Installing Win11 now...

[Notbilly]

Munkus, what did you do to turn off VBS? I'm still on Win10 but noticed that, per MSInfo, VBS is already running on my PC (maybe b/c I use the hypervisor for WSL2?). Was it just a registry edit to do it?

[eNforcer]

Installed it yesterday via the official Installation Assistant, also created a bootable USB installer with the official Media Creation Tool just in case.

It's fine, I like most of it so far. There's a lot of evidence being posted that the UI is largely just a skin, screenshots and gifs of the old Win 10 UI glitching through the new Win 11 UI. I'm hoping this isn't hurting performance, it doesn't "feel" like it is though.

I actually kind of miss being able to group pinned apps in the start menu, but the Win 10 start menu was a huge waste of usable space.

The clipboard history tool is very useful, check it out. Enable it in the settings and hit Win + V.

[Nascar24]

Not at home to check in Windows 11 but in Windows 10 you can turn off VBS by searching Device security and there are options to turn it on and off in there.

[Nascar24]

As much as I dont want to, I'm probably going to drop out of the Insider preview Dev crap and install the release version of Windows 11. Don't like how the Dev preview channel works with constant new builds that require reinstalls every time you want to go to the next. And there is no way to drop out of it without a reinstall! Bleh!

[Nunz]

Enabled TPM and just installed Win11. I really like the new taskbar, this thing is sweet for a 38" ultrawide! Not a huge fan of this start menu, though .. I'm sure it'll grow on me

[Munkus]

Munkus, what did you do to turn off VBS? I'm still on Win10 but noticed that, per MSInfo, VBS is already running on my PC (maybe b/c I use the hypervisor for WSL2?). Was it just a registry edit to do it?

There was more to it than that, but TBH I tried so many things and eventually found the winning combination. I think it was a combination of registry changes and uninstalling Windows Defender Application Guard. Regardless, I didn't see a huge jump in fps in games, so I'm not sure about the claim that VBS causes a 28% performance hit. I'm probably going to reinstall App Guard and undo the registry changes just so I have max protection.

[acroig]

Not a huge fan of this start menu, though .. I'm sure it'll grow on me

Same here.

[Munkus]

I don't like the new Start menu or where it's positioned. Luckily it's easy to move it back to the left side. Also, Stardock just released Start11 to bring back the old Start menu I love, so that's an option if Microsoft's new design doesn't flick your Bic. (arcane reference there...who gets it?)

[Nunz]

I was going to just do the upgrade from Win10 but I'm gonna reformat. Just need to backup some pics and get the ISO on my flash drive.

[Mangler]

Is auto-hdr available in the current version of win11?

[acroig]

I don't like the new Start menu or where it's positioned. Luckily it's easy to move it back to the left side. Also, Stardock just released Start11 to bring back the old Start menu I love, so that's an option if Microsoft's new design doesn't flick your Bic. (arcane reference there...who gets it?)

Waves.....

[acroig]

Is auto-hdr available in the current version of win11?

Yes.

[Nunz]

Is there a way to make your right click automatically go to the "show more options" by default? I have having to right click a file, then "show more options" to select 7zip to extract, or cut/copy/paste.

[Munkus]

Is there a way to make your right click automatically go to the "show more options" by default? I have having to right click a file, then "show more options" to select 7zip to extract, or cut/copy/paste.

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/windows-11-classic-context-menus

[Nunz]

You're a hero! I was only finding a bunch of old regedits that don't seem to work on the official build; must have been some stuff from dev builds.

Thanks!! I'm actually pretty satisfied with it so far - the context menu was definitely my biggest gripe thus far. Time to start DLing games and testing performance. I don't expect much change at all, though.

[Munkus]

Final ISO can be downloaded here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

[Munkus]

You're a hero! I was only finding a bunch of old regedits that don't seem to work on the official build; must have been some stuff from dev builds.

Thanks!! I'm actually pretty satisfied with it so far - the context menu was definitely my biggest gripe thus far. Time to start DLing games and testing performance. I don't expect much change at all, though.

You're welcome

There are a few other tweaks that I made, like bringing back the full File Explorer ribbon and disabling VBS. I'm pretty happy with it so far. Haven't found anything that won't run as well as it did on Win 10.

[Nunz]

Yeah, pretty nice so far. I just had a random shutdown, though - PC shut down and started back up on it's own. Very strange.

I did update the BIOS on my mobo, so I may have entered my manual memory timings incorrectly .. damn it. I forgot to take a pic of them before I set to defaults prior to updating the BIOS.

Just got another one. I think my RAM voltage wasn't set properly .. we'll see. bumped it up to what I'm 99% sure it used to be. I don't see Win11 causing the shutdowns .. must be my mistake.

Yep - I set my voltage to 1.52v instead of 1.55v. I forgot that I ran 1.52 @ 4133, but need 1.55 for 4266 .. woops!

When I reinstalled, I took the leap and got rid of Google Chrome - I imported everything to Edge, and I must say .. very impressed. Super snappy browser, and the import was as easy as one click. Passwords, extensions etc all copied over. Very happy with this and Win11 overall .. I'll test out some D2R now

[acroig]

All working well here too. Games are as fast as Win 10 and have set HDR to Auto.

[Nunz]

I'm actually seeing performance increase. My timespy score went up over 800pts with a fresh Win11 install on same settings

[Nascar24]

Well I am now on the official build of windows 11 from a clean install and all is well, less problems already, steam is such a dream to find my hundreds of games over 8 drives. The rest of the launchers are a nightmare.

[Munkus]

I think I'm going to do a wipe and reinstall using the release ISO, just because I'm a neat freak and it's been awhile.

[Nascar24]

lol, to hell with all these other game launchers except maybe blizzard. They all either have to verify or try downloading the game again when its completely unnecessary, I guess I live with my steam library and I will screw around with any game I might have stored if I feel like it, the other launchers are just plain stupid!

[Nunz]

I think I'm going to do a wipe and reinstall using the release ISO, just because I'm a neat freak and it's been awhile.

I did the upgrade and lasted 10 minutes. There's nothing like a clean, fresh install.

[Nascar24]

And wholy crap the ms game launcher is complete crap, you can’t keep installs from different drives to just add the dam game back in and is just giving me fits trying to del. the dam directories so the drive can be used again to install future games to that drive. I don’t understand how ms can be this stupid with this chit.

[Talon_262]

Enabled TPM and just installed Win11. I really like the new taskbar, this thing is sweet for a 38" ultrawide! Not a huge fan of this start menu, though .. I'm sure it'll grow on me

Start11: https://www.stardock.com/products/start11/

It's not (as of yet) as configurable as Start8 or Start10, but part of that may be because Start11 is still in beta; I've been using it for the past month or so and, beta or not, it works a treat.

[Munkus]

And wholy crap the ms game launcher is complete crap, you can’t keep installs from different drives to just add the dam game back in and is just giving me fits trying to del. the dam directories so the drive can be used again to install future games to that drive. I don’t understand how ms can be this stupid with this chit.

Yeah, the way the XBox app stores game files is nuts. They lock the folders down tight, and there is no way to tell the app to find existing games, so you end up with many Gbs of files that you can't delete easily.

[Nunz]

Start11: https://www.stardock.com/products/start11/

It's not (as of yet) as configurable as Start8 or Start10, but part of that may be because Start11 is still in beta; I've been using it for the past month or so and, beta or not, it works a treat.

I'm not a fan of running extra applications (mah FPS!!). The Start Menu is definitely not as thought-out as the Win10 version, but I'll get used to it. I really liked the tile design and how organized you could make it. Currently, as far as I can tell, you can't do that with the Win11 menu.

With the context menu being fixed (thanks to Munkus!) I'm loving Win11 thus far. Gamed a bit last night and it was smooth as butter, and Auto HDR works really well. My monitor is only HDR400 with no local dimming so it's not the best experience but hey, it does work.

[Nascar24]

Yeah, the way the XBox app stores game files is nuts. They lock the folders down tight, and there is no way to tell the app to find existing games, so you end up with many Gbs of files that you can't delete easily.

I guess the moral of this story is to uninstall all MS launcher games before wiping and starting fresh with windows 11. Just plain out ridiculous.

[Munkus]

I guess the moral of this story is to uninstall all MS launcher games before wiping and starting fresh with windows 11. Just plain out ridiculous.

Yep.

[Nascar24]

Yep.

Honestly still a bit baffled, I was trying to take ownership left and right but it plain out refused, tried a force delete program and it failed, after many attempts to take ownership it let me rename the folder, which in turn after a reboot it disappeared and created a new folder, which was empty. I checked the space on the drive, after it disappeared the space on the drive didn't change and the folder is now supposedly gone, its also not hidden as I checked that too. So where the hell is all the space those games took up? Dam you Microsoft.

[Nunz]

Honestly still a bit baffled, I was trying to take ownership left and right but it plain out refused, tried a force delete program and it failed, after many attempts to take ownership it let me rename the folder, which in turn after a reboot it disappeared and created a new folder, which was empty. I checked the space on the drive, after it disappeared the space on the drive didn't change and the folder is now supposedly gone, its also not hidden as I checked that too. So where the hell is all the space those games took up? Dam you Microsoft.

Try running a disk cleanup - maybe it moved the folder to temporary files or the recycle bin and you can't see it?

Oh, and hot damn I wish I had swapped to MS Edge sooner! It runs amazing and the privacy features seem legit compared to the Chrome datamining that was going on.

[Nascar24]

Try running a disk cleanup - maybe it moved the folder to temporary files or the recycle bin and you can't see it?

Oh, and hot damn I wish I had swapped to MS Edge sooner! It runs amazing and the privacy features seem legit compared to the Chrome datamining that was going on.

Ill give that a try when home tonight, shouldn't be this much of a pain to del. a game install directory manually, we are not talking about saving the world here, which requires complete lockdown.

[Nunz]

I completely agree. I wish I had more experience with the MS Store, but I don't use it or have any games under it, otherwise I would test for you.

I stick to Steam and Battle.net these days

[Nascar24]

I completely agree. I wish I had more experience with the MS Store, but I don't use it or have any games under it, otherwise I would test for you.

I stick to Steam and Battle.net these days

Yea steam is actually a dream to deal with on reinstalls and Blizzard isn't bad either as long as you know where your install is.

[Munkus]

Oh, and hot damn I wish I had swapped to MS Edge sooner! It runs amazing and the privacy features seem legit compared to the Chrome datamining that was going on.

Yeah MS Edge runs really well, and there are a lot of privacy tweaks you can set inside the browser or on Microsoft's user profile page. Since MS's business model isn't selling your data to advertisers, I trust it more than Google. Still, I'm pretty paranoid about privacy, so I use a VPN and Brave browser. Runs just as well as Edge (both based on chromium) so it's my daily driver. I only use Edge when I need to run Office 365 browser apps. They seem to like Edge better (shocker! ).

[Nunz]

Yeah MS Edge runs really well, and there are a lot of privacy tweaks you can set inside the browser or on Microsoft's user profile page. Since MS's business model isn't selling your data to advertisers, I trust it more than Google. Still, I'm pretty paranoid about privacy, so I use a VPN and Brave browser. Runs just as well as Edge (both based on chromium) so it's my daily driver. I only use Edge when I need to run Office 365 browser apps. They seem to like Edge better (shocker! ).

Whatcha got to hide, huh?!

I'm not too crazy about the privacy stuff; I just don't like how Google has responded to the stuff they've been accused of regarding datamining, and yeah, the fact that they make billions of dollars off selling data just makes it even worse. I've also noticed it's a complete resource hog and the amount of resources it uses doesn't make sense. Edge seems much more streamlined despite being Chromium based.

We use Edge at work since most DoD websites are (were) built for Internet Explorer, so Edge has been what they are transitioning things to.

[Nascar24]

Try running a disk cleanup - maybe it moved the folder to temporary files or the recycle bin and you can't see it?

Oh, and hot damn I wish I had swapped to MS Edge sooner! It runs amazing and the privacy features seem legit compared to the Chrome datamining that was going on.

You were right on the money it threw them in the recycle bin.

[acroig]

Gamed a bit last night and it was smooth as butter, and Auto HDR works really well. My monitor is only HDR400 with no local dimming so it's not the best experience but hey, it does work.

I was about to report the same exact thing. Auto HDR works really well.

[Trunks0]

Yea the datamining by Google is why I switched away from Chrome awhile back. Now I just use FireFox, Vivaldi occasionally and Edge. Mind you....I say that, but I use a ton of their services else where. So not really accomplishing much by not using Chrome on my desktop

I'll have to spin up a second drive and try this out. But I won't be switching for awhile, as Win10 is doing just fine for now.