So what is the deal with Win 11 S-Mode?
Discussion
One of the family came to me and asked me to help them with a new Windows 11 Laptop, just setting it up. I have set up a few Laptops for them in the past but this is the first fresh out of the box Win 11 machine I had used in S-Mode.
It was horrid the Internet barely worked, everything seemed to be an obstruction (oddly, when I moved over to home mode, the wi-fi signal improved), In S-Mode if I tried to download anything from anywhere other than the Microsoft store, it did not even say "not allowed" it would just sit there, so there must be a lot of people suffering it? I soon just switched to Home mode which made everything far more usable, but what are they trying to achieve?
I was just how amazed how awkward and slow it was to use, if I was not aware of the switch out of S-Mode, I would have told the relative to send it back to the shop!
Is this everyone's experience or did I just have a one off obstructive laptop? or maybe I am overly critical?
It is fine now, and the family member is now happily with their new Laptop, I have used every version of Windows since 3.1 and S-Mode was the first I thought was actually broken!
It was horrid the Internet barely worked, everything seemed to be an obstruction (oddly, when I moved over to home mode, the wi-fi signal improved), In S-Mode if I tried to download anything from anywhere other than the Microsoft store, it did not even say "not allowed" it would just sit there, so there must be a lot of people suffering it? I soon just switched to Home mode which made everything far more usable, but what are they trying to achieve?
I was just how amazed how awkward and slow it was to use, if I was not aware of the switch out of S-Mode, I would have told the relative to send it back to the shop!
Is this everyone's experience or did I just have a one off obstructive laptop? or maybe I am overly critical?
It is fine now, and the family member is now happily with their new Laptop, I have used every version of Windows since 3.1 and S-Mode was the first I thought was actually broken!
It's supposed to just be a simpler, more secure, locked-down version for lower-powered laptops, that doesn't allow you to install apps from outside of the Microsoft store and stops you from changing the default (Microsoft) apps to others you've installed.
You can switch out of S-mode, but can't switch back to it without a reinstall.
Remember that we used to have low-powered machines defined as 'netbooks', or 'notebooks' and the ones with 'proper' CPUs were the ones called 'laptops'.
Now everything from a single core 20 year old Celeron to a 32-core Ultra 295K are called 'laptops' with no clear warnings on those £199 ones that they'll be useless for anything other than reading your AOL mail on a 28k dial-up line.
You can switch out of S-mode, but can't switch back to it without a reinstall.
Remember that we used to have low-powered machines defined as 'netbooks', or 'notebooks' and the ones with 'proper' CPUs were the ones called 'laptops'.
Now everything from a single core 20 year old Celeron to a 32-core Ultra 295K are called 'laptops' with no clear warnings on those £199 ones that they'll be useless for anything other than reading your AOL mail on a 28k dial-up line.
Edited by mmm-five on Friday 5th June 11:12
Thanks for the reply, I was just astonished how difficult S-mode is, it just made me wonder how many people bought a new computer unaware you can switch to home-mode and are regretting the moment they bought it and fighting to get a shinny new laptop to function 
, it is probably the best advert for non-windows operating systems I have ever seen!
, it is probably the best advert for non-windows operating systems I have ever seen!Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff