Cheap Surface Clone

I’ve bought another computer. I’ve rationalised this because even after all this time I don’t have a machine running Windows 11. And today someone asked me if some of my code would run that platform. And I rather wanted to give them an answer.

I don’t want to upgrade my present machine from Windows 10 for several reasons. The primary one is that I have no need to. The second is that it would cost a lot of money. The third is that I’d have to replace pretty much everything which would mean a complete reinstall of all the software, some of which I don’t think I have licence keys for any more.

I’d much rather spend my cash on something with just enough power and disk space to do what I want with Windows 11. Which is where I introduce the Geotab 110. For less than the price of a Surface Go type cover I can get a complete tablet with keyboard and pen. I’m not expecting the earth when it arrives, but I am looking forward to discovering what kind of tablet PC you can get for 120 quids.

Windows 11 video output is magic

I’m getting ready for a talk I’m giving tomorrow. In person. Rather exciting. I’m using my super cheap Windows 11 laptop. Just to see if I can. Today I was checking out the video output. I plugged the laptop into my screen and looked for the setting that would enable output. Then I glanced at the external monitor. It was already mirroring the laptop screen. Exactly what I wanted as default behaviour.

I guess there are settings for having multiple screens and whatnot, but I love the way that it did exactly what I wanted without me having to do anything. This is how things should be.

Windows 11 on the cheapest computer I own

Which one is running Windows 11?

When I bought my super-cheap laptop I noticed that xsonly had an even cheaper one that had a processor flagged as Windows 11 compatible. What the heck, it was only sixty quid. So I bought one. True to their word, Microsoft have now released an upgrade for the device and I installed it.

It works. Windows 11 runs perfectly. I’m not sure that I’d recommend the cheaper notebook though. I think it is cheaper for a reason - which is that it only has a dual core processor. The GeoBook 140 has a quad core device. The difference is noticeable when using the laptop, things are a bit more slow to arrive.

I rather like the Windows 11 experience though. Putting the task bar in the middle of the screen makes perfect sense after a while - you don’t have to move the mouse to the corner to do everything. Everything looks like it has had a spring clean and tidied up. Very nice.

If you want to run Windows 11 on a machine that is cheaper than a video game it is still available at the moment.