Instead, it looks like your location makes all the difference. There’s even a report that Winzip is installed if you say that your location is China.
[See the full post at: Looks like none of the Win10 privacy settings change the default 3rd party apps]
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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
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Looks like none of the Win10 privacy settings change the default 3rd party apps
- This topic has 41 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago.
AuthorViewing 8 reply threadsAuthor-
Wow… you know, I have seen people saying that Windows 10 keeps getting better, but it was worse than I remember it being. So much more of the functionality that had been in Control Panel was now in Settings, even when I tried to use the Control Panel applet. Settings is noticeably harder to use and less intuitive than Control Panel, not to mention far uglier.
I decided to try it with Windows 8.1. After the installation of Windows, it also used about half of the “hard drive,” but after downloading nearly a hundred updates, it used up half of what had been free before updating (and that was after I used the Windows Update clean-up option).
IMO, this laptop is not suitable for use with Windows with such a small storage device. It does have a slot for a micro SD card, and I’ve already ordered one that touts 100MB/s transfer speeds… whether this laptop will be able to reach that speed is another question. If so, it can help close the gap, but some Windows programs insist on being installed on the C drive, and under 8GB (and shrinking, as the updates stack up) for all of those is just not sufficient.
I put Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon on it, fully updated, and even with LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP, and all kinds of stuff that come with Mint… even with Waterfox, Pinta, and a bunch of other things added, even with my entire Thunderbird email library going back to the early 2000s and my multiple profiles for Waterfox (with lots of addons), more than half of that eMMC drive is still available.
Performance is good; it’s not at all unpleasant to use. Waterfox feels surprisingly capable browsing, which is remarkable given how slow this unit is compared to what I am used to.
Linux is flawless on this little laptop so far. Everything works, it’s stable and quick, and there’s actually room for stuff besides the OS itself. I know that my C2D laptop shows longer battery life under Windows than in Linux, and that may be the case here too, but then I think about ChromeOS, which is itself a flavor of Linux… and it does pretty well on battery life. I wonder what Google may have done to make that happen, and if that stuff found its way back into the kernel via the GNU license.
As an added plus, the Inspiron 11-3162 can easily be serviced. Dell makes the service manual available to the public, and it describes how to replace the battery, the wireless card, and some other things. It’s quick and easy, taking about six screws to take it apart (no glue). It’s thin and light AND easy to service– take that, all you people who say they have to be glued.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
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What is the worldwide loss in time and productivity because of these ridiculous Microsoft policies?
Even those of us who haven’t adopted Win 10 have wasted much time to determine it’s not an operating system worth having. It has no advances in being an operating system at all, it’s just a transformation of the Windows we knew changed into a sales platform pushed on people by using up the lifelong reputation of a huge company.
Just what we all needed, something to distract us from our pursuits of success.
-Noel
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It has no advances in being an operating system at all
Quite disappointed to read something as egregious as this here, especially by someone who is an โAskWoody MVPโ.
I thought the point of this site and these forums was to help people and have meaningful discussions. Spreading false information is no better than saying nothing at all.
I get that some of you donโt like Win10, but if youโre all going to spread nonsense about it, I think Iโll dedicate my time, knowledge, and effort to another community.
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I don’t agree with your assessment of Noel’s assertion. I’ll repeat what I wrote Oct 30:
“The reason we got 8, 8.1, and X is MSโs fixation on adapting a phone interface to a desktop OS. This was a big mistake, and an effort that MS continues to make. The only way the phone interface on a desktop OS makes sense is if you have an ecosystem of hardware. (remember a fewย years ago when โecosystemโ was a real buzzword?) MS started the Surface line to participate in the Tablet craze. Then they mutilated/mutated their Win 7 user interface, alienating many. Now? No phone. Middling success with the Surface line. Dismal Desktop user interface.
Bottom line, MS is making more money than ever โ selling services. They donโt need the consumer segment any longer. The only question is the rate of X adoption by business as Win 7 EOL approaches.”
Please list the advantages you see in WinX over 7 or 8.x. If you can’t then Noel is right. I myself do not avail myself of any of the ‘advanced’ features of X – no OneDrive, no App Store, I use Office 2003 (because it works for me), and I’m still on 1511 – not having to go through the manipulations of MS and their beta/update process. I use 1511 as much like XP or 7 as I can – Noel is even better at ratcheting down all of the phone/cloud c*** MS added to the OS. That stuff doesn’t belong in the OS! The OS is supposed to manage the hardware and launch programs. The OS, in my humble opinion, is not for managing my life and serving MS with clicks and the revenue they derive from them.
Thank you for listening. Woody, I’m sorry if you conclude that this response would more properly have fit in the Rants section.
RamRod
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I’d love to be shown that my opinion is “false information” – I still have an open mind – but neither the system nor the company has impressed me much lately.
I’m not seeing a lot of testimonials saying that it’s improving folks’ productivity. The “Universal Windows Platform” has added what important new features, exactly, to the operating system? What have you seen that represents an improvement for you? I can certainly name feature after feature that represents regression.
I get that sometimes an organization has to take steps back in order to take a different path and go more steps forward again in another direction. I also understand that there can be joy in discovery of new things. I’ve felt that joy many times – even when others have not.
If it were clear – or there were even a hint – that the new direction forward was going to benefit we users I’d surely be more positive. No one has been a bigger Windows fan or supporter than I (hey, I embraced Windows 8 and am using it to type this). No one wants more to find the good in the system and company that’s turned to the dark side. Are you really feeling good in Microsoft? If so, let’s talk concepts.
Thing is, I HAVE accomplished technically almost all of making Windows 10 into something acceptable for use. My statements aren’t from lack of experience. I’ve done tweaking / tuning / augmenting with every version of Windows there’s ever been. I’ve had divisions of Engineers doing amazing things with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and I’m quite productive with Windows 8.1.
This time around (THESE times around) with Windows 10 I’ve worked so hard to just try to maintain all the existing functionality that I already enjoyed from earlier versions that I’ve thrown away significant time I could have used to be productive at other things. I haven’t been able to find anything that it does better.
I’m sorry you feel my comments are so negative they warrant your considering leaving this site. Please don’t do that on my behalf; you post a lot of good info from YOUR experience, and I appreciate it. I even considered deleting my comment above after I posted it, but a part of me – a big part – feels that if we accept the policies Microsoft is choosing – and I can’t see them as ANYTHING but bad – then they will call this direction “success” and things will only just get worse. So no, I won’t just “say nothing at all” and stand by while the operating system that literally runs the world is wrecked.
I started with the assumption that I must be missing something important, and I’ve felt it dispelled over and over. But I’m not any better than anyone else at seeing where things are going. Maybe I really am still missing something. I want to see the light, I really do.
Do you feel a benefit from having games pre-installed (not to mention new ones added without your approval)? Do Apps really add value for you vs. visiting a web site or using a Win32 application that already did the same thing? Did the GWX campaign do you good?
How many processes did your prior versions require to be running to support a ready desktop? How many running processes at minimum does a productivity-tuned Windows 10 take? For me the numbers are 35 (Win 7), 41 (Win 8.1), and 87 (Win 10) processes, respectively. Even accounting for the big recent svchost breakup from groups into separate processes and given that hardware is now faster than ever, shouldn’t this big increase in numbers imply Windows 10 is delivering much more functionality? Where is that? And that 87 count is down from well over 100 Windows 10 processes out of the box… Why has it become so necessary to undo (over and over again) so much of what Microsoft is trying to do in order for a reasonably knowledgeable person to just use their computer the way they want?
-Noel
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@b , some of the posts wherein Noel has made these same points prior can be found by searching your own comment history.
Noel is among the most prolific contributors to this forum, and to catalog his observations would be quite a task.
If you care to refute, you may. But it really would be informative if you gave your view of the WinX advances in equally complete terms. Please note that not all the Microsoft marketing points translate to real world benefits to the end user.
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Edit to add: A lengthy post to enumerate all these benefits you want us to know about would be best highlighted in its own topic.To ward off the return response, yes I have chosen to remain productive on Win7. I do not require a shell interloper to keep intrusion at bay. And I have helped many other individual users adapt to WinX, using tips found on AskWoody.
Edit to remove content.
Please follow the –Lounge Rules– no personal attacks, no swearing, and politics/religion are relegated to the Rants forum.1 user thanked author for this post.
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Apologies, PKCano, I thought I was describing b’s behavior without making an attack on his or hers person. I respect your moderation as a difficult job.
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If you want to see regression then spend some time perusing the MSDN forums for developers.ย The number of posts about longstanding code using Windows API functions or COM interfaces that functioned properly in Vista, Win7, Win 8/8.1 but misbehave under Win10 is mind-boggling.
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Zero2Dash, it would be terrible to lose you here, but Noel is one person among many who is a MVP… there are also MVPs who take a much more positive view of Windows 10.ย Everyone has their own opinion, and some are going to differ from yours.ย I don’t think you are going to find any community discussing Windows that has only people who agree with you on any given matter unless there is a level of censorship to make sure that’s the case.ย That is really what makes a discussion meaningful, I think; it really isn’t it you only encounter people who agree with you on everything.
An operating system, at its core, has one and only one function, and that is to enable the hardware to function.ย A person buys a PC to perform a task, or a series of tasks, as determined by himself.ย He owns the hardware, so it is his prerogative to determine the purpose of that hardware.ย The hardware alone can’t do much, though; it needs an operating system to transform that hardware from potentially useful to actually being useful.ย Every bell and whistle an OS may have can be judged purely on that basis… if it helps someone make use of the hardware he’s bought, it is something that deserves to be included in an OS.
The OS determines the look and feel of a computer in a practical sense.ย It forms its very “personality,” if you will.ย It’s very close to the hardware, and thus it has the privileged position of seeing every bit of information that passes through that computer.ย That’s a big responsibility, and because of that, it is imperative that an operating system have one (and only one) master, and that’s the owner of the PC.ย Anything less is a conflict of interest, and it renders an OS wholly unfit for purpose.ย Something that has root-level access to ALL of the functionality of that PC, all of the information that is stored on that PC or that passes through it, must not have any confusion regarding whom it serves.
Windows 10 fails on both of these counts.ย Much of its functionality is not about enabling the hardware to work for its owner… it’s about enabling the hardware to work for Microsoft.ย ย Forcing the user to take updates according to Microsoft’s whims, and then forcing the user to allow some level of telemetry, is so far outside of what an OS should do that it boggles the mind.ย Forcing end users to be conscripted beta testers doesn’t advance the purpose of enabling anyone’s hardware to do its job, and certainly it’s not serving the PC user/owner’s agenda to force that person to beta test software for Microsoft.
An operating system isn’t supposed to be exciting.ย Even though it does define the personality of a PC, its job is to enable programs to be run, and to fade into the background when that happens.ย The OS is not the main attraction at the variety show; at best, it’s the emcee who announces the acts and then gets out of the way and lets them take the spotlight.ย It needs to strike the right balance between discoverability and information scent (making its capabilities known just enough to give the user a trail of bread crumbs to follow toward whatever task he wishes to do) and unobtrusiveness.
Windows 10 doesn’t do either of those well.ย Its ridiculous phone-based interface has less discoverability and worse information scent than its predecessors.ย The cues that Windows users are accustomed to that hint at where to go to find the options they need are not there; it’s just one big mess, with ridiculously oversized controls (on a PC screen; I am sure on a 5″ phone, they’d look fine) and a lot of wasted screen space (and often no context menus, crippling the usability even more).ย The time-tested menu bar has given way to the abomination known as a hamburger menu button.
Even with all of that, Windows 10 also manages to fail to get out of the way and let the user’s chosen programs be the stars.ย It’s like Lucy on the old I Love Lucy reruns, always trying to get the spotlight onto herself and make herself the center of attention.ย This is one of the effects of the rapid update schedule; each time it updates, once again people are forced to think of Windows.ย It’s quite clear that this is what MS wants… Windows is going to be the star of the show, and the updates twice a year make sure you don’t forget it.
That might work if Windows was a social media app or some kind of entertainment program, but it’s supposed to be an OS.ย An OS should be stable, reliable, staid; it should change slowly if it changes at all.ย It’s not the flashy building with the incredible new architecture… it’s the bedrock beneath the soil that the flashy building relies upon for a stable base.ย The OS enables the flashy programs, but its own success is measured in how well it does that without calling any attention to itself.ย Windows 10 is a ham; it wants all of the attention on itself.
As such, I would have to agree with Noel’s assessment that Windows 10 offers no advantages as an operating system.ย That doesn’t mean there are not individual bits here and there that are not improvements!ย As I mentioned in my other post in this thread, Windows 10 does a better job managing its own disk footprint.ย Other versions of Windows grow explosively on the disk once you begin updating them; Windows 10 doesn’t.
It’s just one example, and there are bunches of them.ย Unfortunately, they’re all completely offset by the other failures in Windows 10.ย Windows 10 tries to press hardware Microsoft does not own into service to Microsoft.ย Its constant updates ensure that nothing is ever stable, and it is very demanding that its will be done regardless of what the user wants.ย It has a horrible UI, half desktop and half phone, which is all the more puzzling when (a) the device is not a phone, and (b) MS has conceded the phone market anyway.
You may not agree with Noel that Windows 10 offers no advantages as an OS, and that’s your prerogative.ย Perhaps you do not agree with my characterization of the purpose of an OS.ย If you do agree, though, or at least partially agree, you can no doubt see how the various improvements within Windows 10 over previous versions, while being nice things to have, do not advance its purpose in enabling the hardware to serve the computer owner’s needs.
If not for the blistering rate at which Microsoft releases new versions of Windows 10, it might be possible to modify 10 to suit the user rather than Microsoft.ย It is, in fact, possible to do this, but it takes more and more work with every coming release.ย By the time the aftermarket programs like Classic Shell have caught up fully, MS comes along and changes everything all over again.ย The apps you removed are back; the settings you carefully configured are undone; the various hacks and programs you used to make Windows serve you instead of MS are undone, if not completely broken.ย It’s so bad that after eight years of fighting the good fight to make MS UIs customizable, Ivo Beltchev, the developer of Classic Shell, has given up on trying to keep pace with Windows 10.ย While I doubt MS was thinking of him or his program specifically when they set this frenetic pace, I’m also sure that breaking the ability of people to customize the stupid out of Windows 10 is quite deliberate.ย Mr. Beltchev is (well, was) making Windows 10 more palatable for users, which you might think at first is a good thing as far as MS is concerned, but their lust for control over all of our PCs won’t allow any recapture of the control MS wants of our own machines.
It’s the same conclusion I reached near the end of 2015, when I had just finished stripping my test Windows 10 installation of all of the apps, including Store, Edge, and Cortana.ย I recognized that while a clever application (that was by no means my work; I simply employed the tricks others came up with) of breakage in the right bits of Windows could make it serve me instead of MS, there was no reason to believe that it wouldn’t be all undone in the next build of Windows 10, or the next, or the next.
MS has broken the theme UI in Windows 10 a couple of times, and the last two releases have rendered certain drivers designed for Windows 10 unusable. For these two things, there is more difference between Windows 10 10240 and Windows 10 now than there was between Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 10240.ย That’s quite remarkable, and if you’re looking for something stable, quite disturbing.ย Windows 10 doesn’t have the code stability (quite separate from the kind of stability that implies a lack of crashing) to support any level of customization… MS wants us to use it exactly as they deliver it, and they’re willing to take steps to make sure that we do.ย We can’t have our unwilling beta testers running aftermarket programs or hacks that could taint the results, now can we?
That’s why Windows 10 is such a lost cause that it’s not even worth it to use it while trying to fold, spindle, and mutilate it back into something we’d want to use.ย Even if you figure out how to do it, all bets will be off in a couple more weeks.ย Eventually, the folders, spindlers, and mutilators will give up, as Mr. Beltchev has.
I’ve never been one of those people who used Windows because I had to.ย I’ve long heard that people don’t really like Windows, that they only use it because there is no real choice, but I did actually like Windows.ย Still do, if you are talking about versions prior to 10 (though I have to hastily add that I only like 8.x in modified form).ย Now I am planning for a Linux future; I am using Waterfox running on Linux Mint 18.3 to type this right now.ย I still use Windows 8.1 as primary on my main PC (desktop), but on this laptop (my C2D from 2008), Linux is primary.ย Both of them dual-boot Windows 8.1 and Mint 18.3.ย On my brand new Dell ultraportable, Linux is all there is, even though it came with Windows 10 preinstalled when I got it less than a week ago.ย I’ve bought laptops new with the intent of replacing the OS before (the C2D one I am using now came with Vista, but I removed that and replaced it with XP the day it arrived), but this is the first time I’ve ever de-Windowsed one completely.ย The only version that would have been fit for purpose on this laptop with limited storage space would be XP, and that would be a bad idea for reasons of security.ย It had to be Linux; there was no other choice (noting that ChromeOS is itself a Linux flavor).
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11) -
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Quite disappointed to read something as egregious as this here, especially by someone who is an โAskWoody MVPโ.
The MVPs here are chosen based on their experience and their demonstrated willingness to help. They most assuredly are NOT chosen because they toe a particular party line.
Hey, if everybody agreed, Windows would be easy, yes?
(… itโs just a transformation of the Windows we knew changed into a sales platform pushed on people by using up the lifelong reputation of a huge company…) -Noel
Precisamente eso!
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Please list the advantages you see in WinX over 7 or 8.x.
Task View (and soon, Timeline)
DirectX 12
Game mode (DVR, Xbox game streaming)
Cortana and ability to sync information with smartphones
Notifications Center (more unified notifications)
Built in protection against crypto malware
Better OS search
Ability to use RDP with more than 1 monitor
Built in PDF printer
Built in SSH server and client (implementation of OpenSSH out of the box)
Window snapping to quadrants instead of only halfs or whole monitorsMost of those are things I use on a daily basis.
You can fix most of 10’s problems with the registry or local GPO.
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As a non-techy jumping into the deep waters of this discussion…
A better operating system would provide better privacy and security, meaning that the option to have Microsoft not be receive any data of any kind would be easy to switch on, too…
It would have no advertising or suggestions that I use or do this or that… Help would be helpful to me, not an exercise in marketing…
Only apps or programs that I select would be installed…
It would maximize compatibility with old apps and programs that I already have and use… It should increase what I can use, not deliberately decrease them or provide for their end of life.
It would not risk the usefulness of my computer by untested updates, and updates could be selectively installed or blocked if a problem occurs…
Updating could be scheduled at my convenience, from now to never…
I need and want long term stability, clear documentation, and support…
It would work on any available hardware that it could without artifical blocking or degrading of experience…
I like Aero, and a customized desktop experience… and I want choices and control.
The ability to customize appearance, privacy, and all the other settings would be made more accessable, easy to find and use, without having to utilize the registry or GPO (which home users don’t have, anyways). None of those options should be made more difficult or hidden.
Having several disabilities that make it hard for me to type, or even scroll smoothly with a mouse, I’d like to use voice… but that shouldn’t open up my computer’s data to the cloud… I’d like it to be locally stored and utilized. Surely, with all the improvements with voice, it should be possible.
Actually, I’d like improvements on all programs and apps being available and useful when not connected to the internet… I go on and off disability, which plays havoc with my finances. Anyone who has unstable income can valueย the benefits of being able to continue to use a computer when they can’t afford internet service. I don’t want it all to vanish because I suddenly can’t afford it. That means Chromebooks are useless to me. My computers have been a boon to my mental health and productivity despite the medical challenges.
I want to use an operating system with hardware that is replaceable and upgradeable… just saying, to those manufacturers that are catering to Microsoft’s demands… it should be recyclable, too. Non-techy, but I have switched out a power supply, added RAM, and internal hard-drives, and added a CD/DVD drive. None of that was particularly easy for me, but I did it. I want to be able to do that, or have someone do it for me.
From what I can see, Win 10 Enterprise has many of these qualities (not all), but is deliberately not available to home users. I would pay for it… well, maybe not…
The last qualification of an operating system is whether it is provided by a company I trust, and do they behave ethically. Microsoft has betrayed my trust and shows no interest rectifying that. I love my Win 7 laptop, and may upgrade to Win 8.1 tweaked to useability for a few more years of comfortable compatibility using computers the way I like to. But I have been exploring the world of Linux. Slow adapter that I am, I should be okay to move in that direction when viable Windows systems reach end of life. Microsoft could speed that up by continuing to destroy its own previously worthwhile products, but the course, at this time, appears to be set.
I’m grateful to Woody’s Linux for Windows Wonks forum for giving the pioneers a place to report their experiences… I won’t be alone in my migration.
I’ve learned much from the MPV’s discussion of the various Windows operating systems, useful tools, and tweaks. I’ve survived this long on Windows, because of the help here. Different people have different values and goals. Some are avid W10 adapters, and some are not. I’ve enjoyed the animated discussions originating from the differing points of view. It allows me to clarify and choose what it is I value, what I want, and how to achieve it. I’ve received real help from here, from people with expertise, that don’t have the same values that I do… and maybe their expertise is because they have that enthusiasm for Microsoft’s marketing of Windows as a service…
My only caveat to current Windows Enthusiasts, is that Microsoft is not open about what data they are collecting, how they manage it, and how they will use it, just that they say it is safer and more secure. I don’t care how much fun or use I get from an operating system, if it bleeds data I can’t see and don’t control, it isn’t trustworthy. If an effort is made to deliberately stop me from controlling my data… well, in my book, that is just plain subversive and evil…
I wanted to end on a positive note… being a peacemaker… and it being the end of the year and all…
Thank goodness Woody and the MPVs have been here to research, share their knowledge and help the rest of us… with good humor… and respect…
Here’s to a great New Year ahead, for one and all…
Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter
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You can fix most of 10โs problems with the registry or local GPO.
I wish this were so.ย It would depend on what you see as Windows 10’s problems, of course.ย In my case, it’s not possible to fix Windows 10’s problems in that way.
You can’t fix the crazy rapid release schedule.ย That’s probably the single worst thing about Windows 10.ย It’s the thing that keeps us from modifying it to suit ourselves rather than Microsoft.ย We know that MS has declared that we MUST have Cortana, and Edge, the Store, tiles, the ribbon, and a bunch of other things many of us want gone.ย People have devised ways to remove them, to work around the strange UI, to make Windows 10 more of a home, so to speak, but as soon as we do, bam… here’s the next version, and it changes everything. Hacks that worked no longer do; aftermarket programs that replaced the tiled menu with something the user likes more fail, requiring constant action on the part of the modifiers to just maintain the level of customization they already have, let alone try to advance it.
Microsoft is willing to break things meant for Windows 10 alarmingly often, and that’s a problem.ย I already mentioned how Ivo over at Ivosoft (developer of Classic Shell) has given up trying to keep up with Windows 10, and I think it’s safe to say that more than a few of us here who do use 10 would not if not for Classic Shell.ย Windows 10 is too unstable as a platform; it’s always shifting and moving, and you can’t count on anything that runs at a kernel level to have a service life of more than six months anymore.
If I have an Intel Clover Trail laptop that has a full set of Windows 10 drivers, I don’t expect it to be left out in the cold a year later because of a lack of Windows 10 drivers (because Microsoft broke the ones that used to work).ย That did happen, though, when 1703 landed.ย In the very next release of Windows 10, Razer advised its customers NOT to upgrade, since every PC Razer sold used Windows 10 drivers incompatible with the new 10 (the famous 1709 that is still causing fits for so many). Two versions of Windows 10 in a row where products running Windows 10 drivers found themselves incompatible for a lack of Windows 10 drivers is a pattern, and not a good one.
Windows 10 simply changes too much to be relied upon as an OS.ย There’s too much change every few months.ย Who knows what’s going to break next?ย Maybe nothing that matters to you, but it will matter to someone.ย Or maybe this time it will be something you want to keep using that won’t work anymore because MS wants to keep changing things for the sake of changing things.ย There’s a great deal of code churn inherent in adding new features that will always tend to create more bugs, and that demands a great deal more quality assurance testing than ever… but there’s not more than ever, there’s less.ย Unless you count that done by the end users, of course.
No new feature can possibly make up for this.ย An OS is the stable foundation that everything else depends on; without stability there, nothing else matters.ย Windows 10 is too unstable (and again, I don’t mean in the sense of day to day crashing) for any of the new features to even appear on the radar.ย Until the foundation is stable and solid, they don’t matter.ย Some of the features you listed appeal to me a great deal, but without a stable base, they’re nothing.ย First things first, as they say, and in this case, the first thing is getting a foundation that doesn’t shift and buck and move all the time.
As such, I have to agree with Noel that as an OS, Windows 10 offers nothing beyond Win 7/8/8.1, but I also agree with you that there are things that have been improved in Windows 10.ย It’s just that those things are not what an OS is about; they’re nice things to have, but none of them cut to the core of what an OS does as much as Windows 10’s moving-target code base. Second-order niceties only matter once the first-order things are in place, and for Windows 10, they’re not.
Every person here has opinions about things.ย Sometimes it can get contentious when closely-held opinions of one person clash with those of another person, but ultimately it is that clash of ideas that furthers the search for the truth.ย Ideas with merit will withstand scrutiny; those without merit will eventually be consigned to the dustbin of history, much to the chagrin of those people who, in good faith, really thought they had merit.ย Such is life for the human animal, flawed as he is, and that applies to every one of us.
I am not Woody, so I can’t say what his criteria are for making someone MVP.ย MVPs, for want of a better word, are moderators; they are charged with enforcing the rules and helping out with administrative things.ย That does not imply that they cannot or must not have or express opinions about things… just that they be trustworthy enough to apply the rules fairly.ย When it comes to expressing their opinion, they are as free to do so as any of the rest of us.
Noel’s statement, while containing no disclaimers like “IMHO” or “as I see it” or the like, was still an opinion.ย Some things are clearly opinion, like “Vanilla is the best ice cream flavor,” and some things are clearly fact, like “gold is more dense than iron.”ย Other things, though, may be more difficult to pin down.ย The statement “It has no advances in being an operating system at all” is true if its speaker does not believe any of the things that are changed are actually advances.ย There are many changes in Windows 10, certainly, but are they advances?ย That is a matter of opinion.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11) -
Have never used – Task View (and soon, Timeline)
Don’t know how this benefits me – DirectX 12
Don’t use my computer for gaming – Game mode (DVR, Xbox game streaming)
Disabled as much as I can. These functions send private information to MS without my consent or ability to control. I don’t want to sync information with a smart phone since my work supplies that function and I can’t mix work and personal functions. – Cortana and ability to sync information with smartphones
This might be a useful OS function, but I don’t know how to access it – Notifications Center (more unified notifications)
Good OS function – Built in protection against crypto malware
OS tracks searches and sends that information to MS where they use it to generate revenue without cutting me in on the revenue stream. Intrusive, violation of privacy. Use Everything (www.voidtools.com) instead – Better OS search
Don’t know what this is or how it benefits me – Ability to use RDP with more than 1 monitor
Useful collaboration with Adobe – Built in PDF printer
Don’t use it or need it – Built in SSH server and client (implementation of OpenSSH out of the box)
Useful OS function – Window snapping to quadrants instead of only halfs or whole monitors
Thanks for your response. I hope others add their response to these and other WinX functions, both pro and con. Maybe Microsoft is listening to us customers that don’t individually contribute to their revenue stream.
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“I expect better from an AskWoody MVP” “I expected better…”
Well, I expect you’ll find that MVPs are in no way obliged to live up to your expectations (which seem to consist of “Agree with me or I’ll abuse you”) and I’m glad they don’t.
Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Chill, guys.
We’re all in this leaky boat together. Except the ones who are about to bail.
There’s certainly lots and lots of room for disagreement over various versions of Windows. Sometimes I look at a particular feature and can’t figure out what in the world they were thinking. Other times, it looks quite nice. For example, the new Timeline feature, if it ever makes light of day, is a very useful feature.
We’re generating a whole lot of heat here, and very little light.
Please keep on topic – the third-party apps being installed, which depend on locale, not on privacy settings.
I’m working on a different topic. Should be able to post it in the morning. In the interim, it’s time to relax a bit.
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Something occurred to me as I read your post, Woody.ย Nearly any topic involving Windows 10 seems to blow up like this, and it’s not just on your site.ย It speaks to the sheer level of frustration, I think, that is looking for the opportunity to vent itself.ย It was sort of like this with Vista, and sort of like it again with 8, but the sustained level of frustration and gnashing of teeth that is evidenced by this is something different.
The purpose of this site is to help people with Windows issues, and secondarily with other tech-related stuff (hardware forum, Linux forum, etc.), and even when it erupts into more venting about… the things that we see being vented about, I’d suggest it is still performing that task.ย It’s your site and your call, of course, but these things pop into my mind.
MS claims, for example, that they’re listening to customers more than ever now with Windows 10.ย If there is any fragment of truth to that at all… well, here we are, the customers.ย Opportunity to listen right here, guys!ย I don’t know that MS will ever actually listen instead of just claiming to, but going along to get along won’t be the thing that convinces them to change their path, if anything can even do that.ย Even MS and its Windows monopoly can’t cheat market forces forever.ย In the end, failing to give the customer what they want hands the market to someone else, and if we ignore for a moment the idea that they may want that to happen so they can concentrate on being a cloud services company, they have to wake up sooner or later if they don’t want to lose it all.
Second… this isn’t a Windows 10 site.ย It’s a Windows site, including versions other than 10, and if someone is considering migrating from another version to 10, reading the criticisms of 10 and seeing the level of frustration that exists is potentially valuable in that decision-making process, in a visceral way that simply stating the facts cannot adequately convey.ย Some Windows users will be better served by not upgrading to 10 at this time (if at all), and giving people what they need to make that decision (or not) is a kind of helping with regard to Windows too.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
Woody:
It’s now a little less than 4 1/2 hours to midnight here just north of Toronto… Seems like an excellent time to wish you, your family and the AskWoody community Peace, Health and Happiness in the year ahead. Happy New Year, everyone. ???
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Got you covered.
And Happy New Year to you as well!!3 users thanked author for this post.
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I hope you’re not too cold there in Toronto! -17C at present… very chilly ๐
Happy New Year, and hoping all those in the Extreme Cold Warning Zone are well wrapped up and keeping warm.
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Thank you, Kirsty. It’s actually quite comfortable without the wind… When it does blow, it’s a different story. Whatever the weather, I still have to walk my 2-year old beagle who has Snow Fever and can’t get enough of the outdoors. Going to be a long winter!
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That doesn’t sound very wintery… in fact, I’ve heard reports of some in Canada not getting their homes that warm INSIDE today!
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Hopefully this comment won’t stir anything up even more.
I LIKE that MVPs and Loungers have different opinions about WIN 10 and other things. I’m a non-techie and sometimes haven’t a clue about what to do about a particular update or issue. I can read everyone’s opinion, weigh things, and then make what I think is an informed decision. At various times I have valued Noel’s AND zero2dash’s advice and opinions, and I believe this site is the better because they’re both here.
Happy New Year, Everybody!!
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