So, I went against my word and just upgraded to Windows 10 the second I could, mainly because of anticipation and the urge to see what it's like.
What do I think so far?
Windows really aced this release, installed in about 30 minutes (I have your bog standard 7200rmp hard drive). Had absolutely no trouble with installation, and it booted up almost instantly.
What do I think of the desktop? It's amazing, really fluid design, really like that they got rid of the borders, it looks slick, easy to manage your desktop, perfect for me, who's a multitasker.
While I can't really go into detail, as I'm not that sort of person, I have encountered ZERO bugs since I got it, and I've had it for about 4-5 hours now, no hiccups, no problems, nothing, it's almost like nothing ever changed!. They finally, FINALLY! changed the windows sounds, they sound much more cheerful and less dull, I really like them. Taskbar is a bit of a nightmare, icons are quite small and luckily you can change the size of the search bar. I like the multi-display feature too!.
I know I haven't gotten into much detail with this, and I'll update it more as I go, but for the common user, I actually think you're good to boot up and upgrade, I've encountered no OS breaking bugs, installation was a piece of cake, and there's been nothing to worry about so far! It runs an extensive malware check when you first boot up W10, to make sure nothing got in (like it would).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Can you match my resolve? If so then you will succeed. - Monty Oum
An still nobody reads EULA or ToS. I refuse to touch Windows 10 with any length of stick due to the ToS/EULA changes (mostly more direct said now, but same since Vista), but most importantly how well the open book nature of the non Enterprise Editions of the OS is itself. I wish to have control over my system and privacy as well my files/documents/emails/contacts/VOIP and software updates, not an corporation.
Best experience with it? Sure it is good performance improvement over Windows 7 and offers DX12. However golden little features only hide the malicious nature deep within.
For now it is good to know what "is" your property or personal private stuff on that machine/device with Windows 10 is as well Microsoft's.
Wouldn't expect a response or reply. I post rarely; as rare as a blood moon.
I hate tablet / smartphone gimmicks. They make no sense in the PC world. I understand that smartphones are cool and all. But they're just phones. Sure, you can call and surf the web, but why would you want to do it on such a small screen anyways? I get that it's a revolutionary aspect because they miniaturized the functions of a normal computer to a degree, but is the future of computing really in tablets, metro screens, and portability? I understand that they are convenient, but I see people claiming that their smartphone is faster than their desktop. That's not true at all. Unless your PC is from the late 90's, most people I know have i5's. A normal Desktop / Laptop that can do the exact same things a smartphone can do, but with higher resolution, and better graphics. It's also 400 - 500$ (Unless you want gaming, that's going to cost a little more).
Windows 10 is still okay. some of my games glitch out.
Thankfully we can kind of swap back to a Windows 8.1 style startmenu, though they moved a lot of stuff for no reason other then to appease the people who refuse to move beyond the yeolde startmenu. The lack of windows borders and shadow highlighting is beyond irritating its a minor usability thing but even all of the Linux DE that ditched window borders kept the shadow highlighting. The ability to actually sure gestures on multi monitor is really the only possible reason i could see upgrading on my work desktop.
Things that would be nice and could be in there would be on domain attached Win10 machines not to have every new user do that were getting things ready for you dialog it makes Win8.1 as a lab machine operating system kinda irritating.
Other minor things that would be nice as features to have but Microsoft refuses to give to us. SFTP and SSH support, I mean come on from an enterprise level the fact I can't do the bulk of my job without installing putty or cygwin when just about every other operating system supports this by default.
The white interface flat theme i get a lot of OS are doing but i can't stop thinking it reminds me of Gnome3 in Fedora.
Hopefully Win10 is a bit more usable on tablets, if so then I would prefer it as Win8.1 can still be pretty irritating on the surface tablets.
Still dislike that Microsoft ditched what is easily a better interface Win8.1 start screen (yes even for desktops if you would actually use it you would get why) just because people complained. I get wanting to make changes to the interface but it seems like every single change in Win10 that replaced a gesture or something I was used to in Win8.1 takes extra clicks.
Going to use it because the multi monitor features drive me up a wall that windows has lacked that so many Linux DE have had forever.
Something I will have to test at work is supposedly by default Remote Desktop Services can support OpenGL meaning we can finally install the CAD applications remotely because they do a stupid check for OpenGL support when installed and because when you RDP in it swaps to a software render without support it freaks out. Very small use case but something that would be nice at work.
I prefer my Win8.1 user interface on my desktop but some other advantages might prompt me to swap at work. At home the new driver model for AMD drivers has a lot less CPU overhead and other things meaning Dx11 runs quite a bit faster I have been running modified drivers to get it but now i can run official drivers so that's why I am upgrading at home.
Edit: Appears window shadows are rendering now after they have not all day so what the hell Microsoft.
Thankfully we can kind of swap back to a Windows 8.1 style startmenu, though they moved a lot of stuff for no reason other then to appease the people who refuse to move beyond the yeolde startmenu. The lack of windows borders and shadow highlighting is beyond irritating its a minor usability thing but even all of the Linux DE that ditched window borders kept the shadow highlighting. The ability to actually sure gestures on multi monitor is really the only possible reason i could see upgrading on my work desktop.
Things that would be nice and could be in there would be on domain attached Win10 machines not to have every new user do that were getting things ready for you dialog it makes Win8.1 as a lab machine operating system kinda irritating.
Other minor things that would be nice as features to have but Microsoft refuses to give to us. SFTP and SSH support, I mean come on from an enterprise level the fact I can't do the bulk of my job without installing putty or cygwin when just about every other operating system supports this by default.
The white interface flat theme i get a lot of OS are doing but i can't stop thinking it reminds me of Gnome3 in Fedora.
Hopefully Win10 is a bit more usable on tablets, if so then I would prefer it as Win8.1 can still be pretty irritating on the surface tablets.
Still dislike that Microsoft ditched what is easily a better interface Win8.1 start screen (yes even for desktops if you would actually use it you would get why) just because people complained. I get wanting to make changes to the interface but it seems like every single change in Win10 that replaced a gesture or something I was used to in Win8.1 takes extra clicks.
Going to use it because the multi monitor features drive me up a wall that windows has lacked that so many Linux DE have had forever.
Something I will have to test at work is supposedly by default Remote Desktop Services can support OpenGL meaning we can finally install the CAD applications remotely because they do a stupid check for OpenGL support when installed and because when you RDP in it swaps to a software render without support it freaks out. Very small use case but something that would be nice at work.
I prefer my Win8.1 user interface on my desktop but some other advantages might prompt me to swap at work. At home the new driver model for AMD drivers has a lot less CPU overhead and other things meaning Dx11 runs quite a bit faster I have been running modified drivers to get it but now i can run official drivers so that's why I am upgrading at home.
Poking around trying to figure out how to get rid of the Hero login background I seem to remember some keys in the registry having to do with shadow highlighting and a few other graphical tweaks, I don't care that much about that particular issue but I could try and find them again if you are interested.
If I remember correctly there's a way to disable the "We're getting things ready for you" thing with group policy, not sure how it plays with fresh installs or first time logins however. Maybe something to investigate? I am sure there's a way to disable it further but it might take some looking around.
I would be so happy to have SSH. SO. HAPPY.
I honestly didn't really like the Win8 layout, it's a great idea for tablets and casual users but I just work better with yeoled startmenu. You can still enable the windows 8 menu too, it's found in Settings > Personalization > Start > Use Start Full Screen. I think you can enable it with group policy with the Start Menu XML entry but I don't see a way to force it to use that otherwise.
Poking around trying to figure out how to get rid of the Hero login background I seem to remember some keys in the registry having to do with shadow highlighting and a few other graphical tweaks, I don't care that much about that particular issue but I could try and find them again if you are interested.
If I remember correctly there's a way to disable the "We're getting things ready for you" thing with group policy, not sure how it plays with fresh installs or first time logins however. Maybe something to investigate? I am sure there's a way to disable it further but it might take some looking around.
I would be so happy to have SSH. SO. HAPPY.
I honestly didn't really like the Win8 layout, it's a great idea for tablets and casual users but I just work better with yeoled startmenu. You can still enable the windows 8 menu too, it's found in Settings > Personalization > Start > Use Start Full Screen. I think you can enable it with group policy with the Start Menu XML entry but I don't see a way to force it to use that otherwise.
It seems to have resolved its self the borders are sill mildly irritating but the shadow highlighting was not rendering untill one restart for some software and suddenly there.
Eh Win8.1 is pretty selective rollout at where I work so its not much of an issue but glad to hear there is a GP to handle this so hopefully that also works with Win10.
Ya I have that enabled but its not a perfect emulation of the way Win8's works.
From my experience with it, keeping in mind I used it about a month ago for about a week before reverting back to windows 7, I don't think that the features implemented into Windows 10 are all that important or useful. To be honest with, Windows 10 is an amazing operating system. It's insanely fast, even for older system, and is fairly simple to use even for new users. I just feel that most of the features aren't really useful. Such as Cortana, kind of disappointing how you have to manually click if you want to search your computer and not the internet.
I may change my mind at some point in time, but for now I'll stick with my trusty Windows 7.
From my experience with it, keeping in mind I used it about a month ago for about a week before reverting back to windows 7, I don't think that the features implemented into Windows 10 are all that important or useful. To be honest with, Windows 10 is an amazing operating system. It's insanely fast, even for older system, and is fairly simple to use even for new users. I just feel that most of the features aren't really useful. Such as Cortana, kind of disappointing how you have to manually click if you want to search your computer and not the internet.
I may change my mind at some point in time, but for now I'll stick with my trusty Windows 7.
You can change it so that search default to searching your computer so that whenever you click Cortana it always just searches the internet from what I understand. There's even more settings to configure the search in group policy for enterprises too but I have only glanced over them.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of these features are still in their infancy and like anything will take time to mature and have the kinks worked out.
While I very much dislike not having extensions, I'm content with how Edge is right now until they add that functionality in (October?). It's just super sleek, fast, and feels responsive. Haven't even downloaded Chrome yet because I don't think I will.
Those two are basically the big things for me. Other things include: non-full screen apps, minimal border on applications, and open privacy options (people are complaining about this, imo, at least they're not trying to hide any of it, and really, it's no different then how Apple works with Siri or how Google works with Android and on those platforms you can't really shut off those privacy options).
Other than that the OS is taking up less space and memory then both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and it's a nice mix of the two. I'm very happy with it.
While I very much dislike not having extensions, I'm content with how Edge is right now until they add that functionality in (October?). It's just super sleek, fast, and feels responsive. Haven't even downloaded Chrome yet because I don't think I will.
Those two are basically the big things for me. Other things include: non-full screen apps, minimal border on applications, and open privacy options (people are complaining about this, imo, at least they're not trying to hide any of it, and really, it's no different then how Apple works with Siri or how Google works with Android and on those platforms you can't really shut off those privacy options).
Other than that the OS is taking up less space and memory then both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and it's a nice mix of the two. I'm very happy with it.
Cortana is nice in that it is basically just a glorified run dialog box for the casual user.
Did you? Because I read it and I'm not even sure what you are talking about. The only annoyance therein was the bit about Updates not being optional. Sounds like you didn't read the EULA/Microsoft License Terms and you are getting your information from Articles by authors claiming to have read it? Stuff like Cortana and such definitely gather information, but they can be disabled (FOR GREAT JUSTICE)
I've posted my thoughts on Windows 10 a lot. I've been using it since early on, though on a separate PC.
the TL;DR is basically that I have no intention of upgrading any of my main systems.
I actually feel incredibly disillusioned- like I can't even safely express my opinion. As a Microsoft MVP (.NET/C#, though) they kind of hold me to a standard, and while it's hardly spelled out I do wonder if "Never say anything bad about us publicly" is one of their unspoken rules. I was actually partly hoping I wouldn't get re-awarded (as great as it is!) this last July so I wouldn't feel bad about ripping into Windows 10, but I did... I guess feedback is a good thing. Most of this I've written Insiders feedback about too, though perhaps in a less aggressive tone.
looking at it running on my other system, I cannot think of a single positive thing to say about it, actually. And bear in mind, I'm usually quite pro-Microsoft. I went into it wanting to like it. I really, really tried to like it. But doing so was an uphill battle, so I gave up.
-Start Menu crashes. That is, the start button stops displaying the Start Menu, and I cannot get the Start Menu to appear. I have to reboot or shut down by using Control+Shift+Esc to get to Task Manager. This was a problem in earlier builds. They claimed to fix it. it's still not fixed. It seems to happen less frequently- maybe once a week, but considering I only boot the system twice a week, that doesn't bode well. I'm not going to upgrade to an Operating System where basic Shell features stop working.
-Start menu is awful. I can't believe people actually like it, though I'd say the same about the Win7 Start Menu. There is no full-screen option that makes it similar to the Start Screen- the Full screen option is basically just expanding the crappy(IMO) Start Menu to the full size of the screen, and it works nothing like Windows 8 or 8.1. Again, this probably makes sense- weirdos who think Windows 7's Start Menu isn't crap will feel right at home.
-Start Search is broken. It's unbelievable that they could make the Start->Search feature, which has been one of the absolute, hands-down, most powerful, intuitive, and semantically accessible features of Windows since Windows Vista, so idiotic and awful. Extra steps to disable it's idiotic and completely stupid web search feature, and apparently it still does web searches in the background. Hey, here's a thought- when I type notepad, how about your first result be starting notepad? No, I didn't want to go to the notepad wikipedia entry, thanks. No I didn't want notepad recipes, whatever those are. It's slightly better now but I don't know if that is because of my registry hacking in completely undocumented settings or because of changes in the builds.
-Cortana. What an absolutely useless piece of garbage, just like Siri. It's a brilliant way for Microsoft to gather marketing information about you, I guess. And what better way to appeal to socially inept nerds than to name it after a fictional, overly sexualized character that they probably got off thinking about. So many idiots saying stupid crap like "Hey Cortana want to marry me" and then going "haha she said something silly in response, it's just like a real relationship.... I'M SO ALONE"
The saving grace is that you can kill it with a Group Policy. Die forever. I thought Cortana saying "I'm disabled by your system administrator :(" was pretty interesting. The sad face should be a smiley face though.
I am also not a fan of applications not having their own processes. I can only imagine what excitement we'll get when malware figures out how to exploit that. Edge isn't an executable, for example. Realistically, this is an issue for Windows 8 forward, too, but now that Modern UI applications can run on the desktop we're going to have a lot more fun. Go ahead guys- start the Edge browser. Now tell me- what process is it? Where is the executable file? I'll tell you- It's explorer. Yep, that's right- all Modern UI programs are launched in an explorer process. You know, it's interesting in a way, remember how much malware infected systems through Explorer add-ons and things that ran within the explorer process? Good thing Microsoft learned from that, huh? Oh, they didn't, they did the exact same thing and this time they made it even more untrackable. This time, though- they "compartmentalized" it so it's more secure. Like the Titanic.
Multiple desktops is interesting, but it's such a weird feature to add. Something almost nobody needs which has very powerful tools (like Desktops) that work very well, being integrated into the OS is incredibly strange, particularly given how so much else has effectively been stripped out. Windows key +Tab shows the Task View, but you can only select from windows you have on that desktop; to switch to another desktop you need to click on the other desktop. You can switch desktops using Windows key+Control+Left/Right, though. And it looks like they fixed their former silliness where the taskbar didn't actually change when you switched desktops. It's still an incredibly odd feature to add- something for advanced users- while completely stripping customization options, which leads me to...
Customization options are limited. I'm not even kidding. It's as if, over the years, Microsoft has slowly reduced the customization options of Windows. Windows 10 provides even fewer options than Windows 8.1. In Windows 8.1 I can choose my Window titlebar colour. In Windows 10 they have decided that allowing users to select what colour their title bar and taskbar is was giving them too much power. Now it's white. Always. Always white. You want a title bar that is green? No. Go away. White for everybody. white power. You can get third-party programs that allow you to change that, but really? This is basic functionality. The Settings/Personalization window is a joke. You select a background image/Color, and a "accent colour" which get's used arbitrarily for certain undocumented elements. That's literally the extent of the customization. Wow Amazing. I'm blown away that a 2015 operating system has customization options that look like completely garbage compared to Windows 3.1.
Anybody remember when we could actually customize Windows? You know, change the size of the caption buttons, Change title bar fonts and colours, that sort of thing? Those were some good times. Interesting how all these abilities have slowly been pared down, with the "Advanced Display Settings" dialog being first made hidden in Windows 7, and in Windows 8/8.1 it's not even accessible, but some options are moved to the scaling customization options, with more limited settings. Annoying. Windows 10 removes it entirely. Microsoft now dictates which font will be used in your title bar and at what font size. How dare you presume to change that which has been so benevolently provided to you.
Honestly I think it all comes down to the idiotic, phone-based interface that is Modern UI. in Windows 8 and 8.1 it was mostly optional, nonetheless, everybody hated it. I doubt anybody actually uses the Modern UI versions of programs like "Settings"; I know I use Control Panel in 8.1. And now, WIndows 10 effectively forces Modern UI applications, but because they sort of kind of look like Desktop applications since they are in a Window, everybody is cool with it.
VPN connections use this too. on Windows 8.1 I click the network icon, a slideout comes in from the right, I click my work VPN, then I press connect, and I'm done. All done within the little fold out. (similar with Win7- all takes place inside the menu pop-up)
In Windows 10, I click the network icon, click my VPN- and it takes me to Control Panel. A few weeks ago it hilariously just dumped me right into the main control panel, nowhere network related. That has been fixed, Now it instead takes me to the network settings control panel, where VPN connections are listed. This is an idiotic design. Why list my VPN connections, but make the connection step separate? It may as well not list VPNs at all and just have it show a "VPN Connection..." option that takes you to that control panel, since there is nothing you can actually do in the menu pop-up from the network icon that does anything different for each different VPN connection. I'll ignore that setting up a VPN is a pain in the ass to begin with.
My big problem is that the development methodology of Modern UI (or rather, "Universal") applications are based on websites. You create "pages" and you switch between "pages" in the application. Buttons "Link" to other pages, you have hrefs, and you have to write HTML and javascript even for local programs. Thing is, UI design on webpages is years behind the design of desktop applications. Desktop applications use "dialogs" not pages. You go to open a file and you open a dialog, you don't open a new "page"- that might be the case for a website, but websites have their own limitations. forcing these limitations on software that is running locally is ridiculous because the only reason those limitations ever existed was because websites had no choice. We'll ignore that "Universal Apps" is a stupid name for programs that will ONLY run on certain Windows Operating Systems. They are only "Universal" if we think of the "universe" as "Windows RT and Windows Desktop".
Speaking of the desktop, Windows 10's desktop capabilities add zero new features. This is mostly in line with their push to make everybody effectively develop mobile applications- Windows Forms and WPF desktop applications are no longer cool. Unlike previous Windows versions, I cannot find any new Windows 10 capabilities that are available through the standard Win32API.
I'm not opposed to replacing the WIn32 API, but how about we not replace it with something that is garbage? is that perhaps an option? No? Universal App framework? What makes the entire thing very annoying is that Microsoft has said that the Universal App Framework is not a replacement for Win32. And yet absolutely everything they are doing makes it clear that Win32 is being slowly replaced with a framework that is simply worse when it comes to actually developing applications. (as opposed to developing "apps")
You can change it so that search default to searching your computer so that whenever you click Cortana it always just searches the internet from what I understand. There's even more settings to configure the search in group policy for enterprises too but I have only glanced over them.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of these features are still in their infancy and like anything will take time to mature and have the kinks worked out.
Except this is an operating system release there really should not be any kinks to really work out. I can forgive some when the improvements outweigh the problems except I don't really see any advantage to running Win10 over Win8.1 other then sticky windows in multimonitor but I am already close to just running Ubuntu at work so if I want to sacrifice some stuff so i can get improved multi monitor support I might just jump ship rather.
Except this is an operating system release there really should not be any kinks to really work out. I can forgive some when the improvements outweigh the problems except I don't really see any advantage to running Win10 over Win8.1 other then sticky windows in multimonitor but I am already close to just running Ubuntu at work so if I want to sacrifice some stuff so i can get improved multi monitor support I might just jump ship rather.
I agree. The issues still present would, and were, forgivable in the prerelease, insider builds, because "prerelease". But it's RTM now. There is no excuse for a lot of this crap to still be present.
TBH I couldn't care about updates being optional, I don't see a reason to not get the security updates you need.
I can't speak for others, but when I leave my computer running, I expect it to be the same way when I return. Automatic updates means that if I leave a program running, or in the middle of something, and go to bed or whatever, when I come back I might be at a fresh boot. It also means I stop getting outlook notifications and skype notifications when it decides to reboot.
Well, I hibernate my laptop most of the time (saves waiting 5 minutes for it to fully wake up) so I'm not faced with the same problem. Generally I know when it's going to update, either I get a "Windows can't update important files while the system is using them" or I see the symbol on the Shut Down button informing me of available updates.
Alright, here's a fun scenario. Even with Windows 8.1, actually- Windows 10 makes it worse, in fact. I'm in the middle of work. I have like 5 visual studio's open, Outlook E-mails I'm drafting, a few editpad documents with notes I've made about testing scenarios, a few instances of our own software, pgadmin open to our databases for verification of data. Things are going well, or not- whatever. I'm busy, at any rate.
Then I get the prompt that Windows will restart to finish installing important updates.
You know what's even funner? When I'm typing when that prompt appears. And I press enter.
You know, the one that directly translates to "Restart Now"? Spectacular.
So now the system has restarted and I have to figure out what the heck I was doing before. Huge waste of time.
What's weird is that is with a system set to "Download updates, but let me choose when to install them" because as it turns out Microsoft can already override user settings anyway and force a system to install any update they please, or something. Something also keeps turning Windows firewall back on.
It seems like Windows 10 doesn't really make this a whole lot better; updates appear to be set such that it will try to find a time when the system isn't often used to do the update, but that doesn't mean there is nothing you want to keep. I keep all sorts of programs and browser tabs open that I switch between, or keep running in the background. So I mean updating when nobody is using the computer works but only with quite a few assumptions. What if I have a notepad document where I jotted down some notes, but didn't save it? It's gone. Automatic updates are as disruptive to me as a power outage, basically.
Pretty certain there's an option to have the Windows 8 Start Menu, it's in settings.
I know. I think you missed the rest of the sentence I quoted. To be more accurate- there is a "Full Screen" option, but there is no "Start Screen" option. the only Full screen option just expands the crappy Start Menu to be full screen.
It's interesting in a way. Over the last few versions they managed to basically tell everybody to F themselves. Windows 7 to Windows 8, Start Menu users are told to get with the times and embrace the Start Screen. users who didn't mind the start screen are now, with Windows 10, being told that they need to get with the times and embrace the "new" start menu, which manages to be worse than both the Windows 8 Start Screen and the Windows 7 Start Menu and is worse in terms of usability to the users of either.
I know. I think you missed the rest of the sentence I quoted. To be more accurate- there is a "Full Screen" option, but there is no "Start Screen" option. the only Full screen option just expands the crappy Start Menu to be full screen.
It's interesting in a way. Over the last few versions they managed to basically tell everybody to F themselves. Windows 7 to Windows 8, Start Menu users are told to get with the times and embrace the Start Screen. users who didn't mind the start screen are now, with Windows 10, being told that they need to get with the times and embrace the "new" start menu, which manages to be worse than both the Windows 8 Start Screen and the Windows 7 Start Menu and is worse in terms of usability to the users of either.
I just activated it, it really does look A LOT like the windows 8 start screen, just that they added the taskbar. Am I missing something?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Can you match my resolve? If so then you will succeed. - Monty Oum
So, I went against my word and just upgraded to Windows 10 the second I could, mainly because of anticipation and the urge to see what it's like.
What do I think so far?
Windows really aced this release, installed in about 30 minutes (I have your bog standard 7200rmp hard drive). Had absolutely no trouble with installation, and it booted up almost instantly.
What do I think of the desktop? It's amazing, really fluid design, really like that they got rid of the borders, it looks slick, easy to manage your desktop, perfect for me, who's a multitasker.
While I can't really go into detail, as I'm not that sort of person, I have encountered ZERO bugs since I got it, and I've had it for about 4-5 hours now, no hiccups, no problems, nothing, it's almost like nothing ever changed!. They finally, FINALLY! changed the windows sounds, they sound much more cheerful and less dull, I really like them. Taskbar is a bit of a nightmare, icons are quite small and luckily you can change the size of the search bar. I like the multi-display feature too!.
I know I haven't gotten into much detail with this, and I'll update it more as I go, but for the common user, I actually think you're good to boot up and upgrade, I've encountered no OS breaking bugs, installation was a piece of cake, and there's been nothing to worry about so far! It runs an extensive malware check when you first boot up W10, to make sure nothing got in (like it would).
An still nobody reads EULA or ToS. I refuse to touch Windows 10 with any length of stick due to the ToS/EULA changes (mostly more direct said now, but same since Vista), but most importantly how well the open book nature of the non Enterprise Editions of the OS is itself. I wish to have control over my system and privacy as well my files/documents/emails/contacts/VOIP and software updates, not an corporation.
Best experience with it? Sure it is good performance improvement over Windows 7 and offers DX12. However golden little features only hide the malicious nature deep within.
For now it is good to know what "is" your property or personal private stuff on that machine/device with Windows 10 is as well Microsoft's.
Wouldn't expect a response or reply. I post rarely; as rare as a blood moon.
I haven't been notified it's ready yet?
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
-Albert Einstein
Current setup: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PJzPD3
I hate tablet / smartphone gimmicks. They make no sense in the PC world. I understand that smartphones are cool and all. But they're just phones. Sure, you can call and surf the web, but why would you want to do it on such a small screen anyways? I get that it's a revolutionary aspect because they miniaturized the functions of a normal computer to a degree, but is the future of computing really in tablets, metro screens, and portability? I understand that they are convenient, but I see people claiming that their smartphone is faster than their desktop. That's not true at all. Unless your PC is from the late 90's, most people I know have i5's. A normal Desktop / Laptop that can do the exact same things a smartphone can do, but with higher resolution, and better graphics. It's also 400 - 500$ (Unless you want gaming, that's going to cost a little more).
Windows 10 is still okay. some of my games glitch out.
I'm back
Thankfully we can kind of swap back to a Windows 8.1 style startmenu, though they moved a lot of stuff for no reason other then to appease the people who refuse to move beyond the yeolde startmenu. The lack of windows borders and shadow highlighting is beyond irritating its a minor usability thing but even all of the Linux DE that ditched window borders kept the shadow highlighting. The ability to actually sure gestures on multi monitor is really the only possible reason i could see upgrading on my work desktop.
Things that would be nice and could be in there would be on domain attached Win10 machines not to have every new user do that were getting things ready for you dialog it makes Win8.1 as a lab machine operating system kinda irritating.
Other minor things that would be nice as features to have but Microsoft refuses to give to us. SFTP and SSH support, I mean come on from an enterprise level the fact I can't do the bulk of my job without installing putty or cygwin when just about every other operating system supports this by default.
The white interface flat theme i get a lot of OS are doing but i can't stop thinking it reminds me of Gnome3 in Fedora.
Hopefully Win10 is a bit more usable on tablets, if so then I would prefer it as Win8.1 can still be pretty irritating on the surface tablets.
Still dislike that Microsoft ditched what is easily a better interface Win8.1 start screen (yes even for desktops if you would actually use it you would get why) just because people complained. I get wanting to make changes to the interface but it seems like every single change in Win10 that replaced a gesture or something I was used to in Win8.1 takes extra clicks.
Going to use it because the multi monitor features drive me up a wall that windows has lacked that so many Linux DE have had forever.
Something I will have to test at work is supposedly by default Remote Desktop Services can support OpenGL meaning we can finally install the CAD applications remotely because they do a stupid check for OpenGL support when installed and because when you RDP in it swaps to a software render without support it freaks out. Very small use case but something that would be nice at work.
I prefer my Win8.1 user interface on my desktop but some other advantages might prompt me to swap at work. At home the new driver model for AMD drivers has a lot less CPU overhead and other things meaning Dx11 runs quite a bit faster I have been running modified drivers to get it but now i can run official drivers so that's why I am upgrading at home.
Edit: Appears window shadows are rendering now after they have not all day so what the hell Microsoft.
Poking around trying to figure out how to get rid of the Hero login background I seem to remember some keys in the registry having to do with shadow highlighting and a few other graphical tweaks, I don't care that much about that particular issue but I could try and find them again if you are interested.
If I remember correctly there's a way to disable the "We're getting things ready for you" thing with group policy, not sure how it plays with fresh installs or first time logins however. Maybe something to investigate? I am sure there's a way to disable it further but it might take some looking around.
I would be so happy to have SSH. SO. HAPPY.
I honestly didn't really like the Win8 layout, it's a great idea for tablets and casual users but I just work better with yeoled startmenu. You can still enable the windows 8 menu too, it's found in Settings > Personalization > Start > Use Start Full Screen. I think you can enable it with group policy with the Start Menu XML entry but I don't see a way to force it to use that otherwise.
Too poor to afford my certs.
It seems to have resolved its self the borders are sill mildly irritating but the shadow highlighting was not rendering untill one restart for some software and suddenly there.
Eh Win8.1 is pretty selective rollout at where I work so its not much of an issue but glad to hear there is a GP to handle this so hopefully that also works with Win10.
Ya I have that enabled but its not a perfect emulation of the way Win8's works.
From my experience with it, keeping in mind I used it about a month ago for about a week before reverting back to windows 7, I don't think that the features implemented into Windows 10 are all that important or useful. To be honest with, Windows 10 is an amazing operating system. It's insanely fast, even for older system, and is fairly simple to use even for new users. I just feel that most of the features aren't really useful. Such as Cortana, kind of disappointing how you have to manually click if you want to search your computer and not the internet.
I may change my mind at some point in time, but for now I'll stick with my trusty Windows 7.
My YouTube Channel --->https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM70mQPHXT9RC8skS5pK6Vg
You can change it so that search default to searching your computer so that whenever you click Cortana it always just searches the internet from what I understand. There's even more settings to configure the search in group policy for enterprises too but I have only glanced over them.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of these features are still in their infancy and like anything will take time to mature and have the kinks worked out.
Too poor to afford my certs.
I'm using Cortana is to do everything.
"Open Minecraft Forums"
"Open Reddit"
"Open Twitch dot TV"
"Start Steam"
"Start Teamspeak"
"Open Mail"
"Remind me in 3 hours to go to sleep"
etc etc
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper useful.
While I very much dislike not having extensions, I'm content with how Edge is right now until they add that functionality in (October?). It's just super sleek, fast, and feels responsive. Haven't even downloaded Chrome yet because I don't think I will.
Those two are basically the big things for me. Other things include: non-full screen apps, minimal border on applications, and open privacy options (people are complaining about this, imo, at least they're not trying to hide any of it, and really, it's no different then how Apple works with Siri or how Google works with Android and on those platforms you can't really shut off those privacy options).
Other than that the OS is taking up less space and memory then both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and it's a nice mix of the two. I'm very happy with it.
Cortana is nice in that it is basically just a glorified run dialog box for the casual user.
Too poor to afford my certs.
Tried opening AppData.
I'd use Cortana but for some reason it's unavailable in the UK.
Did you? Because I read it and I'm not even sure what you are talking about. The only annoyance therein was the bit about Updates not being optional. Sounds like you didn't read the EULA/Microsoft License Terms and you are getting your information from Articles by authors claiming to have read it? Stuff like Cortana and such definitely gather information, but they can be disabled (FOR GREAT JUSTICE)
I've posted my thoughts on Windows 10 a lot. I've been using it since early on, though on a separate PC.
the TL;DR is basically that I have no intention of upgrading any of my main systems.
I actually feel incredibly disillusioned- like I can't even safely express my opinion. As a Microsoft MVP (.NET/C#, though) they kind of hold me to a standard, and while it's hardly spelled out I do wonder if "Never say anything bad about us publicly" is one of their unspoken rules. I was actually partly hoping I wouldn't get re-awarded (as great as it is!) this last July so I wouldn't feel bad about ripping into Windows 10, but I did... I guess feedback is a good thing. Most of this I've written Insiders feedback about too, though perhaps in a less aggressive tone.
looking at it running on my other system, I cannot think of a single positive thing to say about it, actually. And bear in mind, I'm usually quite pro-Microsoft. I went into it wanting to like it. I really, really tried to like it. But doing so was an uphill battle, so I gave up.
-Start Menu crashes. That is, the start button stops displaying the Start Menu, and I cannot get the Start Menu to appear. I have to reboot or shut down by using Control+Shift+Esc to get to Task Manager. This was a problem in earlier builds. They claimed to fix it. it's still not fixed. It seems to happen less frequently- maybe once a week, but considering I only boot the system twice a week, that doesn't bode well. I'm not going to upgrade to an Operating System where basic Shell features stop working.
-Start menu is awful. I can't believe people actually like it, though I'd say the same about the Win7 Start Menu. There is no full-screen option that makes it similar to the Start Screen- the Full screen option is basically just expanding the crappy(IMO) Start Menu to the full size of the screen, and it works nothing like Windows 8 or 8.1. Again, this probably makes sense- weirdos who think Windows 7's Start Menu isn't crap will feel right at home.
-Start Search is broken. It's unbelievable that they could make the Start->Search feature, which has been one of the absolute, hands-down, most powerful, intuitive, and semantically accessible features of Windows since Windows Vista, so idiotic and awful. Extra steps to disable it's idiotic and completely stupid web search feature, and apparently it still does web searches in the background. Hey, here's a thought- when I type notepad, how about your first result be starting notepad? No, I didn't want to go to the notepad wikipedia entry, thanks. No I didn't want notepad recipes, whatever those are. It's slightly better now but I don't know if that is because of my registry hacking in completely undocumented settings or because of changes in the builds.
-Cortana. What an absolutely useless piece of garbage, just like Siri. It's a brilliant way for Microsoft to gather marketing information about you, I guess. And what better way to appeal to socially inept nerds than to name it after a fictional, overly sexualized character that they probably got off thinking about. So many idiots saying stupid crap like "Hey Cortana want to marry me" and then going "haha she said something silly in response, it's just like a real relationship.... I'M SO ALONE"
The saving grace is that you can kill it with a Group Policy. Die forever. I thought Cortana saying "I'm disabled by your system administrator :(" was pretty interesting. The sad face should be a smiley face though.
I am also not a fan of applications not having their own processes. I can only imagine what excitement we'll get when malware figures out how to exploit that. Edge isn't an executable, for example. Realistically, this is an issue for Windows 8 forward, too, but now that Modern UI applications can run on the desktop we're going to have a lot more fun. Go ahead guys- start the Edge browser. Now tell me- what process is it? Where is the executable file? I'll tell you- It's explorer. Yep, that's right- all Modern UI programs are launched in an explorer process. You know, it's interesting in a way, remember how much malware infected systems through Explorer add-ons and things that ran within the explorer process? Good thing Microsoft learned from that, huh? Oh, they didn't, they did the exact same thing and this time they made it even more untrackable. This time, though- they "compartmentalized" it so it's more secure. Like the Titanic.
Multiple desktops is interesting, but it's such a weird feature to add. Something almost nobody needs which has very powerful tools (like Desktops) that work very well, being integrated into the OS is incredibly strange, particularly given how so much else has effectively been stripped out. Windows key +Tab shows the Task View, but you can only select from windows you have on that desktop; to switch to another desktop you need to click on the other desktop. You can switch desktops using Windows key+Control+Left/Right, though. And it looks like they fixed their former silliness where the taskbar didn't actually change when you switched desktops. It's still an incredibly odd feature to add- something for advanced users- while completely stripping customization options, which leads me to...
Customization options are limited. I'm not even kidding. It's as if, over the years, Microsoft has slowly reduced the customization options of Windows. Windows 10 provides even fewer options than Windows 8.1. In Windows 8.1 I can choose my Window titlebar colour. In Windows 10 they have decided that allowing users to select what colour their title bar and taskbar is was giving them too much power. Now it's white. Always. Always white. You want a title bar that is green? No. Go away. White for everybody.
white power. You can get third-party programs that allow you to change that, but really? This is basic functionality. The Settings/Personalization window is a joke. You select a background image/Color, and a "accent colour" which get's used arbitrarily for certain undocumented elements. That's literally the extent of the customization. Wow Amazing. I'm blown away that a 2015 operating system has customization options that look like completely garbage compared to Windows 3.1.Anybody remember when we could actually customize Windows? You know, change the size of the caption buttons, Change title bar fonts and colours, that sort of thing? Those were some good times. Interesting how all these abilities have slowly been pared down, with the "Advanced Display Settings" dialog being first made hidden in Windows 7, and in Windows 8/8.1 it's not even accessible, but some options are moved to the scaling customization options, with more limited settings. Annoying. Windows 10 removes it entirely. Microsoft now dictates which font will be used in your title bar and at what font size. How dare you presume to change that which has been so benevolently provided to you.
Honestly I think it all comes down to the idiotic, phone-based interface that is Modern UI. in Windows 8 and 8.1 it was mostly optional, nonetheless, everybody hated it. I doubt anybody actually uses the Modern UI versions of programs like "Settings"; I know I use Control Panel in 8.1. And now, WIndows 10 effectively forces Modern UI applications, but because they sort of kind of look like Desktop applications since they are in a Window, everybody is cool with it.
VPN connections use this too. on Windows 8.1 I click the network icon, a slideout comes in from the right, I click my work VPN, then I press connect, and I'm done. All done within the little fold out. (similar with Win7- all takes place inside the menu pop-up)
In Windows 10, I click the network icon, click my VPN- and it takes me to Control Panel. A few weeks ago it hilariously just dumped me right into the main control panel, nowhere network related. That has been fixed, Now it instead takes me to the network settings control panel, where VPN connections are listed. This is an idiotic design. Why list my VPN connections, but make the connection step separate? It may as well not list VPNs at all and just have it show a "VPN Connection..." option that takes you to that control panel, since there is nothing you can actually do in the menu pop-up from the network icon that does anything different for each different VPN connection. I'll ignore that setting up a VPN is a pain in the ass to begin with.
My big problem is that the development methodology of Modern UI (or rather, "Universal") applications are based on websites. You create "pages" and you switch between "pages" in the application. Buttons "Link" to other pages, you have hrefs, and you have to write HTML and javascript even for local programs. Thing is, UI design on webpages is years behind the design of desktop applications. Desktop applications use "dialogs" not pages. You go to open a file and you open a dialog, you don't open a new "page"- that might be the case for a website, but websites have their own limitations. forcing these limitations on software that is running locally is ridiculous because the only reason those limitations ever existed was because websites had no choice. We'll ignore that "Universal Apps" is a stupid name for programs that will ONLY run on certain Windows Operating Systems. They are only "Universal" if we think of the "universe" as "Windows RT and Windows Desktop".
Speaking of the desktop, Windows 10's desktop capabilities add zero new features. This is mostly in line with their push to make everybody effectively develop mobile applications- Windows Forms and WPF desktop applications are no longer cool. Unlike previous Windows versions, I cannot find any new Windows 10 capabilities that are available through the standard Win32API.
I'm not opposed to replacing the WIn32 API, but how about we not replace it with something that is garbage? is that perhaps an option? No? Universal App framework? What makes the entire thing very annoying is that Microsoft has said that the Universal App Framework is not a replacement for Win32. And yet absolutely everything they are doing makes it clear that Win32 is being slowly replaced with a framework that is simply worse when it comes to actually developing applications. (as opposed to developing "apps")
Except this is an operating system release there really should not be any kinks to really work out. I can forgive some when the improvements outweigh the problems except I don't really see any advantage to running Win10 over Win8.1 other then sticky windows in multimonitor but I am already close to just running Ubuntu at work so if I want to sacrifice some stuff so i can get improved multi monitor support I might just jump ship rather.
I agree. The issues still present would, and were, forgivable in the prerelease, insider builds, because "prerelease". But it's RTM now. There is no excuse for a lot of this crap to still be present.
I can't speak for others, but when I leave my computer running, I expect it to be the same way when I return. Automatic updates means that if I leave a program running, or in the middle of something, and go to bed or whatever, when I come back I might be at a fresh boot. It also means I stop getting outlook notifications and skype notifications when it decides to reboot.
I prefer to choose when maintenance occurs.
Pretty certain there's an option to have the Windows 8 Start Menu, it's in settings.
Alright, here's a fun scenario. Even with Windows 8.1, actually- Windows 10 makes it worse, in fact. I'm in the middle of work. I have like 5 visual studio's open, Outlook E-mails I'm drafting, a few editpad documents with notes I've made about testing scenarios, a few instances of our own software, pgadmin open to our databases for verification of data. Things are going well, or not- whatever. I'm busy, at any rate.
Then I get the prompt that Windows will restart to finish installing important updates.
You know what's even funner? When I'm typing when that prompt appears. And I press enter.
You know, the one that directly translates to "Restart Now"? Spectacular.
So now the system has restarted and I have to figure out what the heck I was doing before. Huge waste of time.
What's weird is that is with a system set to "Download updates, but let me choose when to install them" because as it turns out Microsoft can already override user settings anyway and force a system to install any update they please, or something. Something also keeps turning Windows firewall back on.
It seems like Windows 10 doesn't really make this a whole lot better; updates appear to be set such that it will try to find a time when the system isn't often used to do the update, but that doesn't mean there is nothing you want to keep. I keep all sorts of programs and browser tabs open that I switch between, or keep running in the background. So I mean updating when nobody is using the computer works but only with quite a few assumptions. What if I have a notepad document where I jotted down some notes, but didn't save it? It's gone. Automatic updates are as disruptive to me as a power outage, basically.
I know. I think you missed the rest of the sentence I quoted. To be more accurate- there is a "Full Screen" option, but there is no "Start Screen" option. the only Full screen option just expands the crappy Start Menu to be full screen.
It's interesting in a way. Over the last few versions they managed to basically tell everybody to F themselves. Windows 7 to Windows 8, Start Menu users are told to get with the times and embrace the Start Screen. users who didn't mind the start screen are now, with Windows 10, being told that they need to get with the times and embrace the "new" start menu, which manages to be worse than both the Windows 8 Start Screen and the Windows 7 Start Menu and is worse in terms of usability to the users of either.
I just activated it, it really does look A LOT like the windows 8 start screen, just that they added the taskbar. Am I missing something?