How I make Windows 11 less annoying

My primary screen on Windows 11

Over the last few months, I kept reading comments on social media about how bad people think Windows 11 is.

“Surely it‘s not that bad,” I kept thinking.

And then I set up a new mini PC with a clean installation of Windows 11 Home, logged in for the first time and thought, “What in hell‘s name is this?!”

It was then that I remembered that I have made a number of significant tweaks to make Windows 11 feel… well, less like Windows 11.

Here’s what I do…

Continue reading How I make Windows 11 less annoying

Taming Windows 11: how I stripped the adverts, bloat and Copilot

Time to spring clean your Windows 11 machine

Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of people complaining how bad Microsoft Windows 11 is.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been lurking in a lot more Linux forums recently. Or because of the social media and YouTube channels I subscribe to. Or maybe it really is a true reflection of what people are generally thinking about Windows 11, both computer geeks and ordinary users alike.

“It’s not that bad!” I thought to myself.

Until last week when I set up a new user account on my Windows 11 laptop and within minutes thought, “What on earth is this?!”

What people complain about Windows 11

It was then that I realised that for both my Windows desktop and laptop PCs, I’ve insulated myself against most of the Windows 11 quirks that many folks have been complaining about:

  1. Bad start menu (even after the latest redesign)
  2. Adverts
  3. Copilot, Microsoft’s built-in AI, promoted everywhere
  4. Lack of a full context menu in Windows Explorer
  5. Uninstall the bloat

I’ve tweaked things enough that most of Windows 11 now feels much like Windows 10. (Even if its deeper dialogs and settings feel like a ghetto, with designs going back to Windows 95 or earlier.)

For anyone who wants to reclaim a bit of sanity, here’s what I do when I set up a new Windows 11 install.

Continue reading Taming Windows 11: how I stripped the adverts, bloat and Copilot