Windows 11, version 25H2 - experience?

It's easy enough to uninstall bloatware. I didn't say it wasn't a pain in the rear. All the subscription apps like MS Office 365 can be replaced with freeware like OpenOffice. And the prices are dirt cheap to get some inexpensive laptops.

I had a Boeing exec ask me once what kind of computer should he buy. It was Christmas time, so there were lots of good sales going on. He said all he does with a computer at home is check his mail and write an occasional letter. I started to recommend an "eMachine". Then he mentioned his son likes to play online games. My recommendation just changed from the cheapest computer on the market to the most expensive he could buy.

If your computer works great with Win 7, go for it. The only caveat I'd mention is you're probably open to some security issues that could cause havoc in your life. Another alternative would be to go with something like Linux Mint and OpenOffice. They'll be up to date with security fixes and won't slow your computer down.

Chris
 
Obo said:
As for your power up issue, check your bios/uefi settings to see if there's a power on setting.
Click to expand...

I finally got around to looking at that, and bingo! There is indeed a BIOS setting on my system (Dell OptiPlex 7040) that can automatically power the system up at a user-specified time. It was enabled (by default, I think, since I don't recall having ever set it or even knowing the setting existed) but is now turned off. So, it appears to be a Dell thing and not a Windows thing.

I'll shut down as usual today and leave the power strip turned on, then check tomorrow to see whether that BIOS change made the expected difference.
 
ibike2havefun said:
I'll shut down as usual today and leave the power strip turned on, then check tomorrow to see whether that BIOS change made the expected difference.
Click to expand...

Yup, that was it. Now to decide whether I want the thing to be up and running each morning when I get up, or whether I just want to push the button myself and wait the few minutes required for it to come back to life. Decisions decisions... I do have a couple of scheduled backup tasks that run early each morning if the machine is powered on but they are also set to run as soon as possible after a missed schedule so it's not like I'd really be missing anything by deferring power-on until I actually do it.

Then again, it's such a PITA to have to push that Power button then sit patiently for 30 seconds or a minute. NOT.
 
Ah Microsoft, giving you what the believe you need, rather than what you want.....

I have "adopted" Win11, but have often wished I had not.

Decided to stick with it despite some of the annoying behaviours, such as the pop up menu if you accidentally put your cursor near the bottom left of your desktop.... can I switch it off, well probably, if I could be bothered. Turned off some annoying functions....

Back in 2018 I was working in support for erm, an organisation that had two systems on every desk, one for general work and another for other "stuff"...
When I started and sat down on day one at my desk and fired up the desktops, they were both running........ Vista.

Duh, I had to unlearn stuff to be able to work.....

About three months in, the senior manager, who I had worked for before on another contract, asked me to look after a team of four including me, for the Win10 beta rollout.....

What fun.

After another 6 months I got a call from another agency having had a chat "upstairs" with another manager, who asked if I wanted to be involved in the global roullout.....
By the time the agency called me, it had become a team of five, but not for the rollout, rather the "go and fix all the problems with the rollout"

Nine months seven countries and many, many new computers and laptops were sorted out.....

One of my best contracts but worst for headaches on site.....

Retired now so not really needing to use all the bells and whistles and managing to keep my head down below the parapet of "Dad, papa, grandpa, or Les (all me) knows about computers"....

Win11.... what next?

Back to pen and paper and a dumb mobile....
 
MidLife said:
Is there a WIN emulator under Linux for running Win Apps?
Click to expand...

There are a few options to choose:
WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator)
Bottles with WINE
WinHQ

Virtualization using:
VirtualBox
VMWare
KVM / QEMU
(etc)

For my use, WINE doesn't meet my needs, but it works fine for many folks. Think of WINE as a tool to allow Win apps to run "natively" (for lack of a better term) on Linux. This means, not all Win apps will run under WINE.

Personally, I use VirtualBox (VBox for short). It's easy to use. Microsoft and Oracle (owns VBox) even have "ready to run" Windows images that you simply download and fire up and running Windows on your Linux machine. (no custom installation required into the VM).

We do have a laptop that only has Win10 on it, so it's dedicated for that reason. However, we do have two Linux machines with VBox running Win11 for analysis purposes.

Virtualization programs allow Windows (and other operating systems) to run as if they are the only operating system on the system running Linux (etc), within a window (or full screen, if you want).
 
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dwalby said:
the commonly mentioned one is Wine. It runs some things, but there's a lot that it won't run.
Click to expand...

No no no. Wine is superb at running things, I particularly like Red Merlot from Chile..... but true, it won't run my motorcycle.... sorry, just thought the thread was getting too technical for an ex IT hater :roflmao:
 
Firstpeke said:
Ah Microsoft, giving you what the believe you need, rather than what you want.....

I have "adopted" Win11, but have often wished I had not.

Decided to stick with it despite some of the annoying behaviours, such as the pop up menu if you accidentally put your cursor near the bottom left of your desktop.... can I switch it off, well probably, if I could be bothered. Turned off some annoying functions....

Back in 2018 I was working in support for erm, an organisation that had two systems on every desk, one for general work and another for other "stuff"...
When I started and sat down on day one at my desk and fired up the desktops, they were both running........ Vista.

Duh, I had to unlearn stuff to be able to work.....

About three months in, the senior manager, who I had worked for before on another contract, asked me to look after a team of four including me, for the Win10 beta rollout.....

What fun.

After another 6 months I got a call from another agency having had a chat "upstairs" with another manager, who asked if I wanted to be involved in the global roullout.....
By the time the agency called me, it had become a team of five, but not for the rollout, rather the "go and fix all the problems with the rollout"

Nine months seven countries and many, many new computers and laptops were sorted out.....

One of my best contracts but worst for headaches on site.....

Retired now so not really needing to use all the bells and whistles and managing to keep my head down below the parapet of "Dad, papa, grandpa, or Les (all me) knows about computers"....

Win11.... what next?

Back to pen and paper and a dumb mobile....
Click to expand...
My situation was similar, but different. The large airplane manufacturer I worked for always lagged behind on the latest OS and any updates for the same reason many here have mentioned. For home users, a bug in an update to the OS was an inconvenience. To the company, it could be catastrophic.

I volunteered to go to a meeting on some new database that Dell was implementing in the company. When I got there, I found out it wasn't just a database. It was to develop the process on how to swap out every desktop computer and laptop in the company. The idea was that the user would leave his old computer at his desk at the end of the day and come in the next morning to find a brand new computer with all his software and data installed. They wouldn't miss a beat. I was directly responsible for swapping out 30,000 computers in the Engineering side of the company, and I don't know how many on the Operations side. 100K? The Operations side had their own people to guide the swapout, but no one else understood what had to happen. I was like the right person in the right place at the right time. I understood the technology aspects of both Win95 and Win2K as well as the process we developed. I could not only talk to the people on the technology involved, but explain it to about a hundred other people in my job that didn't have a clue of what was happening. So I quickly became the person guiding the entire swap of all the desktop computers in BCA.

The first morning had some hiccups. We were going from Win95 to Win2000. One of the Engineering groups decided they knew better than I did and didn't bother updating and testing their home-grown applications. That entire engineering group...about 500 engineers...were dead in the water that day as those homegrown but essential applications were updated to run on the new OS.

But the problem wasn't on Microsoft's end. It was in the people who didn't take the steps to upgrade their homegrown applications. After that debacle, things went smoothly over the next several months.


Now...I think of myself as a Luddite. Sure I can do the techy things. But I just want it to work. :)

Chris
 
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Flexit said:
No no no. Wine is superb at running things, I particularly like Red Merlot from Chile..... but true, it won't run my motorcycle.... sorry, just thought the thread was getting too technical for an ex IT hater :roflmao:
Click to expand...

OK, so just to make it more annoyingly technical, what you're referring to is "wine" all lower case, the linux app is "Wine". :rofl1:
 
dwalby said:
OK, so just to make it more annoyingly technical, what you're referring to is "wine" all lower case, the linux app is "Wine". :rofl1:
Click to expand...
That's technical? Maybe I'm not a Luddite after all. :unsure:

Daboo said:
Now...I think of myself as a Luddite. Sure I can do the techy things. But I just want it to work.
Click to expand...
Okay...I have a bit of a rant.

A short bit of history. I got my first "smartphone" back in about 2016. I bought a Note 4. I kept it till it finally died and no amount of CPR would resuscitate it. I replaced it with a Note 9. Except for when the hardware started dying on the Note 4, I've had no issues with either phone.

The rest of the family (wife, daughters and 98 yr old FIL) have iPhones. They swear by how easy they are to operate. Yet my wife has spent at least 8 hours trying to get her Dad's iPhone to work properly. She's called Verizon and they did their part. Apple is trying to get it to work and its gotten to the point that she's made an appointment two days out to get it "fixed" at the Apple store. No one online has been able to help her. In order to make an appointment, she had to log in to her Apple account. Huh? :confused: Why can't she just pick a date and time on the store's appointment calendar? Part of the issue with the iphone from what I understand, is that she needs to get into her Dad's Apple account...and it is locked for 12 days. You're kidding me?!?!? :redface: Why almost two weeks? How about 24-48 hours? And yet the Apple iPhone is supposed to be so simple to use.

I've never had to call Samsung to "fix" my Android phone. I don't even think there's a Samsung store around to take it to. Maybe because it isn't needed?

It reminds me of a post a BMW owner made on the BMW MOA forum. I wish I could find the post, but I can't. He basically said in regards to the final drive failures that this is part of the "BMW experience". That to have a BMW certified mechanic work on your BMW was something to be appreciated and you need to appreciate that wonderful experience like the acolytes in the Greek god's temples. Really???

If that's the Apple experience...I'm glad I'm missing out.

Chris
 
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