FEAR of Windows 11

So, those of us who work in IT probably have a different perspective.

But….
In general it pays to update critical systems to the latest OS and run all recommend patches. If you wait until your OS is obsolete you will be faced with the prospect of possibly having to fix multiple things at once with a time crunch.

So…..
My advice is to get familiar with Win 11 while you still have the option to run things on Win 10. If you have programs which cannot be updated, or are so cost prohibitive that you need to run an older OS look into running them in a virtual environment. That way you won’t run into trying to repair or source obsolete hardware to support your obsolete software.

If neither is an alternative then build up a replacement machine that can be swapped in as needed.

John
 
Provincial said:
I long ago got fed up with Ballmer's Code Bombs (aka "Windows Update") because things quit working every time one installed.

I'm running Windows 10 still because the local computer store warned me away from W11 when I upgraded machines.

Does anyone else find Canon printer software as hard to use as I do? It is like they cross-wired the thought process.
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Windows updates fall under the category of "if it ain't broke, we can fix that." The chances of a hacker compromising your machine are MUCH lower than the likelihood that M$ will crash it with an update. Unfortunately, starting with Win10, they are nearly unavoidable.

I steer my customers to Brother laser printers. They just work, and cartridges are cheap and last a long time. As it turns out, very few people actually NEED color.
 
matthewsx said:
So…..
My advice is to get familiar with Win 11 while you still have the option to run things on Win 10. If you have programs which cannot be updated, or are so cost prohibitive that you need to run an older OS look into running them in a virtual environment. That way you won’t run into trying to repair or source obsolete hardware to support your obsolete software.
Click to expand...

Over the years I have set up virtual machines for a number of clients who were clinging to old software for various reasons. I have been very surprised at how stable and trouble-free they are, some running for over a decade with little or no maintenance required beyond moving them to a a new system and re-establishing connections to printers. I've been running Acad 2000 in a WinXP virtual box and scarcely notice that it's virtual.

I did make the mistake of using M$ Virtual Machine once or twice. As with so many other products, they get you comfortable and dependent on a package, then kill it. I use Windows, but avoid becoming dependent on any M$ products for which there are third-party alternatives. Much less chance of being left out on a limb when they cut the tree down.
 
MrWhoopee said:
I steer my customers to Brother laser printers. They just work, and cartridges are cheap and last a long time. As it turns out, very few people actually NEED color.
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I've been very happy with mine! Last a really long time and consumables are inexpensive.
 
Aaron_W said:
Last year I took an older (originally W7) machine from 2012 in to a local shop to get it upgraded as a second computer. Was still a viable computer just dated. I replaced the hard drive with something larger and added RAM. I found out that due to the age it will not support W11 even though by specs it should. It is based on something intrinsic to the hardware (chip or motherboard, don't recall).
Click to expand...
Windows 11 installation requires the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which is hardware on the motherboard.
learn.microsoft.com

Trusted Platform Module Technology Overview - Windows Security

Learn about the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and how Windows uses it for access control and authentication.
learn.microsoft.com

There are hacks that can be performed to eliminate that requirement from the installation package, and further hacks to prevent Windows from complaining about its absence once installed.
 
WobblyHand said:
You'd think Linux would be better, but they came up with a new window manager that obsoletes the old ways of remoting into a system. Can't find a way to do it anymore, even on my own network. There's VNC, but it is not as good.
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Yeah, the switch from X11 is causing all sorts of problems. There are pros/cons to it, but it does fix a number of issues people have complained about for decades, and simply couldn't be done in X11, so it's not entirely worthless. For remote desktop stuff, check out the stuff gamers use. Parsec, NoMachine, Moonlight... They tend to have much tighter timing so you at least aren't lagging as much as VNC. They also share things like sound that VNC ignores completely.

As for W11... meh... You're going to end up there eventually if you want a supported machine. One possible option is to use an isolated network with no internet capability or not network them at all. Most issues are related to protecting from remote threats. You can safely run DOS if there's no network.

Another option is to run whatever on the machine, and use virtual machines. Even basic VMs like virtualbox will be plenty fast for most needs. If you need hardware level access it can get tricky. More advanced setups can pass graphics cards and such directly to the VM. For Windows based gaming, I do that and pass a GPU, sound, and a USB controller through to Windows from my Linux desktop. I have a couple of old Win98 VMs that I don't let access any networks and just fire up when I want to use one old program. Thankfully I don't need it much anymore. Those can seemingly break themselves while not running.

Note that if you want to do isolated networking, there are a lot of possible gotchas there. One wrong routing table entry and you are online. And remember that every machine is capable of being a router, so a computer on both networks is a possible issue.

And yes, Brother laser printers are excellent. They even make color laser now, so you can get very good color printing for a decent price that doesn't play games with ink. Not as nice for photos, but for school type stuff, it works great. And unless you print a LOT of photos, it's way more expensive to have your own printer at home these days. I calculated it once because my wife really wanted one. I think it would up to be something like $5/ea for the volume she had in mind. Then the ink dries or times out and you need new ones. I think the store down the street was was about 75c/ea at the time.
 
Windows 11 is not much different than 10. A couple of annoying differences such as more ad-like messages. Microsoft Edge still tries to edge its way in to be the master of all browsers (I'm fighting back on that.). Win 11 has worked well for me although I resisted switching over for a good year or so out of fear for older, specialized SW not working. The Canon D1120 laser printer driver is not available for Windows 11 but the Windows 10 version works OK. That is really about the only "glitch" I had with the upgrade and I have MANY applications loaded. Really that is Canon wanting to sell new printers and not support older ones. Oh, one other one. Altium (Schematic/PCB software) was crashing after I installed on a Win 11 machine. That was fixed with a graphics driver update.

I share the low opinion of HP consumer machines. Not much bang for the buck in my experience.

I have Win XP, Win 2000, Win 7 and Win 10 on various machines. They all kind of feel the same to me. (The older Win machines are not connected to a network so no virus worries for the most part.)
 
Concur with @Reddinr above that Win10 and Win11 are very similar. Win11 does have some additional hardware requirements, like needing an onboard security chip, that earlier versions didn't, so it likely needs newer hardware.
 
I have gone to Mac and IOS and only use Windows for LabView and SolidWorks. These are Win10, the programs do everything I am likely to need, and I don't plan to ever upgrade with any Microsoft products. So there. :)
 
OK, W11 it is,

Now all my experience with HP is their business class. Sounds like the offer I found is low end. All the companies are doing this - race to the bottom.

Who makes the best reliable computer. I do NOT need fast, I need rock solid for years. I do want multiple hard drives so the slim line stuff is out.
 
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