upgrading to windows 11.
let's start from the beginning the
upgrade process so i used one of my
older desktops with the seventh
generation i7 cpu that i bought about
four years ago
i ran the requirement checker called why
not win 11 and it came back with two
issues number one my cpu is not
currently listed as compatible that's
strange given that it's not that old but
it doesn't seem to be a showstopper but
then it tells me that a tpm which is
short for trusted platform module is
missing and is marked in red there's no
upgrade without that after doing some
research i realized that this is the
most common issue when it comes to
upgrading to windows 11. another common
problem is secure boot in my case it was
fine but what's the big deal about these
requirements that windows 11 has anyway
so honestly i kind of felt bad that my
devices are not good enough for windows
11 so does that mean i can't install it
so i'm new it expert i've never come
across this before so i did some
research and it turns out that both
components so both tpm and secure boot
increase your system security so it
sounds like a good thing it's something
that
i would expect my device to have though
if it's just four years old so what are
these things anyhow a tpm is a tiny
system component that stores encrypted
data so think of it like a wall
that keeps important information safe
from malware or from a hacker for
example biometrics like fingerprints or
facial recognition data to sign in with
windows hello windows 11 requires tpm
2.0 which only devices from the last
five to maybe seven years are going to
have but even if you have it it may be
disabled like it was in my case and then
you end up getting that red mark that
your device is not good enough but it's
just disabled so don't worry you can
enable it yourself if you have it you'll
just need to access your bios settings
and look for security settings on intel
systems it's usually called ptt or ftpm
and amd devices now make sure to enable
these this way you can pass the tpm
check the other thing is secure boot so
this has been around for a long time
it's very likely that your pc has it too
but it may also be disabled so you can
think of the secure boot as a security
guard and make sure that your computer
only starts an operating system that's
digitally signed and trusted this
prevents things like malware sneaking in
microsoft states that systems having tpm
and secure booth enabled reduces malware
by 60
on tested devices so more security is
generally a good thing but it means that
older computers and even some of the
newer ones are not going to be able to
upgrade
unless
microsoft changes the requirements which
wouldn't be that uncommon and it's
already happened in the past as well
okay so with the system requirements out
of the way
the actual upgrade was easy it took
about an hour and it was painless like
some of those windows 10 fall updates
that we had before
you don't have to reinstall any apps
everything is there
just
it looks a bit different so your desktop
will look different that's the first
thing you're going to notice the taskbar
is centered which takes some getting
used to
but with a right click you can open the
taskbar settings and in taskbar
behaviors you can move it back to the
left again one thing i think will make a
lot of people unhappy is the never
combined feature that's gone with never
combine you could keep the windows of an
app ungrouped in the taskbar now since
this feature is gone they're going to be
treated like a single item until you
hover over it other than that the
windows have a fresh and modern look
with rounded edges the start menu is
cleaned up there aren't any more of
those live tiles which i appreciate
a new action center was implemented with
a modern look you can get to it by
clicking on this combine button for
internet volume settings and battery
down here or by using the new shortcut
windows a
here you get a lot of central controls
like monitor brightness and volume the
settings area also got a major overhaul
this is actually one of my favorites
because navigation in settings is much
easier than in windows 10 where you
always had to go back and forth you can
see all connected devices up here adding
a new device is also super simple with
network and internet you can get a
breakdown of your data usage by app and
that's pretty neat with personalization
you can select a theme or change the
background and colors now something i
like is the possibility to add shortcuts
to the start button so right now when i
click on start i see a lot of empty real
estate between my profile picture and
the power button this is where we can
add shortcuts scroll down to start and
then select folders then turn on what
you use often i'll select downloads and
pictures
and now when you click on start you'll
see these icons and you can jump
straight there windows 11 has also
optimized touch experience that makes it
much easier to use on tablets and
convertibles tablet mode is gone but it
got smart so when you detach the
keyboard it automatically adjusts touch
targets are bigger now for example the
taskbar spaces the icons out in the file
explorer you automatically get more
space between rows it makes it much
easier to select the right one
you get a customizable on-screen
keyboard similar to the ios keyboard you
can move around and it's also swipeable
so let's see i want to open word just
swipe over the letters and here it is
when you swipe in from the left edge you
get widgets
you can also click the button in the
taskbar or use the shortcut windows w
widgets are great to get a quick
overview on the weather news or your
to-do which is a widget that you can
also add this for me is super convenient
you can also use gestures like fingers
swiping down brings you to the desktop
and three fingers swiping left or right
goes to the last used app i work a lot
on my surface so this definitely is an
improvement for me
another improvement is clipboard history
it got an upgrade as well i used to
shortcut windows v all the time but the
one issue i had was that if you already
have a lot of items in your history
you'll have to scroll all the way down
to get to your print items in windows 11
you can now clear the history right here
with this button clear all and only your
pinned items remain
now check this out there are other tabs
we got emojis gifs camogies symbols we
get it all you can also get to this view
with windows period so this shortcut
works in windows 10 already but now you
get a wider selection next convenient
feature are snap groups when you hover
over the maximize button you get
multi-window snap presets the shortcut
windows z does the same thing this way
you can arrange your windows as you like
it's going to remember the setup even
when you unplug your laptop from the
external monitor when you undock it the
windows will be minimized to fit them on
the smaller screen but when you dock the
laptop again it's going to restore the
snap group that you previously had there
another handy feature is the improved
dictation that now comes with
autopunctuation so you don't have to
dictate your punctuation to turn it on
use the shortcut windows h click on
settings and enable auto punctuation
then just click on the microphone and
start dictating
if you don't see the microphone use
windows h to bring it up
hello i'm testing auto punctuation
yay it's really working
click on the microphone when you're done
or just pause for a bit and it will stop
or just say stop dictation this works
great now i said the same thing in
windows 10 and this is what i got hello
i'm testing auto punctuation
yay it's really working
so this seems to work well in 13
different languages already the other
new thing that microsoft introduced is
the built-in chat option from microsoft
teams this means that the default chat
app in windows 11 is not skype but a
consumer version in teams you'll see the
new chat icon on the taskbar when you
open it for the first time you need to
first sign in with your microsoft
account if you use skype or outlook
you're going to get the option to sync
your contacts after you set up if you
want to get in touch with someone you
just have to click the chat icon in the
taskbar or use the shortcut windows c
you'll see your most recent
conversations and you can respond or
start a new chat or call when someone
contacts you you're going to receive a
notification and you can respond
directly in line to text chats this way
you're going to be able to connect with
your friends and family you have
one-on-one chats group chats audio or
video calls and when this is completely
rolled out you'll even be able to do
screen sharing just like with the team's
business app this makes it easier for me
to help my dad with his excel problems
so clearly microsoft wants this to be
the central communication tool for
everyone now most of us use teams at
work on your school anyhow already so
this makes it easy for us to use it in
our personal life too now what do you
think can you see yourself switching to
teams for your personal communication so
instead of using whatsapp or signal let
me know below file explorer got a major
overhaul too the huge ribbon is gone
it's replaced with a clean toolbar the
right-click context menus are also
changed the most common tasks are shown
as icons up here it's all streamlined
and modern if you don't want the extra
spacing between the items you can easily
fix that in the layout and view options
up here
select compact view and it's going to
look like it did in windows 10. the one
thing that annoys me a lot is that there
are still no tabs so you still have to
open multiple windows for tabbed
browsing i really hope that would
finally be included so i don't have to
use extra items for that i tested the
current item that i use on windows 10.
there is already a better version for
windows 11 and it works fine if you're
interested about this add-in i have a
separate video on it now another
disappointment for me was virtual
desktops if you're multitasking working
on different things it makes sense to
have different desktops right it's
really easy to set them up in the
taskbar with task view you can create a
new desktop for example let's say you
want to have a dedicated gaming desktop
just click on the plus then change the
name to whatever you want now you have a
separate environment what's nice is that
you can have a different background for
different virtual desktops something
that's not possible to do in windows 10
but unfortunately that's where the
customization ends the pinned items on
the taskbar are the same the desktop
icons are the same now it would be nice
if you could have all your gaming links
in one desktop and all your professional
programs and apps on another desktop so
this in my view would make virtual
desktops really useful now let's go back
to gaming so something that's not
available in the preview yet is the xbox
tech that should come to windows 11. so
like auto hdr which will make your games
look a lot more vibrant and direct
storage which makes sure that your games
load faster from your graphics card
another thing that's currently missing
in the preview are android apps
but
when microsoft releases windows 11
officially you're going to be able to
install android apps now that's a big
plus because so far you'd have to use
the your phone app which basically just
requires a samsung mobile if you want to
get your apps to work that will change
with windows 11.
but where are you gonna go to install
your android apps
you will go to the newly designed
microsoft store you can install any
android app as long as they're available
in the amazon app store
this is where they're actually going to
be coming from so this bridging
is
a little bit strange for me so i wonder
how the performance of the apps will be
now what if you don't want to use the
amazon bridge to get to your apps well
windows 11 may support side loading of
android apps this way you're not going
to be dependent on your apps being
available on the amazon store so let's
see how things turn out
so
let's summarize
i found the official windows 11
microsoft presentation
quite dramatic and i thought
dramatic presentation dramatic change
don't get me wrong the design
improvement and especially the new
features that they implemented for touch
screens are great
but i just expected a bit more on the
feature side
now if the auto hdr and direct storage
for gaming happens as announced and the
bridging for the android apps performs
well too
it's definitely more than just a
glorified theme pack
and i consider it well worth the upgrade
what do you think
will you upgrade to windows 11 once it's
officially released
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