What is Windows 11 N version?

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It has been a question of whether Windows 11 N will be available for sale in Europe after the release of this operating system. The KN version was a package for Korea, and both packages were available to respond to certain regulations in countries such as Europe and South Korea.

You may not remember it anymore, but the truth is that these “N” packages have been floating around since Windows XP was released. They are only available in certain regions such as Europe and Korea and show slight differences between the two versions. We’re reviewing what we know to see if we’ll see these versions again.

What is Windows 11 N, do you have it?

We start from Windows 10 N, a regular operating system with some limited or removed functionality. For example, Windows Media Player and Groove Music were not included in Windows 10 N, so you had to download an alternative player. Same thing with Skype and voice recorder.

Not only have these programs been removed, there is no OneDrive and also Photos will not play videos. In short, it is a kind of “light” Windows.

Do you have Windows 11 N? Windows 11 N Edition is a special edition of Windows available for Europe.

Why does Windows 11 N exist?

In recent years, these N and KN versions have proven to fail as consumers and companies continue to invest in standard versions. Some companies (app developers) in Europe applauded the decision of the European Union as these releases give consumers more choice.

One of the goals was to remove all the bloatware that Windows brought up from scratch: Skype, OneDrive, Groove, Media Player, etc. This way, consumers would be able to choose which music player to use, which messaging service to install, or which cloud to use. And the truth is, Windows implements all this, encouraging its use, as OneDrive even starts automatically to save Word files!

Microsoft has tried to rival Spotify and iTunes, but the truth is, it hasn’t been able to offer a real alternative as the way music is consumed has changed. PCs no longer have .mp3 files, people are turning to streaming services to listen to music. In fact, iTunes in Windows 11 is less and less used, and after trying the app in question, I found it to be a disaster.

Therefore, the European Commission considered that integrating these programs by default harmed other media players and exercised a dominant position on Microsoft’s behalf.

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What was Microsoft’s response to Windows 11 N and KN versions? Skype, Groove, Windows Media Player, One Drive, etc. You can install a suite of free multimedia applications that includes

So we will enjoy using a Windows 11. First we’ll have to check if this version has actually been released, and then see if Microsoft has taken the step.

Install Media Feature Pack in Windows 11 N/KN Editions: Follow the steps below to install the Media Feature Pack on your Windows 11 computer.

1. Access Settings -> Apps -> Optional features.

2. In it, click View Properties. Type “Media Feature Pack” in the search box and install it.

The difference between Windows 11 N and the regular edition

I think the regular version is better because it is the best option and we may have less problems installing updates in the future. However, I’m sorry to disagree with the European Commission because even though Microsoft has included some applications in the Windows installation, users are already well informed about which applications to use.

  • Many people use Edge only to download Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
  • With the rise of Spotify and YouTube Music, only certain apps are used to listen to music. Previously, players were used for FLAC files due to loss of quality in streaming. Today, services like TIDAL make everything easy.
  • Finally, many people download VLC to Windows 11 because it’s a player that comes with many pre-installed codecs and is more interesting than Groove or Windows player (you need to install certain extensions if you want to take advantage of certain files).
  • OneDrive is not used as most people use their Google gmail accounts, so everything stays that way and cloud connectivity between Android/iOS smartphones and PCs via Drive is much better than OneDrive.

As a result, Windows 11 N and KN versions will have limited versions of apps and certain functionality so Microsoft doesn’t abuse the power state by encouraging the user to use their apps. In practice this is not exactly the case and there is no reason for these versions to exist that have been shown to fail and people prefer the normal version.