Windows 11

[quadraginta]

That's not what I meant. I mean that Microsoft seems to use normal cameras, which can only see pictures in 2D. Apple's system uses lidar, which creates a 3D model, which will therefore be more accurate and less fallible. And, indeed, the figures above suggest that Hello is 5 times more likely to turn up a false positive than Face ID is.

MS does not use "normal cameras" for its Windows Hello system. They have to be IR (infrared) capable cameras which conform to the specifications for the Windows Hello identification system. Not all cameras have this IR capability, and not all of the ones that do are compliant.

The IR technology is definitely 3D. In fact, the main difference between lidar and IR cameras is that lidar uses a light frequency which is slightly different (but close to) infrared.

As to the relative superiority of MS vs. Apple's approach, it is not evident to me that the fundamental basis of the variation in the statistics you mentioned is accounted for solely by the choice between lidar and infrared.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

The IR technology is definitely 3D. In fact, the main difference between lidar and IR cameras is that lidar uses a light frequency which is slightly different (but close to) infrared.

As to the relative superiority of MS vs. Apple's approach, it is not evident to me that the fundamental basis of the variation in the statistics you mentioned is accounted for solely by the choice between lidar and infrared.

Fair enough. I suppose I was still going by old reports of it being spoofed by people holding up pictures of faces.

 

[arthwollipot]

Lots of small cosmetic changes but not followed all the way through. For example windows, menus and dialogues are now rounded but if I hover my mouse over say the browser icon the thumbnail preview image is still a harsh rectangle. ETA - if you let windows snap to an edge of the screen the windows become squared off.

What's the radius of the rounding? A small-radius rounding I can handle. But if they go full squircle it could be a little hard to take.

 

[Darat]

What's the radius of the rounding? A small-radius rounding I can handle. But if they go full squircle it could be a little hard to take.

Here you go

 

[Wudang]

A few PCs back (possibly XP) I bought a copy of Stardock's Windowblinds just to put a really minimalist style on windows. I don't want anything that distracts from the information. My browser windows are always a comfortable size for my eyes to quickly track a line of text - roughly a standard paperback line of text.

 

[Leftus]

My Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB RAM, SDD, DirectX12 workhorse PC isn't compatible! That seems very strange

It probably is. W11 requires, for some reason, a TPM and secure boot. Motherboards generally have those things off as default. You may need to dig around in the bios and turn them on.

 

[quadraginta]

It probably is. W11 requires, for some reason, a TPM and secure boot. Motherboards generally have those things off as default. You may need to dig around in the bios and turn them on.

As I said upthread, I did all that with my Ryzen 2500u equipped laptop. (Ryzen 2000 and above are supposed to be compatible. But apparently not all of them are.)

TPM 2.0 enabled, check. Secure boot enabled, check.

Compatibility? No go.

The Ryzen 2500 is not on the MS list of compatible CPUs.

 

[alfaniner]

Doing regular stuff on the laptop and suddenly my browser is going all wonky. Rebooted, restarted, ran Spybot and MalWareBytes, and restarted again, only to get a message that there's a Windows update to install and it requires another restart. Experience tells me that the automatic download was what was causing the problems in the first place.

I'd had that disabled on my previous laptop but not on this one. Yet.

 

[arthwollipot]

Here you go

That's not awful. In fact I think I quite like it. It gives the window a more... organic feel.

 

[portlandatheist]

Rounded corners!

 

[alfaniner]

Rounded corners!

I wonder if that's going to make it more difficult to actually grab a corner in order to resize the window.

 

[Darat]

I wonder if that's going to make it more difficult to actually grab a corner in order to resize the window.

Nope - the active mouseover area for resizing hasn't change, it's a visual change only.

 

[mgidm86]

Well guess it's time to quit Win 7 and try Win 10 now.

 

[grmcdorman]

Well guess it's time to quit Win 7 and try Win 10 now.

FYI, Microsoft still hasn't disabled the free upgrade path from W7 to W10, they just don't advertise it. Easy to find out how to do the upgrade if you search online.

 

[gnome]

Well guess it's time to quit Win 7 and try Win 10 now.

I loved Windows 7, but I was able to tweak Windows 10 into a satisfactory state. The only thing that vexed me ultimately was trouble with many 16-bit applications not working anymore. I can emulate DOS applications, but I haven't figured out how to get Windows software from a certain era to run or emulate. Full Tilt Pinball, for example.

 

[arthwollipot]

I loved Windows 7, but I was able to tweak Windows 10 into a satisfactory state. The only thing that vexed me ultimately was trouble with many 16-bit applications not working anymore. I can emulate DOS applications, but I haven't figured out how to get Windows software from a certain era to run or emulate. Full Tilt Pinball, for example.

Check out Good Old Games (GOG.com). If it's old games you're looking for, there's plenty there that are optimised for a modern operating system. First game I installed and played on my new high-powered gaming rig was The Dig (1995). Second was Pharoah (with the Cleopatra expansion) (1999).

 

[gnome]

Indeed, my primary platform is now Good Old Games, because their launcher can detect and run other platforms and now my game shortcuts are in one place. I love playing old games through them because they have the kinks worked out better than even using DOSBox myself.

However, Full Tilt Pinball is definitely not one of them--in fact I think I found out that some Windows games from that particular era specifically cannot be emulated in Windows 10... something to do with 16-bit applications. So far I think there is a VMWare solution where you're actually running an older version of Windows (XP?) as a virtual machine can work, but I get bogged down in the setup.

 

[theprestige]

I agree that Windows start menus have sucked horribly in recent years. I couldn't stomach the 8/10 abominations.

The seemed fine to me. Not as useful for my purposes, but by that time I'd stopped relying on them anyway, in favor of pinning my favorites to the taskbar.

 

[theprestige]

I wasn't claiming any differently.

That confused me a bit. You said beta hides a multitude of sins. To me that connotes a certain viciousness and dishonesty. quadraginta makes an argument that it's essentially virtuous and honest.

 

[eerok]

The seemed fine to me. Not as useful for my purposes, but by that time I'd stopped relying on them anyway, in favor of pinning my favorites to the taskbar.

The Windows start menu is hideous and seems to serve the purposes of MS more than my own. It's full of crap I don't want. Fortunately it was a simple fix to get rid of it. I also mostly use the taskbar, but still.