Windows 11 Leaked - What we know so far about Microsoft's new OS

[Nathan Igo]

The main thing that scares me is if they are switching to a subscription service for the OS. It's only a matter of time until that happens and when it does we are going to have a hard time explaining to clients that they now have to pay $30-40 a month per computer to use it. Prebuilts will come with a one year license and after that stop working, good luck explaining that to someone living off of retirement and social security.

 

[SAFCasper]

The only thing that worries me is when I hear sites saying “This will be the biggest updates in decades for windows!” It could be all hype for sales or it could be another train wreck like Windows 8 was. I’m not sure what to expect on June 24.

Which is just plain ludicrous and willfully blind. We know the development path for what's about to be released. It's not, in any way, shape, or form, a tectonic shift or huge change. It's the next Feature Update, plain and simple, based upon its development and testing path. It's prettification (FSVO) and the addition of more bells and whistles, most of which will be ignored by most users. But that's been true of virtually any individual bell or whistle, at least at its time of introduction, under Windows for decades.

"Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade"
Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) at Build 2021 keynote

Not sure we can entirely blame news sites for this hype.


XDA have a nice review of the leaked build
Windows 11 has leaked: Here's a sneak peek before next week's launch! (xda-developers.com)

The summary says it all...
"What’s happening here is that Microsoft is pretty much bringing over the Windows 10X shell on top of Windows 10, and calling it Windows 11."

There are suggestions this is an early preview build not containing many of the "under the hood" changes that will ship with the final version. But I'm ready to be disappointed when those changes never materialise.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The main thing that scares me is if they are switching to a subscription service for the OS. It's only a matter of time until that happens and when it does we are going to have a hard time explaining to clients that they now have to pay $30-40 a month per computer to use it. Prebuilts will come with a one year license and after that stop working, good luck explaining that to someone living off of retirement and social security.

Get realistic. It’s not going to happen. Not when MacOS is free. When Chrome OS is free. When Linux is free. Windows is already effectively free as it’s rolled into costs of your PCs. Upgrades to 10 have been free from the start. And still are free. Microsoft has never deactivated any OS. You can still install and use MsDOS, Windows Xp, Vista, and 7. Support has ended not your ability to use the software.

Microsoft wants people to use its cloud services and they will give away Windows if needed to get you onboard.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I agree with you.
When Windows XP arrived it was touted to have the "lickability" factor.
The bold colours and prominent bubble like buttons were aesthetically appealing and functionally nice.
It felt like clicking a real button.
The flat look has been done to death and is quite boring now imho.

Ick. I’ve always hated Xp’s Luna theme. Cartoony blue. I always changed it to the silver colors. Vista and 7 were much better looking. I don’t really have a problem with the flat designs. I appreciate minimalist designs.

 

[kwest]

The first thing that came to my mind when I started seeing these articles was "I'm so glad we dropped residential support recently so I don't have to deal with all the headaches this will cause"

Headaches or revenue?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

"Just another OS release" is the way I look at it.
Way back, people got excited. These days, people moan and groan.

All in all, it's been fairly constant..consistent...to me. With Win 3 we had the Programs menu, W95 brought that start button..and we've basically had the same thing since, just...little changes starting with W8. Still basically start...programs. Yeah Win8 put "tiles" on top, but you can still get the old school start...programs. And W10 still has that today! (yeah, you have to turn it on, I know..not on by default).

To me, there's been a little bit of "every other OS release was good". Maybe 2 in a row were good, and the third...not so good.
Win3x..well, people weren't counting back then
NT 3.5...very rare, work environments, solid
Win95...decent, 95b was a long run, 95c..eh, 95d, still a long run
NT4...good, but rare..more in work environments
Win98...eh
98SE...good SE = second edition...see more below
ME...yuck (outsourced last minute rush because 2K didn't get multi media good enough to release for home users)
2K...solid!
XP...solid...and long life
Vista...yuck
7...great
8...like Vista, meh
..same for 8.1
10...my favorite so far, solid, just...the integrated updates bothers some, but..to me, most stable, fast rock solid release I've seen

...11 seems to be like an "SE" to 10 (like Win98SE to Win98 noted above). And we're kinda right on schedule...if you look at average release times 'tween versions.

We've seen the start menu mature over time. We've seen the GUI get smoother, fancier, easier on the eyes, transparent, and designed to work more with wide aspect ratio screens, versus the small low resolution square monitors of yore. And get much better at multi monitor.

Much like Apple has done with its OS.
Much like many flavors of *nix have done...although they've tended to be ahead of the curve with some releases...some notable ones like Elementary, Deepin, Zorin, etc.

We've seen desktops/file storage now "sync" across multiple devices, to give you that consistent experience across devices.

I'll look forward to playing with it. 'course in the business world, new OS's aren't supported right away, typically start getting supported 18 months and more after release date.

One of our guys, his kid already downloaded the leaked ISO, /installed it and played around.

 

[HCHTech]

Every OS looks like "MacOS" according to the way these arguments work.

My comment was really based on the centered taskbar items that look a lot like the MacOS dock. I've always had trouble with the experience of using the dock vs. the way Windows does the taskbar...and I would definitely consider it a negative if the taskbar switched to looking like and acting like the dock.

In general, I prefer a fixed presentation of icons over contextually-dynamic presentation (I still dislike the MS Office "Ribbon" - haha). I'm sure others will say just the opposite - and that is how the world is made -- we all have our own preferences and idiosyncrasies.

I agree there are only so many ways to display icons and windows - but I absolutely prefer the (current) Windows way over the current MacOS way.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

It's an easy adjustment for me, for years I've used the Windows taskbar on the bottom for what I call my..."Frequent flyer programs". Programs I use almost daily, I pin an icon on the taskbar. So, for every day use, for many years, I have my Windows taskbar setup similar to Apples Dock.
Right now, RDP, Outlook, Chrome, Calculator, Snipping Tool, Putty, Teams, Splashtop Biz, MyPhone, Notepad, Quickbooks,

 

[GTP]

I always changed it to the silver colors. Vista and 7 were much better looking.

Yes, the blue was a bit "gaudy" so I always changed to the green/silver theme.
I think "7" nailed it tbh, it went downhill from there.

 

[britechguy]

Yes, the blue was a bit "gaudy" so I always changed to the green/silver theme.

There were apparently a lot of us that did this. I always went to the olive green theme. The blue was too gaudy/intense and the silver was a bit too subtle.

I constantly use the term "visual relief between elements" and the silver had a bit too little of that for me, but even it is just miles ahead of "the flat look."

 

[cypress]

Same here

Hopefully, you can still set up with no internet to get a local account.

I been reading that even with no internet you still can't setup a local account for Home version

 

[britechguy]

I been reading that even with no internet you still can't setup a local account for Home version

Then they will have had to set up something that allows you to create a Microsoft Account linked Win10 user account that "finishes setup later."

The disappearance of the local account won't come a moment too soon for me. And I understand that the removal of the local account is equally distressing to others. But the writing is on the wall that eventually, Home and Pro both, are going to require a MS Account linked Win10 user account. It will only be Educational and Enterprise that support local accounts.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sometimes there’s issues connecting to the internet. Sometimes a client may already have a M$ account but can’t recall the password. Forced account setup is going to cause the same issues people have with cell phones. They setup a Google or iCloud account and never think they use it but all of their pictures and other data is saved to the account. Some catastrophe befalls the phone and when they go to get a new phone they can’t recall the password to the account. The low paid and commission driven clerk doesn’t want to help you so they just setup a new account and all your old data is lost. M$ doesn’t need to be pushing it’s customers in that direction.

 

[britechguy]

Sometimes there’s issues connecting to the internet.

Which, in the context of Microsoft Account linked Windows 10 user accounts, matters not one whit except when you're doing your initial setup. And it's dirt simply to prove it to yourself by simply disconnecting from the internet, logging out of your Win10 user account that's MS linked, and logging in again, whether you use a password, PIN, or biometrics to do so. All of these are stored locally so that login can occur in the absence of internet connectivity.

One thing that many do not know, and it's a cute trick (at least to me), is that if you reset your password on your Microsoft Account, that does not propagate down to your Windows 10 user account linked to it until or unless you use that new password the first time. That's easy to prove, too. All you need to do is know the password for an existing Microsoft Account linked Win 10 user account, then change the password on the Microsoft Account to which it's linked. You can keep logging in to Windows 10 using the existing password for as long as you like until and unless you use the one you reset to for the first time (and, of course, have internet connectivity so it can be verified against what's in your MS account). Once you do, you then must use that password going forward, as a local copy is now present and expected.

I have had a no major problems going through password recovery for forgotten passwords on Google and Microsoft accounts. My success rate when doing so in conjunction with my client(s) [as you have to provide a couple of previous passwords, or something close enough to your prior passwords that they'll pass muster] is very high. Way higher than when I had to try to hack my way into Windows past the era when OphCrack for passwords worked.

I far prefer having an "off machine" technique for password (or, I really should say, access) recovery than not.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I was speaking of the initial setup.

 

[britechguy]

I was speaking of the initial setup.

And I'll bet that Microsoft will have introduced some sort of "complete your account setup later" feature as part of any setup where linking to a MS-Account is being enforced but an internet connection is unavailable at that time.

You can't tell me that they're going to prevent someone who's just unboxed a computer from using it if, for whatever reason, an internet connection is not available at the time of initial setup. They've taken great pains to avoid this so far, and I see no reason for that to change.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Sure they do

And I'll bet that Microsoft will have introduced some sort of "complete your account setup later" feature as part of any setup where linking to a MS-Account is being enforced but an internet connection is unavailable at that time.

You can't tell me that they're going to prevent someone who's just unboxed a computer from using it if, for whatever reason, an internet connection is not available at the time of initial setup. They've taken great pains to avoid this so far, and I see no reason for that to change.

Which means it works just like it does now. You cannot complete a Home install without doing an MS account if the thing is online. If you leave it offline there are those three tick boxes in the notification settings you can clear to prevent it from ever bugging you again. I presume we'll have some similar procedure available. Because like you, I cannot imagine Microsoft forcing people to have that account at that stage... these platforms aren't like Android and iOS devices. We have root access... we can install stuff we want... and they very much need to be able to operate offline.

 

[Stever]

M$ always said that 10 would be the final windows version !
My guess is that this will be a SP that will add some stuff and remove other stuff.
Worst case is that we all have to re learn where more stuff has been hidden away to

 

[nlinecomputers]

M$ always said that 10 would be the final windows version !
My guess is that this will be a SP that will add some stuff and remove other stuff.
Worst case is that we all have to re learn where more stuff has been hidden away to

No more than a typical build. Everybody's making more if this than it is. It's the fall build. No different than every Windows 10 build except now they will call it 11.

 

[frase]

Yes, the blue was a bit "gaudy" so I always changed to the green/silver theme.
I think "7" nailed it tbh, it went downhill from there.

I always custom to matt black theme.