One year of Windows 11: What do you think about?

[German]Windows 11 was released on October 5, 2021 – but the announcement including the first Insider Preview was made on June 24, 2021 (see Yes, Microsoft introduced Windows 11). So you can say that Windows 11 is now one year old. In the meantime, Microsoft is already working on the fine-tuning of Windows 11 22H2, which should be rolled out as an upgrade in fall 2022. Right from the start, Microsoft's harsh hardware requirements separated the user community. Hence the question of how you judge Windows 11 now.

Windows 10 under the hood

In the article Yes, Microsoft introduced Windows 11, I had already explained in October 2021 that there was no hurry with the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. After all, Microsoft is granting a free upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 until the end of 2022.

It's also interesting to take a look at what Windows 11 is in the first place. Because under the hood, this Windows 11 is simply a Windows 10 core. On this core then o some interface elements were taken over from the discontinued Windows 10X (see Plug pulled: The End for Windows 10X …).

I don't even want to focus on the different operating concepts (Windows 10/Windows 11 start menu), the round window corners etc.. Some things are certainly "gusto" – some users find it good, others can do nothing with it.

In the medium term, Windows 11 will of course continue to develop from the core and the GUI. Unless Microsoft backports the changes to Windows 10 21H1 and higher, the versions will also diverge in the kernel.

Hardware requirements as a problem

However, the harsh hardware requirements do separate the user community (see my blog post Windows 11: Hardware requirements). Many systems are officially not suitable for Windows 11.

Shortly after the release (see Windows 11 officially released), Microsoft has again specified the hardware requirements (see Windows 11: Microsoft specifies hardware requirements, no blocking on incompatible devices), and also announced that they will not block the installation on incompatible devices.

It even revealed a by-passing trick for the installer (see Windows 11: Most hardware don't fulfill the minimum requirements, Microsoft reveals by-passing trick). But this is a show stopper for professional use. No responsible administrator in a corporate environment will allow incompatible devices to be equipped with Windows 11.

Currently, therefore, the situation from my point of view is that simply many machines will not get Windows 11 because it is not compatible. Looking at the current political and economic situation and outlook, it's not clear to me whether there will be enough freedom in the next three years for people to replace their systems with Windows 11 compatible machines – in many places there simply won't be the money to do so.

Windows 11 21H1: Bugs and annoyance

Those who switched over were annoyed by numerous bugs, including updates. I had mentioned some problems here in the blog during the release and in later builds (see link list at the end of the article). Some users then went back to Windows 10 – those who are running Windows 10 will still get support and updates until October 14, 2025. So here's my question: What do you think of Windows 11? Is the operating system already ready for practical use? I'm especially interested in how it's viewed in the corporate environment.

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