(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Maybe hold off on that Windows 11 upgrade... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-07 The real requirements for upgrading your computer’s Windows 10 operating system to Windows 11 are a little more demanding than the official requirements. If you’re thinking of upgrading, don’t be in any hurry to make that decision. Yesterday, I was reading Daily Kos on Microsoft Edge on my other computer, the one that I upgraded to Windows 11 a few days ago, and my screen went completely dark for a split second. A little later, it happened again. The simple act of scrolling a Web page up or down (I don’t remember which direction I was going) and updating the HDMI output accordingly was for a moment just way too much for the unfortunate machine. I bought that computer brand new, but at a discount, because it was an obsolete model Best Buy was trying to clear out. I bought it online during the pandemic, so I didn’t have to deal with a Best Buy salesman trying to get me to buy the latest computer with all the bells and whistles. Windows 10 was modern enough for me. But maybe I should’ve splurged a couple hundred more for more RAM preinstalled, might have saved me some grief over the years, and now. I just wanted a computer with a DVD-ROM drive that I could install on and use an old music notation program I still have the installation disc for. I like actually having the software installed free and clear, not having to worry that I won’t be able to use it during an Internet outage because the damn thing can’t check with the license server that I really did pay for the program, which I did, many years ago. The first time I heard about the Windows 11 upgrade last year, I declined it. But a couple of weeks ago, the computer was getting very insistent. So I decided I might just as well install the upgrade. If I can’t use my old music notation program, well, I guess I’ll have to take it as an opportunity to learn Dorico. These are the official requirements for the Windows 11 upgrade, according to Microsoft: Processor 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC). RAM 4 gigabyte (GB). Storage 64 GB or larger storage device ... System firmware UEFI, Secure Boot capable. ... TPM Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0. ... Graphics card Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver. Display High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per color channel. Internet connection and Microsoft account Windows 11 Pro for personal use and Windows 11 Home require internet connectivity and a Microsoft account during initial device setup. [...] For all Windows 11 editions, internet access is required to perform updates and to download and take advantage of some features. A Microsoft account is required for some features. I take issue with the 4GB minimum requirement for RAM. The computer I upgraded has precisely 4 GB RAM. That’s what it came with. It was never particularly fast, but for most of what I wanted it to do, the slowness was tolerable. I developed certain habits, like starting Microsoft Edge by clicking on a locally stored Web page instead of the program’s icon, which helped the device avoid the extremely taxing but rather ordinary situation of going to the default start page for Microsoft Edge. I don’t do Java programming on that computer, except for very simple programs like the one I used to generate some of what is shown on the screenshot above: package org.example; import java.util.Map; import java.util.Properties; public class SysPropList { public static void main(String[] args) { Properties props = System.getProperties(); for (Map.Entry entry : props.entrySet()) { System.out.println(entry.getKey().toString() + " = " + entry.getValue().toString()); } } } With Windows 10, iTunes almost always took a long time to start up, but once it had started up, it played music just like I expected it to. Now under Windows 11, iTunes is shaky and I have to be even more careful about what else is running while it plays music. With the Windows 11 upgrade, all manner of things that I was usually able to do with Windows 10, like read Daily Kos on a Web browser, are suddenly very problematic, and sometimes cause complete system crashes. To be clear, I’m not complaining about the Daily Kos website, I don’t think it’s any heavier than it needs to be. The default Microsoft Edge start page, on the other hand, does need some lightening of the load. However, if I don’t respond to you here on Daily Kos, it could be because I could check this website but choose not to do so as to not risk a total crash on that other computer. I’m writing this on an old Windows 10 computer. The guy who gave it to me said it originally had Windows 7 installed. I’m not quite sure why it doesn’t qualify for the Windows 11 upgrade, but I’m okay with that. I’m not really seeing anything in Windows 11 on the other computer that would make me want to also have it on this computer that I’m using right now. This computer I’m on now is better able to handle Daily Kos, whether on Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox. However, there is one other Microsoft product that is too taxing for this device: Visual Studio Code. I don’t know if it was because Web developers felt bad about using Sublime for years without paying the license that almost all of them switched to VS Code. Now VS Code is the de facto standard for Web developers. Even some Java developers want to use VS Code for Java, which I find puzzling. Even Eclipse is preferable to VS Code for Java programming, am I right? Anyway, VS Code is too much for this old Windows 10 computer with 8 GB RAM. Trying to run VS Code and a Zoom call at the same time won’t completely crash this computer, but it will come damn close to that. The only computer I’ve ever had that could actually handle VS Code was a MacBook Air, though I never did try to use VS Code and be on a Zoom call at the same time on that machine. So now I think that 8 GB RAM is the real minimum RAM requirement to upgrade a Windows 10 computer to Windows 11. Or maybe it needs at least 16 GB. Also, some people online are saying that the problem is with solid state hard drives, that somehow Windows 11 cuts the read speed in half. Combined with low RAM, that sure sounds like a recipe for disaster. Who knows, maybe I finally get my old MacBook Air repaired and bypass all these Windows problems... [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/7/2185694/-Maybe-hold-off-on-that-Windows-11-upgrade Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/