Windows 11 की प्रारंभिक समीक्षा - चमकदार, अक्षम, भ्रामक

विंडोज 11 को उचित समीक्षा देने का समय। अपने पिछले लेख में, मैंने हार्डवेयर आवश्यकताओं, टीपीएम और उन सभी के बारे में बात की थी, और मैंने विंडोज 11 के प्रीव्यू बिल्ड को स्थापित करने में विभिन्न बाधाओं और मुद्दों को संभालने में काफी समय लगाया था। मैंने AMD Ryzen 5 प्रोसेसर के साथ एक परीक्षण लैपटॉप पर सेटअप प्रक्रिया की कोशिश की, और 8वीं पीढ़ी के इंटेल प्रोसेसर द्वारा संचालित लैपटॉप पर वर्चुअल मशीन के अंदर। अंत में, चीजें ठीक हो गईं।

अब, मैं देखना चाहता हूं कि विंडोज 11 वास्तव में क्या करता है। मन, यह एक प्रारंभिक समीक्षा है। तो आज आप जो कुछ भी देखते हैं वह बदल सकता है, और/या अंतिम उत्पाद का संकेत नहीं हो सकता है। हालाँकि, मेरे पिछले अनुभव के आधार पर, आज आप जो देखते हैं वह काफी हद तक आपको अंतिम उत्पाद में मिलेगा। ठीक है, तो विंडोज 11, हम चले। शुरू करें।

पहली छापें

मैं दो अलग-अलग परीक्षणों के बारे में बात कर सकता हूं - मेरा असली, लैपटॉप अपग्रेड और एक सामान्य वर्चुअल मशीन टेस्ट। वैनिला परिणाम दिखाने वाले कुछ छोटे स्क्रीनशॉट के अलावा, मैं वास्तविक लैपटॉप परिणामों पर ध्यान केंद्रित करूंगा। ये कहीं अधिक रोचक हैं। तो आइए देखें कि अपग्रेड प्रक्रिया में क्या हुआ।

मोटे तौर पर, दृश्य परिवर्तन के अलावा, मेरी अधिकांश सेटिंग्स को सही ढंग से पोर्ट और संरक्षित किया गया था। यह एक बहुत ही अच्छी बात है। मेरी गोपनीयता काफी हद तक अपरिवर्तित थी, मेरे एप्लिकेशन सभी वहां हैं, और डिफॉल्ट ऐप्स को "गलती से" रीसेट नहीं किया गया है। डिफ़ॉल्ट ब्राउज़र फ़ायरफ़ॉक्स और वह सब है।

सिस्टम ट्रिपल-बूट कॉन्फ़िगरेशन में भी बैठता है, जिसमें दो लिनक्स डिस्ट्रोस होते हैं, जिनमें से एक बूटलोडर को नियंत्रित करता है। वे उन्नयन के दौरान प्रभावित नहीं हुए थे। विंडोज 11 ने सेटअप को हाईजैक नहीं किया और सब कुछ पहले की तरह काम करता है। बहुत अच्छा।

गोपनीयता वगैरह

अधिकतर, चीजें ठीक थीं, और मेरा दक्षता-केंद्रित सेटअप प्रभावित नहीं हुआ था।

गोपनीयता सेटिंग्स को उनके पिछले, सही (बंद) मानों पर छोड़ दिया गया था।

हालांकि कुछ झुंझलाहट भी थी:

• डिफेंडर एंटी-वायरस सेवा को वापस चालू कर दिया गया - भले ही इसे बंद कर दिया गया था।
• Cortana को सिस्टम के साथ चलने के लिए सेट किया गया था। लेकिन क्यों? मैं एक स्थानीय, मानक उपयोगकर्ता खाता चला रहा हूँ।

• क्लाउड सामग्री खोज सक्षम थी - नहीं चाहिए।

• निजता के लिहाज से कुछ नई चीजें थीं, जैसे स्क्रीनशॉट अनुमतियां और ऐसी:

रोअनडेड कॉर्नर

विंडोज 11 में गोल कोनों के आसपास की पूरी चर्चा मुझे द डिक्टेटर के दृश्य की याद दिलाती है, जहां एडमिरल-जनरल अलादीन नडाल के साथ मिसाइल शंकु आकार पर चर्चा करते हैं। इसे गोल करना है। नहीं, यह नुकीला होना है। मिसाइल के आकार का पेलोड डिलीवरी से कोई लेना-देना नहीं है! वास्तव में। सामग्री क्या मायने रखती है, एर्गो एप्लिकेशन, लेकिन हे, कोने!

नई शैली प्लाज्मा और एप्पल की दुनिया से कुछ के बीच मिश्रण की तरह महसूस होती है। खुश रंग, अधिक गहराई। कम समतलता, जो अच्छा है, लेकिन पर्याप्त नहीं है। अब, उस एक्सप्लोरर को देखें। विंडो बॉर्डर लगभग Windows XP जैसा लगता है। यह लगभग वैसा ही है जैसे लोग अतीत के विचारों का पुन:उपयोग करते हैं, हांफते हैं, सनक आती है और चली जाती है, हांफते हैं, और फिर, बुनियादी मानवीय आवश्यकताएं हैं, जिन्हें हिप्स्टरोलॉजी द्वारा पराजित नहीं किया जा सकता है।

उस ने कहा, इंटरफ़ेस थोड़ा खिलौना जैसा लगता है। आइकन पर्याप्त पेशेवर महसूस नहीं करते। मैंने लैपटॉप पर स्केलिंग फैक्टर को 150% से घटाकर 125% और यहां तक ​​कि 100% कर दिया, और तब चीजें अधिक उचित दिखती हैं, लेकिन यह सब अभी भी थोड़ा क्रेयॉनी लगता है। बोनस प्रभाव यह है कि कम सपाट खिलौने जैसा प्रभाव मेरे लैपटॉप पर औसत दर्जे की स्क्रीन को थोड़ा अधिक जीवन देता है, इसलिए चीजें उतनी धुली हुई नहीं दिखतीं जितनी सामान्य रूप से दिखती हैं।

मैंने अभी तक स्केलिंग कारकों के साथ ज्यादा नहीं खेला है, इसलिए हम देखेंगे कि जल्द ही क्या मिलता है।

कुल मिलाकर उपयोगिता - इस समय यह काफी खराब है

आप देखेंगे कि सेटिंग टूल को नया रूप दिया गया है। एक अच्छा तरीका में। यह अब छुरा घोंपने वाली बकवास को इतना अधिक नहीं छूता है। आपको वास्तविक श्रेणियां मिलती हैं, जो यह दिखाती हैं कि Microsoft बेकार स्पर्श प्रचार ट्रेन से उतरने के लिए सबसे अधिक तैयार है। सेटिंग्स अब अधिक पसंद है ... इसके लिए प्रतीक्षा करें ... नियंत्रण कक्ष। हालाँकि, असंगतता शायद एक या तीन दशक तक जारी रहेगी, क्योंकि विंडोज के प्रत्येक संस्करण में, व्यवस्थापक उपकरण चार या पाँच अलग-अलग UI लेआउट में आए हैं, जो NT4 युग से लेकर हैं। महत्वपूर्ण बात यह है कि लोगों को वह पूरा करने में सक्षम होना चाहिए जिसकी उन्हें आवश्यकता है। सड़क से छह साल नीचे, सेटिंग्स अभी भी पुराने और सिद्ध नियंत्रण कक्ष जितनी अच्छी नहीं हैं। ऐसा तब होता है जब आप डेस्कटॉप पर स्पर्श प्रतिमानों का उपयोग करते हैं, आप एक ही समय में उपयोगकर्ता की उपयोगिता और आईक्यू का आधा हिस्सा होते हैं।

On the other hand, the system menu is weird and annoying. Oversized and useless. It also has a "Recommended" section, which at the moment, cannot be disabled. This feels like Attempt 3.0 at doing something other than a classic menu, and it's meh. Hopefully, it will improve, because right now, it serves no purpose.

OK, let's see. First, the Administrator account. I had no idea why there were so many blank placeholders for different items - I guess the apps needed to be "downloaded" post-install or some such, and I really hate that the menu shows files/filenames, but without an extension. This looks messy and untidy, but I guess it appeals to the casual idiot, who supposedly needs a "recommended" reminder to see what files they have opened recently.

From the Administrator account.

I then logged into my standard account, to see what gives there, and also did the same on the virtual machine, to compare the stock "vanilla" experience to an existing user. Pinned apps, nope. नहीं चाहिए। Then, the Recommended nonsense. I don't need you to show me my new apps. No.

From my standard user account.

In the VM, I had the following. A typical mix of nothing valuable. And of course, there's no logic to it, whatsoever. Why would a video editor be under Recommended when I'm running inside a lowly VM? No one is going to do video editing like that. All that pinned stuff used to be useless tiles, and now it's useless icons. Still no value.

Default menu in a virtual machine, clean install, no actual usage.

I unpinned all of the nonsense, and the menu still does not show you the list of apps - it still defaults to its so-called primary page. This is what it looks like when you remove the "apps" - an empty plate of boredom and sadness. The logical thing would be:no pinned apps, show all apps. Simple.

I also don't like the central position for the menu. It's just wrong. At the moment, you can move the menu to the left corner, and hopefully this will still be possible in the future, too. But you cannot put the taskbar elsewhere, as you could in the past. So, the ergonomics takes a hit.

The new right-click is also annoying. Too big ... and it introduces a second mouse-click, whereby certain options are hidden in the first level, and you need another action to show everything. A waste of effort, just like Start Menu was in Windows 8.1. Absolutely useless.

The scrollbars in Settings change their width on hover from thin to thicker. क्या बात है? And why introduce a visual inconsistency while a user is doing something? If you want to make the scrollbars bigger and easier to use, then, maybe, y'know, make them bigger to begin with?

Quick Launch

Another issue - the new taskbar does not let you add Quick Launch. You may say, but it's a relic from the olden days! Except ... it offers superior functionality compared to the pinned apps. Mostly because of two things:

• Show desktop button.
• Custom folder locations in Explorer.

As it happens, in Windows 11 (and also 10), the Show desktop button is a thin strip on the far right of the taskbar. Not very helpful if most of your pinned apps or shortcuts are on the left. Much like the mouse travel problem in Gnome 40. Here, in the preview build, the Show desktop button was also slow, sluggish and not responsive (seems to be fixed in the latest release, but not when I tested). So I wanted to add a big and useful one on the left, which can be accomplished with Quick Launch, like say in Windows 10.

Only, Windows 11 doesn't allow you to use Quick Launch anymore, even though it exists and has all the right buttons. Now, there's a way around this, and you can add a custom icon that minimizes all the windows to your desktop, but we'll talk about that is a separate tutorial.

My Explorer windows lost accent color - seems like a bug somewhere. Also, this looks like a NEW file manager?

The much bigger issue is - launching Explorer. In Windows 10/11, it only allows you to open to Quick access or This PC, not a random folder like E:\Games. With normal, ergonomically superior Quick Launch, you can have seven or ten different icons for different Explorer paths, each one with its own icon, each one pointing to a different folder on your system, even a remote location if you will.

XP window border styling, modern nonsense functionality.

The new "modern" software forces you to use the low-IQ layout, which is why I'm still using Quick Launch on my Windows 10 machines. If and when Explorer allows you to open multiple locations from multiple icons, then I will no longer really need it. Before you foam and explode, yes, you CAN "hack" your way around, as always. That's NOT the point. But I expect simple, sane and efficient behavior by default. That's the magic word. Quick Launch, drag 'n' drop, done. New stuff, right-click, hacky, hacky, path, path. More in a separate guide.

Default apps

Windows 11 comes with a new model for managing default applications. Seems to be per-protocol. I am not sure why this method, because it's more complex and exhausting - perhaps that's the reason, so people get tired and choose not to switch away? This is more cumbersome.

Mini-summary on the ergonomics side

Lots of problems:

• Show desktop functionality is not as easy as before.
• The system menu is not as useful as before.
• The taskbar is not as customizable, and therefore, as useful as before.
• The new right-click functionality is not as efficient as before.
• The Settings menu is better than before.

Now, as you can see, there are quite a few issues with the new UI. In general, there is absolutely no need for this thing, the same way there was no need for Windows 10 look &feel. There was nothing wrong with the old, classic desktop formula, except it was old, and people need to be paid to do new things, because new things sell, and the plebes get excited by shiny colors. I intend to write a separate tutorial that shows you how to fix some of the nonsense, so you CAN have a classic menu, a big show desktop button, and a few other important details like that. More on that soon ...

Performance, bugses

Not good at the moment, but this doesn't worry me - it's a Dev build. Compared to the Windows 10 that sat on this box until very recently, the desktop responsiveness is quite bad. Everything is slower and laggier. The system responds like it has a mechanical disk not an NVMe.

If you go into Settings> Personalization, any change triggers a 30-sec freeze, during which the Settings window is unresponsive. It also crashes often. The visual changes take many seconds to apply. The whole thing feels buggy.

My Explorer also lost accent color, but only when in the foreground - as you can see from the Quick Launch screenshot earlier. But when you background the window, the correct style is applied. However, apart from the Explorer bug, which will hopefully be noticed and fixed, Settings never uses any accent color, and it's always pale and low-contrast gray, which is annoying - also true in Windows 10.

But wait a mo! This is a different Explorer from the classic one. And here the plot thickens. If you launch explorer.exe, then it starts normally, and it DOES hove accent color. It's only this new thing, whatever it is, with its very Gnome-like look that struggles. Not that looking like Gnome indicates a problem, but there's a lot of empty space, no clear indication what things are meant to do, and such. Then, the problem extends to Settings. Weird color stuff, but no proper theming.

View benefits? What is that even supposed to mean?

Settings also comes with a mangled navigation. Fire it up, and look what happens in the top right corner. This ain't no VM, this is a physical host, my IdeaPad 3 with its Ryzen processor and Vega graphics. All real work stuff, no tomfoolery.

I tried using Open-Shell to get the classic menu behavior - at the moment, it only works with the Super key. If you click on the menu icon, Windows always super-imposes itself over. I presume this is just an early usage issue that will be sorted out some day. Therefore, I'm kind of marking this one as neutral. No screenshots, as they don't really make much sense here.

When it comes to updates, Windows 11 tells you how "long" the process will take - but this seems to be a deliberately pessimistic overestimate, because for me, the particular update only took about one minute, including the reboot in the middle. A bug or a feature?

The battery indicator shows no time - only percentage. I assume this is a bug, because otherwise, it's useless.

The system tray thing also feels like a phone applet, which makes it extra useless. Here, you get the same effect like the System Menu pinned items. Remove everything, except say Wireless, and you have an empty and useless popup menu. An idea that feels borrowed from Plasma slash Gnome, but executed with a random Android spin.

Anyway, the whole thing. Majestic, innit? If you remove Wireless, you get the icon there, but no control over access points. Such a ridiculous and inconsistent choice. Why this whole phone-like nonsense? This is a laptop, not a touch brick.

At the end of the day, worth it?

Well, not really. Let's try to separate Windows 11 from the Dev edition-ness of this release. The early testing issues are not an issue - they will be fixed. I'm talking speed and Explorer losing accent color. The bigger, fundamental problem lies in the inefficiencies of the new UI. It's just all over the place.

Remember my Windows 8 review and Windows Blue &desktop conspiracy articles? Here, I see some of the same useless logic that went into the whole touch frenzy around when Windows 8 was conceived, but not quite as much, though. Or rather, a brand new angle.

So, the approach is different from Windows 8. It's sort of hybrid. Mostly desktop, with some real improvements in this space and further distancing from the touch delusion (partly), but then also more focus on the "apps" idea, which still borrows from the mobile world. Hence, the requirement for an online account for the Home edition, which is something I will test in the future. Hence, the new menu that looks like a home screen on an Android phone - lo and behold, Windows 11 will run Android apps! मेह। Why would anyone ever run inferior touch-based software on a high-precision device controlled by a mouse and a full keyword? But there you go. Apps, idiots, money. Sounds like a good formula. Haters be hatin'.

The issues I've identified will annoy techies mostly - because they are the ones that need efficiency and productivity. Having to right-click twice for useful stuff, or the Recommended nonsense in the menu, or the lack of ability to pin folder shortcuts to the likes of D:\compile-Qt-stuffs and M:\Movies (in a simple way), these will only create anger with people who know their way around computers. The sad bit is, the new stuff won't provide any real value to idiots, though.

The new UI layout is also rather ... confusing. There isn't a clear sense of identity. This is neither Mac nor Plasma nor old Windows nor Gnome. A mix of things that doesn't adhere strictly to any one discipline of desktop usage. More like an experiment, let's see what works. So, looking at my needs, I was able to tweak back a lot of the useless stuff and get 95% of what I expect from the desktop. But then, this is just wasted energy.

Going back to Windows 8, indeed, true to me judgment, Windows 10 reintroduced a classic desktop formula, because a desktop is a desktop. Now, once again, there's a bold foray into unknown territory. It pushes against fundamental efficiency and basic human needs, and that never works well in the long run.

Going forward, my guess is that Microsoft will tone down some of the new stuff they showed here, bringing almost visual parity with Windows 10, but then with just enough distinction - the more XP-like borders and alike, to make it feel like a brand new and bold project. The center position of the menu will probably look cool for a whole of fifteen minutes to ordinary users, but anyone with some tech ability will shove it to the left. As for the rest, we shall keep on testing.

But will I switch? Based on what I see here, only when a moment of no-choice happens - provided I've not found a solution to my gaming and office requirements by then (2025 or so), the only two things that still force me to keep on using Windows. Not because Windows 11 is horrible - because, like my switch from Windows 7 to 10, there is nothing revolutionary or exciting about the whole deal.

निष्कर्ष

I find the whole early Windows 11 experience quite odd. The operating system does some things rather decently. Seamless upgrade, my apps and permissions were preserved, I can even run KompoZer from 2008 without any problems. Better system settings and all that. But then, why ruin all these good things with extra mouse clicks and a weird menu alignment? Or why add extra mouse clicks when they are not needed?

The one thing that dejects me is that I have to invest energy making things behave in an efficient way. Young people don't understand it yet, but time is the most precious commodity in the world. No matter how smart or rich you are, you get 80-90 years tops. Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. Why waste them clicking on an icon twice or three times or whatnot, when you can do it with less? Even more importantly, when you could do it with less! For example, what's so special about not allowing Explorer to point to a random disk location? How's Quick Launch threatening the grand business model?

Yes, at the end of the day, I got slightly different icons and colors, the menu is still where it belongs, and my battery indicator will probably be fixed some day. Using a Pro edition, I'll be able to avoid the online account nonsense, and I can pin the Show desktop icon onto the taskbar just fine. I ought to be happy, right? But not really. There isn't anything inherently wrong with Windows 11. But there's also no room left for useful invention in the desktop space. It's a formula that's 40 years old, and anything new is just noise. Move a button here, move it there.

This article is already too long, so let's bring it home. Windows 11 is a minor bump on top of Windows 10, featuring more visual contrast, more desktop inefficiency, and making a few nerdy things harder to achieve. It seems to aim at the app experience, but whether this will work out ... not likely. Win32 is still the king, and it will remain for a long, long time, because some fundamental needs are unassailable. As long as humans have 10 digits, and pixels are so tiny, there's only so much you can do with a screen and some software on it.

More to come. I will write some guides, and try the Home &online account thingie when possible.

चीयर्स।