Windows 11: Worth The Upgrade? Or Not?

Today, we have a very simple question to answer. Should you upgrade to Windows 11 or not?

So recently, I got my hands on the latest Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition, equipped with basically top of the line specs. We’re talking 11th-Gen Core i7, 32GB of RAM, RTX 3080, 1TB SSD. All that, great stuff.

But that’s not what we’re going to talk about today. Moving forward, Razer Blades will be shipped with Windows 11 and so this is truly my first proper experience with Windows 11 for the past day or so.

To tell you the truth, there are quite a few things that I do like about it, but on the flip side, there’s also equally as many things that I dislike about it or that straight up makes me ask myself, why?

Now I’m not going to cover every single thing Windows 11 has to offer, just the things I personally use and have experience with. So with that said, let’s talk about what I like about Windows 11.

The whole new look, I do actually quite like it. Your Start Button, a few new functions and all the pinned apps on your taskbar are now centralised.

Click on Start Button to get your Start Menu and the search bar at the top is pretty straightforward. The pinned apps right below look and work just like it would on a smartphone and right below that is the recommended, which usually shows your most recent files or apps. At the bottom, it is also now far easier to get straight to your Microsoft or Local Account settings and the usual system settings and power button.

On top of that, if you don’t want any of the apps that have been pinned, you can actually uninstall them right from the Start Menu by simply right-clicking and selecting uninstall.

All in all, very straightforward and definitely a lot cleaner compared to Windows 10. I got used to it relatively fast and I do like the revamped layout. Also, should you not like the centralized layout, you can always head into the settings and set it to the left instead.

Personally, I find the implementation in Windows 11 a lot cleaner and just a tad more intuitive. I also do not find myself feeling it’s that much of a difference per se as I usually press the Windows Key and just type to get what I need. That functionality is practically the same in Windows 11 as it was on 10, so it’s been great for me.

The next thing I really like is in the bottom right corner where your key system settings like network and system volume are located. In Windows 10, they are all individually separated. But now in Windows 11, Microsoft has gone ahead and condensed them into a single window, kind of like your control panel on an iPhone.

So now within a single window, you can access your network settings, Bluetooth, system volume, screen brightness and much more. This is so much more intuitive and it just makes it easier for you to find what you need and be able to do adjustments or changes fairly quickly.

The next thing I really like is the snap layouts. For the longest time, Windows really only had 3 different layouts. Full-screen, split-screen, or quad-split which you can initiate by pulling a window and moving your mouse to the top, left, right or the 4 corners of your screen.

Now with the new snap layouts, you have access to so much more. By hovering your mouse over the minimize or maximize button of the window, it’ll then show you a few more options compared to the traditional three. You can now have a three-way split, or a T-split, so on and so forth.

Simply choose the layout you want, and it’ll then consolidate all your opened windows and you can select which you want to be where you want. In addition, Windows 11 will remember your chosen snap layout as a group. So even if you’re doing something else and have those windows closed, you can restore them simply by selecting the restore group.

Really awesome, really great. Especially on an Ultrawide monitor like I have on my desk. Native 3-way split is going to be something I would use and if you’re someone who constantly moves about with a laptop and different monitors, Windows 11 will remember your snap layout no matter what you plug it into.

The next thing I quite like is Task View, now located conveniently right beside the Start Button. This allows you to see all your open windows or apps at a glance and right below that and the number of different virtual desktops which you might have. This really makes it so much easier compared to Windows 10. Switch between different virtual desktops really easier, and drag and drop windows easily as well. Really simple.

So that’s the good stuff and there’s actually a little more stuff that I do like, like the general rounder and more bubbly aesthetic, the slightly revamped system settings, Xbox Game Pass and more, but for now, let’s fast forward a little.

I want to talk about what I don’t really like about Windows 11, some of which are just weird to me.

The first thing I immediately noticed and went "why?" was the moment I wanted to select Google Chrome as my default browser. For some reason, it isn’t a simple master toggle switch like in Windows 10.

In Windows 11, you’re now able to select the default app to open every specific file extension or application, which is fine in itself, since it does provide much more granular control. But there isn’t a master toggle switch per se.

Why?

I just want to switch everything to Chrome or Firefox or any other browser apart from Edge. But why force me to select every single setting one by one? It makes zero sense, especially more so when you’re coming from Windows 10.

So that’s the first thing. The second thing I didn’t really like is the drop-down list for right clicks. For some reason, Microsoft has decided to simplify the right-click menu and that’s fine, the important functions are there. But what if I wanted to use the additional functions, like pin to taskbar or compress and zip?

I now require an additional click in order to see the full list, and to be very frank, the full list isn’t that long in the first place. I really think there’s no need for the shorter list. Not at all.

The third thing I don’t really like is with regards to making a local account. Now, I’m pretty sure a lot of you guys would just use a Microsoft account at this point and if you do, you will never have this issue.

But for me, and when I constantly review new laptops, I don’t want to bring over all my cloud data to a laptop which I’ll only usually have for about a couple of weeks. So I always make a local account.

Now for my experience with the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition, I wasn’t given the option to create a local account upon first installation of Windows 11. That option simply wasn’t there even though there are sources out there that say otherwise.

So in the end, I had to first login to my own Microsoft account, and then when it’s all ready, go into the account settings and create a local account instead.

Now it isn’t that big of an issue, but I do wish that Microsoft standardises that the option is available on any system upgrading or shipping with Windows 11. Because as you can clearly see, this Razer Blade didn't.

But overall, that’s about it. I would say that in my short experience with Windows 11, it has been far more positive than negative for sure. I’m liking the new look, I’m liking the new functionalities, I do think that it is better than Windows 10, but I would still suggest that you don't upgrade to Windows 11 right now.

The OS is still fairly new and there are still a number of bugs here and there, such as Windows not recognizing the new rounded corners as actual targets to initiate a resize, and the whole debate about VBS, the Virtualization-Based Security being turned on by default and affecting the performance of your system depending on your configuration.

So, while I do like Windows 11, give it some time. Wait till Microsoft has fixed all the bugs and when the OS is relatively stable, then initiate the upgrade.

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Content by Soon Kai Hong