Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users

Strangely no eighth tip to use something else

Microsoft has published seven tips for getting the most out of Windows 11, and the pitches for the operating system – which has failed to win hearts and minds of users – are not very compelling.

The first is "Make the Start Menu your own," and it is strong advice considering the Start Menu is one of the most complained-about aspects of Windows 11. A former Windows boss, Mikhail Parakhin, pledged to "make Start Menu great again" at the beginning of 2024 in response before jumping ship to Shopify later that year.

Microsoft has tweaked the Start Menu throughout the life of Windows 11, and last week, it insisted that it was "clean, centered, and super easy to personalize." Unless, of course, you wanted it to look and function like what was in Windows 10.

Tip two is using Snap layouts for multitasking or, more likely, wondering why that window has decided to align itself there without prompting. Perhaps an alternative, such as FancyZones in PowerToys, might be a better bet?

Tip three: a desktop for every project – a feature that smacks of Microsoft playing catch-up to the multiple desktop environments available elsewhere.

Tip four is staying up to date with widgets. Widgets are helpful for personalized news, weather updates, and calendar reminders. They are also among the first features to be disabled after installing Windows 11. Microsoft has foisted this functionality onto consumers since the days of Vista (and even farther back for users who remember the Windows 98 Active Desktop), and we're not sure their presence counts as a "tip."

Then there are Focus sessions, designed to help users stay on task, logging in with Windows Hello (if you have the proper hardware), and finally, the inevitable Dark Mode, which Microsoft never made work properly in Windows 10 and is now in Windows 11 (as it is in many other desktop operating systems).

Windows 11 is still trailing Windows 10 in market share, although it is now gaining ground on its predecessor. This is convenient because there are only a few months left before Microsoft discontinues free support for most versions of Windows 10.

The carrot of Microsoft's seven tips is unlikely to persuade the remaining Windows 10 holdouts that it is worth buying a new device to run Windows 11 or install it if they have compatible hardware. The stick representing the end of support will have considerably more success. ®