Is it now worth trying Windows 11?

[VK3DRB]

Hi.

I am mulling over whether to install Windows 11. Is it too early, or should I wait another year? I heard Windows 11 has been plagued by bugs, driver problems and compatibility issues. I need to look at the risk versus benefit of upgrading the OS. Last think I want to do it to have to buy some hardware because of "Bloody Bill Gates", or some software package ceases to work and uninstall/reinstall does not fix it. I use Altium, Fusion 360, Prus slicer, Brother P-Touch, Brother MFC-L2730DW, Code Composer, Arduino IDE, ESP32 Espressif-IDE, Cypress PSOC creator, Bitscope, Labview, Visual Studio, LTSpice and a host of other peripheral and software.

Do any of you use Windows 11 with any of the above and had driver issues or software issues? What performance or usability improvement is there over Windows 10? If it is another "Where Do You Want to Go To Today" O/S, I'll stick with Windows 10.

I have been burnt in the past by Microsoft's O/S update. In one case I have to throw an expensive Canon laser printer out when I went to Windows 7 (will never buy Canon again). Besides, Microsoft said Windows 10 will be the last O/S from them. We knew they were talking at the time. Hmm, why did they change their minds and update to 11 then?

- Dave

[IanB]

IMHO the only reason to update from Windows 10 to 11 is if Windows 11 has some feature or features you need that are not present in 10. If Windows 10 is working fine for you there would be no urgent reason to change.

Even if there are performance improvements, that would only matter if you are unsatisfied with the performance of what you have. And if you are unsatisfied with the performance of your current system, you would probably do better to upgrade the hardware in some way (more memory, SSD, etc.).

[james_s]

I wouldn't. From what little experience I've had with it, it's like Windows 10 only worse, and 10 is already virtually unusable.

[Fred27]

I use both daily - Windows 10 on my work-issued laptop and Windows 11 on a personal dev PC that I was using for work until I got their issued laptop. There's not a huge difference, but I prefer Windows 11.

I can't vouch for any of the programs you've mentioned, but have not had any compatability issues at all - even with potentially fussy apps like custom builds of Unreal Engine.

It sounds like you have no real reason to upgrade but I doubt you'll have any problems either.

[rdl]

I only use Windows for games so I still run Windows 7, though I can see Windows 10 probably will be necessary in the not too distant future. So I would say that if 10 is working for what you use it for, don't change.

[50ShadesOfDirt]

I feel like a broken record at times, but ...

Throw a virtualization program of your choice on your current machine, create a win11 vm, and test all of these software packages running on that newer os.

When all is good, then you can convert the PC itself to win11, and expect reasonably good results. With a good backup before you convert, you can fall right back to win10, if win11 somehow goes horribly wrong for you. Use free macrium backup software to get those disk image backups in place beforehand.

Win11 should net you improved performance, fixes, and possibly some new features that you care about ... all of which can be tested beforehand in the vm.

Hope this helps ...

[coromonadalix]

with a touch of "start is all back", win 11 is functional to a certain degree, have to do some tricks for the explorer with "explorer patcher" thing and contexts menus

[Helio_Centra]

I switched to Linux to avoid ever needing windows 11

[hubi]

I switched to Linux to avoid ever needing windows 11

I did the same thing to avoid windows 3.11.

[50ShadesOfDirt]

Not to make this into a windows vs linux thread ... as OP didn't ask for that, but ...

It remains fairly easy to pull out all the windows things you dislike (like the kitchen sink they throw in with everything else), and make the os your own. At that point, it is no different than linux, as you typically make linux your own, from whatever starting point distro you choose.

OpenShell makes it very easy for many to change the start menu in Win11 to what you want, getting many past the first hurdle to making the os their own. It should not require any weird patches, with the most current version (at least, that's my experience).

I hope the virtual vm suggestion works in helping OP to test all *his* constraints, and get to a good spot with the os ...

[james_s]

The issue I had when I had to use W10 at a former job is I'd get it set up to a reasonably tolerable state and then some update would come along and revert some of my changes. A couple of times it even "helpfully" uninstalled some program I had installed without asking saying it was incompatible, but then when I would reinstall it, it worked fine.

[coromonadalix]

For the settings, i try to use a custom made registry file

I push back all the settings i need,  just in case of M$oft  fuuck things up, and they love to do that  loll

you have some good forums on the web to help you ... tensforums, elevenforums    etc ...


I've seen a new fork of Zorin OS 16.1, began to try this one,   damn  it's impressive and well done,  tried other versions before

The sad thing, i'm always on a balance between Windows and or Other Os'es   windows is far from perfect, and others are getting more developed, and get more momentum, everything good in the old 10 was borked in this 11 ...

Win 11 with tons of tweaks is not good as win10 for me

[Karel]

Stick with the devil you know.
All OS'es suck. (some more than others)

[SiliconWizard]

I think you should wait.
Forever.

One interesting trend I'm witnessing is that an increasing number of people who were nothing like "geeks" are switching from Windows to Linux.
Of course there still is a lot of software and hardware that only runs on Windows (although for hardware it's getting rarer), but you can always run Windows in a VM if needed.

I'm personally still using Win (7) on my main workstation, and Linux on other boxes. My next workstation will probably not run Windows.

[aeberbach]

still run Windows 7

 

[jonovid]

don't do it  unless u like bugs .            wait for the pest exterminator

[james_s]

I still use Windows 7 on my main PC, it's far more stable and reliable than the later versions I've worked with. I shut off windows update years ago after they started pushing Win10 so hard and I've had zero problems since then, no new bugs, no constant changes and tweaks, it just works. It's a stable and mature OS, it's fantastic. I still have one machine with XP on it too that I use for my EPROM programmer and a few other old tools. It's connected to the internet when it's on although it isn't really suitable for browsing anymore. Stability seems to improve dramatically once they stop screwing with it.

[rdl]

My Windows 7 computer is connected to the living room TV. It's used for entertainment only. Movies and music streamed from a NAS, single player games, that sort of thing. The only internet usage is YouTube and a very select few other sites. For general computing and internet I use a different machine running Linux.

However, more and more games are requiring Windows 10 at a minimum and I'd really like to play Cyberpunk 2077, so I'm considering setting up a more modern system. I don't see any reason for Windows 11 at this time.

[SiliconWizard]

I think Cyberpunk 2077 is available for Linux on Steam. So...

[Zoli]

I think Cyberpunk 2077 is available for Linux on Steam. So...

For compatibility, check: https://www.protondb.com/

[rdl]

I dunno, Linux is not shown as a supported OS at GOG, and they're part of the company that made the game. Steam is not really an option for me anyway. When it comes to butt sniffing they're about as bad as Microsoft. I avoid them as much as possible.

Apologies for the derailment.

[james_s]

If you're playing vintage games, Dosbox runs just fine under Linux.

[SiliconWizard]

I'm not a gamer so that's not fully verified info, but I think people have managed to play Cyberpunk 2077 on Linux/Steam.

Now if you don't want to use Steam, I also fully understand that, but that's more or less the only option for playing a large variety of games on Linux. Pick your poison.

[nightfire]

With the recently made available Patch 22H2 Win 11 is interesting, as lots of bugs have been fixed.
At work (I am sysadmin in a software company), I have some systems running with it, mainly as testbed for our software devs.
For typical business use, we found no hickups so far. And I am aware that we will have to make the switch to Win11 somewhere in the next 2 years because of the MS lifecycle

For the typical home user, I do not see any big technical advantages other than the new fancy GUI- for the business user the whole security concept centered around TPM(2) is a new take on getting to a secure system.

[Karel]

... the whole security concept centered around TPM(2) is a new take on getting to a secure system.

For who exactly?