Windows 11 workarounds

Windows 11 hasn’t even been released yet, and people are already looking for ways to work around some of the changes Microsoft has decided we really need.

First up, it’s the venerable Start menu, which for some reason Microsoft has decided to move from its traditional place at the bottom left of the display, to the bottom center. Perhaps because that’s the way macOS does it?

I have no problem with Microsoft making changes like these, as long as there’s a way to revert those changes. In this case, there’s no obvious way to do that, but helpful folks have found a workaround.

Next, it’s the incredibly annoying prompts, taskbar icons, alerts, and other associated distractions generated by Microsoft Teams. That software isn’t included with Windows 11, but Microsoft has packed the new O/S with what amounts to advertising for Teams. Again, helpful folks have figured out how to get rid of this crap.

Meanwhile, Mozilla has discovered how to get past the hurdles Microsoft erected to prevent Firefox from making itself the default web browser automatically. You’ve no doubt seen what is normally required to change the default browser on Windows 10 (which now affects Windows 11 as well): you’re forced to make the change manually.

Forcing the user to intervene in changing the default browser (and other applications) was added to Windows as a security measure, because otherwise malicious software could more easily take over affected applications. But Microsoft’s applications don’t seem to be affected by this restriction, making the whole thing seem more like Microsoft giving itself an unfair advantage.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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