Win 10 first impressions

[gnappi]

I let the upgrade do its thing a few days ago and after a VERY long time it was done. It was a pretty cool, seamless upgrade and it appears to be 100% functional. In the couple of days running it I have yet to find a piece of legacy software that doesn't work. Also after dumping the Win7 backup files I have quite a bit more free space on my 250 gig drive than I did before the upgrade.


On the down side, MS clearly thinks that mimicking the phone / mobile paradigm with mobile related software or "bloatware" on a desktop PC is somehow important enough to clutter up the machine with. Add to that you cannot remove most of it or even the links in the start menu.


Having to hunt for simple pleasures and have them on the task bar like a volume control and having 1/4 of the task bar taken up with the "cortana" box on a PC without a mic (I bet most PC's still don't have a mic) is just plain silly.



As I said, so far it's 100% functional, kudos to MS, but the UI is straight out of GUI programming 101. It's like they tried to copy OS/2



Some ridicule folks that say it's ugly, OK it's fair to accept a plain vanilla UI, but to ridicule those who expected a bit more from a very mature company like MS is unfair.



As a species we ARE taken with appearances. Just about everything we buy has something aesthetically pleasing about it that compels us to buy and use it, and a UI is no different. Ask a Linux or Mac user if appearances are important see what you get. OK, their market share isn't huge, but betting your future on a 2d fuggly GUI without the ability to spruce it up is IMO a less than perfect tack for the future.



The bottom line is it stays, I ordered a spare drive to clone this one to, but just in case, I kept my Win 7 drive in a lock box in the event something comes up that seriously ruffles my feathers.

 

[AMD_man]

The Cortana stuff can be disabled, and if the crapware annoys you, use CCleaner. You can uninstalled almost everything, including the Store.

---------- Post added at 01:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 PM ----------

That's what I did, and this is by far the best Windows I've tried. And I'm glad the Windows 8 start was reverted back to the original menu, rather than the full-screen trash.

 

[~mr mixx~]

When I first upgraded my Windows 7 machine to Win 10, I didn't like the start menu and all the live tiles so I installed Classic Shell.

I really like how classic shell made the start menu look and feel like Windows 7

I am still a big fan of Windows 7.

 

[gnappi]

When I first upgraded my Windows 7 machine to Win 10, I didn't like the start menu and all the live tiles so I installed Classic Shell.

I really like how classic shell made the start menu look and feel like Windows 7

I am still a big fan of Windows 7.

Yeah, me too but, after gaining so much HDD space and not losing any backward compatibility it is going to stay.



The only real minor complaints I have with it aside from having to big hammer remove bloatware is there are delays opening images, videos, and other programs that I had not experienced with 7. Also the "Do you want this app from an unknown publisher to..." is annoying and multiple ongoing requests could be avoided by recording the response in the registry or inf file to suppress it coming up regularly.



If you don't use legacy software it's likely not an issue.

 

[root]

Cortana can be removed from the start bar, but the search index service was renamed as cortana, so it will look like it is still running. (I'm not a fan of that.)

I find that this is a step back (ish) to Windows seven. I hated the app screen of Windows 8 and 8.1 (I especially hated the charm bars etc, (especially as that interface was carried over to Windows 2012 and (slightly better on 2012r2) server editions.

Like I want a phone interface on a server FFS the especially when using RDP!

It can be a bit frustrating that certain things moved, (like now it is right click on an app, select "further options" run as administrator.) but there ar so few options on the main context menus and further options menu that They should have just been on a single menu...

I'm also not a fan, (and never have been even since XP!) of the stuff a bit like what I'm looking for, control panel.
I want control panel display. Not control panel, usability, display options, display settings or some such rubbish.
(OK that's just that I can't be bother d to think where things should be!)

I also dislike that safe mode hotkey (F5) during boot is disabled, in favour of pressing shift whilst clicking restart and selecting boot options. - Why? -because I rarely "plan" to use safe mode, it's usually a reaction to some crap breaking meaning I "can't" get to the normal and Windows desktop in order to restart in safe mode!

 

[AMD_man]

I'm also not a fan, (and never have been even since XP!) of the stuff a bit like what I'm looking for, control panel.
I want control panel display. Not control panel, usability, display options, display settings or some such rubbish.
(OK that's just that I can't be bother d to think where things should be!)

That's true. Finding the control panel is too hard. If I didn't know it existed, I would probably never see it, since the shortcutt to the app dissapeared.

I also dislike that safe mode hotkey (F5) during boot is disabled, in favour of pressing shift whilst clicking restart and selecting boot options. - Why? -because I rarely "plan" to use safe mode, it's usually a reaction to some crap breaking meaning I "can't" get to the normal and Windows desktop in order to restart in safe mode!

That's pretty smart. You should email Microsoft right now!

 

[crazyman143]

I expect Control Panel will be gone soon, and we'll have to jump through more hoops to find all the same applets via 'Settings' but in a way that's more difficult.

 

[root]

That's true. Finding the control panel is too hard. If I didn't know it existed, I would probably never see it, since the shortcutt to the app dissapeared.

That's pretty smart. You should email Microsoft right now!

if you cut power half way through boot about 5 times in a row it eventually "detects that there may be an issue" and gives you options to enter safe mode...
not nearly as much fun as smashing F9 (not F5, that was the old windows 95 hotkey!) repeatedly.


The control panel thing, I wouldn't mind so much, except they nailed it 22 years ago in windows 95, control panel, clearly labelled shortcuts to get to where you want. an interface option so good that they kept the ability to change to that view for two decades. - all this stuff feels like a step backwards.

 

[gnappi]

Well, I come to find I have no write access to files on my root directory I previously had on Win7. After reading and following dozens of fixes on answers.microsoft.com I cannot fix it. WHY in the hell would MS do this?

 

[Cortb]

Well, I come to find I have no write access to files on my root directory I previously had on Win7. After reading and following dozens of fixes on answers.microsoft.com I cannot fix it. WHY in the hell would MS do this?

Sandboxing I assume. Keep the ID10t's from messing with things they shouldn't?

Cortana can be removed from the start bar, but the search index service was renamed as cortana, so it will look like it is still running. (I'm not a fan of that.)

Ok, so that's why i keep killing cortana and she just won't die. That's a really stupid change.

also, iirc mashing F8 will put you into the screen to select safe mode at post.

The control panel thing, I wouldn't mind so much, except they nailed it 22 years ago in windows 95, control panel, clearly labelled shortcuts to get to where you want. an interface option so good that they kept the ability to change to that view for two decades. - all this stuff feels like a step backwards.

I EFFING HATE the fact that half of the control panel options are now in a settings app for noobs. There needs to be a check box or a test or something during windows installation that says: i'm a power user/administrator, please don't treat me like an idiot and lock down everything.