(techno music)
- Okay, Windows 11 is officially out now.
And to be honest,
there aren't that many changes from the public beta
that we looked at back in June.
I don't think this operating system is fully finished.
There's a few things missing
and I think it's just gonna change a lot
over the next year or so.
So, should you upgrade?
I will answer that one later,
But first let's dig into exactly what's new in Windows 11.
(mellow music)
Now, if you haven't seen anything about Windows 11 at all
and you haven't used it,
the first thing you're gonna notice is this new design.
So you'll see it's centered, the task bar centered,
the start menu is centered on that task bar as well.
And if you open up some apps, like File Explorer,
the corners to the Windows around it,
and there's a bit more depth
and color to Windows in general.
And that's central to this new Windows 11 design.
Most things have been sort of overhauled or even simplified,
and it makes it feel a little bit more fresh and new,
but underneath it's still Windows.
So let's talk about the new start menu.
So, it is very different to the Windows 11 one,
the live tile interface that was originally there
in Windows 8 has been stripped out.
Microsoft has definitely taken design cues from MacOS
Chrome OS and even mobile operating systems like Android.
It feels like a launcher for your apps
that you've got pinned apps at the top recommended stuff,
so that would be absolutely just been installed
or maybe a files and folders that you've been working on.
It feels like a launch.
You could obviously get access to all your apps here.
It feels very simplified and I really like it.
And I think a bunch of people
are going to like this in Windows 11.
Now, the other thing that's obviously changed
straight away is the task bar.
If you don't like it centered,
you can just jump into here
and quickly move it to the left-hand side
so it looks a lot more like Windows 10.
I don't particularly mind it in the sense of the interface
I think it's really going to be up to you.
But there are a few things about the task bar
I do want to talk about the kind of,
part of the stuff that's missing.
So you might have been used to clicking on the task bar
and getting the cascade option with task manager,
that stuff has just disappeared and it's completely gone.
You also might be used to using Windows 10 across multiple
monitors and having your task bar down the bottom
and the time and date in the corner.
The time and date has been completely
removed on multiple monitors.
I don't really understand why Microsoft has moved
that it's something that I glance at when I'm looking at
something full screen and my primary monitor.
So I'm really confused when it's missing.
I feel like it will come back eventually,
but just be warned.
If you are someone who uses Windows in a variety of
different ways, those things have gone.
Another thing about the task bar is, let's say I have,
I don't know, a video here
and I want to drag and drop it into other apps.
That is actually missing and Windows 11.
So I can't just drag and drop it into our apps.
Now I feel as a big thing for power users or just people who
are used to drag and drop, again, that might come back,
but it's just something that's missing right now.
Now the task bar houses a bunch
of new Windows 11 in features.
The first one being widgets.
Now, obviously these used to be
located down in the task bar in Windows 10,
but Microsoft sort of shifted them
into its new sort of like section or area.
Now you've got a bunch of different ones.
There's weather, you can check on the Premier League,
you know, your sports scores, there's traffic information.
You can check stocks, all that sort of stuff,
other stuff you sort of expect.
Microsoft's also adding in some of the photos stuff,
there's Outlook Canada.
We're hoping there's gonna be some third party ones soon,
but those don't appear to be there just yet.
Either way, I like these widgets feature.
I would prefer if I could drag and drop them onto the
desktop and just use them more around the operating system
rather than being in here, but they're restricted to here.
Now, the one thing I really hate
about the new widgets in Windows 11,
is the fact that it doesn't respect my default browser.
Now, if I clicked on the weather or the Premier League
scores, say, I want to see what the score is,
it'll force me into Edge,
even though Chrome is my default browser.
I really hate this aspect of Windows.
It's actually a thing that's been in the start menu as well.
So if I search for The Verge here and then hit enter,
it will bring me into Edge,
even though Chrome is my default browser.
I really wish Microsoft had
changed that for the final release.
I don't feel like that's going to get changed anytime soon,
because it's basically a method to keep you
going back to Edge.
But I really hate that part of it.
Now, the other new feature that you're finding Windows 11
on the task bar is Microsoft Teams integration.
Now I'll be perfectly honest.
I've barely used this during the beta because basically most
of my friends and family don't really use Microsoft Teams.
I'll communicate on WhatsApp or iMessage or other different
ways rather than Teams, but here it is.
You can use it for meetings,
so I can set up a video call here,
I can invite friends and family.
It is at the moment, primarily for consumers, surprisingly.
You'd think it'd be more for businesses, but it's actually
going to be enabled for consumers at first.
You could also access the full Microsoft Teams app.
So you can have chat sessions in there.
You can look at the activity, the calendar,
all that sort of stuff.
I'll be honest.
It's some sleek integration into Windows 11.
I think it would be great if it was something
that a lot of people used,
but the problem is not a lot of people use Microsoft Teams.
And I feel like a lot of people are just going to
disable this instead of use that, to be honest.
Now, as we dig deeper into Windows 11,
I really want to show you this new feature
that I absolutely love in Windows 11,
and it's called snap layouts.
Now you might remember if you've been using Windows for
a few years, you could right click here, Cascade Windows.
You could sort of snap Windows to the side like this,
Do it properly. There you go.
You snap Windows like that.
All those sort of features have been in there for years,
but some of them,
people just don't even realize they're there.
So Microsoft has added this new snap layouts feature.
And basically what you do is you hover over
the maximize button in any window within Windows,
and you get all these new options
to snap your apps as you like them.
So maybe I want to snap, you know,
File Explorer in the middle here.
I might want my Audacity to the left
and another app on the right.
I can do that pretty easily.
Now what you can also do is something called snap layouts.
Now, if I open up the new Microsoft Store here,
I'll open up settings,
and we'll talk about settings in the moment,
I will put a snap layout to put these three side by side.
I want to put File Explorer exploring there
and settings in there.
Now, if I hover over File Explorer, now,
it will either let me launch File Explorer individually,
or it will remember the snap group
where I've got all three windows side by side.
And basically it's a much better way
of multitasking and remembering like,
say, you're working on, I don't know,
a school project and you've got one note,
you've got the browser open and you've got
like File Explorer open.
It'll just remember those when you use those apps so that
you can just quickly back into the sort of
flow of work that you were used to.
I just think this is a really cool way of exposing a feature
that was primarily used by power users or people who are
really familiar with Windows,
into something that more people
would be able to discover a lot more easily.
Now I briefly mentioned settings just then,
and it's one of the areas of Windows 11
where it really demonstrates pretty much all
the best changes that Microsoft into this operating system.
So obviously I can look around here.
I can immediately find stuff
just by the logos and the colors.
Whereas before in Windows 10,
it was just black or white, basically.
You wouldn't be able to sort of quickly identify stuff.
Also, I can quickly switch between sections
to see if there's a Windows update, and I'm like, oh,
I'm going to change my default apps.
It's really easy to navigate around.
Now, I will admit when I first started using this,
it took a few hours to be honest,
even in a couple of days, to be honest.
To sort of get used to where all the things had gone,
'cause obviously stuff's been moved around,
but after using it for a few months,
I just love the way that all the things
have sort of displayed here.
Now it's not perfect.
Just like the rest of Windows 11, it's not perfect.
Say I wanted to change the mouse settings
and I don't know, like not everything's in here.
I want to change something else like scroll direction.
I don't know. Something like that.
Additional mouse things will throw me into this
sort of old interface in Windows 11s.
I really hope that Microsoft would kind of get rid of this
stuff and not really surface it easily in the settings
panels, but it's still there.
Like, with these crusty old icons from 1995, I don't know.
I don't know why that stuff's still there, but it is,
it feels a little bit unfinished there.
Now settings also exposed the new themes in Windows 11.
Now we're current in dark mode, and I can switch over to
light mode in here and everything will just basically go
white and kind of like flash bang blinding me in the face.
I don't particularly like light mode,
so as to keep to dark mode,
but I wish that Microsoft had really dug deep
into the operating system and improved dark mode throughout.
And unfortunately they haven't.
So I'll show you what I mean here. If I go into start run,
that is light mode, that's not dark mode.
If I go into task manager, this is light mode.
This is not dark mode.
And that is prevalent for out the whole of Windows 11,
Microsoft sort of simplified a bunch here,
but it hasn't always gone quite as far as it should have.
Now, those simplifications,
they extend down into the system tray
where you can obviously find your notification center
and the calendar and all that sort of stuff.
This is obviously a little bit tweaked,
not too drastically different.
I'd say the only thing that really is drastically
different here is your access to, say,
like your wifi settings or the volume controls,
all that sort of stuff has changed
and I prefer the simplification.
It could go a little bit further,
but I like what Microsoft has done here.
Now elsewhere, one of the other really big changes
in Windows 11 is the new Microsoft Store,
or Windows Store as we call it.
I feel like it's a lot quicker to navigate around now.
Just a lot more easier to use,
and it actually has some of the apps
that you actually care about.
So there's browsers in here,
like the Opera Browser is here.
There's apps, like maybe you use Zoom
for Zoom meeting calls, those are there now.
Like the apps that you actually care about
are starting to be part of the store.
I think that was a big problem in Windows 10
and obviously the Windows 8 era,
and it feels like Microsoft's been a lot more
open with Windows 11, allowing developers
to list their traditional desktop apps in here,
instead of trying to force them into these new touch,
you know, UWP apps.
And I think that's going to pay off.
There's already a bunch of apps there right now,
and I'm going to hazard a guess that within a year,
you're probably going to get most of the apps
that you care about in this Windows Store.
The new Microsoft Store will also house Android apps
eventually, that's not going to be there at launch just yet
and hopefully Microsoft's going to
preview it in the coming months.
But what basically means is Android apps are going to be
integrated into the store through the Amazon app store.
You basically go download things like TikTok
or your favorite Android games perhaps,
and run those side-by-side with Windows apps.
I'm not entirely sure how that's actually going to work
because we obviously haven't seen it really fully yet.
Microsoft has only really shown like basic slideshows,
so, we don't really know exactly how it works,
but it could be interesting for some people,
especially on the Android game side.
X-Box app is basically the one that they've been testing
for the past sort of year or so.
It is great.
I much prefer it to the old x-Box app.
It also provides access to X-Box game pass built in,
so you don't have to worry about
sort of bothering the Windows Store in front of that.
You could also stream games from the cloud as well from
X Cloud, if you're an X-Box game pass ultimate member.
So that's pretty good.
Some of the stuff that hasn't been updated again,
WordPad, old app. I mean, does do many people use it anyway?
I don't know, but it still has a ribbon interface,
which is very different to this sort of command bar
that we're sort of seeing in Paint and File Explorers.
So again, inconsistencies there,
dark mode, isn't there as well.
One of the apps that I use sort of every day,
and Microsoft has updated, is the photos app.
And it's very similar, but also, again,
the sort of Windows 11 theme simplified
and just a little bit different looking.
So, one of the main sort of additions that they've added is
this sort of like bar command bar at the bottom here
where you can sort of quickly flick between your photos
and then you can actually end up just
comparing them side by side. I think that's great
if you're trying to-
imagine you've gone out and taken a bunch of photos
and you want to just quickly compare the ones that
you want to keep, great little interface
within Windows to do that.
There's also a new editing menu where you can actually get
extensions from the store that will plug into sort of your
favorite apps, like, you know,
like Photoshop and stuff like that.
Those aren't quite there just yet fully,
but I think it's going to be really interesting to see
what they do with these extensions
and just sort of bolstering the editing capabilities
in the photos app,
cause this is an area of Windows that people use daily.
Microsoft also calls Windows 11
the best version of Windows for gaming, whatever that means.
There's not a bunch of new stuff here
to really back up that statement.
It's very similar to Windows 10. In fact,
I found that most of my games
just run the same as Windows 10.
There's nothing really new there.
Some of the new stuff is around HDR.
Microsoft now has the auto HDR option.
So if you have an HDR capable monitor,
you can enable that and that'll enable HDR in certain games.
That's basically an export feature
making its way to Windows 11.
There is going to be direct storage as well,
which is an underlying API that
should speed up your game loads, again,
that is also coming to Windows 10 and Windows 11,
but it's not quite there just yet.
Any real new visible feature for gaming and Windows 11
is the new X-Box app.
And beyond that, the X-Box sort of game bar,
all that sort of stuff is very similar to what's available
in Windows 10 right now.
Okay, so I've talked through a bunch of
the new Windows 11 features.
There's obviously a bunch of stuff that's missing there
or not quite there for launch.
And hopefully we'll see Microsoft improve on that
in the next few months and stuff.
But the real question is, should you upgrade?
And it's really difficult to answer that question
because it really depends on how you use Windows
and if your PC will even support it.
There's been a bit of controversy around Windows 11,
in particular around the minimum hardware requirements.
Microsoft has bumped them up
in the name of security, or so they say,
and basically what it means is you'll have to have an Intel
eighth gen or newer or the equivalent AMD processor
to be able to get this upgrade in the first place.
There's also a bunch of security things that you'll need
like TPM 2.0 support and Secure Boot enabled.
Those things might mean absolutely nothing to you,
and that's not a problem because most modern processes
would basically support them anyway.
The big problem with Windows 11 is
it might not actually support your processor.
Now, whether you should upgrade to Windows 11
I think really depends on how you use Windows
and on what device you actually use it on.
I've been using it across a bunch of different devices
and I've found that I really enjoy using it on laptops,
but on my desktop where I've got three monitors
and I'm using, you know,
different screens and I'm dragging and drop apps.
I feel like some of the missing taskbar features there,
as a power user,
I feel like I can't really upgrade to Windows 11
on my main desktop because of that.
So I will say if you're gonna upgrade,
consider how you use Windows and some of the features I
talked about here and whether they're really going to
improve things, there's a lot of new in Windows 11,
but when you scratch underneath the surface
of what looks new,
it kind of still feels like the Windows 10
that we're used to.
Let's go back to that analogy that I talked about earlier,
where Microsoft feels like Windows 11 is like an old family
home that's been renovated with, you know,
a fresh coat of paint, but still feels familiar.
I would agree with most of that,
but it feels like Microsoft hasn't quite finished the
renovations and it could still go a lot further.
It feels like Windows 11 still really a work in progress.
And you notice that from some of the missing features,
like the Android apps aren't quite there,
even with stuff like Universal Mute,
which was a button that was supposed to be there
so you can mute microphone across any meetings.
That stuff isn't quite there yet.
There's a lot to like about Windows 11,
some of the changes in the simplifications,
in the user interface, all that stuff I absolutely love,
but it's the inconsistency that dark mode
that's not quite dark mode.
Some of the features that are missing, a task bar changes,
all that stuff sort of adds up.
As someone who's used Windows for decades,
I feel like if this was supposed to be the next generation
of Windows, I really wish that Microsoft
had kind of waited and finished it off.
I think most people are going to like Windows 11.
It builds on the foundation of Windows 10,
which has been a really solid operating system
and will be supported until 2025 anyway.
One of the things many people used to recommend was
waiting for the SP one, the service pack one of Windows.
And I think because Windows 11 isn't fully finished yet,
you may want to hold off for a few months or a year
until Microsoft has sort of fully fleshed this out.
I think this is a good, solid upgrade to Windows,
but there's more to be done.
It's really wherever you want to wait for Microsoft to make
those changes in those tweaks or whether you're happy
with something that's constantly evolving.
The choice is really up to you.
Okay, thanks for watching our Windows 11 review.
I hope you enjoy digging through all the new features,
the good, the bad and the ugly.
We got bunch more content on Windows 11 at theverge .com
and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel too.