Windows 11: First Impressions

 I got a new PC two days ago. It runs Windows 11. My old PC ran Windows 10, and my work PC runs Windows 10. So what do I think about Windows 11?

First, the summary (tl;dr)

I was not disappointed; in fact, I've been pleased with Windows 11. The transition from Windows 10 was so smooth that it was practically seamless. There's been no loss in productivity, and if anything, there's been a small but significant gain in productivity.

Giving away the ending: my favorite part of Windows 11 is Linux! See the very end of this article.

Doing my homework

I'm not an early adopter. I was comfortable with Windows 10, I didn't see a reason to change, and I didn't have hardware with enough oomph to support Windows 11 anyway.

Then the hard disk died on my five-year-old Toshiba. The rest of the PC was in perfectly good shape, but it was five years old. That's a long time in computer years. Time to update everything.

So, knowing that the purchase was imminent, I went to the Web to read up on Windows 11. I read the Windows evangelists' breathless praise. I read the industry professionals' dispassionate analyses. And I read the critics' reviews. As a result, I knew what to expect.

Now, the details

This is what you really came for, right?

This is all subjective and non-quantitative, by the way. If you want a quantitative analysis, go to the web. If you want an objective review of Windows 11, dream on. There ain't no such thing. All evaluations of Windows 11 are subjective.

And there are no pictures, sorry. It's just words.

Look and feel (or "What about the 'Mac-like appearance' we were promised?")

The Windows 11 desktop and user interface do not look radically different from Windows 10. Even the most conservative, old-fashioned Windows users will feel instantly comfortable with Windows 11. The edges are rounded and the colors and tones are softer, which makes it, if not "Mac-like", then more modern. Updated. Contemporary.

The icons are also modern contemporary. Gone are the skeuomorphs — in Windows 11, all icons are 2D, stylized, usually two colors and simple symbols, instead of the multidimensional, multicolored, miniature masterpieces of yesteryear. Okay, I admit it, I liked the old-style icons better. But I can live with it.

Remember Windows XP? It was great for productivity, because it got out of the way of what you were working on, and it stayed out of the way. Subsequent Windows versions, and associated products like Office and Explorer, felt like they screamed "MICROSOFT!!!!!" at you all the time.

It may still be true of the Office suite. But Windows 11 is back to the XP paradigm of being unobtrusive, of letting you do your work, getting out of the way, and staying out of the way.

The Start menu

The biggest change is that the Start menu and the icons on the taskbar are centered on the bottom of the desktop. This is part of the "Mac-like" paradigm. Conservative users can put the Start menu and taskbar back on the left, if they want. But if  you leave it centered for a day or two, it will grow on you. Besides, it's no big deal. I have a Windows 10 PC and a Windows 11 PC side by side, and my brain doesn't freak out switching from one to the other. 

The Start menu tiles are gone. As many reviewers observed, "nobody used them anyway." Instead, the Start menu gives you a Search bar, a "Pinned" section, a "Recommended" section, and two small buttons labeled "All apps" and "More". 

• The Search bar will search for literally anything: a filename on your computer, an installed program or app, a program or app that can be installed from the Microsoft Store, or anything on the Internet. In true Microsoft style, it's so thorough that it's almost too helpful.
• The "Pinned" section starts with a collection of applications that Microsoft thinks will interest you. It adds other applications as you install them. You can add and remove applications in this section, and you should do so immediately, keeping only your most used or most important applications. You can also right-click to move applications to the top of the list or pin them to the taskbar.
• Do you miss that alphabetical program listing that was the main part of the Windows 10 Start menu? Click on the "All apps" button to the right of the "Pinned" heading. There you go.
• The "Recommended" section is like the "Recently Used" menus in previous versions of Windows, but now it can include both applications and files. That's a nice touch. As with the "Pinned" section, you can right-click to pin or remove items.
• The "More" button expands the "Recommended" list to include older selections and a bunch of totally useless stuff that Windows adds to the list during installations and updates.

Right-clicking the Start button gives you the same useful system-management menu as in Windows 10.

Microsoft's insistence on Microsoft products

Like every other company in the world, Microsoft exists to make money. And like every other company, they want to upsell you. 

Windows 11 is very insistent on pushing Microsoft applications on you. They got into trouble for this with past editions of Windows, and they're not-so-subtly trying to do it again.

Along with shilling Microsoft products, Windows 11 is very insistent on upselling you to the paid versions of their free-to-start products. It's the drug pusher business model: "First one's free."

The web browser: Edge

Windows 11 comes with the Microsoft Edge web browser. You may want to install your preferred browser, be it Firefox or Google Chrome. Your browsing habits are money in the pocket of the company whose browser you use, and Microsoft doesn't want to let go of that money. Windows 11 makes it more difficult than in previous versions to switch your default browser from Edge to the preferred browser, because, of course, they don't want you to switch. But you can still do it.

However, this time, technology may convince you to stay with Edge anyway. Several head-to-head comparisons put Edge on a par with, or slightly better than, the market leader (65% market share), Google Chrome in every way. My experience with Edge has been good so far. It is very fast, and it follows Windows 11's lead in being unobtrusive. It gets the job done, and stays out of your way.

Cloud storage: OneDrive

Microsoft's cloud storage solution, OneDrive, gives you 5 GB of free storage. Once you hit 5 GB, OneDrive starts demanding money from you. Like an insistent salesman, the only way to get OneDrive to leave you alone is to stop using it. You have to go into the OneDrive settings and select "Unlink your PC". And again, like an insistent salesman, OneDrive will threaten you with dire consequences if you Unlink, and it will immediately offer to sign you up again after you Unlink.

Other options, such as Dropbox, work just as well as OneDrive. I'm just saying.

The Office Suite

I think that the revenue from MS Office sales and subscriptions pays the salaries of thousands of Microsoft employees. Windows 11 starts you with a free trial, and then pushes you into an array of paid subscriptions, or into paid, cloud-based Office 365 as an alternative.

MS Office is the default office suite for the entire world. You may think you cannot live without it. But there are two free alternatives, LibreOffice and OpenOffice. From a technical and practical standpoint, LO and OO are identical, and both are almost 100 percent compatible with MS Office. In fact, they can read and write MS Office files.

I prefer LO for various reasons, but either one will work for you. I suggest you start with LO or OO, and don't buy MS Office until you find that you need it.

Worthless widgets

Windows 11 includes widgets, tiny apps that clutter your PC and your screen. I don't have any use for them at all. Your mileage may vary.

Cellphone connection

Windows 11 is supposed to connect seamlessly and wirelessly to your iPhone or Android cellphone. I'll just say that the Android connection doesn't work yet, and leave it at that.

However, I'll bet I can still connect my PC to my phone via a USB cable.

Multimedia, or "Can it run Netflix?"

The short and sweet answer is yes. In fact, all of your favorite streaming services are now available as apps in the Microsoft Store. You don't need to open a browser to run Spotify, Netflix, Prime Video, DisneyPlus, or any of a host of streaming services.

Windows 11 also casts to your large-screen TV using either Google Chromecast or Amazon FireTV.

When it comes to multimedia, your hardware will be the limiting factor, not your software.

Virus protection: McAfee? Why???

The Windows 11 on my new PC came with McAfee bundled as the antivirus and network security application. It's a free one-year subscription. I left it there until it got obnoxious (it took less than a day), and then I got rid of it.

I know I've badmouthed Microsoft for pushing their products over competing products, but Windows 11 very quietly ships with an excellent antivirus and network security system. In Windows 10 it was called "Defender"; in Windows 11 it's called "Windows Security".  It doesn't cost anything extra. It's free inside every box of corn flakes. And it really is excellent.

I don't understand why someone felt the need to bundle McAfee with Windows 11. Was it Dell, or was it MS? I don't care. As soon as I uninstalled McAfee, Windows Security automatically stepped in and took over the security duties.

Linux!

If Microsoft sends Windows 11 users a questionnaire, and asks what users' favorite Windows 11 feature is, I'm going to say, "Linux!"

Microsoft has fully embraced Linux. They have been working for years on their Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), a complex project that lets Linux run as if it were the native operating system (OS), or a co-existing OS, on Windows machines. 

Until now, if you wanted near-native Linux performance on a Windows machine, you had to install a virtual-machine engine, such as VMWare or VirtualBox, and create a Linux virtual machine inside that engine. It works great, nobody's complaining, but it can take a lot of work to get the Linux VM set up properly and interacting happily with Windows.

With Windows 11, Microsoft has put a VM engine called Hyper-V into the OS, and WSL runs smoothly and seamlessly on Hyper-V. Microsoft has been testing a graphical version of WSL for a few years now, and that is the version of WSL running inside Windows 11. With WSLg (g for graphical), you can start your favorite Linux distro, and then run any Linux graphical application on the Windows desktop.

In fact, Linux applications will appear in, and run directly from, the Start menu's "Recommended" section.

Here's a really good YouTube video that shows you how to set up WSL on Windows 11 and how easy it is to use.

Summary (wait, didn't I already do this at the top?)

I was not disappointed; in fact, I've been pleased with Windows 11. The transition from Windows 10 was so smooth that it was practically seamless. There's been no loss in productivity, and if anything, there's been a small but significant gain in productivity.

And it's still true, my favorite part of Windows 11 is Linux.