W
indows 11 is
officiallyout.
You’refreeto
upgradetothe
latestOS(andit
is a free upgradeforWindows 10
users), just soaslongasyourPC
meets Microsoft’sridiculously
strict system requirements.
Microsoft insistsmachineshave
TPM 2.0 support,whichcouldbe
problematic formany–youmay
just need to jumpintotheBIOSand
turn it on, or youmayneedtobuya
whole new PC.Butregardless,
should you evenbotherabout
upgrading justyet?
We’ve been testingWindows 11 fora
while now, andthegoodnewsis thatso
far Windows 11is a completely
non-lethal operatingsystem.That’sa
good sign, but maybenotenough
justification to installit.Tomakethe
bigger call on whetheryoushouldinstall
it right now, we’vebeenspendingsome
quality time with its new Start menu,
rounded corners and sound scheme.
Windows 11 proves that taste sure is
cyclical. In the mid-2000s, transparency
and ‘glassy’ user interfaces were the
new hotness, and Windows Vista and
Windows 7 were all about their rounded
edges. Microsoft ditched that style for a
decade of sharp edges and solid colours
before going back to a softer style in 11.SMOOTH MOVES
The new centralised taskbar, rounded
edges and colours evoke the same airy
lightness as that classic Windows XP
wallpaper; it almost feels like you’re
floating on clouds as you pop open the
Start menu and the file explorer. Pretty
soon you’ll get used to the new aesthetic
and then it’ll just be business as usual.
The bottom line is that the whole thing
just feels a lot smoother.
And smooth is a good word for a lot
of Windows 11 – it reflects almost
everything that’s good about it, like the
new, far less jarring notificationWINDOWS PAIN
When should you upgrade to WINDOWS 11?
pop-ups. Windows 11 has new sound
effects, too, that are way more pleasant
in general. It’s as if for years computer
sound effects have been designed with
pure functional utility in mind, and then
one day someone said, “Remember
when we had Brian Eno compose the
Windows 95 startup jingle, and it
sounded nice? What if we tried to make
things sound nice again?”
There are some useful new features
below this bling too. The window snap
feature lets you hover over the
maximise button to choose from
different ratios and arrangements, like a
70/30 split, which is really handy. If you
use two monitors and turn your second
one on while Windows 10 is running, the
OS spends a few seconds basically
seizing up before figuring out what to
display where. In Windows 11, the
desktop on your primary monitor
zooms out for a couple of seconds to
signify a display change is happening,
and then it pops right back into place as
the second monitor comes online.NEWS
HARDWARE