Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Home will each receive major feature updates just once per year, rather than twice. Windows 11 will ship in two different editions for home use. (Microsoft moved the Dev Channel of Windows 11 to future builds of Windows 11, with code that will not be released as part of the October 5 launch.) Windows 11 Pro versus Windows 11 Home We began our formal review process with Windows 11 Insider Build 22000.184 (21H2), part of the Windows Insider Beta Channel, with the intention of monitoring it up through the formal release date of October 5.

A third device, the Surface Laptop 4, ran Windows 11 Home. We reviewed Windows 11 on three PCs, including the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (Ice Lake), running Windows 11 Pro, as well as the Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ tablet, also running Windows 11 Pro. But those hardware restrictions have also proven to be an enormous controversy in their own right. In order to provide a secure, managed PC, Microsoft’s Windows 11 code must sync up with specific PC hardware. Microsoft has the best of intentions here. Windows 11 arrives with some very strict hardware requirements for PCs that can run Windows 11, essentially requiring the latest Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology as well as a recently released computer processor. Teams Chat asks you to reorganize your social circles around Microsoft.Īnd that all assumes that your PC will be able to receive Windows 11, too. A hyperactive Widgets app pushes celebrity gossip. A new Start menu seems designed for enterprises. Aesthetically, Windows 11 sacrifices productivity for personality, but without cohesion. Last year, we often felt we had to do something, and for some very good reasons, but without a real sense of the way ahead.

In some ways, Windows 11 feels very much like a product of 2020. Windows 11 doesn’t convincingly answer the question every PC user should ask: Why do I need this upgrade? The new operating system repurposes some of Microsoft’s cancelled Windows 10X code, but lacks the unified vision that 10X promised. Windows 11 will undoubtedly improve over time, but it’s a very polarizing upgrade that many users will want to forgo for now. Installing another browser is nearly prohibitiveĪ decidedly mixed bag of improved features and unnecessary changes.Local “offline” accounts require Windows 11 Pro.Teams Chat is unnecessary and potentially obtrusive.Taskbar, Start reworkings don’t benefit users.

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