Things that are annoyingly restricted / downgraded in Windows 11

[Retro]

Don't you hate it when the "new improved" version of something actually does less than the old version, ie intentionally restricts what you can do with it? It's therefore actually a downgrade. This is the case with the Windows 11 user interface - and it's riddled with these downgrades. My pet hate is that you can't ungroup the task bar icons for no good reason.

Unfortunately, it's a fact that moving to this OS will eventually be unavoidable when Microsoft stop supporting Windows 10 with security updates on 14 August 2025. Fortunately, there's Start11 that can be purchased for just £5.99 that fixes a lot of these issues, including task bar icon grouping, restores a normal Start menu and adds a few more features too.

This video shows you some of the retrictions in the Windows 11 user interface and I've linked to Stardock's Start11 below.

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Stardock Start11: Restore the Classic Start Menu in Windows 10 and 11.

Start11: The ultimate Start menu replacement for Windows 10 and 11. Restore the classic look and add new functionality.

www.stardock.com

 

[eidairman1]

Drag n drop of "apps", was that way in 10 too, apparently ms thinks we are retards.

 

[Crims]

Drag n drop of "apps", was that way in 10 too, apparently ms thinks we are retards.

Gotta agree - Microsoft have been doing that since Vista and it's been annoying ever since. I downloaded a usermade 7/XP template for that reason.

 

[eidairman1]

Gotta agree - Microsoft have been doing that since Vista and it's been annoying ever since. I downloaded a usermade 7/XP template for that reason.

Idk w7 still allowed it. Skipped 8 to 11, saw users complain about 10, 11 is the same as 10. Thank goodness I killed Windows update completely. Now i can make it appear like 7, all thats left is to find a way of moving everything from the settings menu and placing it all back into the control panel.

Oh many registry tweaks i used in 98SE and XP, work in 11 to this day

 

[Crims]

Idk w7 still allowed it. Skipped 8 to 11, saw users complain about 10, 11 is the same as 10. Thank goodness I killed Windows update completely. Now i can make it appear like 7, all thats left is to find a way of moving everything from the settings menu and placing it all back into the control panel.

Oh many registry tweaks i used in 98SE and XP, work in 11 to this day

Thanks for the advice, i'd definitely skip 10 then

 

[Retro]

Thanks for the advice, i'd definitely skip 10 then

I've been using W10 since something like 2017 and found it alright - I didn't even replace the Start menu. I especially like the square corners. I would have said to give it a try, but it's on the way out now, so just go straight to W11 since support is everything, as we know.

 

[eidairman1]

I've been using W10 since something like 2017 and found it alright - I didn't even replace the Start menu. I especially like the square corners. I would have said to give it a try, but it's on the way out now, so just go straight to W11 since support is everything, as we know.

Kill Windows Update and usee powershell to install only necessary updates and windows isnt as annoying, heck there are tweaks to get the W7 style context menu back

 

[Retro]

Oh yeah, W11 out of the box is a pita alright. My ancient PC (2700K CPU) doesn't meet the requirements, so I had to use one of those installation tricks to do a clean install on a spare SSD and I didn't like that interface at all. When I have to inevitably move to it, I'll be using Start11 to get some semblance of normality back for sure.

 

[eidairman1]

Oh yeah, W11 out of the box is a pita alright. My ancient PC (2700K CPU) doesn't meet the requirements, so I had to use one of those installation tricks to do a clean install on a spare SSD and I didn't like that interface at all. When I have to inevitably move to it, I'll be using Start11 to get some semblance of normality back for sure.

Hold that thought man, let me get you the link. All that would be left is to restore all items back into the control panel and eliminate the settings menu/pain.

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Oh by the Way David Plummer is on Youtube.

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Oh if you dont use edge at all, Go into Task Scheduler and disable auto updating it on startup.

 

[Retro]

Thanks I'll check those out. Note that I was just having a play with it then, I've not migrated to it. I'll be doing that sometime after I've upgraded the hardware. I'm thinking of building a 13700K 32GB DDR5 based PC.

And yeah, I sub Dave's excellent channel. Did you know that he's the one who wrote Task Manager?! He's got a video all about that.

 

[eidairman1]

Thanks I'll check those out. Note that I was just having a play with it then, I've not migrated to it. I'll be doing that sometime after I've upgraded the hardware. I'm thinking of building a 13700K 32GB DDR5 based PC.

And yeah, I sub Dave's excellent channel. Did you know that he's the one who wrote Task Manager?! He's got a video all about that.

Yes he was a main stay with Windows Development.

W11 runs fine on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800 OEM, AsRock B550 Steel Legend, Crucial Ballistix 3600 Gaming Red 32GB Kit, XFX R7 250X with last released driver.