Previously I described my purchase and installation of ATHENA, my Geekom mini PC. My first action following installation was to setup RDP so that I could access FREEDOM, my existing primary Windows 10 PC, since there isn't anything much I can do with the new PC except access the old one!
As I suspected it is taking me a long time to move over apps / functionality to ATHENA. Details of all the installations would be very very tedious so I shall limit myself to points that I find interesting and others may find merely very tedious.
However to make it even easier I setup WOL (Wake on Lan). This is a tiny utility which sends a magic packet to power on another computer. I told it FREEDOM's MAC address, so that when I click on the associated icon FREEDOM starts up - without me needing to rummage under the desk.
Once the PC is turned on I can click on the RDP icon to use it.
This means I no longer need a screen, keyboard, mouse attached to FREEDOM.
Once the PC is turned on I can click on the RDP icon to use it.
This means I no longer need a screen, keyboard, mouse attached to FREEDOM.
I have another (noisy) Win11 mini PC called PICO which I also setup for RDP. I now have a practical single desktop for my Windows Environment.
Ideally I would like to move away from MS-Office. Excel is great, Word is a pain and Outlook is pretty useless. However it is too much effort. I was going to migrate (remove and install) MS-Office 2019 from the old PC, but found that I could buy a new activation key for £10 - so that it what I did.
I setup WSL2:Ubuntu for linux access and setup SSH and Shares to access my RPI storage. I also shared the legacy PC disks so that I can easily transfer data across.
One of my own main apps is my Art Library / slideshow. It is an RPI web application written in Javascript/HTML which uses a MariaDB SQL database to organise picture information.
Although the webapp, database and pictures are stored on RPI I need some PC apps to manage the system. My old HTML editor is obsolete now, so I set up a new one WebStorm which seems very good. I installed a new instance of Heidi SQL on ATHENA so that I can update the image database and I copied across my master picture Library to ATHENA so that I can edit and move pictures to the RPI.
I have installed Irfanview to manipulate the images, it appears more popular than Fastone, which I used previously.
Removing Bloatware
When I first started using Win11, I found the constant adverts, popups very irritating. I round a random article in The Register which provides some quick fixes. Now I don't have Windows telling me about the picture it has chosen for the lock screen and I dont have news flashes disturbing me.
Microsoft still try hard to make me use OneDrive and Office365, Edge and Copilot, but I can cope.
Microsoft still try hard to make me use OneDrive and Office365, Edge and Copilot, but I can cope.
Windows 11 Features
There isn't much improvement, moving from Windows 10 to Windows 11. I have listed here what I have noticed so far:
1) The Phone Link app is great, it allows me to use many phone functions on the PC and makes transferring photos across very simple
1) The Phone Link app is great, it allows me to use many phone functions on the PC and makes transferring photos across very simple
2) File Explorer has tabs so that you can view multiple folders in one place, I always lost track of them as soon as I needed two or three open
3) When switching between virtual desktops, each desktop can have a different screen background, so you can see where you are at a glance.
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