Windows 11 tools for when you must.

[Tom Speirs]

So one of my PCs has a 12th gen intel CPU in it and I was forced to use Windows 11 for more than just testing.

You need to use Windows 11 to properly use efficiency cores in 12th gen and 13th gen intel cpus.

I wanted to report on couple of tools I used to reduce the pain. Both worked perfectly.

Stardock Start11: Restore the Classic Start Menu in Windows 10 and 11.

GitHub - teeotsa/windows-11-debloat: Script to optimize your installation of Windows 11.

[Tom Speirs]

This too for old explorere on 22H2

Get Back Windows 10 Ribbon UI in Windows 11 File Explorer » Winhelponline

[Draco1962]

I pinned this topic as it is one that will probably be referenced by others as more tips & tricks for making it more sensible. Why MS thought trying to look like a Mac IOS was a good thing is beyond me. Bad enough we have to abandon viable hardware eventually due to non-support due to no TPM.

[tthurman]

Windows 11 looks like iOS?

MS kicked all my machines to the curb with the TPM BS (although it still works regardless, or did)

[Draco1962]

1 hour ago, tthurman said:

Windows 11 looks like iOS?

Center task bar Start Menu.

[Tom Speirs]

So, ive got a 13900k system now, and I just cant bring myself to use windows 11.

This is interesting.

As for the start bar on 11 that is what Start11 is for. It takes care of the start bar but your still stuck with the new explorer. There is a hack to getting the explorer back but I had issues with it. It worked for a while then I had to change the shell back. I believe the issue was because it was unsigned.

[Draco1962]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:42 PM, Tom Speirs said:

So, ive got a 13900k system now, and I just cant bring myself to use windows 11.

This is interesting.

As for the start bar on 11 that is what Start11 is for. It takes care of the start bar but your still stuck with the new explorer. There is a hack to getting the explorer back but I had issues with it. It worked for a while then I had to change the shell back. I believe the issue was because it was unsigned.

Start11 may not be necessary for moving the Start menu to the left. 

The link below covers several scenarios:

- For basic menu alignment change back to the left - Windows+R > ms-settings: +ENTER

-Registry hacks (pre 22H2 Feature Update).

- What looks like a possible lower overhead alternative to Start11 called ExplorerPatcher (post 22H2 Feature Update).

How To Get The Classic Start Menu In Windows 11

Give it a look!

[tthurman]

Does anyone really like Windows 11?

It just seems like a clunky, non-intuitive version of 10, which I'm reminded of immediately every morning at work.

[Tom Speirs]

I'm still avoiding it. I got nothing running it right now.

[Draco1962]

I am running Windows 11 Pro on both my new gaming PC and personal laptop. 

So far no major issues encountered. Many of the cosmetic changes I still find unnecessary. The File Explorer changes are annoying.

Rumor has it that MS may be headed to a subscription based OS model in the next iteration (12). 

[tthurman]

They keep hinting at that, but I suspect it will not end well for them if they do.

 

[Tom Speirs]

Id be happy to pay for it without the adware and spyware. I think they make too much money from it though.

[Raitsa]

Got a sim racing rig and the PC is running W11 with https://revi.cc

Cool stuff.

Nothing beats Linux though :)

 

[Draco1962]

On 11/30/2023 at 4:04 AM, Raitsa said:

Got a sim racing rig and the PC is running W11 with https://revi.cc

Cool stuff.

Nothing beats Linux though

 

Off topic - I have some racing sims, but most of my focus is on flight sims - nothing controlled by anything more than a HOTAS with pedals. I may have to look into the link you provided for a future setup.

[Tom Speirs]

 

Update 2024-01-14

Open Shell now seems to work perfectly on windows 11 and can replace the start button.

I am therefore no longer recommending Start 11.

I can see no mention of this for Open Shell (previously Classic Shell) anywhere but can confirm it now works perfectly with Windows 11.

 

PS: Other than that my only other tweak was to restore the full context menu:
https://pureinfotech.com/bring-back-classic-context-menu-windows-11/

[Tom Speirs]

Here is how to get the windows 10 theme back in windows 11

1. Install Theme Patcher: https://mhoefs.eu/software_uxtheme.php?ref=syssel&lang=en

2. Reboot

3. Get the windows 10 Aero theme from a Windows 10 Install. Located in C:\Windows\Resources. if you upgraded to 11 you can find this in C:\Windows.old\Resource

 

Update 2024-05-26:

So what i really wanted to do was just change the taskbar colour to black rather than restore windows 10 theme.
So do this instead:
https://www.howtogeek.com/799594/how-to-change-the-taskbar-color-in-windows-11/#:~:text=Personalizing Windows 11 by adding,and choosing an accent color.

[Tom Speirs]

I have had good luck with this debloat script:

It did seem to give me a noticeable performance improvement:

https://github.com/LeDragoX/Win-Debloat-Tools

[Draco1962]

Windows 11 data collection:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2379675/ways-windows-11-collects-your-data-and-what-you-can-do-about-it.html

 

[Draco1962]

For listing of all or just running services within Windows 10/11 via Command Prompt or PowerShell. I found this to be useful when trying to determine services that were causing some errors and crashing my laptop before and to a lesser degree after (mostly due to Windows Updates and driver conflicts):

Export List of Running and Stopped Services in Windows 11

 

[Draco1962]

Has anyone attempted to update an incompatible PC/laptop from Windows 10 to 11 following the steps in this video?

 

I discovered that I was not able to download the ISO from the Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 section as instructed, so had to Create Windows 11 Installation Media (first section) of the Download Windows 11 page, then pickup from the Command Prompt steps and run setup from the thumb drive.

[Tom Speirs]

i was able to do it from an ISO using Rufus which was super easy. if you can't get an actual ISO not quite sure what you can do.

https://rufus.ie/en/

 

[Draco1962]

MS hasn't updated its site as there are numerous posts about the same issue. Internal wonks have provided a temporary link to an ISO in the past, but most recent (last year or so) they have stopped and point users to the Create Windows 11 Installation Media instructions. I had created a 24H2 installation thumb drive recently using that method so was able to launch setup to kick off the install process.