Windows 11 Verdict

[RogerWilco]

On 11/29/2021 at 1:18 AM, Shenanigunner said:

And besides... I still have about 100 DVDs even though I give public seminars on streaming. 😄

 

They still work just fine. And there will be something of a resurgence with 4K Blu-Rays, since uncompressed bandwidth is prohibitive.

Only 100?

 

I still have floppies (both 3.5 and 5.25), zip-disks, and even a few tapes and punch cards lying around.

The zip-disks are mostly from my dad though, and I no longer have a (working) machine to read the tapes or punch cards, they're decoration now.

We used to run tape machines at work until about 2012. The high end stuff that could steam 500 MB/s for hours. But the guy that knew how to calibrate them has retired, and internet is now fast enough. We used to say: "Don't underestimate the bandwidth of a van full of tapes".

 

I largely used OSX/MacOS for most of the last decade and a half, but have switched back to Windows this year, waiting a bit before I go Windows 11, although it finally seems to have some of the improvements that I miss most from OSX/Linux like proper virtual desktops.

[WanderingAries]

We used to turn Floppy media into christmas tree balls. 😛

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, WanderingAries said:

We used to turn Floppy media into christmas tree balls. 😛

 

We decorated the office with AOL disks at one place I worked... both the floppies *and* CDs.

[DoctorDitko]

I was so upset when they changed to CDs.

AOL and my hole-puncher had been providing my Amiga with free floppies for so long!

[GhostDawg]

On 11/26/2021 at 5:31 AM, KC4800 said:

Yes or No? Compatible with game and Tequila launcher? HC launcher?

Yes, compatible with both launchers. I'm running 11 now. It's fine.

[Squeegle]

Been running it since before returning to CoH as part of the windows insider program. Zero issues. I do recommend start11 as the new start menu leaves a lot to be desired.

[srmalloy]

On 11/30/2021 at 4:54 PM, WanderingAries said:

We used to turn Floppy media into christmas tree balls. 😛

There was a trick I used to do with floppy disks that had started reporting media errors -- you carefully pop the 'welds' along one side of the outer case , then open it and slide out the actual floppy media, then glue it back closed and print a label for the 'empty' disk identifying it as "InVisiCalc -- the first totally transparent spreadsheet program!" (which dates me horribly; for those who don't remember 40-year-old software, 'VisiCalc' was a spreadsheet program release in 1979 for the Apple ][ that died almost overnight in the market with the release of Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983).

[DoctorDitko]

"Mom! srmalloy said the L word!"

 

Back in the days of CD burning being a bit of a black art (when SCSI voodoo was a thing), I'd save all the mis-burned CDs and package them in a plastic CD cakebox and give them as gag gifts. The label said "Hand made laser-etched coasters" and I wish I still had the text I wrote for it, but it was a bit like a Pet Rock owner's manual, and concluded "as a final step, the artisan says a special incantation over each one".

 

 

[Echo Night]

Not sure what the problem is but since the newest issue, the game for me has been much slower than normal and choppy. I am running W11 (for about a month now) and it's been fine until the newest issue. Everything is current and updated. Checked for dust, all good. Anyone else experiencing similar suckiness recently? Edit: Also, since the newest issue, when I alt+tab out and then go back to the game, my mouse pointer doesn't come along for the ride and I have to either alt+tab out several times or hit the windows key several times to get it back.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Echo Night

[LightningSmurf]

Ever since upgrading to 11 my internet keeps dropping when I try to play the game. No issues with the game not running only with the game and usually as soon as I log into the mapserver.

Edited December 16, 2021 by LightningSmurf

[Shenanigunner]

10 hours ago, LightningSmurf said:

Ever since upgrading to 11 my internet keeps dropping when I try to play the game. No issues with the game not running only with the game and usually as soon as I log into the mapserver.

 

Driver. Bet you 100M Inf.

 

Go upgrade it directly from the OEM, not the (usually adequate but not always) Windows bundle set.

 

It takes months for all drivers to catch up to a major OS release, even if the current/temp ones "meet all the specs" and "work good enough." That's the real hassle with these upgrades. MS did their job, usually pretty well (and so does Apple)... but there are so many billions of individual devices and peripherals that again-robust drivers cause headaches for a long time.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[WanderingAries]

7 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

 

Driver. Bet you 100M Inf.

 

Go upgrade it directly from the OEM, not the (usually adequate but not always) Windows bundle set.

 

It takes months for all drivers to catch up to a major OS release, even if the current/temp ones "meet all the specs" and "work good enough." That's the real hassle with these upgrades. MS did their job, usually pretty well (and so does Apple)... but there are so many billions of individual devices and peripherals that again-robust drivers cause headaches for a long time.

 

 

 

Yeah, the reviews I've seen on Win11 seem to all point out better (general) game performance when using the current MFG drivers.

[LightningSmurf]

UPDATE - 
Not a driver issue as all drivers are updated.  But I switched characters and the other ones (on the same account) all work although with a ton of lag and rubber banding. It's just one character on my account that seems to not work at all. Going to try again tonight.

[Greycat]

Unrelated to troubleshooting but I thought this was funny...  (If you're wondering, I was looking to see if there was anything with the old game Myth that would cause problems.)

 

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Greycat

[Player2]

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/6/16/22537526/windows-11-cortana-says-windows-10-last-version

[Shenanigunner]

So my turn to update to Win11 came along, just as I was winding down for an evening, so I told it to go ahead. (Short version: I've never hesitated to move forward with OS updates because I use too many high-end, demanding tools to try and hack them into working on old platforms. And I've never had significant problems since the era of having to wait for new drivers—even my WinNT to Vista upgrade was flawless. Of course, I didn't try to use it on a 5 year old Win95 laptop...)

 

Anyway, I haven't heard anything about Win11 that would make me want to wait, and the increased security and virtualization is a 110% improvement no matter how much it knocks down insane framerates.

 

But.

 

My very first experience when the system came up again was that the taskbar was now on the bottom of my center monitor.

 

Guess what.

 

You can't move it. At all. Unlike every other OS including Windows back to 7 if not Vista.

 

You can have it bottom center on your defined main monitor. You can have it on the bottom of all your monitors. And — what the hell am I complaining about! — you can group all the icons in the center, or shift them to the left! And you can make the taskbar hide, too.

 

There are registry hacks, but they have downsides. There is a lot of furious bitching in the forums. There is silence from Microsoft. And no one can figure out what in the holy hell of the Shadow Shard's ass they were thinking to cripple this UI feature. It's made my day about 10% less productive for a number of reasons.

 

Other than that brain-dead, oh-dint-we-tellya, BillG's boys are so smart piece of idiocy, though, Win11 is just great. Ooh, and rounded corners again without the total Fisher-Price look of XP.

 

Sigh.

[Apparition]

3 minutes ago, Shenanigunner said:

So my turn to update to Win11 came along, just as I was winding down for an evening, so I told it to go ahead. (Short version: I've never hesitated to move forward with OS updates because I use too many high-end, demanding tools to try and hack them into working on old platforms. And I've never had significant problems since the era of having to wait for new drivers—even my WinNT to Vista upgrade was flawless. Of course, I didn't try to use it on a 5 year old Win95 laptop...)

 

Anyway, I haven't heard anything about Win11 that would make me want to wait, and the increased security and virtualization is a 110% improvement no matter how much it knocks down insane framerates.

 

But.

 

My very first experience when the system came up again was that the taskbar was now on the bottom of my center monitor.

 

Guess what.

 

You can't move it. At all. Unlike every other OS including Windows back to 7 if not Vista.

 

You can have it bottom center on your defined main monitor. You can have it on the bottom of all your monitors. And — what the hell am I complaining about! — you can group all the icons in the center, or shift them to the left! And you can make the taskbar hide, too.

 

There are registry hacks, but they have downsides. There is a lot of furious bitching in the forums. There is silence from Microsoft. And no one can figure out what in the holy hell of the Shadow Shard's ass they were thinking to cripple this UI feature. It's made my day about 10% less productive for a number of reasons.

 

Other than that brain-dead, oh-dint-we-tellya, BillG's boys are so smart piece of idiocy, though, Win11 is just great. Ooh, and rounded corners again without the total Fisher-Price look of XP.

 

Sigh.

 

 

You want Start11.  It'll cost money, but it's worth every penny IMO.

 

 

 

[Glacier Peak]

2 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

So my turn to update to Win11 came along, just as I was winding down for an evening, so I told it to go ahead. (Short version: I've never hesitated to move forward with OS updates because I use too many high-end, demanding tools to try and hack them into working on old platforms. And I've never had significant problems since the era of having to wait for new drivers—even my WinNT to Vista upgrade was flawless. Of course, I didn't try to use it on a 5 year old Win95 laptop...)

 

Anyway, I haven't heard anything about Win11 that would make me want to wait, and the increased security and virtualization is a 110% improvement no matter how much it knocks down insane framerates.

 

But.

 

My very first experience when the system came up again was that the taskbar was now on the bottom of my center monitor.

 

Guess what.

 

You can't move it. At all. Unlike every other OS including Windows back to 7 if not Vista.

 

You can have it bottom center on your defined main monitor. You can have it on the bottom of all your monitors. And — what the hell am I complaining about! — you can group all the icons in the center, or shift them to the left! And you can make the taskbar hide, too.

 

There are registry hacks, but they have downsides. There is a lot of furious bitching in the forums. There is silence from Microsoft. And no one can figure out what in the holy hell of the Shadow Shard's ass they were thinking to cripple this UI feature. It's made my day about 10% less productive for a number of reasons.

 

Other than that brain-dead, oh-dint-we-tellya, BillG's boys are so smart piece of idiocy, though, Win11 is just great. Ooh, and rounded corners again without the total Fisher-Price look of XP.

 

Sigh.

One step forward, two steps back. That way they can sell it as an upgrade 😆 

[Shenanigunner]

2 hours ago, Apparition said:

You want Start11.  It'll cost money, but it's worth every penny IMO.

 

Thanks, but I've never used any feature of the 'start menu' in any version of Win that's had one. It seems to be a feature aimed at small-screen users who need a lot of customizable selectivity. Me, I just want my taskbar over on the far left monitor's far left edge, where it's been for probably 20 years. That keeps my main menu free for work and lets me keep an eye on things like which apps I have open, whether there's email waiting, etc.

 

I'll wait until MS fixes their "improvement," which I suspect will take less than 90 days. It isn't even something they've done with smug explanations and smarmy assurances of what a wonderful improvement it is... it seems to have just fallen off the build sheet without their noticing it.

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Shenanigunner

[Erratic1]

2 hours ago, Apparition said:

You want Start11.  It'll cost money, but it's worth every penny IMO.

 

My current machine's cpus are beneath the threshold to support it. So want it or not, it will have to wait until I am prepared to get a new machine.

[ForeverLaxx]

And here I am still running Win7 Ultimate.

Edited January 29, 2022 by ForeverLaxx

[Wavicle]

I don't really know for sure, but it definitely SEEMS like my game has gotten WAY laggier since upgrading to Windows 11. Anyone else?

[Bill Z Bubba]

12 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

I don't really know for sure, but it definitely SEEMS like my game has gotten WAY laggier since upgrading to Windows 11. Anyone else?

 

I'm still on 10 and I've noticed increased lag, but I've yet to determine if it was game related or due to me being in a different state on a different ISP.

[DoctorDitko]

On 1/27/2022 at 10:35 PM, Shenanigunner said:

taskbar over on the far left monitor's far left edge

Hear, hear!

Especially on widescreen monitors, horizontal real estate is precious!

[Greycat]

29 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

I don't really know for sure, but it definitely SEEMS like my game has gotten WAY laggier since upgrading to Windows 11. Anyone else?

 

No difference here. (And I can go from a W10 to W11 machine to compare.)