Ya, still have almost 2 years before Windows 10 reaches its end of life on October 14, 2025 but I decided to give it a go anyway on my main system. Even though the loophole that allowed the usage of a Windows 7 product key has been killed I didn't want to do a clean install anyway as I have SO much stuff installed I wanted to do an upgrade install. Needing a Windows 11 product key was not an issue as I did such an upgrade ages ago... at least a year... so already have a digital license associated to the system through my Microsoft account and that worked fine as I expected and the install is activated to Windows 11 Pro as it was previously.

So why on the ages ago upgrade did I roll back to Windows 10? Basically just due to some really old games refusing to stay full screen and dropping out. I'm happy to say that, even though I haven't tested all the old stuff, the three primaries no longer seem to do this although I haven't tested extensively.

Still the upgrade had some unexpected differences in relation to the previous attempt. My main does not qualify for Windows 11 due to the CPU which is stupid as it is an 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7. The issue is that the thing is Ryzen generation one and Microsoft won't add them to the approved list demanding at least generation two.

As to the failure of the CPU I have a registry hack to bypass but it no longer seems to work as I still got a notice that the system didn't qualify due to the hardware. However... Microsoft seems to have lightened up on this a bit. Instead of the upgrade failing I was presented with a notice of the fact that included the statement that the system would not be supported and would not get updates as in the following image. Accepting the conditions allowed the install to continue.



It does not look like the claim as to not getting updates is true as, after the install, Windows Updates worked just fine even including optional and preview updates even including driver updates.

Some notes:

1) Initially I selected to allow updates during the install and the install failed three times just dropping out. I selected to do updates later and this issue went away even though the install DID do some updates later in the install but these did not include such things as the frameworks, cumulative or optional updates.

2) I used the media creation tool to make the install media as a flash drive and, again, the install failed and just dropped out. This was solved by right clicking on the setup.exe file and selecting to run as admin. If you use the media creation tool do NOT allow to setup the media specific to the system. My attempt to do this resulted in install failures.

3) First attempt at trying my printer failed as in just putting out a bland page but did again and it was fine. Since one of the optional updates was for my printer it MAY have just needed a run to settle things. It seems fine now.

4) It will take quite a while to test out all my software but Office and PaintShop Pro seem fine. So far I haven't seen any issues.

5) The upgrade took a LONG time but seems to have worked fine. Since I now know the proper sequence as to how to do on my main system I MIGHT roll back to Windows 10 to due a current clone backup as I forgot to do so before the upgrade and this but I already think that this will not be needed. December's update Tuesday will happen before the Windows.old folder expires for a roll back so, if the next updates fail I will roll back. If they still work I will consider everything as cool.

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I am pretty sure that the warning about being unsupported and not eligible for updates is more of a "cover your butt" statement from Microsoft if a future update screws up the system. In any case, it sure sounds like a frustrating experience with this upgrade for that system. I'm choosing to leave my main desktop at Windows 10 until I replace it with newer hardware. It runs fine, though it is over 5 years old at this point and is, of course, not supported for Windows 11.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

There was some frustration but mostly about stuff that used to work that no longer do such as registry hacks to tweak. For instance Windows 11 has no setting to control the taskbar size but you used to be able to control it via the registry but no longer. It's the same with being able to bring back the toolbars in the taskbar the same way but now it takes third party software. The size of the taskbar is not much of an issue as I just have it set to hide but the lack of toolbars irks me as I need the links toolbar to move the recycle bin to the taskbar. This stuff may sound trivial but, since I use animated desktop wallpapers I like to have zero icons. Of course there is always a way around things like this as I could just pin the recycle bin to the start menu and remove the desktop icon.

There are some other gripes that I could bring up but they are as trivial as the two above. It just bugs me when they remove functionality that I'm used to having.

Oh, I also got rid of my virtual machines. Why have virtual machines of Linux Mint, Windows 10 and Windows 11 when I now have them all on physical systems? Linux Mint is now on the Dell I told you about in a PM that I was given. Windows 11 is now on my main as Pro and on my little micro system as Home. Windows 10 is on my Surface, second desktop, Mac Book Air as a dual boot and my retired but kept Asus laptop. Ya, I actually have seven working systems.

<edit>

Grumble, grumble... Pinned the recycle bin to the Strat menu and the icon is there but it is not functional. Also, if you right click on the desktop recycle bin it shows an option to pin to quick access but it doesn't actually happen.

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Yes, change can be frustrating. I hate when features are removed!

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

LOL! Actually one of my 'gripes' helped in a way. Some of my old games would cause my taskbar to 'grow' a row each time I played. Got so I'd leave the taskbar unlocked to make it quicker to resize to normal. Since Windows 11 doesn't allow the taskbar to be resized that irritation is gone.

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This is going to sound odd but I swear that my main system is actually running better with Windows 11 than it did with Windows 10 and this is even true with my really old games.

As to the old games one, Zuma Deluxe, took forever to load in Windows 10. Once the game actually came up the actual load was very fast but after launching it would take 10-15 seconds before the game actually launched. With Windows 11 there is still a pause but it is more like 5 seconds, mayhaps less. Also it was noticeable with the old games that there would be a mouse hesitation when the game was brought up after being minimized to the taskbar. For instance there are three old games that I launch and then minimize to the taskbar using alt-tab to bring up something else. When brought up the mouse hesitation was very noticeable but then all was cool. With Windows 11 there is still a mouse hesitation but I really have to look for it for it to be noticed.

While the difference is fact and noticeable, even in the few apps I've tested such as PaintShop Pro, it makes no real sense as my CPU actually does not even qualify for Windows 11. At a quick look through my few remaining brain cells I see two initial possibilities.

1) No, I don't really consider this a real possibility but the thought crossed my mind. Microsoft is messing with Windows 10 through updates to cause such irritations to promote the likelihood of more people going to Windows 11. Like I said I don't really consider this likely but it DID cross my mind...

2) More likely is that it is my video card which is, while not brand new, recent enough to have been built for Windows 11. This card cost me a fortune with a price tag of over $1100.00 (I'm sure much less today) but it has paid for itself in the time it saves me as to doing video editing and conversions. It is a GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING OC 12G Graphics Card, WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System, 12GB 192-bit GDDR6, GV-R67XTGAMING OC-12GD Video Card. I've had this card for a bit over two years but it is still recent enough to have been designed for Windows 11.

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I would imagine that it is the video card and also the improvements made to Windows 11. Still annoying that Microsoft is not supporting hardware that clearly works well with Windows 11.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I agree and it also could be a factor that Windows 10 was getting bogged down from garbage bloating. After all The AMD Ryzen 7 CPU came out in 2017 and I built my main less than 6 months after the CPU release. Within a couple of months of the build I upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7. The same install of Windows 10 has been on the system except for a very short period when I upgraded to Windows11 at least 2 years ago if not longer. Even than I went back to Windows 10 via restoring the Windows.old save of the original Windows 10 install so the install has been there a LONG time.

Actually everything is going so well that I went ahead and used disk cleanup to get rid of the Windows.old folder. Yes, there things I don't like about Windows 11 but nothing serious. For instance the removal of the disk cleanup from the drive's properties. Still there almost always ways around such things. I just went to start and entered 'disk' which brings up disk cleanup. Right clicked on the result and pinned to the start menu. Actually this method makes it easier to get to than going through properties.

Even solved my gripe about the loss of 'tool bars' in the taskbar which prevents me from putting the recycle bin in a links tool bar by creating a new shortcut on the desktop with the address of 'explorer.exe shell:RecycleBinFolder' which is the recycle bin. I then just pinned the shortcut to quick access and moved all the way left so it is next to the start button. Makes things slightly more cumbersome as this will only open the recycle bin folder from which you can then sweep the mouse across all the files/folders contained then delete. Still, even if a little more cumbersome, I have my clean desktop back.

<edit>
Actually the way I did the recycle bin in the quick access isn't all that more cumbersome at all. Ya it just opens the recycle bin folder but all the normal options are there as in empty, restore all, restore selected... etc.. Actually allows more options then just right clicking on the bin's desktop icon. I think I kind of like it. Also I now have the recycle Bin at the bottom of all File Explorer's left pane. That File Explorer link may have always been in the left pane but I never noticed it it was there.

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Figured that I'd finish this up by saying that I got all the November Update Tuesday stuff so the warning about not getting updates if I continued the install is just a safety valve for Microsoft.

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Yep. Figured that to be the case for the foreseeable future, at least.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

OK, one more post on this...

Just some changes I've made as to appearance. The first image is both my screens in 'Lord of the Rings' mode. Both are animated and I can literally use any video file in .WMV format for the desktop. I could convert even a full movie to WMV format and use as a desktop animated wallpaper... not that I ever will. I see the left half as an elves area with the second as the entrance to Mirkwood. The second image shows what I've done with the start menu and taskbar.

Both of these changes are accomplished through third party software by https://www.stardock.com/products/ . I use 'Start11' and 'Deskscapes'. The start menu and taskbar colors will adjust to the most used colors in the desktop animation. I setup the Start menu into two groups. One is applications and the other utilities. Not done with the population on either of these groups yet but it is basically there. LOL! By now most know that I like a totally clean desktop as to shortcuts and insist on it being 'pretty'.

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Very nice. Are you using an ultrawide monitor or dual monitors? Never mind -- I see you said screens, plural.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Ya, 2 HDTV screens. One is 43 inch and the other 55 inch. Normal viewing is computer on the 43 inch, left, and TV and/or movies on the 55 inch to the right. The way I have it wired I can have computer or cable on either or both screens. I have both screens feeding my Yamaha sound system via optical audio. I can just click a button to choose which screen has audio present.

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Figured that I'd just add this here instead of starting a new thread.

I've been playing a little with the Start Menu and decided to simplify things by complicating... I split my start menu tiles to two groups which are apps and utilities. In essence I now have two different start menus that are switched via the mouse scroll wheel or clicking the little 'buttons' at the bottom of the menu. For me this is easier than having all on the same menu. Plus, once I finish populating the apps I would run out of room with all on one menu.

This is the apps side of the menu:

This is the utilities side:

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Clever division.
Can't stop fussing can we?

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I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

William A. Gustafson
I know I have forgotten more than I can ever hope to remember.

Nope.

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