What exactly was the better way though? I'm still on Win7 in my primary computer, having Win10 (and previously Win8) installed on my secondary.
On Win7 I press the start button and type the name of what I want to run (or find) - this lets me do what I want very quickly with a minimum of interruption.
Win8 was similar, but it threw a jarring fullscreen slab of apps in my face. I say it was similar because it still let me start typing right away and get to the stuff I wanted with minimal hassle.
Win10 is a whole different beast, I feel. The search was decoupled from the start menu; but the start menu itself returned to most of its former glory (unintrusive, no jarring screen transition). The key factor here is that I can no longer just start typing to get to an app, and I have yet to invest the necessary time into seeing if it is at all possible since it's still my secondary machine.
Right now, amidst all of the anti-Microsoft scaremongering, I'm also finding it less likely that I'll keep going down the Microsoft path. Linux is starting to look more and more attractive, with OS X a strong second place contender. And not just for the start menu.
Not sure what you mean; Windows 10 is exactly like Windows 7 and Windows 8 here. You hit the start button / start key, you start typing, and the things you want start popping up.
I can assure you, that is not the way it currently functions on my Win10 machine. For me the search bar is a magnifying glass next to the start menu, at a minimum, or a full-blown text field. Regardless of which state, I have to click it before being able to type and search.
I really hate seeing this "blame the victim" mentality.
People here on Hackers News might be prepared to seek and deploy alternative start menus, but for many, perhaps most, non-technical users, it's a difficult and scary prospect.
To be clear, Microsoft thought they were improving the start menu (the point-and-click, non-search usage of it) as well. It may be better, for all I know. But starting with Windows 8, I just totally stopped using it, so I can't weigh in on that.
Windows also comes with a tutorial at the beginning that explains the new UI.
10 is really, really similar to 8 as well. The only noticeable difference is, again, the start menu. There are small things here and there (and a much nicer graphical design), but otherwise it's pretty much the same.
If you have enough storage, I'd suggest just trying Windows out as a dual-boot option. If you don't like it, you can always remove the Windows partition, no harm done.