Windows 11 preview leaked

[Sebastian Cobb]

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535123/microsoft-windows-11-leak-screenshots-start-menu

I'm still at the 'I knew the whole "this is the last Windows ever"' perpetual release thing wouldn't last very long.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535123/microsoft-windows-11-leak-screenshots-start-menu

It's early days I guess but there's not much to be impressed about:



This just looks like a bit of a not-full-screen rip off of Launchpad, Gnome's got one as well.

[Malcy]

Saw something the other day that just said that the taskbar is in the middle. They're always fucking about with things so will assume you can just set it your own way.

[DrGreggles]

Stuck in on my VM and... it's fine, I suppose.
Nothing groundbreakingly different to Windows 10, other than a few cosmetic bits: a different taskbar layout and making the Start Menu open into Happy Shopper Mac OSX.

Hacktivator still works!

[Blumf]

Unless there's some major dicking about under the bonnet, I can't see how they can justify the Win11 bump.

Visually all rather inoffensively boring.

[falafel]

Surely that can't be it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's still a work in progress so there may be more, but it wouldn't be the first time that Microsoft released a new OS that didn't really do much but dick around with the UI a bit.

[aunt mildred]

If they've stripped out all the guff win10x promised I'll be happy.

[touchingcloth]

Apparently Windows 11 Hearts will have a 37 ply lookahead!

[Dex Sawash]

Could you just keep 7 going? Cheers

[Captain Z]

It looks like you are creating a new version of Windows, would you like help?

[aunt mildred]

Officially announced today, free for w10 users this spring but guess what?

Internet connection: Windows 11 Home requires a Microsoft account and Internet connectivity

No more offline accounts.

[Sebastian Cobb]

So what happens if you install it offline, does it just refuse to work?

I thought part of Gates' "philantropy" was ensuring mickeysoft got its talons into the developing world, how's that going to work in places of limited connectivity?

[aunt mildred]

The more I read about it the worse it gets, you have to have TPM and secure boot enabled, you have to have a DX12 GPU. If you want storeMI working you have to have a 1TB plus nvme boot drive.

[olliebean]

Officially announced today, free for w10 users this spring but guess what?

No more offline accounts.

That can fuck off, then. I'm sticking with 10.

<edit> Having looked into this, it seems that although you can't set it up without an online account (not officially, anyway - apparently you can work around it by Alt-F4-ing out of the screen where it asks you to connect to a network), you can still switch to a local account afterwards - which I guess I'm OK with.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The more I read about it the worse it gets, you have to have TPM and secure boot enabled, you have to have a DX12 GPU. If you want storeMI working you have to have a 1TB plus nvme boot drive.

Isn't storeMI low-level and basically a "hybrid drive" in two parts?

By the looks of things it won't be long until SSD's become cheaper than spinning discs. I bought a couple of 3tb WD reds for about £80 a piece in 2014 and the price hasn't budged much since then by the looks of it.

[Blumf]

You know how you always wanted to run Android apps on your desktop, yeah?[nb]Sssshhhh! https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator[/nb] Well you can in Win11... via Amazon App Store <sad trombone sound>
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-announces-windows-11-will-be-able-run-android-apps

Various updates to window snapping, virtual desktops, and the like, and better Teams integration (yuck)
https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-11-productivity-features-announced

So basically, nothing that couldn't be done under the Win10 name, but marketing was getting antsy.

[aunt mildred]

That can fuck off, then. I'm sticking with 10.

<edit> Having looked into this, it seems that although you can't set it up without an online account (not officially, anyway - apparently you can work around it by Alt-F4-ing out of the screen where it asks you to connect to a network), you can still switch to a local account afterwards - which I guess I'm OK with.

This will probably be patched out in the release build, it's no secret microsoft want everybody using an online account so their data hoovering is more valuable.

Isn't storeMI low-level and basically a "hybrid drive" in two parts?

Yeah, there's no need for this pointless restriction. Consoles seem to do it fine with <1TB.

[aunt mildred]

OK, these are the official requirements from MS (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/windows-11-requirements)

Hardware requirements

To install or upgrade to Windows 11, devices must meet the following minimum hardware requirements:

    Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or system on a chip (SoC).
    RAM: 4 gigabytes (GB) or greater.
    Storage: 64 GB* or greater available storage is required to install Windows 11.
        Additional storage space might be required to download updates and enable specific features.
    Graphics card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later, with a WDDM 2.0 driver.
    System firmware: UEFI, Secure Boot capable.
    TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.
    Display: High definition (720p) display, 9" or greater monitor, 8 bits per color channel.
    Internet connection: Internet connectivity is necessary to perform updates, and to download and use some features.
        Windows 11 Home edition requires an Internet connection and a Microsoft Account to complete device setup on first use.

So it does look like local accounts will still be allowed, it also looks like that's only for win11 home setup, what will win10 pro upgrade to?

That TPM requirement is going to render millions of owners of quite decent hardware shit out of luck. Surely that has to change?

It's also supposedly coming this autumn, not next spring (I read some bum info there).

[Blumf]

Is there a list of hardware that supports TMP2.0?

[aunt mildred]

Is there a list of hardware that supports TMP2.0?

Not sure, I think it's older stuff like intel sandy bridge and amd fx that don't have it but it's still capable hardware. I haven't checked in my bios/uefi whatever if I have it (Ryzen 3600). There's an upgrade advisor for it but you have to enable TPM (if you have it) in the bios else it says incompatible.

[steveh]

There's a tool to check if you can run Windows 11: https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/d/d/1dd9969b-bc9a-41bc-8455-bc657c939b47/WindowsPCHealthCheckSetup.msi.

[Sebastian Cobb]

There's a tool to check if you can run Windows 11: https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/d/d/1dd9969b-bc9a-41bc-8455-bc657c939b47/WindowsPCHealthCheckSetup.msi.

I will say, Microsoft's consumer tooling to indicate upgrade compatibility has always been terrible, I'm not even bothering to run the checker on my own systems there's no way to trust what it says.

Seriously don't waste your time

The philosophy at Microsoft is there is zero consequences for false negatives and no reason to give any guidance to users as to the reason for rejection.
There's IT tools and logs, but it's a deliberate choice they hide this stuff this hard. I'm not going to bother guessing why.

From a well respected infosec account: https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/1408201911354986499

[olliebean]

My PC seems to be running in Legacy BIOS mode, and is therefore incompatible. I had a brief Google of how to switch to UEFI mode, and found stuff about people finding their PC didn't boot after switching, and having to reinstall the OS or convert the HD or stupid time-wasting things like that. So I guess I'll be sticking with W10 after all. Easy decision, in the end.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It looks like its lack of useful features and arbitrary hurdles just to make it work means it's going to be one of the dud releases few people want that follow an OK version of windows.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It looks like its lack of useful features and arbitrary hurdles just to make it work means it's going to be one of the dud releases few people want that follow an OK version of windows.

Is someone at Microsoft a big fan of the Star Trek films?

[olliebean]

The UEFI issue means I'll probably be on Windows 10 until I get my next PC. My last one lasted me 11 years and I've only had my current one for 2 years, so it could be a while.

[Sebastian Cobb]

[Zetetic]

UEFI and TPM requirements make a lot of sense and bumping the version number to reflect the change in requirements makes sense too, as far as I can see.

[olliebean]

OK, turns out my processor won't support TPM 2.0 anyway (it's Ivy Bridge, you need Haswell or later), so it's a no-go whatever I do. Windows 10 is EOL in 2025, which means I'll probably be running an unsupported OS for a few years past then. Or maybe I'll give Linux a go.

[pigamus]

Might get a Chromebook again. The one I had I found annoying because of the lack of Skype and the lack of iTunes, but I don't think I give a shit about either of those things now.