As a long time Mac user and Apple Ecosystem captive...I like Windows 11 (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

My Win10 PC was nearly six years old now, but still running like a champ due to NVMe M.2 SSD, but graphically it couldn't run my one game I play (Destiny 2) at 4K 60FPS at high settings. It has an i7-8700K CPU and GTX 1080 graphics card. It runs all the productivity and browsing stuff very well, but chokes on the game.

So I went to a reputable builder in downtown who basically makes their profit on the cost of the individual parts and essentially builds the PC for free for you. Actually I copy/pasted all their components into Amazon and Newegg and it would have cost me $50 more to buy all the parts, and then a couple of hours to build and install the OS.

Since Destiny isn't the most demanding game, I was able to spec out an i7-13700K with a 4070 TI card, 32GB 5600MHz RAM, 2TB Hynix P41 SSD, EK AIO water cooler, Asus Prime Z790 mobo with WiFi and BT, sweet case and LEDs for $2400. All reputable name brand makers and mid-to-upper-mid tier components. I can routinely hit 100FPS but I cap it at 60FPS to keep it as smooth and consistent as possible.

The one thing it came with: Windows 11. I was apprehensive as I'd never used it. A couple of weeks in, and I really like it. They've really polished up the UI and it handles font smoothing and display better than 10. To the point where I don't mind going from Mac to PC (font display quality is very important to my eyes). I have run into no show-stoppers and everything (program installation, customizing the UI and display) seems to be very well thought out. It was a little off-putting at first that they changed locations on many of the control panels and settings I go to, but it's easy enough just to type it in the Search bar in the dock once, it pulls it right up, and then when you go there it remembers it in the Recent part of the search.

No, I'm not switching back to Windows from Mac. But it basically makes the switching back and forth a non-issue for me, I don't feel like I'm going from one OS that I really like to another that I don't. They're both pretty equal now in looks and performance (equal, but different). The one and only thing I miss when on PC: iMessage.

Anyway, as someone who migrated to Mac in 2006 (had used it as in my younger days in college) I (lightly) trashtalked the older Windows XP I left behind for the superior (IMHO) Mac OS when they went with Intel CPUs for the first time. Well now I have to be fair and say "well done, Microsoft".

How good is 11? I updated my 2017 PC to it, and it's running well on that older hardware too!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Much of the improvement of Win 11 may be security features that are transparent to the general public.

I've mentioned on other threads here the cheapest quality used PCs that officially run Win11 are the Dell Optiplex 3060 desktops and the Dell Latitude 3500 laptop lines. I've bought used 3060s for as little as $68 on eBay. The cheapest 3500 was $42 but needed a new $35 motherboard. Both needed a disk but a 500GB NVMe disk goes for about $30 these days. I've been cleaning them up and giving them to friends who can't upgrade from Win 10 to Win 11 due to "old" hardware.

 

[Carlo_M]

I don't doubt that they've made significant strides on security, but I will say that the UI is so much smoother and visually pleasing than even 10 was (and I liked 10 fine). They haven't changed too much functionally so all the third party apps I use ported over to 11 without a hitch.

Yes my i7-8700 and associated chipset (Z370 I think) are all considered 8th generation Intel and run 11 very well. At first Windows Update told me "your computer doesn't meet the requirements for 11" but I googled the reasons why and it turns out I needed to enable Intel TPM (trusted platform module) in the BIOS. Ironically it didn't clear the warning from Windows Update, but when I downloaded and ran Microsoft's Windows 11 Checker, it said my computer was all set to upgrade to 11 for free.

So then I just downloaded the official Windows 11 updater from MS, and off it went.

Right now the computer feels just as fast and snappy as it did on 10, so if there's been any overhead added between 10 and 11, it's not apparent in my day to day tasks (Samsung 870 Pro is my upgraded NVMe M.2 drive so I'm sure that has something to do with it).

So the first thing to check with regards to your friends' old hardware is whether the fix is as easy as enabling TPM in the BIOS. Mine went from ineligible to...I'm typing on it running W11 right now

 

[DaveF]

I liked Windows 10, which I’ve spent some quality time with on my 2016 HTPC. I don’t know anything about Windows 11, but I expect it’s good. I think Windows is again a perfectly cromulent OS. Just a matter of trades against what you need or value against macOS.

I continue to find the overall Apple integrated system of higher value than going piecemeal with non-unified computer systems. But that’s me.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Win 10 reaches EOL in 2025 so that's the main impetus to upgrade to Win 11. Dave, you could update your HTPC by buying an Optiplex 3060/5060/7060 mini tower used off eBay in the $200 range. They will be stripped coming from former corporate owners so expect to buy memory and an NVMe SSD. They will come with a Win 10 Pro license.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I bought a new desktop PC during Dell's Black Friday sale last fall, and it came with Windows 11 -- my first experience with that OS, as my old desktop, laptop and wife's PC all run Windows 10. I didn't really notice the font display improvement, @Carlo_M , but that's not something I really pay attention to. For the most part, Win11 works like Win10 did for me. I did run into a few issues, though:

1. The open source monitor calibration software I use with my Spyder Elite calibration tool -- DisplayCal -- would not install properly. I still have not been able to resolve this.

2. Photoshop Elements 12 would not install. I ended up upgrading to Elements 2023.

3. I had major issues installing my Canon i860 photo printer. My Brother laser printer installed automatically. I finally was able to manually install the Canon printer.

4. The photo slideshow feature in File Explorer is gone in Win11. I used that a lot in Win10.

5. I recently tried to burn a data CD on my external BD writer, but it kept telling me the disc needs to be formatted, yet there is no option to format the blank disc. I don't do this very often, and have not had time to troubleshoot the issue yet.

Everything else works fine under Win11. I have not felt the need to upgrade my laptop to the new OS, even though it's capable of running Win11. My general feelings on OS upgrades is "if it isn't broke, don't fix it". If I am still using this laptop when Win10 reaches EOL, I may try it then. I usually just upgrade operating systems when I get a new PC, though.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Canon printers are great - except for maintaining drivers and utilities. Mine was bought during Win 7 and it took a couple of years for the software support to catch up with Win 10. Upgrading to Win 11 didn't cause problems - the Win 10 versions kept on working.

 

[Carlo_M]

Bummer to hear those issues, Scott. Admittedly I don't have much connected to my computer (no more printer/scanner/optical drive, etc in my advancing age lol) so I didn't encounter those driver issues. I'm fortunate in that my workplace provides me licenses to Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office 365 so those programs have, to the extent I've tested, all seem to work on 11. The few small dev programs I use (like VLC player) work on 11 as well.

With regards to the font smoothing improvements, it's not something that (if you aren't a font geek like me) most people will notice. Also not sure what your monitor resolution is, but my 27" LG monitor is 4K and the pixel density really makes the fonts look improved in comparison to 10 (which handled them much better than Windows 7 did). The font display improvement from 10 to 11 wasn't as drastic as the jump from 7 to 10 was.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Win 11 includes a "camera" app. Recently MS has improved the app to scan bar codes and QR codes.

Windows 11 Is Getting a Built-In QR Code Scanner

The included camera application on Windows can capture photos and video, but not much more than that. Thankfully, Microsoft is starting to pack in new features for people using Windows 11.

www.howtogeek.com

I was amazed. I went into the kitchen and grabbed a loaf of Franz bread with a QR code on the bag. I held it up in front of my laptop and it immediately displayed a clickable URL for Franz bakeries website.

 

[Clinton McClure]

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Obviously smartphones can do this, but until recently Win machines would require an aftermarket app to do this. I did some searching and IIUC MacOS still requires an aftermarket app to scan QR codes.