I don’t know. It seems to have started in the past week and everything feels just sluggish enough to notice and, thus, be irritating.
I am typing this in Linux Mint, using Firefox, which remains snappy and responsive here in neckbeard land.
The slowness is probably some obscure bug in the major patch that came out this fall, or one of the billion processes always running in the background going wonky. You know, the kind of thing that is all but impossible to troubleshoot these days. We may be back to the days when you just reformat and start all over again.
Linux is getting closer to all I need for an operating system. Just a few more things and I can leave Windows behind after using it for the past hundred thousand years.
I just need to figure out how to play Diablo 3 in Mint. I mean, choose a good writing app. Yeah, that’s it.
It may not work for you, but it sure works for me!
Start Windows 11.
Open File Explorer.
Open a tab in File Explorer.
Repeat Step 3 until you have four or five tabs open.
Wait a short time.
Watch as File Explorer freezes, then crashes and restarts.
The good news is it usually restarts. If it doesn’t, press Win + R and enter explore.exe. This will restart File Explorer.
I will add this caveat: I run a lot of apps and background thingies, ranging from PowerToys to Discord, so who knows what dark magic is really making File Explorer upend itself, but whatever it is, it does not seem to like its new tabs being used.
I got presented with this dialog box in Windows 11 today. I can confirm it left me unsure on how to proceed.
(I also confirmed that at least the current version of Windows 11 I’m running gets a bit snaky with programs if you leave them open and running for long periods of time.)
UPDATE, August 26, 2024: Microsoft has changed the wording of the note that resulted in the Ars Technica article. The update is in the same article link below, but for the link-averse, here's the before/after:
BEFORE: "The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience."
NOW: "Many of the settings in Control Panel are in the process of being migrated to the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience."
It’s explained in the story that the time between announcing official deprecation of the Control Panel (now) and it actually being removed from Windows could span years. The current Settings app has a few things to recommend it:
Generally it looks nicer and more modern
It features breadcrumb navigation
The search (which you will probably need) works reasonably well in my experience
But it also falls short:
Many Control Panel settings are absent, especially ones for more advanced options
The categories are, I think, not as straightforward
System seems to be a dumping ground for “Where do we put this setting?”
It’s a single window, so you can’t have two of them open at the same time
The home page is filled with information pseudo-ads for Microsoft services, such as OneDrive, Microsoft 365 and more
The comments on the article are a mix of nostalgia and the expected nerd rage against the generally considered-to-be inferior Settings app. This comment resonated with me:
The reason it resonates is that I feel that same nostalgia when I see that mid-90s Windows GUI. I feel that GUI, with higher-resolution elements and a few tweaks, would look fine today and in some ways, even better than what we have with Windows 11 (also see my post on Windows GUI: Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (Ranked)). The post also hits on an issue that has been happening since the Settings app was introduced in 2012 with Windows 8: A constant visual clash between Settings and Control Panel. Also, it’s been 12 years! Why is Microsoft still not finished moving over everything in the Control Panel to Settings1This is the mild exasperation referenced in the title? ~nerd rage intensifies~
Anyway, I actually rarely use Control Panel these days, as Windows mostly just works (and I use PowerToys, which probably helps), but the article did prompt me to pin Control Panel to the Start menu, just in case. Then I went in and looked through some of the options, pretending it was suddenly 1999 again and computers were cool. They were still tools, but they were also just kind of neat. To nerds, at least.
I find, especially using light mode, it can be difficult where across the vastness of my two 27 inch monitors my mouse pointer is. I do have the feature enabled where if you tap the CTRL key twice it gets a nice spotlight on its location, but I wanted something that didn’t require extra effort on my part, because I am lazy.
I went into the Accessibility options and made it look like this:
I like it! It’s sort of hideous, yet delightful. And much easier to see.
I have surprised myself by sticking with light mode on the PC for more than an entire day.
Thoughts:
Text does look a little crisper overall
Things aren’t too bright, but I could probably turn my monitor’s brightness down a little
Discord’s implementation is bad. The background for text is pure white (#FFFFFF), which is silly. You can fix it by changing the colour–by subscribing to Nitro™ for $10 a month. $120 per year to have a nice off-white is a bit much. File Explorer also uses pure white. I may see if I can change that specifically.
In fact, more apps than I realized seem to use pure white, so I’m guessing this is the “accepted” default for Windows 11’s Light Mode. Some other application colours:
TickTick: #FFFFFF
Diarium: #F0F3F9 for the sidebar, #F3F3F3 for the main calendar view, #F0F0F0 for the individual entries
Thunderbird: #FFFFFF
Proton Mail: #F8F8F6
For funsies, here are the above-mentioned shades of white:
Today, after reading about someone launching a new text editor (one gets released approximately every ten minutes) and having it default to tiny text and dark mode, both of which were undesired by this person, I decided at long last to switch away from dark mode in windows and go fully light mode–no exceptions!
Well, except one: the browser. And really, my main browser Firefox just uses dark mode to make tabs and the address bar darker, but it helps set them apart from the actual page content below, which is a good use of contrast, in my view.
Actually, I lied: two exceptions! Any image editing program will also still use dark mode, because again, it better separates the UI from the content you’re working on.
So far, light is very bright. We’ll see how it goes. Apparently some studies say a light UI causes less eye strain, which seems a bit crazy to me, but I’m no eye-ologist. I will report back in a week or so, or when I give up and re-embrace the lovingly velvety darkness.
(I will also switch macOS to light mode, using the same exceptions there.)
At least in OS wars, the only casualties are your time and probably some of your brain cells.
Ruben Schade made a post on Mastodon that blew up in a predictable way, with a lot of “Well, actually…” replies. He documents what he posted with an update that collectively addresses some of the responses here. He has a longer post expanding on it here.
I generally love discussions of operating systems, because they are such an important part of our lives, yet also something we don’t usually think much about–until they do something that annoys us (or don’t do something, which also annoys us).
This made me think again how I am running three OSes across two machines:
Windows 11 on my PC
Linux Mint 21.3, also on my PC
macOS 14 (Sonoma) on my Mac Studio
I spend most of my time in Windows, a smaller chunk in macOS, and a sliver in Linux Mint. I do this not because of a company mandate or other official requirement, but because of the choices I’ve made in the software I use for the things I do.
There are things I dislike a lot in each OS, and also things I quite like. In the end, it comes down to the software, because that’s all it really is.
They all look fine. They all run relatively well. A lot of software is available on all three platforms, but the gaps are biggest on Linux, and I spend the least amount of time there. I still don’t have a replacement for Ulysses, where I write my fiction, and I prefer editing photos in Pixelmator Photo. Both of those are Mac-only apps.
I may have a replacement for Ulysses sometime this year, and I am continually exploring other options to replace Pixelmator Pro. With the latter, the UI is a big part of why I stick with it. Good UI is important to me, because it reduces friction in using software, it lets it just blend into the background.
While my quest for the perfect OS continues, I am glad that I made a rule to never debate on the internet some years back. I don’t blame Ruben for starting the thread he did–in fact, I think it was almost charmingly naive. But the responses are so utterly predictable. There is always someone waiting to tell you that you’re doing it wrong, then argue with you about it to the point of exhaustion.
No one ever looks this happy at a computer. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
For future reference.
Problem: When setting a different wallpaper for each monitor in a dual-display setup, Windows 11 will arbitrarily change both wallpapers to another random wallpaper (in my case it often chose one I was using last winter) or it will change the wallpapers to a solid colour (the same for both monitors).
Solution: There is no solution! At least not one that I found that worked reliably. The fix is to simply stop using a different wallpaper for each monitor. Once I went with the same wallpaper for both displays, the problem went away. I assume this is a bug/quirk in Windows 11 and will be one of those things some people may never encounter and others, like me, will never have fixed.
Alternate Solution: Buy a Mac. This works without issue on Macs, you just have to live with the other multi-monitor weirdness, like “Why can’t the dock stay on both displays at the same time?”
In some ways, the reset of Windows was a success. It got rid of a lot of junk I’d collected over the years on my current PC, and now I’m just installing stuff as I need or use it, resulting in a leaner, tidier system. This pleases the OCD side of me.
But in other ways, it has not really helped, which makes me believe my issues are either hardware-related, a result of some weird software interaction, or a manifestation of minor and probably bored demons.
The wallpaper issue, which I was relatively sure the reset would resolve, continues unabated. Sometimes the wallpaper changes to one I used last winter (always the same one, which seems like it should be a clue) and the past two mornings it’s just changed to a solid colour (also the same colour).
Diablo 2 crashed upon exit. So much for stability! At least it didn’t take down the entire system.
I suppose I should be happy this is all I’ve encountered so far in terms of bugs or glitches. But I am in a position now that would have been unthinkable in the olden days: If I could do everything in Linux–yes, Linux!–I would ditch Windows. But alas, I cannot.
I’d also switch full-time to a Mac, which comes tantalizingly close to doing everything, but still sucks for gaming. It’s getting a little better, though. Good enough for me? Probably not. Plus, Apple locks things down way more than I like.
Anyhoo, I have installed more stuff:
PowerToys (I started to miss some of its features)
Vivaldi (which will be my Chromium-based alternate browser for now)
Stella (an Atari 2600 emulator I’d been mucking around with just prior to the re-install)
Diablo 3 (I know, I know)
Diablo 2 (technically it was still installed, the battle.net launcher just couldn’t “see” it)
EarTrumpet, which allows me to better manage multiple audio sources
Also at the suggestion of a gaming pal, I bumped up my mouse DPI from 1600 to 3200. It definitely takes less movement to do stuff, which is good. I am still overshooting a bit, but will hopefully adjust. I’m still trying new things, look at me! Maybe I’ll get into metal next.
A few glitches and things following last night’s reset of Windows 11:
Despite uninstalling all the non-included software, my Start menu settings were preserved, which means it’s littered with uninstalled apps. This is suboptimal, but not a dealbreaker or anything. I can manually prune the Start menu by going here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, and I’ve kept some of the stubs as reminders of stuff I may want or need to install later.
The wallpaper–which had been randomly changing on its own despite me turning off or tweaking every conceivable option to make sure it wouldn’t do that–had randomly changed when I logged back in this morning. I went through to see if one of the possible triggers had gotten reset in the reset. It’s resets all the way down.
I’ve re-installed Signal–because I was using it!
I re-installed ShareX because it is totally skookum for screenshots, of which I take a lot
I remembered to bump the refresh rate of the monitors, since they support 144 Hz
I still haven’t opened Edge
I disabled those weird streaming Steam audio settings I’ll never use but always show up as options cluttering yup audio settings
The audio on the monitors, which have speakers that can be described generously as “tinny” seem louder than before. Maybe that’s just me.
I can’t say I regret the reset yet. But it’s still early!
Next on the list:
Install Unity
More will follow along after Unity, but that will get me going.
UPDATE: The following additional software has been installed, as noted below.
Unity Hub and Unity editor
iCloud for Windows. It’s crappy, but it lets me get photos from the iPhone into Windows.
Steam client. Once Steam found all existing games, I uninstalled a bunch of them.
Epic Games Launcher. I tried the same thing here, but it doesn’t work as seamlessly, so I just nuked a bunch of game folders. At least I know there’s no lingering registry entries! I installed Torchlight 2 as a test case.
Canon EOS3 Utility software. To allow photos to be transferred from my camera to the PC.
Tonight I was playing Diablo 3 (I know, I know) and it started getting very laggy. Then it froze. Then I realized my entire PC had seized up, something that hasn’t happened in a long time. I thought about it, then decided to go ahead and nuke my Windows 11 install, using the handy Reset PC function:
I chose the less destructive first option, Keep my files.
The process went smoothly and a little faster than I expected. When it was done, I was prompted to log in and was greeted by all the yucky Windows 11 defaults and none of my previously installed apps. Windows 11 comes with a fairly large number of apps on its own, however.
I am now following my usual rule (that I always end up breaking) of only installing apps as I need them. We’ll see how it goes.
The list of re-installed software so far:
Firefox (I got this through the Microsoft Store, so I didn’t even need to open Edge to get it and switch over)
Discord (I tried getting this through the store, but it threw out an error, so I got it from the Discord site)
Obsidian (from the website, it’s not on the MS Store)
MS Office (from the included stub app)
Diarium (from the store)
TickTick (from the website)
As of this post, that’s it! This covers the essentials I use on a daily or near-daily basis. After this, I’ll only install an app when I am about to use it and gasp in horror because it is not there. Totally.
There are plenty of apps I’ll continue to install, but only as I use them. I mean it this time. Totally.
In terms of drivers, the only ones I’m really concerned with are for the mouse and video card. I decided to install the GeForce Experience to make the Nvidia drivers easier to install, but logging into it has turned into a gong show because it doesn’t seem to remember me. Or I don’t remember it. Fun! Actually, having investigated some more, I managed to get into my Nvidia account, get logged into the GeForce Experience app…only to have it tell me I already have the latest drivers installed. OK!
Anyway, I think this is enough PC fun for one night.
If Windows 11 continues to misbehave after this, I will do one of the following:
