4 ms·

I'm sorry for your loss! :-) Now that you're on 10, though, I suggest at least taking advantage of the new features to make yourself a little happier. One of t

I'm sorry for your loss! :-) Now that you're on 10, though, I suggest at least taking advantage of the new features to make yourself a little happier. One of the most underrated (yet killer) features is the transparent LZX file system compression. It's awesome. Use it on read-only stuff like huge .exe and .lib files; it'll lower your space usage dramatically. (You can read these files with Windows 8.1 too, but you'll need to manually find, install, and attach the WoF driver to make that happen.)

danShumway 9y ago
I know you mean well, and I don't mean to put you down, and I'm sure the technology behind this is impressive and is making some people's lives way better, but this is exactly what I was getting at above. LZX file system compression is objectively not a killer feature. If it was a killer feature, Windows wouldn't have had to run an aggressive campaign to trick users into upgrading - they would have upgraded themselves so they could get the amazing new feature that they cared about. It's certainly good that Windows supports it, and it's definitely an improvement. But improvement isn't a one-dimensional scale - it's possible to build a product that's technically better in some ways that's still overall a worse value proposition for a large portion of its users. It's like if I poured coffee on your jacket and then said, "well, let me make it up to you by shining your shoes." That's very kind, but the gesture is unrelated to the problem.
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  I agree with you... I was most definitely not trying to say I support what they've been doing or that I oppose anything you said. I was in a similar boat as you; I forced to upgrade to 10 for a different reason and I hated that just as much as you did, if not more. I'm just trying to suggest a way to at least take advantage of your situation and make yourself at least a little happier (I know I did) given that, like in my case, there probably isn't a whole lot else you can do about it.
  - danShumway 9y ago
    No worries, I didn't get the impression that you were trying to excuse anyone, just trying to be helpful. And it's generally fine; in my case I use my Windows tablet for very specialized purposes, so I can honestly cope with a lot of annoyance as long as the two or three apps that I rely on still work. I mentioned somewhere else on another post though that I try to recommend Linux to less tech-savy people now, and experiences like this are definitely a contributing part of that. I spent a fair amount of time setting my Mom up with Ubuntu, and it wasn't particularly easy to get everything the way she wanted it. But then when Ubuntu started pushing Gnome 3 I just kept her on an LTS release and everything was fine - no annoying prompts or stealth upgrades, and she still gets security fixes.
    - mehrdadn 9y ago
      Wow. She's actually fine with it? Or just not complaining? Everything from the touchpad sensitivity and mouse pointer ballistics to the UI shortcuts and focus-stealing prevention always suck for me on Linux, meaning more strain on my hands etc... I can't actually use a Linux OS on a regular basis without feeling like it'll make me break a few bones or pinch a few nerves in a few months.
      - danShumway 9y ago
        > She's actually fine with it? Or just not complaining? There's no way for me to know for sure which ;) She seems to like it a lot, but I don't know how much of that is the work I put in before hand. I spent a good week customizing everything from font size to mouse sensitivity to shortcuts and browser plugins before I gave it to her. It was pretty much "what do you want your computer to do", then I built her something that did exactly that. But that pays off because I don't have to spend a bunch of time on tech support now, and she doesn't have to spend time learning new paradigms. The only time I ever touch it is if she explicitly asks for it to do something new, which is rare. I think better file/photo tagging is the only big thing on my todo list atm.
- apostacy 9y ago
  You are exactly right. People used to be excited about updates. And if they didn't work out, you could roll them back. It's ludicrous that somehow everyone forgot how to do that now. And it's not just a technical problem, it's a cultural one. It's spread to open source software. When an update from Firefox destroyed certain user's Bookmarks files that they had spent years creating, the official response was that users should have made a backup. Using computers today is so much work. I have to be so vigilant about making backups because I can't trust that my data won't be destroyed by an update.
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    > People used to be excited about updates. They were? I guess service packs were kinda exciting, but for general updates this is news to me! :-) > And if they didn't work out, you could roll them back. Yeah, or you could just not decide not to install a particular one in the first place! Honestly, I think software developers in general (including but not limited to Microsoft) need to realize that they need to stop forcefully shoving updates down people's throats against their wills, and instead write updates that are so good that people will want to install them.
boojums 9y ago
That's a neat tip. Do you know if the compression triggers stuff like Blizzard's Warden or Valve's VAC (I think it's called that).
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  I haven't checked, but I don't see how or why it should. It happens in kernel-mode with a filter driver; it's pretty transparent to user-level code (though not absolutely 100% invisible).

danShumway 9y ago

I know you mean well, and I don't mean to put you down, and I'm sure the technology behind this is impressive and is making some people's lives way better, but this is exactly what I was getting at above. LZX file system compression is objectively not a killer feature. If it was a killer feature, Windows wouldn't have had to run an aggressive campaign to trick users into upgrading - they would have upgraded themselves so they could get the amazing new feature that they cared about. It's certainly good that Windows supports it, and it's definitely an improvement. But improvement isn't a one-dimensional scale - it's possible to build a product that's technically better in some ways that's still overall a worse value proposition for a large portion of its users. It's like if I poured coffee on your jacket and then said, "well, let me make it up to you by shining your shoes." That's very kind, but the gesture is unrelated to the problem.

mehrdadn 9y ago
I agree with you... I was most definitely not trying to say I support what they've been doing or that I oppose anything you said. I was in a similar boat as you; I forced to upgrade to 10 for a different reason and I hated that just as much as you did, if not more. I'm just trying to suggest a way to at least take advantage of your situation and make yourself at least a little happier (I know I did) given that, like in my case, there probably isn't a whole lot else you can do about it.
- danShumway 9y ago
  No worries, I didn't get the impression that you were trying to excuse anyone, just trying to be helpful. And it's generally fine; in my case I use my Windows tablet for very specialized purposes, so I can honestly cope with a lot of annoyance as long as the two or three apps that I rely on still work. I mentioned somewhere else on another post though that I try to recommend Linux to less tech-savy people now, and experiences like this are definitely a contributing part of that. I spent a fair amount of time setting my Mom up with Ubuntu, and it wasn't particularly easy to get everything the way she wanted it. But then when Ubuntu started pushing Gnome 3 I just kept her on an LTS release and everything was fine - no annoying prompts or stealth upgrades, and she still gets security fixes.
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    Wow. She's actually fine with it? Or just not complaining? Everything from the touchpad sensitivity and mouse pointer ballistics to the UI shortcuts and focus-stealing prevention always suck for me on Linux, meaning more strain on my hands etc... I can't actually use a Linux OS on a regular basis without feeling like it'll make me break a few bones or pinch a few nerves in a few months.
    - danShumway 9y ago
      > She's actually fine with it? Or just not complaining? There's no way for me to know for sure which ;) She seems to like it a lot, but I don't know how much of that is the work I put in before hand. I spent a good week customizing everything from font size to mouse sensitivity to shortcuts and browser plugins before I gave it to her. It was pretty much "what do you want your computer to do", then I built her something that did exactly that. But that pays off because I don't have to spend a bunch of time on tech support now, and she doesn't have to spend time learning new paradigms. The only time I ever touch it is if she explicitly asks for it to do something new, which is rare. I think better file/photo tagging is the only big thing on my todo list atm.
apostacy 9y ago
You are exactly right. People used to be excited about updates. And if they didn't work out, you could roll them back. It's ludicrous that somehow everyone forgot how to do that now. And it's not just a technical problem, it's a cultural one. It's spread to open source software. When an update from Firefox destroyed certain user's Bookmarks files that they had spent years creating, the official response was that users should have made a backup. Using computers today is so much work. I have to be so vigilant about making backups because I can't trust that my data won't be destroyed by an update.
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  > People used to be excited about updates. They were? I guess service packs were kinda exciting, but for general updates this is news to me! :-) > And if they didn't work out, you could roll them back. Yeah, or you could just not decide not to install a particular one in the first place! Honestly, I think software developers in general (including but not limited to Microsoft) need to realize that they need to stop forcefully shoving updates down people's throats against their wills, and instead write updates that are so good that people will want to install them.

boojums 9y ago

That's a neat tip. Do you know if the compression triggers stuff like Blizzard's Warden or Valve's VAC (I think it's called that).

mehrdadn 9y ago
I haven't checked, but I don't see how or why it should. It happens in kernel-mode with a filter driver; it's pretty transparent to user-level code (though not absolutely 100% invisible).