Windows is finally getting native RAR support + RIP Cortana

I power mine down completely whenever they are not going to be in use for more than an hour or two, and don't have some sort of task that I need running during that time.

I find it annoying that Microsoft has conflated hibernation with a real shutdown, but at least I know how to override it.
With NVME boot drives, I can start my PC faster than I used to bring it out of sleep. I would reckon.
 
Go figure. I've been using WinRAR forever. I bought it like 15 years ago and the license still works. With native support for RAR, I dunno if I'll even bother to install it anymore. The built-in Zip functionality works well enough.

I read that they finally plan to support webp natively, too. Clearly there's a team looking to support more file types at long last.
Support for it likely to extract but none of the other features.... Wonder if winRAR got a nice pay day for this, or will we see the EU claim monopoly on archive formats and try to fine MS
 
Ai + Telemetry = what could go wrong.
Considering MS already indexes all your files that go through OneDrive.. all that data "for a better end user experience" and now more AI crap from OpenAI..ya no thanks

*happy linux is his main OS*
 
There is really only one new thing I strongly dislike about Windows 11, and that is that they keep making it harder to install it without using/creating a Microsoft account.

With Windows 10 you could just disconnect the network during install. Now that no longer works. If you don't have network connectivity the Windows 11 installer will not proceed.

You have to have network when you start the install to let it start, but before you get to the "enter your Microsoft credentials screen" you have to use the hotkeys to open the command line and drop the internet connection from there.

And this is on the Professional version. Not even sure you can do it at all anymore on Home.

There are plenty of other things I hate about Win11, but most of those Windows 10 already does and I already hate them there. The rest are minor UI tweaks that can mostly be undone through registry edits and changing settings.

One thing that I haven't found a fix for is the stupid save dialog which defaults to cloud shit now. I have found no way to force it to by default save to the local file system without adding extra clicks. It annoys the bejeebus out of me, but in the grand scheme of things an extra click isn't the end of the world.

I too am hanging on to Windows 10 as long as I can on principle, but not sure I'll last until EOL due to many of the newest CPU drivers not existing in Win10. At some point I will upgrade CPU's and that will probably force the switch.

One thing is for sure. The day they force me to have anything other than a local user account only system, is the day I delete my windows partition for good. I will never accept needibg to be logged into an internet server to use my local machine. That's like the bullshit the games industry tried to pull with always online single player games. Thankfully linux is an option, but I will set my goddamn computer on fire before I ever accept having to use an online account.

Pro version you just choose to do a domain join and create local account and your done. even with internet connection, you dont need to drop to a CMD to do it...
 
Windows 11 still doesn't have ungrouping of taskbar icons and not showing full titles instead of just the said icon. Not without hacks Explorer Patcher that break with each Windows Update. I used Windows 11 for a FULL YEAR before I got tired of this bullshit and went back to Windows 10. Only now I decided to give Windows 11 another shot as I heard those features are coming back this year.
Yup, all the things they stripped, like folder preview icons, which they finally added back not long ago, the idiots who sat in a room and decided to remove features that people clearly used....Then they add it back and people act like they are so awesome for doing that!
 
Yup, all the things they stripped, like folder preview icons, which they finally added back not long ago, the idiots who sat in a room and decided to remove features that people clearly used....Then they add it back and people act like they are so awesome for doing that!
From my limited understanding in some case, not so much a decision, the "engine" of the taskbar for example and feature were not all redone (it was not actively removing the ability to have it on the side or split icons, but not redoing them set very low on the priority list)
 
Just gonna put this right here...
FB_IMG_1684971907395.jpg
 
I assume Microsoft will have to license it and the creator will FINALLY get a payday? God knows he's been lenient with all us cheap bastards.....
There is .7zip for free so... I switched ages ago. Open source. It supports everything.

Also, screw Windows 11 and it's telemetry (or 10). I switched to alternatives once it was no longer possible to avoid the all-seeing eye.
 
There is .7zip for free so... I switched ages ago. Open source. It supports everything.

Also, screw Windows 11 and it's telemetry (or 10). I switched to alternatives once it was no longer possible to avoid the all-seeing eye.
What alternative for gaming?
 
Proton still has issues with DX12.

Gaming on linux is better than it has ever been, but yeah, its fans tend to gloss over things like issues with DX12, 20-50% performance losses compared to Windows, etc. etc.

These things really do matter.

Every time I read someone praising Linux gaming I think "maybe I should try it again" After all I am a Linux fan, and I daily drive it on all of my systems. I am posting this post from Linux on my laptop. I love Linux and would love to get rid of Windows once and for all for my gaming purposes.

Then I try it again and it is awful. Shitty performance, graphics glitches, unavailable settings, random crashes, having to trial and error different proton versions on every title just to try to find one that sort of works... And if you have the rare fortune of finding a natively ported Linux game it usually looks like shit compared to the Windows version.

I always come out of it with the same conclusion. Linux Gaming is not ready yet.

The truth is, I'm never going to be OK with losing any performance compared to running natively under windows.
 
It's at 30% and rising on Steam. Most people have no issues with using it, the majority that are still on 10 are just there because they don't tend to upgrade OS unless they upgrade their computer.

The only people that seem to have issues with it are angry nerds that are just determined to hate on anything new.
I've been using 11 for about 9 months now and I like it far better than 10. That isn't saying much, but I have a lot less to complain about with Windows 11 than I do 10 by a good margin.
 
I've been using 11 for about 9 months now and I like it far better than 10. That isn't saying much, but I have a lot less to complain about with Windows 11 than I do 10 by a good margin.
I do like the new features of 11, but all the UX changes annoy the hell out of me. They continue to remove functionality, usefulness, consolidate the options that are still there into categories or umbrellas that make absolutely no sense. I absolutely feel like I have only a third of the control as I did over 10.
 
I do like the new features of 11, but all the UX changes annoy the hell out of me. They continue to remove functionality, usefulness, consolidate the options that are still there into categories or umbrellas that make absolutely no sense. I absolutely feel like I have only a third of the control as I did over 10.
You're not wrong about the fuctionality/usefulness thing. I rather deal with annoying UX changes than my PC acting schizophrenic as all fuck because Windows 10 being Windows 10.
 
Gaming on linux is better than it has ever been, but yeah, its fans tend to gloss over things like issues with DX12, 20-50% performance losses compared to Windows, etc. etc.

These things really do matter.

Every time I read someone praising Linux gaming I think "maybe I should try it again" After all I am a Linux fan, and I daily drive it on all of my systems. I am posting this post from Linux on my laptop. I love Linux and would love to get rid of Windows once and for all for my gaming purposes.

Then I try it again and it is awful. Shitty performance, graphics glitches, unavailable settings, random crashes, having to trial and error different proton versions on every title just to try to find one that sort of works... And if you have the rare fortune of finding a natively ported Linux game it usually looks like shit compared to the Windows version.

I always come out of it with the same conclusion. Linux Gaming is not ready yet.

The truth is, I'm never going to be OK with losing any performance compared to running natively under windows.
Sounds like you just need to take a look at protondb for games that you're having issues with and enter the suggested arguments from the comments.

The DX12 games I've played work great, and to be honest I'm scratching my head at your "20-50% performance losses compared to Windows" comment. That's not true on my set up, I'm getting roughly the same performance, and some games are actually performing slightly better.

Btw I'm not one to purchase AAA titles on release date, but from what others have reported, it usually doesn't take long for them to get good proton support these days. Some people reported that Jedi Survivor was performing better in Linux than Windows.
 
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I use Linux on everything except my main PC's that the kids want to play games on. Fortnite is their game of the day, and it does not work in a VM! Crazy world out there. I always wondered if there were other Epic games that had the issue as well, as it's an issue with their anti-cheat software
Can you do GPU passthrough on your rig? I've yet to find any games that won't work on the VM when it's got a dedicated GPU.
 
I use Linux on everything except my main PC's that the kids want to play games on. Fortnite is their game of the day, and it does not work in a VM! Crazy world out there. I always wondered if there were other Epic games that had the issue as well, as it's an issue with their anti-cheat software
Oh forgot to say I'm using QEMU/KVM for my VM manager.
 
I am not sure I want MSs OS poking around my .rar files anyway
If you're storing your massive collection of pron as .rar files, you've been doing it all wrong anyways, hahahah :D **j/k**

But anyways, I always thought it was strange that Windblows could not open .rar's, since other OS's have been able to do it for many, many years :)
 
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GPU pass through is fine. It's epic games anti cheat software that doesn't play nice.
I've got a number of Epic games (Tomb Rider series, Metro Exlodus, BioShock etc) and they all seem to be working fine. Does Fortnight use a different anti-cheat software? Also, which VM manager are you using? I went the QEMU/KVM route since it's suppose to be the fastest.
 
The only people that seem to have issues with it are angry nerds that are just determined to hate on anything new.
And me, because it's not guaranteed that I'll get ANY updates since I would be running it on my OFFICIALLY unsupported i7-6700 non-K. Even though I bought a TPM2 header for my MSI B150M Mortar...
 
I've got a number of Epic games (Tomb Rider series, Metro Exlodus, BioShock etc) and they all seem to be working fine. Does Fortnight use a different anti-cheat software? Also, which VM manager are you using? I went the QEMU/KVM route since it's suppose to be the fastest.
It's specifically fortnite. And epic knows the issue and says it will not be changed. No Linux support for the same reason.
 
And me, because it's not guaranteed that I'll get ANY updates since I would be running it on my OFFICIALLY unsupported i7-6700 non-K. Even though I bought a TPM2 header for my MSI B150M Mortar...
And my axe, because the updates you DO get can upend your system since they still release them half baked even in 2023. Example only a few months ago there was a patch tuesday KB5023706 that tanked SSD performance, and the hilarious "resolution" recommended by MS while they were pulling their heads out? "Performance can be restored by uninstalling the patch". SMFH. Just. No.

I like some of the aesthetic changes to Win11 and the kernel and scheduler are excellent, so keep it around for VR gaming and testing - but that's it. No interest in maintaining a toxic relationship with a hostile platform owner that keeps its OS in a constant state of flux and feature removal without notice; where you have to be on guard for updates, and deal with them more like a scorpion handled with barbecue tongs to get it out of the yard.

Everything small-business and revenue-generating was moved to a mix of Ubuntu LTS and Mint long ago. Some things are more tedious on Linux, but I can count on appliance-like reliability and not waking up to surprises or rugpulls.
 
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It's at 30% and rising on Steam. Most people have no issues with using it, the majority that are still on 10 are just there because they don't tend to upgrade OS unless they upgrade their computer.

The only people that seem to have issues with it are angry nerds that are just determined to hate on anything new.
Using it doesn't mean having absolutely no issues with it. I have a lot of issues with Windows 10 already, increasing which each "feature update".
I don't think I'll be upgrading to Windows 11 until it is absolutely unavoidable, meaning games stop running on 10. Hope there will be a better version of windows by then. Wouldn't be the first windows version I skipped over completely.
 
but I can count on appliance-like reliability and not waking up to surprises or rugpulls.
That's exactly why I stick with Windows, funnily enough. I've had more issues with Linux over the years than with Windows, both in a corporate environment and home use.

The last issue I had with Windows updates breaking ANYTHING was when I was running the Win 10 Preview. I've had way too many things break doing a "simple" update with apt-get the times I've had to use Linux for work purposes.
 
I don't think I'll be upgrading to Windows 11 until it is absolutely unavoidable, meaning games stop running on 10.
Eh, having OS-level or OS-standardised support for ai-engine integration sounds like some nice ideas for some programs, even hobbyist-level programs. Copilot in Office already looks pretty sweet and can potentially help "skip over" many manual tasks for our users. Hopefully it doesn't require EVERYTHING to be stored in e.g. OneDrive and can be pointed to local storage directories for things as well.
 
Eh, having OS-level or OS-standardised support for ai-engine integration sounds like some nice ideas for some programs, even hobbyist-level programs. Copilot in Office already looks pretty sweet and can potentially help "skip over" many manual tasks for our users. Hopefully it doesn't require EVERYTHING to be stored in e.g. OneDrive and can be pointed to local storage directories for things as well.
It actually sounds horrible. Instead of OS level integration we need stand alone preferably open source AI. If MS tries to integrate AI at the OS level it will be Internet Explorer all over again. But I'm not skipping 11 specifically because of this, I'm already holding off due to the terrible UI.
 
It actually sounds horrible. Instead of OS level integration we need stand alone preferably open source AI. If MS tries to integrate AI at the OS level it will be Internet Explorer all over again. But I'm not skipping 11 specifically because of this, I'm already holding off due to the terrible UI.
I didn't like the UI either, so I just changed it to look mostly like windows 10.

I mean, isn't customization the cornerstone of Linux? We should welcome the same options in Windows and not act like windows cannot be modified to our liking.
 
I didn't like the UI either, so I just changed it to look mostly like windows 10.
You mean with third party tools that might break, or if not immediately might break after the next update? No thanks.
I mean, isn't customization the cornerstone of Linux? We should welcome the same options in Windows and not act like windows cannot be modified to our liking.
I would absolutely welcome customization in windows, but they are not adding options they are taking them away all the time. W10 is already far less customizable than W7 was, and W11 takes away even more options, things that are important enough for me to not switch over.
 
You mean with third party tools that might break, or if not immediately might break after the next update? No thanks.

I would absolutely welcome customization in windows, but they are not adding options they are taking them away all the time. W10 is already far less customizable than W7 was, and W11 takes away even more options, things that are important enough for me to not switch over.

I used the built in tools to remove or add things to my start menu that I liked. I change the Control Panel to be like windows 7. I moved the start menu to the left and modified it's layout.

So, no, no third party apps.

Not that it should matter... All of the Linux added items are "third party" that have been added into distros. Would you be happier if windows did the same and offered them by default?

Seems to be where you are going. Windows has options, you don't like them, but they are there. Linux uses third party apps, but we will act like they don't. Makes sense.

Edit: and if you think apps (or "packages" if it makes you feel better) don't break on major updates, keep dreaming. You can find countless threads about broken packages after every major release on Ubuntu.
 
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I change the Control Panel to be like windows 7
I'm not sure how would you do that, esp. without third party tools?! Can you link to an article explaining this? AFAIK there isn't even a way to do it in W10. I would be extremely happy if this existed and I didn't have to deal with that crappy settings app.
. I moved the start menu to the left and modified it's layout.
Yeah I know they added the option to move the start to the left, which is part of the strategy of 3 steps in the wrong direction, wait for outrage, then take one step back to shut people up. But that still leaves them 2 steps in the wrong.
So, no, no third party apps.
Not that it should matter... All of the Linux added items are "third party" that have been added into distros. Would you be happier if windows did the same and offered them by default?
I would be happier because I assume they pay attention so updates don't break the included 3rd party tools. Otherwise what's the point?
I mean I installed W11 on a PC, then installed a tool that changed start menu and taskbar to work like in Windows 10, and it broke, the start haven't worked since on that PC, clicking on it literally does nothing. And there is no way to fix it short of doing a clean install. So you can understand why I'm reluctant to do it on my daily used PC.
Seems to be where you are going. Windows has options, you don't like them, but they are there. Linux uses third party apps, but we will act like they don't. Makes sense.
If a tool is included with the OS, then I assume it is officially supported and safe to use without fear of it causing problems later.
If it's not officially supported then the OS developer can change things in a way that permanently breaks the tool, or worse without warning.
Edit: and if you think apps (or "packages" if it makes you feel better) don't break on major updates, keep dreaming. You can find countless threads about broken packages after every major release on Ubuntu.
IDK why did you even bring up linux if it is just as bad?
 
It's at 30% and rising on Steam. Most people have no issues with using it, the majority that are still on 10 are just there because they don't tend to upgrade OS unless they upgrade their computer.

The only people that seem to have issues with it are angry nerds that are just determined to hate on anything new.

Or people who like being able to open windows quickly. No never combine taskbar is absolutely shit. And yes, I have Win 11 and Win 10. Unlike most other changes this is not something that can be learned. Combined task bar is absolute shit for productivity. Makes minimizing/maximizing a window take far too long. And 3rd party solutions are trash and break with updates. See Classic Shell for Win 8.
 
Or people who like being able to open windows quickly. No never combine taskbar is absolutely shit. And yes, I have Win 11 and Win 10. Unlike most other changes this is not something that can be learned. Combined task bar is absolute shit for productivity. Makes minimizing/maximizing a window take far too long. And 3rd party solutions are trash and break with updates. See Classic Shell for Win 8.
It's already annoying me that the windows aren't listed in order of opening in Windows 10, but grouped together by application.
 
It actually sounds horrible. Instead of OS level integration we need stand alone preferably open source AI.
I was referring to e.g. .NET framework - type standard. (In my developer brain, I've been using .NET so long I consider it part of Windows.)
 
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