Attempting to swap the Windows desktop.
Attempting to swap the Windows desktop.
By power user, I mean mimicking Linux experience with Windows. You see the PowerShell prompt, the TCP/IP connections, system monitoring—sounds like you're tweaking things. It could be a matter of customization, not a full overhaul. If you're tech-savvy enough to understand all this, you might appreciate how better performance can be achieved despite hardware limits.
The Dunning–Kruger effect describes how people with limited skills in a field tend to overestimate their abilities.
I’m not claiming mastery; I’m just a student learning what I have. I have some tech knowledge but feel frustrated by the current state of my OS. Recently, I optimized it and it runs much faster—enabling things like Android emulation and VM testing that were previously impossible.
That’s why I call myself what I am: someone who overestimates their skills. If you or @manikyath think I’m just quirky, you’re wrong. Many others share this approach, pushing Windows to its limits while still trying to improve it.
I understand that it's a waste of time, but the Windows 10/11 settings app is really frustrating. I often click on the interface and nothing happens—no response, no progress until maybe a few seconds pass. Then something finally updates, but you can't be sure anything actually changed. The update settings are so unreliable, and this is something I encounter regularly across many client PCs.
i was as surprised as you are.. but as it turns out there's this weird niche slice of low end systems that are too potato to really "snap" with linux, but arent potato enough to not run windows at all.. also, i didnt say linux doesnt run good.. it runs pretty well on most of the garbage i toss it onto.. it's just that linux has it's own set of unique problems, a general lack of GPU acceleration in the UI is probably what necks before mentioned netbook. on anything, let's say 2nd gen i5 or better, you have plenty of CPU horses to do UI with minimal reliance on hardware.. but this concept struggles compared to a strong GPU-accelerated base on platforms that dont have those CPU horses but generally still at least have enough GPU capabilities to accelerate a 2D UI. it's two different ideologies each with their own advantages and disadvantages. generally the same reason why this weird subcategory of RAM-intensive netbooks run so well, is why windows is so poopy in a VM / trough remote desktop: this hardware acceleration is nonexistant, meaning all of this strong base now runs trough essentially software emulation. also.. for all win7 was good at.. it is and will always be the peak of windows unoptimization. i have a 1st gen i3 with a radeon HD5770, and it reliably reaches higher benchmark scores on win11 than it does on win7, even with aero disabled. 2007 netbook. passmark score smaller than the part number of the CPU.. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu...APU&id=250 let's go trough them to drive the point home.. i've only ever ran win11 on my side-machines, so luckily for you i have a pretty strong case that my opinions are not based on fast computers... - before mentioned potato netbook. - intel pentium silver J5005 (and J5040, but they're essentially the same thing.. i cant keep track of which board is in which machine, because they're actually interchangeable.) - before mentioned i3 540 with a radeon HD5770. - an intel J1900.. which is essentially before mentioned potato in silicon form. (sidenote, this only ran win10, but i thought i'd include it, because it's the linux machine i use most) all of these have ran both windows 11 and linux at some point.. each with their own issues - the potato netbook is just a slugfest on linux, the CPU cannot follow the workload of software rendering.. luckily it doesnt need to do that on windows. it's not "fast", but it's very usable. - the J5005 is a strange creature.. its actually a powerful CPU, just very artificially limited by intel. i've used this as my windows 11 experimentation box becaue it's the only CPU i own that's "officially supported" by windows 11... and linux is very good at showing it's great shortcoming: it has no turbo performance what so ever. it just does not clock up for short peak loads.. like software rendering a UI piece. - the i3 540.. actually ran great on linux, it's just that at the time audio drivers were my biggest reason to stop using it. the system sat decommissioned with win7 on it until i started to mess with win11.. and found it ran shockingly well.. as it turns out the market for absolute garbage tier laptops at worst buy is good news for people running actual E-waste for media PC's. - the J1900.. is both absolute garbage tier, and actual E-waste.. it's currently on linux because some hardware issue is making it unable to run windows. i initially went with windows for some super niche garbage reason.. and i can tell the transition to linux has not been great... although it's difficult to gauge how much of that is to do with linux itself, and how much of that is to do with the underlying hardware issue. one day this box is gonna get replaced by the J5005/J5040, or perhaps even an N100... but as long as it only locks up about once per week i cant really be bothered. but until then i'll just deal with my webbrowser taking a good minute to load. windows did well hiding the complete lack of performance.. linux doesnt. as a sidenote here, for a while i ran an AMD athlon 64 as a home server with just 2GB RAM.. so i did some serious effort making linux run as slim as it can.. and there's some really cool stuff that can be done. i saved some 50-ish MB of ram by not rendering the taskbar at all, and just having a taskbar edited onto the wallpaper. (yes.. having a wallpaper was less memory than having a taskbar.) you assume i use edge. funny man. -- having all of this said.. the one big achilles heel of windows 10/11, is slow storage. and i'm not talking needing some top level SSD here.. just "an SSD at all" makes a MUCH bigger difference on the windows side than on the linux side. and nothing hurts windows' snappyness more than a ratty 5400rpm laptop drive. but while linux's snappyness isnt as affected by this, you'll still have as much of a bad time loading stuff that's not cached in memory off spinning rust. but to bring this back to a conclusion that's on topic.. replacing the UI side of windows doesnt fix this problem, so if you're on spinning rust, all this effort is gonna do for you is make things worse.
Acceleration issues could stem from drivers and other factors, but for me everything functions properly. I use Wayland, which is expected to offer better GPU support, though Xorg still works well. Windows may provide more GPU acceleration, but it comes with significant CPU overhead. Tasks like scrolling through a list in Explorer, using the task manager, or resizing programs aren't smooth at 60 frames per second. Lowering CPU usage makes the performance even worse, indicating a need for higher clock speeds. Synthetic tests might be less impacted if the program runs with high priority. For everyday use, I don’t see much reason to dwell further. I still doubt Windows 11 will perform well on this hardware compared to Linux. If you agree, I’ll go along with it.
Here are some practical details about that CPU: it’s a 2011 model with an 18-watt dual-core processor and integrated graphics. It was designed for budget netbooks, capable enough for basic use. The latest games it can handle are pretty limited—mostly older titles like Age of Empires 2. It can barely run 720p YouTube, but it struggles even more with modern platforms like Windows 10 or Windows 11. When it tries to open apps, it often freezes or crashes, a problem shared by Linux too. While real-world performance isn’t exactly what you’d expect, the gap between this unit and the fastest supported Windows chip is quite large, suggesting it wasn’t built for modern demands. I’ve never seen Explorer slow down at 60 frames per second, but there’s definitely some lag on the Xorg side because it doesn’t use GPU acceleration. When it does work, it’s still a bit rough—sluggish and unresponsive. Over the past twenty years, it’s held up, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. I’m not sure about Wayland yet, but I hope it finally improves rendering performance. On the Linux side, I really wish Wayland could deliver a smooth desktop experience, since all the extra layers on top of Xorg have only made things worse. Microsoft’s approach of merging OS and cloud services feels misguided for a desktop OS. Most of what people complain about comes from those who only see the issues and pile more problems on top.
The guidelines aren't necessary but can be ignored temporarily. They're accurate. Windows tends to perform better on older systems mainly because of backward compatibility and driver support, which Microsoft handles more effectively. This is why I've never grasped the reasoning behind recommending Linux for outdated hardware—it breaks support much quicker than Windows does.
The statement about Windows 11 performing best on a 2007 netbook seems out of place with what I know about computers. If I take it at face value, my mind won’t function properly. You might not have interpreted it correctly. On that old device (or any slow machine), open a folder in Explorer large enough to scroll through (such as system32 or WinSxS). Just move the mouse up and down using the scroll bar. For me, it doesn’t run smoothly at 60 frames per second like browsing a website while typing. Another example: when you open Task Manager in a small window and drag the bottom up and down, it still feels sluggish. If you keep saying there’s no issue, my thoughts will stop making sense. Honestly, I’m not facing much of a problem. We’re having a confusing discussion.
I found a statement that matches what you mentioned earlier. Now I’m comparing the outcome on Linux with what you experienced. But just to keep things interesting, I picked up one of those old SSDs from the shelf to test it out. The worn-out drive with only 5% capacity left seems to be facing a major slowdown, which looks like the worst possible situation. With Windows updates running and Task Manager using about 10% of the CPU (yes, the processor is that sluggish), things aren’t smoothing over as they should. I noticed system32 felt much more unstable than the Windows folder—because system32 holds executables without cached icons, while the Windows directory doesn’t. But honestly, dismissing a standard benchmark to describe hardware speed isn’t really fair. Using “scrolling through system32” as a real example is admittedly the weakest link in this discussion. To be honest, I attempted the same test on the J1900, but it didn’t have the same set of icon-based apps, and Process Monitor crashed today. So I can’t even track CPU usage accurately. What stood out was that I was navigating system32 faster than opening a file browser in Linux. The Linux setup uses a better SSD, a faster CPU, and double the RAM. Maybe this reinforces what I said about the issue—your problem isn’t solved by the fix you’re seeking. You could simply set Windows to ignore executable icons, which would make system32 scrolling feel snappier compared to the file browser in Linux. But all of that is built into the operating system, and changing core components isn’t necessary for this fix. Not to mention, Windows 11 on this netbook isn’t a great experience, but it’s still better than running Linux. (And it’s surprising how it worked out of the box.)
I meant that aside from all your efforts, Windows 11 performed well on this system. Not because it's the absolute top performer, but since expectations are high, even a modest 10% CPU usage during an update is impressive. Share your CPU model if you want. For me, managing only about 10% CPU while updating is quite efficient. If your machine has at least two cores, it likely means the updates were mainly downloading and not heavily CPU-demanding. The cache wasn't a factor in my test. Once you're in the folder and scroll a few times, everything loads quickly and gets cached. I won’t dwell on the Explorer issue because it’s a bit tricky to explain. For me, the navigation feels like it’s loading in sections, possibly due to small mouse movements causing noticeable gaps between updates. In Nautilus (Ubuntu's default file manager), I also noticed some delay, though less than Explorer. With Nautilus, smaller chunks or added smoothing help. My web browser behaves similarly—chunk-based updates—but at normal speeds it blends smoothly. If you want a smoother experience, try opening Task Manager in a minimal window and adjusting the view. On my 8350U (3GHz), this causes noticeable lag. Using the older Task Manager works better. On Linux systems, animations run consistently at around 60 frames per second.
do you read my posts at all? AMD fusion E-450, it's the one where you discounted the validity of canned benchmarks. and it's been downloading and installing 4 updates for the past 4 hours. in case you misunderstood.. just task manager being open is a good 10% load, the rest of the poor little cpu is trying to make updates happen. yes.. waiting for everything in system32 to load into cache.. have you actually ever done this on a slow device? it sucks even on a powerful system. yes.. you got that right, that is exactly how explorer.exe is designed to work. before mentioned E-450.. literally smooth as butter while still churning trough that last windows update. maybe this really is a you problem.