Win 11 under VirtualBox, Win 10- a couple of snags

dalchina · Apr 21, 2024

Hi, have started to look at what I'd be faced with should I upgrade my 'incompatible' laptops to Win 11.
Way back in the early days of Win 11 I had a quick look, and noticed no real issues.

I installed 23H2 as a VM under Win 10, and installed 2 Stardock programs- WindowBlinds and IconPackager. Both seemed to do what they should, as did the beta of Qttabbar.
I also installed Explorer Patcher.

Would appreciate any comments on these:

1. Perhaps foolishly I checked for updates. Probably KB5036893. Every time I try to start Win 11 as a VM, it attempts to apply the update, having downloaded it- but grinds to an apparent halt at 3% or 4% - whilst VirtualBox continues to use about 50% CPU time. I assume I've just got to be patient... apparently for a very long time...

2. When Win 11 was running, I tried merging a simple reg file I've used before- but rt clicking it crashes file explorer. That surprised me.
Of course presently I can't investigate further.

3. I used Explorer Patcher to reinstate file explorer's ribbon... but noticed the new tabs for file explorer vanished. I guess that's just how it is?

Thanks for any comments.

cereberus · Apr 21, 2024

dalchina said:
Hi, have started to look at what I'd be faced with should I upgrade my 'incompatible' laptops to Win 11.
Way back in the early days of Win 11 I had a quick look, and noticed no real issues.

I installed 23H2 as a VM under Win 10, and installed 2 Stardock programs- WindowBlinds and IconPackager. Both seemed to do what they should, as did the beta of Qttabbar.
I also installed Explorer Patcher.

Would appreciate any comments on these:

1. Perhaps foolishly I checked for updates. Probably KB5036893. Every time I try to start Win 11 as a VM, it attempts to apply the update, having downloaded it- but grinds to an apparent halt at 3% or 4% - whilst VirtualBox continues to use about 50% CPU time. I assume I've just got to be patient... apparently for a very long time...

2. When Win 11 was running, I tried merging a simple reg file I've used before- but rt clicking it crashes file explorer. That surprised me.
Of course presently I can't investigate further.

3. I used Explorer Patcher to reinstate file explorer's ribbon... but noticed the new tabs for file explorer vanished. I guess that's just how it is?

Thanks for any comments.

Using a vm to assess potential upgrade issues is rather limited as a vm does not use same drivers.

If you are using Pro, I would use Hyper-V instead of Virtualbox. The major advantage is you can then connect the VHDX file used in the VM as a native boot vhdx file, and then the overall test will be more meaningful, as the vhdx file natively booted uses Host OS drivers.

Regarding specific issues, hard to say why you are having problems.

It could be simply performance. related. I found using default vb setup, it runs much more slowly than Hyper-V but I admit I am not a vb expert.

In the end, Hyper-V will akways outperform vb or vmware but it does have some limitations but these mostly apply to other guests (and Windows Home).

dalchina · Apr 21, 2024

Thanks. Driver compatibility is not what I'm exploring here- more the look and feel- what and how I might make it look and feel more familiar.

As for the update- I'll block that and get on with what I'm interested in. I'll ditch the current VM and start again from scratch.

Bree · Apr 21, 2024

dalchina said:
I used Explorer Patcher to reinstate file explorer's ribbon... but noticed the new tabs for file explorer vanished. I guess that's just how it is?

Yes, that's how it is. The tabs and the new look to Explorer are all part of the same thing, you can't have one without the other.

There are ways to open an Explorer window with a ribbon without using any patching. See Options One and Two here:

Restore Classic File Explorer with Ribbon in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to restore the classic File Explorer with Ribbon for your account or all users in Windows 11. File Explorer in Windows 10 has a ribbon, tabs, and a title bar with color. The ribbon includes common tasks, such as copying and moving, creating new folders, emailing...

www.elevenforum.com

dalchina · Apr 21, 2024

Thanks: having reinstalled Win 11 and set updates to Notify (changed location in group policy!) I now have icons changed, explorer and other background colours. Open Shell installed, WindowBlinds.

One odd thing- originally News and Interests appeared on the left of the taskbar, but both times I've tried it, moving the taskbar icons to the left seems to cause News and Interests to vanish. Presently I see no way to restore it- no reference. Any thoughts welcome.. thanks.

Bree · Apr 21, 2024

dalchina said:
One odd thing- originally News and Interests appeared on the left of the taskbar, but both times I've tried it, moving the taskbar icons to the left seems to cause News and Interests to vanish. Presently I see no way to restore it- no reference. Any thoughts welcome.. thanks.

It's not called News & Interests, that's a W10 thing. It's Widgets in W11 and works a little differently. Are you sure it's missing when the taskbar is left-aligned? It should still be there, but just as an icon. It only shows the full text label when the taskbar is central.

Mine is to the left of the Edge icon here....

dalchina · Apr 21, 2024

Thanks, yes - just been reading about widgets. And they are enabled in Settings, personalisation.

With the taskbar centre-aligned, the icon is on the left.
If I use explorer patcher to left-align the taskbar it's nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps something to do with this Win 11 as a VM not being activated?

The result of a bit of playing around by way of an experiment..

martyfelker · Apr 21, 2024

dalchina said:
Hi, have started to look at what I'd be faced with should I upgrade my 'incompatible' laptops to Win 11.
Way back in the early days of Win 11 I had a quick look, and noticed no real issues.

I installed 23H2 as a VM under Win 10, and installed 2 Stardock programs- WindowBlinds and IconPackager. Both seemed to do what they should, as did the beta of Qttabbar.
I also installed Explorer Patcher.

Would appreciate any comments on these:

1. Perhaps foolishly I checked for updates. Probably KB5036893. Every time I try to start Win 11 as a VM, it attempts to apply the update, having downloaded it- but grinds to an apparent halt at 3% or 4% - whilst VirtualBox continues to use about 50% CPU time. I assume I've just got to be patient... apparently for a very long time...

2. When Win 11 was running, I tried merging a simple reg file I've used before- but rt clicking it crashes file explorer. That surprised me.
Of course presently I can't investigate further.

3. I used Explorer Patcher to reinstate file explorer's ribbon... but noticed the new tabs for file explorer vanished. I guess that's just how it is?

Thanks for any comments.

I used Stardock products since they were only writing for OS/2 Warp (I wish IBM had not abandoned it under pressure from Microsoft). I no longer have too many things to say about Windows and Microsoft without lapsing into the vernacular. Writing now from Fedora Rawhide, where I can't use either VMware or Virtualbox. QEMU/KVM works fine, but unless I attempt to re-install a Windows 11 VM, it will remain "incompatible" even though I have loaded all the proper Software TPM programs (actually called swtpm, BTW). You might want to mess with Hyper-V which is fairly good if you stick with generation 1 disks (unless installing Windows VMs). Sorry I don't have mulch more but good luck.

Bree · Apr 21, 2024

dalchina said:
If I use explorer patcher to left-align the taskbar it's nowhere to be seen.

That's down to Explorer Patcher then, you can left-align the Taskbar in Settings without any 3rd party help.

Change Taskbar Alignment in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to change the taskbar alignment to left or center for your account in Windows 11. Icons on the taskbar are center aligned by default in Windows 11 instead of to the left like in previous Windows. Option One: Change Taskbar Alignment to Left or Center in...

www.elevenforum.com

dalchina · Apr 22, 2024

Thanks, confirmed- Brink wins again..

(What's the'11' version of a Thank button?- seems to be 'Like' - modern idiom??)

I'm intrigued by still seeing Cortana, and more so by the text relating to Search and Calendar (given the Calendar app has been effectively withdrawn, although there's still supposed to be some sort of Calendar related to 'new Outlook').

Turning to file explorer search, with the ribbon enabled, it behaves as 'classic' search as expected (e.g. 1 click -> Search tab + can begin a search) BUT valid syntax is not highlighted in blue. I've also tried Winaero Tweaker's classic search setting.

Does the blue highlighting occur with no modifications?

Also no calendar dropdown under the search box when typing e.g. datecreated:

jimbo45 · Apr 22, 2024

martyfelker said:
I used Stardock products since they were only writing for OS/2 Warp (I wish IBM had not abandoned it under pressure from Microsoft). I no longer have too many things to say about Windows and Microsoft without lapsing into the vernacular. Writing now from Fedora Rawhide, where I can't use either VMware or Virtualbox. QEMU/KVM works fine, but unless I attempt to re-install a Windows 11 VM, it will remain "incompatible" even though I have loaded all the proper Software TPM programs (actually called swtpm, BTW). You might want to mess with Hyper-V which is fairly good if you stick with generation 1 disks (unless installing Windows VMs). Sorry I don't have mulch more but good luck.

Not sure why you are having trouble with re-installing a Windows VM with KVM/QEMU on any sensible version of Linux. I've installed and re-installed all sorts of Windows 11 VM's on KVM/QEMU on Fedora rawhide, Arch Linux, Debian and Opensuse all of them work perfectly with kernels 6.8.X and 6.9.X.

Copying a VM from one Virtual platform to another one is always liable tp be a problem due to the "paravitualisation" mechanisms used in the relevant Virtual program software.

An indirect way to get round the problem can be to copy your VM to a real machine (if copying to an external device set the reg key "portable OS to '0' and re-boot it. Re-install the windows bootloader (bcdboot.exe), then copy the physical windows machine back as a guest to whatever VM software you are using.

Cheers
jimbo