7 frustrating Windows 11 annoyances, and how to fix them

MAKE THE PAIN GO AWAY WITH THESE TIPS AND TRICKS.

- RYAN WHITWAM

For a while, it looked like Microsoft might never move past Windows 10, but then it dropped Windows 11 in late 2021. Even with a longer gap between new versions, it was impossible for Microsoft to make everyone happy. Despite some notable improvements in Windows 11, there are still some nagging issues. Thankfully, a lot of them are fixable with varying degrees of legwork—here’s how you can patch the biggest annoyances in Windows 11.

1. BYPASS THE TPM 2.0 CHECK

The first big Windows 11 headache starts before you even install it. Microsoft requires a TPM 2.0 module (fave.co/3vlsU1M) (among other hardware features, fave.co/3C7aDbn), and not all machines have one of those. If your computer is otherwise capable of running Win11, you can safely bypass this check. The quickest way to fix this issue is to make a small tweak to the registry during the setup process.

While in the Windows installation dialog, you can hit Shift + F10 to open a command prompt, and from there you can launch the Windows registry editor by typing “regedit”and pressing enter. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup and then right-click. Select New > Key and name it LabConfig. Under that key, we need to add two values using New > DWORD (32-bit value). One of them should be called BypassTPMCheck and the other will be BypassSecureBootCheck. Double-click to change the values, setting them both to “1.”

With that done, you can go back to setup and continue your Windows installation adventure.

2. MOVE THE START MENU AND TASKBAR ICONS TO THE LEFT