Windows 11

[Pat Hartman]

I'm a little late to this game. I've been struggling with Win 11 when supporting a client for over a year. I recently got a new computer (thanks for your help in deciding what to get). I am so tired of change for the sake of change I don't know how many times I can say it. They messed up the Start menu again and it is really annoying. However, I found a video that shows how to change a registry settting to return to the Win 10 start menu which is much better so I thought I would share it.

pin app to start menu windows 11 - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I had a computer go wheels-up-in-the-ditch recently and had to get a new one. Of course, it was a Win11 Home system. You are (correctly) worried about the Windows GUI changing. I've been looking at security issues.

I've been watching some videos on some the things already in Win 11 and some things that will be coming down the road. Among other "gotchas" is that Win 11 REALLY wants you to have a Microsoft account and a future patch is reputed to REQUIRE that you have an MS account before you can make a local account on your own machine. There the "copilot Recall" feature that, when it is downloaded in a coming patch and if you don't turn it off, it will take a snapshot of your screen every 3 seconds (and keep it for a couple of months). There is a thing (probably related to Windows Defender) where they want to "protect" your files by encrypting your disk with Bitlocker. The catch is that you had better take good notes on encryption keys because if you DO get Bitlockered by Microsoft, you will have to log in to your MS account to get the decryption key. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent the Recall and Bitlocker features. I saw one method for new Win 11 startups (like, take it home from the store and boot for the first time) that would allow you to say "NO" to the Microsoft account requirement, but MS won't like it. They are already plugging the holes.

I've so far had to "adjust" topics on Windows Update Delivery Optimization (which includes the ability to download updates from another PC); Disallowing On-Line sign-up for WiFi Hotspot 2.0; Inking Personalization (intrusive record-keeping possible); External manipulation of your Location options; Turning off Cortana; Turning off CoPilot... and the list goes on. The Win 11 OS is secure from almost everyone - including you but NOT including MS itself. That realization of how intrusive they have become REALLY ticked me off.

In the past month I must have seen over a dozen entries on how MS has chosen options that essentially bring into question whether they believe that the computer you bought really belongs to you. If it is Win 11, the doubt factors are significant. You have so many privacy options to consider that it is almost nauseating, but what is worse is that some personalizations in the Privacy section lead to interference with web sites that allow public commenting. So far sites like this one are not affected, but - as a simple example - Yahoo News comments are now dead to me because of their third-party co-hosting.

 

[Gasman]

Thanks for that Pat, but it still does not allow the taskbar to be at the top where I have always had it.

 

[KitaYama]

Thanks for that Pat, but it still does not allow the taskbar to be at the top where I have always had it.

If you're OK to use a third party utility, there are several open source utilities out there you can use.
ExplorerPatcher is one of them. The source code is here on GithHub
You can download the exe from GitHub or here.
It's a portable app and you don't need to install anything.
There are a lot of videos on youtube if you want to check how it works.
Here's one of them.

 

[Pat Hartman]

MS has got us by the short hairs.

 

[KitaYama]

MS has got us by the short hairs.

Everything evolves. You can not expect everything stay as they are for a century, because we can not cope with the changes or we are used to do our routines in a specific way and can not learn new methods.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Change is inevitable. However, the goal is usually to make something better. Instead, they took away features. But they're hot to trot to spy on us.

 

[Gasman]

MS has got us by the short hairs.

No, because I use that explorerpatcher that I mentioned before. Lots of options in that and easy to remove if you do not like it.
I like it.

 

[KitaYama]

the goal is usually to make something better.

Better is subjective." what is considered "better" depends on the individual's perspective or opinion.
You can never evolve something (specially something as large as an OS) that can satisfy everyone. There are always a group who are not satisfied with the changes.

Anyway, I'm glad you could solve your problem and thanks for sharing.

 

[AccessBlaster]

If you change the 3 to a 1 the taskbar will be at the top

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3

 

[KitaYama]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3

This key doesn't work anymore. There was an update several months ago that cancels the changes to this key.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Thanks KitaYama

 

[Pat Hartman]

@Gasman Looks like the link @KitaYama posted is an app that lets you manipulate the registry settings.

I would really like to live with Win 11 as close to as is as possible because I end up working on other computers and I'll be non-functional if I simply change everything to work like Win 10. But without a useful Start Menu on my primary computer, I am non-functional so at least that needs to change.

 

[Gasman]

That is the app I mentioned.

 

[Cotswold]

Failing Win10 PCs appear to becoming a craze. I'm starting to wonder if Microsoft isn't actually causing them to sell more copies of Win11
The other day I switched on a PC and some delightful software, probably written years ago by some Microsoft apprentice 'decided' that the HD needed checking and spent the next hour and a half making sure that when I was eventually allowed to start again it hung at the Welcome screen and was unusable. (welcome to what exactly?). So that was that, drive out and backed onto another PC and three hours pointlessly lost. Then had to order a new PC.....sigh.

As Win12 is due, maybe this year I looked at some advance details and decided against it due to the huge increases in AI involvement. Apparently is to be called New Valley. I just wonder if it will be a valley that can never be escaped from. Trapped without any control except that exerted and allowed by Microsoft. It is bad enough to be told that this, or that folder is not accessible on your own PC. Lord knows what it will be like when Win12 and AI comes along with its no doubt impractical and pointless bureaucratic diktats.

A couple of irritations in Win11 to me were the loss of the full menu from a right-click in explorer. Which you need to switch on. The hiding of Control Panel, with the only access to it by typing it in in System. Then not being able to add it to the Start menu.

I was somewhat perturbed reading Doc's post #2 about Microsoft Recall. Screenshots every three seconds will be a video of your whole time on the PC. Apparently, they are stored (only?) on your PC but what is to stop it being downloaded, or hacked? Within a month there would be a complete record of your banks, investments, emails, letters typed, spreadsheets and Access code written. I can but wonder if Microsoft would access that information if it wanted to. If the revenue, or some other government department paid them to get it, would they say no? We all know how driven the FAANGS are about selling data that is not theirs, which can be collected surreptitiously. Is it our copyright being taken without request, or approval and sold without payment, or acknowledgement?

The Recall I see as something quite insidious and of doubtful benefit to the user. If you wanted to find out just about everything about people, that would do the job. Will business sensitive, or government data be at risk from Recall? In software development you could watch a video of it being developed and tested. Once the data is downloaded it won't take AI long to assimilate it. It wouldn't be so bad if Microsoft told us about these additions and amendments to Windows. Or if they came with details on how to switch off, delete, or control them on your own computer. It is 1984 with more bells and whistles than Orwell could have imagined?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I have to think that the Feds will step in at some point on the Recall feature. I cannot speak for other departments, but there was a directive from the U. S. Navy that ALL repeat ALL computers in a Navy office would be not less than FOUO - For Official Use Only, or the alternative name for that is SBU - Sensitive But Unclassified. SBU usually implied "Privacy Act" data or HIPAA data, whereas FOUO could be broader in scope. However, while I still held a Secret clearance I used several Windows computers on SIPRnet, which is only for Secret-classified machines. In my case, I was looking up details on various computer security directives that I would eventually have to apply to the SBU machines under my supervision. The idea that such machines would have screen-shots of certain sites that a hacker might actually be able to access? Unthinkable. I could see that the government might tell MS that they at least need to create a way to lock down Recall HARD, hard enough to be unusable.

The latest articles I've see about Recall indicated that MS says it cannot be uninstalled because it is an intrinisic part of Win Explorer. To which I have to call "bullsnot" because what Man can create, Man can un-create.

 

[GPGeorge]

Unfortunately, I am not so optimistic with regard to curbing this extraordinary intrusion into privacy. I hope, though, that you are right about that. It is chilling to even think about it.

 

[AccessBlaster]

There are ways to mitigate the spying but many people find out their efforts are thwarted on the next major update.

The hard truth is they own it and we agree to it, or we can't use it.

 

[Cotswold]

A little more information which is slightly less of a glowing report than Microsoft issues
At least you'll know where it is, maybe for a short time only though?

How to access Windows Recall AI data locally stored on Windows 11 - Pureinfotech

Windows Recall stores your data in the "UKP" folder. The "ImageStore" folder contains the screenshots, and the "ukg.db" file is a database.

pureinfotech.com

 

[Pat Hartman]

I have to think that the Feds will step in at some point on the Recall feature.

Somehow I don't think that will happen. The Feds will want to be able to use the information themselves.

Technology gets more terrifying by the day. We are so hooked we have no way out. Who at MS thought this would be a good idea? They deserve to have it turned on themselves but that is unlikely to happen because, they will build a way to turn it off on their PC.

I tried to follow the directions to turn it off but the option isn't available. Now what?