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Ask HN: How do people get work done with Windows 11?
I left Windows back in the XP/Win 7 days, and have not used it at all in all those years.
I'm at a relative's house now, and the touchpad and keyboard on their fairly new Lenovo laptop simply will not work. We've confirmed they both function perfectly while in the BIOS, so it's not a hardware problem.
We've deleted and re-installed drivers so many times in Windows 11 my head is spinning. We've Restored Windows 11 and spent hours and hours on forums and tech support. Nothing we do changes anything at all. Windows refuses to make them work.
It's 2023 and I can't believe I'm spending so many hours just to make the computer work.
Do people often still do this?
- andrewfromx 3y agosame. I don't get it. When I see windows on a machine I want to install linux and just remove windows completely. And then little details about linux make me give up and just use a mac.
- orbz 3y agoThis is why I get my relatives iPads and macs. The vertical owning of the hardware and software stack means things just work without me having to troubleshoot. Yes it’s a closed ecosystem and that’s just great for people who have no technical capacity to configure their computer. Does it work 100% of the time? No, but honestly it’s been the best of all the bad options. Even better when you remote manage them with configurator.
- alex_lav 3y agoIt's funny, "How do people get work done with <insert any OS>" type arguments are real and valid for literally every OS. The bar is on the ground in terms of ease of use and consistency.
- nullindividual 3y agoAnd outside of macOS or other hardware-bound OSes, drivers are going to be an issue when the driver manufacture doesn't do their job.
- grecy 3y agoI've done literally thousands of hours of work on computers since I left Windows in the win95 days. I have never spent a single second trying to make any part of those computers work.
- alex_lav 3y agoSure, and I've spent hours and hours and hours working with various aspects of MacOS and Linux to get various commonly used pieces of technology to work. What do you think you're proving or disproving by this comment?
- grecy 3y agoHonestly, I just didn't realize people in 2023 were still spending time just to get the basic built-in functionality of a consumer computer to work. I thought that was all finished with at least a decade ago, and I'm shocked. That's all, I just didn't know.
- alex_lav 3y ago> Honestly, I just didn't realize people in 2023 were still spending time just to get the basic built-in functionality of a consumer computer to work. On every single OS, from every single vendor, both prebuilt and custom. And this will be true forever. > I thought that was all finished with at least a decade ago, and I'm shocked. This is a level of naivety that I am unused to for a person posting on a startup and tech oriented forum.
- grecy 3y ago> On every single OS, from every single vendor, both prebuilt and custom. And this will be true forever. You're spending time on MacOS to make basic computer functionality work? What? why? how? > This is a level of naivety that I am unused to for a person posting on a startup and tech oriented forum. I'm a Software Engineer with 7 years experience, but I've been out of the game for a while now. I also have not touched windows in 8 years, and only use Linux on a VPS, so the basic "computer" always works.
- beardyw 3y agoMost stuff can be done on the web these days. Do they need Windows?
- grecy 3y agoThey already spent money on a computer, that is required to run a web browser. The solution to the problem should NOT be "buy something else"
- beardyw 3y ago> How do people get work done with Windows 11? If you just want answers to your technical problems that should be your question. Better still use Stack Overflow. To me HN is a discussion forum.
- pestatije 3y agounder warranty? id give a try calling support otherwise buy them an external usb mouse and keyboard
- grecy 3y ago> buy them an external usb mouse and keyboard The fact this is a proposed solution on a $2000 machine that is less than a year old makes me feel valid!
- pestatije 3y ago> less than a year old it should have warranty then, no?
- grecy 3y agoYes, but the mouse and trackpad work perfectly in the bios - so it's clearly not a hardware problem. We've been on the phone with support for countless hours to try and make Windows see them, and we're getting nowhere.
- pestatije 3y agowell im sorry to hear that and ive never found myself in that situation...but isnt this point where you ask for a replacement/refund?
- Engineering-MD 3y agoDoesn’t really matter to be honest, it doesn’t work, it’s covered by warranty —> their problem to fix not yours.
- ailurooo 3y agoYou're best off wiping and reloading, restoring windows and reinstallling drivers won't always cover all the bases for drivers related to the touchpad and keyboard. Sorry