[Closed] Windows 10 - Anyone brave enough using it?

Long time Linux desktop user at home here, god I hate using windows at work. Having to move a window by moving the mouse to the title bar is so tedious. Having to resize a window by grabbing the corner of the window is a bit crap also. Doesn't sound like much of a deal, but when you can't have proper virtual desktops to flick between or flick an application to, it makes drag and drop are right barrel load of donkey cock when organizing windows on the desktop.

Sorry, no, haven't used Win 10. It doesn't have a decent virtual desktop implementation does it? Thinking about upgrading work desktop to it, but not got round to it yet.

I have used it - I had a (piece of crap) HP ENVY 15 I've just sent back for refund and I went from Win 8.1 to 10. I'd say W10 has a slightly updated 8.1 kernel (pretty fast) and a new graphical interface which isn't horrific but has a few foibles of its own:

The start button doesn't give you an hierarchical list of programs but an 'a to z' listing which can be a little confusing.

New tech in W10 (not MS's fault really) is display scaling. As a result if you have a 1080p display or higher some programs (including MS's own, such as device manager) will appear fuzzy as they don't understand it, or appear much smaller as they are pixel based.

I'd say a mixed bag. If you could get W7 interface on a W10 kernel then that would be nice. Classic shell still works, so I hear.

Overall - better than W8 but not as usable as W7. I can't comment on reliability as my ENVY 15 was a bag of poo and kept crashing, regardless of OS. 🙂

How FFS?

Um. I don't mean to be facetious, but it's in Windows Update Settings...?

Having to move a window by moving the mouse to the title bar is so tedious.

Alt-Space-M and the arrow keys (or same keystroke and then move the mouse) will do that.

Doesn't sound like much of a deal, but when you can't have proper virtual desktops to flick between or flick an application to, it makes drag and drop are right barrel load of donkey cock when organizing windows on the desktop.

Window-Left / Right will snap a window to half of the screen (or you can drag it), which can be handy for C&P duties. Never use it myself though; what I do to copy to an inactive window with the mouse is drag to the window's icon in the taskbar; wait a second and the mouse-overed tab will pop to the front with focus, then you can drop it in. Though most often I'll use Control-C/X/V to copy and paste, with Alt-Tab to switch between windows. Way faster than any of this 'dragging' malarky.

It's easy to blame tools you're not used to; before you'd posted this I'd probably have bemoaned Linux's inability to do things in a way I'm familiar with, it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to me to use the multi-desktop.

...Classic shell still works, so I hear.

"Works" as in functions, yes, but not particularly helpful at restoring the W7 look and feel, IME.

The start button doesn't give you an hierarchical list of programs but an 'a to z' listing which can be a little confusing.

Why use the Start menu at all? Hit the Windows key, start typing what you want. If I want Notepad I hit Windows, by the time I've got as far as typing 'not' it's popped up in the apps list.

Why use the Start menu at all? Hit the Windows key, start typing what you want

How hard is to navigate an A to Z list of programmes? You don't even have to, you can search, put popular programs on the start pop up or have them as traditional icons.

I don't get the Win7 love, Win10 does it all but better IME. As for people thinking XP is still acceptable you clearly don't use computers much.

Switched both my PCs from W7 to W10 when W10 was released. No issues so far. Boots in about 15-20s on the machine with the SSD. Has never crashed on me. The only criticism I have is that visually its a bit sparse with no texture but I guess that's because its got to work across multiple platforms.

Having to move a window by moving the mouse to the title bar is so tedious.

Alt-Space-M and the arrow keys (or same keystroke and then move the mouse) will do that.

Thanks for that, will have to try, but it sounds like a game of twister for my fingers.

It's easy to blame tools you're not used to; before you'd posted this I'd probably have bemoaned Linux's inability to do things in a way I'm familiar with, it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to me to use the multi-desktop.

Does Win10 have virtual desktops without having seperate displays? It's nice to have just a few windows on each desktop grouped by common task, lessens the clutter a bit.

This is the best bit of Win10 - not having to know where any settings are any more.

It's done it since Vista (arguably since XP with a third-party app called Launchy).

Does Win10 have virtual desktops without having seperate displays?

Even with a myriad of windows open, Alt-Tab and Alt-Shift-Tab (to go backwards) keeps it under control for me. But yes, it does; if you use Windows-Tab you get a 'new desktop' icon in the bottom right corner.

Thanks for that, will have to try, but it sounds like a game of twister for my fingers.

The other thing I've just thought of, the first ten pins on your taskbar are mapped to Windows-numberkey. So if you want to drag and drop to an app that's in the third position on your bar, pick it up, press Win-3 and it'll pull that app to the fore, launching it if necessary.

Like I said though, I rarely use drag & drop; keyboard shortcuts are where it's at for me.

If Win10 is registered to the hardware what happens if the hard drive or motherboard go wrong and need changing, will I have to buy a new OS as well?

Like I said though, I rarely use drag & drop; keyboard shortcuts are where it's at for me.

Which are shit when you need to start going through some layered security and have to nest RDP sessions.

The main thing that's stopped me upgrading to Win 10 is the lack of control over updates.

The prospect of a forced driver update gubbing something that's worked fine for months doesn't appeal.
Also I don't fancy having to wait on boot for 10mins while it applies the 30 patches inevitably released since I last switched on, when I only booted up to quickly check something...

The other area I'd like my mind putting at rest about before I do, is all the chatter back to base that's been mentioned.

Hit the Windows key, start typing what you want. If I want Notepad I hit Windows, by the time I've got as far as typing 'not' it's popped up in the apps list.

Things like device manager are still there with its old, round edged window, but you have to click through an unnecessarily long sequence of square tiles to get to it.

Think your doing it wrong.

For control freaks, I got this via makeuseof :

create a new folder on your desktop: Right-click > New > Folder and name it the following string:

AllSettings.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

("AllSettings" is what mine's called - he calls it GodMode which made me kill a kitten when I first read it)

Once that new window opens you canb create shortcuts to any you really like and shove them onto the desktop or probably the taskbar too

Bloody hell, does that still work? That dates back to like Windows 95 days IIRC.

It does indeed. Here endeth the lesson as to why Windows is a lame donkey.

No I haven't tried 10 yet, it will be turning my machine into a massive spying device when i get an internet connection and I'll probably delete it after that.

Unless DX12 is genuinely awesome with 6/8 cores. Even then...

using win 10 for a while now. IE doesn't like running sharepoint on win10. OK on win7, but keeps cashing after a minute or so. none of the fixes posted online seem to work.

not just my PC either.

otherwise, it's fairly quick and works well for me.

I've been on it at home for a few months, it just works and works well so no reason not to go for it. Big improvement over 8.

I still have 7 at work though and if I'm honest I'd struggle to think of any compelling reason to upgrade from a functionality point of view. That said, since there are no real downsides I reckon it's generally better to be more up to date than a generation or 2 behind.

I seem to be having no end of problems since upgrading a couple of days ago, am I the only one?

Main issue is around the network connection....
I seem to be able to connect to Wi-Fi for no longer than 10 minutes at a time before one of a number of errors happen.
- Wireless adapter is disabled when starting up, so doesn't connect in the first place.
- "Default Gateway is not available".
- "One or more network protocols is missing".

On each occasion the problem can be fixed either using windows troubleshooter or just through fixes I've googled (drivers updated, ivp6 is disabled, 3rd party anti virus disabled, using netsh in a command prompt, restarting routers etc. etc).

Getting to the end of my tether with it, have spent the last 2 evenings trying without success for a fix. Any suggestions before I go back to 8?

I've pretty much well decided to stay W7 and nothing here has persuaded me otherwise.
This laptop came with Vista and a free W7 upgrade, which on installing caused problems with drivers. An old laptop I put Linux Mint on (Vista had ground to a halt) doesn't play video smoothly and I haven't been able to sort that. I'd fully expect the same driver issues upgrading to W10 and I just can't be arsed with potential troubleshooting when it all currently works fine on W7.

Question. Do you have to create a Microsoft account to use W10?

OK so I b0rked my W7 install and tried W10.

Seems to work OK on my X58 board. Spying and prompting and returning settings I have overridden is happening as advertised.

Quite frankly it's usable, but sets a dangerous precedent.

[url= https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/03/16/1522250/microsoft-denies-rogue-windows-10-upgrades-says-users-remain-fully-in-control ]Microsoft really doesn't give a tiny hint of a shit about users any more[/url], we're in for a rougher ride than ever in that respect.

I cannot be arsed to benchmark it. Seems the same, and certainly makes no difference to CPU bound tasks. Under the hood, it's a rotten cludge in some respects, especially the control panel. Looks like a joke. When Mint XFCE looks more finished than Windows, we're through the looking glass.

@BA - No, but as is the wont of Microsoft at the moment, you'll be bullied to set one up in several ways. FFS it tried to force that on me when I set up the user accounts, and again when I added another.

I use Windows 7 on my laptop and have been happy with that but was contemplating the free upgrade to W10. However, I bought a new laptop for the wife recently which came with W8.1 which I'd heard was a piece of crap so I upgraded her machine to W10 to see what it was like.

First impresions were very good with the basic interface being quite nice and some of the new add-ons like multiple desktops could be useful. However, when I read that updates were going to be automatic I read around about W10 and started to get an uneasy feeling.

Basically anyone using or thinking of upgrading to W10 should watch this:

I basically did everything he suggested to my wife's machine and I don't think I'll bother upgrading my W7 laptop.

Public sector?

I boggle at stuff like this. You're migrating from a 14 year old operating system to a seven year old operating system, did it catch them by surprise?

If the user is who I think he is, no, we're not.

[IMG] [/IMG]

Had to reset my privacy settings after noting a lot of outgoing traffic at idle.

I also didn't install Twitter, which has shown up by itself.

The fear is real.

EDIT - This helps:

I was a bit peeved off on Saturday evening when my laptop basically said "I'm about to update, no option to defer it, you've 15 minutes to save and close everything".

If I'd been working, or in a meeting, making a cup of tea etc, I'd have been stuffed if I'd not saved.

And it took about an hour to do.

First thing that really peeved me off.

Well I'm glad my concerns from a few weeks ago weren't fear-mongering over nothing...

verses - Member

The main thing that's stopped me upgrading to Win 10 is the lack of control over updates.

The prospect of a forced driver update gubbing something that's worked fine for months doesn't appeal.
Also I don't fancy having to wait on boot for 10mins while it applies the 30 patches inevitably released since I last switched on, when I only booted up to quickly check something...

The other area I'd like my mind putting at rest about before I do, is all the chatter back to base that's been mentioned.

If I'd been working, or in a meeting, making a cup of tea etc, I'd have been stuffed if I'd not saved.

One would assume that if it were a work laptop they'd have taken control over the update process. And that they [i]could[/i] take control of it...

[IMG] [/IMG]

I also can't get this ^^^ to go away, and search is really, really slow. Even for installed programs etc :/