First impressions of Windows 11 aka Sun Valley from a leaked ISO — A much needed visual overhaul that does not alienate long-time users

[Redaktion]

We have managed to get our hands on a leaked ISO of Windows 11 (Sun Valley) doing the rounds on the internet. First impressions indicate that Microsoft has done a fair bit of UI overhaul to make Windows feel fresh and modern including a revamped OOBE, taskbar, and rounded window corners. But we also see that a lot of legacy apps still continue to exist.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/First-impressions-of-Windows-11-aka-Sun-Valley-from-a-leaked-ISO-A-much-needed-visual-overhaul-that-does-not-alienate-long-time-users.545807.0.html

[Hanzzz]

Are there any real changes?

[Vaidyanathan]

Are there any real changes?

Depends on what you imply by "real changes". There may not be too many under-the-hood changes compared to existing versions in the interest of app and driver compatibility.

[Andrey Konstantinov]

"Much needed" visual overhaul? Much needed by whom exactly?

As for the Xbox app, the only "onboarding" experience I want from it is the option to fully remove it from my system.

[splus]

So it's just a fresh paint over the old car? With a few small additions...
And, knowing Microsoft, probably a ton of bugs that will take two years to sort out.
Meh.

[Eric]

First, thanks to NotebookCheck for posting this!

But I must join in the negative reactions: is this just a superficial polish (that I never felt a need for), or did MS do a lot of work under the hood to remove long-known bugs, reduce resource usage, trim code, increase security, etc? So far, it looks and sounds like the former, which is disappointing, especially since at some point we'll have to give them our money to "upgrade" from Windows 10.

I've been growing increasingly curious about Linux over the last year, and now sounds like a good time to investigate further . . .

[georgex]

There are always changes under he hood on almost every windows update. You just won't find them on 99% of web sites. From the list above (which is the most comprehensive I've read yet - thank you) "Virtual Desktops can now be rearranged" is important to me, although this is not an "under the hood" change.
We will find out more soon.

[Samyak]

Hopefully other than just making the UI more " macOS-like ", they also emulate it's energy efficiency, security and bug-freeness, while maintaining the openness like before or emulate Linux in that regard .
Also they need to improve trouble shooting and support a lot more, if something goes wrong, you are mostly on your own.

[xpclient]

Rubbish. There was no overhaul needed. The taskbar has been ruined more and more in each version of Windows since Windows 7, then 8.1, then 10. Same for the Start menu. Give me the XP taskbar and I will be happy. This change-for-sake-of-change is going to break Open Shell, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and StartIsBack++. Windows 11 is already making life difficult for me.

[cvzalez]

Linux KDE here I come,  I know some people don't like Live Tiles, but for me was one of the best features Windows had, the easy way that I could see Calendar, Weather and Email, all at once, and sorted it at my style, was very usefull, but overal Windows is just an awfull OS, it's slow when you actually need to do hard work, RAM usage is insane, the electron based Teams app for example is so bad that is way faster and lighter to use a Browser for it, there's even a stupid article on the web of a well known PC/Windows magazine stating 16GB of RAM should be the minimum for a normal use machine because of Microsoft Teams usage, 16GB for new kind of Skype?? The OS has plenty of problems with updates that takes forever to install and hijack your computer preventing you of using your work machine. Privacy is a nightmare, don't respect your settings, and one huge problem for me is the lack of a fast FULL BACKUP system, I never lost so many hours of work in any OS as I did and still do on Windows, last week was my bluetooth headphones that did not work, the weak before was my touch pad that Windows update replaced with an incompatible driver, refusing to use the correct version, whatever I chose "don't update drivers" or "use this driver instead", options available on the enterprise version of Windows 10... I had lost data because of the few years ago update that Microsoft released and deleted files, it was not only me that had that problem, if you are wondering about it. Linux is not perfect, and is missing lot's of good apps, like Adobe Acrobat Pro, or video editor Vegas Pro, and others, but for a programmer is so much better, the fact that it shares libraries and updates in the background, in minutes, if not seconds, has instantaneous snapshots of the system, and easy and fast backup tools, just makes it better. Linux it's not an OS for the less tech knowledge people for now, maybe some Distributions already are, but if you use your computer to write some documents and browse the web, I see no reason to use Windows, and as said it lacks some apps, but I have found out that I get lot of things that I miss on Linux faster mirroring my Android apps on the Screen than actually use Windows 10 blown full slow apps. Scrcopy makes it as simple as a mouse click, as an example, It's way easier and faster to use Android Snapseed app or Android Power Director Cyberlink video editor to edit an image or video than is on Windows, and I can easily fast mirror it with Linux to use it on Linux Desktop, it instant syncs with Syncthing or easy upload/download with KDE Connect and all this tools work even if I don't have Internet connection. I can't even use my Caldav Calendar povider on Windows 10 Calendar because Microsoft does not allow it to. It's 2021 and still I can't connect securely SFTP on Windows File Explorer. I know that Idea of Microsoft is hijacking users to Windows 10 Store and making it the only way you can install Software, so for me is the End of the Road for Microsoft Windows OS. RIP Microsoft  Windows 2021

[_MT_]

The OS has plenty of problems with updates that takes forever to install and hijack your computer preventing you of using your work machine.

You can delay updates for months if you so choose, five days at a time I think. And you can specify a time window when updates shouldn't bother you (besides downloading and preparing) even if you leave your computer sitting (no coming back from lunch to find your computer has waken up from hibernation on its own and restarted). Unless, of course, you are using Home version on your work computer. Or you work for a company and are a part of a domain in which case your administrators rule.

[PK]

All the windows users are complaining, but I'm a mac user and I was pretty impressed with it.  Kill legacy support and make apps run in containers, and I might consider it.