Windows 11: Hands on with the official preview build - rodriguezforling

Some cardinal weeks ago, we went hands along with an unofficial leaked build of Windows 11. Instantly, Microsoft has officially released Windows 11 to Windows Insiders, with galore brand new features we haven't seen before, including entirely new looks for the gorgeous Settings app, File Explorer, the Notification Center, and more. Tail end the scenes, there's even to a greater extent.

If you're interested in downloading Windows 11 for yourself, the process is acicular: Simply connect the Windows Insider program, make sure that your PC meets the Windows 11 compatibility requirements, and so download the Windows Insider beta. In this report, we'll establish you what we saw in the official build, and what'struly new from the leaked Beta. Microsoft has also indicated additive features that will picture sprouted under specialized conditions, such Eastern Samoa later on you readjust your PC and start refreshful.

We proved a fresh install of Windows 11 Insider Preview build 10.0.22000.51 on a Surface Laptop 4, powered past an AMD Ryzen 7 Surface Edition mainframe. We still have the leaked habitus running on a offprint Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ tablet, though we're sighted the opportunity to upgrade if you join the Windows Insider program there, too.

We've scrawled previously that Windows 11 represents "something more Windows 10, but far less than what we'd consider a 'true' next-generation operating system." This still holds true. While Microsoft maintains the same functionality in Windows 11 as it does within Windows 10, the look and feel of the operational organisation has denatured. This will plausibly affect your motor memory a trifle, and your unconscious agency of navigating through with Windows. On proportionality, however, Microsoft has made some intriguing improvements to Windows 11.

For reference, here's our earlier video active of the leaked Windows 11 build.

Windows 11 setup

Downloading the build took about 20 minutes roughly connected my 400Mbit/s home wideband connection, then needful around 10 additional minutes to put in and reboot. Because this was an in-place upgrade, Microsoft didn't show the traditional "OOBE" (Out of the Boxful Live), and or else left-handed preferences in place. Microsoft same Monday that if you'd like to alone reset your PC, you'll see the new OOBE experience (shown below) besides as something new: the selection to rename your PC American Samoa part of the setup go through.

I did go steady a new-sprung screen as part with of upgrading the PC to the Windows Insider program, however. I was asked for my preferred web browser settings (including look engine) as shown in that cover below.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Microsoft truly wants you to copulate Microsoft Edge and Bing together.

Windows 11 commencement impressions

Right from the beginning, Microsoft tips you off that this is a virgin version of Windows with a late lock screen that employs a different typeface. Notably, it doesn't offer any of the familiar discourse text that usually accompanies the Windows operate screen until a few seconds pass. It even looks a bit like a lock screen Google might show you as part of Chromium-plate OS. Microsoft's startup sound for Windows also returns in Windows 11, with a soft chime that signals you're ready to work.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Windows has garnered a reliable look up to and feel over the years. This, however, feels decidedly polar.

A quick flick of my finger on the lock screen, and I was into Windows 11 proper. Since I bounce around versatile Windows laptops, I found that a Minecraft background had snuck back onto my desktop.

As we revealed with the leaked form of Windows 11, there are two fundamental changes that immediately greet your eye. The first is the centralised Taskbar on the bottom of the covert, with a cluster of your most frequently used icons right in the center. The second senior changes appears every bit the very left-just about icon: the new Start button, which opens up a simplified version of the Get going menu.

The Showtime menu is nonmoving a bit of a shock. Live Tiles experience totally disappeared, and are replaced with a list of rather easy, albeit pretty, icons. Microsoft also processed what we suspected: The "Suggested" files seen at the bottom of the Start menu are the most recently opened files from your PC and OneDrive.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Microsoft hasn't made whatever changes to the first official build of Windows 11 where the Start card and Taskbar are concerned.

If this all looks familiar, it should. Arsenic we've noted previously, Windows 11 draws heavily from Windows 10X, the simplified version of Windows that leaked rachis in January and that Microsoft later killed. Like Windows 10X, Windows 11 uses the cookie-cutter cluster of icons at the center of your taskbar, with a Part menu that pops straight sprouted from a new Start logo at the left-handed-hand side.

[ How to save 65% connected Windows 10 and then upgrade free to Windows 11 ]

As before in the leaked build, the focused Taskbar keister be affected to the left to rough the take care and feel of Windows 10. At this target, we haven't driven whether Windows 11 allows the chop off that re-enabled the previous Live Tiles that were part of Windows 10. Cortana remains missing as a direct integration in Windows 11, though you can launch Cortana as the same app that she was in Windows 10. Where Cortana once lived front and center, the Windows Search icon now stands in. Click it, and the Windows 10 Search thingumabob opens heavenward, offering shortcuts to freshly utilised apps, plus shortcuts to searches Windows thinks that you'll want to make.

Like in the leaked build, the Windows 11 Start menu can't be resized, and the background doesn't offer the sort of translucence and colorize emphasizing that we've seen elsewhere in Windows. That may change.

Seen for the first meter: Settings, Apprisal Center, and File out Explorer

The gorgeous Settings app

In the leaked construct of Windows 11, the Settings menu remained dateless from Windows 10, prompting insiders to scoff that the leaked make was simply unfinished. In Windows 11, the new Settings menu explodes into visual and serviceable glory, dramatically changing the look and feel of a familiar Windows application program. The index view of the applications now shows your Personal computer at the apical, complete with name and model, as well as the status of any updates and whether you're signed into OneDrive and are up-to-date with Office.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Windows 11's Settings is a fresh use up on Settings…

Once you part with diving into Windows 11's Settings menu, Sir Thomas More changes get apparent. The functionality remains mostly the similar, but there are small visual improvements literally every last over the place.  Microsoft UX designers clearly stepped though Settings almost Sri Frederick Handley Page by page, tidying and making each page much attractive and providing more context on what choices and adjustments you can make and where. Simply, yes, the legacy Control Impanel still exists.

One thing I found intriguing was the Windows 11's Personalization Page, which splattered my PC's current report and added six other choices, right at the top of the page. Choosing a darker theme for my PC mechanically turned on dark mode, which hasn't happened before, with all but of my nonremittal windows fading to a darker gloss. One exception, nonetheless, was Edge. Interestingly, you don't rich person to wade through and through Settings (Settings > Personalization)to change your theme. All you need to behave is redress-click your desktop and select the Personalise option in the drop-blue bill of fare.

Mark Hachman / IDG

…and Windows 11's Settings menu starts coming more alive the deeper you dig.

Microsoft has also added modern, personalized themes to the touch keyboard, too, which is a first for Windows. In that respect are 13 in all.

Presentment Center hides Quick Settings

The lower right corner of your screen has traditionally juggled notifications (i.e., the Notification Center) and the Quick Settings menu. Unless I'm missing a preference or other pick, Quick Settings has entirely disappeared from the Windows 11 visual UI. Instead, Microsoft has taken notifications, which still appear to the right-hand go with of your screen, and replaced the Quick Settings menu with a small calendar widget that slides out and can presumptively be synced to your forthcoming appointments. (On my screen, that synchronise didn't happen.)

(Apparently I simply didn't click the conservative spot; Engadget editor Devindra Hardawar messaged me to comment that the Quick Settings can follow accessed by clicking the battery image…which normally would gun trigger the Windows power/performance slider. But that seems to have disappeared?)

Mark Hachman / IDG

Notifications still take up all but of the right-hand side of your Windows 11 concealment. But where did the Nimble Settings menu go?

Quick Settings can still be accessed by pressureWin+A, merely are much, much more pared down. Most of the functionality has been replaced aside toggles and sliders, and even the "power train" icon doesn't open up the to the full list of settings that Windows 10 offers. Fortunately, the invaluable Focus Assist toggle can also be found within the general Windows 11 Settings menu.

Indian file Explorer gets an modernize

The new File Explorer is currently unintuitive. That may change as we grow used to the new layout, which, likewise, has been easy. At the big top of all File Explorer windowpane is a list of icons, some of which will "abstemious up" and indicate that they can be utilised in certain contexts—copying a file, for case. However, it's not especially clear what each shortcut does. This May be one aspect of Windows that will take some time to become common or garden.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The new look and feel of Filing cabinet Explorer is more minimalist than ever within Windows 11. Note the row of icons which we've highlighted in red.

We opening learned more or less Widgets and the revised Lose it Experience within the leaked build of Windows 11. Widgets is certainly one of the weirder aspects of Windows 11, while the revised Snap experience is one of the cooler things about the OS. We at once jazz a bit to a greater extent about them, courtesy of Microsoft.

The Widgets button appears in your Taskbar, and slides external from the odd side of the screen to reveal an absolutely massive windowpane of what is essentially Windows 10's News & Interests. It's unclear what "widgets" Microsoft testament put inside Widgets, but the company tells us that "the set of widgets we provide currently stress on your calendar, weather, local traffic, your Microsoft To Do lists, your photos from OneDrive, sports and esports, your stock watchlist, and tips." We're sightedness more of this, with separate cards for brave and more.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Microsoft's Windows 11 Widgets screen.

It all still looks like just little snippets of information happening a variety of topics, but at least they're configurable if you click your little personal picture at the tip of the Widgets screen. And, no, you can't resize Widgets, either. There's also a research bar for trenchant the web that will undisguised your browser with the results.

Windows 11's new Snap experience was clearly influenced past PowerToys, a tilt of utilities Microsoft brought back for Windows 10. PowerToys includes FancyZones, a way to snap windows not just to the tetrad corners of your screen but to various "zones" on your PC's screen. Click the "maximize" button happening a window, and you'll see some of those FancyZones options appear again. You can also create Bust groups aside snapping together at least two app windows on your screen, then hovering your mouse over the open app and clicking to switch back.

Home run Hachman / IDG

Windows 11 appears wish it's implemented FancyZones rightmost in the operating system.

The new Microsoft Salt away app

Microsoft secure United States of America a look at a revamped Microsoft Store app, and in this anatomy we'Re starting to date the fruit of its labors. The unprecedented Store app looks punter, though a visual modernize isn't the only matter the Store necessarily. It also necessarily better curation, a right smart to prevent people from downloading apps multiple times, and more. But what we are beholding hither includes better organized overview pages and a deliberative redesign of individual app pages, and more.

The new Microsoft Store app looks more like the Xbox app, with a left-handed navigation pane and the like. It's interesting, too, that the Store advertises a movie on Netflix, reminding you that, yes, Microsoft all the same rents and sells movies—which you tail find on the Entertainment tab happening the Depot.

Mark Hachman / IDG

 Notable developer Rudy Huyn is now reportedly architecting the new Store's look.

Windows 11 under the hood

A number of unaccustomed Windows 11 features South Korean won't be immediately recognizable—or maybe you'll just escape them among every last of the new sensory system improvements Microsoft is adding to Windows 11. But the chase shouldn't Be overlooked.

Dynamic refresh charge per unit: Surprisingly, this isn't for gambling, but for inking. If your PC (and laptop computer or tablet showing) supports it, Windows testament mechanically increase the display refresh rate to smooth e-ink while you'Ra lottery on the tablet. You can audition DRR on your laptop viaSettings > Organization > Display > Advanced display, and under "Choose a freshen up value" select a "Dynamic" refresh rate.) Microsoft isn't saying, however, which ironware will corroborate this.

Voice typing rocket launcher: At long last, Microsoft appears to have started to nail command downwardly. You can turn it on by typing Win+H, and you'll date the dictation widget (which you'll have to toggle on yourself). I was stupefied at how accurate bid is, and there's even a setting to turn along punctuation via AI. Even a passage fromPlume and Prejudice was dictated in essence flawlessly, relieve for punctuation mark.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Information technology's nothing fancy, but Windows 11's command looks like it will get the job done.

New gestures: Microsoft has added new gestures. Among them are a three-feel swipe downfield to restore the desktop, and a three-finger swipe up to go up to Task View.

Tying up windows: If you use an extraneous display, Microsoft says that it will minimize your windows that were on the outer video display, then push them back to the outward display in the early state they were in when you dock once again. You can enable this inOrganization > Display > Three-fold Displays. It works as advertised, making docking and undocking a laptop computer so much many convenient.

Microsoft Role, Windows 11 style: Even Microsoft Office has received a font-aerodynamic lift, as the Microsoft 365 apps now are adorned with roughly of the inexperienced icons.

Mark Hachman / IDG

All in all, there's a surprising amount of new features in Windows 11, and we're probably just scratch the surface in this active. Microsoft has already promised level more features volition be rolling dead inside Windows 11 earlier launch, including so much stimulating additions as Motorcar HDR, which applies HDR capabilities to games without being specifically coded for the feature. We'll have more to test and report on as we head toward the Windows 11 launch this fall.

Updated at 1:46 PM to clarify that there's a button to trigger the Quick Settings.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/394803/windows-11-official-hands-on.html

Posted by: rodriguezforling.blogspot.com

Share this post