EP, thanks for the link. Good article. I have found Windows 11 to be a pig just like Windows 8, utterly worthless to actually be productive with. You can do various hacks and tweaks to make it more like Windows 10, but why should you have to do that? On two of my three pc’s, and all three pc’s can run Windows 11, my path is to stay on Windows 10 and then move to linux. The third one is on linux already and I find it a much better experience that Windows 11.

Windows 10 vs linux – it’s close, but I would pick Windows 10.
Windows 11 vs linux – it’s not close and for me linux is the clear winner.

Quoting from the article:

“Windows 11 Home won’t let you use a local account for initial setup

Let’s say you just want to use your computer your way. Maybe you don’t want to have to register and login with Microsoft every time you want to use your machine. Maybe you don’t want (or can’t have) a constant online connection. Maybe you don’t want Microsoft cloud-manage your every move (after all, that’s why we have Facebook). Well, bucko, you’re out of luck.

Windows 11 Home won’t let you set up a local account. Windows 10 made it hard, but the ability was there if you knew where to look. But Windows 11? With Windows 11, you have to login with Microsoft before you can get to work.”

Well, I don’t know. I was considering ditching the Mac and Linux on a PC too, and installing Windows 11 after removing Linux, eager to enjoy myself all the time. Now I am starting to have doubts.

OscarCP wrote:

Now I am starting to have doubts.

There is a workaround.
Any way a Pro version gives you more control over Windows OS.

Alex5723 wrote:

OscarCP wrote:

Now I am starting to have doubts.

There is a workaround.
Any way a Pro version gives you more control over Windows OS.

That’s right. I have ALWAYS spent the extra money and gotten the Pro version of the various Windows versions I have had. It is VERY MUCH worth a little more. Plus, I have no desire to let bully Microsoft push me around as they do everyone that doesn’t spend the extra amount to get the Pro version. I am an older person who was disabled years ago and lived on disability for many years. But I chose to spend some of my limited income to get the Pro version of the Windows OSes I have had over the years.

“I have no desire to let bully Microsoft push me around”

They have succeeded already if you have paid them more money to stop them doing things that you should be able to control.

“#1 Changing your default browser is like a bad game of whack-a-mole”

Nope. Firefox is my choice for default browser. Upon launching Firefox in Windows 11, the browser offered to facilitate change my default browser to Firefox. Click, click, and Firefox is my default browser.

“#2 If you want to revert your Windows 11 upgrade, you only have ten days”

First, I don’t want to. Second, I have a full set of drive images that will allow me to revert anytime.

“#3 Windows 11 Home won’t let you use a local account for initial setup”

Not true. There are known workarounds.

“#4 Open File Location doesn’t”

This one is a bit of a red herring. It is only applicable in the Properties of a shortcut. Excellent UI replacements are readily available, inexpensive, and ‘Open file location’ does indeed open the file location in File Explorer.

“#5 Control panel inconsistency is a disgrace”

Not at all unique to only Windows 11.

“#6 Truncated context menus cut off access to needed capabilities”

Same answer as #4.

“#7 The search bar is gone”

Same answer as #4.

“#8 The whole hardware compatibility kerfuffle”

A number of workarounds are readily available.

“What about you?”

Again, Excellent UI replacements are readily available.  I’m replying to the OP about this techy article from the Windows 11 side of my dual boot. It looks and responds much like Windows 7 via StartAllBack.

bbearren wrote:

“#1 Changing your default browser is like a bad game of whack-a-mole”

Nope. Firefox is my choice for default browser. Upon launching Firefox in Windows 11, the browser offered to facilitate change my default browser to Firefox. Click, click, and Firefox is my default browser.

Not any more after December CUs.

bbearren:

“#3 Windows 11 Home won’t let you use a local account for initial setup”

Not true. There are known workarounds.”

So a little old lady that can only afford Windows 11 Home has to know how to make, and make herself  “workarounds”?

Someone with an unreliable Internet service has to log in with MS online every time they need to use their computer?

Sorry, but I cannot be OK with that.

The following might help to shed some light on the issue of selecting a default Web browser for a variety of file types:

…But here’s a bit of good news for a change: in the latest Windows 11 test build, Microsoft has added back a button that lets you choose a default web browser with a single click.

However, note that

It appears that selecting this option doesn’t pull all file types and protocols away from Edge—in one shot, you can clearly see that PDFs are still set to open in Edge even though Chrome supports this too—and we should be clear that this doesn’t change Microsoft’s broader strategy of using Edge—and thus Bing and MSN—when users select links in Widgets, Start Search, and elsewhere.

In Windows 7, the user can globally select (for example) Firefox as the default program for all files types that the browser can open; there is a check box to “Select All” if that’s what one wants so that you don’t have to click each file type and protocol individually. Is this, or is it not, currently the case with Windows 11?

Cybertooth wrote:

Is this, or is it not, currently the case with Windows 11?

It is not the case with Windows 11. You have to set each file type to your default browser.

I’m confused. I don’t recall ever opening PDF in a browser. I have used Evince ported to Windows for many years to handle PDF. Basilisk has been my default browser since 2017 and before that Fx. PDF link clicked on when browsing with Basilisk or Fx opens the file in Evince not in Basilisk, Fx or Edge. Why would you use a browser for reading PDF files? Before Evince was ported to Windows, I used Sumatra, Nitro and other PDF readers. Why would folks use browsers as isn’t that a very limited way of opening PDF? I would expect Windows 11 to honor my choice of Evince and I don’t know why Edge would insert itself in opening PDF files when I would set PDF to Evince. As for the ability for the OS to select all file types and protocols to open in a particular browser such as Edge, or Fx, or Basilisk, or SeaMonkey or whatever, why would I want that option?

This thread has made me wonder if i was using Edge and clicked on a link to a PDF file how would it open in my current Windows 10 Pro 21H2? Would it open Evince or because the link was in Edge that I was using would it open in Edge? What would happen in Windows 11? In both cases, it should open in Evince. I haven’t done the Dec OS updates yet but doing that should not change how protocols open and PDF should NOT open in a browser in the first place!

I have noticed recently that when I click on Settings in the taskbar that Microsoft claims I need to do a RESTORE to get Edge and Bing set as default! That is way out of line. I assume this sort of misleading bullying will be worse whenever I get Windows 11.

I’d rather purchase a used PC/Laptop than a new one with Windows 11 from what I’ve read here, there and elsewhere. I’ve always preferred a step back tactic from new tech with some good deals out there to not only satisfy your wallet/purse but also your OS experience with less grievances, intentional bugs etc..bah humbug! ♫

bbearren wrote:

b wrote:

I’m not sure why anyone would need a third-party PDF reader to be installed.

Anyone who does not want to use Edge would need a third-party PDF reader.

All browsers can open PDF files, not just Edge.
I use Portable Sumatra as default PDF reader.

This discussion led me to install Windows 11 on a PC, to observe for myself the workings of the processes for (1) installing the new OS without a Microsoft account and (2) changing default programs.

As a side benefit, I got to experiment with one of those newfangled M.2 NVMe drives, as the Windows 10 PC I was using for the test has the recovery partition at the right-hand end of the partition chart and so it was not practical to create a new partition for Win11 on that disk. I’d been wanting to try the new technology anyway, particularly in getting practice on how to plug one in.

The PC in question had been declared unfit for Windows 11 by Microsoft, so I followed published procedures for bypassing the compatibility check during installation. I also did not wish to create or sign in with a MS account, nor was I interested in activating Windows since this was to be only a test, so I was prepared to follow instructions for those two goals as well.

I did manage to avoid the MS account by following Susan’s instructions in this video. As it turned out, Windows 11 activated by itself, apparently because the computer already has Windows 10 on it (it’s now dual-booting 10 and 11).

So now it was on to checking out the default programs (default apps) situation. As a baseline, see below a screenshot of the Default Programs settings in Windows 7. Note that I’ve highlighted the Vivaldi browser, which was installed on that machine just last week:

We can see that, in Windows 7, from Control Panel we can select Vivaldi globally as the default program for all possible file types. (Right now it’s at 0 of 25 possibilities.)

Next, I used Edge in the brand-new Windows 11 system to download Vivaldi, then I installed the new browser. Vivaldi did not ask at any point if I wanted to make it the default browser, so I went into the browser’s own settings and told it to become the default browser. Finally, I paid a visit to Default Apps and selected Vivaldi from the list. Below is a screenshot of the list of file types. Note that, despite having selected Vivaldi as the “default” browser, every single file type including .HTM and .HTML shows Edge as the default:

Unlike the case with Windows 7, there is no setting in Control Panel (or should I say Settings) to make a global change to the default browser.

FWIW, this is Windows 11 Pro version 21H2, build 22000.318.

Wow, MS has become a place full of elementary school kids who don’t want to share.

Bob99 wrote:

Could the activation of Windows 11 have now inactivated (or superseded) your Windows 10 activation on MS’s licensing servers, thus causing your legitimate installation of Windows 10 to begin to nag you that it’s not properly licensed after “checking in” with MS’s licensing servers as Windows periodically does?

That’s a GREAT question!  When I read it last night, right away I rebooted back into the Windows 10 drive to let it sit overnight. (Not sure how often Windows performs the license check.) I checked this morning, and FWIW Windows 10 is still showing that it’s activated with a digital license.

I’ll keep monitoring the situation and report back if there’s a change in the activation status of either 10 or 11.