YES MAKE THIS A REGULAR THING. This is exactly what I need. All the power tools and quality of life tweaks and bits and things. This is my favorite LTT video of the year.
Get a better OS. Windows peaked over a decade ago with Windows 7 and has been on the decline ever since. I'm glad I've never had to experience MS trying to force Edge down my throat like that (I like Edge okay, but those shenanigans to change your default browser are messed TF up).
I upgraded to Windows 11 on my work laptop, and then spent the next 2 days fighting with the UI, including using some of the tools mentioned in this video. I got no work done during that time. In the end, I found the most effective tool for restoring productivity was to go back to Windows 10. I can't stand Apple as a company, but they do seem to have mastered the art of delivering a consistent UX across devices and OS versions. I think it mostly boils down to the fact that they don't see a need to completely change usability and design paradigms every time they change underwear. Why the hell can't Microsoft do the same? And to those who would say to use Linux, I quote Tom Scott: "No."
Yeah, at first I hate Win 10 Start and UI, now I already attached to it, and Microsoft change it again in Win11, what a joke I will Win11 but maybe later next year, there's no need to upgrade it at least for now.
I'll wait until I cant wait anymore to go to win11. I've set up my rig as I like with win10, I constantly keep update a usb key with a ninite installer, driver and whatever I deem essential and another with the files to reinstall win10. I've even managed to write myself a program to backup my firefox user folder every week on a third usb that's always connected. AND I have 3 hard disk: a ssd for the OS (250GB), an HDD for the programs folder (2TB) and a second HDD for the windows related folder (download, desktop, documents on a 1TB). No need to make an emergency backup (in wich you always forget to put something important) if I've to format the OS: just format the SSD, install win10, hook up the windows folders from the 2nd HDD, erase what you dont like/need from the fist and reinstall what you need. Couple of hours and the rig is ready to rumble again. Just pointing out this: you can choose in wich drive you can download the games from steam and most other launcher. It's a bit hidden and the load speed is lower, but it work. And it mean you dont have to redownload those 200GB/1TB in games. Of course, nowdays 2TB SSD are becoming cheaper so the load speed wont be a problem for much longer. This said, let's talk about linux: while linux is a GREAT so, fast, lightweight and absolutelly not hungry of resource, if you need a gaming rig linux isnt still there. While there are lotsa of compatible games, some of the best truth to be said, as soon as a game have an anticheat you are outta luck. Doom eternal fans can attest to that. So I get where do you come from.
linux is superior in every way, the only selling point of Windows is that its popular and has a lot of software written by it. Thats why I've always admired and liked Bil Gates, he managed to force a way inferior product onto the entire world. The man is a genious.
@@comradenoob8511 Betamax was technologically superior to VHS, yet VHS won the format war primarily due to ease-of-use (I can fit an entire sports program onto one tape) and eventually greater market penetration with more content. In the end, it's not whether a product is technically superior that determines its overall success - rather, it is that product's ability to fulfill a market demand and build a useful/desirable ecosystem around it that draws users. The best system in the world might as well be a rock if you can't do anything with it. Perfection is the enemy of "good enough." Linux has come a very long way, but it still suffers from a high barrier to entry in the form of both segmentation (too many distros and choices to be made just to get started), and information overload (you can customize everything, and pretty much everything needs to be customized). Not everybody wants to deal with all that knob twiddling and lever pulling on a regular basis...and unfortunately the average person couldn't give two shakes about open vs. closed source.
Linux today is as good desktop as windows or Os X! The main problem with Linux (in my case) lack of software! Hear me out... In my case i use LuminarAi and TopazAi photo programs and there is nothing for Linux even remotely as good as this software for Linux! But i really hop Linux get it so i can dump windows for ever
And to be honest, Windows 11 is the FIRST WINDOWS version I am avoiding to upgrade the moment it came out. (I always been an Beta user of Windows (Or adopted early in case of XP, I think I even betad that one, cannot remember), Windows 11 was the first I avoided.) Not for the TPM 2.0 reason but for all the things they done. (Centered Bar, Non-alignable, even if I use standard pos, start menu, etcetra)
@@olegyamleq7796 At this time another pane is planned on the right side but for some other functionality. I might add ability for users to choose what to show in each sidebar but I don't have a timeline for that yet
Would love for you guys to do more software stuff like this, maybe even going deeper in detail about some specific ones and comparisons of features like you did with StartAllBack vs Start11 here. Tons of good tools out there and always some neat ways to improve or change your workflow. A few I use: ShareX, Bulk Rename Utility, Mp3tag, Unlocker, Process Explorer, and plenty more.
yeah this kind of tool is so simple to use that a mild techie can properly utilize it but it's so "obscure" because no one ever advertise for it except for productivity tips video having a big youtube show how easy it is to use and how useful it is, even if you're using it once per 2 months or smth probably will bring a lot more eyeball to the software, and hopefully, also interested developer
I love the "can't move taskbar around" feature of Windows 11. Thanks, M$. Been looking for this functionality for a while. This, along with making desktop context menu harder yet another click away from usefulness, as well as outright removing the taskbar's context menu, makes me sooooo happy.
u mean software tech tips... does merit its own separate channel... linux, mac os, windows os, chrome os, android, android 12L, wear os, iot softwares... there are so many...
The only reason I decided to get startallback was to make the taskbar icons smaller. I hate the large icons and it baffles me that microsoft would go out of their way to remove such a simple feature.
Another channel seems to suggest you can adjust size by selecting, pressing control key and using scroll on mouse. I can't try it out as I don't have win 11 yet
Use MSEdgeRedirect. But yeah it is so much crap and screams antitrust how intensely MS is again forcing their own webbrowser down the users throats. Even worse than back in the IE days.
Yeah recently they did, and no response yet about that. Though new Edge is indeed better and more people actually liking it, I don't know why they need this tactic anyway. Some people will just keep using alternative Web browser regardless how good Edge already is.
@@chrisw1462 Why not just use windows 10 then? Because a Windows 10 VM still needs Windows 10 to run funny enough, a Linux VM for Windows 10 is just Windows 10 with extra steps... If you also want linux, dual boot, it's much less effort, and gives the best of both worlds
Moment I saw this I grabbed my laptop and did most of these tweaks because they are exactly what I needed. Amazing as always Anthony, never fail to deliver.
@@dbunik44 Yes and for my purposes of having a struggle free gaming experience it's just not for me but I probably wouldn't mind using it if I just used it for general use of watching TH-cam videos or something but I do a tonnnnnn of gaming on my computer and having basically a plug and play experience with Windows 10 is nice where as with Linux for basically anything outside of Steam it's a bit of a struggle.
@@RobBob555 yes, 60background tasks not running in the task manager and everything u search not going to microsoft totally makes linux unusable lmao, like just define how its unusable
@@RobBob555 Yeah, but deep down, we all know your mom raised you as son of a bitch. Linux is not a piece of shit if you treat it as another ecosystem rather than trying to bring already learned knowledge to Linux, only some of that applies everywhere. It is same thing as switching from windows to macOS, they are not the same so different work styles must be learned to use them effectively, same with Linux.
@@Ganerrr Not for me. I've taken more than enough time and distros and it still is incomparable to windows for a home pc. The worst part are the drivers, which is ridiculous because the whole OS was based on supporting a lot of hardware.
@@vigilante_stark Woah woah hold on mate, you don't wanna wake up the Linux diehards. Though for my use case Pop!_OS has been fairly good for home use.
It’s worth mentioning explorer patcher which lets you make your taskbar and start menu look exactly like windows 10 again, for free. It also has a lot of other tweaks like degrouping the control center and setting the volume, battery, etc flyouts to the windows 10 or windows 7 ones
Yep, got the notification to upgrade, that's a NO for me. No way I'm dealing with all the bugs and inconveniences that W11 brings. Maybe in a year or 2.
The biggest thing for me is SO minor: You can't by default have a centered taskbar, but left-aligned start menu. It's annoying as hell, because UI wise, the start button being the bottom-left corner is IMPORTANT. That effectively makes the start button infinitely large, as no matter how far you drag to the bottom and left, you will reach it. You can slam your cursor into the corner as hard as you like and it will hover over the Start Button. And visually, the centered task bar looks really sleek. So it's would just be logical to let me pick and choose.
Jup. My though exactly once I saw that horrible design. Yeah, by all means, the app icons being centered makes sense, but why, oh why, did you steal my edge start button? I guess I use the windows key most of the time anyways, but it's still a real fail in UX design.
@@TalesOfWar I found that feature to be one of the most obnoxious UX design in history. You already have a bar, that top bar to reach specific window settings just trashes your productivity...
I've tried it all. There is NO way to simply drag and drop the taskbar to your second monitor, like in windows 10. The only way you can get the taskbar to the secondary monitor is by making it the default display, which is the one thing I DON'T want to do. As a TH-camr, I'd like to screen capture the main display WITHOUT the taskbar! It was so nice to be able to just drag and drop it on the second display in windows 10. This is simply IMPOSSIBLE in Windows 11.....
@@berto1014 By the time I watched they had put it into the video chapters, it's MSEdgeRedirect apparently. Chapter title is now "EdgeDeflector (RIP - Use MSEdgeRedirect)"
Yeah, this highlights a fairly major problem not really emphasized in the video, and applies to all those people who say "you can just use program X to fix that, it's no big deal" every time MS decides to shaft us. All those programs can break at any time, any time MS decides to change something, and each time there's no guarantee there will be a fix. I wish people would stop giving MS an easy ride with the excuse that you can "fix" something with 3rd party software, it's not a stable solution, it might not be performant, and they can break other features as well.
I don't mind any of the visual changes, I can live with them and get used to them. My biggest issue is how missing features affect my productivity, like custom toolbars (to navigate my hard drive on the fly), icon labels and separate app instances with clear labels and wider for ample clicking real estate (don't want to be hovering and searching for the right instance every time I need to switch), and lastly, dragging to taskbar. Although I'm not crazy about some of the other changes, I can live with them. If anyone has tweaks for those, especially wide rectangular icons with text labels and app instances ungrouped, I'd appreciate it, otherwise, I'll have to ride my current system until they drop support or I find a good solution.
Same here. I'm currently testing StartAllBack, which allows to bring back the classic taskbar, which includes ungrouping and custom bars/menus. I finally got my work environment back. As a side note, the "new" Quick Access feature may be a good alternative to taskbar's custom bars/menus.
Elevenclock is a must have for multi-monitor users IMO. Essentially all it does is puts the clock in the corner of all taskbars like in Win10 instead of it only being on the main display.
Gaming on the primary monitor with no quick access to a clock can lead to a lack of sleep ^^'. I found that one too and it's baffling that Microsoft thought it was a good idea to not allow that
I'd love to see a dedicated video on a bunch of the "extra" Microsoft tools, (many of which you quickly mentioned in this video). e.g. many of the PowerToys (Windows Terminal, Mouse Utilities, Color Picker, Fancy Zones, ), Garage (Mouse without borders, Eye Control) and any other interesting ones you can find!
@@Smaylik03 Not caring about IT doesnt make you stupid. Most people just need a computer to run basic programs. There are smarter people out there that doesn't care about IT
BTW, I wrote this comment when they said that even if you change your browser, some links will still open in Edge, which sounds just crazy to me and like Microsoft is just shoving their browser in your face without your consent
So excited to switch to Winodws 11 in like 2023 with fully-developed, tested and stable tools to fix all its nonsense. Without all the nonsense it seems like a pretty good OS. Curse of every second Microsoft being bad broken?
I’m crossing my fingers that by 2025 Linux will have caught up for gaming. They have come a long way the last 5 years so maybe in another 5 it will be better than windows?
From one big guy to another... I adore you and I love your tips and videos. (I'm really not sure how I'm missing this "old" video from 2 years ago, but I'm glad that I've found it.)
I love using the registry hack "Take Ownership" to take control back of stubborn files. It should be built-into every Windows installation because of how handy it is.
@@alexmattucci8507 Search for "winaero tweaker take ownership context" on Google (first link), or use Winaero Tweaker itself to add/remove the "Take Ownership" button.
Underrated tool: Chris Titus' debloat script. You guys should really feature it (well ask him first maybe), because it's awesome and he's always working on it. Real gem.
You had me at separating the internet from the volume icons, and giving me the full right click menu by default. I'm fine with virtually everything else.
It is going to be broken with optional update releasing next week. Someone developed another utility now that should work. Sorry I don't remember the name.
Hey Anthony, just want to say that the work you've put in to hosting these films really shows! And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks that. Listen up, Linus, the world wants more Anthony (and he wants a payrise 😀 )
@@xenon7124 bro you've got your os families mixed up: windows is by far the most targeted system by malware and that's not getting into the malware that comes with it, while linux makes you actually input your user password for important things
Best segue ever… 8:40 ! Hah loved it. Seriously though, Anthony knows what he is talking about. This was well prepared and he presented with the authority of genuine personal experience.
I stubbornly used tools like Classic Shell to make Win10 into Win7 as much possible for a few years. Then I realized that I could increase my productivity (and inconveniences with new installations) by simply using and adjusting to Win10's UI and functionality out of the box. After a few months adjusting, I realized Win10's UI is actually superior to Win7 (except for the fact that the entire OS is still less responsive than Win7). For several months, I tried very hard to do the same thing and adjust to Win11, and I came to the realization that it is not possible with Win11, because much of the unnecessary menu nesting and organization is simply BADLY DESIGNED. Even once you're accustomed to it, the Win11 UI is overall a usability regression from Win10. I decided that I am not going to go down the route of using tools to make Win11 into Win10, and if Win11 is a usability regression from Win10, then I will go back to and remain on Win10.
EXACTLY!! This time it's different. The older versions of "bad windows" are just more bloated and different in styles without messing with functionality. Windows 11 though... it's just an abomination made by living garbages who didn't know how windows have been functioning so far, and they made it uglier too as a bonus.
Important tweaks are preventing Windows from updating mandatorily and tweaks that turn off all telemetry and privacy-invading features in the operating system. Entirely uncertain why those were not mentioned.
Please make this into a monthly/bimonthly segment. I've been holding off on win11 but if I can get kept up to date on this kind of thing I'll switch eventually
6:52 In twinkle tray settings, if you set the Brightness Update Rate to Ludicrous, the brightness gets updated almost instantaneously, and feels much smoother to use. I've been using this since over a year now and in earlier versions I did had performance issues with games, but now it's perfect.
@@justinandout it was considered the most stable / user friendly (as in games ran and everything) after sp2, i changed from win2k as many others after sp2. so its not wrong that xp was one of the (if not the) most liked windows to date. more than win7 imo.
@@bencze465 right, "after SP2", but we're talking about launch - and everyone hated XP when it launched - colorful rounded mess if compared to 98/2000. What I'm saying - is nothing is new here - ppl. tend to hate every new version of windows, just to praise it as being "the best version" several years later ;)
@@justinandout You could switch to the classic theme in 2 clicks. And also, I just went back to look at it, and I have to say, Its nowhere as obnoxious as Windows 11 with its floating start menu.
I updated to 11 a few hours ago and I am going to fix them by rolling back to 10 🤣😂 The new start is nice if you are on a tablet or something but for a desktop, it just sucks to do anything with it. I had games in one place, editing tools in onother, work stuff separate, now it's just an endless scrolling icon list. So yes, roll back... EDIT: it only took 4 minutes for the roll back...
@@glyphosate5592 And all the custom setups on r/rainmeter will inevitably include 'Do I Need a Jacket?', which will be a cruel joke as you sweat it out in a tropical country...
One of my favorite utility tool for ANY windows is the Dimmer. It does exactly what it says on the tin in that it dims your screen by putting dark overlay on top of it. This might not seem useful for most people and the software is still a little bit wonky as it's still in beta, but as someone whose monitor doesn't get dim enough for me to comfortably use, Dimmer is a lifesaver.
Thank you so much, I was so annoyed with the taskbar being on the bottom and it was driving me crazy how there wasn't an option to change it's location. When I used StartAllBack I literally ascended
literally when i heard "5% performance increase" and rounded windows i upgraded. Took literally about 8 hours of screwing around to get all my mods in order, im planning to switch to Linux here soon as windows is scum
Careful though, it's super easy to put 8 hours or many more into your Linux installation until you get it how you want it to be. But the beauty is that there is a way for everything on Linux, just depends on your commitment.
@@maximmk6446 I've been on linux full-time since around Feb 2020. It's amazing as long as you don't need EAC for any of your games and don't need any windows-only software.
Thanks Anthony! I bought StartAllBack because of this helpful video summarizing what each tool can and cannot do. And yes, I am the weirdo with the vertical taskbar. It takes less space on an ultrawide monitor. Every modern app, store app or even Windows Settings, have their main icons on the LEFT.
ExplorerPatcher is the best program for fixing the Windows 11 taskbar to be like Windows 10 except more customizable, it’s free and open-source, and it works with all other programs. I use it with Open-Shell Menu and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which are also free and open-source, to have a classic style start menu and taskbar customized exactly how I want it. It has a bunch of neat tweaks and basically you can restore pretty much everything in Windows 11 to be like Windows 10 such as right-click menus, square corners for windows, etc., and ExplorerPatcher enables taskbar/start menu customization tools that work on Windows 10 like Open-Shell Menu, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, and many others to work on Windows 11 too. It will be like you never left Windows 10.
Just got a new Lenovo 5 gaming laptop with Windows 11. The laptop itself owns! but Windows 11 start menu and taskbar was souring my new favourite toy.. you have saved me my man! Downloaded and installed StartAllBack, and wow, what a nifty program, I totally paid the $5 license fee, worth every penny! Thanks heaps!
I've been doing research in preparation for writing my own small utility just for this purpose, and worrying I'll never find the time to actually do it... Never thought there would already be a tool for it, that's awesome!
Yea I usually align my taskbar to the left, but after a week the improved search functionality and smoothness of the UI made me completely for about it. No real issues. I actually hated tiles and doubt I'll even be using the new flyout apps very much either
@@23_yash_gaikwad59 I’m not sure I’ve heard that there are performance issues for AMD users, I think it might be fixed or in the progress of being fixed so just do some research
I have been using Stardock Fences for years now and can't live without it on my main machine. It makes organizing desktop icons so much more comfortable and usable for me. I would love for something like this to be built directly into Windows, but of course that won't happen anytime soon....Microsoft is to busy forcing Edge on the world it seems.
Fences is great! Folder portals are crazy useful, but my favorite feature is probably auto hiding icons. You can leave files around for current projects and still have a clean environment.
I used fences a long long time ago because full screen apps were sometimes destroying your icon arrangement as they changed resolution. It still happened to me a few weeks ago because of sonmething malfunctioning. Still using fences luckily.
@@bencze465 I use three monitors and using fences has saved me many times from games with weird starting resolutions. I still don't know why modern games with modern game engines (some like unreal engine and unity) don't detect my 4k resolution and start in something weird like 1024x700. 1024x768 (4:3 aspect ratio) I remember from my youth, but 1024x700? just doesn't make sense.
With OpenShell/ClassicShell. We can customize on which all instances/actions the default or the old style Start Menu shows up. It can be Mouse Click, Windows or Shift + Windows.
Thanks for the Twinkle Tray recommendation. I thought I was the only one that wanted something like this and was planning on making something like it. Now I don't have to and this has much more features than I would have made :D
holy shit i didnt know there was a bulk renaming application. I literally made a whole ass excel spreadsheet to rename tv show subtitles. glad I know it exists now anyways
Last week I finally went to linux, without any windows dual boot or vm. I somehow feel liberated and to my amazement games run great these days even with old hardware. Hell some games even run better. Not looking back 😊
My current solution to the W11 taskbar and start problem is retrobar combined with open shell. Retrobar is a complete taskbar replacement that doesn't even need explorer, and it has lots of customization, including a windows Vista aero taskbar theme! And open shell makes a good vista/7 start menu. I also use Win11DisableRoundedCorners, to fix the horid rounded corners. I think the best solution to the W11 issue is just install gnome, cinnamon, kde, or something like that via wsl to replace explorer.
Back when I still used Windows regularly, classic shell was always the second thing I installed (after firefox) on Windows 8/10 machines. Sadly it looks like it's no longer being developed, so there's little hope for it getting updated for Windows 11. EDIT: Oh, I guess that it's been picked up by the open source community as OpenShell, which Anthony mentioned in the video - hopefully the issues Anthony mentioned will be fixed soon for those of you wanting to use a sane UI in Windows 11.
I remember being excited for the windows 10 release and upgrading from 7. But now I give no shits about 11 and don't ever want to use it. Which lucky for me none of my computers even support it so they won't just force it on me unexpectedly.
I should disable my TPM module so my only PC that currently supports it doesn't. Why did they make Windows look more like ugly iOS? You couldn't pay me to upgrade right now, I'll use Win10 to EOL at this rate and then switch to Linux.
@@Commander_ZiN the worst thing is they copied the worst feature from macos, rounded corners. It's so useless. Thankfully I dual boot windows 10 with Linux even if it's not a full replacement most stuff works on par or better on Linux. One big thing that doesn't is hardware video decoding in browsers.
yep. To me it seems like windows 11 has a few minor productivity features vs hundreds of steps backwards from windows 10. I might upgrade to 11 if they ever fix any of these issues, but it's more likely that i'll just move to Linux once it's more compatible with everything.
I also recommend: Modern Flyouts to fix the abysmal looking volume slider for a more Modern one, and Ear Trumpet so you can customize each individual program's volume easier as well as switch outputs with a single click
I've also found (and fallen in love) with this pairing. Ear trumpet in particular has become an absolute must for every Windows machine I've used since!
Something you guys didn't mention but I figured i'd add since you asked would be 7+ taskbar Tweaker. I know it says 7 as in windows 7 but on windows 10, it works perfectly fine and allows a whole host of customization. As a left screen taskbar guy, I use it to make the taskbar thinner, only as wide as the icons, which proves for a MUCH better experience.
I mean most of the stuff they added is not really needed for most people. I hate it that they force these things instead of making it optional while installing W11.
With all the recent talk of Linux, it's this video that has convinced me to make the switch. I've just started to like Windows 10 and was thinking of downgrading to Windows 11. If I'm gonna piss about getting the OS to work how I want it, I'm going Linux. This video has given me a headache and a wake up call. Seriously though great vid.
As a Linux desktop user for almost 2 decades now I have to warn you that it may be a *lot* of pissing around until you hit your sweet spot. After that it's mostly smooth sailing and quite often sheer bliss to see your machine doing things exactly the way you want them. :) Linux and its Desktop Environments have their quirks too and be prepared for the occasional facepalm at how stupid one feature or another was implemented. [edited: typo]
@@darin7553 Thanks, will check it out. I was considering Pop_OS, but wanted to see how the LTT 3 part Linux challenge goes before I take a proper look at distros.
@@loopylad4722 I second linux mint cinnamon. Was intending on going to pop os myself but then I tried mint and it was so much better than I anticipated!
You're gonna piss about it a lot more trust me XD. Getting Linux desktop to do exactly what u need is a pain in itself. Thanks gnome 3 smh That being said I'm currently using POP OS and it's farely good. I would suggest using something other than gnome though.
I think you guys should include a how-to for setting up VMs on Win 11, mostly as a painless intro to Linux. I started using Linux during the the real final years of XP (Microsoft actually, mostly, stopped supporting it on April 9, 2019), starting off by testing out different distros as VMs running on Win 7 before committing to a full hardware install (and a role reversal of running Win 7 and Win XP as VMs running on Linux). By the time Win 10 was released, I regarded Windows as a legacy/special purpose OS and Win 11 does absolutely nothing to change this.
I'm probably in the lowest skill set demographic that frequents your videos ... and this video is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Keep 'em coming!
Love this type of video from you guys. I had no idea you could control external monitor brightness with PC software, that's sick! Downloaded Twinkle Tray to my laptop pronto and now I can dial in my brightness painlessly. Thanks so much!
Sadly, Microsoft killed Edge Deflector on Win11 just days ago. Deliberate, of course - M$ wants every eyeball on Edge for maximum ad revenue. We'll see if the developer finds a workaround. Still works on Win10 (for now).
On Win11, I used winaero tweaker to revert to the win10 taskbar (yes, it's still there, hidden, and you can bring it back, with some minor issues though) and then I used open-shell since the win11 start menu doesn't work on classic win10 taskbar But I didn't find any usefulness on win11 start menu. Actually, I use a classic winXP style of openshell menu, because I like it more retro instead of searching. Although there is a search box there. I also moved my taskbar to the left, again using winaero tweaker, like I had it on Win10. It actually modifies registry keys. I think winaero can bring back classic search on searching locally instead of using bing search and a lot more. Both winaero tweaker and open-shell are free to use and are in the description. Although, be sure to make a restore point before letting an app tweaking your windows registry, cause we all know sometimes this can go south!
I stick with Windows 10, until another stable Windows version appears. The same I did from 98 to XP and later from XP to 7 then we had to wait long to change to 10. As you can see, a lot of versions had to be skipped, maybe 11 is one of these.
I was very fortunate to skip over Windows 8 when upgrading laptops. A family member had it installed on theirs and it looked like so much trouble for someone without a touch screen
Windows 11 isn't a skip IMO. Like already now when they fixed Ryzen bug the performance with ryzen is better than on win 10 and everything seems kinda faster/smoother. (App load times, scrolling, etc). It just still has some annoying bugs, so I'll wait a year and then upgrade because they'll be fixed by then.
*insert thank you meme here* Exactly. Windows 10 btw. came out so fast that I even skipped Windows 8 entirely since Windows 7 was just better (in my opinion). I'll stick to Windows 10 til I feel like Windows 11 is in a later stage.
I'm running both Linux and windows. Recently got Linux , its light , snappy and I'm overall happy. Not gonna throw windows though for gaming needs and just some other stuff. Otherwise good move..
I assume this is due to the time difference when the video was recorded and now but Microsoft have disabled Edge Deflector in the latest update. The developer has said that it'd be possible to make it work again but would require "destructive changes" to Windows 11 so he's not going to. Pretty sure I read that there was an alternative (or maybe even another program by the same dev) but the name eludes me
Thanks so much for making this video; super useful! I'm finally at peace with Win 11 :D I'm pretty easily distracted so I like to have a super-minimal setup: small taskbar, hide every single icon in the system tray into the overflow menu; I even hide the clock! None of which can be done out of the box in Win 11. First tried Stardock's Start11 (works great if you just want the small taskbar back .. but still couldn't hide the clock), then RoundedTB (because it lets you hide the system tray entirely .. but that felt a bit like a compromise) .. and finally settled for going even more minimal: autohide the taskbar entirely, and use Powertoys' Run utility instead to open up/switch between applications. Somewhat ironically; this is exactly how I used OS X back when I daily-drove a Mac .. I could never get used to the dock, so I put it on autohide, and just relied on Spotlight instead.
Hi! Developer of RoundedTB here - the next update will have an option to keep the tray hidden until you hover over it (and it'll also fix a bunch of bugs that I was hoping I'd have fixed before this video went live to TH-cam but oh well lol)
Terminator Anthony is just regular Anthony without disguise.
Best Anthony
With*
Terminator would melt in the sight of Raging Anthony
@TimeLapses Especially if the terminator runs on windows
Yes
Anthony: "Let me show you how to decrapify Windows 11"
Loads MS-DOS
Give hate to this video .
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
@@meow8797 no
@@meow8797 reported
@meow reported in every comment you placed it currently on your 9th report. fight fire with fire
Unfortunately windows is not DE as it was in 3.1
YES MAKE THIS A REGULAR THING. This is exactly what I need. All the power tools and quality of life tweaks and bits and things. This is my favorite LTT video of the year.
Agree wholeheartedly! LTT is bloody excellent! Anthony forever!
Get a better OS. Windows peaked over a decade ago with Windows 7 and has been on the decline ever since. I'm glad I've never had to experience MS trying to force Edge down my throat like that (I like Edge okay, but those shenanigans to change your default browser are messed TF up).
I upgraded to Windows 11 on my work laptop, and then spent the next 2 days fighting with the UI, including using some of the tools mentioned in this video. I got no work done during that time. In the end, I found the most effective tool for restoring productivity was to go back to Windows 10.
I can't stand Apple as a company, but they do seem to have mastered the art of delivering a consistent UX across devices and OS versions. I think it mostly boils down to the fact that they don't see a need to completely change usability and design paradigms every time they change underwear. Why the hell can't Microsoft do the same?
And to those who would say to use Linux, I quote Tom Scott: "No."
Yeah, at first I hate Win 10 Start and UI, now I already attached to it, and Microsoft change it again in Win11, what a joke I will Win11 but maybe later next year, there's no need to upgrade it at least for now.
I'll wait until I cant wait anymore to go to win11. I've set up my rig as I like with win10, I constantly keep update a usb key with a ninite installer, driver and whatever I deem essential and another with the files to reinstall win10.
I've even managed to write myself a program to backup my firefox user folder every week on a third usb that's always connected.
AND I have 3 hard disk: a ssd for the OS (250GB), an HDD for the programs folder (2TB) and a second HDD for the windows related folder (download, desktop, documents on a 1TB). No need to make an emergency backup (in wich you always forget to put something important) if I've to format the OS: just format the SSD, install win10, hook up the windows folders from the 2nd HDD, erase what you dont like/need from the fist and reinstall what you need. Couple of hours and the rig is ready to rumble again.
Just pointing out this: you can choose in wich drive you can download the games from steam and most other launcher. It's a bit hidden and the load speed is lower, but it work. And it mean you dont have to redownload those 200GB/1TB in games. Of course, nowdays 2TB SSD are becoming cheaper so the load speed wont be a problem for much longer.
This said, let's talk about linux: while linux is a GREAT so, fast, lightweight and absolutelly not hungry of resource, if you need a gaming rig linux isnt still there. While there are lotsa of compatible games, some of the best truth to be said, as soon as a game have an anticheat you are outta luck. Doom eternal fans can attest to that. So I get where do you come from.
linux is superior in every way, the only selling point of Windows is that its popular and has a lot of software written by it. Thats why I've always admired and liked Bil Gates, he managed to force a way inferior product onto the entire world. The man is a genious.
@@comradenoob8511 Betamax was technologically superior to VHS, yet VHS won the format war primarily due to ease-of-use (I can fit an entire sports program onto one tape) and eventually greater market penetration with more content. In the end, it's not whether a product is technically superior that determines its overall success - rather, it is that product's ability to fulfill a market demand and build a useful/desirable ecosystem around it that draws users. The best system in the world might as well be a rock if you can't do anything with it.
Perfection is the enemy of "good enough."
Linux has come a very long way, but it still suffers from a high barrier to entry in the form of both segmentation (too many distros and choices to be made just to get started), and information overload (you can customize everything, and pretty much everything needs to be customized). Not everybody wants to deal with all that knob twiddling and lever pulling on a regular basis...and unfortunately the average person couldn't give two shakes about open vs. closed source.
Linux today is as good desktop as windows or Os X! The main problem with Linux (in my case) lack of software!
Hear me out... In my case i use LuminarAi and TopazAi photo programs and there is nothing for Linux even remotely as good as this software for Linux!
But i really hop Linux get it so i can dump windows for ever
The best Windows 11 tweak I've found is staying on Windows 10.
That's nice, except for the fact Microsoft will end support for it in 4 years.
You mean the worst? Windows 10 has none of the Windows 11 benefits lol
Eh, I kinda like windows 11
And to be honest, Windows 11 is the FIRST WINDOWS version I am avoiding to upgrade the moment it came out. (I always been an Beta user of Windows (Or adopted early in case of XP, I think I even betad that one, cannot remember), Windows 11 was the first I avoided.) Not for the TPM 2.0 reason but for all the things they done. (Centered Bar, Non-alignable, even if I use standard pos, start menu, etcetra)
People were saying the same with XP/Vista and 7/8.
Thanks LTT and Anthony for mentioning One Commander. I am updating it weekly and am open to suggestions for improvements.
Awesome! I'm going to give it a whirl.
Hi Milos. Can i have the sidebar on both sides of one commander?
@@olegyamleq7796 At this time another pane is planned on the right side but for some other functionality. I might add ability for users to choose what to show in each sidebar but I don't have a timeline for that yet
@@MilosParipovic OK, thanks. I will keep a look out for upcoming updates. Thanks!!! :-)
Would love for you guys to do more software stuff like this, maybe even going deeper in detail about some specific ones and comparisons of features like you did with StartAllBack vs Start11 here. Tons of good tools out there and always some neat ways to improve or change your workflow. A few I use: ShareX, Bulk Rename Utility, Mp3tag, Unlocker, Process Explorer, and plenty more.
Bulk Rename Utility is one of my favorites!
yeah this kind of tool is so simple to use that a mild techie can properly utilize it
but it's so "obscure" because no one ever advertise for it except for productivity tips video
having a big youtube show how easy it is to use and how useful it is, even if you're using it once per 2 months or smth
probably will bring a lot more eyeball to the software, and hopefully, also interested developer
Give hate on this video
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
I love the "can't move taskbar around" feature of Windows 11. Thanks, M$. Been looking for this functionality for a while. This, along with making desktop context menu harder yet another click away from usefulness, as well as outright removing the taskbar's context menu, makes me sooooo happy.
Just got a laptop with win11.. Trying to get my workflow back to same as with win10. Impossible. This is unusable!
Anthony's confidence is absolutely through the roof. Proud of how far he's come!
Came to say this, as someone who hasn't usually been an Anthony fan, I am loving this video!
He has improved quite a bit
I've always enjoyed Anthony's brain in action, but seeing the confidence along with the intelligence makes him pop like a collar
Same
Anthony is awesome :)
Please do more software recommendations, I love them and they're very useful
Very much agreed
I'd love to have this as a regular series. Actual Tech Tips! XD
u mean software tech tips... does merit its own separate channel... linux, mac os, windows os, chrome os, android, android 12L, wear os, iot softwares... there are so many...
The only reason I decided to get startallback was to make the taskbar icons smaller. I hate the large icons and it baffles me that microsoft would go out of their way to remove such a simple feature.
big icons makes you think you have a kids toy
Another channel seems to suggest you can adjust size by selecting, pressing control key and using scroll on mouse. I can't try it out as I don't have win 11 yet
So, Microsoft just intentionally broke EdgeDeflector with their latest update; plus the way Firefox was circumventing the default browser nonsense
Use MSEdgeRedirect.
But yeah it is so much crap and screams antitrust how intensely MS is again forcing their own webbrowser down the users throats.
Even worse than back in the IE days.
Why I will probably never change (I _refuse_ to call it 'upgrade') to Win 11. Probably going to bite the bullet and run Linux with Win10 in a VM.
That's a nogo. Won't upgrade.
Yeah recently they did, and no response yet about that. Though new Edge is indeed better and more people actually liking it, I don't know why they need this tactic anyway. Some people will just keep using alternative Web browser regardless how good Edge already is.
@@chrisw1462 Why not just use windows 10 then?
Because a Windows 10 VM still needs Windows 10 to run funny enough, a Linux VM for Windows 10 is just Windows 10 with extra steps...
If you also want linux, dual boot, it's much less effort, and gives the best of both worlds
Anthony: "Hate Windows 11? Try this." **aggressively installs Linux**
No regrets.
**Installs Linux with malicious intent**
That's what I did. Feels good to be on Linux again.
No joke literally done the same as soon as I got the Win11 install is ready notification
@@MarcusMoji I just downloaded window 10
Moment I saw this I grabbed my laptop and did most of these tweaks because they are exactly what I needed. Amazing as always Anthony, never fail to deliver.
well grab yourself some Linux partner...yeeeeehaaaawwww!!!! and say goodbye to Windows
How are there no comments
@@dbunik44 Ewww
@@theninjamaster67 have you tried Linux?
@@dbunik44 Yes and for my purposes of having a struggle free gaming experience it's just not for me but I probably wouldn't mind using it if I just used it for general use of watching TH-cam videos or something but I do a tonnnnnn of gaming on my computer and having basically a plug and play experience with Windows 10 is nice where as with Linux for basically anything outside of Steam it's a bit of a struggle.
Actually, I have only 2 issues with win 11: Missing tasbar ability to add folder toolbars as well as missing ability to always show all tray icons.
I was expecting this to be a full video from Anthony pitching everyone to switch to Linux haha. These tweaks are pretty neat!
ye me too lol
@@RobBob555 yes, 60background tasks not running in the task manager and everything u search not going to microsoft totally makes linux unusable lmao, like just define how its unusable
@@RobBob555 I would much rather not give all my data to Microsoft
@@RobBob555 Yeah, but deep down, we all know your mom raised you as son of a bitch. Linux is not a piece of shit if you treat it as another ecosystem rather than trying to bring already learned knowledge to Linux, only some of that applies everywhere. It is same thing as switching from windows to macOS, they are not the same so different work styles must be learned to use them effectively, same with Linux.
same
2:32 "as well as a modern style that looks nothing like Microsoft has done to date"
sir, that is just the Windows XP start menu with acrylic
Accurate
Still sweet!
That's why it looked familiar 🤔😅
I was expecting Anthony to say “let’s install linux” xD
There isn’t really a Linux alternative to windows for the average user.
Linux is shit for home use. Windows is shit for servers.
@@vigilante_stark linux can be really good for home use if you take the time to get familiar with it
@@Ganerrr Not for me. I've taken more than enough time and distros and it still is incomparable to windows for a home pc. The worst part are the drivers, which is ridiculous because the whole OS was based on supporting a lot of hardware.
@@vigilante_stark Woah woah hold on mate, you don't wanna wake up the Linux diehards. Though for my use case Pop!_OS has been fairly good for home use.
It’s worth mentioning explorer patcher which lets you make your taskbar and start menu look exactly like windows 10 again, for free. It also has a lot of other tweaks like degrouping the control center and setting the volume, battery, etc flyouts to the windows 10 or windows 7 ones
Came here to say this. Explorer Patcher is a great solution and it’s only getting better.
And if you use OpenShell ExplorerPatcher fixes the buttion
thanks for mentioning this i've been trying to find a way to revert my taskbar its much appreciated
I’d love this to become a series.
Yes!
Might be easier to forget Windows at this point, seems like a dead end
It's a clickbait video for people refusing to get used to things that makes sense.
absolutely. There's way too much information for one video. EZ content and super useful
I searched for this comment!
"Hate Windows 11? Try this."
Me: Stays on Windows 10, issue solved
Exactly lol
you're just like me lol
Owns a Google Pixel 4a Unlocked Update available for Android 12
Me: Stays on Android 11
problem is support ends in 3 years and few months or so
Yep, got the notification to upgrade, that's a NO for me.
No way I'm dealing with all the bugs and inconveniences that W11 brings.
Maybe in a year or 2.
Better yet, install Linux and you're done
The biggest thing for me is SO minor: You can't by default have a centered taskbar, but left-aligned start menu. It's annoying as hell, because UI wise, the start button being the bottom-left corner is IMPORTANT. That effectively makes the start button infinitely large, as no matter how far you drag to the bottom and left, you will reach it. You can slam your cursor into the corner as hard as you like and it will hover over the Start Button.
And visually, the centered task bar looks really sleek. So it's would just be logical to let me pick and choose.
Jup. My though exactly once I saw that horrible design.
Yeah, by all means, the app icons being centered makes sense, but why, oh why, did you steal my edge start button?
I guess I use the windows key most of the time anyways, but it's still a real fail in UX design.
This is how I used the taskbar on Windows 10 (with taskbarx)
@@TalesOfWar I found that feature to be one of the most obnoxious UX design in history. You already have a bar, that top bar to reach specific window settings just trashes your productivity...
@Dany Henriquez >All users should use what I use - Just get a MacBook already
@Dany Henriquez why would anyone want a far inferior product for just that feature?
I've tried it all. There is NO way to simply drag and drop the taskbar to your second monitor, like in windows 10. The only way you can get the taskbar to the secondary monitor is by making it the default display, which is the one thing I DON'T want to do. As a TH-camr, I'd like to screen capture the main display WITHOUT the taskbar! It was so nice to be able to just drag and drop it on the second display in windows 10. This is simply IMPOSSIBLE in Windows 11.....
Funny this comes out today, right when Microsoft breaks EdgeDeflector.
There's supposedly already another app the unbreaks the break MS released. I'm not upgrading to Windows 11 though on any of my existing devices.
Microsoft doesn’t want redirects from Edge. Why have a default browser and in Windows 11, that’s gonna be Edge.
@@berto1014 By the time I watched they had put it into the video chapters, it's MSEdgeRedirect apparently. Chapter title is now "EdgeDeflector (RIP - Use MSEdgeRedirect)"
Windows 11 can suck it. Microsoft, be ashamed.
Yeah, this highlights a fairly major problem not really emphasized in the video, and applies to all those people who say "you can just use program X to fix that, it's no big deal" every time MS decides to shaft us. All those programs can break at any time, any time MS decides to change something, and each time there's no guarantee there will be a fix.
I wish people would stop giving MS an easy ride with the excuse that you can "fix" something with 3rd party software, it's not a stable solution, it might not be performant, and they can break other features as well.
I don't mind any of the visual changes, I can live with them and get used to them. My biggest issue is how missing features affect my productivity, like custom toolbars (to navigate my hard drive on the fly), icon labels and separate app instances with clear labels and wider for ample clicking real estate (don't want to be hovering and searching for the right instance every time I need to switch), and lastly, dragging to taskbar. Although I'm not crazy about some of the other changes, I can live with them.
If anyone has tweaks for those, especially wide rectangular icons with text labels and app instances ungrouped, I'd appreciate it, otherwise, I'll have to ride my current system until they drop support or I find a good solution.
Same here. I'm currently testing StartAllBack, which allows to bring back the classic taskbar, which includes ungrouping and custom bars/menus. I finally got my work environment back. As a side note, the "new" Quick Access feature may be a good alternative to taskbar's custom bars/menus.
StartAllBack works great for me.
Just press alt+tab or win+tab
Wait till the next version run by AI comes out and decides what you like on your screens based on the shows you wear and bing searches
Elevenclock is a must have for multi-monitor users IMO. Essentially all it does is puts the clock in the corner of all taskbars like in Win10 instead of it only being on the main display.
I just had this issues with WIn11 and wanted to highlight the app, thanks for that mate :)
Yes, yes, god please yes!
Gaming on the primary monitor with no quick access to a clock can lead to a lack of sleep ^^'. I found that one too and it's baffling that Microsoft thought it was a good idea to not allow that
OMG! Thank you!
Cant believe that this feature only recently got into the Beta builds for Windows 11
I'd love to see a dedicated video on a bunch of the "extra" Microsoft tools, (many of which you quickly mentioned in this video). e.g. many of the PowerToys (Windows Terminal, Mouse Utilities, Color Picker, Fancy Zones, ), Garage (Mouse without borders, Eye Control) and any other interesting ones you can find!
Microsoft: With every new update, we'll make more and more decisions for you, whether you like it or not.
People who don’t work in IT don’t understand most users are stupid.
Change just for the sake of making it different, not better...
And you'll still have BSODs
@@Smaylik03 Not caring about IT doesnt make you stupid. Most people just need a computer to run basic programs. There are smarter people out there that doesn't care about IT
BTW, I wrote this comment when they said that even if you change your browser, some links will still open in Edge, which sounds just crazy to me and like Microsoft is just shoving their browser in your face without your consent
So excited to switch to Winodws 11 in like 2023 with fully-developed, tested and stable tools to fix all its nonsense. Without all the nonsense it seems like a pretty good OS. Curse of every second Microsoft being bad broken?
Give hate to this video .
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
Ready to change to Windows 11... Never 🤣 I like Linux more I'll only use the vm when I feel like using something Windows does significantly better
"Without all the nonsense it seems like a pretty good OS." - so your saying if it didn't suck, it would be good?? Lol
I’m crossing my fingers that by 2025 Linux will have caught up for gaming. They have come a long way the last 5 years so maybe in another 5 it will be better than windows?
More like 2025
This isn't Linux Level customization, but it still makes windows 11 look dam good!
Give hate to this video .
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
Exactly what I was thinking. This is the reason windows is the best middle ground between macOS and linux.
@@meow8797 reported
windows is the worst os ever!
@@meow8797 reported
From one big guy to another... I adore you and I love your tips and videos. (I'm really not sure how I'm missing this "old" video from 2 years ago, but I'm glad that I've found it.)
Best intro ever! Anthony "no mercy edition" is the best Anthony I've seen!
I love using the registry hack "Take Ownership" to take control back of stubborn files. It should be built-into every Windows installation because of how handy it is.
wait wait wait, what. please explain this some more! I've had stubborn file problems before!
@@alexmattucci8507 Search for "winaero tweaker take ownership context" on Google (first link),
or use Winaero Tweaker itself to add/remove the "Take Ownership" button.
@@guilhermesilveira6025 Yooo thanks, gonna do some research when I get home!
Underrated tool: Chris Titus' debloat script. You guys should really feature it (well ask him first maybe), because it's awesome and he's always working on it. Real gem.
I used to debloat every windows 10 install. I find 11 is super quick and responsive though so I don't bother
Hah... TITUS
@ALL HANDS ON STEAM DECK damn 😂
Does this work on Win 11?
@@EvanWasHere yes
This could be a great series, after a year, could we have an update on the state of W11 problems? or any new tools that can help us?
As a 100% Linux user, I still didn't feel like my time was wasted while watching this video. Anthony is pure magic.
Same
Same.
Same! Not sure why, but I still feel like my time was well spent.
Same
Linux is love
You had me at separating the internet from the volume icons, and giving me the full right click menu by default.
I'm fine with virtually everything else.
Me too!
"Never combine taskbar buttons" is not covered!
It is the biggest problem (even in productivity) I think.
True...i need only NEVER combine Taskbar buttons...
StartAllBack has it
@@allenqueen Just got it and yes it works great. It also enables the task bar so you can add quick launch toolbar
One thousand times, THIS!
My taskbar icons cover like 1/3 of my taskbar, with temperatures of each proc core and such. Very practical, for me at least.
i just discovered edge deflector not too long ago and its amazing, i can actually use the windows search bar normally now lol
It is going to be broken with optional update releasing next week. Someone developed another utility now that should work. Sorry I don't remember the name.
@@_sumitdh you know this… how?
@@dubbynelson TechLinked baby
@@dubbynelson the power of the internet. And windows has betas
Totally crappy that they don't give you choice but to be honest Edge is bloody good so why bother?
I love how linus phoned in that advertisement.
LMFAO. I was looking for this comment.
Hey Anthony, just want to say that the work you've put in to hosting these films really shows! And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks that. Listen up, Linus, the world wants more Anthony (and he wants a payrise 😀 )
Yea! More Anthony!
I agree... But... Anthony? Is that you?
I only put the Start bar on the side, cuz you mentioned it!
Microsoft ways of doing things these days is making things so bad that people start fixing it for free.
The Bethesda of computers...
True that!
"90 degree corners, just like God intended" couldnt agree more
optimization issues and this, this are reasons why win11 sucks and yeah, cause it's not linux
@@aryanmn1569 yeah windows is not insecure like linux.
@@xenon7124 bro you've got your os families mixed up: windows is by far the most targeted system by malware and that's not getting into the malware that comes with it, while linux makes you actually input your user password for important things
@@xenon7124 I wonder why most prominent hackers and security experts run linux on their machine, windows MUST be more secure lol
The round corners are hideous! They might want to give people the option to have a choice as it makes the OS look like a babies toy...
Best segue ever… 8:40 ! Hah loved it. Seriously though, Anthony knows what he is talking about. This was well prepared and he presented with the authority of genuine personal experience.
I stubbornly used tools like Classic Shell to make Win10 into Win7 as much possible for a few years. Then I realized that I could increase my productivity (and inconveniences with new installations) by simply using and adjusting to Win10's UI and functionality out of the box. After a few months adjusting, I realized Win10's UI is actually superior to Win7 (except for the fact that the entire OS is still less responsive than Win7). For several months, I tried very hard to do the same thing and adjust to Win11, and I came to the realization that it is not possible with Win11, because much of the unnecessary menu nesting and organization is simply BADLY DESIGNED. Even once you're accustomed to it, the Win11 UI is overall a usability regression from Win10. I decided that I am not going to go down the route of using tools to make Win11 into Win10, and if Win11 is a usability regression from Win10, then I will go back to and remain on Win10.
EXACTLY!! This time it's different. The older versions of "bad windows" are just more bloated and different in styles without messing with functionality.
Windows 11 though... it's just an abomination made by living garbages who didn't know how windows have been functioning so far, and they made it uglier too as a bonus.
Important tweaks are preventing Windows from updating mandatorily and tweaks that turn off all telemetry and privacy-invading features in the operating system.
Entirely uncertain why those were not mentioned.
because at that point you just switch to Linux and Anthony doesn't have to be held hostage anymore
O&O Shut Up is essential
Probably because he never mentioned WinAero Tweaker, which does all of them things, as well as most the other stuff he mentioned 🤔
Please make this into a monthly/bimonthly segment. I've been holding off on win11 but if I can get kept up to date on this kind of thing I'll switch eventually
As an ultrawide user, the fancyzones with powertoys is ABOLUTELY AMAZING!
Definitely! I have one that I use when I'm in a watch party, it sizes my zoom and browser perfectly 👌
For real, it's such a useful tool, it makes everything so much easier on my TV setup!
Explorer Patcher is a nice tool to restore the Windows 10 UI
6:52 In twinkle tray settings,
if you set the Brightness Update Rate to Ludicrous, the brightness gets updated almost instantaneously, and feels much smoother to use.
I've been using this since over a year now and in earlier versions I did had performance issues with games, but now it's perfect.
Anthony is the kind of guy that would be able to re-release Windows XP with full up to date support as a hobby. You sir are a legend!
Win XP had rounded corners as well, and was massively hated upon launch ;) I guess zoomers just don't know that :)
@@justinandout it was considered the most stable / user friendly (as in games ran and everything) after sp2, i changed from win2k as many others after sp2. so its not wrong that xp was one of the (if not the) most liked windows to date. more than win7 imo.
@@bencze465 right, "after SP2", but we're talking about launch - and everyone hated XP when it launched - colorful rounded mess if compared to 98/2000.
What I'm saying - is nothing is new here - ppl. tend to hate every new version of windows, just to praise it as being "the best version" several years later ;)
@@justinandout I'm a 90's kid, and I didn't pick up on that, mostly because I don't remember it haha
@@justinandout You could switch to the classic theme in 2 clicks. And also, I just went back to look at it, and I have to say, Its nowhere as obnoxious as Windows 11 with its floating start menu.
I have a 32:9 ultrawide and I agree with your assessment of powertoys' fancyzones. It is not an option, it's a requirement.
Wow. Sure Win95 will look like shit on your computer
I updated to 11 a few hours ago and I am going to fix them by rolling back to 10 🤣😂
The new start is nice if you are on a tablet or something but for a desktop, it just sucks to do anything with it. I had games in one place, editing tools in onother, work stuff separate, now it's just an endless scrolling icon list. So yes, roll back...
EDIT: it only took 4 minutes for the roll back...
😂 I did the same for the same reasons.
I would love to see this as a regular series to find new tweaks and utilities. Anthony FTW
One of my favorite tweak-esque things is rainmeter. I’ve been using it for years and the levels of customization you can get are awesome.
before you install rainmeter be warned because you will spend hours of your time messing around with different skins and layouts
@@glyphosate5592 And all the custom setups on r/rainmeter will inevitably include 'Do I Need a Jacket?', which will be a cruel joke as you sweat it out in a tropical country...
One of my favorite utility tool for ANY windows is the Dimmer. It does exactly what it says on the tin in that it dims your screen by putting dark overlay on top of it. This might not seem useful for most people and the software is still a little bit wonky as it's still in beta, but as someone whose monitor doesn't get dim enough for me to comfortably use, Dimmer is a lifesaver.
aye thanks, love it
is flux on windows 11 cuz u honestly might like that better
@@Simmoxus Windows 10 and 11 kind-of have f.lux built in. Look for "Night Lamp"
Thank you so much, I was so annoyed with the taskbar being on the bottom and it was driving me crazy how there wasn't an option to change it's location. When I used StartAllBack I literally ascended
literally when i heard "5% performance increase" and rounded windows i upgraded. Took literally about 8 hours of screwing around to get all my mods in order, im planning to switch to Linux here soon as windows is scum
Careful though, it's super easy to put 8 hours or many more into your Linux installation until you get it how you want it to be. But the beauty is that there is a way for everything on Linux, just depends on your commitment.
@@eldete6210 well i already installed Gentoo on an old laptop so how hard could my pc with like 25 devices connected to it be be xd
Linux is trash lmao
@@Ganerrr God like
@@maximmk6446 I've been on linux full-time since around Feb 2020. It's amazing as long as you don't need EAC for any of your games and don't need any windows-only software.
Now, I always want an agressive Beat when Anthony makes the Intro :D. That was sick ;)
Thanks Anthony! I bought StartAllBack because of this helpful video summarizing what each tool can and cannot do.
And yes, I am the weirdo with the vertical taskbar. It takes less space on an ultrawide monitor. Every modern app, store app or even Windows Settings, have their main icons on the LEFT.
ExplorerPatcher is the best program for fixing the Windows 11 taskbar to be like Windows 10 except more customizable, it’s free and open-source, and it works with all other programs. I use it with Open-Shell Menu and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which are also free and open-source, to have a classic style start menu and taskbar customized exactly how I want it. It has a bunch of neat tweaks and basically you can restore pretty much everything in Windows 11 to be like Windows 10 such as right-click menus, square corners for windows, etc., and ExplorerPatcher enables taskbar/start menu customization tools that work on Windows 10 like Open-Shell Menu, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, and many others to work on Windows 11 too. It will be like you never left Windows 10.
linus: installs linux, anthony: im gonna decrapify windows XD
"EarTrumpet" and "Everything" are essentials for me. Because the Windows Sound Volume control and Search engine are atrocious
@@AD_RC after you tried 'everything' for the first time to do a search your chin will drop on your desk like Jim Carey in The Mask.
Everything is amazing. It's always the first thing I install on Windows.
I love the intro
Just got a new Lenovo 5 gaming laptop with Windows 11. The laptop itself owns! but Windows 11 start menu and taskbar was souring my new favourite toy.. you have saved me my man! Downloaded and installed StartAllBack, and wow, what a nifty program, I totally paid the $5 license fee, worth every penny! Thanks heaps!
Wow, Twinkle Tray sounds awesome!! I never thought there was a way to control the brightness of external displays with software. That's really useful!
I've been doing research in preparation for writing my own small utility just for this purpose, and worrying I'll never find the time to actually do it... Never thought there would already be a tool for it, that's awesome!
Ive been using W11 for a week now and I enjoy it, feels fresh and I personally havent had any bad experiences :)
Same. I'm not running it on a potato though.
Yea I usually align my taskbar to the left, but after a week the improved search functionality and smoothness of the UI made me completely for about it. No real issues. I actually hated tiles and doubt I'll even be using the new flyout apps very much either
Im amd user should i update to 11?
@@23_yash_gaikwad59 I’m not sure I’ve heard that there are performance issues for AMD users, I think it might be fixed or in the progress of being fixed so just do some research
I have been using Stardock Fences for years now and can't live without it on my main machine. It makes organizing desktop icons so much more comfortable and usable for me. I would love for something like this to be built directly into Windows, but of course that won't happen anytime soon....Microsoft is to busy forcing Edge on the world it seems.
Fences is great! Folder portals are crazy useful, but my favorite feature is probably auto hiding icons. You can leave files around for current projects and still have a clean environment.
I used fences a long long time ago because full screen apps were sometimes destroying your icon arrangement as they changed resolution. It still happened to me a few weeks ago because of sonmething malfunctioning. Still using fences luckily.
@@bencze465 I use three monitors and using fences has saved me many times from games with weird starting resolutions. I still don't know why modern games with modern game engines (some like unreal engine and unity) don't detect my 4k resolution and start in something weird like 1024x700. 1024x768 (4:3 aspect ratio) I remember from my youth, but 1024x700? just doesn't make sense.
With OpenShell/ClassicShell.
We can customize on which all instances/actions the default or the old style Start Menu shows up.
It can be Mouse Click, Windows or Shift + Windows.
Thanks for the Twinkle Tray recommendation. I thought I was the only one that wanted something like this and was planning on making something like it. Now I don't have to and this has much more features than I would have made :D
really glad to see PowerToys in this video. its literally a godsend when i first knew about it.
holy shit i didnt know there was a bulk renaming application. I literally made a whole ass excel spreadsheet to rename tv show subtitles. glad I know it exists now anyways
Last week I finally went to linux, without any windows dual boot or vm. I somehow feel liberated and to my amazement games run great these days even with old hardware. Hell some games even run better. Not looking back 😊
Unless you play literally any online multiplayer games that require anticheat… then you’re out of luck
Give hate to this video .
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
@@Jst4vdeos EAC and BattleEye now supports linux. EAC only if the devs fllick a switch though.
@@gauravkulkarni555 I try, i hope you will too 😊
@Abdelrahman Pootis.
My current solution to the W11 taskbar and start problem is retrobar combined with open shell. Retrobar is a complete taskbar replacement that doesn't even need explorer, and it has lots of customization, including a windows Vista aero taskbar theme! And open shell makes a good vista/7 start menu. I also use Win11DisableRoundedCorners, to fix the horid rounded corners. I think the best solution to the W11 issue is just install gnome, cinnamon, kde, or something like that via wsl to replace explorer.
i mean staying ¨on windows 10 is way better and no updates so no annoyances plus the cpu guys will ofc still support 10 and put in updates
I love having a center aligned task bar on an ultrawide.
Back when I still used Windows regularly, classic shell was always the second thing I installed (after firefox) on Windows 8/10 machines. Sadly it looks like it's no longer being developed, so there's little hope for it getting updated for Windows 11.
EDIT: Oh, I guess that it's been picked up by the open source community as OpenShell, which Anthony mentioned in the video - hopefully the issues Anthony mentioned will be fixed soon for those of you wanting to use a sane UI in Windows 11.
It works fine. Just haft to use a custom icon for the open shell start menu (its in the settings)
With each new thing I find out about win11, the more convinced I am I'll stick to 10 until the very end.
I remember being excited for the windows 10 release and upgrading from 7. But now I give no shits about 11 and don't ever want to use it. Which lucky for me none of my computers even support it so they won't just force it on me unexpectedly.
@Regis might be because the Devs are working on 11, so it's been left alone :)
I should disable my TPM module so my only PC that currently supports it doesn't.
Why did they make Windows look more like ugly iOS?
You couldn't pay me to upgrade right now, I'll use Win10 to EOL at this rate and then switch to Linux.
@@Commander_ZiN the worst thing is they copied the worst feature from macos, rounded corners. It's so useless. Thankfully I dual boot windows 10 with Linux even if it's not a full replacement most stuff works on par or better on Linux. One big thing that doesn't is hardware video decoding in browsers.
yep. To me it seems like windows 11 has a few minor productivity features vs hundreds of steps backwards from windows 10. I might upgrade to 11 if they ever fix any of these issues, but it's more likely that i'll just move to Linux once it's more compatible with everything.
I also recommend: Modern Flyouts to fix the abysmal looking volume slider for a more Modern one, and Ear Trumpet so you can customize each individual program's volume easier as well as switch outputs with a single click
Give hate to this video
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
+1 for Ear Trumpet
I love EarTrumpet! I use that daily.
I've also found (and fallen in love) with this pairing.
Ear trumpet in particular has become an absolute must for every Windows machine I've used since!
Something you guys didn't mention but I figured i'd add since you asked would be 7+ taskbar Tweaker. I know it says 7 as in windows 7 but on windows 10, it works perfectly fine and allows a whole host of customization. As a left screen taskbar guy, I use it to make the taskbar thinner, only as wide as the icons, which proves for a MUCH better experience.
Increasing the ratio of icon size to white space on the taskbar (a la 7+TBT) would certainly be welcome.
Its funny how we seem to have to install more things to keep the system at bay rather than extend its functionality.
I mean most of the stuff they added is not really needed for most people. I hate it that they force these things instead of making it optional while installing W11.
Twinkle Tray is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you Anthony!
ElevenClock allows you to display the taskbar clock on multiple displays, a small feature I sorely missed when I switched
With all the recent talk of Linux, it's this video that has convinced me to make the switch. I've just started to like Windows 10 and was thinking of downgrading to Windows 11. If I'm gonna piss about getting the OS to work how I want it, I'm going Linux. This video has given me a headache and a wake up call. Seriously though great vid.
As a Linux desktop user for almost 2 decades now I have to warn you that it may be a *lot* of pissing around until you hit your sweet spot. After that it's mostly smooth sailing and quite often sheer bliss to see your machine doing things exactly the way you want them. :)
Linux and its Desktop Environments have their quirks too and be prepared for the occasional facepalm at how stupid one feature or another was implemented.
[edited: typo]
I would recommend Linux mint with the cinnamon desktop.
@@darin7553 Thanks, will check it out. I was considering Pop_OS, but wanted to see how the LTT 3 part Linux challenge goes before I take a proper look at distros.
@@loopylad4722 I second linux mint cinnamon. Was intending on going to pop os myself but then I tried mint and it was so much better than I anticipated!
You're gonna piss about it a lot more trust me XD. Getting Linux desktop to do exactly what u need is a pain in itself. Thanks gnome 3 smh
That being said I'm currently using POP OS and it's farely good. I would suggest using something other than gnome though.
I think you guys should include a how-to for setting up VMs on Win 11, mostly as a painless intro to Linux. I started using Linux during the the real final years of XP (Microsoft actually, mostly, stopped supporting it on April 9, 2019), starting off by testing out different distros as VMs running on Win 7 before committing to a full hardware install (and a role reversal of running Win 7 and Win XP as VMs running on Linux). By the time Win 10 was released, I regarded Windows as a legacy/special purpose OS and Win 11 does absolutely nothing to change this.
I'm probably in the lowest skill set demographic that frequents your videos ... and this video is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Keep 'em coming!
Love this type of video from you guys. I had no idea you could control external monitor brightness with PC software, that's sick! Downloaded Twinkle Tray to my laptop pronto and now I can dial in my brightness painlessly. Thanks so much!
Yeah! I also downloaded Twinkle Tray because of this video! So handy!
Man, I'm loving this Power Toys thing, thank you so much!
I definitely used these tips to fix my windows
Give hate to this video
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
@@meow8797 why
@@Technical_Gaming07 Give hate to this video
th-cam.com/video/_DIO9JZgek0/w-d-xo.html
@@meow8797 why
@@zneer100 just do it
I haven't watched Linus in a while, damn Anthony's speech, flow, annunciation... Top top notch. Next level from the old days.
Edge deflector sounds like an awesome piece of software, thanks Anthony
Sadly, Microsoft killed Edge Deflector on Win11 just days ago. Deliberate, of course - M$ wants every eyeball on Edge for maximum ad revenue. We'll see if the developer finds a workaround. Still works on Win10 (for now).
@@dktol56 there'll always be workarounds
Almost as if MS could include these options for users that still wanted the older uses as a toggle instead of needing all this BS
I actually just switched to Manjaro now, because although Windows 11 is quite nice it is so buggy for me that I felt like swapping.
CSB
Manjaro gang!
Awesome :) for me the last straw was how hard it was going to be to dodge edge
@Travis 9 there is already a compatible EAC version in regards to Proton usage. It's game to game and needs to be enabled by devs at this point.
In 3/4 hours I will uninstall Windows from my computer and install Pop_OS/Manjaro. I think that I won't regret this change ever
On Win11, I used winaero tweaker to revert to the win10 taskbar (yes, it's still there, hidden, and you can bring it back, with some minor issues though) and then I used open-shell since the win11 start menu doesn't work on classic win10 taskbar But I didn't find any usefulness on win11 start menu. Actually, I use a classic winXP style of openshell menu, because I like it more retro instead of searching. Although there is a search box there.
I also moved my taskbar to the left, again using winaero tweaker, like I had it on Win10. It actually modifies registry keys.
I think winaero can bring back classic search on searching locally instead of using bing search and a lot more.
Both winaero tweaker and open-shell are free to use and are in the description. Although, be sure to make a restore point before letting an app tweaking your windows registry, cause we all know sometimes this can go south!
That goodness someone out there has some love for vertical tssk bars. I've had mine on the right hand side so it's centered between my two monitors.
I stick with Windows 10, until another stable Windows version appears. The same I did from 98 to XP and later from XP to 7 then we had to wait long to change to 10. As you can see, a lot of versions had to be skipped, maybe 11 is one of these.
I was very fortunate to skip over Windows 8 when upgrading laptops. A family member had it installed on theirs and it looked like so much trouble for someone without a touch screen
In my household we did the same, skipped over Vista and 8 and we'll probably pass on windows 11
What was wrong with 2000?
Windows 11 isn't a skip IMO. Like already now when they fixed Ryzen bug the performance with ryzen is better than on win 10 and everything seems kinda faster/smoother. (App load times, scrolling, etc).
It just still has some annoying bugs, so I'll wait a year and then upgrade because they'll be fixed by then.
*insert thank you meme here*
Exactly. Windows 10 btw. came out so fast that I even skipped Windows 8 entirely since Windows 7 was just better (in my opinion). I'll stick to Windows 10 til I feel like Windows 11 is in a later stage.
Everything about this video just makes me that much happier I'm on Linux now. W11 is what caused me to switch and I don't regret it even slightly.
if I were you I wouldn't jump ship that soon, to be honest
same here, but on a mac. Ill stick with W10 on my desktop for games, but everything else I do is on a mac and I am not ever going back
I'm running both Linux and windows. Recently got Linux , its light , snappy and I'm overall happy. Not gonna throw windows though for gaming needs and just some other stuff. Otherwise good move..
I use "This is Win11", which is a pretty nice tool to customize/fix Windows 11
I assume this is due to the time difference when the video was recorded and now but Microsoft have disabled Edge Deflector in the latest update. The developer has said that it'd be possible to make it work again but would require "destructive changes" to Windows 11 so he's not going to. Pretty sure I read that there was an alternative (or maybe even another program by the same dev) but the name eludes me
There's already been an alternative made. See the latest news video
@FLG please link me to command to remove edge and explorer
@FLG I’d love to read about that Edge removal procedure please
Thanks so much for making this video; super useful! I'm finally at peace with Win 11 :D
I'm pretty easily distracted so I like to have a super-minimal setup: small taskbar, hide every single icon in the system tray into the overflow menu; I even hide the clock! None of which can be done out of the box in Win 11.
First tried Stardock's Start11 (works great if you just want the small taskbar back .. but still couldn't hide the clock), then RoundedTB (because it lets you hide the system tray entirely .. but that felt a bit like a compromise) .. and finally settled for going even more minimal: autohide the taskbar entirely, and use Powertoys' Run utility instead to open up/switch between applications. Somewhat ironically; this is exactly how I used OS X back when I daily-drove a Mac .. I could never get used to the dock, so I put it on autohide, and just relied on Spotlight instead.
Hi! Developer of RoundedTB here - the next update will have an option to keep the tray hidden until you hover over it (and it'll also fix a bunch of bugs that I was hoping I'd have fixed before this video went live to TH-cam but oh well lol)
@@torch3972 Ohh, very nice; that does seem a lot more convenient; thanks! .. and thanks for making RoundedTB :D