Windows 11 22H2 Review: a Little of This, a Little of That – Thurrott.com

Npressfetimg 3541.png

Windows 11 version 22H2 comes with a small selection of mostly minor updates, some of which are quite useful. The problem? Most of the functional regressions from Windows 11 version 21H2 are still present in this release. And that’s not what I expected to see one year after the feedback-free initial release of this platform. Worse, it’s now clear that Microsoft has little interest in cleaning up this mess of its own creation.

Windows lead Panos Panay likes to say that “detail matter,” but when it comes to Windows 11, the focus is mostly on the superficial. While the new user interfaces in this system are pleasant and simple-looking, you don’t have to look too hard to find the old and out-of-date interfaces of the past. Indeed, Windows 11 is like an archaeological dig in this way, an inconsistent mixture of new and old. If details really mattered, the Windows team would clean up those inconsistencies. But there’s no stomach for that in Redmond.

For the Microsoft nerds in the audience, Windows 11 is perhaps most similar to Windows Mobile 6.5, the smartphone release that Microsoft issued before betting the farm on the all-new Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Mobile 6.5 offered a surface-level user interface refresh that included new lock and home screens that were both prettier, more functional, and more touch-friendly than what came before. But once you dug a little deeper, you were confronted by Windows Mobile’s stylus-focused past, with UIs that were nearly impossible to interact with via touch. It was the ultimate example of “lipstick on a pig.”

Windows 11 follows this same strategy, though the new UIs—which include the Desktop, Start menu, and Taskbar—aren’t more functional than those they replace, they’re just simpler and more touch-friendly. We can debate the merits of Microsoft’s simplification strategy, but I will simply argue that it tried this before, with Windows 8, to disastrous results. And that Windows was, and remains, a complex platform that is best suited for powerful, desktop-class PCs and laptops, and not simpler, touch-based tablets. More to the point, the vast majority of Windows users interact with this system on traditional hardware form factors, mostly laptops. And yet, here we are, still fighting that same fight.

But let’s get real here: Windows 11 isn’t a disaster like Windows 8, not even close. But it still betrays the same thinking that made Microsoft collectively lose its mind and alienate customers and partners a decade ago. The difference is that it’s not clear whether Microsoft is alienating a major constituency this time. Sure, I may be put out by what’s been thrown out with the bathwater, so to speak, in Windows 11, and I know that many of you are as well. But we’re power users: and surely most of the user base isn’t concerned at all with the changes in Windows 11. Furthermore, one imagines that PC makers are ecstatic. So what am I even complaining about?

Well, the same thing as ever, I guess. And what it all comes down to is communication: Microsoft poorly communicated what it was trying to achieve with Windows 11 and then delivered only part of what it promised in October 2022. With Windows 11 22H2, the assumption was that the software giant would finally listen to feedback and respond accordingly. But, incredibly, it has not done so: yes, there are a handful of changes in this release that it says were driven by feedback. But it has ignored the biggest complaints and has instead turned 22H2 …….

Source: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/270334/windows-11-22h2-review-a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *