COVER FEATURE
WINDOWS 11 The 18 Things It Does Much Better Than Windows 10
With support for Windows 10 ending soon, it’s time you became a Windows 11 expert. Daniel Booth reveals the best new features you must use
If you listened carefully during March you might just have heard the sighs of relief coming across the Atlantic from Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters. Windows 11’s global market share jumped from 38.13 to 42.69 per cent (www.snipca.com/54454),while Windows 10 fell from 58.7 to 54.2 per cent.
It was one of Windows 11’s best ever months. At that rate it’ll overtake Windows 10 by May. It’s already more popular in some countries, including the UK (www.snipca.com/54455).
There will still be hundreds of millions of computers running Windows 10 when Microsoft axes support in October. That’ll prove to be a major headache for the company. But there’s significant momentum behind Windows 11 now, and it’s well deserved. Despite an underwhelming launch in 2021 and several flawed updates since, it has grown into a brilliant operating system.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Turn on advanced settings to squeeze maximum speed out of your computer
• Master all of File Explorer’s new tools, including tabs and unzipping new formats
• Add captions to any video playing live, whether from your PC or online
• Listen to more human-sounding voices in Narrator
• Record specific areas of your screen using Snipping Tool
• Use new AI tools to erase unwanted images in the Paint app
• Set the ‘Volume mixer’ to play app audio
In this feature we’ve picked the 18 most impressive things it does better than Windows 10. We’ve focused on tasks you can actually do, rather than system improvements under the bonnet (you can take it as a given that it’s faster, smoother and more secure). These are features you’ll use often, not background processes you’ll barely notice.
We’ve left out Copilot tips. While its new tools show promise (see page 8), we’re still not convinced it’s anything more than a glorified Clippy. And too many Copilot features require an expensive Copilot+ computer see (www.snipca.com/54467).
You don’t need one of those to use the many excellent new features in Snipping Tool, File Explorer, Narrator and more – but you will benefit from having the 24H2 update, which isn’t the buggy mess it was a few months ago (see page 57).
Follow our advice and you’ll soon be mastering every aspect of Windows 11.
MAKE YOUR PC RUN FASTER
1
Turn on Best Performance in power settings
If you need to squeeze extra speed out of your Windows 10 computer, you can turn on High Performance in Control Panel’s Power Options. This provides a small boost, but holds back a bit of power to save energy.
Windows 11’s Best Performance mode is more aggressive, prioritising speed over power efficiency. This pushes your processor and graphics closer to the max, making games load faster and photo or video edits finish sooner – sometimes cutting seconds off certain tasks.
It’s been part of Windows 11 since launch, but the 22H2 update (released September 2022) made it more effective when working with newer processors and graphics cards.
To turn it on, open Settings (press Windows key+I), then click System followed by ‘Power & battery’. Now click the Power Mode dropdown menu and change Recommended ( 1 in our screenshot below) to ‘Best Performance’ 2 . You can do this for either or both of the ‘Plugged in’ and ‘On battery’ options.
The former is for when your computer is plugged in and you want maximum speed (there’s no downside to this because power consumption isn’t a concern when plugged in). The latter is when your computer isn’t plugged in, so needs to be used more carefully because it drains your battery much faster.
Running your computer at full pelt has trade-offs. Your laptop will use more electricity when plugged in, nudging up your bill slightly if used a lot. If not plugged in, it’ll drain the battery faster. Your computer will also give off more heat, and become noisier as the fans kick in to keep it cool. But it’s an essential mode for short tasks when speed is the priority, such as exporting 4K video or working on huge spreadsheets.