On Parallels, especially when it is the only option to run Windows ARM on Mac currently, the installed copy of Windows 11 has some peculiar settings turned on by default. One such settings I found was check boxes. On Parallels-run Windows 11, though previous versions may have had it too, any icons selected would have additional check box on the upper-left corner, on top of traditional glass panel to indicate what items have been selected.

Though I’m not a specialist in UI design, I can certainly add to the fact that having lists inside supposedly sorted list negates the purpose of arranging the items. Why arrange a list into yet another list? I would understand it if File Explorer was set to display icons, but I generally keep it in list view.

If your intent with Windows is to develop or write codes, “Open in Windows Terminal” in the context menu may be a nice touch. But for the majority of the average users, including myself who only use Windows as a secondary, having an added option to already well-established UI can simply be disturbing.

Beginning with Windows 8, if I recall correctly, Microsoft has been trying to make Windows a hybrid OS for both the touchscreen devices (e.g. tablets) and computers with traditional displays (e.g. laptops and desktops). It is only a personal opinion, and quite unfounded one at that, but I don’t believe Windows 8 excelled at either; hence, why iPad is still the staple of tablets. Its legacy has survived even to this day on Windows 11.

Windows has some handholding tools that would be useful for average users, but unavoidably redundant. One such tool is the post-installation wizard Windows keeps raising attention to with the prompt “Let’s Finish Setting Up Your Device”. Of many things the wizard offers, one of them is to login via Microsoft account. However, as I have said previously, not all features are always needed, and I need a solution to make sure the popup or the prompt wouldn’t disturb me in the future.

Coming from macOS environment, one of the immediate changes I want to make to File Explorer on Windows would be the items available on the sidebar, or navigation pane. I don’t store photos on a Windows machine; in fact, I have them stored on a NAS, which is running a flavor of Linux. Gallery on File Explorer doesn’t help, especially when it can scramble pictures from different project folders.

If your go-to machine is running Windows, chances are there are some bundled-in features and softwares that aren’t either used or ideal for your work flow. For me, especially as I am running Windows primarily on virtual machines, is web search on taskbar. If I were to search something on the taskbar or file explorer, I want the scope of the results to be confined to what is available locally; if I were to search online, I would have used Google or DuckDuckGo, not Bing.

After the upgrade from Windows 10, one of the immediate problems I had was hidden NVMe drives. I have some SSDs hooked up via PCIe cards that are formatted in NTFS. What I realized after the upgrade is that all of the drives are still functional; everything is in tact, just that they are marked hidden.