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The woes of Windows 10

economist.com

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Re: The woes of Windows 10

#411
post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mouse speed IS power user stuff. Poll the general populace, what percent actually know about mouse pointer speed or that you can adjust it. back in 2002 I went around bumping everyone's screen resolution from vga in college because it hurt my sole. at least 20% of people got pissed at me for "fucking up their settings". Almost all eventually came back and said "I can't read my whole doc, show me that thing again." Po…

Everything you are saying is only true because Microsoft has done a poor job making easy to follow settings menus.

Everything he says is true because most people don't even fscking care the very least, even if the option were right in their face. Think BOFH dummy mode. People just want a zero-knob appliance for shit to get done. We are the damn exception to the rule.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#412
post #164

I must be in the huge minority. I haven't had a single issue with Windows 10 (if we disregard privacy). Literally everything has just worked. I will say thinking about it that my computer used for 99.99% gaming/internet/text documents. I keep anticipating that something is going to go horribly wrong but so far it's been great. I hate the menu and store that it shows so almost everything I tend to open has a shortcut…

I'm with you here. Sure there are a few irritations but overall I'm really enjoying Windows 10. If you turn web search off in the search bar then it's incredible. I don't have a single shortcut on my desktop, I just search for every thing I won't and it appears instantly.

I almost feel as at home as I did in Windows 7, but not entirely. Windows 10 feels a little all over the place at times. As the below comments say, the control panel is a mess. But when you learn you can just search for mouse settings, or anything for that matter then you don't ever have to find yourself wading through all their ridiculous setting screens.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#413
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the alternative is not changing anything and waiting 5 years while everything gets rolle dup. Windows 7 was released 7.5 years ago, and Windows 8 was released 4.5 years ago. Whether or not they make interim releases, Microsoft clearly cannot pull off a user interface overhaul in any reasonable span of time.

You underestimate the complexity and depth of Windows. There's a TON of forms and code out there and you literally cannot just port that 15-30 year old C code to C# without taking a step back to think about the design and functionality of the new screen. There's a LOT of work that goes into each transition from ancient Win32 to a modern interface.

I'm currently involved in a monolithic refactoring and redesign task at work converting a C# application to C# (this is partially a joke) and it's hair raising. I can't even imagine all the moving parts involved in creating a new OS that's backwards compatible with the old but still be new...

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#414
post #411
post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you are saying is only true because Microsoft has done a poor job making easy to follow settings menus.

Everything he says is true because most people don't even fscking care the very least, even if the option were right in their face. Think BOFH dummy mode. People just want a zero-knob appliance for shit to get done. We are the damn exception to the rule.

My mum learned that if she did not like something she can just press the super button and start typing whatever the annoyance is related to. I am sometimes surprised by the specific settings she goes for. Based on this i think users at least check the options when they are easily available. (Linux obviously)

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#415
post #25

No wonder that Win10 fails like Win8 - Microsoft doesn't care about users, they only care about their shareholders. Win8 and Win10 looks like designed by color blind designers with a bad taste the brutalism of UI design plus the phone-home spyware features that cannot be deactivated. Windows 7 is too good and the perfect OS, if you don't install some recent spyware updates it will last at least until 2020 - and who k…

I rather like the clean aesthetic of Windows 10, and am now using it as my main OS. Sure, it's by no means perfect, and there is still work to be done. But by and large I am happier with Windows 10 than with MacOS, Ubuntu, GNOME, and so on. Oh, and the whole "spyware" trope is becoming overworn. User analytics is here to stay, and practically every website and browser does it anyway. At least you can disable it in Wi…

> Oh, and the whole "spyware" trope is becoming overworn. User analytics is here to stay

You calling things "tropes" or "user analytics" doesn't change anything, and having to use euphemisms tells me deep down inside you know this, too.

Also, no.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#416
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ No Edge, no Store, no Cortana, no ads or telemetry. ” Unfortunately, telemetry still can’t be turned off even in Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB. The lowest level you can pick is Security ¹². (Also, more info on Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB here³). ―――――― ¹ — https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/manage/con... ² — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12959097 ³ — http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-with…

LTSB seems better Windows for my needs. Curious though, can't we just wire trace the telemetry connects and drop their name resolution some how? (Don't know the equivalent of /etc/hosts in Windows)

Windows does use a HOSTS file as well (located in %SYSTEM32%\drivers\etc\hosts), however, (since around Windows XP) Windows hardcodes certain IP addresses and hostnames related to updating and other Microsoft services into dnsapi.dll (located in %SYSTEM32%). This is checked before the hosts file is checked, so any entries in this DLL will override the corresponding hosts file entry if it exists.

The safest way to block suspect IP addresses and hostnames is to simply not trust the OS and use separate hardware to block the traffic.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#417
post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cortana is actually pretty nice too. And as they slowly tie it into xbox and their other platforms it will just become that much more useful. Those are some of the things that I find most annoying. I don't want my OS tied into other platforms. I don't want a local search to also be an online search. I don't want a file search to also be a Windows Store search. I don't want a dozen opportunities to link my local use…

> more things that I want to disable but can't Like what? I'm sure there is a way if you care enough.

> Like what?

The things I just spent a post complaining about.

> I'm sure there is a way if you care enough.

I'm sure, too. But why bother? The benefits of the OS aren't worth the work, between researching work-arounds, implementing them, and maintaining them in perpetuity. It sounds like something I might've taken some enjoyment from 10 or 15 years ago. I think my best move now is to stick to 7 and Linux.

The netbook can keep 10; I've hidden some of the more annoying "features", and it basically runs a browser, a couple games, and almost nothing else. Doesn't matter if it gets rebooted randomly, starts whirring at arbitrary times because Windows decided to peg the CPU while the machine's "idle", etc.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#418
post #164

I must be in the huge minority. I haven't had a single issue with Windows 10 (if we disregard privacy). Literally everything has just worked. I will say thinking about it that my computer used for 99.99% gaming/internet/text documents. I keep anticipating that something is going to go horribly wrong but so far it's been great. I hate the menu and store that it shows so almost everything I tend to open has a shortcut…

I use mine probably very much the same way as you do. It's configured to look 99% the same as my Win7 installation had been.

But frustration comes from the fact that Win 10 is just so random. I've had two installations (the second after the loss of my primary HDD). The first was great, it just worked. The second however keeps doing things I don't want.

- Initial installation immediately downloading video driver during initial updates, locking me for hours from installing the correct Nvidia driver. So I was sitting there in the default low resolution unable to really do anything.

- Disabled the annoying language bar? It'll be back tomorrow.

- Disabled fast boot (which causes my pc to shut down on startup every second startup)? It'll be back next week.

There's a number of other smaller things as well. Overall I don't hate it, I just wish it would stop trying to mess with itself/me.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#419
post #290
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of bad parts too. The start menu keeps freezing regularly for me on multiple machines. Searching in the start menu returns random results. Settings scattered across multiple control panels is just absurd. In-OS advertising is a complete no go to me. The nagging to use edge too. The frequent forced reboots and full screen notifications are a nuisance. And it makes it really difficult to change default…

The dual control panels are ridiculous. I shouldn't have to go through two totally different interfaces just to change the mouse pointer speed. Type 'mouse' in the start menu, click the result, option isn't there, click 'Additional mouse options', totally different interface appears, go to the Pointer Options tab, drag the slider. And I know this one has been done to death, but the privacy issue really is a major one…

> The dual control panels are ridiculous.

MS's roadmap is to migrate everything out of Control Panel into Settings at some point, so there are not two.

For total control, activate 'GodeMode'...

Create a folder and rename it to this:

  GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
Then just double click it.

Re: The woes of Windows 10

#420
What bother me is that they use net application data only... However I tend to question that source as we have now reached a strange situation where MacOS market share is around 6% according to netapplication (netmarketshare) and around 11% with globalstatscounter.

They can't be both right and that is a huge divergence.

https://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=9&qptimefra...

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/...

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