4 ms·

My experience of Windows 10 is limited to having a look at it in local computer shops (I've been trying to find a decent cheap laptop to stick Linux on for a fr

My experience of Windows 10 is limited to having a look at it in local computer shops (I've been trying to find a decent cheap laptop to stick Linux on for a friend). I clicked the Start Menu. Fully half of it was made up of flashing animated crap - things moving about, very colourful adverts, the actual things I wanted to do were obscured by it. I tried a few machines. They did the same thing. Maybe it's a manufacturer default. Hey, maybe it's customizable. I don't know. It just struck me as being so far from what I think of a computer as being - not a tool to be used, but a flashy, childish entertainment box, like a children's rainbow cake. My ego betrays me at this point, I suppose. I don't understand how the engineers at Microsoft got to this point. It reminds me a lot of the Xbox 360 dashboard. That was the point I left 'mainstream' video gaming - it felt like my hackery, fun world had turned into a world of consuming advertising, of subscribing, of being someone else's plaything. Perhaps it was always like that, and I was too young to see?

gvb 10y ago
You can right-click on the Windows 10 flashing animated crap and remove it from the start menu. > I don't understand how the engineers at Microsoft got to this point. It was likely the marketeers driving the engineers.
oblio 10y ago
The Start menu in Windows 10 can be configured in about 2-10 clicks to stay put.
- raarts 10y ago
  Poor choice of default settings.
RaleyField 10y ago
Right click, turn live tile off. I don't know why you even bother with Linux if you didn't even try the first logical graphical gesture that one can reasonably expect to lead to fixing this problem. You can even remove most/all default tiles, like any sane poweruser would do. The same as in Windows 8. On live tiles - Apple has dashboard that has seen more success than widgets on Vista+, Microsoft decided to push some of this functionality on live tiles, so that you can have an app launcher that doubles as a widget when you want to display information on it, but that functionality is optional. If it was off on all default tiles then nobody would know about it, so it'd be a bad default. What I'd want to know about Windows 10 though, and Google seems not to deliver anything beyond bullshit articles on how to disable it or useless scaremongering blogspam - clearly enumerated and sourced list of information telemetry subsystem captures and sends back to mothership and what parts can be reliably disabled without resorting to shady third-party apps.
- stegosaurus 10y ago
  I think you missed the part of my comment that mentioned me being in a computer store - I just played with it for ten seconds to check out the keyboard and touchpad of the machines, I have no plans to use Windows 10 thus no need to try to disable it. Useful to hear that it is possible though! :) WRT disabling telemetry - probably the best way to go about it would be to set up a firewall or similar and try to kill all outgoing to microsoft.com. Turn it back on for updates and hope that they don't just send everything then, I guess. Disabling individual parts sounds like a losing game - you're running an MS kernel, if they want to do it they'll just do it.
  - RaleyField 10y ago
    > I think you missed the part of my comment that mentioned me being in a computer store Not really. You mentioned Linux, you should be able to right click. > probably the best way to go about it would be to set up a firewall or similar and try to kill all outgoing to microsoft.com It wouldn't be. 1. I don't want to kill updates. 2. I'm more interested in whether I should trust Microsoft. If the telemetry sends how many times I opened built-in whether app and such then I suppose I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with online searches in start menu if they can be turned off, as well as services related to Cortana if they can be turned off. I wouldn't be okay with Windows scanning my computer and sending telemetry on what third-party software I use or documents I view. There were articles on the internet that were later debunked, but I can't seem to find something well sourced on what exactly is going on beyond tutorials on how to turn various knobs.

gvb 10y ago

You can right-click on the Windows 10 flashing animated crap and remove it from the start menu. > I don't understand how the engineers at Microsoft got to this point. It was likely the marketeers driving the engineers.

oblio 10y ago

The Start menu in Windows 10 can be configured in about 2-10 clicks to stay put.

raarts 10y ago
Poor choice of default settings.

RaleyField 10y ago

Right click, turn live tile off. I don't know why you even bother with Linux if you didn't even try the first logical graphical gesture that one can reasonably expect to lead to fixing this problem. You can even remove most/all default tiles, like any sane poweruser would do. The same as in Windows 8. On live tiles - Apple has dashboard that has seen more success than widgets on Vista+, Microsoft decided to push some of this functionality on live tiles, so that you can have an app launcher that doubles as a widget when you want to display information on it, but that functionality is optional. If it was off on all default tiles then nobody would know about it, so it'd be a bad default. What I'd want to know about Windows 10 though, and Google seems not to deliver anything beyond bullshit articles on how to disable it or useless scaremongering blogspam - clearly enumerated and sourced list of information telemetry subsystem captures and sends back to mothership and what parts can be reliably disabled without resorting to shady third-party apps.

stegosaurus 10y ago
I think you missed the part of my comment that mentioned me being in a computer store - I just played with it for ten seconds to check out the keyboard and touchpad of the machines, I have no plans to use Windows 10 thus no need to try to disable it. Useful to hear that it is possible though! :) WRT disabling telemetry - probably the best way to go about it would be to set up a firewall or similar and try to kill all outgoing to microsoft.com. Turn it back on for updates and hope that they don't just send everything then, I guess. Disabling individual parts sounds like a losing game - you're running an MS kernel, if they want to do it they'll just do it.
- RaleyField 10y ago
  > I think you missed the part of my comment that mentioned me being in a computer store Not really. You mentioned Linux, you should be able to right click. > probably the best way to go about it would be to set up a firewall or similar and try to kill all outgoing to microsoft.com It wouldn't be. 1. I don't want to kill updates. 2. I'm more interested in whether I should trust Microsoft. If the telemetry sends how many times I opened built-in whether app and such then I suppose I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with online searches in start menu if they can be turned off, as well as services related to Cortana if they can be turned off. I wouldn't be okay with Windows scanning my computer and sending telemetry on what third-party software I use or documents I view. There were articles on the internet that were later debunked, but I can't seem to find something well sourced on what exactly is going on beyond tutorials on how to turn various knobs.