The primary Settings menu has been nicely polished up and improves on the gobs of wasted white space in Windows 10 to display more important information without the need for diving into advanced menus. Sometimes the screen still blinks black a couple times before its animation kicks in.) In Windows 11, the desktop on your primary monitor zooms out for a couple seconds to signify a display change is happening, and then it pops right back into place as the second monitor comes online. If you use two monitors and turn your second one on while Windows 10 is running, the OS spends a few seconds basically having a seizure before figuring out what to display where. The window snap feature now lets you hover over the maximize button to choose from different ratios and arrangements, like a 70/30 split, which I find really handy. There are other little things I really like here. But I definitely find Windows 11's soundscape much more pleasant.

Here's a comparison: the notification sound in Windows 10 vs. It's as if for years computer sound effects have been designed with pure functional utility in mind, and then one day someone said 'Remember when we had Brian Eno compose the Windows 95 startup jingle, and it sounded nice? What if we tried to make things sound nice again?' Windows 11 has new sound effects, too, and I think they're way more pleasant in general.

Smooth is a good word for a lot of Windows 11-it reflects almost everything I enjoy about it, like the new, far less jarring notification pop-ups. Regardless, I think Microsoft has done a better job than with Windows 10 making themes feel cohesive, and the switch from light mode to dark mode is really smooth. Pretty soon I'll get used to the new aesthetic and then it'll just be business as usual, or I'll apply a different color scheme.

The taskbar and rounded edges and colors evoke the same airy lightness as that classic Windows XP wallpaper I feel a little like I'm floating on clouds as I pop open the Start menu and the file explorer, which is a nice feeling. Microsoft has done a better job than with Windows 10 making themes feel cohesive

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