The time had come to throw caution to the wind and upgrade to Windows 11. After all, it seemed they had ironed out a lot of the problems that kept me from upgrading in the first place. So... with a fiery-eyed determination, I tempted fate and upgraded. 

One of the older i7 workstations that is... not the newer i9 I use daily. I don’t mind going out on a limb to some degree but I’m not stupid enough to go out on that limb with my main PC when Microsoft is the only one in my corner. 

And... I am glad to at least have been this cautious as the situation has not been entirely pleasant and I’ve considered rolling it back to Windows 10 more than once. Since this is a backup computer, I might keep Windows 11 because there are some things to like about it but nothing that stands out as a necessity regarding daily use.  

The upgrade itself was easy enough. I finally forced myself to go into Windows Update and pull the trigger. Then I left the computer to thrash and grind while I went about my business with my main pc. This was as uneventful as expected. It did take a while but not any longer than expected and the upgrade appears to have been successful. 

The upgrade itself was so successful that it made it wonder why Microsoft seems hell-bent on forcing changes on longtime users that have only added another layer of clicks to get to the same result as Windows 10. It doesn’t matter to me how many new bells and whistles a Windows upgrade may have if it hurts productivity by placing obstacles in your workflow like an extra menu click between you and your hallowed right-click menu choices that provide no benefit to a desktop user like myself.  

In fact, it adds extra clicks which is anything but a boon to productivity. I do wonder, collectively, how much all the lost time in these types of upgrades add up to? A significant sum I would bet. I would also bet that Microsoft is affected by the same loss of productivity. 

I know this isn’t true, but it really seems like there is a special group at Microsoft, we’ll call them Cy-Ops, whose sole responsibility is to come up with ways to irritate users and increase expenses with lost productivity.  

In reality, do desktop and laptop users care about Windows on tablets when it degrades their performance for them? It makes no sense to add an extra menu click or more when it worked before some genius decided it was better to forcibly retrain the rote memory of hundreds of thousands of users. 

And I haven’t even got to the taskbar yet, something I use heavily as all my regular use icons are located there instead of the Start menu or scattered across the desktop. This is one of the main reasons I waited this long to upgrade and apart from the fact that for some users, the centered taskbar is nothing more than an Apple OS wannabe. Happily, there is no problem now for my workflow except that everything is centered, and I keep wanting to go to the far left for the Start menu as we all have for years now. 

It is hard to see Microsoft become a follower of any type as they should be leading the charge in innovation. They have the talent to do fantastic things. Their employees and engineers are some of the finest in the computer world but then.... so is their Cy-Ops team that shoots them in the foot with gleeful vigor. 

I mean, it’s almost like you can hear Microsoft loading their gun to shoot the other foot as the first one is too full of holes to be considered a target anymore.  

In the final result, I guess I’ll keep the upgrade unless I find more additional clicks to an already established and efficient workflow being punked by Windows 11. But then, efficiency has never been a thing at Microsoft. It is a shame too as the overall look of Windows 11 is nice but that again is the problem. The “look” of Windows 11 is simply not enough at this time for me to move other systems, particularly my main pc to the fluff-filled operating system. 

Oh well... there is always Windows 12 right? Surely it won’t be plagued by the same problems, right? Yes, I’m laughing out loud as I write this because we all know the Cy-Ops team is gearing up to do their thing and irritate as many longtime users as possible. 

M.D. McCallum, aka WarLord, is an international award-winning commercial graphics artist, 3D animator, published author, project director, and webmaster with a freelance career that spans over 20 years.  Now retired, M.D. is currently working part-time on writing and select character development projects. You can learn more about MD on his website.