Windows 11: the update and look at by: GF Willmetts (article).
Sorry, a few more amendments, chiefly at the end of this piece, if you’ve read it before, looking at what happened when Windows 11 installed on my laptop. There were a few differences, even applying what I learnt from my back-up desktop computer. I suspect the opportunities to see an installation on more than one computer are either to the likes of me or computer shops.
For The Desktop Computer:-
One of the things that has also always puzzled me is how far down the list my computers are for updating Windows. On Friday 15 November 2021, it happened with my back-up computer, which is a couple years older than my laptop, which looks like it’ll be a few weeks before that happens. When you consider how many millions of PC computers are being updated, it’s a big undertaking and needs patience and have fun with Windows 10 until it happens.
There a few useful things to know. On your Settings page it will flash up it is ready to download and install Windows 11. It DOES NOT do this automatically. Bear this in mind and do it overnight as it takes some 7½ hours! There is no need to stand out it in case it needs any button presses to continue as everything is automatic. The initial stages took over 5 hours and then another two hours downloading and installing updates. Although I didn’t try it as I was observing, I suspect you would be able to do some things on W10 during the two download processes but not at all in the updates stage, more on that further down.
The opening screen has the date in a new font and the means to put in whatever password you are using and a new ding dong, before selecting your password entry. I did have a look at the various sounds you can associate to problems and whathaveyou and they are all the same. Considering you can change them and you have a back catalogue of WAV files, you would have thought that might have had a better choice. A minor quibble.
Then you have an opening window that you can see and play around with the differences, specifically with Explorer, the Edge and so forth. You also get its version of the menu which icons things. The icons on the bottom menu bar are now line centralised. I discovered later but haven’t played with it yet that you can close some of the icons down so you’re not bothered with MS Store and things. If you’ve been using the Windows 7 menu, the command is there and by selecting it, it will then calibrate itself to the new W11 in record time. A lot of the original settings from W10 are still maintained, so you will still have your screensaver and wallpaper changer as they were originally. I’m not too surprised at that because Microsoft has transportable files between systems that keeps track of your software but even the Windows settings are kept.
For those of you with Norton, you will have to put in your email address and password and it also takes a detour to establish Google if you have a connection that way as well. It does not require you to link into the Norton home page unlike earlier times. This is all based on one computer but I hope it’s true on other computers. Presumably, a similar pattern will happen with other anti-virus software.
I did check the Updates in Settings and there were three outstanding, including one that it was installing in W10 when the update happened. You probably know this but no harm noting and they were allowed to continue.
Everything else feels pretty much like before, unless you have a yen for MS Store and Widgets and, as I said above, they can be removed from the menu bar so they don’t bother you by mistake.
There is some clarity in the Windows controls to personalise to your own taste although I’m surprised the button in the Control Panel will allow a switchback to Windows 7. I wonder how many try that just to see what happens? I haven’t. Mind you, when you consider W7 isn’t supported anymore this does seem crazy. I mean, why not a reversion to W10? Saying that, W11 looks so much like W10 with only a program window, by pressing the 4 square icon, looking like the most major change.
Saying that, I’m still wondering what is radically different. The second boot-up so far seems a little long but I haven’t got much else to compare it to until the laptop’s turn comes and I might have to add a few notes about that. You’ll notice that much of this article is being written based on the first looks and I’ve kept some paragraphs in for that reason.
On my third boot-up, it was a lot faster and a little more look at the Settings seems to indicate that it looks for updates on boot-up although I wish there was something on the screen indicating what it is doing. No doubt when I use W11 on my regular computer and it has something to download I’ll see if there is any difference. I do tend to think it is important that the user is told what is going on rather than just staring at a blank screen even when there are no updates. The fourth boot-up was a lot faster so don’t be impatient, it’s just the system settling down. Shutdown, it will ask about any open software and closes down just as fast.
Oh, unlike W10, there is no automatic installation of Microsoft’s basic games like Solitaire but according to the MS Store they are free downloads, although these are the W10 versions. I think I’ll be sticking to my W7 games version.
You should also prepare if you have a DVD drive for a System Repair Disk and for a full back-up, have an external hard drive, suitably partitioned, for those back-up files. It will look at any medium you choose to do this to ensure you have enough space. I discovered I hadn’t so ordered another one up.
I’ve done the back-up. For those who are doing it, bear in mind the first time takes about an hour and if the size is consistent should be 106.61gB. Interestingly, 52% took the usual time, jumped to 97% and then took a longer time, so patience should be employed.
‘Windows 11 For Dummies’ is on my agenda but unless there are a lot of things I’ve missed, I can’t see anything radically different. Well, maybe until the first update but with two hours’ worth already, that might be some time. Even so, you have to wonder why these updates weren’t just included in the main installation by now.
I will run a similar report when the laptop gets its announcement to update but I’m definitely going to let it do it overnight and sleep through the process. If nothing else, I’ll be wide awake the next morning to look at any things that need serious addressing. I would suggest if you have a cable to your router that you hook it up, just in case there are any signal problems.
An odd thing today, 19 November 2021. I’ve been keeping my noisy previous laptop alive to see what it would do as it wouldn’t be able to download Windows 11 and it downloaded an update to W10, taking a couple hours, with some W11 emulations, noticeable by some of the things it was telling me on boot-up, including adding MS Office 365 that I got for the later laptop. That does tend to suggest that even if your current computer can’t update, you will at least have some of the similar functions.
For The Laptop
I seem to be forever adding bits to this article although this should be the last for some time.
On the 4th December, late night, I checked the Settings and saw that it now wanted to install Windows 11. Fine, I’d do it overnight and left it late night doing its first install. The next morning, the laptop was sound asleep and waking it went into Windows 10 and its install window saying it wanted to complete the installation. This took an hour but relatively short compared to the desktop computer’s 7 hours watching it download and install.
Using the Shell, I got back the W7 menu system. It seems weird that Microsoft thinks their new ‘Start’ menu is better. I mean, if your regularly used programs are at the top and you use a lot of them, what’s the point of the alphabet list which still takes a time to go through and you having to remember names or manufacturers?
The check for updates revealed three and while I let W11 get on with it, went through my solutions to things from my back-up desktop computer because I knew it would take time. Some 43 minutes for those installs and needed a reboot this time as I was keeping note for this article.
For Norton, if you do the Updates, it appears to get around wanting to check in to their website for confirmation. My Dell raised its head and wanted to do updates, fortunately none of them wanted a reboot. Presumably, other anti-virus manufacturers software might do similar things. The W7 games vanished, although a quick reinstall and your scores are kept as well if you’ve got back to the first version.
Back to those 3 W11 updates on reboot, the installs give a percentage countdown up to 100%, the last bit does take forever and really does need some reassessing by MS to show the actual numbers as its really at 97% dealing with a large file sort out. You would think a percentage install could be a little more accurate.
I did the back-up to an external hard drive and files at the same time. If you get lost wanting to create the System Repair Disk, go into the Control Panel and put in the text ‘Backup And Restore’ or through ‘Backup And Restore (Windows 7)’ and that should put you in the place to do it. Of course, if you’ve got a laptop without a DVD drive, you can always buy a USB one for those emergency uses or putting info on disk.
I did find my first use of my USB scanner, it didn’t like it going through the hub and did it directly through the laptop USB and still didn’t recognise it. In the end, I uninstalled it, put it back in and W11 instantly recognised it. Go figure. It also worked again through the USB hub. I’m only using this as an example in case you have problems with any hardware you run through a USB showing it can remedy itself. Oddly, the sound bar on the desktop computer wasn’t responding when I played with in on the 10th December. Uninstall and let W11 find it again and everything is back to normal.
Oh, if you don’t like the double space in File Explorer, under the ‘View’ button, select ‘Compact View’ and it reverts it to the better way. I suspect the only people who might benefit from the ‘new’ way are those who touchscreens.
I’m less sure about the two phases to get to the creating a new folder. In case you need to figure it out, in File Manager, right button press, ‘Other Options’ will find the traditional menu settings or shift button and F10 with show them. MS thinking its made things simpler seems to have doubled the work and no way around it, although you would have thought doing something with the left button might have offered an alternative solution.
I had a couple problems with MS Office 365. I don’t know if this happens to all of them or just something associated with Windows 11. Anyway, putting it here seems as good any. If you suddenly get blocks of space in your Word DOC files (I’m not sure about other formats) while in draft mode but does away in print mode, so far this option seems to work. Go File, Info and select and select Compatibility Mode. If nothing else that will save converting DOC files to DOCX.
The problem with Access is where you have embedded images and now no longer show. Nothing shows in forms but in tables, it shows PAINT.PICTURE. Digging around shows we don’t have the original MS Paint software and if its installed, its links will show your original pictures are still there. I came across this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT_59-AfC8o and essentially all you need to do is go to https://win7games.com/ which links to the aero website that we pulled the W7 menu from and you can install the original Paint. Don’t play with the other Access commands but if you mouse right button and select Bit Image Object and then Open it will appear in the original MS Paint and you can see it’s still there.
I spent a better part of a week applying the principle that I can’t be the first to have this problem but all the solutions are pre-Windows 11. A year ago, I found Access wouldn’t allow me to grab and drop pictures into the Image in the Form and, a couple months ago, it was letting me do so again. Presumably, someone at Microsoft will sort the problem out again and we’re seeing an active glitch. If I waited for a resolution, we might still be waiting.
Everything runs as it was otherwise in Windows 11 so far. In many respects, other than minor differences, I can’t for the life of me see much difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes before we have the first major update.
GF Willmetts
November/December 2021
