Release demo official windows 11
hey everyone we're taking a look at
windows 11 version 21 h2 this is the
first version of windows 11 shipping
this fall that includes a whole bunch of
new features and enhancements over the
last major version of windows which of
course was windows 10 first released all
the way back in 2015. so it's been six
long years since the last mainline
version of windows of course windows 10
was updated over time but we haven't had
a mainline version of windows since
windows 10 first debuted so microsoft is
back and they've changed up a whole
bunch of new things as you can clearly
see windows 11 on the surface is quite a
bit different from windows 10.
this won't go over everything
because there's frankly too much and
we'd be here all day but we will take a
look at most of the things that you're
likely to encounter within your first
couple of days of using windows 11 and
where better to start than with the
start menu so yes microsoft has updated
the start menu on windows 11. uh it's
completely redone essentially the live
tile interface is gone and in its place
is a simple grid of icons and you'll
hear me use the term simple a lot here
because one of the goals with windows 11
that microsoft had was to sort of
simplify the ux as much as possible
and you know the start menu is one of
those areas where they certainly try to
do that so along the top here we have
access to our search function if we
click on that that will just simply take
us to the search ui which you can also
find in the taskbar if we search for
something such as windows here you'll
get a whole bunch of different options
including best match as well as apps
that are installed settings and of
course the web as well which is fairly
nice anyway back to the start menu
itself below that is our pinned area so
this is the replacement for live tiles
this is where you can pin and unpin your
favorite apps this is easily
customizable just by sort of dragging
them around and you can also pin and
unpin apps if you'd like as well
and that works as expected there are
multiple pages so you can swipe up and
down if you run out of space on the
first pinned area there you can keep
adding if you'd like and pages will just
continue to be added similar to your
smartphone of course
you do have access to your all apps list
up here which works as you would expect
you can scroll through the list right
click and add things to the pinned area
if you'd like as well so we just pinned
microsoft news which is now there and if
i want to move that to my first page i
can right click and select move to top
or i can even manually drag these apps
and move them around myself if i'd like
to do it that way as well
so there you are that's how that works
very simple like i said microsoft tried
to simplify this ux as much as possible
so there's no resizing of the icons now
the icons don't update or change it
simply just shows you the icon and the
name and you can sort of move them
around and reorganize them as you wish
now below the pinned area is this new
recommended feed and this is essentially
a replacement or rather a successor to
the windows 10 timeline feature it shows
you your recently installed apps as well
as recently accessed documents and other
file types so as you can see here we
have netflix which was recently added as
well as skype but below that we have our
onenote here as well as a powerpoint
presentation and indeed an excel
spreadsheet and if we click on more that
will give you an even longer list so you
can see there's also a word document
down here as well and if you click on
any one of those that will open in its
respective app which works as you would
expect and then below that we have
access to our account settings as well
as being able to lock the pc and sign
out and then we have our power options
as well and that's pretty much all there
is to the new start menu like i said
it's a very simplistic app launcher now
it's designed to sort of get out the way
and get you to what you want as quickly
as possible
uh you may have also noticed and it's
quite a big one it's now in the center
of the screen this is the first version
of windows really to sort of move the
start menu not including windows 8 of
course uh previously in previous
versions of windows it was aligned to
the left and you can still do that if i
click on the taskbar here and head to
taskbar settings you'll be able to jump
in here and align the taskbar back to
the left if you prefer that and that of
course will also make it so the start
menu and search ui also open on the left
but by default now it is centered and i
really like that change i know not
everybody will which is why microsoft
still gives you the option to move it
back uh but by default it is now
centered and i think it looks really
nice along that same vein the taskbar is
now also centered and all of your pinned
and running apps show up in the middle
now rather than left aligned by default
again you can move them back as i just
showed you but the system tray has also
been updated as well it's now been split
into sort of two main fly-outs in
previous versions of windows every icon
down here had its own separate flyout
which was kind of convoluted and
especially for touch users kind of
annoying but now it's been simplified so
the wi-fi volume and battery indicator
down here is all one button and i can
click on that to open up this quick
settings panel and i can do a bunch of
different things with this panel i can
customize and configure my wireless
network through here which is super nice
i can enable or disable accessibility
options and i can turn on and off things
like bluetooth or focus assist and even
customize this menu i can add more
options if i'd like so there's a whole
bunch of options here i can choose from
and i can add say let's see we can add
casting
battery saver and why not rotation lock
as well i can even rearrange these if
i'd like as well
press on done and that works as you
would expect so a simplified quick
settings panel which is nice because
you're no longer thrown into the main
settings app for simple tasks like
connecting to a new network uh previous
versions of windows would take you back
and forth between the flyout and the
settings app and that's been reduced
it's not gone completely but it's
certainly been reduced on windows 11. so
you may be wondering where are all of my
notifications well they are accessed via
the second button in the system tray now
the date and time button so if you click
on this here you'll see that we have our
notifications panel here and that gives
us quick access to focus assist settings
as well as the ability to clear our
notifications and then we also have our
calendar fly out below that which has
lost some functionality in windows 11
you can no longer sort of add events
straight through this panel it's simply
now a sort of glorified date viewer but
other than that this works very nicely
it looks really nice at least and that's
another sort of theme of windows 11. the
design language has been updated in
almost all of the top level areas things
are much more consistent now it's
certainly not perfect but it's
definitely a big improvement over
windows 10. now real quick before we
move on i just want to quickly highlight
some of the nice animations they've
added to the system icons here on the
taskbar so these five icons here are
system icons which can't be unpinned
directly from the taskbar you have to
jump into settings here to turn them on
and off which is a little bit annoying
but you can do that through here if
you'd like but each of these icons have
their own unique animation which i think
looks really nice so the start button
has one for example as so as does search
and task
view and widgets
and microsoft teams chat we will talk
about all of those features as we go but
i just wanted to quickly show you those
animations as i think they look really
nice also you can hover over the search
icon as well as the task view icon to
see mini versions of those full features
if you'd like to quickly jump into
something without actually clicking into
the icon itself so windows 11 isn't just
a pretty face microsoft has also added a
number of productivity enhancing
features that makes using windows easier
when you know manipulating multiple
windows and so on and so forth so if we
jump into an app here and hover over the
maximize button you'll see a new drop
down menu which gives you a sort of grid
view of all the different snapping
layouts you can have in windows 11
depending on your screen size so if you
have a larger screen this will actually
have more snapping options for you we're
using a laptop here so it only has four
options for us but within those four
options there's a number of different
layouts you can choose from we can have
side by side we can have one bigger than
the other we can have three or we can
have a quadrant snapping grid as well
and clicking on any of these will simply
snap that app into position and if you
have multiple apps open here such as the
microsoft store we can snap both of
these
and snap assist will come into play and
help you snap those side by side just as
so very handy so you no longer have to
sort of drag to the very edge of your
display you can still do that if you'd
like so you can see here if we just snap
that to the side we can do that if you
prefer doing it that way that is of
course still an option for you but you
can now also use the snapping menu which
i think is a little bit easier
especially for those who aren't using
persistent touch pads if you're using a
synaptics touchpad which this laptop is
dragging apps around is kind of annoying
so being able to
access that same feature via this drop
down menu is really nice you may have
also noticed microsoft has updated the
animations involved with manipulating
windows as well things are much smoother
the maximizer minimize animations are
much smoother as well and that just adds
to the overall fluidity effect of
windows 11 which i think is really nice
now while we have the file explorer open
we might as well take a look at it this
has also been updated on windows 11. you
may have already noticed it but the
ribbon interface at the top here has
been replaced with this simplified
command bar as microsoft calls it so you
get access to your sort of common tasks
here such as creating a new file or
folder as well as cut copy paste rename
share and delete we'll we also have our
sorting options here view options and
then additional options in this drop
down ellipsis menu
and this is very simple it works as
expected we can create a new thing here
so let's create a text document then we
can right click on that and of course
the right click menu has also been
updated with a new interface we get our
cut copy paste options along the top and
then a bunch of different options below
that there's also a show more options
button which takes you back to the
classic sort of windows 10 context menu
which has a whole bunch of additional
things but developers can update their
apps to support the new context menu if
they like just most of them haven't yet
so we'll see this get updated over time
but for now you may find yourself going
back to the old context menu quite a bit
especially if you have you know
third-party programs such as 7-zip which
haven't yet updated and still require
you to access this old menu
now since we're still talking about
productivity features task view has been
updated quite significantly uh with a
bigger emphasis on virtual desktops
timeline is gone as i mentioned it's
sort of in the start menu now and in its
place is this uh very clean and
consistent looking task view experience
if you have an app open here you'll see
that it sort of shows up along the top
there which is very nice and below that
is our virtual desktops which are now
front and center and we can create new
virtual desktops with these but
microsoft has made these a little more
um
useful in windows 11. you can now
right-click on each individual one and
rename them so if we click on this here
we can call this one play so we have one
work and one play and we can even
customize the background of each so we
can change the background of this one to
something else to make it stand out from
our work environment so let's use
this one i like this wallpaper
it's very play-esque so there we are we
now have two different wallpapers along
with our virtual desktops and these will
now also persist across reboot so if i
restart my pc and come back to virtual
desktops these virtual desktops will
still be there and it should remember
the kind of apps you open in each as
well so that's very nice you can also
rearrange these as well so if i want to
put the play one in front i can do so so
there you are that's a look at the new
virtual desktops feature very nice
improvements there so moving right along
the next feature i want to talk about is
the new widgets panel which is well it's
exactly what it says on the tin it's a
widgets panel we have a total of eight
widgets to choose from in this version
of windows 11 i'm sure they'll add more
over time but as of right now there's
things like weather or stocks sports
leader boards outlook calendar and so on
and so forth and you can move these
around and some of these are even
resizable so if i click on this button
here and the widget i can change the
size of it from small medium to large
which is kind of nice not every widget
has the option of resizing like the
entertainment one for example has the
option to remove it so let's do that
then i can uh retract this one up here
if i'd like
and that looks quite nice let's make
that one large and then we can shrink
this one
and then unpin this one and now my
widgets panel looks kind of nice and
then of course below the widgets we have
the microsoft start news feed which
gives you you know headlines and so on
and so forth which you can also tailor
to your specific likings if we come into
our profile picture here and go down to
personalize your interests that will
take us to microsoft edge where we can
customize the different topics we want
to see within that news feed if that's
something you'd like to use
but that's basically all there is to the
widgets panel there's also the ability
to obviously search the web at the top
here but that's that basically now i had
to quickly switch pieces for this demo
but there's also a new feature called
microsoft teams chat which is
essentially just teams integration in
windows 11. if we come down to the chat
icon here and click on that that will
bring up this ui which gives you access
to things like the ability to create a
quick meet through microsoft teams as
well as a new chat and then we have our
recent chats below here which if we
click on one of those that will open up
the team's client into a chat that i've
been having with a recent contact uh of
course we also have the ability to
create a video call straight through
this interface as well as well as search
for recent chats if you'd like and then
below that of course we have our syncs
applications but the main app here is a
very sort of simple chat app we have the
ability to sort of type messages here
hello there as well as format our text
if we'd like as well as attach files
emojis and gifs if we'd like and then of
course we can just send that off like so
and you can also get access to the full
teams client by clicking open microsoft
teams below like so and that will bring
you into a familiar looking teams
environment if you are familiar with
teams of course though this is not the
full version of teams this is not like
the work client you use at work this is
for consumers so it's essentially a
stripped back version of teams designed
for um well consumer use friends and
family and stuff so you add all your
friends and family then you can message
them or video call them across windows
11 pcs and whatnot in fact you can do it
on any platform because teams consumer
is available on android and ios as well
uh but there you have it that's a quick
look at the new microsoft teams
integration you get things like your
calendar view here as well as well as
the activity similar to the full teams
clients but again designed for consumers
which is kind of nice now you may have
seen me open it earlier but i want to
take another look at the microsoft store
because it has been updated
significantly on windows 11 with a new
ui and stuff but not just with a new ui
microsoft has changed the policies that
govern the kind of apps that can sort of
appear in the microsoft store or windows
11 so that more developers can submit
their apps for discoverability within
the storefront so apps such as discord
as you can see there are now available
in the microsoft store previously they
were not allowed in the store for
many reasons but now they can be and you
can see i can click on install and that
will begin downloading and install to my
pc and there's even apps like the full
version of visual studio here so if you
type visual studio at the top you'll see
that visual studio 2019 is listed in the
microsoft store and i can install that
if i'd like microsoft says many
developers are bringing their apps to
the store now including things like the
opera web browser at the epic game store
and adobe's creative cloud are all
supposed to be coming at some point in
the future and i'm sure we're going to
see many more apps over time this is
early days for the numerix store of
course but it's already off to a very
strong start you can see down here we
have things like itunes and whatsapp and
obviously taking a look at the app
itself very fluid very nice and if we
click on an icon here that will take us
into the app page which has a bunch of
nice animations involved as well
we get our ratings and so on here we can
see pictures of the app and stuff very
nice of course we have different
categories along the top here so we have
apps which shows you all the apps games
which shows you all the games and of
course movies and tv which shows you all
of the available movies and tv this will
also eventually be updated to show you
movies and tv from other services such
as disney plus and stuff
but that's not there yet i believe
that's coming in the future we also have
our library down here which gives you a
list of all of the recently updated apps
on your pc as well as the ability to get
more app updates if they are available
so there you go a quick look at the new
microsoft store huge improvement over
the previous one and i'm very excited to
see where that goes now since we're
talking about new apps let's take a look
at some of the new apps in windows 11
starting with paint a classic microsoft
has updated paints with a new interface
that gives it a sort of windows 11 vibe
unfortunately there are no additional
new features here this is very much just
a facelift for the classic paint app but
hey it's better than nothing we can
still do our usual doodles if we like
very much like so
and of course we can also add text stuff
and do what you normally do within paint
if you're a paint artist i commend you
that is brilliant i am very much not a
paint artist and that is probably the
best i can do
moving on there's also a new snipping
tool if you remember windows 10 there
were sort of two snipping tools there
was the classic windows 7 snipping tool
as well as the sort of modern snip and
sketch environment microsoft has
combined them in windows 11. it's now
just called snipping tool and it sort of
is the best of both of those features so
you can see here we have this little
classic snipping tool ux but if we click
on new that will take us to the snip and
sketch ui which we can then uh take a
screenshot like so and then that will
take us to the area where we can either
ink onto it or do other things which is
really quite nice so love to see that
combining of two apps there really makes
sense for this sort of feature another
app i think's worth mentioning is this
new clock app which has been updated
with a new feature called focus sessions
which is a cool idea it allows you to
sort of sync up microsoft to do with
spotify create yourself a number of
tasks set a timer and then complete
those tasks within the timer that you've
set really cool idea it also obviously
has the usual timer alarm stopwatch and
world clock features that the old
version had but again with slightly
newer interfaces designed to align with
windows 11. microsoft edge is another
app that's being updated to align its
design with windows 11. i think this
update will be coming a little bit later
but you can see it in preview here if
you right click on things the context
menu looks like windows 11's context
menus as does the drop down menu here
and you may also notice a slight blur
effect or micro effects as they now call
it in the title bar when you have the
window uh not full screen which is kind
of nice
so the last app i want to sort of dive
into here is the new settings app which
has been redesigned from the ground up
and also many of the options within it
have been re-categorized and moved
around for simplicity's sake so we won't
take a look at everything because this
will be here forever because there's so
many things in here but i do want to
highlight some of the sort of star new
things within the settings app outside
of its design starting with power and
battery microsoft has finally finally
added a sort of detailed battery graph
here which ios and android have had for
a while and now windows joins the fray
in that department as well we can view
detailed info here which gives you a
breakdown of what's using your battery
at any given hour you can see here that
windows explorer is using 31 for some
reason you can see our screen on and
screen off time as well as our sleep
time
and you can choose between the last 24
hours and the last seven days you can
see there that my pc is all sort of
sitting idle until i sort of charged it
up to do this video very nice indeed
we can also change our power mode here
as well as our screen and sleep settings
of course very nice stuff a big
improvement over windows 10. if we come
down to bluetooth and devices microsoft
has added this interface up here which
gives you a sort of overview of
everything that's connected as well as
their battery percentage if that's
supported we also have your phone which
is now located in this area as well we
have a bunch of different options things
like the touchpad and and indeed touch
uh there's also a bunch of new sort of
gestures for touch screens if you're
using a tablet or two in one you can use
three or four fingers now to manipulate
app windows so i can do three fingers to
swipe down or three fingers to swipe
that back up then i can use four fingers
to swipe up to task view here and if i
have multiple desktops running i can
actually use four fingers to tap and
hold and then switch between those
virtual desktops if i'd like as well so
very nice for touch users now since
we're talking about touch real quickly i
just want to highlight another
improvement for touch users and that's
with the new touch keyboard which is a
huge improvement over the previous one
it has new sounds and animations when
typing and stuff it also has a new emoji
panel up here which gives you access to
things like well emoji as well as gifs
and so on and so forth we also have
access to our cloud clipboard if we have
it enabled which is super nice but you
can also customize the touch keyboard in
ways you couldn't before so you can see
here we have the option to theme and
resize if we jump into that that will
give us theming options similar to
swiftkey in fact you know the back end
of the touch keyboard is powered by
swiftkey so it's no surprise to see that
the sort of themings aspect of it has
shown up in windows 11 as well now you
can choose between different themes and
then you can even
open up the changes you've made
and this is one of the themes we just
chose from and there's also
uh the option to create custom themes as
well so if we go down here we can edit
our custom theme and we can choose all
the different colors and we can change
the key sizes and whatnot which is
really nice very in-depth
customizability here for the touch
keyboard which windows 10 just didn't
have and i you know you'd love to see it
really this is very nice and again like
i said a pair of the new gestures and
stuff touch on windows 11 i feel is a
little bit better there is one downside
touch tablet mode is gone so apps no
longer sort of automatically run full
screen kind of annoying if you're using
a small tablet such as the surface go
but outside of that i think touch
overall is a big improvement on windows
11.
okay we really did get sidetracked there
let's quickly jump back to the settings
app here just a couple more things i
want to sort of walk you through the
personalization area here now
prioritizes theming along the top here
so you can quickly choose between light
and dark theme why not move to light
theme as we are halfway through this
video to showcase what it looks like and
there you are very nice indeed we also
have options for things like the
background of course colors start
taskbar if we jump in here real quick uh
you can see there's a bunch of different
options we could turn on and off the
system icons as i mentioned and then we
also have our taskbar behaviors i just
sort of looked at earlier so there you
are and then finally the windows update
area microsoft has improved windows
update on windows 11. the company says
windows updates are now 40 smaller which
should mean they take up less data when
downloading and installing which is
always nice also i really admire this
new sort of update history area which
sort of better categorizes uh what what
updates you've installed and stuff so
you can see here we have driver updates
as well as definition updates and other
updates and so on and so forth so they
are now much better categorized within
this interface and no longer just show
up in one list which is kind of what
windows 10 used to do
so there you are there's a quick look at
the new settings app as well and a look
at some of the app updates that are
coming in windows 11. the lock screen
has also been updated looks like this
now not much has changed really the date
and time is now centered but if we swipe
up here you'll see that the buttons and
stuff on the task on the lock screen
have been updated with rounded icons and
so on and so forth just to align them
with windows 11 as well which is fairly
nice
so there we are that's a quick look at
windows 11. as i mentioned this did not
go through everything uh there's a lot
to windows 11 we'd be here all day but
this was certainly a look at sort of the
biggest changes that you will likely hit
within your first few days of using the
os if you'd like a more in-depth review
