Windows 11 review

Image from microsoft.com

Windows 11 brings a lot of new visual changes and refinements to windows overall 

The requirements are a one gigahertz or faster cpu four gigabytes of ram 64 gigabytes of storage   secure boot tpm 2.0 support as well as directx 12 compatible graphics if you meet those requirements   you should be good to go now 

The major change is the   start menu or start bar is in the middle of the display now this can be customized or changed   back to the left hand side if you prefer that but this works great if you have an ultra wide monitor   for example so that's been updated in windows 11. they've also added rounded edges to everything so   if we click on start for example you'll see the corners are rounded there's some nice sort of   shadowing going on behind to give some depth and this looks more like   an android app launcher for example where you have your pinned apps here with some new icon   designs as well and then also if you want to see all of your apps you click on all apps   now you can scroll through all of your apps alphabetically so that's an updated change and something they've updated with the start menu itself there's no more live tiles for example   below you have recommended things you may have opened recently and again you can click on more   and see more of that information or more different recommended applications you might have opened or   documents you also have your power menu here where you can restart or shut down for example   now on the desktop you can see that we have a nice background there's some new themes,

 I'll show you that in a moment but if we right click on one of the icons such as microsoft teams which   is also new and installed on every windows 11 pc so we'll right click and you'll see it's updated   just a little bit you have cut you have copy you also have rename and then delete so this   is updated like you would expect with the theming to match the rounded corners and also your obvious   different properties and things like that that relate to this specific application so just like   you would expect that hasn't changed much it's just a visual overhaul now the next icon as you   can see is search if i click on search you'll see that we have type to search and then you have your   top apps and recents and things like that so just like you would expect before your recent   searches or things you've opened and as you can see we have control panel all of the old ways to   manage a windows computer are still here they're in the background running 

If you want to change from small icons to category for example you can do that so they haven't removed any of these yet   they're still here if you prefer that but they've just visually overhauled everything to make it a   little bit easier to use now the next thing here if we click on this we have multiple desktops we can create a new desktop for example with a different background and theme or different   applications or we can close that out and switch between them very easily so you have that option.

Of course you can add a widget and   there will be more later on but maybe we want to add tips and sports you can add those and   we can resize these to match so maybe make it medium and now everything's matching now so   they've updated this with your news sort of like the live start menu before where you had live news   and things like that but now it's a widget pane to the left again you can search the web here as well   now if you have a touch screen you can slide in from the left and use that also so they've updated   this just to make it really nice and as you can see all the transitions and movements are very   smooth even for an early build now something that they've been talking about quite a lot is called  snap layouts so if we go into 

Image from microsoft.com

Microsoft edge for example and within edge we'll go home if we hover over the maximize bar these are all snap layouts that are the most commonly used layouts now just   like before we can drag the window up to the top to make it full screen we can drag it back drag it   to the left to snap it to the left or right all of those things are still here but the most commonly   used layouts are available here so maybe we want to go to the far left with this one then we'll   open up chrome and maybe hover over this put it in the top right and then maybe open up the microsoft   store and we'll put this one in the bottom right so you can just snap things wherever you'd like   and also the layout is remembered if you connect an external monitor for example so maybe you have an external monitor connected to a surface laptop when you plug it in it will remember this when you   leave it will go back to your main device and it won't just rearrange everything for you and have 

Windows all over the place so it's nice that they've added that and if we close these and   go back in you'll see that it goes back to where it was so it remembers those layouts   now the next thing you can see down here is the file explorer that's been updated just a little   bit it's just been updated to match what we had before with rounded corners for example and the   newer icons everything you would expect is still here though of course so there's those new icons   let's close that out and also settings has been dramatically changed and much easier i think   so instead of the control center we now have settings and you can see all of your settings   here now again you can access anything the old way as well if you're used to that but on the   left you have everything organized by bluetooth and devices network and internet personalization apps gaming accessibility privacy and security and windows update now windows update has been updated   as well not only to be faster but have smaller installs and they said they'll be updating this on a yearly cycle as far as new features so not twice a year anymore so that's a visual change 

I think i like this sort of consistency they're showing throughout the os so again display if   you go into display everything's very consistent in what you would expect such as your scaling and   your resolution for example so that has been updated as well now personalization again it   follows themes like we had before so maybe if we switch to a light theme click on that   and now you can see everything shifts over to a light theme like you would expect from before   and then if you want to change the theme here you have more options to add your own wallpaper   and sounds for example and of course there's new sounds there's different colors everything   is customizable just like you would expect so you have all of these different backgrounds   you have glow you can see that's glow then you have this one here which is called captured motion then also you have what they call flow it's just sort of a variation on the light and  dark theme as well.