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Useless Windows 10 Features

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281–290 of 437 posts

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's still hard to believe that after paying a few hundreds of dollars for a new OS I haven't checked, but are the ads in the enterprise versions? Otherwise, I'd guess that the vast majority of home consumers have an OEM key that came with their laptop or PC (or upgraded from Win7), and they didn't pay hundreds of dollars for. While the price of Win10 is included in some way in the price of the device, it wouldn't…

> Otherwise, I'd guess that the vast majority of home consumers have an OEM key that came with their laptop or PC (or upgraded from Win7), and they didn't pay hundreds of dollars for. They do pay for it, as you acknowledge in your next sentence. Most OEMs explicitly include the price of Windows in their device pricing (which is made clear if the product is customizable to the point of choosing Linux or no OS - that p…

> that pretty much always drops the price

My point being that the price is far lower than what you'd pay in a store. Still no excuse for all the ads and tracking, but if you're going to impale Microsoft, at least be honest about what the context is. Their behaviour is abhorrent enough that you don't need to make shit up.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's still hard to believe that after paying a few hundreds of dollars for a new OS I haven't checked, but are the ads in the enterprise versions? Otherwise, I'd guess that the vast majority of home consumers have an OEM key that came with their laptop or PC (or upgraded from Win7), and they didn't pay hundreds of dollars for. While the price of Win10 is included in some way in the price of the device, it wouldn't…

As a freelancer, I'm not some home consumer, but someone with a business laptop. A business laptop I need to take to meetings. I need to show my business partners what is on my screen. This is not the time for some bloody Candy Crush ad popping up. And this is not the time to realise that last night's forced update borked your presentation. As a freelancer, however, I cannot get the enterprise version of Windows 10 u…

I think you misunderstand. I'm not defending them at all.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#283

Completely left Windows 10 (after several parallel years with Linux based systems such as openSuse/Ubuntu) for macOS. I get a workstation that has sensible defaults and gets out of my way 99.999% of the time. I get why others prefer Linux systems in development but within my ecosystem I am simply happy I don't have to configure my fan speed and install fourth party drivers to get WLAN to connect after the machine sle…

Even if you ARE tinkering with .NET stuff. I work for a .NET shop on my MBP and the only things I remote into my Windows workstation for are some of the old .NET Framework projects we have that I still need to touch periodically and generating dacpac files from data projects (which is being worked on macOS so I'm really looking forward to that day). Many things (Docker is a huge example) just work better on macOS, and overall I find myself more productive. I feel that macOS is just a more "terminal-first" environment than Windows, and I'm more at home there. It's a shame.

I actually don't hate Windows, I used it for decades and still switch over to it as needed. But I really love macOS. I just wish they'd fix some of their hardware lately.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#284
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that's only valid if you're a small company. Once you're a huge corporation with tons of stakeholders, it seems inevitable that you will compromise customers in favor of profits sooner or later.

I feel like this attitude lets big companies off the hook in a way. Yes, as the company grows it becomes more likely that they'll make these compromises, but that doesn't mean it's inevitable .

Shareholders will vote in someone who will compromise.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#285

Most of these are similar manifestations of the same root evil (not specific to Microsoft): Users don’t want Feature X but Company wants users to want Feature X. They release Feature X to the world. It’s a failure—nobody uses it. The PM or developers who invested in that feature need to justify the investment. So they make Feature X enabled by default. Users disable it. So they remove the disable option. Users ignore…

>They add dedicate hardware keys/buttons to invoke Feature X

Okay now you're exaggerating... oh wait, that's literally the Bixby button on my phone.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edge lets you turn that off - on the New Tab page, click on the cog symbol (Customize) and you can choose from New Tab page display settings: Top Sites & My Feed, Top Sites, or Blank Page. ChrEdge Beta can hide the news feed if you choose Focused view, but currently all they do is put it after the page fold, so you see it if you merely scroll down. I've sent a Feedback request saying that's something that might keep…

I have it turned off as you describe (and also changed the home page), but ever so often the page still comes up. It's super annoying.

For some reason I decided to try Edge for a bit, and spent far too long trying to switch off this mess (googling for a solution) and never managed it. I gave up on the "use Edge" idea.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#287
Why Microsoft expects me to voluntarily move from Windows 7 to this OS is beyond me. I will however be moving from Windows 7 to Windows Embedded POS Ready 2009, which due to contractual obligations will be supported a few more years.

After that? Either pure Debian KDE if I can stand to jump the gap from RPM-based to Apt-based linux, or Fedora Lxqt if not. (IMO -> if 'Linux' could just not be split down the middle between the two big families of Debian/XLUbuntu/Peppermint and RHEL/Fedora/CentOS/Manjaro we could get more grannies as it were)

I am the master of my computing fate, not Microsoft.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#288
post #18

I honestly think that the new tab/news/spam page in IE/Edge is (and has been, forever) the single biggest factor driving people to Chrome and Firefox. Every time you open it you’re greeted with all this complete junk, making the whole experience stuttering and slowing down your flow. I dread having to open IE on systems with no alternative just because it’s always so bad. Edge might actually be pretty good, but I wil…

I have always wondered how many big syndicates and governments actually push their malware via the msn homepage. (Given that 99% of sysadmins will at some point be forced via msn, on the malware-portal that is Internet Explorer, to install a proper browser). I really think, even if this isn't happening at scale, that this would be a great way to pwn even some of the biggest firms.

Scareware is distributed via ads on MSN. Normal users cant even close them, as soon as you close that ad it opens again, have to quit IE in the task manager to get rid of it.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as there is proper support for a virtual folder, I as a user don't care. I can have a unified view of local and cloud documents. As a developer I would settle for accurate and comprehensive documentation.

I think a user does care if they can’t easily know if a document is on the cloud. Like you’re at a conference where you discover your desktop wasn’t saving to the cloud for some reason. The interface is identical between cases.

That is a UI problem. Overlay icon or something like it - or setting to make sure all documents are also present on your machine. I absolutely do not want to know how it's implemented and where to look if it's cloud or not.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#290
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every previous version of windows you typically bought a new licence only when you purchased a new PC. The fact that MS allowed upgrades to Widows 10 on old machines should not have affected their revenue to any great extent, those machines were never going to have a paid upgrade anyway.

I may be completely off-base since Microsoft surely has some numbers we don’t that justify their choice of licensing model, but from my perspective, and from a few real experiences helping family and friends, people figure their PCs were at the end of their life and needed an entire replacement. Installing the free Windows 10 upgrade changes their mind - now they think their computer is perfectly up to date, at least…

Fair point, there probably was an element of trying to prolong machines' lives longer than usaul going on, all right.
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