I also have the updated version of BRU, but it's overly complex for a lot of the simple stuff I do, and LR is an easy to use/adjust interface. All it needed to make it work properly is a registry tweak that lets it work from a context menu as it always has. In fact, I probably use it at least 3-5 times a week at least. I do a lot of photo work, and Downloader Pro is good for most stuff, but when I get to culling and sorting, LR is my go to (or I use FastStone Rename, which is a fine piece of software). BRU for me is is for big, complicated jobs mostly.
Posts by Dorf-2
9 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Feb 2025
Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11
I've been using it on and off since forever. I use other tools for AV and Malware Bytes, and etc, but ZA was easy to config and simple enough. Right now I'm fiddling w/ tinywall, but I'm not sure I need or want to bother with it, considering it's pretty much a front end to Defender. I would prefer they just fix it, like they supposedly have w/ their other stuff, but I'm not hopeful.
Re: Tune Win11
As you say, though I am chagrined to admit I thought BL was secure enough. I guess I've still got a lot to learn. Otherwise, I never leave the country with anything I'm truly concerned about, and what I do take is a stripped down system on a spare HDD (in an old dell laptop)--no contact lists, nothing personal, clean install of the OS, minimal programs, etc. When I get back, I remove the drive, offload whatever files I need and scan those, then wipe the drive entirely. Always. An old paranoid guy's version of an air gap... heh. Not perfect, but I haven't had any kind of virus, intrusion, or externally-caused problems in decades (at least that I'm aware of... :-(
Re: Tune Win11
To your point: I installed two 8TB HDDs, partitioned HDD1 into a C (operating system) & D (Data). I then turned the 2TB SSD into a scratch, gaming, work drive. I use MinTool Partition Wizard to Clone HDD1 to HDD2, and also do incremental backups to the NAS. If HDD1 gets corrupted or I screw something up, I just go in, swap wires, and get back to work. Also, I disable bitlocker so I can put the damaged drive in a cradle or whatever and access the data that's not on the OS drive. Also, just for added peace of mind, I changed the default folders from beneath my profile on C: to folders on the D drive. For example, MyDoc, Music, Photos, et al. are separate folders on D. The reason is that if my profile gets corrupted or I need to redo windows or whatever, none of my files get lost. I know it's a lot of redundancy, and I know the arguments about fast SSDs, and so on, but I don't mind sacrificing a few seconds of read/write time for the peace of mind this arrangement gives me. Also, my machine is not a laptop, it's in a secure location, everything is passworded at the bios level, and I'm the only one who uses this machine. I would likely engage bitlocker if I were travelling to some country like Israel where they routinely scan visitors' computers without permission (yes, they do) or Iraq where it's as likely as not to be confiscated just on GP (and yes, it was).
1. You can move the start menu to the left side of the task bar, if that's what you mean.
2. No adverts in Pro versions that I'm aware of, but I don't use windows as a logged in user; I created a local administrator account profile immediately after installing W11 and then deleted the logged-in profile. Only local profiles on my machine, so no adverts.
3. I uninstall all kinds of crap as part of my do list. There is still some, but not anything I don't want or use.
4. You can disable the telemetry stuff in Services, as well as the feedback hub, and all of that phone-home stuff. It just takes time, willingness to work in the registry. In fact, there are a number of how-to articles on the microsoft website, but ten-forums and eleven-forums have whatever is not elsewhere available.
5. The new interface sucks, but you can install and configure Open Shell to make menus anyway you like them, and you can revert windows explorer and the context menus to the old look if you want.
That said, the task bar tray rearrangement is still a problem, and cleaning up their damned search window took more effort than it should have, but I no longer see suggestions, weather, or any of that crap.
BL: You can make W11 look a lot like W10, and there are some things that are a little easier to get to, but if you're not familiar with the old dialog-box options, you have to dig a little harder in settings to get to stuff. I suggest using the control panel to find older options. It's not perfect, but it can be tweaked to help you fix thiings more easily than in settings.
I have been working w/ WinTel machines and software since the mid 80s. I have liked, loved, hated, and despised every version of DoS and Windows since for all the reasons everyone who's done the same know. I use a very heavily 'tweaked' version of windows-pro using open-shell for menus, and pretty much every MS and Google phone-home kinds of thing turned off, etc. Until last month I was a fairly contented W10 power user, but I needed to upgrade my machine and Dell wouldn't sell me an XPS w/ W10 on it. To make a long infuriating story short, W11 is well into the hate category. I can no longer use Zone Alarm (my firewall of choice) because it crashes the system, even w/ the memory core isolation turned off, and a lot of other older tools I use regularly (like Lupas rename) need to be tweaked to run properly, etc. Most off all, I resent the bitlocker on-by-default option, the rounded windows corners, the new goofy version of windows explorer, the utterly garbage context menus, and all of the other so-called improvements that have just made things childishly stupid looking and wonky. For example, there is the well documented millisecond delay when clicking an app inon. At least 1/4 of the time, I need to go back to click an icon to open the app. Likewise it has become near impossible to rearrange the boot order so my batch files run sooner in the sequence. I know there are things I can do, and I know I could upgrade to newer alternative software, and I know I could go back to Linux (I ran a small-town ISP for a while, so it's not alien stuff), or just use my QNAP NAS as a workstation, etc. However, I do a TON of stuff in word, excel, powerpoint, and even more in a large number of graphics programs, and I build websites in jAlbum, etc. AND I REFUSE TO PUT ANYTHING ON MS SERVERS or use Office 365. So bottom line, it's just mo-better-faster-easier for now to work in a windows environment for everything I do than to switch. Unfortunately, W11 just makes things harder and unnecessarily complicated, so it took a third again as long to tweak everything back to the way I want it. Frankly, it wasn't worth the effort and I certainly would not have done it if I had any other option that would have worked for me. IMO, W11 is just this decade's version of W08 & 8.1.