Did you reboot afterwards?

If so, ah well, back to the drawing board.

Yeah it prompted me to reboot. I'll try seeing if any of the other security options being disabled make any difference.

Doubt it. My major concern was core isolation.

Had longer to test core isolation on and off. Having it off does reduce the CPU usage down. But it still sits around 8-12%. With it on i noticed it around 10-18%. This was idle, not doing any tasks. Hope that helps.

That's nothing! Minimal Win 10 (Enterprise) installation here, with all junk removed from Windows and almost all tasks set to 'manual' - i.e., they only load when needed - and before running up Winstep or anything else substantial other than VPN and A/V + F/W, CPU load is between 10-16%, sometimes 12-22%.

Even Ubuntu 22.04 - my main OS - with only VPN and F/W tends to run at between 8-14%, sometimes 10-18%, so those figures are bloody low actually.

Not really. His CPU has 6 cores, so 8% is actually 50% usage of a single core. Too high.

That is only workshelf using that. Normally it runs 2-3%. I was staggered with core isolation, as it's always been on prior to 24H2.

Right, didn't know. My figures were based on old 2 (physical, 4 virtual)core laptop. The other laptop doesn't have Windows, and I've never checked on the desktop (12 core).

Incidentally, I've come across several websites warning against latest 24H2 update and patches - one rating it as equivalent to "DefCon 1"! Breaking lots of things, throwing up loads of issues - not fit for purpose. You have been warned!

Surprisingly enough, now that I am running 24H2 for a while, I have yet to run into any issues. Yes, access to the systray was broken in the Winstep apps, but I already fixed that in v25.2.

Other than that, it even seems to boot a lot faster than 23H2 (not that I reboot that often, but when I do it is noticeable)? They also seem to have (finally, it "only" took them 3 MAJOR Windows 11 releases) fixed the incorrect reporting of CPU usage at the API level that has plagued Windows 11 systems since 22H2.

The latest KB update is supposed to have broken Explorer left side panel (according to what some users are reporting you click on a folder on the left side panel and nothing happens) but even that I am not seeing here. So far so good (knock on wood) but then it's been MONTHS since 24H2 was officially released, plenty of time to fix a lot of the initial quirks.

I suppose this has much to do with whatever is installed on a users system (software + hardware). Back when MS still had a QA team, they would test Windows under a ton of different scenarios, now they don't and this happens. Even if a particular issue only affects 1% of users, with 1.6 billion active Windows devices out there, that is a hell of a lot of people affected by that issue.

The websites raising the 'alarm' bells were updated 19th and 20th Feb. so there must have been a substantial number of issues reported. Obviously, not experienced by all users necessarily, but caution certainly seems advisable. Mind you, if caution were the issue, one wouldn't be using Win 11 in the first place I reckon. Still determined never to touch it here and anyway still have 10 years' support for Win 10 Enterprise. Not that I expect to use Windblows still at all by then.

FYI, while the latest update fixed the "gear" on the windows bar, the little "plus" next to it is not working. When I click on it nothing happens.

Working fine here. However, it actually depends on a keyboard shortcut (simulating the user pressed WIN + B - which should put focus on the tray expansion up arrow in the Windows taskbar - followed by Enter to activate it) so I think that might be the problem there.

No idea if you are running Nexus, Nexus Ultimate or Winstep Xtreme since you don't specify and I can't find your email address on our registrations database, but whatever you are running make sure the *Windows* taskbar is visible then press WIN + B.

What gets selected in the taskbar? Please send me a screenshot.

I am running Winstep Xtreme. (Account may be under one of my other email addresses)

Here is a screenshot:


On the Windows task bar it is working fine. However on the WinStep task bar (on the top) nothing is being shown and when I click on the + the ^ on the Windows task bar gets highlighted but nothing else happens.

Not sure what to tell you.

When you click the "+" on the NextSTART taskbar the Winstep application simulates pressing WIN+B followed by ENTER. WIN+B puts focus on the ^ button on the Windows taskbar and the ENTER key simulates a key press on it (which opens the system tray expansion area).

If you manually pressing WIN+B on your keyboard followed by ENTER opens the systray expansion area on the Windows taskbar, then so should clicking the "+" on the NextSTART taskbar.

If, as you say, clicking the "+" on the NextSTART taskbar does highlight the "^" on the Windows taskbar but doesn't actually get to open the systray expansion area, then it's like something in your system is "eating" the follow-up ENTER keystroke (or immediately removing focus from the Windows taskbar, which makes the ENTER keystroke be re-directed to whatever stole the focus).

Here on my 24H2 it is working as intended, whether the Windows taskbar is visible or not, and whether the NextSTART taskbar is at the top or bottom of the screen.