Those of you looking forward to when you can begin using this new operating system officially now have a date. October 5th – in case you didn’t read the title.

Do I think it’s ready? Not entirely.

Sure overall it runs very smoothly and it really isn’t overall much different from Windows 10. It looks prettier (rounded corners and themes help there) and it has most everything people want. There are a couple of things though that either still need changed/fixed or I question why even do it.

Start Menu

I think the biggest issue will be with the placement of the Start Menu – in the center (more or less). Sure it is far less mouse travel to get to it in its new position, but it will always be moving as well. The more programs you open, the more it moves to the left. Also having it in the left corner has been a stable of Windows since Windows 95. Why change it? To make it more like Apple? It just seems unnecessary – especially if you use shortcuts already pinned to the taskbar anyway. Yes you can move it to the left corner in settings, but most people never touch settings.

There are additional pinned icons in the center (search, widgets, taskview) which move over as well if you change the settings to have them left justified. However all your icons move over, not just the ones I have mentioned. All your pinned apps and all your open programs. I don’t want it like that. I’d like the programs clustered in the middle and the start menu, etc off to the left. No can do.

One other gripe about the Start Menu has is inside it. First, you have a Recommended section below the pinned icons. This is such a stupid name. They aren’t recommended, they are my most recent used documents! Why has this incorrect name persisted? I see nothing wrong with a list of Recently Used items as that could be helpful, but the wrong name, just says “we don’t care about details”. Secondly, you have the All programs list that is horrid looking. I already went over a far better design for it (someone even designed one visually close to my idea). It just sucks!

Widgets

Useless. Need I say more? A better place for this information would be to allow me to create my starting tab in my web browser (or new tab button). It comes from the web and it is mostly web oriented information – why do I need to hit a separate button to get to this? Sure I can pin stuff to my desktop but unless I have more than one screen (which many do not) there is no point.

Search

This didn’t change much – except for the fact that it is no longer called Cortana (which was dropped in Windows 10 as well). Search does a fine job as it is. The main issue with it is when you click the search in the Start Menu, it switches to the Search window with a terrible jolt. They don’t line up! Why is this allowed to stay as is? I should be able to start typing in the Start Menu and have it seamlessly search there OR switch to the Search window but without it startling me. It literally re-loads when you click the Search bar in the Start Menu. Again why is this not being changed?

Store

Yes I know the Store doesn’t yet have Android apps – it’s biggest addition that is missing in this update to Windows 11. That in itself is a bit disappointing but so far the Store has underwhelmed. I like some of the things they have done to change it up, but a couple things still aren’t there. Each big section (apps, games or movies/tv) doesn’t have subcategories. Like apps could have sections for games, social, news, etc but no nothing like that. It makes finding what you might be interested in a slow drudge. The closest you get is the “Collections” at the bottom (so you have to scroll down a lot to get to them).

I want a new apps focus in the store (or whatever is new for each section). Every time I look at the store, it basically looks the same. I’m not drawn into checking anything out. It is boring and static (it does have some “moving” elements, I just mean its looks/feel static). Perhaps it will get better when Android apps get there, but I’m not holding my breath.

I have focused on some of the things I dislike., most of which I won’t use anyway. Overall though Windows 11, despite these gripes, works. The notification center/action center is better and the Taskbar icons identify the status of apps just fine. Is Windows 11 a large jump from Windows 10? Nope. Is it a lipstick on a pig type of an update? Not that either. It just does some things really crappy and some things really nicely. There will be programs coming out to address the more common complaints I’m sure of it by third parties (though you can’t fix the store – only Microsoft can if they choose).

I will continue to use Windows 11 and if anything significant or noteworthy updates (including apps) then I will update here on my blog. Otherwise there may not be much coming in the next few weeks. Thanks to those who have subscribed and read my articles.

There are several changes in Windows 11 that don’t warrant their own article.

For instance when you right click on the desktop, that menu has been revised to fit the UI design of Windows 11. If you click “Show More” you actually get the full right click menu from Windows 10. You can see both below.

The one on the left also has theming as part of it and everything is more touch friendly on the “old version”. So if you don’t like that options like Share aren’t right there, they aren’t too far away.

Another small addition- though it may be bigger for people who like to multi-task. The addition of being able to have multiple windows of different programs (or possibly the same) on screen, in view, at once. This is something never before built into Windows. All you have to do is hover over the maximize button and you are presented with several options. Moving the mouse down will highlight the section of the screen your current app will move to. In one of the remaining sections, you’ll get a choice of currently open apps to place there.

If you decide not to open another app there, this can easily be cancelled out of by either minimizing, maximizing or closing the other app (s). I am unable to test this across multiple monitors, but I would imagine this will help tremendously with those setups. I could see no way to make the apps always open in this view though.

One change that is more subtle is the login screen. When your computer starts there is a large clock front and center with day and date below it. Depending on other login choices there will be other things visible, but the main change is the large clock.

Two last small things. One is that the Search on the taskbar will show your last 3 program searches on hover as seen below.

The other things is a carryover from Windows 10. If you right click on the Start Menu, you will still get a nice little shortcut menu for things like many Control Panel settings – yes they do not open in the Settings app. Though you can launch the Settings app as well as File Explorer, Task Manager, Search and Run.

I may have missed some other small changes but this is it as I can see for now. I plan to get into some of the settings views next.