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My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

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Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#321

Post by gytisgreitai »

dryanau wrote: post #284
DontchaKnowit wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My start menu hasnt even worked for over a year on 2 seperate computers now.

What do you mean when you say it doesn't "work"? You click the windows icon and nothing comes up? It displays but nothing is clickable? On 2 different machines? Really? This seems like hyperbole. It sounds like there's a specific feature that doesn't work for you as it used to, but instead of describing the issue you've thrown up your hands and declared it to not work. If it truly does not open or respond to clicks I…

Not an OP, but same issue on Windows10 on two laptops, non of the workarounds work

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/startm...

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#322

Post by ternaryoperator »

hot_gril wrote: post #267
nox101 wrote: post #205

Nothing electronic I own feels like mine anymore My Mac, iPhone, and Apple TV are owned by Apple. My Sony TV is owned by Sony and Google. My Windows PC is owned by Microsoft. My Quest 2 is owned by Meta. My Kindle is owned by Amazon. At best, the Mac and PC I could install Linux on to make them mine. The rest, not so much

I feel like I own my Mac because it doesn't bother me for anything and lets me do what I want. The iPhone, less so because it's secured against me in many ways.

My Mac is constantly bugging me to install OS updates. Same with my iPad and my iPhone. Apple gives you no option to skip the updates. The only way to avoid the constant carping is to allow Apple to do the update automatically, which is not by any means having control of your own devices.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#323

Post by justinclift »

Been trying out AtlasOS recently (in a VM), which is one of those Open Source projects for debloating Windows: https://atlasos.net

It's been pretty good so far, and makes Win 11 seem like a usable desktop rather than the piece of shit that MS wants to inflict on people.

Linus Tech Tips reviewed it a while back, and gave it the thumbs up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7CIkZcWYE

Bizarrely, the earliest versions of AtlasOS used to disable security updates. No idea what was going through their heads when they did that.

Thankfully that stupidity has passed (after lots of people complained), so (security) updates work as expected these days.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#324

Post by yonatan8070 »

donatj wrote: post #82

I used Windows from about 1993 to 2006. In 2006 I was given a Mac Mini as a thank you for completing an unpaid internship. I fell in love with macOS and have basically been a macOS user since. At the start of the pandemic I bought a PC to game on. 16-core Ryzen, 64 gigabytes of ram. I'd been kind of pleasantly surprised with WSL and just general improvements in cohesiveness. It's still got that Windows jank under the…

I recently started running Fedora KDE on my work laptop, and it has been pretty much perfect for me, so I'd recommend you give it a shot

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#325

Post by helpfulContrib »

alexruf wrote: post #314

I have to admit, I read the article and the comments and can't help but smile a little. Personally, I switched from Windows to macOS & iOS (Linux on my second computer) back in 2013. Even though I am still ridiculed by Windows users for my Apple ecosystem, I have never regretted this step myself. macOS has never felt like it was patronizing me or getting in my way - it just works. While all my colleagues who use Wind…

MacOS is not without its issues - the delays in application launch while it checks Apples whitelist for apps you've installed on your own machine, yourself, are pretty obnoxious.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#326

Post by zeppelin101 »

DrSiemer wrote: post #276
bongodongobob wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't. Do. That. Leave it alone, that's why Windows is breaking for you. You keep fucking with core components. It's not Linux. You can't do that and not suffer consequences.

Leave it alone? It's unnecessary bloatware, that performs absolutely zero required functionality. It's continuous prominent presence in the _always_ visible part of the file tree on the left of _every_ explorer window is a constant reminder that what used to be my favorite OS is now user hostile. At least in Europe it did get a proper uninstall a while ago, which proves that it really was just there for promotion. I'…

You can disable OneDrive pretty easily

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#327

Post by epolanski »

kylebenzle wrote: post #306
OptionOfT wrote: post #14

I can't even remove 'Recommended' from the start menu, not even on a Pro for Workstations. Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off. How is that acceptable? I install Edge Beta to test something, and the I uninstall it. All of the sudden my search provider in my normal Edge is reset. And the nagging everywhere. No I don't want 'back-up' my files (OneDrive is not backup, it's…

I am at a total loss as to why anyone is using windows in 2024.

I use it everyday in place of my MBP.

1) WSL2 is fantastic to work. Having various Linux images on my system is nice, this is huge for me alone

2) plenty of things work just better on windows like Docker

3) stuff like power tools is insanely useful

4) monitor, windows and desktop management is very well done in comparison to the mess of MacOS

5) I don't have all these issues the article describes. An automatic update has never broken my computer let alone ruined my flow

6) I don't see these ads, maybe in the start menu there are but I just never use it I have shortcuts

7) MacOS is way more annoying for me. I really dislike the filesystem, the window management, the fact that it will be always a third class citizen to Linux for software development (still have nightmares about installing Haskell and other languages on MacOS), the fact that it keeps resetting the output of my monitors at every sleep

I could provide other reasons but essentially it is way better for me and my use case than alternatives.

Unless I'm using a laptop, there I prefer MacOS for hardware.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#328

Post by phito »

bongodongobob wrote: post #214
navjack27 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have absolutely none of these problems on my Windows 11 pro for workstations desktop. My computer is very much my computer and I seem to have full total control over everything. I'm not sure what I do differently than everyone else but that's just how it is.

It's because people fuck with the registry, run those decrapifier scripts etc. They completely mess with the guts doing nonstandard things and eventually it turns into a mess. Ask me how I know. After I started administering fleets of Windows machines, I learned that if you don't fuck with it, it's fine! If you need to make changes, use group policy. Don't like OneDrive? Don't use it! Uninstalling it is going to fuck…

> Don't like OneDrive? Don't use it

No, I absolutely want it off my computer. But then I'm not going to bother with weird registry scripts. Windows won't let me easily remove things, so I removed windows.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#329

Post by DrSiemer »

zeppelin101 wrote: post #326
DrSiemer wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leave it alone? It's unnecessary bloatware, that performs absolutely zero required functionality. It's continuous prominent presence in the _always_ visible part of the file tree on the left of _every_ explorer window is a constant reminder that what used to be my favorite OS is now user hostile. At least in Europe it did get a proper uninstall a while ago, which proves that it really was just there for promotion. I'…

You can disable OneDrive pretty easily

Now you can, in Europe. It used to involve registry hacks, which, as others keep pointing out, could break stuff because it's not the way you are supposed to modify your OS.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#330

Post by abhinavk »

sedatk wrote: post #181

The first time I needed to install Linux on my computer was last week because Wireshark didn’t support 802.11 packet capture on Windows or WSL. So, I installed Ubuntu on my Surface Laptop 3, and my experience had been quite terrible. (Disclaimer: I’m a former Windows engineer, but I’ve also been using Linux since Slackware 3 occasionally) * Setup started in 100% HiDPI scaling, making everything impossible to read. Ev…

It's mainly because of your system of choice. For an alternative OS to run smoothly on a Windows-only device, the manufacturer needs to either have good documentation (so that someone else can do the work) or not do proprietary non-standard stuff.

See https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supporte...

If you are using a recent version of Ubuntu, FDE and HiDPi should not be an issue except for old apps. Factory Reset doesn't exist on most desktop distros but things are moving towards other (and better IMHO) approaches. e.g. Deterministic NixOS or Fedora Atomic Desktops. Hybrid Sleep and Face login is not available OOTB but can be configured. I agree with your remaining points.

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