4 ms·

In the nearly four years since its release, I have yet to see a headline that makes me feel better about Windows 10 or happier that I'm stuck using it on my lap

In the nearly four years since its release, I have yet to see a headline that makes me feel better about Windows 10 or happier that I'm stuck using it on my laptop. I see at least one headline a week that makes me glad I stuck to Windows 7 on my primary desktop.

HenryBemis 8y ago
But hey, their telemetry is top notch ;) Seriously though, I am still on 8.1, (using Windows Firewall Control) and I use Acronis to backup monthly (and then upload to Carbonite) so even if MS does a sneaky thing and upgrade me to 10, I will be able to roll back relatively easy. Win10 is overall a bad bad bad OS, the only good things I hear about it is the efficiency of CPU/RAM usage, but I am not switching for that.
- DanBC 8y ago
  > Win10 is overall a bad bad bad OS, the only good things I hear about it is the efficiency of CPU/RAM usage, but I am not switching for that. If you're using a modern netbook witha tiny amount of disc space Windows 8 uses WIMBOOT which has a dumb problem with the way it handles updates - storing them outside the compressed WIMBOOT areas and thus taking up large amounts of space. Particularly frustrating since WIMBOOT was created for machines with small storage. Windows 10 uses Compact OS which is better. I agree that Windows 10 isn't very good.
BLKNSLVR 8y ago
I used to use a Windows 10 virtual machine in order to have a "consistent" end-user environment for the minimal day-to-day computer-related tasks I perform (primarily spreadsheets and other Office related stuff). It was specifically intended to be an almost quarantined, minimal maintenance system - I had other machines on which to install software for one-use-only and testing reasons. Over about two years that VM, with only Windows Updates being installed on it, progressively slowed to a crawl in its responsiveness, in that even entering values into a spreadsheet would have noticeable lag. I eventually created a Windows 7 VM with identical hardware settings in order to compare performance (make sure it wasn't networking or VM platform issues). The Windows 7 VM has now replaced the Windows 10 VM and is still super-responsive a year later. I can't see any value in Windows 10. I don't what it's doing with the resources provided to it, but "doing what I tell it" doesn't seem to be very high priority. As an aside: I've moved my primary desktop / on-metal system to Ubuntu, and only ever boot into Windows 10 on the rare occasions I need a windows-exclusive piece of software.
- Theodores 8y ago
  > only ever boot into Windows 10 on the rare occasions I need a windows-exclusive piece of software. Which is like never. Gets new machine two years on, fdisks the drive without even booting into Windows once.
cm2187 8y ago
There are improvments, but none that I can associate to the UI, which I still think is a massive regression. Being able to copy paste from the console. SMB3 (i.e. offering encryption if properly configured). Virtualization was a major leap forward in windows 8/windows server 2012. Http2 support in IIS.
- Tijdreiziger 8y ago
  Don't forget WSL, that's truly a killer feature for me
  - wDcBKgt66V8WDs 8y ago
    and a revamped console is in the works. soon we can have emojis in our "bash for windows"
- Causality1 8y ago
  What truly turned me off of Windows 10 was something small but very symbolic. On past versions of windows, if you want a shortcut to, say, Notepad on the desktop, you open the start menu, begin typing the name, and when it pops up in the list you click and drag it onto the desktop. You can also right click it and hit "send to desktop (create shortcut)." Windows 10 can't do either of those things. If you try to click and drag a Start menu search result it does nothing. Right clicking only gives you the option to add it to the start menu or task bar. So, if you want a desktop shortcut, you have to add it to the start menu, drag it off the start menu onto the desktop, and then delete it off the start menu.
  - ConceptJunkie 8y ago
    I experienced this problem as well, and is very disheartening. So many basic operations from good Windows version are either missing or very hard to discover on Windows 10. There was absolutely no _good_ thought put into its UI choices.
pcwalton 8y ago
Here's one: https://alexgaynor.net/2019/mar/07/chrome-windows-exploit-security-beyond-bugfixes/ https://alexgaynor.net/2019/mar/07/chrome-windows-exploit-se... You're sacrificing a lot of security by staying on Windows 7. It doesn't have nearly the level of modern kernel hardening features that newer versions have.
- Causality1 8y ago
  I don't use Chrome. I use Firefox and NoScript with a whitelist.
  - pcwalton 8y ago
    Null page mapping protection, SMAP, and SMEP improve security if you use Firefox, by making it harder to escape the content sandbox.
    - Causality1 8y ago
      Windows 7 has smep and windows 10 still lacks smap, though support is said to be imminent. Regardless they're not much of a concern when you're not running untrusted code.

HenryBemis 8y ago

But hey, their telemetry is top notch ;) Seriously though, I am still on 8.1, (using Windows Firewall Control) and I use Acronis to backup monthly (and then upload to Carbonite) so even if MS does a sneaky thing and upgrade me to 10, I will be able to roll back relatively easy. Win10 is overall a bad bad bad OS, the only good things I hear about it is the efficiency of CPU/RAM usage, but I am not switching for that.

DanBC 8y ago
> Win10 is overall a bad bad bad OS, the only good things I hear about it is the efficiency of CPU/RAM usage, but I am not switching for that. If you're using a modern netbook witha tiny amount of disc space Windows 8 uses WIMBOOT which has a dumb problem with the way it handles updates - storing them outside the compressed WIMBOOT areas and thus taking up large amounts of space. Particularly frustrating since WIMBOOT was created for machines with small storage. Windows 10 uses Compact OS which is better. I agree that Windows 10 isn't very good.

BLKNSLVR 8y ago

I used to use a Windows 10 virtual machine in order to have a "consistent" end-user environment for the minimal day-to-day computer-related tasks I perform (primarily spreadsheets and other Office related stuff). It was specifically intended to be an almost quarantined, minimal maintenance system - I had other machines on which to install software for one-use-only and testing reasons. Over about two years that VM, with only Windows Updates being installed on it, progressively slowed to a crawl in its responsiveness, in that even entering values into a spreadsheet would have noticeable lag. I eventually created a Windows 7 VM with identical hardware settings in order to compare performance (make sure it wasn't networking or VM platform issues). The Windows 7 VM has now replaced the Windows 10 VM and is still super-responsive a year later. I can't see any value in Windows 10. I don't what it's doing with the resources provided to it, but "doing what I tell it" doesn't seem to be very high priority. As an aside: I've moved my primary desktop / on-metal system to Ubuntu, and only ever boot into Windows 10 on the rare occasions I need a windows-exclusive piece of software.

Theodores 8y ago
> only ever boot into Windows 10 on the rare occasions I need a windows-exclusive piece of software. Which is like never. Gets new machine two years on, fdisks the drive without even booting into Windows once.

cm2187 8y ago

There are improvments, but none that I can associate to the UI, which I still think is a massive regression. Being able to copy paste from the console. SMB3 (i.e. offering encryption if properly configured). Virtualization was a major leap forward in windows 8/windows server 2012. Http2 support in IIS.

Tijdreiziger 8y ago
Don't forget WSL, that's truly a killer feature for me
- wDcBKgt66V8WDs 8y ago
  and a revamped console is in the works. soon we can have emojis in our "bash for windows"
Causality1 8y ago
What truly turned me off of Windows 10 was something small but very symbolic. On past versions of windows, if you want a shortcut to, say, Notepad on the desktop, you open the start menu, begin typing the name, and when it pops up in the list you click and drag it onto the desktop. You can also right click it and hit "send to desktop (create shortcut)." Windows 10 can't do either of those things. If you try to click and drag a Start menu search result it does nothing. Right clicking only gives you the option to add it to the start menu or task bar. So, if you want a desktop shortcut, you have to add it to the start menu, drag it off the start menu onto the desktop, and then delete it off the start menu.
- ConceptJunkie 8y ago
  I experienced this problem as well, and is very disheartening. So many basic operations from good Windows version are either missing or very hard to discover on Windows 10. There was absolutely no _good_ thought put into its UI choices.

pcwalton 8y ago

Here's one: https://alexgaynor.net/2019/mar/07/chrome-windows-exploit-security-beyond-bugfixes/ https://alexgaynor.net/2019/mar/07/chrome-windows-exploit-se... You're sacrificing a lot of security by staying on Windows 7. It doesn't have nearly the level of modern kernel hardening features that newer versions have.

Causality1 8y ago
I don't use Chrome. I use Firefox and NoScript with a whitelist.
- pcwalton 8y ago
  Null page mapping protection, SMAP, and SMEP improve security if you use Firefox, by making it harder to escape the content sandbox.
  - Causality1 8y ago
    Windows 7 has smep and windows 10 still lacks smap, though support is said to be imminent. Regardless they're not much of a concern when you're not running untrusted code.