I just don't like it. It's not about visual design. I couldn't care less about flat design vs windows 7 menus, etc. But it is functionally really bad.

And I know this one has been done to death, but the privacy issue really is a major one - it seems to have expanded so much since the Win 7 days. There are several pages of scary privacy things to untick when installing Win 10, and then some optional ones are still enabled after you untick everything, so you've then got 16 (sixteen!) pages of privacy options in the control panel to check after install.

Life is hard when you have 1.5 billion users, especially when a lot of them resist attempts to modernise or even update the system.

Do it all at once, they'll complain bitterly. Do it gradually, they'll complain bitterly. Don't do it at all, they'll complain bitterly. Which complaint would you like to make today> ;-)

On the good side, ordinary users have few problems with the Settings app, and it seems to do all they need -- or at least it comes close.

And the people who are resistant to change and are already familiar with the Control Panel can still use it.

That's true, but it's probably a lot harder when you've proven to be untrustworthy in what you include under "modernisation" or "updates".

Plenty of techie people warned that user-hostile behaviour like the GWX campaign or including non-security things in updates advertised as security patches would damage that trust and come back to bite them later. I think a lot of people didn't really believe that would be the case at the time, but as the article here notes, the adoption rates suggest otherwise.

The only people who actually suffered were the OEMs, who didn't get to sell new PCs to all those people whose old PCs got a new lease of life.

I am one of those holdouts, however I would have upgraded a long time ago if Windows 10 had allowed me control over upgrades/updates and had better privacy. After the tricks that Microsoft pulled, trying to force me to upgrade to Windows 10, I do not trust Windows 10 and you cannot feel that about an OS and install it.

There's also a billion and one "one click privacy fix" tools like TRONscript, etc.

The future is more-or-less-continuous updates based on telemetry. That's how Google and Facebook work as well. Microsoft will never go back to a 3-year upgrade cycle, and no business should want to do that either.

Apparently Misrosoft has said that they do want to drop the old-style control panel eventually. I realise it's a huge job, but it feels very like a half-finished feature right now.

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."

Point being they didn't even know it was broke or that they could change it. Thus you have iOS where apple's defaults are the whole OS and literally millions upon millions of people are completely happy with it.

(disabling "enhanced pointer precision" is preferable, but optional)

If your cursor is too fast you need a mouse with a lower DPI, and vice versa.

I can only guess how many proprietary extensions have been built to rely on the old Control Panel interfaces, and how few of them will ever be updated to Windows 10.

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}

First I found that ngentask was repeatedly running 32-bit ngen and it's practically impossible to debug what's gone wrong so I've replace the ngen with a dummy exe.

But it still does it, now instead of ngen it's simply "System" constantly burning 20% cpu for whatever utterly pointless maintenance task it's decided on that's obviously broken.

It's just really frustrating, I swear that the "idle" mode of win 10 costs me far more money than actively using the laptop. And it's so hard to debug because as soon as the computer activates it stops whatever bullshit it was doing.

On my desktop I tried ripping out all the privacy invasive stuff and have somehow managed to break the start menu search.

I do like it more than Win 7, the startup time's great, but it's still really frustrating at times.

Start menu search seems slower and the returned results are worse than in Windows 7, Unity, XFCE, or any alternative I've experienced. Searching "irefox" doesn't find Firefox. Maybe it's because I've disabled a number of privacy-sensitive features in Windows 10, but Windows 7 managed to make this work without spying on me.

The lengths they go through to push Edge irk me quite a bit: tagging it "Microsoft Recommended Browser", adding an extra scare prompt when you switch away from it in the control panel, resetting it to default status as part of automatic updates. I've seen screenshots of a popup appearing on the task bar begging the user to switch to edge, but haven't experienced this myself.

It's super frustrating. When I search for "vlc", it gives me search results for VLC and instructions on how to install VLC, but it doesn't actually return the vlc.exe program that I already have installed damnit.

or http://alternativeto.net/software/everything/ or https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/ or http://colibri.leetspeak.org/ or http://alternativeto.net/software/listary/?platform=windows or http://www.candylabs.com/approcket or http://www.launchy.net/download.php#windows

This was a popular thing ~10 years ago, not surprising that Windows didn't get it right. FWIW, MacOS also fails at this regularly with Spotlight, but Alfred is sometimes better. Wox seems to be the closest thing for Windows, and Launchy used to be the one the cool kids used.

This is one of the things when they announced was going to be a big part of Windows 10 I knew would turn a lot of people off. I used it sparingly on my WP8, and it was hit or miss most of the time with searches.

For instance, I always look for pizza places when I'm in a new city. I was in a new city and had some recommendations from clients. I asked Cortana like five times onmy WP8 and every time she would get it wrong or think I was saying something else. On my Android? One time, nailed it.

Also, the desktop integration is down right invasive compared to how the mobile version worked. I don't really use it at all anyways on my desktop, its not very accurate and my app launcher (executor: executor.dk) works way faster anyways for a majority of stuff I'm looking for.

This should be in the dictionary to illustrate the phrase "Damning with faint praise."

My computer has changed to be not comparable to those previous though because I now have a nice GPU, a nice CPU, and a SSD. So any speed improvements, graphic improvements, etc are skewed by the hardware changes I've made since.

I didn't turn off anything except the privacy that I could. It's just that I don't have a use case for most of the features (yet).

I don't go to my computer and think "oh great, I get to use Windows" (or Linux or any other OS), I'm there to run some application.

If Windows didn't arbitrarily send data to their servers, I might use the built in calendar or contacts. It feels like they want me to give up my privacy and they are offering nothing in return.

Memory pressure from 10 was lower than 7.

I recently bought a 2GB Ideapad to use as a toss around machine. I wish it had come with 32-bit Win10 but MS's stupid rules require 64-bit on any processor capable of using it.

Is this correct? There's a bunch of low end machines that have 64 bit processors but not much ram, and thus were installed with 32 bit Windows 10.

EG: http://imgur.com/a/yukLR

I have to use 10 at work because I'm working on a driver that I need Windows 8 or newer to write it and the only HDD with anything like that on it had 10, and I absolutely hate that once in a while I come in to work and the OS will have decided at some point during the night that updating itself was more important than whatever it was I had running.

Win 10 is the first time i considered upgrading from Win 7, and it ended up wonderful.

Oh, also, Dx12 does offer performance benefits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX_12#DirectX_12

No log in required.

(A "win10" search - https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=win10%20%20from%3ASwiftOnSec...)

If you aren't paranoid (and completely understand why some people are) about the security possibilities, 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. Virtual desktop support is finally there.

I mean, outside of that, what were you expecting from Windows? It's the most widely used desktop on the planet... it's not like there were any major feature gaps that were just deal breakers.

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 user account to be connected to my Windows Live ID. I want the OS to provide a convenient environment to run my software in, and no more.

WSL is cool, and I'd like it on my Windows 7 machine. It's a lot nicer to use than Cygwin, and it's enough that I'm not planning on setting up my Win10 netbook to dual boot Linux. The generally lower memory requirement is nice too. Other than that, 10 feels a lot like 7 with more things that I want to disable but can't.

Like what? I'm sure there is a way if you care enough.

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.

I don't use an online id for logging in and use this tool to fix privacy settings: https://modzero.github.io/fix-windows-privacy/ (read the fine print, it's quite invasive!) there are powershell scripts for cleaning the start menu - I don't have a link handy, sorry.

After doing this it's a great system! Even Edge is somewhat usable if you install uBlock Origin (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/ublock-origin/9nblgg...)

However most regular users are stuck with the shiny and annonying defaults that make you feel you handed over your machine to Microsoft to show you annoying ads.

Really!

But attaching things there is nice. Even better than the KDE menu.

My workflow for a decade or more was to hit the Windows key then start typing to find indexed apps. It's almost useless to me now and I don't really get why.

I got looking. It's an acknowledged bug. MS isn't even calling it a feature. It's just about as old as Windows 10, and unfixed.

Although it's discontinued, so I should really find a replacement.

I can't remember if its on or off by default (If its off then I switched it on long ago and can't remember) but on my setup with the option on (settings -> Personalization -> Start -> Show app list in Start Menu. Just in case it is turn off by default) I get a scrolling list on the left hand side of the start menu under "Most Used" (I have show recently added apps turned off) that feels like it behaves just like all programs has on <= 7 (Only briefly used 8 and I replaced its start menu with Classic Shell when I did) in that if during install you have the option to "add program to start menu" it appears in the start menu.

<EDIT> Here's a screen shot of what it looks like when I press the start button - http://i.imgur.com/0VdDm7v.jpg </EDIT>

Just like <= 7 (and presuming 8) its just a folder full of short cuts ("%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu") to the apps launchers/uninstallers/config/help/etc that you have installed.

What I do find annoying compared to <=7 is the ability to right click and just remove things from the list (perhaps its an option in group policies and I've just not found it, tbh I've not looked) without going to the folder I included above and deleting the shortcut.

Scenario: I'm using X 2.0. The defaults are shit, and I complain. Nothing happens. At this point, I've got three options. Deal with the shitty defaults, customize the OS, or move elsewhere.

I'm super happy with it.

Hah. You're lucky your Cortana bar still works. They aren't as easy to find when your Cortana bar disappears when you click it. Tried all the random fixes on the internet to no avail. I never even tried to fix privacy concerns -- it just broke.

I've learned enough of the new one to navigate it, but I can still basically type my way through settings in the old style menus still so it doesn't bother me.

Since I've typed out a small list of my problems with Win 10 before, they are here to read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13418573

It's what I did specifically because I've never trusted an OS upgrade. OS's are too complex for that to work reliably in my opinion.

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.

But, honestly, comparing to something like Windows NT 4.0, I can't really say, why Windows 10 is better. There might be tiny things here and there, but overall experience is similar. The only Windows releases I remember were those particularly bad (Vista, 8) and those, which accumulated large userbase (XP, 7). Other than that, I don't see much progress. If Windows NT 4.0 would be supported today on current hardware and software, I'm not sure if I would use anything else. It was good enough.

May be those only my memories, I don't know.

Beyond that Windows NT's interface is just perfect. And TBH none of the above are really essential, just small quality of life things. But even without those i'd be fine.

I think modern Windows add too many little distractions with icons, notifications/popups, gadgets, etc everywhere.

Also the classic theme. I want that back. I run Win7 with the classic theme and Windows 9x/NT4 color scheme (the one with the soft light in the 3d elements, not the "Windows Classic" in 2K/XP/Vista/7 which lacks it - i had to import the colors through a reg file from NT to get them) and i like how it looks. I used Win8 and Win8.1 for a while and ran a hack that disabled theme files (which forced Windows to fallback to the classic theme) but that broke Metro/UWP apps. It wasn't an issue with Win8.x but Win10 uses UWP apps everywhere and it becomes unusable. It might sound a frivolous reason, but i reverted back to Win7 because i don't like how newer Windows look like.

Since i don't expect Microsoft to do any of the above, my long term plan is to make my own environment that looks like Windows NT 4 in Linux :-P.

User experience is important. Would be like a car switching the positions of the Gas/Brake pedal.

UI matters.

This is practically a fresh install. I have Office 365 installed, but very little else. I don't even have a mail client set up.

I dual-boot to Ubuntu on the same machine, and the latter is perfectly usable.

So, while I don't doubt your story, I can't help thinking that it may not represent the general experience.(Maybe I'm just lucky, though.)

8GB with even a several years old CPU should be perfectly usable. SSD is absolutely required though. No number of cores and gigs will compensate for the lack of ssd.

The interface is unrelated to the IOPS you get out of a hard drive. 3Gbps SATA II has no trouble delivering far more than the ~200 IOPS a 7200RPM hard drive is capable of.

Not a fan of the UI changes, or the advertising. If I didn't buy Office 365 every other day for the last year, what are the odds your popup will get me to buy today?

Windows 10 cannot work on a hard drive?

In a way, it makes sense: when my father upgraded from Seven to W10, W10 never worked properly and killed the hard drive in a matter of 3 days.

I fully agree with you, though. An SSD this day and age is mandatory.

I think Windows 10 can be a really nice OS, considering MS would stop with the telemetry/ads BS and make it more accessible to opt out. Until then O&O Shutup 10 tool is indispensible in that matter.

Try right clicking a slow folder, selecting properties, select the customize tab, then change "optimise this folder for:" from whatever it is to "general". Apply that to all sub-folders.

Please let me know if it works, because I have a bit of a rant for MS if it does.

Perhaps this is me finally getting old and curmedgeony at the ripe old age of twenty-three, but I'll be damned if I'm switching my personal computer away from Windows 7 anytime soon.

If you were able to move to Linux - more power to you. Some of us are stuck with mighty machines and horrible system image with 10 kinds of disk/processor heavy background "management and security" apps running on boot.

Windows runs okay, but scrolling lags like hell on more complex sites and you cant play more than 720p videos.

p.s. the laptop has an SSD installed.

I think you can't unless you buy a handset that you can use Cyanogenmod on it. Which I'd say it's as complicated for the average user than the hacks needed to turn off telemetry in Windows 10.

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.

You have to get Keypirinha! http://keypirinha.com/ Set ALT+Space to launch Keypirinha, then type the name of your application to launch it. Keypirinha adapts to how you use it. Often frequently launched programs will only take a couple keystrokes. For example TH launches Thunderbird.

The disk usage is incredibly high for atleast 10 minutes after startup; tried turning search on and off, cortana on and off, nothing works.

What's more annoying is the fact that there are no official troubleshooting guidelines for this issued by Microsoft. You end up visiting a bunch of sites and very randomly trying out myriad methods to get it working.

I accidentally downloaded it from MSDN after my laptop's hard drive failed and I couldn't find any of my previously-burned DVDs or USB sticks.

Unfortunately, telemetry still can’t be turned off even in Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB. The lowest level you can pick is Security¹².

(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-without-the-cruft...

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.

――――――

¹ — http://www.voidtools.com/

So a good OS, great by M$ standards, with some annoying "features" baked in.

>I hate the menu and store that it shows so almost everything I tend to open has a shortcut on the desktop or is pinned to the toolbar

Some people would consider being unable to use a KEY feature of the OS a problem.

But you're right, aside from the glaring lack of tires, it's a great car.

The menu I found functional (and someone else mentioned I can actually remove the crap on there I didn't want). I am mostly against the flat UI (I hate it everywhere though) and the settings that moved to random places. I never had a problem with search not working or anything of that nature.