Realizing that Microsoft would never leave me alone, I decided to drink the Kool-Aid (which should be spelled Cool-Ade, but it’s not).
I don’t exactly hate it, but I’m not crazy about it. It’s all very borderless, smart-phoney, and white, except for the grays and blacks. As I imagined, the big emphasis is on tracking and monetizing users. I didn’t expect this to be so unapologetic and in-your-face. It’s everywhere, but it seems to apply more to Windows “apps” than to anything else, especially those you buy in the Store. Since I don’t use any yet, I just turned off whatever system things bothered me, which were surprisingly few in number. Number one irritation was the peer update thing, so I dumped that fast. I think Microsoft can afford the bandwidth to force updates on me.
I miss little things, like the old-school calculator, better defined scrollbars, and some other “3D” things that made earlier Windows interfaces easier to use. I haven’t bothered with Cortana and have no plans to use Skype. I don’t mind Edge, but until I get used to it, I made IE the default browser. (Where is the Home button in Edge?)
I installed Win 10 Home on two machines — my school one and the gaming computer. Since I had 8.1 on the school one, I just did an upgrade and all went well (at least I think so). The gaming one had Win 7, so I decided to do a clean install. The Media Tool made this pretty easy. Restoration of backed up Steam games and Diablo 3 went smoothly. Diablo 3 wouldn’t start at first, but after seeing the word “protocol” in log errors, I knew I had to get proper Nvidia drivers instead of the basic ones Microsoft installed. All was jake after that. Oh, the sound didn’t work either, but Realtek drivers did the trick. All this was on the gaming machine. The school one worked right out of the “box,” probably because Microsoft didn’t mess with the drivers already in place. Even though I’m impressed by a nice clean Device Manager after both installs, I pity the average Joe Walmart trying to get his laptop to work with no clue about driver software.
In sum, the whole thing went pretty well, and while I don’t see any big advantages to Win 10, I guess it could be worse. At least this is Microsoft’s focus now, so I feel like a second-class citizen instead of a third-class one.
FYI: I turned on the Home Button in Edge by clicking the top-right ellipsis (…) / Settings / Advanced Settings. Dumb.
I have Windows 10 on my Cintiq. It doesn’t bother me at all and I can’t imagine how anyone could write 5 paragraphs about why it’s awful. You’re an old fart. 🙂
It’s not anymore spyware/malware than Windows 7 or 8, so whatever. It’s actually much better than 8 because it gets rid of the Metro bullshit on desktops.
I only use it to launch Photoshop or Sketchbook on my Cintiq and that’s… about it. I have it on my Mac in case I ever need a Windows-only utility, but I can’t remember the last time I booted into it. Next time I do, it will probably require 870GB of patches.
The only thing I ever typed into Cortana was “Uninstall Cortana” and it hasn’t bothered me again…..
I actually like Windows 10 a lot. Its the one true successor to Windows 7. Much like Windows ME, Windows 8 should be forgotten about.
Yeah I don’t use either Cortana or Siri. I guess I’m a Luddite.
I didn’t say it was awful. It does a great job of transitioning from an old OS, and it’s not as intrusive as people make out. You can turn off nearly anything you consider too invasive. I’m just not crazy about the features Microsoft emphasizes or the fact that everything is so smart-phoney. I guess this is for a more synchronized experience on multiple devices. I would like to see more UI options for desktops and laptops. Edge is interesting, but the UI is too dumbed down and it needs better compatibility with oddball sites like Blackboard. Win 10 is not bad; it’s just not anything to get excited about.
You can turn off everything they put out in front of you, yeah, but the NSA can still see your balls. Oh well.
I’m just glad they toned the Metro shit way way back.
I guess you didn’t say it was awful. I’m just chewing nails this week because of that artist who ran off with my money. 😛
I don’t really know what Edge is. Is that what they call the new start menu? It seems pretty generic Windowsy to me.
It’s the new browser.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/getstarted-get-to-know-microsoft-edge-cortana
It has its good points.
Ah.. OK.
I’ve never been an IE user and would never be an Edge user. Sorry for being clueless. 🙂
Although Chrome is starting to rub me the wrong way. In the name of security (mostly), they’re breaking more and more websites. Granted those sites are using Flash and other nearly deprecated things… but it’s an annoyance. Surely they could sandbox them somehow instead of just flat out not rendering content.