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2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

windowscentral.com

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Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#171

Post by butlike »

olyjohn wrote: post #104
pdntspa wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is actually shelling out $200 for Windows specifically? It's perceptually free if you bought it with your PC. And it's actually free if you took advantage of the free upgrade offer. I've picked up a few licenses off MacHeist for like $10

The cost is rolled into your PC when you buy it. Its not free. Your $10 licenses are not legal. Sorry. Those are sketchy grey market keys. Though Microsoft likely won't go after you for it, so I'm not sure it matters. You should have just saved the $10 and downloaded a cracked copy.

If they're authenticated when I install the OS, what makes them illegal?

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#172

Post by card_zero »

Glawen wrote: post #150
ksynwa wrote: post #142

For me the strange and unproductive direction Windows is going towards in encapsulated in the right-click menu in the file manager (Explorer). 11 has a shiny new menu that shows up when you right click. But it is a new coat of paint over the ones from 10 or before. Additional options from for example 7zip don't show up in it. You have to click "more options" at the bottom which them reveals the old menu. There is no…

Nice to mention that this new menu takes ages to appear, on my computer I can wait 5s until it is rendered and I can finally click on more options...

If I remember rightly, "send to" is missing, even after clicking for more options. This was one of the first places where I felt the need to hit Windows 11 with a wrench, so I've had the old-style context menu back for years now.

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#174

Post by EGreg »

Oreb wrote: post #110
EGreg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I truly don’t understand how the world’s most valuable corporations with huge reserves of cash employing tons of developers can exist and NOT make a stable and reliable bug-free product after 30 years. It’s just more bloat and bugs all the time. I think open source projects by contrast get better over time, because they’re not constrained by whatever corporate agenda is that obviously doesn’t prioritize combatting en…

I agree with your general complaints about the decline of Apple’s software quality, but what’s your problem with Safari? I’ve never found another macOS browser I like half as much.

On MacOS it is way better than the crippled hacked-together thing that is on iOS. Google was right to move from WebKit to Blink for Chrome. It is far more stable and impressive.

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#175

Post by tartoran »

subjectsigma wrote: post #101
grugagag wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to dea…

(From your own link, the story is just a myth that’s not supported by modern scientific evidence. But the point still stands.)

This is just a metaphor and not meant to be taken literally. It's about how the masses get used to poorer service gradually. Had it happened instantly they'd protest heavily but doing it slowly isn't obvious.

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#176

Post by card_zero »

utilize1808 wrote: post #168
Glawen wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice to mention that this new menu takes ages to appear, on my computer I can wait 5s until it is rendered and I can finally click on more options...

I remember seeing some tech vlogger discovering that the lag was due to a bug where the fade-in animation of the menu not being played properly, and the menu just "appear" after the missing animation, leading to the feeling of sluggish interaction.

But that's not just a feeling, it's actual sluggish interaction. What's it doing a fade-in for, to build suspense?

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#177

Post by odie5533 »

i80and wrote: post #154
ksynwa wrote: post #142

For me the strange and unproductive direction Windows is going towards in encapsulated in the right-click menu in the file manager (Explorer). 11 has a shiny new menu that shows up when you right click. But it is a new coat of paint over the ones from 10 or before. Additional options from for example 7zip don't show up in it. You have to click "more options" at the bottom which them reveals the old menu. There is no…

This sort of thing has been a devolving disaster since the Settings App was included in Windows 8 as a partial replacement for the Control Panel. I'm not sure the current state of things, but as of the last time I used Windows, the sets of functionality remained only partially overlapping between the two different tools.

The partial overlap has been in this state now for years and years. I still have to access the control panel for network device control, sound control, and some of the advanced sharing settings. I thought it would be a short transition but now we just have crappy partial duplicates of settings and ui styles scattered around this half baked migration. When I open the disk volume management it's like I'm back on Windows 2000 for some reason.

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#178

Post by ascendantlogic »

I've used macOS for development for 15+ years now but always built my gaming rigs using Windows. For the first time in my life I'm so annoyed with Windows I'm seriously entertaining the idea of putting SteamOS on my rig and fighting my way through whatever nonsense I have to to make it work. I was able to tolerate a lot of Microsoft's nonsense so I could have a very easy path to just turn my machine on and play some games without having to think too much about it but my patience is finally at an end.

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#179

Post by 12_throw_away »

wwweston wrote: post #151
ksynwa wrote: post #142

For me the strange and unproductive direction Windows is going towards in encapsulated in the right-click menu in the file manager (Explorer). 11 has a shiny new menu that shows up when you right click. But it is a new coat of paint over the ones from 10 or before. Additional options from for example 7zip don't show up in it. You have to click "more options" at the bottom which them reveals the old menu. There is no…

I’d be willing to bet that behind a change like this is a certain amount of data showing that the removed options weren’t used that frequently, and a stakeholder decision that this must mean that they should be demoted. And it’s data driven. Makes for a nice bullet point in a report. Most users don’t miss it, on stakeholders can tell themselves that those that you are a minority who don’t really matter for one reason…

> data showing that the removed options weren’t used that frequently [...] Most users don’t miss it

Um, I am very skeptical that Microsoft's KPIs have this level of alignment with actual user workflows.

Re: 2025 was a disaster for Windows 11

#180

Post by ACCount37 »

utopiah wrote: post #148
ACCount37 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The relation is tangential at best. Microsoft's management was a personification of corporate rot for a long while now, AI or no AI. They view Windows as a straw to suck users into their higher value products through, and are seemingly unaware of what "UX" is, or how their decisions affect it. Which is how Windows 11 ended up being such a clusterfuck.

> The relation is tangential at best. Microsoft's management was a personification of corporate rot for a long while now, AI or no AI. Is it though? Wouldn't you expect "personification of corporate rot" to precisely jump on whatever trendy bandwagon there is to make a quick buck, regardless of consequences, then move on?

I would. But if Microsoft's haphazard AI push was the only thing making Windows 11 worse than Windows 10 was, it would be a good OS overall.

I also believe that OS-level AI features can be worthwhile if implemented right. It's just that the chances of that happening at Microsoft, under the current Microsoft leadership, are nonexistent.

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