Windows 11 is the latest major release of the Windows NT operating system and the successor of Windows 10. Some features of the operating system were removed in comparison to Windows 10, and further changes in older features have occurred within subsequent feature updates to Windows 11. Following is a list of these.
Features removed in original release
Bundled software
No longer available
The following applications are no longer bundled with Windows 11 and no longer available.[1]
The touch keyboard no longer docks in screens larger than 18 inches.[1]
Windows no longer synchronizes desktop wallpapers across devices with a Microsoft account.[1]
Windows no longer shows a small preview of images or videos on folder thumbnails. Instead, it shows the generic folder icon for any folder containing images or videos.[5][note 3]
Start menu
Some functionality from the Start menu was removed and replaced with other features.
File History can only be configured using the legacy Control Panel application, which does not support adding custom folders to the set of protected folders as the Settings app in Windows 10 did.[14]
The option to simultaneously set a program as the default for all file associations it can handle is no longer available. [15]
Architecture and other features
Windows 11 is only available for the x86-64 and ARM64 CPU architectures, as Microsoft is no longer offering a Windows build for IA-32 x86 and ARMv7 systems.[1] Additionally, NTVDM and the 16-bit Windows on Windows subsystems, which allowed 32-bit versions of Windows to directly run 16-bit DOS and Windows programs, are no longer included with Windows 11.
User-mode scheduling (UMS), available on x64 versions Windows 7 and later, was a lightweight mechanism allowing applications to schedule their own threads, without involvement from the system scheduler. This feature is not included with Windows 11.[16]
Themes
The default Windows 10 and Flowers themes have been removed.
Features removed in later releases
2022 Update
The Focus assist feature has been split to Focus and Do Not Disturb.[17]
Attempting to run 32-bit apps on ARM64 systems that do not support 32-bit mode will now fail gracefully with an error rather than crash.
^Internet Explorer is in fact seemingly still present but hidden, and can be opened via the Addons menu under Internet Options. Some third-party applications reportedly have no trouble accessing it.[2]
^Internet Explorer mode is still available in Microsoft Edge of Windows 11
^This change has been reverted in February 2022 insider builds.[6]
^DaveM121 (2021-11-28). "Windows 11: Thumbnail previews do not show on folders". answers.microsoft.com. Retrieved 7 March 2022. Currently Windows 11 does not support showing thumbnails on folders, like previous versions of Windows.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
