Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware - Day by Day

It’s been a while since the official release of Windows 11, and it’s time to get to know it better.

Although I’ve been using Windows 11 for some time now on a virtual machine on macOS, it’s not the same, because I don’t work with it every day.

To see how everything works, I decided to update my “unsupported” computer at work, according to Microsoft, to see if it’s safe to migrate others to the new system.

Remember, before you decide to update to Windows 11 - don’t rush! Microsoft’s official support for Windows 10 will end on October 14, 2025, so you have plenty of time. Windows 10 is currently one of the better versions of the system, after the no longer supported Windows 7.

The entire installation according to my description Upgrading Windows 10 to Windows 11 without TPM 2.0 on unsupported hardware went through without the slightest problem and all applications worked from the first start-up.

The system, despite Microsoft’s warnings, is fairly stable (only twice during the first day did I get some unreadable system application error).

What I did notice, however, is why Microsoft is focusing on newer hardware.

If you plan to install the system on a computer with a platter drive, not a fast SSD, I strongly advise against it. Everything will run really slowly and of course you will blame Windows 11.

On my work computer with Intel i5-3 generation (i5-3230M, laptop) I had two SSD drives. One with the system installed and the other, which I put in the slot instead of the DVD drive.

This first drive had been with me for some time. According to HD Tune its average speed was around 120MB/sec, while the second, added later, boasted an average speed of 250MB/sec (nothing groundbreaking, but better than platter drives). Both drives are SATA2 technology.

And here’s where the problem arose.

Having a slower drive, even though it’s an SSD, was noticeable. Hence Microsoft’s requirements.

Assuming that drives in computers with at least 8th generation Intel are already in NAND NVMe PCIe technology, their speed oscillates around 500MB/sec to 2500MB/sec.

An important note here.

Let’s not assume that our SSD drive is “fast”. Before we start the installation, let’s run HD Tune and check its speed for more than 5 minutes.

There are various drives available on the market that promise high speeds, but only during a dozen or so seconds of writing, after which their speed drops drastically. These drives are not equipped with dedicated memory supporting transfer speeds. The worst thing about this is that when shopping we are not able to check which drive is which. Of course, those that promise mountains are usually cheaper than those whose real performance is long-term, but it is difficult to choose well. Therefore, I encourage you to look through benchmarks on the Internet before you decide to buy an SSD drive. Even drives based on NAND NVMe PCIe technology can disappoint (see those from Silicon Power).

Since I had an alternative, I downloaded CloneZilla, cloned my disk and swapped them. I won’t say that the system got a boost, but it immediately started working a bit more smoothly.

During the first few days I worked as before on Windows 10.

Some elements in the system were moved or cleverly hidden under an additional menu.

However, here came a certain disappointment.

Interface

Since Windows 11 is based on Windows 10 and has been in development for a long time, why are there so many interface bugs?

Someone who sets a high bar for the appearance of the system may say, “what the hell is this”.

Just right-click on the desktop to bring up the context menu, which looks “nice”. Then we go to additional options (Show more options) and we are greeted by an unfinished menu, the highlighting of which does not fit into the overall order of the system.

Interestingly, when you click the New button to, for example, create a folder, the additional menu is consistent with the rest, so why do the others look like they’re from a completely different system?

We don’t have to click far. Just right-click on the trash can to see another inconsistency with the overall appearance of the system.

Interestingly, the menu looks completely different when you right-click on a file or folder.

Oh well, maybe they’ll fix that… someday.

Custom Font Size

Since on my computer with an external screen I have the system at 100% magnification and only the font at 125% (Full HD 23.5" screen), I noticed some shortcomings, where the text is cut off or invisible (especially on the lock screen). Something I haven’t experienced in Windows 10 (Boo…).

Slow File Explorer

The File Explorer itself is noticeably sluggish.

I understand the high requirements for the system itself, but that they are needed just to display pretty icons in the window? Seriously?

Clicking on any item, file or folder, we are greeted by a spinning circle, as if something additional is being done in the background, while nothing else is displayed.

Often the window also freezes and has to be killed by force-closing. Overkill.

This is especially annoying if you want to enter a folder by double-clicking. The first click and the spinning circle appearing causes the second quick click to be ignored, so we have to double-click again. In the case where the double-click works immediately, we have a visible delay when switching between the contents of the window. Because of this small bug, moving between folders is very annoying.

No wonder there is no shortage of references to the phrase: windows 11 file explorer slow in Google.

Supposedly, this type of error was observed even before the official version of the system was released, which is why Microsoft’s ignorance is surprising. It turns out that it will be like with Windows 10, where everything was perfected only after the second or third major update. Someone in the marketing department was clearly in a hurry and didn’t care about the errors that came with it, blaming (of course) unsupported hardware (because the more efficient the hardware, the less of these duds visible).

ps. apparently this bug is related to the fact that OneDrive is active (whether personal or corporate) and closing it restores smooth functionality. For those users who use OneDrive on a daily basis, this is not an acceptable solution.

Some users have found a way to revert the File Explorer behavior to that of Windows 10 by making changes to the system registry as follows:

1. Press START+R
2. Type "regedit" and confirm with Enter (Click YES to run)
3. Go to:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked

(we may need to create a new key/folder (Key) named Blocked if it does not exist)

4. In the folder (key) Blocked we create a new string (String Value)
5. Name it "{e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7}"
6. Restart the computer

Or by downloading file_explorer_old_behaviour.reg and running it (after unpacking) to add the above entry to the registry.

Well, e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7 is responsible for the new menu in explorer.

Here’s what it looks like before and after the above change

After restarting the computer, this change made working with files a bit more efficient.

Overall, I like the icons in the system. The whole thing looks more friendly to the eye, one could say clearer. The rounded windows add charm.

Pinned items to the Start menu

Here I got a bit pissed off.

It’s known that Windows 11 introduced a new menu (which I moved to its correct place in the settings by default - on the left!), but it retained the same functionality as pinned applications. Unfortunately, these pinned applications in Windows 10 are not transferred to Windows 11, so we have to set it up from scratch.

Task Manager

As you know, we can call up the task manager in two ways. With the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Delete or (in Windows 10) right-clicking in the middle of the taskbar and selecting it from the rich menu.

Well, this rich menu has been removed. I don’t understand why at all.

Fortunately, the menu available by right-clicking on the Start menu has remained.

Task Manager can now be found in this menu, as well as the Run option and a few other useful ones. It’s just a matter of getting used to their new location.

Microsoft likes to hide useful things. Just like in Windows 10, where with the next update it hid the shortcut to the control panel, leaving us only the option to launch it using the Run… option (Start+R > control).

Recommendations in the Start Menu

The inability to remove the recommendations section from the new start menu is nonsense. While we can disable recently opened files and applications, as well as recommendations, the unnecessary space remains.

Context menu (right click)

As I mentioned at the beginning, Windows 11 is inconsistent when it comes to the interface. Some menus look different than others.

Referring to the slow file browser issue, when working with files in the cloud, people who use the right-click menu will notice that the new menu does not provide the advanced options they need. They usually have to reach for the last option in the list in the menu to see the additional options, the full ones, known from the behavior in Windows 10.

As I noticed, when working with files in the OneDrive cloud, bringing up this first menu is very slow — even annoying.

If I could restore the look of the file browser known from Windows 10, why not get rid of the new right-click menu, leaving only the ones known so far from the previous version of the system?

Well, you can.

To do this, we will again use a change in the system registry.

1. Press START+R
2. Type "regedit" and confirm with Enter (Click YES to run)
3. Go to:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID

4. In the CLSID folder (key) create a new folder string (Key)
5. Name it "{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}"
6. Inside the key create a folder (Key) named "InprocServer32"
7. In the right part double click on the string "(Default)". In the newly opened window click OK. This will change the default value from "not set" to empty.
8. Restart the computer (optional)

We can also use this file_explorer_right_click.reg (after unpacking) to add the above value to the registry.

After closing the system registry, you may or may not need to restart your computer, and the behavior when right-clicking on any file should return to what you experienced in Windows 10.

In order to apply the changes system-wide (the desktop context menu may still be “new”), I recommend restarting your computer.

Thanks to this, we not only got the full menu back, but also working with files became much faster, although still cumbersome, especially when working with files in the OneDrive/SharePoint cloud.

Currently, when working on files in the cloud, I experience a spinning wheel several times before I can do anything with the file. Very annoying behavior. So annoying that until a solution is found, I am forced to use an alternative file browser such as fman.

Supposedly, this issue is fixed in the Insider build (22478). Right now, my build is 21H2 (22000.258) and I do not intend to switch to the Insider channel on a production machine, so I have to be patient and wait for an update.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft, with Windows 11, started integrating Teams with Windows. It’s not bad, as long as it’s done correctly.

Unfortunately, Teams, which is installed by default in the system, cannot be used in a corporate environment (Microsoft 365), because you have to download a separate application for that.

It’s a bit stupid, because the default, available application is useless. So what’s the point of installing it?

Read more: Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware - Day by Day, Part 2