Friday, 2021 Oct 8                    Windows 11 Review (Preliminary)

The computer (named Stirling) is new, home built, first booted in February, 2021. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Processor, ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Motherboard, Corsair Force MP600 500GB M.2, plus 7 rotating disks for a total of 24TB. It ran Windows 10 Professional, fully updated, now Windows 11 Professional. It met every requirement for the "upgrade" to Windows 11 and then some.

The Good News:

After backing up Windows 10, the Win 11 installation was done "in place" on Stirling using the Windows 11 Installation Assistant. It booted up just once, and was ready to go with Windows 11. Impressive:

• Even the placement of the icons on my double-monitor desktop is unchanged.  
• Every application (e.g. .exe) still works, including some that are 20 years old. 
• I have written thousands of lines of code in command-line script, and all of that still works. 
• Even the Windows 10 bugs are still there. If you use command-line script, you know what I mean. 
• So the good news is that Microsoft didn't break the really important stuff.

The Bad News:

• Toolbars can no longer be attached to the taskbar. This is huge, more about it below. 
• Some Windows utilities, such as the Task Manager, are no longer accessible through the taskbar. 
• Sound is changed - the maximum volume is much lower on my two HDMI monitors, too soft to hear. I'll work on that.
• Certain screens are flaky, e.g. right-click menus may disappear for no reason, and you have to right-click again.
• Menus are different, for no obvious reason. Not better, just different, especially the right-click menus. 
• Things that were accessible with one click now often require two or more clicks. Windows is harder to use.

So What?:

Except for the loss of toolbars, all of those "bad news" items are minor problems. There is a workaround for each of them, though I certainly made very good use of toolbars on the taskbar and will search high and low for the best functional equivalent. I WANT MY TOOLBARS! They saved a lot of mouse clicks and provided a kind of personal environment. Taking them away was a huge mistake. I hope there's a registry patch, or a simple executable that will do what the taskbar did in Win 10.

Bottom line: In my opinion Windows 11 is not at all better, just different, and not in a good way. There is probably a marketing reason why Microsoft created Windows 11. Perhaps it will help sell Windows and Windows-based computers to new buyers. It does help to enforce some security enhancements, so that's a good thing. Otherwise, for long-time loyal users like me, it's just a pain in the you know what.

My advice: 

Don't upgrade yet. I wish I hadn't. Maybe I'll roll it back.

 2021 09 16                 Forte, ASUS BIOS Version 3801, and TPM             

                                                      BIOS Version 3801

This was installed in the motherboard on August 13, 2021, and as far as I can tell it behaves exactly the same on the Forte computer as did the Beta version 3703, which is  no longer downloadable. It feels now almost like a finished product. I also installed it on my main computer, Stirling 2021.

It still has the "Improved System Performance" bug described in an earlier post titled Forte Performance 002 and dated August 6, 2021, https://buildmyown.blogspot.com/2021/08/2021-08-06-performance-002-woohoo-asus.html, but that is not a problem for me. I just leave the "Improved System Performance" feature alone and use the Overclocking Presets instead. Specifically: BIOS > Extreme Tweaker > Overclocking Presets > (Load Generic OC Preset). The August 6 post mentioned above has more about that.

Again, here is the computer:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads, 7nm technology;
• G Skill Trident Z Neo F4-4000 Memory 32GB;
• ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero. Motherboard, BIOS Version 3801;
• be quiet brand BK022 Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU cooler;
• WD Black 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 Drive;
• WD Gold 10TB Enterprise Class rotating SATA disk drive;
• VisionTek Radeon 5450 Graphics card, BUT SEE NEXT POST.

                                                                 TPM

Some processors have a built-in firmware TPM (Trusted Platform Module), especially AMD processors I think. I did an experiment to see if my Ryzen 9 5950X processor has it: Remove the discrete TPM module from the motherboard, reboot with Advanced > Advanced\AMD fTPM configuration > Selects TPM Device > Enable Firmware TPM. The firmware is apparently in the processor, not the motherboard. After booting, run Manage BitLocker, then TPM Administration (lower left corner), then appears a window labeled TPM Management on Local Computer. 

There are options here, but if BitLocker is not to be used right away, you can just check to see that it's available. On mine, the Status window says "The TPM is ready for use."

In the window labeled "TPM Manufacturer Information" the following information is displayed, depending on which TPM is selected:

• Firmware TPM: Mfgr Name: AMD,  Mfgr Version: 3.58.0.5,  Specification Version: 2.0
• Discrete TPM: Mfgr Name: IFX,  Mfgr Version: 5.63.3353.0,  Specification Version 2.0

1. Note that you may see different information.
2. Note that the specification version must be 2.0 (or greater if greater exists). 
3. Note also that a TPM will be required for Windows 11, coming soon. It must be available.
4. Note that the Forte computer qualifies with two different TPMs.
5. Note that you are not required to use BitLocker or either TPM. BitLocker is simply available if you want the additional security.

I'm not certain that the discrete TPM module provides any advantage over the processor's TPM during use, but it's removable, so if the drives are BitLocker encrypted and the computer is to be shipped somewhere or left idle for a time, the TPM module could be removed from the mobo and secured elsewhere. This would render the data on the computer quite useless. 

If the processor contains the active TPM, then a naughty party needs only the password to the computer (depending on the BitLocker setup), but if the discrete module contains the TPM, then the naughty party needs both the module and the password. I suggest you try this before you depend on it. 

Set Erase fTPM to Disable

WARNING: The two ASUS motherboards that I have will try to CLEAR the TPM when anything major is done, like updating the BIOS, setting the BIOS to its defaults, or even choosing the Overclocking Presets described above. Therefore, if any drives are BitLocker encrypted, then every time that you boot into the BIOS, the last thing to do before exiting the BIOS is check Advanced > Advanced\AMD fTPM configuration > "Erase fTPM NV for factory reset" and make sure that it says "Disabled." In case I forget this I have always UN-BitLockered (Decrypted) all drives before making any BIOS changes, to avoid the damage that might be caused by leaving that selection in the Enabled state.

Please please ALWAYS keep a record of BitLocker keys in a secure place, no matter what. If you like to think of yourself as a professional, and you lose your BitLocker keys, there is a good argument that you are not yet a professional. More about this in the blog post dated 2021 06 16. https://buildmyown.blogspot.com/2021/06/2021-06-16-security-ok-so-far-new.html