After years of saying that Windows 10 was going to be “the last version of Windows,” the company has finally shown Windows 11. This story isn’t really about Windows 11, but if you haven’t seen it yet here’s a video for you.
Last thing I’ll say about Windows 11
I have to believe they are calling it Windows 11 because there’s a big change to how it looks. All right, there are some medium changes and a lot of small changes. The last time Windows had a big change, that was Windows 8 and that didn’t go so well. The less said of that the better. But, after 7 years, Microsoft figured it was time to shake things up again. Every so often they forget that people don’t terribly care about what Windows looks like and they just want to get on about their days.
So let’s talk about Windows 10
Windows 10 is one of the more successful Windows releases. Thanks to a strategy of ending security updates, Microsoft has finally killed the (I am not kidding) 25-year-old Windows 95 that was probably the last universally loved version of Windows. No other version has been quite so popular.
Windows 10 was released in 2015 and was immediately popular for two reasons. First of all, it was free if you already had a computer. This was only the second OS Microsoft gave away so that made it a good choice for people. More importantly, it restored a sense of normalcy to people’s lives. Microsoft’s dangerous swing-and-a-miss with Windows 8 was incredibly unpopular. People just plain hated it. Windows 10 brought back some familiarity to the experience. It also just “got out of the way” when people wanted to work.
I tend to think that Windows 10 will be one of the more celebrated versions of Windows for that reason. Microsoft can claim that their Surface tablets are as fun and as popular as phones, but they aren’t. There are two groups of people who use Windows: people who need to get stuff done and people who want to get serious about gaming. Both groups have one thing in common. They just want the OS to work without a lot of flashiness.
I do agree that the look of Windows is a little dated. A lot of the design language harks back to the Windows Phone redesign in 2010. I mean, this looks awfully familiar, right?
But overall I don’t care. I just want Windows to disappear when I’m working so I don’t have to deal with it. I have a feeling most folks agree.
Little known fun and games
But hey, this is Fun Friday, right? And if you’ve run out of things to do that really matter, you might want to check out some silly little things that you can do with Windows 10. No guarantee that these things will work with Windows 11, so you may as well try them out now. Thanks to YouTuber CHM Tech for this video, which gives you 10 things to do with Windows 10 that offer no productivity at all. Perfect for a day like today, know what I mean?
