What's Different in Windows 11?

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Understand the differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Quick reference

What's Different in Windows 11?

Explore what's new in Windows 11 and how it differs from its predecessor, Windows 10. 

When to use

It's always beneficial to be aware of the differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11 prior to downloading the new software so we can hit the ground running. 

Instructions

Windows 10 users should find the transition to Windows 11 to be fairly smooth. There are no drastic changes to the functionality which are going to throw us completely off and stop us from working, but there are many smaller changes to the look and feel, the way some utilities work and of course, we have some brand new features too. 

What's Different in Windows 11

The Task Bar

The task bar has a different look and feel. In Windows 11, the start button and the application shortcuts are now in the middle of the taskbar. 

The Start Menu

One of the bigger changes is the new Start Menu. In Windows 10, Microsoft created a hybrid start menu that combined the application tiles from Windows 8 and a menu system. This was never particularly popular and as expected, this has been changed in Windows 11. 

Now, we have a slick, modern, easy-to-use start menu where we can access all of our applications, pin our favorites and see recommended items. It has a much more organized feel and isn't as overwhelming. 

The button to shutdown, sleep, restart, or sign out of our computer also lives here. 

Settings

Settings also has a new look and feel. In the Settings menu in Windows 10, we were presented with a window of icons. In Windows 11, we have additional settings arranged in a more logical way making it easier to find what we are looking for. 

All settings are now organized into categories on the left and each category has a set of sub-categories. 

Quick Settings

In Windows 11, Microsoft is making it easier for us to interact with the settings we use most frequently. We now have access to a Quick Settings panel in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Simply click in the taskbar where we have the volume icon or wireless icon to open up the panel. 

From Quick Settings we can quickly adjust our screen brightness, system volume, toggle WiFi off or on, connect to Bluetooth and so much more. 

Integrated Teams Chat

Microsoft Teams has emerged from the shadows over the last couple of years as the go-to tool for collaboration with your team and contacts. In Windows 11, we now have integration with Microsoft Teams. 

Take a look at the Windows 11 task bar. We should see the Teams application icon. Whilst not as feature-rich as the full desktop version of Teams, we can use the inbuilt Windows application to chat and start audio and video meetings with our contacts. 

Widgets

Widgets in previous versions of Windows were a chaotic affair. Clocks, notes, and weather graphics were distributed haphazardly all over our screen.

In Windows 11, Microsoft has refined this down into a discreet slide-out panel that can be customized to show the information that is important to us. 

File Explorer

File Explorer is the beating heart of our filing system. It helps us locate and open any file we have stored on our PC, in the cloud, or on network drives. We are pleased to report that Microsoft has not changed a great deal in File Explorer (if it's not broken, why fix it). Most of the changes are purely cosmetic. 

For example, a number of commands have been moved from the right-click menu to the new File Explorer ribbon. The general appearance of File Explorer is also a bit different with a slick, modern feel and new color-coded icons for our most popular folders. 

Applications

The general design changes in Windows 11, flow through to the applications. When we open any application in Windows 11, the window now has modern, curved corners and less of a boxy feel. Many individual applications also now have dark and light mode settings. In Windows 10, we weren't able to customize this on an individual application level. 

We also have new snapping options to help us arrange multiple windows on the screen. Previously in Windows 10 we could drag windows to the left, right, top, or bottom to arrange. In Windows 11, simply holding down the mouse on the maximize icon on any window will display a gallery of snapping options.

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  • 00:00 Prior to using Windows 11, it's always a good idea to
  • 00:04 dive into the system and have a quick look around so
  • 00:08 you can see how it differs from its predecessor, Windows 10.
  • 00:14 And if you're a Windows 10 user,
  • 00:16 I'd say that upgrading to Windows 11 is not going to be a drastic change for you.
  • 00:20 Whilst there have been many changes, particularly to the look and feel of
  • 00:25 Windows 11, a lot of the functionality is pretty much in the same place.
  • 00:30 So I don't think you're going to find the transition too difficult.
  • 00:35 With all that said, let's spend this lesson just taking a look at some of
  • 00:39 the differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11.
  • 00:43 So if we take a look at the screen now,
  • 00:45 this is what your standard Windows 11 desktop is going to look like.
  • 00:49 Obviously, you might have a different desktop wallpaper than I have here.
  • 00:53 This is one of the new HD backgrounds that I think look pretty good.
  • 00:57 Now, the first thing you're going to notice is that
  • 01:00 there is a bit of a different look and feel to the taskbar.
  • 01:03 So if we cast our eyes down to the bottom of the screen,
  • 01:06 you can see that we now have a centered taskbar.
  • 01:09 For Windows 10 users, this will be slightly different because previously all
  • 01:14 of our taskbar icons were over on the left-hand side.
  • 01:17 So nothing too drastic there, just a slightly different change with the layout.
  • 01:21 Now, I will say that if you prefer your icons to be on the left-hand side,
  • 01:24 we do have a setting we can customize, which I'll show you a bit later,
  • 01:28 in order to move those back so it looks a little bit more like Windows 10.
  • 01:31 But I actually really like this in the center.
  • 01:35 What you'll also see with these icons are these are the standard applications that
  • 01:39 come installed with Windows 11.
  • 01:41 Now, obviously, I have two additional applications showing on my taskbar,
  • 01:45 that is just the software I use to record these videos.
  • 01:48 But the rest of the icons are pretty much default out of the box Windows 11
  • 01:52 applications.
  • 01:53 And of course,
  • 01:54 we're going to be exploring all of those throughout the balance of this course.
  • 01:57 Now, one of the biggest changes occurs in the Start menu.
  • 02:01 So if we click on the Windows logo, or if we press the Windows key on our keyboard,
  • 02:06 that's going to pop open the Start menu.
  • 02:08 And this has a completely different look and feel to Windows 10.
  • 02:12 Windows 10 was always a little bit strange because Microsoft tried to make it
  • 02:17 more of a hybrid system.
  • 02:18 So they took some elements from Windows 8, namely that tile structure, and
  • 02:23 they also combined it with a menu system.
  • 02:26 And what we ended up with was a rather confused Start menu that just so
  • 02:30 many people didn't like.
  • 02:32 So in Windows 11, not surprisingly, they've refined this and
  • 02:36 made this a lot cleaner and simpler to use.
  • 02:38 You can see at the top we have a Pinned section, so
  • 02:40 we can pin applications that we use frequently to this area.
  • 02:44 We have a search bar at the top, really useful if you're looking for
  • 02:47 a particular application on your PC.
  • 02:49 And then we have some recommended items underneath, so
  • 02:52 these are usually things that you've accessed recently.
  • 02:55 If you want to see a big, long list of all of the applications in Windows 11,
  • 02:59 we have an All app button at the top.
  • 03:01 And you can see our applications are organized alphabetically,
  • 03:04 making it super easy for us to find things.
  • 03:06 If we click on Back, it's going to take us back to that main Start menu.
  • 03:09 And you'll also notice this is where we have our Power options.
  • 03:13 So in the bottom right-hand corner, we have a Power button.
  • 03:16 If I click this, that's where we find Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down and Restart.
  • 03:21 We also have access to our account details just here so
  • 03:24 we can do things like change our account settings and
  • 03:27 switch between any other accounts we might have on this system.
  • 03:30 And you can see I have a few.
  • 03:31 The next thing that looks slightly different in Windows 11 is
  • 03:34 the Settings area.
  • 03:35 So once we're in the Start menu, you can see I have Settings in the middle here.
  • 03:39 I'm just going to click this to open it up so you can see the new look and feel.
  • 03:42 So instead of having all of the icons for our settings in the middle of the screen,
  • 03:47 which was quite hard to navigate,
  • 03:49 we now have a simple menu running down the left-hand side.
  • 03:52 We have a search bar just above so we can search for something in particular.
  • 03:56 And each time we click on one of these items in that left-hand menu,
  • 04:00 it opens up a page in the main window,
  • 04:02 where we can then drill into exactly what it is that we're looking for.
  • 04:07 If we need to go back, we have our breadcrumb trail at the top, so
  • 04:10 we can click back on Network & Internet to go back to that main page.
  • 04:14 So Settings has a much cleaner interface.
  • 04:17 Another thing that's different in Windows 11 is that we now have
  • 04:21 a Quick Settings panel.
  • 04:23 So this is where we can go to simply modify some of our most common settings.
  • 04:28 Now, you'll find Quick Settings in the bottom right-hand corner,
  • 04:32 where I have the volume icon, speakers and power.
  • 04:35 If I click on this, this is where we find Quick Settings.
  • 04:39 So this is where we can come to quickly do things like toggle our Wi-Fi off and
  • 04:44 on, turn on Bluetooth, put our PC into flight mode, or
  • 04:47 modify the brightness and the volume on our PC.
  • 04:50 And this Quick Settings panel is customizable, and
  • 04:52 we're going to take a look at that a bit later on.
  • 04:55 Another thing in Windows 11 that's really awesome that we just didn't have in
  • 04:59 Windows 10 is that we now have full integration with Microsoft Teams.
  • 05:03 Microsoft Teams is one of those applications that's really come into
  • 05:07 its own over the last couple of years.
  • 05:09 With so many people working from home during the pandemic, people have been
  • 05:13 relying on applications like Teams to keep in touch with their colleagues and
  • 05:17 coworkers.
  • 05:18 With this in mind, Microsoft integrated Teams into Windows 11.
  • 05:21 If we take a look down at the taskbar, you can see we have a chat icon just here.
  • 05:27 And this is basically Microsoft Teams.
  • 05:30 If we click this, we're going to be able to do things like chat with our contacts
  • 05:34 and even start audio and video meetings in Teams.
  • 05:37 Now, I haven't used Teams on this PC as yet, so it's asking me to log in.
  • 05:42 And we'll go through that whole process when we get to that section of the course.
  • 05:46 Another thing that's different in Windows 11 is widgets.
  • 05:50 In Windows 10, widgets were a little bit unorganized and chaotic.
  • 05:54 If you recall, we could add things like floating clock to the desktop,
  • 05:58 sticky notes, weather, things like that.
  • 06:00 And we can drag them around and move them all over the place.
  • 06:03 But it did give our desktop a rather chaotic look.
  • 06:06 So now widgets are much more discreet.
  • 06:08 In fact,
  • 06:09 it's quite hard to tell just by looking at my desktop where my widgets actually are.
  • 06:13 Well, over here in the bottom left-hand corner,
  • 06:16 where it's currently showing me the weather, if I hover my mouse over that,
  • 06:20 it's going to pop open my widgets pane.
  • 06:23 And of course, as with everything in Microsoft, this can be completely
  • 06:27 customized so that you see the information that's relevant to you.
  • 06:30 Another thing that has some changes is File Explorer,
  • 06:33 the beating heart of Windows 11.
  • 06:35 File Explorer is of course where we store all of our files and our folders.
  • 06:40 And File Explorer in Windows 11 has a bit of a different look and feel.
  • 06:44 We also have a brand new menu running across the top.
  • 06:47 So if you've been used to using the right-click menu a lot when you're working
  • 06:51 in File Explorer to do things like rename files and folders,
  • 06:54 you'll find that a lot of these commands have now been moved to this ribbon or
  • 06:58 this menu system at the top.
  • 07:00 And of course,
  • 07:00 we'll be fully exploring File Explorer when we get to that section of the course.
  • 07:05 The final thing to mention here as a difference between Windows 10 and
  • 07:09 Windows 11 are applications.
  • 07:11 So I am going to quickly open the calculator.
  • 07:13 So I'm going to go to All apps,
  • 07:15 let's double-click to open what we call a Windows native app.
  • 07:20 All application windows now have these curved corners,
  • 07:23 giving it a much more modern feel.
  • 07:26 What you'll also find is that a lot of the settings for
  • 07:28 the different applications have been completely updated as well.
  • 07:32 So we can do things like specify a specific theme on a per application basis.
  • 07:37 Previously, we could either choose light or dark mode and
  • 07:41 it would apply to all of our applications globally.
  • 07:44 Whereas now we can have some applications in light mode, some in dark.
  • 07:48 So a lot of the settings for
  • 07:49 these applications have been completely redesigned.
  • 07:53 And finally something that's worth mentioning,
  • 07:56 the additional snapping options that we have in Windows 11.
  • 07:59 So if I open something like Excel, if you recall in Windows 10, if you wanted to
  • 08:04 display multiple windows on the screen, we could pick the window up,
  • 08:08 drag it all the way over to the left or the right-hand side.
  • 08:12 And when we let go, it's going to snap it into the middle.
  • 08:15 Now, those options still work in Windows 11, but
  • 08:18 we do have some additional snapping options.
  • 08:20 When we hover our mouse over the Maximize button in any window, notice we get some
  • 08:25 grid layouts where we can choose exactly where we want to snap our applications.
  • 08:30 And once again, more on that a bit later on.
  • 08:33 So those are some of the main differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11.
  • 08:38 Nothing too drastic, but definitely worth knowing.

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