Windows 11 isn’t bad. But it’s a sidegrade from 10. For example, I have an ultrawide HDR display and 11 is a must for HDR. But the damn start bar can’t move to the left anymore which is super annoying on an ultrawide.
I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t vouch for it but I’ve read good things about a software called Explorer Patcher that can fix a lot of the W11 garbage.
Explorer Patcher just straight gives you the Windows 10 UI but it’s had a lot of stability issues especially as new builds of Windows roll out.
There are some other alternatives like Open Shell which is free and can give more of an XP, Vista, or Win7 style start menu. Then there’s paid options which are a little more polished like StartAllBack and Start11.
On the other hand if the only thing that bothers you is the context menu changes there are a couple of things you can do. You can edit a registry key to just get the old context menu. Or you can use Context Menu for Windows 11 to add your own context menu entries for applications where the developers won’t include the “new” method to register their shell extensions. (It’s been around since Windows 7 IIRC, but has no advantages over the old method until 11.)
For me Windows 11 gets me about 30 minutes to an hour better battery life than 10. That doesn’t sound like much, but going from 2 to almost 3 is pretty big improvement.
Now that devs finally updated their programs to show up in the new right click menu it’s not obnoxious anymore, and unlike a bloated 10 install doesn’t take 10 years to open.
Windows 11 isn’t bad. But it’s a sidegrade from 10. For example, I have an ultrawide HDR display and 11 is a must for HDR. But the damn start bar can’t move to the left anymore which is super annoying on an ultrawide.
I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t vouch for it but I’ve read good things about a software called Explorer Patcher that can fix a lot of the W11 garbage.
Explorer Patcher just straight gives you the Windows 10 UI but it’s had a lot of stability issues especially as new builds of Windows roll out.
There are some other alternatives like Open Shell which is free and can give more of an XP, Vista, or Win7 style start menu. Then there’s paid options which are a little more polished like StartAllBack and Start11.
On the other hand if the only thing that bothers you is the context menu changes there are a couple of things you can do. You can edit a registry key to just get the old context menu. Or you can use Context Menu for Windows 11 to add your own context menu entries for applications where the developers won’t include the “new” method to register their shell extensions. (It’s been around since Windows 7 IIRC, but has no advantages over the old method until 11.)
For me Windows 11 gets me about 30 minutes to an hour better battery life than 10. That doesn’t sound like much, but going from 2 to almost 3 is pretty big improvement.
Now that devs finally updated their programs to show up in the new right click menu it’s not obnoxious anymore, and unlike a bloated 10 install doesn’t take 10 years to open.
Didn’t they make it so you could put start back on the left? I’m 99% sure computers at work have done it.
I think they mean put the entire taskbar vertically on the left side of the screen, not left align the icons on the bottom of the taskbar.
Ah I see.