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[Lupin6]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum. I have a laptop right now that runs Windows 7 Professional. It's at least a year or two old, I don't remember, and I know I'm going to need a new machine soon. Mine has little glitches that make me nervous. Of course, I'd have to get Windows 10 (I've never used a Mac, and no offense, but I'd rather stick with what I'm used to, at least to some degree).

Now when it came out, I heard a lot of bad things about Windows 10. Stuff like privacy problems, unexpected or forced restarts, or not being able to find files, or stuff like that. I can't entirely remember all the stuff I read, since it was so long ago.

Anyway, I asked my friend, who has Windows 10. She hasn't had any issues on her end, except for reboots taking longer than they make out to be. But I still wanted a second opinion, since this is a big thing for me. So I asked another friend. He doesn't use 10, but suggested I go here to ask. I've never played Dwarf Fortress (never heard of it either, but I'm not really much of a gamer, so that's no surprise), but he is a fan, and he highly recommended you guys, and really, I didn't know where else to ask.

So, please, can someone tell me what Windows 10 is like now and if there are any problems to look out for or deal with? For all I know, the issues it had before could have been worked out by now or something. Or maybe they haven't.

I know I'll probably have to get a new machine this year. But I want to be prepared.

[Trekkin]

Welcome to the forums. As far as I know, the privacy issues people had with Windows 10 at launch are still there; at least, I haven't heard that they changed any of the controversial features. That said, if you want Windows, it's the only option to which you have easy access, and as the whole problem was a lack of user control there's not much you can really prepare for.

[Lupin6]

What exactly ARE the privacy problems, anyway? I know there were issues, but I couldn't remember the specifics. And what do you mean by "lack of user control"? Is that just the privacy thing, or something else?

If I have to deal with it, then I have to deal with it. But I'd still like to know what I'm in for before I get it.

[wierd]

List of outstanding issues with windows 10. (or, why I switched to linux and never looked back)

1) Microsoft dialed up the telemetry collection to 11.  Some of the things in the telemetry reports include lists of programs run, digital signature and sample submissions of software that has been run on the machine (to help improve their AV and antimalware software, amongst others-- but it no longer has a means to opt out that I am aware of) and the like.

2) You are now at the mercy of Windows Update, and what it thinks are the proper drivers for your devices. No, you cant over-ride it.

3) Windows store is entangled with the OS like a scene from a salacious hentai featuring tentacles.

4) No, end users dont need access to things like actual user and group settings, group policies, or advanced filesystem permissions, Thats only for enterprise! So sayeth Microsoft Accounting!

5) "no no-- those aren't "advertisements"- those are "Suggested applications!"  Don't be silly, we aren't installing things without your permission, or uninstalling things we think you dont need behind your back! Honest! You can trust US, we're microsoft!"


Basically, I have had enough with the horse-shit, and switched to linux.  Finally, an OS that respects *my* decisions about my setup.

[KittyTac]

I use Win8.1, because I heard bad things about 10.

[George_Chickens]

One family member, my friend, and I have all had serious problems with Windows 10. I don't know the specifics for the family member, but there was something about the desktop ads breaking and resulting in weird behavior. Take this one with a grain of salt.

As for my friend and I, neither of us are particularly looking forward to using 10. I ran it for a while on a laptop, and I had problems with updates DRASTICALLY changing the time to load Windows, drivers breaking seemingly at random and generally I felt like the OS was babying me with one hand and harming its self with the other. I can't say too much because I was fed up after a week and installed Linux Mint and Debian.

My friend has all of the same problems and more. For him, it tends to crash a lot, and programs have mysteriously disappeared. He has changed settings to fix the problems, and when he turns it back on after he's done, they have occasionally changed themselves back to normal. He had a suspicious problem where after an update, the performance of every browser (well, Chrome, Chromium and Firefox, that is) was being strangled and running extremely slowly, whereas Edge was completely unaffected.

In general, most of the doomsaying about Windows 10 has been correct. It very strongly gives the impression that Microsoft wants to railroad you into their prescribed way of using the OS, with the tools they approve of only. You can still modify a lot of the OS, but it can and probably will be undone upon updating. The privacy violations are only getting worse with time, too.

[Trekkin]

If I have to deal with it, then I have to deal with it. But I'd still like to know what I'm in for before I get it.

Strictly speaking you don't, though. I don't mean to be that guy about Linux (wierd has that covered) but Ubuntu is fairly Windows-esque out of the box now, and it's free and fairly painless to install. You could consider running it off a USB stick or something on your current machine and seeing if perhaps it's familiar enough for what you do to be worth switching.

[George_Chickens]

I have to un-recommend straight up Ubuntu for multiple reasons. In my experience, it's suboptimal when it comes to "out of the box" functionality and tends to be outperformed by some of its splinters, like Mint, which is a bit more user friendly with a fair bit less bloat. Ubuntu has also done shady things with their OS, like secretly including Amazon "analytics" software with their releases as to get sweet, sweet advertisement money. In my experience, it's a bit of a resource hog, too.

I recommend starting out with Mint, as it requires less resources than vanilla Ubuntu, and it tends to, in my experience, be a hell of a lot easier to run out of the box than Ubuntu, Xubuntu or Lubuntu, the latter two having strange input problems on my end.

[Trekkin]

Oh, absolutely. I'm suggesting Ubuntu because its default interface is superficially similar to later, more touchscreen-compatible versions of Windows and relatively straightforward to try, not because it's the best or anything. Mint is definitely better by any objective metric, but I've known people to say it "feels" more different and the tweaking required might be a bit intimidating on top of the switch.

Then again, if he's used to Windows 7, Mint's probably closer to that by default, come to think of it.

[scourge728]

On the updates page: You can set a switch and make windows think you're on a metered connection, and as far as I know the only thing that changed is that I don't have to deal with windows forced updates, it doesn't even MENTION updates for OS or driver or anything, should maybe update for the first time in a few years now that I think about it..... I also don't really need most of those advanced things they locked normal users out of as far as I know.... I also managed to install the windows 7 games and a windows 7 start menu thing....

[Lupin6]

On the updates page: You can set a switch and make windows think you're on a metered connection, and as far as I know the only thing that changed is that I don't have to deal with windows forced updates, it doesn't even MENTION updates for OS or driver or anything, should maybe update for the first time in a few years now that I think about it..... I also don't really need most of those advanced things they locked normal users out of as far as I know.... I also managed to install the windows 7 games and a windows 7 start menu thing....

Installing the Windows 7 start menu? Never heard of being able to do that. Can you elaborate on that please?

[wierd]

classic shell

http://classicshell.net/

[Il Palazzo]

For a dissenting opinion - if you're a regular, casual user, who never particularly cared before that MS or Google or Facebook are collecting some user data, and who is not anal about configuring their system just like they wanted it, then Win 10 is a streamlined wonder that will do everything for you and will be generally inconspicuous. Just let it do its updates* and you won't otherwise hear from it.

*the first batch after installation can take hours, so don't let it do them if you've got work to do.

[Lupin6]

classic shell

http://classicshell.net/

Interesting. Is it difficult to install? And are there any issues when Windows 10 updates? Like do you have to install it again or something?

For a dissenting opinion - if you're a regular, casual user, who never particularly cared before that MS or Google or Facebook are collecting some user data, and who is not anal about configuring their system just like they wanted it, then Win 10 is a streamlined wonder that will do everything for you and will be generally inconspicuous. Just let it do its updates* and you won't otherwise hear from it.

*the first batch after installation can take hours, so don't let it do them if you've got work to do.

Thank you. I'd say I'm more casual. I'm not really a computer person per say.

I AM picky about setting up my computer, but only in the sense of installing all the software I had before and fixing the settings, arranging the desktop icons the same, way, putting files back in the same places, putting internet sites back, and, if they need to be looked into, maybe messing with any settings for power usage and what programs are running (performance speed). I even take notes now about what goes where, and any other stuff that comes up during installation for reference in the event of repairs (and writing down the service code so I don't have to pick the machine up every time).

The privacy thing does bother me, but I thought there might be ways to at least mitigate it. I was also rather worried about was not being able to find files I save on a laptop, or windows updates that force themselves on you so you lose unsaved work, so I'm rather glad that seems to be a thing of the past.

And trust me, I'm not going to really start USING or setting up the laptop until ALL the major updates go through. I had a horrible time with this machine at first. Critical updates didn't take and it caused glitches so I had to keep starting over.

[wierd]

As far as I remember, (since I only used it on win8), you simply install it like any other program, run through the first run dialog where it asks you how you want the start menu to look, and then after that MetroUI gets nerfed, and the start button is back. Did not need to be reinstalled after an update.

Windows 10 is a different beast though.  I honestly have no experience with it (classic shell) on win10.