11 ms·

That is the tragedy of win10. It's actually a great OS but the lack of respect for user preferences around privacy and updates ruins it for power users. I have

That is the tragedy of win10. It's actually a great OS but the lack of respect for user preferences around privacy and updates ruins it for power users. I have to think that the engineers who did the work to make win10 as efficient and stable as it is had cortana and dark UI patterns shoved down their throats. cortana is clippy, we all know that. Who thought it was a good idea to bring back clippy?! Could not have been the team that does powershell!

cm2187 10y ago
There are plenty of bad parts too. The start menu keeps freezing regularly for me on multiple machines. Searching in the start menu returns random results. Settings scattered across multiple control panels is just absurd. In-OS advertising is a complete no go to me. The nagging to use edge too. The frequent forced reboots and full screen notifications are a nuisance. And it makes it really difficult to change default apps, on purpose I suspect. I just don't like it. It's not about visual design. I couldn't care less about flat design vs windows 7 menus, etc. But it is functionally really bad.
- kupiakos 10y ago
  The most frustrating thing for me is the automatic updates that are difficult to turn off. If I leave a Windows 10 VM running on my laptop for too long, it will decide it's "idle" and start consuming my resources. Even if I let the updates finish, it then continues for another week, whenever I leave it "idle", to perform AoT .NET compilation, pegging my CPU. Incredibly annoying.
  - mattmanser 10y ago
    My laptop fan is a bit of a noisy bugger, if I leave windows 10 for 5 mins it thinks idle and the the fan just starts going. First I found that ngentask was repeatedly running 32-bit ngen and it's practically impossible to debug what's gone wrong so I've replace the ngen with a dummy exe. But it still does it, now instead of ngen it's simply "System" constantly burning 20% cpu for whatever utterly pointless maintenance task it's decided on that's obviously broken. It's just really frustrating, I swear that the "idle" mode of win 10 costs me far more money than actively using the laptop. And it's so hard to debug because as soon as the computer activates it stops whatever bullshit it was doing. On my desktop I tried ripping out all the privacy invasive stuff and have somehow managed to break the start menu search. I do like it more than Win 7, the startup time's great, but it's still really frustrating at times.
    - chris_wot 10y ago
      Try using Process Monitor.
  - jjcm 10y ago
    FWIW, automatic updates took me about 5 minutes of googling to figure out how to turn off. Haven't been nagged once since then. I can go in manually and update as I please.
    - tonyedgecombe 10y ago
      I think this is only available in the pro edition, not home.
- flukus 10y ago
  The start menu tries to connect to the internet when you search. It has an offline mode, but if you have an intermittent connection it will just hang forever. Opening an application should never require a connection.
  - cm2187 10y ago
    I think it is something else. I disabled all web searches and these machines are connected to the internet with fiber optic.
- Nition 10y ago
  The dual control panels are ridiculous. I shouldn't have to go through two totally different interfaces just to change the mouse pointer speed. Type 'mouse' in the start menu, click the result, option isn't there, click 'Additional mouse options', totally different interface appears, go to the Pointer Options tab, drag the slider. And I know this one has been done to death, but the privacy issue really is a major one - it seems to have expanded so much since the Win 7 days. There are several pages of scary privacy things to untick when installing Win 10, and then some optional ones are still enabled after you untick everything, so you've then got 16 (sixteen!) pages of privacy options in the control panel to check after install.
  - scholia 10y ago
    There's a lot in the Control Panel. The more you move to the new Settings app, the more complicated Settings gets. And if Microsoft didn't provide all those settings, or dropped the whole Control Panel, there would be a tornado of criticism. Life is hard when you have 1.5 billion users, especially when a lot of them resist attempts to modernise or even update the system. Do it all at once, they'll complain bitterly. Do it gradually, they'll complain bitterly. Don't do it at all, they'll complain bitterly. Which complaint would you like to make today> ;-) On the good side, ordinary users have few problems with the Settings app, and it seems to do all they need -- or at least it comes close. And the people who are resistant to change and are already familiar with the Control Panel can still use it.
    - Nition 10y ago
      I'd understand that more if it was all esoteric power-user type stuff that was missing in the new system. But stuff like mouse pointer speed? Apparently Misrosoft has said that they do want to drop the old-style control panel eventually. I realise it's a huge job, but it feels very like a half-finished feature right now.
      - nikanj 10y ago
        In my Mouse panel, there's an additional tab created by the Trackpad drivers. I can only guess how many proprietary extensions have been built to rely on the old Control Panel interfaces, and how few of them will ever be updated to Windows 10.
- mintplant 10y ago
  Sometimes when I try to rename a folder in my home folder, Windows Explorer will lock up until I forcibly restart it. Start menu search seems slower and the returned results are worse than in Windows 7, Unity, XFCE, or any alternative I've experienced. Searching "irefox" doesn't find Firefox. Maybe it's because I've disabled a number of privacy-sensitive features in Windows 10, but Windows 7 managed to make this work without spying on me. The lengths they go through to push Edge irk me quite a bit: tagging it "Microsoft Recommended Browser", adding an extra scare prompt when you switch away from it in the control panel, resetting it to default status as part of automatic updates. I've seen screenshots of a popup appearing on the task bar begging the user to switch to edge, but haven't experienced this myself.
  - VintageCool 10y ago
    The Start Menu search in Windows 10 doesn't search Program Files by default. It only examines Internet Explorer History, the Start Menu, and Users/AppData. It's super frustrating. When I search for "vlc", it gives me search results for VLC and instructions on how to install VLC, but it doesn't actually return the vlc.exe program that I already have installed damnit.
    - mintplant 10y ago
      I have Firefox in my Start Menu, and searching "Fir", "Fire", "Firef", etc will turn it up. The search algorithm is just so bad that it ignores partial matches that don't start at the beginning of a word.
    - seanp2k2 10y ago
      Try https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox or http://alternativeto.net/software/everything/ http://alternativeto.net/software/everything/ or https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/ https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/ or http://colibri.leetspeak.org/ http://colibri.leetspeak.org/ or http://alternativeto.net/software/listary/?platform=windows http://alternativeto.net/software/listary/?platform=windows or http://www.candylabs.com/approcket http://www.candylabs.com/approcket or http://www.launchy.net/download.php#windows http://www.launchy.net/download.php#windows This was a popular thing ~10 years ago, not surprising that Windows didn't get it right. FWIW, MacOS also fails at this regularly with Spotlight, but Alfred is sometimes better. Wox seems to be the closest thing for Windows, and Launchy used to be the one the cool kids used.
at-fates-hands 10y ago
> cortana is clippy, we all know that. This is one of the things when they announced was going to be a big part of Windows 10 I knew would turn a lot of people off. I used it sparingly on my WP8, and it was hit or miss most of the time with searches. For instance, I always look for pizza places when I'm in a new city. I was in a new city and had some recommendations from clients. I asked Cortana like five times onmy WP8 and every time she would get it wrong or think I was saying something else. On my Android? One time, nailed it. Also, the desktop integration is down right invasive compared to how the mobile version worked. I don't really use it at all anyways on my desktop, its not very accurate and my app launcher (executor: executor.dk) works way faster anyways for a majority of stuff I'm looking for.
- hadfgdasf 10y ago
  When you set up Win10, it asks whether you want to use Cortana. What's the problem if you say no? Don't use it.
  - Retra 10y ago
    The problem is that they wanted to use it, but it didn't work.

cm2187 10y ago

There are plenty of bad parts too. The start menu keeps freezing regularly for me on multiple machines. Searching in the start menu returns random results. Settings scattered across multiple control panels is just absurd. In-OS advertising is a complete no go to me. The nagging to use edge too. The frequent forced reboots and full screen notifications are a nuisance. And it makes it really difficult to change default apps, on purpose I suspect. I just don't like it. It's not about visual design. I couldn't care less about flat design vs windows 7 menus, etc. But it is functionally really bad.

kupiakos 10y ago
The most frustrating thing for me is the automatic updates that are difficult to turn off. If I leave a Windows 10 VM running on my laptop for too long, it will decide it's "idle" and start consuming my resources. Even if I let the updates finish, it then continues for another week, whenever I leave it "idle", to perform AoT .NET compilation, pegging my CPU. Incredibly annoying.
- mattmanser 10y ago
  My laptop fan is a bit of a noisy bugger, if I leave windows 10 for 5 mins it thinks idle and the the fan just starts going. First I found that ngentask was repeatedly running 32-bit ngen and it's practically impossible to debug what's gone wrong so I've replace the ngen with a dummy exe. But it still does it, now instead of ngen it's simply "System" constantly burning 20% cpu for whatever utterly pointless maintenance task it's decided on that's obviously broken. It's just really frustrating, I swear that the "idle" mode of win 10 costs me far more money than actively using the laptop. And it's so hard to debug because as soon as the computer activates it stops whatever bullshit it was doing. On my desktop I tried ripping out all the privacy invasive stuff and have somehow managed to break the start menu search. I do like it more than Win 7, the startup time's great, but it's still really frustrating at times.
  - chris_wot 10y ago
    Try using Process Monitor.
- jjcm 10y ago
  FWIW, automatic updates took me about 5 minutes of googling to figure out how to turn off. Haven't been nagged once since then. I can go in manually and update as I please.
  - tonyedgecombe 10y ago
    I think this is only available in the pro edition, not home.
flukus 10y ago
The start menu tries to connect to the internet when you search. It has an offline mode, but if you have an intermittent connection it will just hang forever. Opening an application should never require a connection.
- cm2187 10y ago
  I think it is something else. I disabled all web searches and these machines are connected to the internet with fiber optic.
Nition 10y ago
The dual control panels are ridiculous. I shouldn't have to go through two totally different interfaces just to change the mouse pointer speed. Type 'mouse' in the start menu, click the result, option isn't there, click 'Additional mouse options', totally different interface appears, go to the Pointer Options tab, drag the slider. And I know this one has been done to death, but the privacy issue really is a major one - it seems to have expanded so much since the Win 7 days. There are several pages of scary privacy things to untick when installing Win 10, and then some optional ones are still enabled after you untick everything, so you've then got 16 (sixteen!) pages of privacy options in the control panel to check after install.
- scholia 10y ago
  There's a lot in the Control Panel. The more you move to the new Settings app, the more complicated Settings gets. And if Microsoft didn't provide all those settings, or dropped the whole Control Panel, there would be a tornado of criticism. Life is hard when you have 1.5 billion users, especially when a lot of them resist attempts to modernise or even update the system. Do it all at once, they'll complain bitterly. Do it gradually, they'll complain bitterly. Don't do it at all, they'll complain bitterly. Which complaint would you like to make today> ;-) On the good side, ordinary users have few problems with the Settings app, and it seems to do all they need -- or at least it comes close. And the people who are resistant to change and are already familiar with the Control Panel can still use it.
  - Nition 10y ago
    I'd understand that more if it was all esoteric power-user type stuff that was missing in the new system. But stuff like mouse pointer speed? Apparently Misrosoft has said that they do want to drop the old-style control panel eventually. I realise it's a huge job, but it feels very like a half-finished feature right now.
    - nikanj 10y ago
      In my Mouse panel, there's an additional tab created by the Trackpad drivers. I can only guess how many proprietary extensions have been built to rely on the old Control Panel interfaces, and how few of them will ever be updated to Windows 10.
mintplant 10y ago
Sometimes when I try to rename a folder in my home folder, Windows Explorer will lock up until I forcibly restart it. Start menu search seems slower and the returned results are worse than in Windows 7, Unity, XFCE, or any alternative I've experienced. Searching "irefox" doesn't find Firefox. Maybe it's because I've disabled a number of privacy-sensitive features in Windows 10, but Windows 7 managed to make this work without spying on me. The lengths they go through to push Edge irk me quite a bit: tagging it "Microsoft Recommended Browser", adding an extra scare prompt when you switch away from it in the control panel, resetting it to default status as part of automatic updates. I've seen screenshots of a popup appearing on the task bar begging the user to switch to edge, but haven't experienced this myself.
- VintageCool 10y ago
  The Start Menu search in Windows 10 doesn't search Program Files by default. It only examines Internet Explorer History, the Start Menu, and Users/AppData. It's super frustrating. When I search for "vlc", it gives me search results for VLC and instructions on how to install VLC, but it doesn't actually return the vlc.exe program that I already have installed damnit.
  - mintplant 10y ago
    I have Firefox in my Start Menu, and searching "Fir", "Fire", "Firef", etc will turn it up. The search algorithm is just so bad that it ignores partial matches that don't start at the beginning of a word.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    Try https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox or http://alternativeto.net/software/everything/ http://alternativeto.net/software/everything/ or https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/ https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/ or http://colibri.leetspeak.org/ http://colibri.leetspeak.org/ or http://alternativeto.net/software/listary/?platform=windows http://alternativeto.net/software/listary/?platform=windows or http://www.candylabs.com/approcket http://www.candylabs.com/approcket or http://www.launchy.net/download.php#windows http://www.launchy.net/download.php#windows This was a popular thing ~10 years ago, not surprising that Windows didn't get it right. FWIW, MacOS also fails at this regularly with Spotlight, but Alfred is sometimes better. Wox seems to be the closest thing for Windows, and Launchy used to be the one the cool kids used.

at-fates-hands 10y ago

> cortana is clippy, we all know that. This is one of the things when they announced was going to be a big part of Windows 10 I knew would turn a lot of people off. I used it sparingly on my WP8, and it was hit or miss most of the time with searches. For instance, I always look for pizza places when I'm in a new city. I was in a new city and had some recommendations from clients. I asked Cortana like five times onmy WP8 and every time she would get it wrong or think I was saying something else. On my Android? One time, nailed it. Also, the desktop integration is down right invasive compared to how the mobile version worked. I don't really use it at all anyways on my desktop, its not very accurate and my app launcher (executor: executor.dk) works way faster anyways for a majority of stuff I'm looking for.

hadfgdasf 10y ago
When you set up Win10, it asks whether you want to use Cortana. What's the problem if you say no? Don't use it.
- Retra 10y ago
  The problem is that they wanted to use it, but it didn't work.