Windows 11 25H2 – I'm so happy to not be using this

mdavid626

I couldn’t agree more. Windows 11 is pure garbage.

kraussvonespy

Windows isn't getting any slimmer. Storage / RAM isn't getting any cheaper for the first time in the the last ~50 years. There's a storm brewing.

operation_moose

> The desktop speed and responsiveness are significantly improved compared to whatever was before. This is the first time EVER that I feel Windows 11 has a normal desktop behavior, and isn't just a total flop. > The battery doesn't last as long as it should. Strangely, it ran out in about an hour or so while I was fiddling with the system, trying to tame it Is this the new "low latency" mode in action, where they didn't actually fix anything, they just boost the CPU clock? https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-11s-big-performance-boos... > The so-called "Low Latency Profile" is a special performance mode that aims to make Windows 11 snappier and more responsive. It boosts the processor clock speed to its maximum for a brief moment when rendering user interface elements or launching apps.

alex_c

I’m genuinely curious what people at Microsoft, and on the Windows team specifically, run on their daily machines. They cannot possibly be putting up with Windows 11 as experienced by regular people.

Bender

I tried to keep one windows machine around just in case I needed it but every 2nd time I boot it, I have to delete the edge webview binaries, delete that process tree, kill some services, stop some services if I disable them windows update will eat itself after so many updates which I am sure they did on purpose as a passive aggressive humiliation ritual. Then I have to run a powershell script to change affinity and priority of most windows services. If I set those in the registry it will bork the machine after so many updates. Fragile piece of bloated crap. As I am not into BDSM and not a masochist I just can't keep that OS around. That will be one more CachyOS install. More governments and schools need to ditch windows or they will just keep getting funded.

ricardobeat

Had a very similar experience, plus a few forced system recovery episodes, trying to set up a Ryzen 395+ mini PC. Not to mention the mess of driver installs, having three terminal apps (why is PS7 a separate app??), WSL woes, trying to install python and git. Even chocolatey, which is supposed to make your life easier, has an archaic install process from the 90s. The whole ecosystem is light years behind linux and mac, I cannot understand software engineers using windows. I am very ready to install linux on it.

signal11

I recently got myself a Lenovo P-series Thinkpad to test something. My main machine's an MBP, so I was prepared for some pain, but honestly even an old Windows 10 box feels less laggy than the Thinkpad's fully-patched 25H2. Using PopOS on an old Thinkpad easily beats this experience. (And omg the power draw on the P-series!) I also concur with the "Updates for days" sub-head in the article. That's exactly what it felt like. I'd love to see some competition in the commercial personal OS space. Windows 11 25H2 isn't a serious contender, I'd love to see what their recent efforts to refocus on native apps will bring. I'm going to apply the Costco Test: grab a Windows 11 Surface Laptop at Costco and press Win+E to open Explorer. If it takes ages to paint, you've failed the test. Ditto for other bundled apps, including Edge.

phendrenad2

From the last paragraph, the author seems defensive and bitter. But they needn't be. Windows just isn't for you. Powerusers should stay far away. Powerusers have unusual requirements that break Windows in unusual ways. For example, the author is complaining that Windows "forgot" his PNG file association, but I'm 99% sure this means that the author installed and then uninstalled some program that took the PNG file association, and Windows isn't designed to anticipate this kind of poweruser fickleness. Likewise, the author is running their disk space down to <40GB free, and didn't think that this would cause problems (because to a poweruser, 40GB is like, so many config files!) A normal user who got into this situation would hand their PC to a slightly-more-technically-capable user who would notice that the disk was full. Or maybe they'd take it to a PC repair shop. But a poweruser spends "two days of debugging".

donalhunt

I've just had to ditch Edge on Win11 in favour of Firefox because of persistent "app is not responding" issues. Don't know what's going on under the hood but I've wasted enough time trying to root cause it (easily 20+ hours over 3+ months) with zero improvement.

dgellow

So refreshing to see an article that feels written by a human. Really sorry for that frustrating experience, however that was a very hilarious read, in a Schadenfreude way

tennfown

> This is what you pay money for, for Microsoft to decide what to show you and when. Pfft I’ve been running it unlicensed for years at this point. More seriously I’ve never been a huge windows hater like many. Sure, there’s always been stupid shit, but I find it kinda fascinating with an interesting history and some cool interesting ideas buried here and there. But god it’s so bad now I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to justify using it. The only thing hanging me on is that proton isn’t very good at running certain games

linzhangrun

As user who has been on Insider Preview for about 7-8 years, I've gotten used to a system that full of bugs. Fortunately, most of them are GUI-related.