Windows 11
May 2024
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I
read back and found to my surprise I'd written about upgrading
to Windows 10 in 2015
At the time it was relatively
new but, because my PC was used to keep my business records,
and I was using a relatively complicated mixture of RAID drives,
I'd been unwilling to take the plunge and risk losing access
to my business PC. I'd upgraded lots of other PCs over the last
nine years so, after making the decision to retire I reckoned
it was time to update my main PC to Windows 10. Don't get me
wrong however, because all the computers I've built (and there
are a lot) I've always used the latest offering from Microsoft
and had no real problems. In fact I'm quite familiar with Windows
11 since it was first introduced, so having upgraded to Windows
10 only recently this year (2024) I decided to install Windows
11 on my now ex-business computer.
I should point out that Windows
10 and Windows 11 are both free of charge when updating an activated
version of Windows 7, however Microsoft and the mainboard makers
have been influencing and changing the design of hardware over
the last decade, so be warned, this usually means one cannot
use Windows 7 on a brand new motherboard and one cannot install
Windows 11 on what is termed an "unsupported" system.
In fact, although I was tempted to further upgrade to Windows
11 a few months back, my PC is termed to be too out-of-date for
the change.
I was recently asked by an old
friend if I could suggest how to upgrade his old laptop, so looked
to see if any new recommendations were available. I'd tried a
couple of "Registry fixes" already but neither worked,
but a couple of days ago I spotted a new method based on "Product
Server". I made notes and tried this and much to my surprise
it worked. Hopefully it will continue to work! I'm sure anyone
interested can find this tip.
Be warned though that you need
to be very very careful before just ploughing ahead. Microsoft
has issued countless versions of all of its Windows products
basically dealing with a buyers native language. During the upgrade
there are three options presented. The key option will be the
one that just updates ones PC and results in basically no change
to its operation. This option keeps all the programs, data and
personal files but is greyed out and not valid if the wrong Windows
language is selected for the Windows 11 ISO file. I assumed my
PC was "English International" but it wasn't so I got
greyed-out "keep programs". My Windows 10 was the "English
US" version not to be confused with the English UK keyboard
description etc.
So, the "Display Language"
needs to match the downloaded ISO otherwise you'll lose your
programs and if these are many in number this is certainly not
advised.
No software is bug-free (Post
Office people didn't realise this so the nearly 700 bugs in Horizon
really did mess things up).
Most of my upgrade, at least
timewise, consisted of downloading and installing bug fixes.
Back in 1970 our Plessey message switching
system at GCHQ used paper tape. Once the size of the bugs
tape reached anything over ten inches in diameter a new master
program had to be loaded. |
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Are there any problems
with my unsupported Windows 11? Well, the first thing we discovered
was that Microsoft had again deleted Spider Solitaire (It also
went AWOL at previous upgrades). Why on earth they do this is
rather odd because, after only a few keyboard strokes and a visit
to YouTube etc it's recovered, complete with our hard-earned
statistics.
As usual after any upgrade though
you'll have to re-figure the whereabouts and required keyboard
manipulations to find stuff. I just type what I need in the search
box ie. "Control Panel". Surprisingly though, once
you'd recongured your desktop to look familiar it does actually
stay familiar. In fact mine still looks much like it did in Windows
95.. I don't like change.
Programs still work as they
did before except I had to re-associate files and programs. PageMill
which has never truly been installed but just run from it's EXE
file works as it used to, as does WinSCP, XnConvert and various
others. Kindle shows nothing (and must need resetting) but Calibre
has all my books. A VLC update has a warning but I didn't bother
updating it. Registry Mechanic which I got many decades ago still
works fine. Plugging in my Motorola phone resulted in dfferent
things happening but I got the picture above after two goes.
Some of the shortcut icons have changed. Pulling a window towards
the top of the screen does some peculiar things but the sizing
arrangements I'd set up to deal with legibility on my 4K screen
plus my second display are unchanged.
PC actions seem to be slightly
faster but as my Registry dates back to a new Windows 7 Ultimate
purchased when it first came out I'm not surprised my PC isn't
as fast as a new one. My RAID disks seem fine. I recall an early
Windows 10 upgrade used to crash RAID unless the Intel RAID software
was up-to-date. In fact I'd already removed a software RAID data
backup disk because Windows 10 couldn't cope. |
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I'll update these notes
as I familiarise with my "unsupported" Windows 11. |
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I did find a really useful
feature. In Win 10 a selected part of a screen could be saved
to file via a Snipping program. This had disappeared but I soon
discovered that pressing the "Windows" key together
with the "Shift" and "S" key greyed the screen
and allowed one to select an area for saving. The snip is automatically
saved with a small window appearing showing the snipped area.
All I do is to click on the area shown and right click the mouse,
selecting "Save As" followed by a new file name and
the type of file.. I usually select JPEG rather than PNG. Cleaning
up the snipped file can then be done in a photo editor such as
PhotoShop. |
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I re-read the above notes
near the end of September 2024 and decided to add the odd comment
regarding my unsupported PCs handling of Windows 11. Basically
I've hardly any complaints. If I access a folder then the PC
seems to sometimes pause for maybe 10 seconds or so after initial
access. If I try and hurry the PC I see "not responding"
which is a trifle annoying. This can also happen in Outlook when
attempting to read a third e-mail. I've learned to just wait
and then everything's fine. I did discover some Microsoft code,
which I hadn't realised was operating in the background, so switched
most of this off. If I notice anything annoying I'll look on
Youtube for a fix, but sometimes it's difficult to put into words
exactly how to describe the glitch.
I just checked my Windows System
Log (ie. just type Event Viewer in the Search Box) and founfd
zero red warning for today. Severl yellow warnings which I haven't
noticed before... "LSA (LsaSrv) Event 6155" and "Wininit
Event 15" plus three "Distributed COM Event 10016".
Yesterday there was a red "DistributedCOM Event 10010".
This group of events is echoed over the last several months and
annoys me because it may mean the PC bootup is slowed down dealing
with these.
I couple of annoying things.
One is a dire security warning when opening an Excel speadsheet.
I understand this appears because Office 2003 stores data in
an early format which triggers Office to fail a security check.
The easiest solution was to modify the Registry by adding a key
to ignore the validation process. This fix (copied below) is
available on the Net and works.
I repeated the patch for
both \Office\11.0 and \Office\12.0 as both were individually
present in my Registry. |
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Another problem (which
I've avoided so far) is to kick into touch the suggestion to
try "New" Outlook. Following that advice means you'll
almost certainly lose access to "Old" Outlook with
your emails.
For anyone interested in the
technical details. The version I installed was 23H2; 22631.4391
I updated this to the latest
official state (at 31st October 2024) by downloading the large
composite file of updates, but the last version "24H2"
hasn't yet been flagged up as an "auto" update. At
the time of writing 24H2 is available on the Microsoft website
but would require a fresh manual installation. Lots of info is
available on Youtube |
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Did I forget to explain
how to install Windows 11 on your ropey old machine?
Well, it's not too difficult
for "unsupported" PCs.
First you should have updated
to Windows 10 then download from the Microsoft website Windows
11, via the accompanying Installation Media file to a USB stick
(I think 8GByte is recommended due to the size of the folders
and files).
I decided to go for the boot
version but this isn't essential because you'll be upgrading
directly from a Windows 10 PC.
The secret is NOT to run from
the Setup.exe file otherwise you'll hit a brick wall because
you have an "unsupported" PC.
Instead open a command line
with administrators rights.. type the address of your USB stick..
let's say "F:" or whatever it is.
Then point to the folder "Sources"
and type "setupprep.exe /product server" (that's a
space after "exe") and press "Enter".
This will permit Windows 11
to install over your Windows 10, keeping all your data tec intact
(if you select that option of course) |
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If you're reading this
and aim to install Windows 10 now its well into and in fact near
the end of 2024, Microsoft has increased its bullying stance.
Let me explain... Installing Windows 10 takes you through a few
pages such as your location, your keyboard and then it detects
your Internet connection and suggests you enter your router key.
Of corse they now have power over you because they then demand
you either make an account or enter your existing account details.
Your PC will no longer be even partly anonymous. The problem
started once you entered your router key and finished when you
discovered that Windows 10 stopped installing at the account
enquiry.
So what do you do? I tried turning
off the PC but it continued where it left off so either you shouldn't
put in your router key or you follow this suggestion... press
Shift F10. This will switch in a command line prompt. Type IPCONFIG
-RELEASE and thankfully the Internet will disconnect and the
demand for an account will be dropped allowing installation to
bash on. Once complete you may find that lots of things are banned
unless you have a valid Windows key. |
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