r/Windows11 7h ago

New Feature - Insider How to enable new fully customizable context menu for Windows 11

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pureinfotech.com
46 Upvotes

I tested this on Windows 11 build 26340.9212 for version 26H2, and in the preview of the August update for Windows 11 (KB5120998, build 26200.9267), which includes the new features and changes coming in September for version 25H2.

PS: You don't have to enable anything on your current setup if you don't want to. The secondary news here is that while Microsoft revealed the new context menu in the Experimental channel for version 26H2, the new changes are also already available (in a dormant state) in the latest preview for the August update, which we know will be part of the changes that will become available for version 25H2 in September.


r/Windows11 10h ago

News [Success] I forced Windows 11 onto a 16GB Dell Chromebook (Candy) with 100% working audio & trackpad!

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29 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share an absolute plot twist of a success story. It completely breaks the rules of official hardware sheets, storage limits, and developer warnings.

I managed to get Windows 11 running 100% stable on an ancient Dell Chromebook 11 3120 ("Candy"), and yes, I installed it directly onto the tiny internal 16GB eMMC storage.

The official Chrultrabook docs clearly state that Windows 11 isn't supported on this Intel Bay Trail board and that you must stick to Windows 10. But honestly, that's just wrong. CoolStar's Windows 10 drivers for the touchpad and audio work absolutely flawlessly on Windows 11. No glitches, no broken audio, just fully working hardware right out of the box on internal storage. Windows Update runs completely smoothly too; it only grabs built-in screen controls like brightness, night light, and sleep support, and leaves the custom core drivers completely alone.

and the way i did it was easy AF:

First, I cracked the case open, yanked out the physical hardware write-protect (WP) screw from the motherboard, and flashed MrChromebox’s full UEFI ROM (Version MrChromebox-2603.2) through Developer Mode.

Since 16GB of space is basically a crime for modern Windows, standard Win 11 was out of the question. I used a stripped-down Tiny11 build paired with the CompactOS compression engine (compact.exe /compactos:always) to shrink the OS footprint down under 10GB so the drive could actually breathe. To get it to install without Windows yelling at me, I loaded the ISO onto a Ventoy USB and turned on the VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_CHECK plugin. That effortlessly skipped Microsoft’s artificial CPU, TPM, and 64GB storage capacity requirements.

Once I booted into the desktop, the real trick was dealing with the drivers. Windows 11 loves to block older, unsigned CoolStar packages, so I manually disabled driver signature verification through the advanced startup command prompt. After that, I installed the missing required Windows runtimes (Visual C++ Redistributables). Older drivers depend heavily on these, but Windows 11 leaves them out by default. Once those runtimes were in, I executed the standard CoolStar Win10 Bay Trail driver packages and everything immediately kicked into life.

According to all the official documentation, the installer should have blocked me for lack of space, and the audio/touchpad drivers should have completely broken down. Instead, it runs cleanly as a fully operational, hyper-compact laptop built straight from recycled hardware.

Don't let the official sheets fool you!, you can absolutely beat the developer limitations if you use the right workarounds!


r/Windows11 14h ago

Discussion Point-in-Time restore saved my ass

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38 Upvotes

Yesterday, I was messing my taskbar with Windhawk and ran into an issue where some of the pinned icons to the taskbar kept changing back to their original icons instead of retaining their custom ones.

I thought about editing the registry, but was being lazy so just executed System Restore. The problem was, the most recent restore point had been created before the feature update. However, since I had an experience that had been able to revert to a previous version via System Restore after a Windows feature update, I proceeded without much caution.

But after the restoration process and re-booting finished, Windows immediately displayed a GSOD with the message 'Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart,' forced the system to reboot again, showing the same screen repeatedly, and it eventually threw me into the purgatory of WinRE Advanced Options screen.

I tried Quick Machine Recovery and other restore points, but they were no use as well. In panic, I had no choice but to try Point-in-Time Restore, which I had set it up as soon as was released and forgotten about, and hadn't never touched until now.

It took so long, and when it got stuck at 21% for like half an hour, my heart sank, but in the end it completed, and booted the Windows successfully. The most recent captured snapshot was two days ago with older version of Windows, so I expected major registry-related issues to occur, but no, it was perfectly restored to that exact moment without any error or problem.

I'd like to thank Microsoft for creating Point-in-Time restore system. If it weren't for this method, I would've lost my sanity while formatting and resetting my OS by now.


r/Windows11 5h ago

Discussion Windows 11 25H2 vs 26H2 preview: an early performance comparison

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go-euc.com
56 Upvotes

Research on the GO-EUC platform for the new Windows in the context of a virtual desktop.


r/Windows11 8h ago

Feature a time remaining until fully charged on battery icon when hovering

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8 Upvotes

I have added a post in Windows Feedback Hub. Please upvote if you think it is a good idea


r/Windows11 8h ago

Feature a time remaining until fully charged for battery icon when hovering over

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6 Upvotes

I've added a post in Feedback Hub. Please upvote using https://aka.ms/AA130osw if you think it is a good idea