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So good to hear that. I was actually hesitating to update to new release afraid to ruin the current safe setup (21996.1 = out of the box). Will give it a try now.
Kind of suspicious of the Intel driver.
Windows 11: Same or Worse?
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The new build is installed. It's difficult to judge whether it is better than the previous one without side-by-side comparison. But I'm absolutely comfortable with the new one.
I hate to be negative, but don't get too attached to Win 11 as a possibility just yet. It's going to require a new computer for most people at release. MS set the floor at requiring TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot on, etc. This means a lot of computers no longer qualify for 11 even though they are not "old". So officially, 8th gen Coffee Lake and up. 10 will be supported to 2025.
It is true you can get past the TPM, etc. thing by switching the install file from this and a Windows 10 iso, but this is MS we're talking about here. How long is that really going to last if they want to enforce the purchase of new hardware?
Well, this is the most viable possibility we've had for years now.
I understand your concern. However, TPM is easily skipped now and if you truly want this new OS in the future as a safe option for eyes, you will undoubtedly get it from, I dare say, mostly safe places. As far as hardware is concerned, Win11 is much better optimized. My 8th gen system works much better than it did under Win10. From what I've read on tech forums, some guys have installed it on 2012-2013 macs, and it works.
Sunspark I hate to be negative, but don't get too attached to Win 11 as a possibility just yet. It's going to require a new computer for most people at release. MS set the floor at requiring TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot on, etc. This means a lot of computers no longer qualify for 11 even though they are not "old". So officially, 8th gen Coffee Lake and up. 10 will be supported to 2025.
It is true you can get past the TPM, etc. thing by switching the install file from this and a Windows 10 iso, but this is MS we're talking about here. How long is that really going to last if they want to enforce the purchase of new hardware?
I'm not leaving Windows 7 until I have to, I will be running it for many many years to come. I'm not worried about installing Windows 11 at home. What Windows 11 does is open the possibility of work PC's that are more tolerable for us.
6 days later
How's it going 6 days later? Still worth the upgrade to Win11 preview?
It's not hard to try it if you have a partition available and do a custom install. It would just become a second or third boot option. I might give it a shot later this week for the heck of it.
It does require a WDDM 2.0 and up graphics driver, so that means a lot of older GPUs are out.
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I would recommend installing it on a Virtual machine. VM's are the greatest thing since sliced bread. VirtualBox is free software, the ISO is freely downloadable, so there's no cost to try it.
I've been doing testing with .65 and so far it is noticeably better than Windows 10
It does require a WDDM 2.0 and up graphics driver, so that means a lot of older GPUs are out.
I have a positively ANCIENT video card (and a similarly ancient motherboard without TPM or SecureBoot) and 11 installs and runs fine in a VM. You don't need to invest in any new hardware to try it out.
For best performance and for testing you need to install it on the metal.. installing it into a VM just uses the VM's driver which in turn is running inside another driver, perhaps on W7. To really know how it might be, you need to install it on a partition.
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Very well, I would say. I'm on .65 and not going to update for a while because it is the safest build in years.
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Eventually, yes you are correct, but if it's bad on a VM, it's almost certainly going to be bad on bare metal. If it's good on a VM, thats an encouraging start and then the next step would be a bare metal test. But not everyone has a spare PC laying around or the know how/desire to start partitioning things.
Sunspark VM just uses the VM's driver which in turn is running inside another driver, perhaps on W7
If I run Windows 10 in a VM on my known good Win7 host, I get migraines. A host being good does not neccesarily mean the guest will be artificially good either.
And not for nothing, but if someone found that a Win7 host running a Windows 11 VM worked for them, they could just do that forever. If I ever get to the point where my hardware dies and I can't get Windows 7 to run on the hardware of the day, my plan is to install Linux on my PC, install VirtualBox, and run a Virtual Win 7 instance as my primary PC.
Runing Win11 in a VM also bypasses the TPM/SecureBoot nonsense and makes it an option for anyone who doesn't have supported hardware and isn't comfortable doing a wim swap or DISM install
11 days later
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So I tried Windows 11 (the latest build as of writing, .100). I thought since it's technically Windows 10 21H2, which I tried the preview build before and wasn't impressed, that this would basically be the same but with the Windows 11 branding.
But I was wrong. They actually completely changed the rendering compared to earlier versions of 21H2, presumably when they plopped in the new UI.
Not yet saying if it's better or worse. That will take quite a bit of testing on different setups. But since I feel that the rendering is very different, it will have to be better or worse. I don't think it will be the same, whatever the outcome.
I would also recommend to spend a good amount of time just browsing the Windows interface during your testing. The browsers are adding extra layers of dithering / strain which confuse the issue.
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Windows 11 is not agreeing with me. Familiar feeling of tension around my eyes which I know will progress to nasty muscle pain and headache if I persist through it. An odd feeling like what I’m looking at is not entirely flat, and as if I were looking at the text from a slightly diagonal angle. Hard to describe. Eyes readjusting frequently and effortfully to maintain focus.
For me it’s not the solution.
Now and again MS comes and fiddles around the edges with the rendering, but the core is fundamentally broken since 1607. At this point, with HDR, complex display driver models (always with more being added), and the desire to have ever more eye popping and higher bit colour, and visual effects. I don’t see how they backpedal on that. I am getting really pessimistic on the software angle of eyestrain.
The highly processed and flickery image is a feature, not a bug. Why would they fix it? it’s not broken, not even secretly, to them. I think what happened is I was wrong about the rendering. It didn’t change that much. What happened is that there is finally a UI which can take advantage of all the groundwork 1607 lay years ago, and so being designed for that technology it is less jarringly bad, especially as the new fonts they are using are more robust and stand up to their rendering better, but under the hood I think it’s pretty similar. Using it on a larger, modest PPI screen as compared to my small high PPI laptop really highlights that some of the same visual artifacts which have been present since 1607; like flickery squirmy text (especially where it is more thin) which defies focus, is STILL present all these years later.
Windows 10 2015 LTSB is (barely) passable for me, but to see how far things have changed for the negative, you have to go back to Windows XP. Now that is real stillness and flatness in an image and true relaxation for the eyes and brain. It blows Windows 7 out of the water for comfort, even though many of us would call that a safe OS. For sure XP isn’t the answer (unless you keep it offline), but the progression over time is illustrative.
I am using W11 and W10 21H1 on my desktop PC without major problems. I have only some eye strain (burn and a little bit of tension) but right now I have this problem with everything!
So something changed in my body probably.. With this PC i was literally killed with the 2004!
degen Windows 10 2015 LTSB is (barely) passable for me, but to see how far things have changed for the negative, you have to go back to Windows XP. Now that is real stillness and flatness in an image and true relaxation for the eyes and brain. It blows Windows 7 out of the water for comfort, even though many of us would call that a safe OS. For sure XP isn’t the answer (unless you keep it offline), but the progression over time is illustrative.
It is quite a big change, as you say. Fundamentally my computer use hasn't really changed in these last 20 years. I was performing the same tasks with a PC then as I am now, although everything now is bigger and more shiny. My PC back then was a multimedia machine (It had a DVD drive!) and gaming (Voodoo 3 
).
Are you running XP on the same machine as W11? No doubt there have been changes in the software rendering but also in the GPU output as well. Did you have a problem with Win 7 even when it was originally released?
2 months later
I tried Windows 11 for some weeks, and although it seemd stable, I had no issues with that, I could not use it because of the headaches, like sharp ones and hard to focus on the screen. Reverted to Windows 8.1 and the system became tolerable. The system is a 10th gen i7 with a Geforce 1070 connected to a Sony TV. Don't know about Win10, I have not tried it on this system.
The setting in Nvidia Control Panel are the same in both OS'es.
5 months later
In my workplace they switched the majority of the laptops to Win 11.
Definitely something has changed. When i connect my laptop to the same trusted CCFL Asus monitor at home, i get a bit dizzy. Its not like i cant use it, it just feels the display is not so clear as with Win 10 (up to the latest update).
At work i connect to Samsung 2240 and Acer a223w and i get the same feeling. They are usable, just more tiring than with Win10.
I cant go back to Win10 as this is not allowed. Perhaps it is due to these old ccfl displays not being very compliant with Win11.
If you made any changes to make Win 10 more accommodating, they may have reset in Win 11? I know I changed the clear text so that it doesn't look blurry. I am not in Win 11 yet since my 3 year old i7 processor isn't supported somehow…
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Hello everyone,
I am running the following for 2 days now:
Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 21H2
OS build 22000.556
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.556.0
I am either getting used to the monitor I just bought (Gigabyte M32Q) or this is working way better than Win10.
My experience is that it's a lot better on the eyes and I am even running the monitor at 50 Brightness!
Try it out if you're eligible for an update through Windows Update.
Still some very minor strain and veeery slight tension in the forehead but nothing like before.
Mind you this is after ~10 hours in front of the screen.