Windows 11 announced! Here are the best 3 features

[XDARoni]

Today we finally got to take a look at the official Windows 11 event, after months of leaks and rumors. During the live event, we got to see many different new Windows 11 features. If you didn't get to watch the event live, you can watch the entire thing here. Many different changes are coming related to gaming, productivity, communication, and more. I took three of the best new announcements and summarized them below.

New Start Menu​

Windows has a redesigned start Menu, which brings everything to the center of the bottom of your display. things look different once you open the start menu, with a grid of app icons below the search bar, and recommended files on the lower half. This is looking a lot more like an app drawer that you'd find on a phone or tablet. This new design has much more of a tablet feel to it, which will translate nicely to people with Microsoft Surface tablets.

You'll notice the new glassy look is applied throughout the system. It's not a radical change from Windows 10, but it does offer a cleaner and simpler look to the start menu.

Snap Layouts​

Back when Windows 7 launched, Microsoft integrated Windows Snap. This is the feature that lets you drag a window to the edge of your display, and have it snap in place. It has been a favorite feature ever since, and it's now going to be a lot better. Windows 11 is expanding on this feature in several ways. With Snap Layouts, you will be able to see several options on how you want your window to snap. The screenshot below shows how you can divide your screen in six different ways.

One of the biggest problems with snap, on Windows 10 and earlier- is if you get distracted and have to pull up a new screen, and start a new task, your snap setup kind of gets ruined. Now this will not be the case. You can pull up a new window, send an email, then resume whatever layout you were working with.

This ability to remember the layout of your windows also applies to external monitors. If you are using a monitor to hold a specific snap layout, you can unplug that monitor and Windows will still remember the layout when you plug it back in.

Android Apps​

One of the most exciting bits of news from the live stream is, Windows 11 will be able to run Android apps. This means that you can now watch TikTok, use Snapchat, or play your favorite mobile games right on your Windows PC. This could end up getting rid of the need for emulators from this point on. This is a huge step in bridging the gap between Android and Windows developers. It also means that you can have fewer devices. If you have a Windows tablet, you might find that you're able to skip on having an Android Tablet or iPad.

Users will be able to download Android apps right from the Microsoft Store, using their Microsoft account. Instead of accessing the Google Play store, Microsoft is integrating the Amazon appstore into the Microsoft Store. I'm sure people will find ways to sideload apks into this system, but we will have to wait and see.

 

[svetius]

It's really nice. I'll just say this: if Microsoft brought back Windows Phone with Windows 11 design, it would be the nicest mobile operating system by far.

 

[Austinredstoner]

Today we finally got to take a look at the official Windows 11 event, after months of leaks and rumors. During the live event, we got to see many different new Windows 11 features. If you didn't get to watch the event live, you can watch the entire thing here. Many different changes are coming related to gaming, productivity, communication, and more. I took three of the best new announcements and summarized them below.

New Start Menu​

Windows has a redesigned start Menu, which brings everything to the center of the bottom of your display. things look different once you open the start menu, with a grid of app icons below the search bar, and recommended files on the lower half. This is looking a lot more like an app drawer that you'd find on a phone or tablet. This new design has much more of a tablet feel to it, which will translate nicely to people with Microsoft Surface tablets.
View attachment 5346951
You'll notice the new glassy look is applied throughout the system. It's not a radical change from Windows 10, but it does offer a cleaner and simpler look to the start menu.

Snap Layouts​

Back when Windows 7 launched, Microsoft integrated Windows Snap. This is the feature that lets you drag a window to the edge of your display, and have it snap in place. It has been a favorite feature ever since, and it's now going to be a lot better. Windows 11 is expanding on this feature in several ways. With Snap Layouts, you will be able to see several options on how you want your window to snap. The screenshot below shows how you can divide your screen in six different ways.
View attachment 5346963
One of the biggest problems with snap, on Windows 10 and earlier- is if you get distracted and have to pull up a new screen, and start a new task, your snap setup kind of gets ruined. Now this will not be the case. You can pull up a new window, send an email, then resume whatever layout you were working with.

This ability to remember the layout of your windows also applies to external monitors. If you are using a monitor to hold a specific snap layout, you can unplug that monitor and Windows will still remember the layout when you plug it back in.

Android Apps​

One of the most exciting bits of news from the live stream is, Windows 11 will be able to run Android apps. This means that you can now watch TikTok, use Snapchat, or play your favorite mobile games right on your Windows PC. This could end up getting rid of the need for emulators from this point on. This is a huge step in bridging the gap between Android and Windows developers. It also means that you can have fewer devices. If you have a Windows tablet, you might find that you're able to skip on having an Android Tablet or iPad.
View attachment 5346961
Users will be able to download Android apps right from the Microsoft Store, using their Microsoft account. Instead of accessing the Google Play store, Microsoft is integrating the Amazon appstore into the Microsoft Store. I'm sure people will find ways to sideload apks into this system, but we will have to wait and see.

Very nice the android emulator in windows would look amazing
Their one problem for the android emulator that would be like pre-installed on windows can u enable root for that android emulator it would definitely look a lot better if u can run rooted apps on that android emulator but it's still amazing even without root it will just look better with root because I can use apps like ad away uninstall pre-installed apps and turn apps into pre-installed apps

 

[Austinredstoner]

It's really nice. I'll just say this: if Microsoft brought back Windows Phone with Windows 11 design, it would be the nicest mobile operating system by far.

Very true but I don't think windows phone will ever come back because android and iOS both killed of windows phone for reason reason for that is because ever since android and iOS came out windows phone just decreased a lot and became a lot less popular over years which is probably why they killed it off back in 2017

 

[blackhawk]

Meh... how much ram does it use?
A fully loaded XPx64 (less antivirus) used a mere 576mb.
MS has been a solid fail since W7

 

[orb3000]

Cant wait to try it!!

 

[41rw4lk]

I would have been happier if MS announced that they brought back W7.

"We heard you, you all love W7, so we added support for modern hardware and software, then we left it the hell alone. No more deciding should I use Settings or Control Panel? Why is the MS Word ribbon in explorer? How much garbage can they squeeze in the start menu? We heard you and we call it 7.11 it's got everything you need. Minus the stupid windows snaps blazing across your monitors, seriously who needs that?"

 

[therichwoods]

Very nice the android emulator in windows would look amazing
Their one problem for the android emulator that would be like pre-installed on windows can u enable root for that android emulator it would definitely look a lot better if u can run rooted apps on that android emulator but it's still amazing even without root it will just look better with root because I can use apps like ad away uninstall pre-installed apps and turn apps into pre-installed apps

We'll find out all of that when Microsoft releases a preview with Android app support. It's just guessing now.

I think the bigger question is if Android apps will actually be valuable. I don't know that anyone was finding Windows lacking in any meaningful way.

 

[svetius]

We'll find out all of that when Microsoft releases a preview with Android app support. It's just guessing now.

I think the bigger question is if Android apps will actually be valuable. I don't know that anyone was finding Windows lacking in any meaningful way.

Well, we've seen this before on Chrome OS of course. I think most people would say even though they can run Android apps on Chrome, they seldom do since most people always have their phone on them, plus usually the chrome/web equivalents to apps are better, plus you have a mouse and kb. I like the optionality though!!

 

[Austinredstoner]

Well, we've seen this before on Chrome OS of course. I think most people would say even though they can run Android apps on Chrome, they seldom do since most people always have their phone on them, plus usually the chrome/web equivalents to apps are better, plus you have a mouse and kb. I like the optionality though!!

We know that the android apps on windows 11 will be running on Amazon app store so their probably only gonna be apps and games that's on Amazon app store could still give us purpose to use a android emulator on windows 11 if this is true since some games may not be on Amazon app store on windows 11

 

[therichwoods]

Well, we've seen this before on Chrome OS of course. I think most people would say even though they can run Android apps on Chrome, they seldom do since most people always have their phone on them, plus usually the chrome/web equivalents to apps are better, plus you have a mouse and kb. I like the optionality though!!

Fair point. Personally, I'm looking forward to having a decent tablet-optimized Kindle app, and now that I'm thinking about it, Comixology.

I do think that Chrome OS is a different beast though. There's no existing app ecosystem on Chrome OS. For example, there are standalone apps that I want, like Slack, Photoshop, Skype, OneNote, etc. I can do most of this through web apps, but I don't necessarily want to. But Windows has these apps for me.