Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users
- Reference: 1744187951
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/09/microsoft_windows_11_tips/
- Source link:
The first is "Make the Start Menu your own," and it is strong advice considering the Start Menu is one of the most complained-about aspects of Windows 11. A former Windows boss, Mikhail Parakhin, [1]pledged to "make Start Menu great again" at the beginning of 2024 in response before [2]jumping ship to Shopify later that year.
Microsoft has tweaked the Start Menu throughout the life of Windows 11, and last week, it [3]insisted that it was "clean, centered, and super easy to personalize." Unless, of course, you wanted it to look and function like what was in Windows 10.
[4]
Tip two is using Snap layouts for multitasking or, more likely, wondering why that window has decided to align itself there without prompting. Perhaps an alternative, such as FancyZones in PowerToys, might be a better bet?
[5]
[6]
Tip three: a desktop for every project – a feature that smacks of Microsoft playing catch-up to the multiple desktop environments available elsewhere.
[7]Legal clock ticking for Microsoft over alleged software license abuses
[8]No joke: Microsoft foolishly published inaccurate price list on April 1st
[9]Introducing Windows on arm. And by arm, we mean wrist
[10]Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to
Tip four is staying up to date with widgets. Widgets are helpful for personalized news, weather updates, and calendar reminders. They are also among the first features to be disabled after installing Windows 11. Microsoft has foisted this functionality onto consumers since the days of Vista (and even farther back for users who remember the Windows 98 Active Desktop), and we're not sure their presence counts as a "tip."
Then there are Focus sessions, designed to help users stay on task, logging in with Windows Hello (if you have the proper hardware), and finally, the inevitable Dark Mode, which Microsoft never made work properly in Windows 10 and is now in Windows 11 (as it is in many other desktop operating systems).
Windows 11 is still trailing Windows 10 in market share, although it is now [11]gaining ground on its predecessor. This is convenient because there are only a few months left before Microsoft discontinues free support for most versions of Windows 10.
[12]
The carrot of Microsoft's seven tips is unlikely to persuade the remaining Windows 10 holdouts that it is worth buying a new device to run Windows 11 or install it if they have compatible hardware. The stick representing the end of support will have considerably more success. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/03/windows_11_start_great_again/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/29/mikhail_parakhin_shopify_cto/
[3] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/learning-center/seven-tips-to-get-the-most-out-of-windows-11
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_ZFRS3w13fGpm55lPiK3AAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_ZFRS3w13fGpm55lPiK3AAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_ZFRS3w13fGpm55lPiK3AAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/legal_clock_ticking_for_microsoft/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/microsoft_april_1_pricing_mistake/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/05/windows_smartwatch_hack/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/windows_11_market_share/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/windows_11_market_share
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_ZFRS3w13fGpm55lPiK3AAAAYg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Seven habits ?
Habit 8.1: put your pants back on the right way, but without taking them off!
Re: Seven habits ?
Habit 10: This time put your pants on where they're usually put on instead of over your head.
Re: Seven habits ?
Habit 11: Remove the pants and wander around without them, yet claim you're still wearing them.
My 2 cents...
"Make the Start Menu your own," - I've tried, but i ended up using good ol' taskbar icons and search (recently i've been using powertoys launch instead, way better than search with it's horrific indexing!)
"Tip two is using Snap layouts for multitasking or, more likely, wondering why that window has decided to align itself there without prompting. Perhaps an alternative, such as FancyZones in PowerToys, might be a better bet?" - nothing to add here. i drag to the side for side-by-side windows all the time and if i do this slightly too far away from the center it goes to a quad-window setup...
a desktop for every project - solid advice honestly. I don't use it enough to really know how well it works in win11, alt-tab-fu is stuck in my muscle memory.
staying up to date with widgets - "staying up to date with widget removal methods" - FTFY
Focus sessions - you mean, silence all notifications so i miss everything? how about giving us proper and easy to use control over what notifications we receive instead? Simply having apps request permissions instead of allowing notifications by default would be a godsent...
logging in with Windows Hello - yes, because you've made it a PITA to not use windows hello (although i do like it)
Dark Mode That's just personal preference... i use it but i don't see how it's "making the most of windows 11". It's basically on-par with "change your background and color theme!".
Re: My 2 cents...
I make the Start Menu actually my own by using [1]Open Shell .
[1] https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/
Non-start menu
How can one make it their own if the start menu shows up when it feels like it?
On my friend's computer it doesn't show at all even.
My hot tip
Here we go again: MS advising users to change their way of working to accommodate a new UI. Perhaps the best tip would be for Redmond to stabilise on ONE look and feel for their desktop rather that mess about with it on each major release. That way, users would develop muscle memory and spend more time working with applications - you know, the things they actually want to interact with.
I know, I'm a radical.
Re: My hot tip
Too late for that. M$ is only interested in chasing the shiny shiny in the same manner as a springer spaniel chasing a tennis ball.
"Personalized news"?
Thanks, I open my news sources websites and read them there. And I choose what to read and what not, not a stupid algoritm trained on "Idiocracy" citizens mostly showing useless and gossipy news as click baits, Nor I'm obsessed about the weather - unless an hurricane is about to strike, but then I'll see it in the news...
The Start Menu doesn't need to be like a phone home screen. Windows 11 is even able to make Windows 8 look good, at least tiles could show some useful informations, although showing it full screen was an idiocy.
How to get the best out of Windows, abridged edition...
Turn off every piece of shit bolted on since NT.
Virtual Desktops would be nice but don't even work with Microsoft Office.
Example: open one Excel File 1 in Desktop 1, switch to Desktop 2, use the file explorer to open Excel File 2... guess where it opens?
Seven habits ?
Habit number eight would probably be putting their pants on backwards ?