Windows 11

Windows 11  

Srijan Agarwal  

 

It is here. The all-new Windows 11, which we would all be waiting for was finally launched on October 5, 2021. This is a big event because Microsoft released Windows 10 back in 2015. Unlike Apple, which releases its software updates every year in September, we get to see the latest look on Windows only after a couple of years. Now, it has been about 4 months since the big day, and the question is, is it working out fine? Any significant improvements? Let us find out!  

Let us take a glance at some of the new features of the new operating system. Collaboration and Productivity AND Performance and Security are a few of the features on which Microsoft has aced. Both are particularly important and need to be in a computer if it is being used daily.  

What do we think of when talking about Collaboration and Productivity? Our thoughts usually go towards easy access to apps, ways the computer helps us to be productive, easy interaction with features, etc. “In Windows 11, users can launch directly into [Microsoft] Teams chats and meetings with a single click or touch, via an icon that takes a front-and-center position in the taskbar. The new system tray also hosts a mute button for easy access, addressing one of the most common pandemics faux pas.” (Khalili, 2) In Windows 10 and earlier, all the apps were by default set to the left of the taskbar. Although it was changeable, a very few of us might have made that change. Since it is now set to the center of the bar, it is now easily accessible. Another useful feature is the mute button when in a meeting. During the pandemic, people have worked from home, and with that, came background noise from all the hustle-bustle in the house with kids at home as well. The mute button saves public embarrassment as well as response time to a question asked.  

Internet fraud has increased so much since the past few years, especially since COVID started and everything happened through computers and cell phones. Users need good Performance and Security on their systems for everything to run perfectly and as smoothly as possible. We all have experienced a time when our PC has taken ages to boot up completely without hanging up or lagging. Good news! Reports say that the, “...Windows 11 boot times are significantly faster, and so is authentication service Windows Hello. Navigating the web and web-based services are also said to be much snappier...” (Khalili, 3) With the significant increase in terms of performance, browsing around on the internet or pulling up something quickly might not take as much time as it used to. Long story short, what used to take 5 minutes, may take only 5 seconds. Some may argue that the reason the system takes so long to boot up is that the storage might be full or the PC might be old. But, a “significant” increase is hopeful... right?