WINDOWS 11 PAIN IN THE *******

When I upgraded to windows 11 after being hounded by microsoft, I have been plagued with various problems since. Now, the most recent problem, win 11 will not recognize any of my external drives, including a couple of the My Passport drives. Also, whenever I plug in a thumb drive, it will not show it on the desktop. I have to go to the : This PC , in order to read a thumb drive. However, none of my ext. will even show up in the: This PC, window.
All of the Ext. drives show up ok, on a Windows 10 PC.

Perhaps an upgraded Win 11 is not as good as a real copy??. My wife has the real version & the ext. HD's as well as thumb drives, show up in her : This PC. OK but not on her desktop.

Anyway, if I cannot get Win11 to perform better than this, I may need to dump it & go back to 10 before it fades away.. Thoughts??

External drives do not usually show up on the Desktop in any version of Windows, they are always in My Computer / This PC.

How are you connecting the drives? Can we assume that you are using a USB port and cable to connect them?

In Windows 10 and 11, I always add the Control Panel and the other icons to the desktop.

https://www.minitool.com/news/how-to...o-desktop.html

Place a check mark in all 5 check boxes in step 4 of the instructions at the link above.

Once you have the Control Panel icon on the desktop, double click on that, select View By Small Icons, then click on Device Manager. Look for any errors, especially in the USB section(s).

Windows 11 may need updated drivers for some of your hardware. Post the make and model of your computer or motherboard so we can check to see if that might be the case.

Note that you only have 10 days to revert back to Windows 10, assuming that Microsoft lets you do that.

Thanks for the reply, jdc. My main PC is a Dell XPS-8930. Being that the unit does not have USB 3.0 ports in the front, I use a hub. I also use a second hub for various external HD's. I also use control panel. However, I place mine in the task bar as with most all icons. As for hard drives, thumb drives, etc not showing up on the desktop, I have never had that problem with any operating system. Why they never worked for you, I haven't foggiest idea. I collect music files, movies, TV shows, & all types of videos, etc. That's why I use multiple ext. HD's. I have been doing this for many years. Windows 11, has now made me turn a corner. It does not work well with the way I operate: editing movie, video, music files, etc. The cut & paste function leaves a lot to be desired. The only way I would revert back to Win 10, would be to remove the HD (SSD), reformat & reinstall win 10.

Another problem I have with the win 11 upgrade, is that it is always temporarily freezing the pc. The mouse & keyboard etc, wont function. The desktop shows up ok, but I have to keep jingling the mouse till the freeze is over, generally a few seconds, but quite annoying.... I am convinced that the upgrade does not equal a genuine copy...

Try connecting the external drives directly to the read USB 3 ports with just a cable to see if they are detected there. Report back the results.

I am not sure how you would get a drive icon to show directly on the desktop. Post a screen capture of what you are seeing.

Windows 11 is still beta software, and you are one of the beta testers, unfortunately. There are ways to set it up to work more like the way you want it to instead of the way Microsoft wants you to work. We would need details on the specific issues you would like fixed to make suggestions. Microsoft has changed the video editing and other functions. Software from other vendors may be a better option for that. Screen capture functionality has also changed, but can be changed back.

Freezing would be caused by some program that is running. To correct that we would need to determine which program is causing the issue. Does this happen only just after starting the computer, or at intervals after the computer has been running for a while?

jdc, my setup is in such a way that pulling ext. drives off the shelf to set up manually is a pain. They are sort of built in with the pwr supplies underneath a huge 10' desk & cabinetry once used for amateur radio equiptment. A hobby, I had for years. I have decided to dump Win 11 on this pc, & go back to win 10. My hobbies are more adaptable to 10 rather than 11 anyway. I do have win 11 on another pc of which I can stay informed on win 11's progress.

Thanks once again jdc, for all your input. At my age, I really need to stay on the path of the least resistance..........

FWIW I've made shortcuts to my removable USB drives and leave them on my desktop. They still work even if you you temp unplug then replug them in.

A new problem arises.. I removed the SSD drive that had the windows 11 upgrade. I installed another nearly new formatted SSD drive & tried to install windows 10. The tower will not boot to bios or anything. I happen to have several SSD drives & regular drives used but formatted & checked OK. The computer will not recognize any of the drives. The pc is running but no screen display whatsoever.

I thought that perhaps win 11 might have affected the bios, so I removed the cmos clock, thinking that if the bios had been changed, this would fix that. No luck. The computer will only see the drive that has win11, nothing else. I even tried a dvd with win10. No luck with that either. Now I have this feeling that win11 has done something to the tower that will prevent it from running anything but win 11. I know that this is absurd, but what else is there ??

You need to make sure that the BIOS is set to boot from USB or CD/DVD.

Possibly useful links:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/co...ccf8a8de55b3c7

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...ndows-10-8-1-8

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals...fc5&lang=en-us

https://www.dell.com/community/en/co...ccf8a8de04644e

I understand that jdc, however, the pc will not display anything, Bios, Boot order or what ever. Aside from the cpu fan running, the pc appears to be dead. It will only come alive if I hook the hd with win 11. Win 11 will not even allow me to enter the bios................

This is really the pits. This Dell XPS 8930 will now only run with Windows 11. If I don't accept this, I have a dead XPS 8930. I cannot imagine what Microsoft did to cause such a behavior. I cannot even update any of the drivers including the bios. It's ether keep Windows 11 or trash the pc altogether.

I don't think Microsoft has anything to do with the computer not booting without the Windows 11 SSD installed. They would be in trouble if they did that. There should be a way to get into the BIOS / UEFI without a drive installed, or at least with a drive with no OS installed. If the drive failed you would need to have this capability.

Do you not even get a Dell logo? What happens if you press F2 repeatedly while power on the computer, both with the drive installed and without? The F12 key should also get you to the one-time boot menu.

More links:

https://www.minitool.com/news/window...-settings.html

https://www.pureit.ca/how-to-access-...%20BIOS%20menu.

https://www.steadfastsolutions.com.a...ndows-11-bios/


Is this computer still under warranty?

As i stated before, I get nothing! no dELL logo, no F12, or ANY OTHERS. I"ve been trying to clone the working hd so as to have something to work with without losing all my files. The cloning dock ran a copy,& paste rather than a clone.
So I will make another stab at it tomorrow. Ya, I can't believe that MS could do something like this, but I have rebuilt this pc several times by removing, reformatting & installing a fresh copy of win10 with no problems at all. But somehow, Windows 11 has disturbed something & I just cant put my finger on it. Thanks for staying with me.................

Try getting into the BIOS / UEFI with the Windows 11 drive installed. If you cannot do that, you may have a hardware failure of some sort. Try the F2, F12, and other methods listed in my last set of links. Report back results.

Well, it's been a long, long period. I spent hours on a chat line with a Microsoft tech. (in south Africa). He convinced me to DL a Microsoft Media tool & reinstall Windows 10 over Windows 11. It seemed like it was going to be OK. It installed Win 10 over Win11, rebooted did some updates then went blank: the display. Now nothing, Just a blank screen. When you reboot, you can hear voices in the background giving some sort of instructions, but that's it. No display, no access to bios, NO NOTHING!! . I checked the contents of the freshly installed OS & all looks well. I am at a TOTAL loss as what I can do other than ship the PC to perhaps Dell, but then what??

OK, that is some useful information.

If, when you reboot, you can hear audio form the computer, then you know Windows is running. If you cannot see anything on the monitor, then that means that your video adapter driver, or the video adapter itself is not working properly. This might be troublesome to fix, since you cannot see what is on the display.

Does the computer have an add-in video card or is it using the video adapter on the motherboard?

If it is using the video adapter on the motherboard, you could try installing an add-in video card and switching the monitor connection to that to see if you can see the screen display.

The audio is no longer there. There is no means to ad a card of any sort. Without any means to access the Bios, I'm afraid that I now have a costly boat anchor....

When you boot the computer, does the hard drive activity light flash?

According to the specs I have seen, there should be a slot to add a video card.

The manual for the computer can be found here:

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/xps-89...uide_en-us.pdf

If you look at page 10, you will notice that it indicates the computer should be supplied with a video card from the factory. Please check to see where the monitor video cable is plugged in to the computer. If it is plugged in to the slot labeled #2 on the diagram, then it is connected to an add-in video card. If that is the case, plug the cable in to the appropriate socket in area #1 on the diagram, as new Windows installation will probably be using the video adapter on the motherboard, since no drivers for the add-in video card are likely to be installed.

If the video cable from the monitor is plugged in to the onboard video adapter socket in the group of sockets in area #1 on the diagram, then try the socket on the video card to see what happens.

Report back where the video cable from the monitor was plugged in to the computer, and any results of moving it.

You know jdc, you are very observant . I can see where I'm never too old to learn. Looking at the back of the PC, there are several HDMI ports. The monitor had been plugged into a slot on the MB. I plugged the monitor into the V card port, fired up the PC & Viola, I can now finish the Win 10 install cuz it is now displayed on the monitor. Excuse me, while I go & finish the install. I WILL report back............

Here is a link to drivers for that computer. You may want to download and save the files, and possibly update them.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en...esktop/drivers

There is also information on how to make a recovery drive for the computer, which you may want to do also.

Another good idea would be to make an image backup of the drive once you get everything set up and your application software installed. Then you would be able to restore everything to a new SSD in case of a failure.

Well jdc, I cannot thank you enough, for bailing me out of this dilemma. All seems to be going quite well now, except for email (Eudora) and Gmail. I can never seem to get them back like they were originally. Something I've dealt with many times in the past. Anyway, I'll get the drivers installed & see what I can do for making a recovery drive. An image backup would be new to me, so might need help with that.

I really can't believe I missed the boat on that extra HDMI thing. But it sort of falls in with my other situations. I have to do all of the grocery shopping, so the wife gives me a list to buy. I pick something out, not paying attention to the labels & invariably, I bring home the wrong item.. So much for age.. Thanks again, jdc............,

Now that you have Windows 10 back again, I would suggest ignoring advice from Microsoft to "upgrade" to Windows 11 at least until support for Windows 10 ends. There is a way to block automatic "upgrades" to Windows 11 using a registry entry. It is method number 4 at the link below:

https://www.easeus.com/knowledge-cen...11-update.html

Also, more info here:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

Note that you should set the value to 22H2 now, as indicated by the second link, if you decide you add this Registry entry.

Below is a link to some information on how to make an image backup of your system drive:

https://www.easeus.com/backup-utilit...-software.html

There are other free imaging tools available also, in case you want to try a different one.

Some time before you need to switch to Windows 11, you may want to try setting up Windows 11 on a test computer, if possible, in order to have a chance to see what you will need to change in the way of settings, and what additional software setup you may need to a Windows 11 computer working the way you want it to.

If you thought getting Windows 10 set up properly was a chore, Windows 11 takes even more work.

I thought I had mentioned it before. I already have Win11 on another PC. Have had it for close to a year. Hardly ever accessed it. Too busy with other problems. With the type of editing I do, I will stay with win10.

OK.

Glad you got your Windows 10 working again. I have extensive notes on Windows 11 issues, if you have questions at some future date. Microsoft will undoubtedly make many more changes to Windows 11 in the next 2 years.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

Now that you have Windows 10 back again, I would suggest ignoring advice from Microsoft to "upgrade" to Windows 11 at least until support for Windows 10 ends. There is a way to block automatic "upgrades" to Windows 11 using a registry entry. It is method number 4 at the link below:

https://www.easeus.com/knowledge-cen...11-update.html

Also, more info here:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

Note that you should set the value to 22H2 now, as indicated by the second link, if you decide you add this Registry entry.

Below is a link to some information on how to make an image backup of your system drive:

https://www.easeus.com/backup-utilit...-software.html

There are other free imaging tools available also, in case you want to try a different one.

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Is there any way to revert back to Windows 10? I recently upgraded to 11, but I really don't like it.

Possibly useful links:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to...to-windows-10/

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...10/m-p/3628140

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/...to-windows-10/