Windows 11 Finally Feels Amazing Preview Build 86200.8737 Plus Some Windows History for You Younger Folks.

So, I just updated to this build today, on my gaming and dev installation of 11. Wow!! MS got it right. File Explorer feels like the file explorer of old, in terms of performance. The whole system feels snappier.

Awhile back, I disabled the cautious update settings in the Chris Titus Winutil and reverted to the default settings. It was after I saw news of MS finally listening to the customers about the flaws affecting their workflows in 11. Well, I can tell you that at least in my case, this build hits it out of the park.

I had an epiphany about Windows in general a while back, I wanted to run by the older veterans here. I'm a millennial and began using Windows regularly with Windows 98 in the late '90s. Before this, my family was a Mac family. I'm disabled, and my Mom fought for accessible tech for me. She succeeded in getting me a business class Compaq Armada E500, as a fifth grader. It had ZoomText. For the sighted folks here, think of ZoomText like the Photoshop of accessibility software for visually impaired folks.

It was definitely somewhat of an adventure getting used to 98, coming from MacOS 8 on a Performa. But, I quickly adapted. The laptop could run games as long as they didn't use 3D rendering. So my brother and I, put StarCraft on the machine. Anyway, I'm getting lost in nostalgic memories. This is all to say, at the tender age of 9, I got to experience switching platforms and OSes. With my brother convincing our parents to drop some serious cash on a custom gaming rig, my families transition from Macs to PCs would be complete.
I would go on to use Windows 2000, thanks to my Uncle who was the CTO for his company. Than XP, 7, and now 11.

So, to get back on track. the epiphany which came to me, was this. I don't believe Windows was ever truly designed to used in the consumer home market. Think about it, the 9x releases, were finicky, and were based on DOS, which correct me if I'm wrong, was meant to be used in the corporate work-a-day world. You'd have your IT department standing by ready to fix things if a employees machine went belly up. Contrast this, with Apple, who targeted the creative and home computer user with the Mac. Macs were specifically met to be reliable workhorses for creatives and home users. I like to say, Macs run great, until something catastrophic happens, and then, oh boy, you'd better hope your have backups. I've witnessed this multiple times as a young person.

So, what does all this have to do with 11? Well ever since merging home users into the NT line with XP? MS has had to retrofit their workstation OS for the home market. This couldn't have been easy for the developers, hence the rocky days of early XP. I didn't start using XP until after SP2 came out, so I was spared the horrific security mess of XP SP1. I have to say younger folks complaining about 11, are probably not old enough to remember the dark says of 98, and rocky start of XP. I like to joke, that if you look at a 95 and 98 machine the wrong way it'll crash just to spite you. Compare to this to 11. Yes, you have/had the privacy/AI mess, but your OS was way more reliable in general.

Now, with this new preview build, MS is finally ironing out performance kinks. At least that's my experience.

Thoughts?