu is the most distinctive part of Microsoft's next-gen desktop OS. Unlike the traditional Start Menu, the new Start — as Microsoft is calling it — sits right at the center of the taskbar. It has a flyout design with pinned and recommended apps accompanying each other. It quickly offers me access to documents, photos, and apps I have recently installed.

For long-time Windows users, this update may cause a few annoyances. The start button resides in the center by default, although you can move it back to the left. Also, the right-click menu hides away some menu options, like some app-specific functions you get with apps like Winrar, or some other Windows options like Troubleshoot compatibility. Gone is the old ribbon interface that was introduced with Windows 8, and replaced with a modern "header" menu and new icons. The context menu has been completely redesigned and they look less cluttered than the old context menus. A single row of icons provides access to features like cut, paste, copy, rename, share, and delete, while there's a "new" button for creating a new folder or file.

Windows 11 — the first major update to Microsoft's desktop operating system in six years — will be available this holiday season as a free download for existing Windows 10 PC owners. The company has revealed all the new features, UI changes and updates the operating system will bring to the existing and new Windows-based laptops and desktops. To be able to run Windows 11 or update to Windows 11, the system must meet the minimum system requirements. As before, Microsoft doesn't recommend installing Windows 11 on a device that doesn't meet the system requirements — though you can still do so. One thing to keep in mind is you might not get updates on a PC with an unsupported processor. When Microsoft first released Windows 11 on October 4th, the company said it expected it would offer the upgrade to all eligible devices by mid-2022.

Widgets is the other strange new icon you'll find lurking in the Taskbar. Sprouting from a transparent pane on the left-hand side of the screen, widgets are currently nothing more than weather forecasts, sports results, stock tickers and news headlines delivered by Microsoft. These may look similar to the 'gadgets' found in Vista and Windows 7, but those were individual elements that could be placed anywhere on the screen, rather than being locked to a specific pane. If third-party APIs are made available, these could become more useful – maybe even as a means of putting company news or business data under employees' noses. In their current state, however, we'd be more tempted to simply switch them off via the Taskbar settings menu.

If your Windows 10 PCs are fit for upgrade, or you're investing in new Windows 11 systems, the most immediate changes you'll notice are on the desktop. The Taskbar literally takes centre stage, with icons now centred instead of sprouting from their traditional position on the left. It's not imperative that you upgrade your system to Windows in the next couple of weeks, or even months. For many people, that's about the time to upgrade to a newer device, one that will come with Windows 11 already installed. When you set up a new desktop, it's effectively just a cosmetic difference. You can give a different name to each desktop, but they all access the same files on your PC and pull from the same Microsoft account.

In my testing, I also found that desktop icons are shared across desktops, so if you delete your shortcut to Microsoft Edge from one desktop, it's gone from all desktops. However, apps and windows you have open in one desktop aren't duplicated in other desktops, and each desktop can also have its own custom cosmetics like wallpaper and theme. If the Microsoft Surface family of products isn't your style though, other brands like Dell, Asus and HP have all released pages online that specify what devices are Windows 11 ready. Note that many won't come with the new operating system installed, but as they all meet the minimum system requirements, you can simply buy the laptop or 2-in-1 as normal and then update it yourself.

The short answer is no, Microsoft isn't going to force anyone to upgrade to Windows 11. Starting with Windows 10 version 1903, the Redmond firm stopped forcing people to install feature updates. This came after a disastrous Windows 10 version 1809 that actually deleted some users' files.

Windows 11 has a new Widget panel, which shows you tiles for news, weather, stock quotes, sports scores, and more. It's not entirely new since the News and Interests Taskbar popup that arrived in Windows 10 recently is exceedingly similar. I've gotten used to it being in the Taskbar in Windows 10, and thankfully a Windows Insider preview build shows that Microsoft is considering bringing back this useful button.

To see the same info in Windows 11, you have to click on the Widgets icon in the Taskbar. In addition to Microsoft-produced first-party tiles, third-party developers can offer content through Windows 11's widgets, too. Touch screen users can easily swipe in from the left to open them and you can full-screen the widget panel if you want a bigger view. Much has been made over the system requirements for Windows 11, but they're very low—1GHz CPU, 4GB RAM, and 64GB storage. A 64-bit processor will be required; there's no longer a 32-bit version of the OS.

You'll also need a computer with a TPM security chip and Secure Boot capability. Those are less of a problem than the internet is making them out to be, as they've been standard on most PCs for the last six or so years. The real limiter is the CPU model, which needs to be from about the last four years. Microsoft recently rereleased the tool that assesses your PC's ability to run Windows 11, the PC Health Check app, and the company announced that more PCs will be able to upgrade to it. Microsoft has finally updated the Windows Ink Workspace, now called the "Pen menu" that gives you quick access to pinned apps that are designed with inking in mind. What's great is that it's finally customizable, so you can put any app of your choice in there.