Going from Mac OS 14.1 & back to Win 11 after recent job change has been entertaining. I've never believed in loyalty to an OS, I realize that every variation of computer has advantages & disadvantages, some are basic and some are more significant.
My most recent Win 11 annoyance has been something that's easy on MacOS:
How to set multiple backdrops (wallpaper) on different displays while using virtual desktops.
- First off, you can't. But there's a simple workaround, which is to temporarily close all virtual desktops. Now, you can! That's the trick.
- If you have virtual desktops open & go to Settings -> Personalization -> Background, then select Picture. When you see a list of pics, if you right click the pic, you can assign it to a virtual desktop (and that desktop runs across all displays on Win 11).
- After you close virtual desktops & go Settings -> Personalization -> Background, then select Picture. When you see a list of pics, if you right click the pic, you can assign it to a Monitor. This is what we want! Once you've assigned pics, then re-create the virtual desktops you'd like and the background pic comes along.
My other big revelation about Win 11 and Virtual Desktops are these toggles:
Personalization -> Taskbar -> Taskbar behaviors
- Disable "Automatically hide the taskbar"
- Set "When using multiple displays, show my taskbar apps on" set to "Taskbar where window is open".
- enable "Share any window from my taskbar" and disable "select the far corner of the taskbar to show the desktop".
- Set "Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels" to "When taskbar is full"
- Set Combine taskbar buttons and hide labes on other tasbkars to "When taskbar is full".
The biggest negatives going to Win 11 were:
- Computer requires more frequent reboots
- Keyboard shortcuts are different
- Virtual Desktops on multiple displays is not as seamless as with Mac. (However, on Lenovo P1, it's not that different after tweaking some settings.)
Biggest positives of Win 11
- Work uses Teams & Edge, they both work better on Win 11. (Altho strangely, let's all admit that browser based Teams & Outlook on both Mac & PC work just fine, and in some cases better than the apps.)
- Win 11 has many design similarities to Mac OS now.
- Seems to run a bit lighter, so more available RAM/CPU.
- Can run most programs.
