Just a few thoughts on Windows 11's UI

Windows 11 is full of divisive changes. Whether it’s the privacy, the requirement for the Microsoft account, or even the arbitrary requirement for TPM 2.0 hardware, there are plenty of reasons to be frustrated with Microsoft’s latest release. Certainly, that is part of why Linux has been growing in usage. Regardless, there are aspects that I personally have been happy to see come to fruition.

Most appreciated by me is that, as of the most recent beta releases, dark mode is far more unified within the whole of Windows. With monitors getting brighter and my regular late-night usage this greatly reduces eye strain and has been part of Linux for years now. The most recent addition has been overhauling Task Manager to completely support dark mode. Having that and Explorer both fully in dark mode is a huge relief for my eyes. Why it took years after introducing dark mode to finally add that is strange to me but at least it is done. It’s also welcome to see Task Manager itself modernized as well, with sleeker graphs and colors that even match the dark mode with more gentle contrast.

Ultimately, Windows 11 feels more modern to use. Most of the vestiges of that absolutely hideous Modern UI/Metro that came with Windows 8 have finally been pushed to the annals of history. That also couldn’t have come soon enough in my mind. I hated the look of Metro and how completely flat and sharp the interface looked. It may have worked well on Windows Phone but on desktop it was a total miss.

I feel Windows now is on par with Linux and MacOS when it comes to truly offering a dark mode option. There are still holdouts, generally very old system tools such as Device Manager and Disk Management, which still look and feel as they did even back prior to the transition to NT core. I want to see those changed as well because despite the whinging from Microsoft about depreciating those tools they are still indispensable for managing hardware. Which, sure, it would be lovely to have modern tools but until they exist these old tools are still necessary for hardware management.

But, again, that’s been an issue with Microsoft for years. They want their users to change what tools they use, to stop using their older tools, without offering a full-featured solution. It’s frustrating for both Microsoft and for their end users who are forced into butting heads over something so simple, so basic. And, undoubtedly, they’ll end up removing these tools eventually without a complete solution for replacement which will result in backpedaling and apologies as well as ranting and raving.

We’ve already seen this multiple times in Windows 11, such as with the option to place the Start Menu to the left as previous. Or with recanting some of the privacy settings or any number of other aspects. It’s the dumbest dance but it’s one that Microsoft customers have been used to for decades at this point. So, yeah, two steps forward, one back, and some loss of balance and disorientation.