Windows 11. Anyone going to install it? Plus discussion and observations, experience etc.

[Chris Turnbull]

No, no problems at all so far.  You might have a look at your notification settings just in case there is anything switched on that is causing a problem: right click on the Time and Date at the right of the Taskbar and select Notification settings.  You can switch Notifications off entirely if you wish. 

 

Chris Turnbull

[paulbb]

I bought an Asus laptop with windows 11 preinstalled so as it has never 'known windows 10'  so all the drivers etc. were set up for it from the start so it has been fine. The only wrinkle was a regular notification that I had a problem with my Microsoft account, which I ignored for a while. When investigated it turns out that when I set up a Pin number for my account, this 'problem' went away. Go figure as the Americans say.

[Izzy]

5 hours ago, Chris Turnbull said:

No, no problems at all so far.  You might have a look at your notification settings just in case there is anything switched on that is causing a problem: right click on the Time and Date at the right of the Taskbar and select Notification settings.  You can switch Notifications off entirely if you wish. 

 

Chris Turnbull

Thanks, I’ve done all that and keep checking in case something has been missed, but no joy. Really weird. Did think that perhaps static was the issue with the laptop touchpad but now it’s affecting the desktop I’m rather lost. 
 

Bob

[RFS]

33 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Thanks, I’ve done all that and keep checking in case something has been missed, but no joy. Really weird. Did think that perhaps static was the issue with the laptop touchpad but now it’s affecting the desktop I’m rather lost. 
 

Bob

 

Are these notifications actually coming from Windows itself, and not some adware/bloatware that has been installed on your system? Might help if you could post here what the notifications are actually saying.

[Izzy]

17 minutes ago, RFS said:

 

Are these notifications actually coming from Windows itself, and not some adware/bloatware that has been installed on your system? Might help if you could post here what the notifications are actually saying.

AFAIK they are the standard Windows notification windows that fly out from the right of the screen. I’ll try and take a screen shot if possible. If I just sit back they will fly in/out every few seconds at times. When out the screen locks until you click somewhere to dismiss them, then seconds later their out again. 
 

Bob

[Miss Prism]

I assume you've done the basic thing of clearing your browser cache and closing down?

[Chris Turnbull]

What about an antivirus scan?  Have you tried that?

 

Chris Turnbull

[Izzy]

22 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

I assume you've done the basic thing of clearing your browser cache and closing down?

 

11 minutes ago, Chris Turnbull said:

What about an antivirus scan?  Have you tried that?

 

Chris Turnbull

 

Yes, thanks both, that is done on a regular basis. 

 

This is what I mean by fly-out notifications.

 

 

As I say when they start flying out they just won't stop, a constant in-out every few seconds. So frustrating!

 

Bob

 

 

 

[melmerby]

Something I've noticed with Win 11 are notifications (news & weather) in the search window, I turn them off but an update turns them back on.

e.g. last nights tiddlywinks results, weather in Svalbard, coup in Krakovia etc.😃

You know the sort of twaddle.

When I turn something off, I expect it to stay off.

 

(Doesn't happen with Win 10)

 

[RFS]

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

 

 

Yes, thanks both, that is done on a regular basis. 

 

This is what I mean by fly-out notifications.

 

 

As I say when they start flying out they just won't stop, a constant in-out every few seconds. So frustrating!

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

Click start for the system settings and select notifications from the right menu. You can turn these off with a button at the top. You could also open the "notifications form other apps and senders" and see who might be prompting this. I have 3 systems running Windows 11 and don't have this issue on any of them. 

 

I still wonder if you have an app installed that's actually triggering this behaviour. 

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Izzy said:

 

 

Yes, thanks both, that is done on a regular basis. 

 

This is what I mean by fly-out notifications.

 

 

As I say when they start flying out they just won't stop, a constant in-out every few seconds. So frustrating!

 

Bob

 

 

 

Blimey.

That's a clear desktop, mine's got about 3 dozen icons on it!

 

And my Win 10 desktop (This one I'm using) has 67 icons with 11 in the taskbar.

Edited January 8, 2023 by melmerby

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, RFS said:

 

Click start for the system settings and select notifications from the right menu. You can turn these off with a button at the top. You could also open the "notifications form other apps and senders" and see who might be prompting this. I have 3 systems running Windows 11 and don't have this issue on any of them. 

 

I still wonder if you have an app installed that's actually triggering this behaviour. 

I’ve scoured the system and turned off everything I can find to do in any way with notification on the laptop, but not the desktop. Makes no difference at all sadly.

 

As this affects two of our three W11 machines I’ve been trying to find a common cause as you might be right about the core problem. The only one I can think of is that they both run Java for use with Decoder Pro/JMRI. Since the desktop isn’t often used for this, just as a backup really, indeed isn’t very often connected to the web, they are different versions. 
 

Since the desktop was originally obtained with W10 and only recently upgraded to W11 with the latest version when the problem started, at the same time as with the laptop when the latest version W11 was installed by update, I’m just wondering if the downloads were corrupted somehow. I don’t want to have to do a clean install unless it becomes the last resort option, been hoping it was a glitch somewhere that the regular updates would sort. 
 

Bob

[Chris Turnbull]

If you think it is the latest update that is causing the problem, what about setting a restore point before the update, uninstalling the update and then reinstalling it? 

 

Chris Turnbull 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Chris Turnbull
Typo

[Chris Turnbull]

Alternatively, uninstall one update at a time and try your PC or laptop after each uninstall.  Eventually you should find the update that is affecting your PC or laptop.  Reinstall all updates one at a time (if you can) and if the problem reappears then you will know which update must be removed until Microsoft issues a patch.  If the first installation of the troublesome update was corrupted you may not have to wait for a patch and everything will be fine after reinstallation.

 

Chris Turnbull

[Izzy]

28 minutes ago, Chris Turnbull said:

If you think it is the latest update that is causing the problem, what about setting a restore point before the update, uninstalling the update and then reinstalling it? 

 

Chris Turnbull 

 

I don't think that's possible. System restore is also turned off on the C drive I've discovered. Seems these days they rely on the reset option as the default, I didn't realise. I haven't had the need to dig into these bits in recent years, or the registry much either. Shows how much better the recent versions have been.

 

11 minutes ago, Chris Turnbull said:

Alternatively, uninstall one update at a time and try your PC or laptop after each uninstall.  Eventually you should find the update that is affecting your PC or laptop.  Reinstall all updates one at a time (if you can) and if the problem reappears then you will know which update must be removed until Microsoft issues a patch.  If the first installation of the troublesome update was corrupted you may not have to wait for a patch and everything will be fine after reinstallation.

 

Chris Turnbull

 

 Can't do that either, only the last three updates offered for December. Seems a reset is the only option, if it persists, I'm ever hopeful it will cure itself!

 

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

 

Bob

[Reorte]

16 hours ago, melmerby said:

Blimey.

That's a clear desktop, mine's got about 3 dozen icons on it!

 

And my Win 10 desktop (This one I'm using) has 67 icons with 11 in the taskbar.

Every now and then I have a desktop icon tidy, removing all of those I don't actually need any more, grouping some together, or dumping a load in to a separate directory. I don't have anything at all permanently in the task bar though; anything I use semi-regularly there's a shortcut on the desktop, or in an organised directory of shortcuts on the desktop.

[Chris Turnbull]

I also like to keep my desktop clear and keep anything I use regularly in my Taskbar.  That allows me to use the keyboard shortcut of Windows Logo Key + 1, 2, 3 etc, counting from the left hand side and ignoring the Start and Search icons.  The first icon on my Taskbar that I count from just happens to be File Explorer so that's no. 1 - and, yes, I do realise that Windows Logo key > E also opens File Explorer.

 

I have always found keyboard shortcuts to be much quicker than using a mouse provided you can remember what the shortcuts are.  Many years ago when I used to have to work I had a chap from the accounts department join me so I could show him what I did.  He didn't believe that keyboard shortcuts were quicker so we had a few friendly contests.  After a short time I had converted him to a shortcut aficionado.

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited January 9, 2023 by Chris Turnbull
Typo

[Hroth]

I always thought that I had a reasonably tidy desktop, however I just counted up the folders, shortcuts and documents and found I had 32 items lurking to the left of the screen, even though I recently had a new year tidy up...  Most are folders containing shortcuts and documents, the rest are shortcuts with only two actual documents on screen. Most will get tidied up further inside the computer over the next few months.

 

Windows keyboard shortcuts remind me of Wordstar commands.  Once graphical environments took off, we were freed from the necessity to remember such arcane navigational tools!

 

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, Chris Turnbull said:

I also like to keep my desktop clear and keep anything I use regularly in my Taskbar.  That allows me to use the keyboard shortcut of Windows Logo Key > 1, 2, 3 etc, counting from the left hand side and ignoring the Start and Search icons.  The first icon on my Taskbar that I count from just happens to be File Explorer so that's no. 1 - and, yes, I do realise that Windows Logo key > E also opens File Explorer.

 

I have always found keyboard shortcuts to be much quicker than using a mouse provided you can remember what the shortcuts are.  Many years ago when I used to have to work I had a chap from the accounts department join me so I could show him what I did.  He didn't believe that keyboard shortcuts were quicker so we had a few friendly contests.  After a short time I had converted him to a shortcut aficionado.

I like keyboard shortcuts for regularly used things, but I'm not keen on them for the infrequent. The Windows key gets zero use from me.

 

I don't have a search icon, removing that's usually one of the first things I do with a new machine, I prefer to find things via keeping a logical structure, and only bringing out the search occasionally, so it generally only gets used at work when there's a vague "I'm sure there was something relevant somewhere over there" feeling, or when I have to deal with wherever Windows wants to bury things.

[Hroth]

Just got a cheapo Lenovo laptop* with Win 11s installed.  Spent most of the afternoon beating it into submission (aka How I want to do things).  I'm more or less on top of things but there's a couple more tweaks to make, that can wait until tomorrow!

 

* For sitting room browsing and email with occasional use programming Arduino and Raspberry Pi Pico SBCs.

[Chris Turnbull]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone else use File History and System Backup to back up their files?  I do because from what I have read, OneDrive does not back up everything.  It certainly does not look at my Music or Video folders (not that I have much in them).

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited January 25, 2023 by Chris Turnbull
Missing "not"!

[Hroth]

I don't use OneDrive because its one of the first Microsoft offerings that gets disabled when I get a new windows computer*.  I'm not particularly fond of the idea of keeping important information in the "cloud".

 

For backups, I prefer external hard disks that I can store securely.

 

* See above!

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Hroth

[melmerby]

8 minutes ago, Chris Turnbull said:

Just out of curiosity, does anyone else use File History and System Backup to back up their files? 

Nope, not normally, although I do occasionally do a full backup to a 4TB USB3 drive.

I just make copies on another drive.

The PC I am currently using (Win 10) has 5 drives connected to it. (The system disk is Samsung EVO ssd, the rest are normal spinning plates!)

The Win 11 PC has 2 but is used a lot less for general stuff. (It also has a Samsung EVO ssd)

[melmerby]

7 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I'm not particularly fond of the idea of keeping important information in the "cloud".

Like today when several MS services went down after a software update. Don't know whether cloud sevices were affected.

 

You could easily find your stuff lost in the ether.

Like that bunch of cowboys that lost all that RMWeb data that was supposed to have been backed up.

[melmerby]

On 22/01/2023 at 20:57, Hroth said:

Just got a cheapo Lenovo laptop

Lenovo have a bad reputation for filling their computers with bloatware.

Many don't recommend them for that reason.