Windows 11

[Chris Savage]

So, it looks like I should be creating a second Microsoft Account and then adding it to the family group for my two Windows 11 PCs. This avoids having to deal with default sync settings. I'll be checking these settings on the laptop tonight and backing up the Alienware PC to upgrade this weekend.

[Chris Savage]

Yesterday saw me getting my media PC completely backed up. My biggest concern is backing up Outlook 2019, which I use for domain email. I hope 365 will import it properly. I have like 6 email accounts across the domains. I'm installing a secondary HD replacement today. I may not get to the Windows 11 install until Wednesday. We'll see how things go.

[JKnightandKARR]

Yesterday saw me getting my media PC completely backed up. My biggest concern is backing up Outlook 2019, which I use for domain email. I hope 365 will import it properly. I have like 6 email accounts across the domains. I'm installing a secondary HD replacement today. I may not get to the Windows 11 install until Wednesday. We'll see how things go.

Good luck.

[Chris Savage]

Good luck.

I wish I could say that's what I had. As luck goes, it was anything but good. So, here's the rundown...

I had previously created a boot disk to install Windows 11 Pro. So I plugged it in, went to the boot menu and selected that drive. Windows 11 setup started, but then said, the PC is not compatible. It said I did not have TPM 2.0, though the health tool said I did. Somehow it was disabled, so I tried to enable it, but the option was grayed out in the BIOS. Yay..

After 15 minutes of messing around with it, it turns out that Secure Boot needs to be enabled for the TPM to be enabled. Okay, fine. So, now the PC won't boot at all. More monkeying around and I got it to boot into Windows 10, but it would not boot from the USB drive. A Google search indicated that, well of course it won't boot from the USB. It's secure and will only boot from the legitimate media. 

So, now I'm going in circles. I can't boot from the USB drive when Secure boot is enabled, but with it off, the installer won't continue, complaining that my PC isn't up to Windows 11 specs. Now I'm livid.    I ran a computer shop for many years. I've NEVER had issues like this! It's frustrating! I tried clearing the TPM module, unclear what would be erased. I tried several things. Finally, by some miracle, it booted from the USB drive with TPM and Secure boot enabled.   

But, now I was unable to do what many videos said I could do, and which I have done on every version of Windows in the past, which is remove the partition from the HD and redo it for a fresh boot. It would not remove or format any of the C drive! I could only carry out partitioning and formatting on the USB drive or the D (secondary) hard drive. Granz may find this interesting. After trying for 30 minutes to remove the existing partitions from the SSD, I finally got frustrated enough to create a bootable Ubuntu disk from my ISO and use Linux to boot and remove the partitions.

After all of that, I finally got Windows 11 to install. I had to use Linux to install Windows 11. What an insult to M$.    How embarrassing. I went to bed having finally gotten Windows installed, but now I need to begin the tedious task of reinstalling all my software and getting things back to the way I like them, insomuch as can be done on Windows 11.

I will also say this...forcing you to use a Windows account to install and then trying to synchronize all computers on that account is absolutely ridiculous! By default, Windows 11 tried to backup your Downloads, Documents, Photos, Music and Videos and synchronize them with every PC using that M$ account. The result is chaos! 

Applications that you have installed will sometimes create folders in the Documents folder. For example, Visual Studio creates a folder where it stores your projects and other information. The Parallax Propeller Tool creates a folder where it stores code and libraries. These are automatically copied to your other PCs, whether or not they have these applications installed. It makes no sense! I had to manually turn all that off on the desktop and the laptop, then erase all the nonsense.

You can't choose the individual folders you want to sync. Your choices are only the main user folders listed above and every subfolder within them. What a joke! Not a great beginning to an O/S I would rather have not been forced to install. Because I worked on this until ~3AM, I got into work late and am very groggy today. 

[granz]

I'm sorry to hear about all of your troubles with Windows 11, but it makes me glad that I ditched Windows years ago.

[Chris Savage]

I'm sorry to hear about all of your troubles with Windows 11, but it makes me glad that I ditched Windows years ago.

I thought you would also appreciate the part where I had to use Linux to finally get Windows 11 installed.

What a nightmare. This is the LAST M$ O/S I ever use. Once we're required to upgrade again, I will finally be fully invested in Linux. As it is, I have decided to change the old laptop to Debian, rather than Ubuntu.

[granz]

Kirk's mind raced as he quickly assessed his situation:
the shields were down, the warp drive and impulse
engines were dead, life support was failing fast, and
the Enterprise was plummeting out of control toward
the surface of Epsilon VI and, as Scotty and Spock
searched frantically through the manuals trying to find
a way to save them all, Kirk vowed, as he stared at
the solid blue image filling the main view screen, that
never again would he allow a Microsoft operating
system to control his ship.

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/)
2001 winner in Science Fiction

[JKnightandKARR]

Good luck.

I wish I could say that's what I had. As luck goes, it was anything but good. So, here's the rundown...

I had previously created a boot disk to install Windows 11 Pro. So I plugged it in, went to the boot menu and selected that drive. Windows 11 setup started, but then said, the PC is not compatible. It said I did not have TPM 2.0, though the health tool said I did. Somehow it was disabled, so I tried to enable it, but the option was grayed out in the BIOS. Yay..

After 15 minutes of messing around with it, it turns out that Secure Boot needs to be enabled for the TPM to be enabled. Okay, fine. So, now the PC won't boot at all. More monkeying around and I got it to boot into Windows 10, but it would not boot from the USB drive. A Google search indicated that, well of course it won't boot from the USB. It's secure and will only boot from the legitimate media. 

So, now I'm going in circles. I can't boot from the USB drive when Secure boot is enabled, but with it off, the installer won't continue, complaining that my PC isn't up to Windows 11 specs. Now I'm livid.    I ran a computer shop for many years. I've NEVER had issues like this! It's frustrating! I tried clearing the TPM module, unclear what would be erased. I tried several things. Finally, by some miracle, it booted from the USB drive with TPM and Secure boot enabled.   

But, now I was unable to do what many videos said I could do, and which I have done on every version of Windows in the past, which is remove the partition from the HD and redo it for a fresh boot. It would not remove or format any of the C drive! I could only carry out partitioning and formatting on the USB drive or the D (secondary) hard drive. Granz may find this interesting. After trying for 30 minutes to remove the existing partitions from the SSD, I finally got frustrated enough to create a bootable Ubuntu disk from my ISO and use Linux to boot and remove the partitions.

After all of that, I finally got Windows 11 to install. I had to use Linux to install Windows 11. What an insult to M$.    How embarrassing. I went to bed having finally gotten Windows installed, but now I need to begin the tedious task of reinstalling all my software and getting things back to the way I like them, insomuch as can be done on Windows 11.

I will also say this...forcing you to use a Windows account to install and then trying to synchronize all computers on that account is absolutely ridiculous! By default, Windows 11 tried to backup your Downloads, Documents, Photos, Music and Videos and synchronize them with every PC using that M$ account. The result is chaos! 

Applications that you have installed will sometimes create folders in the Documents folder. For example, Visual Studio creates a folder where it stores your projects and other information. The Parallax Propeller Tool creates a folder where it stores code and libraries. These are automatically copied to your other PCs, whether or not they have these applications installed. It makes no sense! I had to manually turn all that off on the desktop and the laptop, then erase all the nonsense.

You can't choose the individual folders you want to sync. Your choices are only the main user folders listed above and every subfolder within them. What a joke! Not a great beginning to an O/S I would rather have not been forced to install. Because I worked on this until ~3AM, I got into work late and am very groggy today. 

I think DAMN.... sums it up... Tech is not what it used to be..

[Chris Savage]

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/)
2001 winner in Science Fiction

That was both insightful, and profound. Believe me when I say, this is my last version of Windows. When we're finally forced to move to 12, I am going to already be 100% invested in Linux.

[Chris Savage]

So, last night saw me restoring data from backups and installing some of my applications. I didn't get very far since I didn't want to risk anything bad happening while restoring data. It's sad that I feel like I have to be cautious like that, based on previous experience with Windows 10. Hopefully within the rest of this week things will have returned somewhat to normal. Well, as normal as one can be while using a Windows O/S.

This weekend I have help coming over to move the benches where they need to be and the development machine (the one I had all the issues with) will be ready to setup in the workshop. Then I can finally get back to being productive, just in time for winter (indoor projects).

[granz]

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/)
2001 winner in Science Fiction

That was both insightful, and profound. Believe me when I say, this is my last version of Windows. When we're finally forced to move to 12, I am going to already be 100% invested in Linux.

I hoped that this would give you a bit of a smile. 

[Chris Savage]

I'm sorry to hear about all of your troubles with Windows 11, but it makes me glad that I ditched Windows years ago.

Between you and a coworker, I am slowly discovering apps that clearly compete with the apps that I use requiring Windows. I haven't tried some yet, but that's the purpose of having the old laptop set up with Debian (yes, I am switching out Ubuntu).

[Chris Savage]

Last night I was working on my Windows 11 Desktop, trying to get apps re-installed after mostly restoring documents. At one point I noticed a graphical glitch in an application and first thought, well perhaps I didn't install the graphics card drivers (which I didn't). But the generic ones in Windows are usually sufficient as long as you're not gaming. I just happened to pull up the device manager, and that is when I sank into my chair. 

There were at least 45 components that indicated they didn't have the drivers installed. For a 6-year old PC I was sure Windows 11 would have the necessary drivers for my Alienware motherboard. I was wrong. After a bunch of hoops getting the support assistant installed from the Dell website, it only identified one driver (motherboard) and the installation failed. 

I did eventually get that driver pack installed via a different route, and it did fix most of the issues, however there is still one component that is not fully solved.

[granz]

OUCH! It seems to me that it is nothing short of amazing that Microsoft can stay in business with this kind of garbage. They seem to want to support only absolutely brand spanking new computers, and the couple hundred million PCs already out there can rot.

[Chris Savage]

OUCH! It seems to me that it is nothing short of amazing that Microsoft can stay in business with this kind of garbage. They seem to want to support only absolutely brand spanking new computers, and the couple hundred million PCs already out there can rot.

I just saw an advertisement from Best Buy about M$ not supporting Windows 10 and how you can go into Best Buy and they will help you get a new PC. Well, of course they will!