Just got my hands on a leaked copy of Windows 11 (pre-released copy). I downloaded it from a torrent site and loaded it up to test.
I was expecting a lot of changes but alas there wasn't much to shout about. The most obvious thing I noticed in Windows 11 were the changes to the user interface (UI).
Centering the task bar icons
The biggest change seen would be Microsoft's attempt to center all the taskbar icons like what the MacOS.
No more live tiles (icons that updates information)
The live tiles (think weather tile, mail tile) that gives real time updates are no longer there, I think Microsoft wants to simplify the interface and de clutter the interface by not overwhelming users with too much information.
New icon set and wallpapers
The icons have been refreshed with newer look. Like every other Windows release, there's new set of wallpapers for Windows 11.
Snap presets
When the maximized button is hovered, 4 preset snap types will show, the snap is basically the options to arrange multiple windows on the screen. It's useful when there are many windows opened and you want to organized it on the screen.
Conclusion
Overall, nothing very impressive in the Windows 11, seems to be mostly cosmetics related. My tech friends say Microsoft has always had this Tik Tok release cycle, launching 1 good version of software followed by 1 bad version, eg think Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 8 (not 8.1). These versions of Windows were considered the bad and problematic ones. Similarly, considering the success of Windows 10, Windows 11 could be a less refined version of Windows and paving the way for a more superior Windows 12 in the future.
The official launch of Windows 11 is schedule to be on June 24 2021. Hopefully Microsoft will announce more existing features that is not present in the existing copy I'm testing.
Updates
Windows 11 has been launched now, is a free upgrade for Windows 10 users but I suspect it will be time based, this means for a short period of time Windows 10 users can upgrade to Windows 11 free of charge.
The items I missed out writing about was Windows can run Android apps. This means you can run an Android app that runs on your phone in a Windows 11 machine.
Having said that however, Windows 11 will only run on machines with a TPM2 chip. TPM2 chips are generally available on business laptops, it's quite rare to have a TPM2 chip on a general consumer PC. Therefore, a lot of home users will mostly need to upgrade their machines with TPM2 chipset in order to run Windows 11.
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