Windows 11 Lost features

[supportman]

I thought this was a good summary

 

Windows 11 - Lost Features : Windows11 (reddit.com)

 

Start Menu

• Live tiles replaced with boring grid of icons
   
  
• No option to choose different App Icon sizes and end less customization options available in tiles grid
   
  
• No App Folders
   
  
• No option for Named Groups
   
  
• No way to resize start menu
   
  
• No option for full screen start menu
   
  
• No show more apps option (Current view displays only 18 apps without scrolling)
   
  
• Ability to remove pinned apps and show all apps view only
   
  
• Usability - Not mouse friendly, lot of mouse travel for every action. No way to remove recommended section, app and all apps buttons are far away from reach. Also you need additional click to reach All Apps. Even for touch users it is very difficult to reach new start menu or apps in two handed mode.
   
  
• No badges in start menu
   
  
• No option to pin settings to start menu
  

Task Bar

 

• Drag and drop files to running apps
   
  
• Cannot drag and drop app icons to pin to task bar
   
  
• No option to choose task bar location
   
  
• No option to choose task bar size
   
  
• Never Combine Labels options missing
   
  
• No option to turn system icons on/off in tray
   
  
• No clock on secondary monitor
   
  
• System time doesn't show seconds
   
  
• Task bar context menu only settings option. No option to launch task manager, etc
   
  
• No toolbars in taskbar. Cannot add Address, Links, Desktop and Custom folders to Task Bar
   
  
• No screen snip in quick actions menu
   
  
• Shift + Click - No longer open new instance of an app
   
  
• No option to quickly change Power Mode (Best Battery Life, Best Performance, etc) from task bar
   
  
• Apps can no longer customize areas of the Taskbar
   
  
• Cannot view or add Calendar events from Taskbar
   
  
• People bar has been removed
  

Windows Explorer

 

• No refresh option in context menu, there are many instance where explorer fails to auto refresh.
   
  
• Context menu is missing many options like shortcut, send to, share with, restore previous version and 3rd party customizations (Windows has poor history of developers embracing new platform features, so not sure when Devs will add these to new menu)
   
  
• Quick access toolbar has been removed. So no option to pin my favorite commands like copy path
   
  
• Missing thumbnail previews for folders
  

General/Settings

 

• Extremely difficult to change default apps
   
  
• Cannot setup Windows 11 Home with local account
   
  
• Cannot setup Windows 11 Home without internet connection
   
  
• Desktop wallpaper cannot be roamed to or from device when signed in with a Microsoft account.
   
  
• Timeline has been removed
   
  
• No show windows stacked option
   
  
• No option to disable all background apps
   
  
• Win + K no longer works for Bluetooth devices(Even new quick settings also missing Bluetooth connection options similar to WiFi)
   
  
• New touch gestures doesn't work well when holding tablet with two hands. Swipe from left edge has been replaced with widgets, switching apps now requires 3 finger gestures.
   
  
• When "Turn off the store application" and "Disable all apps from Microsoft store" group policies are configured, basic windows apps like notepad, mspaint, etc will not work. This also blocks users from launching cmd or powershell from Windows + X menu
  

[LeMarchand]

 

I actually use a fair amount of those customizations.

[Ironside]

so in exchange for rounded corners and 50% decrease in BSODs (from 99.8% to 99.7% according to this post) we lost pretty much all the good customisation bits of W10 and a bunch of power user stuff. Gonna skip W11 honestly, not worth it.

[Dos_Box]

It'll be 2 weeks after launch that some third party releases a 'Windows 10' pack for Windows 11 to bring back much of it.

Possibly.

Saying that, I'm not one for customisations and desperately look for the beige wallpaper option each time a new version of Windows is released.

I suppose this is what happens when you've come up from Windows 3.1, you don't look for the shiny.

[LeMarchand]

It'll be 2 weeks after launch that some third party releases a 'Windows 10' pack for Windows 11 to bring back much of it.

Possibly.

Saying that, I'm not one for customisations and desperately look for the beige wallpaper option each time a new version of Windows is released.

I suppose this is what happens when you've come up from Windows 3.1, you don't look for the shiny.

 

I'd say most of the customisations I use are for productivity/ease of use reasons. Think I moaned elsewhere here that W10 keeps resetting my systray customisations and hiding the ones I want to see. (You'd think that Windows Security wouldn't be hidden by default!)

 

IMHO Live Tiles were actually quite a good idea; it's a shame that even MS didn't really bother using them. Ditto resizeable tiles: make the ones you use the most bigger.

[TechMonkey]

Ditto resizeable tiles: make the ones you use the most bigger.

 

Oddly I was the reverse. Make the ones I don't use often larger as I can see them better. The ones I use a lot are small as I know where they are.

[supportman]

To be honest, I like the idea of simplification.

 

Windows carries a lot of techincal debt.

[Dos_Box]

To be honest, I like the idea of simplification.

 

Windows carries a lot of techincal debt.

 

There certainly is a large amount of legacy baggage in there still with Windows 10. I suppose a big clear out is in order, but sometimes I think they underestimate how important certain Windows features are.

Look at the outcry when Notepad (which I use daily to remove text formatting) was removed as a base install program.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Dos_Box

[ozydave]

"Cannot setup Windows 11 Home with local account

 

* Cannot setup Windows 11 Home without internet connection"

 

This equals no windows 11 for me!!

[Ironside]

"Cannot setup Windows 11 Home with local account

 

* Cannot setup Windows 11 Home without internet connection"

 

This equals no windows 11 for me!!

 

Win 11 Pro will not require internet connection or a microsoft account, but aye that's pretty terrible from MS.

[hardtailstar]

"Cannot setup Windows 11 Home with local account

 

* Cannot setup Windows 11 Home without internet connection"

 

This equals no windows 11 for me!!

 

Probably same for me for my personal laptop and I dont plan on using a MS account to log into a laptop

[DalekSec]

Just found the most annoying one, no seconds on the clock!!! Driving me crazy now...

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/report-an-issue/windows-11-cannot-show-seconds-on-taskbar-clock/m-p/2825214

[Guest ZFarnworth]

Internet explorer has gone, so pass through authentication doesn’t work

[tg12]

Just found the most annoying one, no seconds on the clock!!! Driving me crazy now...

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/report-an-issue/windows-11-cannot-show-seconds-on-taskbar-clock/m-p/2825214

 

I bet you’re… ticked off

[Tom_P]

I honestly dont think its that bad. Most these missing features arent a big deal in my opinion. The biggest problem for me is the drag and drop in running apps. The task manager on the task bar was also an issue to begin with, but you can access it by right clicking the start menu icon which i have already got use to.

Also, a couple of things listed here aren't missing or have been added/modified since this was posted. Thought I'd list them and add some more info to help others out.

• The settings app can be pinned to taskbar. It can also be added as a small icon next to the power button on the start menu.
  
• You can't move the taskbar from the bottom of the screen, but you can move the icons from the centre of the taskbar (default) to the left.
  
• Most, if not all context menu options in windows explorer are there from windows 10. When you right click, at the bottom is "show more options" which opens what looks like the windows 10 menu. You can also still use shift f10 to bring up this menu.
  
• Changing default apps can be done by going - Start>settings>apps>default apps. From there you can change apps by application or if you scroll down you can set it by file type.
  

I think for the average user it will work fine.. It is definately better than when win10 was first released! At schools i can see there being complications i.e the MS store policy. But the biggest issue being the hardware requirement..Which is why i probably wont be upgrading the school PC's untill close to EoL for Win10. So hopefully by then it'll have improved enough to be used in schools.