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Useless Windows 10 Features

• LinuxBender 7y ago
  I agree with this article, but I think it can be summed up as, "People need the option to buy the LTSB release of Windows 10". Microsoft refuses to sell it to consumers. It is an enterprise only option (unless that has recently changed and I am not aware of it). I have one windows 7 machine for playing WoW and it will stay on 7 until I can get the LTSB release of Windows 10 and the ability to turn off 100% of the telemetry, for real. If Blizzard would build an unsupported 64 bit ELF binary for WoW, then I would not even have windows. I'm not using wine.
  • bhhaskin 7y ago
    You should check out Valve's Proton. It's wine, but not wine... It's another abstraction layer built on top and it is pretty amazing. For the most part it just works. Doing some quick searching it looks like people have WoW running on it.
    • hawski 7y ago
      It is Wine, but with patches, that one day could be clean enough to go upstream. Some eventually are merged upstream.
    • Nullabillity 7y ago
      WoW runs fine on regular Wine Staging, too (though DXVK in particular gives some rather ridiculous framerate improvements).
    • ensignavenger 7y ago
      I keep hearing this, but I have so far not been able to get a single game (even ones marked with excellent support) to work on proton. I really, really, really want it to work, though!
  • bubblethink 7y ago
    You can buy it for a couple of hundred bucks or thereabouts. You also need to buy some filler Microsoft stuff equivalent to paper clips to make up for the minimum requirement of 25 products. You will then be an Enterprise.
  • zsrxx 7y ago
    Then pirate it. What do you care? This is like pirating a show they refuse to put on Netflix. They don't give you the option to conveniently buy what you want, so pirate it. Instructions on how to activate your installation of LTSC here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19420337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19420337
    • Nextgrid 7y ago
      Pirate KMS servers will go offline eventually right? Even if the legality isn’t a concern, the reliability and maintenance overhead is a problem. There are trust/malware concerns with client-side cracks as well.
      • zsrxx 7y ago
        That one hasn't gone offline in years, so I've never thought of this. Perhaps you are right, but I assume that it should be easy enough to find new ones if you need them. I wouldn't consider this approach to be "high maintenance".
      • vonapon 7y ago
        Throwaway account because I'm sensitive about admitting I do this kind of thing (perhaps moreso than I should be): In a word: no. KMSpico is kind of perfect. The process happens entirely locally, and is quite technically "clean".
      • anon9001 7y ago
        Here's a KMS server emulator, all open source: https://github.com/Wind4/vlmcsd https://github.com/Wind4/vlmcsd If you want to skip straight to the piracy, here's an open source package for you, complete with keys, hosted ironically on Microsoft servers, that uses vlmcsd: https://github.com/ekistece/vlmcsd-autokms https://github.com/ekistece/vlmcsd-autokms It's a pretty clever hack. It runs the KMS emulator locally and fakes the network connection with a TAP device from OpenVPN. Works perfectly.
        • michaelmrose 7y ago
  • miles 7y ago
    Anyone can buy LTSC for a few hundred dollars. I cobbled together a post last year on acquiring it: https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html However, it does require a willingness to enter into a VL agreement with Microsoft.
    • steve19 7y ago
      Can I buy from someone who went to all the hassle already? Or are those organizations not allowed to distribute keys?
    • herpderperator 7y ago
      I recently found out that people are selling legitimate keys on eBay for a few bucks: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc According to people who have purchased from there, they're VL keys that can be used many times (e.g. 2500 times), so they just sell the same key over and over to multiple people: > ...sellers on eBay are probably people that work for companies that get GVLK and MAK Product Keys from MSDN/Microsoft and then just sell 'em off because the companies they work for more than likely would never even notice? I mean, with MAK Product Keys having from 2500 to 5000 activations per key, at least if they still work the same way they did in Vista/7 days, most companies that pay for volume licensing never ever actually use anywhere near that many. [0] > after about 3 hours I got a mail with a key and a link to download "LTSCX64.2019.ENU.JAN2019.iso" from googledrive. I did not download the ISO, so I cannot comment on that, but I typed the key into VAMT and its description is "Win 10 RTM EnterpriseS Volume:MAK" and the key had 50 activations left. I tried it on one of my LTSC 2019 installations and it worked fine. I assume that the remaining activation count will decrease over time, even when I do not use the key on my other installations, as I suspect that the seller sells the same key to more than one buyer.. [0] > so, after about a week all 50 activations of the key I got are gone. since I only used 8 activations, one can be sure that the key was sold to multiple buyers. business as usual on ebay.. [0] It's probably against some contract somewhere, but IANAL. [0] https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterprise-ltsc-2019-can-one-actually-buy-a-unique-key.79241/ https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterpri...
  • fortran77 7y ago
    I run Windows 10 "Pro" (not LTSB). It's fine. Really. The fact that there are a couple of bundled games is no big deal.
    • alister 7y ago
      > It's fine. Really. I can tolerate some bloatware (like games), but what about the telemetry? Are you OK with that or did you find a way to disable all telemetry?
      • theclaw 7y ago
        Windows firewall will actually block the telemetry requests if you add all the telemetry hosts to it. Hosts file hacking doesn’t work because it bypasses that somehow.
        • AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
          Ugh, you know that the list of telemetry hosts is a moving target? How often do you update that list? How do you know your list is complete? How do you know that Windows firewall blocks all connections?
  • tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    "People need the option to buy the LTSB release of Windows 10" That's just fixing the symptoms rather than the cause. The real solution is for Microsoft to treat its customers with a bit more respect.
    • siempreb 7y ago
      > The real solution is for Microsoft to treat its customers with a bit more respect. This company (like most other companies) operates out of greed, and that doesn't go well with respect. They're just trying to milk as much as they can from you.
      • psv1 7y ago
        You can make a profit and treat your customers well.
        • Draiken 7y ago
          I'd argue that's only valid if you're a small company. Once you're a huge corporation with tons of stakeholders, it seems inevitable that you will compromise customers in favor of profits sooner or later.
          • psv1 7y ago
            I feel like this attitude lets big companies off the hook in a way. Yes, as the company grows it becomes more likely that they'll make these compromises, but that doesn't mean it's inevitable.
            • TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
              Shareholders will vote in someone who will compromise.
            • Draiken 7y ago
              While I agree it seems like it lets them off the hook, that's not on them, it's on the society that shrugs that off as "normal". But if you follow the logical path from capitalism, it is most definitely inevitable. There is no way to maximize profits without hurting the users. If one company does the right thing, another will take it's place because it will generate more profit. Can you imagine a CEO constantly telling it's shareholders that they will not increase profits because they want to "treat customers more fairly"? He'd be sacked in the first opportunity.
  • cm2187 7y ago
    You can do it half legally with an MSDN subscription. Big one off cost but if you regularly toy with windows VMs or re-installing OS on hardware it might be a good option. The license restricts you to testing only.
  • nicolapcweek94 7y ago
    WoW works perfectly on linux with Proton, and installing it is as easy as getting Lutris and double clicking on WoW's icon. WoW classic also works perfectly, if that's your thing.
• Nextgrid 7y ago
  It’s hard to believe how despite all the telemetry, Microsoft still manages to be so out of touch with their users’ actual needs. It’s almost like there’s a hidden agenda somewhere.
  • DougN7 7y ago
    I’ve wondered the same thing. Everyone told them not to remove the Start button. They did anyway, and Surprise! everyone hated it.
  • philliphaydon 7y ago
    If the telemetry says that many people use these features, are Microsoft out of touch? These are features we don’t use. But other people might. My dad rang me once said that when playing solitaire it kept playing ads. I said he can buy it so the ads go away or find another app that doesn’t have ads. He’s like “ah what ever I’ll watch the ads”. He’s happy and content. Just wants solitaire.
    • saagarjha 7y ago
      > He’s happy and content. Just wants solitaire. Would he not be happier without the ads, then?
      • philliphaydon 7y ago
        Sure, but he doesn't want to pay and doesn't want some other app. So just accepts it.
        • duaoebg 7y ago
          I had no idea this was the case. This is awful. Microsoft got so much good will out of those free games and now they choose to nickel and dime people.
          • tonyedgecombe 7y ago
• ryandrake 7y ago
  Most of these are similar manifestations of the same root evil (not specific to Microsoft): Users don’t want Feature X but Company wants users to want Feature X. They release Feature X to the world. It’s a failure—nobody uses it. The PM or developers who invested in that feature need to justify the investment. So they make Feature X enabled by default. Users disable it. So they remove the disable option. Users ignore it. They add flashing notifications begging users to use it. They’re ignored too. They give Feature X a prominent, always on button right on the main screen. They add more keyboard and mouse shortcuts so there are more ways to invoke Feature X. They add dedicate hardware keys/buttons to invoke Feature X. They add full-screen reminders to remind users Feature X is so cool! They even make it so it’s easy to invoke Feature X by accident. While these things may slightly juice Feature X’s usage metrics, it just never takes off because users fundamentally don’t want it and nobody wants to admit failure. Look at the software your company makes and I bet you can quickly find an example of this. It’s everywhere and it’s shameful.
  • arunpuri 7y ago
    Well said! Reminded me of Bixby!
  • cannonedhamster 7y ago
    My company makes no software people don't want. I'm actually sort of surprised because my company is exactly the type of company that one would expect to do such a thing. I suspect it's more likely that we're not mature enough yet to have someone justify stupid options rather than benevolence.
    • saagarjha 7y ago
      What company is this?
  • ilaksh 7y ago
    I think the solution is to have competition but everyone has given up on that because they like compatibility or something.
• bradknowles 7y ago
  IMO, let's start with the biggest one up front -- it's called Windows 10. Let's remove that one first, and then I think all the rest will be a lot simpler.
• SignalsFromBob 7y ago
  Wait, what? There are ads in the OS? That's insane.
  • windexh8er 7y ago
    The entire consumer oriented line of Windows 10 feels like a bad trip to a US strip mall. It's preinstalled with loads of junk you can't remove easily. For a while I spent some time putting together a small workflow to clean up Windows 10 builds for a project I was working on. If your hand is forced and you need a minimum amount of tools to get rid of as much bloat and telemetry there are two tools you need: 1) Geek Uninstaller [0] 2) O&O Shutup10 [1] Both are free. Maybe there's better options now, but... They helped tremendously a short time ago. [0] https://geekuninstaller.com/ https://geekuninstaller.com/ [1] https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
    • jayalpha 7y ago
      Great post. I don't use windows but my girl does. Her compi (Win 10, SSD, 8 GB Ram, i7) has become unusable slow. She does not much besides watching Movies, surfing and using Word. I installed a free reliable antivirus (Avira) when she got it. I will have to look into this problem soon. Any further suggestion? I will definitely try your recommended programs.
      • orev 7y ago
        In many cases you can get by with the built-in Windows Defender. I’m not sure I trust the free AV vendors, seeing as everyone is jumping on the data-hoovering bandwagon.
        • cannonedhamster 7y ago
          Windows defender goes from consistently being one of the best options to no good and then back to one of the best regularly. Generally browsing Gavin are the thing that saves you not than antivirus these days.
• _trampeltier 7y ago
  Standart folders, does anybody really use them? I upgradet one Notebook at home to from Win7 to Win10. Besides of other things I couldn't believe the added Candy Crash in my Start Menu. In a home edition maybe .. but on Win Pro, serious? I played back on the Win7 image pretty quick. I'm anyway mostly Linux, but I don't think I'll ever move any machine to Win10.
  • chowells 7y ago
    You might think it's silly. Microsoft thinks it has massively cut down on malware installation. One of these is an aesthetic judgment. The other is a security judgment.
    • tonyedgecombe 7y ago
      These judgements are orthogonal, one doesn't preclude the other.
      • chowells 7y ago
        That's very viewpoint-centric. If your viewpoint is that of a power user who thinks everyone else should be one too, then it'd be fair to say they're orthogonal. If your viewpoint is that of a product manager trying to give the most people the best experience you can, they're not orthogonal at all. You're trading a bit of scorn from a very small percentage of users for a larger number of very different users keeping their computers secure. Reducing the number of compromised windows installations is not silly at all.
  • ken 7y ago
    > I couldn't believe the added Candy Crash in my Start Menu. In a home edition maybe .. but on Win Pro, serious? Are you surprised? The file search on Windows XP Professional used an animated cartoon dog. This is just what Microsoft does. As Steve Jobs once said, "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste."
    • 7y ago
• orev 7y ago
  I honestly think that the new tab/news/spam page in IE/Edge is (and has been, forever) the single biggest factor driving people to Chrome and Firefox. Every time you open it you’re greeted with all this complete junk, making the whole experience stuttering and slowing down your flow. I dread having to open IE on systems with no alternative just because it’s always so bad. Edge might actually be pretty good, but I will never know it because the initial experience is just so bad.
  • bigbaguette 7y ago
    That, and the in-app "make Chrome/FF the default browser" popup redirecting to a Windows settings page where when you choose anything else than Edge, you get yet another popup asking you to confirm that you really don't want to use the awesome browser that Edge is.
    • david-s 7y ago
      All this junk they've been doing to Windows lately is making me feel like a restricted guest in my own computer. I'll definitely be exploring alternatives next go around
      • naikrovek 7y ago
        Why wait?
    • naikrovek 7y ago
      If you've used Edge for more than a few minutes, it won't prompt you to "try Edge" or whatever it says. They changed how default programs are set in Windows 10 so that malware can't change default file associations by itself anymore. That required moving away from using the Win32 API for that, and that is kind of the whole purpose of UWP-style apps and The New Settings pages within Windows 10. MOST of Windows 10 has been thought out.
      • olyjohn 7y ago
        You're goddamn right it's well thought out. But it's not thought out in the user's favor at all. Because how many fucking times is it going to ask me "ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT WANT TO TRY EDGE?" "EDGE IS SAFEST" "EDGE IS MADE FOR WINDOWS 10, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO SWITCH?" You literally have to click no 3 times just to get your default to something else. None of the other "default apps" do the same thing. And still nothing stopping the file extensions from getting remapped. So that's kinda not thought out.
• projektfu 7y ago
  How about all the ways windows goes out of its way to hide the home folder, and then is now generating multiple places it calls “Documents”, “Pictures”, etc so you’re never really sure where anything is?
  • CamperBob2 7y ago
    Imagine what it's like to write user manuals and other documentation for products that have to run on this shitshow. Welcome to my life...
  • tasogare 7y ago
    Probably one of the most infuriating thing indeed. I especially hate how the special names replace the full path in the nav bar.
  • hvidgaard 7y ago
    As long as there is proper support for a virtual folder, I as a user don't care. I can have a unified view of local and cloud documents. As a developer I would settle for accurate and comprehensive documentation.
    • projektfu 7y ago
      I think a user does care if they can’t easily know if a document is on the cloud. Like you’re at a conference where you discover your desktop wasn’t saving to the cloud for some reason. The interface is identical between cases.
      • hvidgaard 7y ago
        That is a UI problem. Overlay icon or something like it - or setting to make sure all documents are also present on your machine. I absolutely do not want to know how it's implemented and where to look if it's cloud or not.
  • fuzzy2 7y ago
    They did sort-of roll back the Library stuff that Windows 7+ (or Vista+?) had. They’re still there but they’re no longer in “This PC”. So that’s now okay IMHO. You can quickly access your user folder by going to the address bar and starting to type your user’s display name.
• whamlastxmas 7y ago
  In other news, I still cannot disable Windows update on the home edition. I've spent hours and hours and virtually every solution I can find other than giving MS more money to upgrade. Updates keep failing on my machine, which means it just tried again the next day and forces a restart, closing everything I have. Fails day after day after day. I'm not sure why, I frankly don't care. Just ridiculous how impossible it is to disable.
  • lysp 7y ago
    Do a search for "reset windows update". There are a few scripts around which will clear all the cache files and allow you to attempt the update from scratch.
  • Someone1234 7y ago
    > Updates keep failing on my machine By any chance did you run some script or random "de-bloat" tool someone linked? Half of those break Windows Update and cause it to keep failing (either via setting permissions, host file changes, or registry alterations).
    • PerusingAround 7y ago
      Exactly.
    • whamlastxmas 7y ago
      No. I think it's related to my full disk encryption that uses a custom boot loader or whatever
  • Totoradio 7y ago
    This page https://decentsecurity.com/#/holiday-tasks/ https://decentsecurity.com/#/holiday-tasks/ contains a lot of tricks to get Windows Update back on its feet (and loads of stuff to cleanup a Windows PC too)
  • JohnFen 7y ago
    I have the opposite problem -- I can't make Windows update actually do its thing. It's not a problem that I really want to be solved, though.
• 7532yahoogmail 7y ago
  The dumbest windows feature? When you accidentally touch the top of a window to top of screen, it maximizes. On Mac it's sort of the opposite: you can't relocate a window to another screen if it's maximizes. It "helps" you by force partitioning the screen.
  • philliphaydon 7y ago
    Huh, how is that 'dumb'? Resize a window and drag it to the top will increase total height of screen. Drag a window to the top and it maximizes. Drag to left to dock to left side. (repeat for right side) Drag to top left to dock to top left corner. (repeat for all corners) Win+Arrow (Up) to full screen. Win+Arrow (Down) to un-full screen. Down again to minimum. Win+Shift+Arrow (left/right) to change screen. Win+Arrow (left/right) to move between docking left/right. On a mac you cannot even maximum a window properly, and works differently in different apps. Window management is terrible on a mac. The only window management it does right is the way it handles the virtual desktops. Cos that still sucks on Windows.
    • xeeeeeeeeeeenu 7y ago
      >On a mac you cannot even maximum a window properly Indeed, to actually maximize a window on macOS, you have to purchase a third party app (BetterSnapTool). I think it's hilarious.
      • filleduchaos 7y ago
        I'm not quite sure what you mean by this - my windows seem to maximize just fine
        • pluma 7y ago
          It's a fairly new thing. https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/how-to-maximize-a-window-in-mac-like-you-do-in-windows/ https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/how-to-maximize-a-windo... ("fairly new" in this case meaning over five years but still)
• anewguy9000 7y ago
  shame on you windows team.
  • dang 7y ago
    Please don't do this here.
    • anewguy9000 7y ago
      do what? there are only 3 legitimate choices when it comes to operating systems (the thing that underpins every single computer). with that comes real social responsibility. this thread is evidence that microsoft is showing no regard for that responsibility.
• Causality1 7y ago
  How about giving us back the features we lost with Windows 10? Like if I want a desktop shortcut to Notepad in W7 I open the Start menu, begin typing Notepad, and when it shows up in the search results I drag the icon onto the desktop or right click on it and hit "send to desktop". Neither of those work in Windows 10. Clicking and dragging does nothing, and right clicking doesn't let you make a desktop shortcut either. You have to add it to the Start menu, then drag it to to the desktop, then delete it off the Start menu.
  • cookie_monsta 7y ago
    Or right click the item in search results, open file location, right click on .exe or shortcut, Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)
  • jplayer01 7y ago
    Yeah, they keep making trivial things harder to do for no reason. You used to be able to right-click the icon and go directly to the classic control panel. Not anymore. The whole start menu is a failure and they need to overhaul it.
• ilaksh 7y ago
  In case people are really ambitious or adventurous and want to avoid all of this stuff completely, what Linux distro (or other open source OS) is currently trendiest/most useful/relevant? Is it still Ubuntu?
  • HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    Still Ubuntu, honestly. If you want something like Ubuntu with more continuous updates, there's Manjaro.
    • ilaksh 7y ago
      I am sort of getting used to pacman with msys2. Do Arch or Manjaro package registries (are they the same thing?) have good availability in general? What I mean is, in Arch or Manjaro, how often are there already packages available for things that people normally want to do, versus needing to compile something manually or work around broken dependencies?
      • Boulth 7y ago
        I'm using Arch for 2 years (it's my first distro) and I've had only a handful of problems. Usually it's not packaging (deps etc) but rather corner cases and fresh bugs. For example recently kernel had a big that froze display on Intel Graphics. It's good to have a backup drive with minimal system for debugging.
      • Macha 7y ago
        Can't speak for Manjaro, but basically every software I use has an Arch package. This extends to some closed source projects other distros don't include on principle, like Steam [1]. Additionally, the AUR is basically a wrapper around "manually compiling" where users can submit scripts to do it for you. If you install a helper like `yay`, it's as seamless as installing from the official repo and extends coverage to things like the OpenTTD modpack I play [2] and its latest git commit [3]. That said, the AUR is still ultimately running user provided scripts so do make sure to take the offer to read the install script beforehand, most are maybe 5-10 lines. [1]: https://www.archlinux.org/packages/multilib/x86_64/steam/ https://www.archlinux.org/packages/multilib/x86_64/steam/ [2]: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/openttd-jgrpp/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/openttd-jgrpp/ [3]: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/openttd-jgrpp-git/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/openttd-jgrpp-git/
• IronWolve 7y ago
  You can buy win10 pro for 12 bux on many sites, office 2019 professional for 40. Those keys sites do ads on linus techtips.
  • sys_64738 7y ago
    You don't need to buy Pro as you can simply run it unactivated for years. I've done that without incident.
    • userbinator 7y ago
      Wow, I had to check that it's already been "years" since Windows 10 was first released --- a little over 4, to be precise. No one I know actually likes it, the closest has been "tolerate". MS has done a great job of dragging its users through the mud and beating them into submission.
      • NikkiA 7y ago
        I love it, tried to go back to 7 and couldn't, it just feels so awkward and unrefined now.
        • Nextgrid 7y ago
          Windows 7 is unrefined? I have the opposite experience. Windows 7 feels like a finished product, that in addition is designed to help me work. Windows 8+ feels more like a Linux distribution in comparison, with inconsistent features & UIs everywhere, as if they were just a mash-up of random packages made by random open-source developers with no leader nor common goal. Actually the only thing that can be compared to a goal is that all the features are in some way or another designed to get in my way, waste my time, compromise my privacy, and just in general prevent me from doing actual work.
    • Nition 7y ago
      If you have a Windows 7 key, it's also a valid Windows 10 key.
• IdontRememberIt 7y ago
  Has someone a clue why Xbox Game Bar app cannot be removed with a Windows 10... pro?
• IdontRememberIt 7y ago
  The most critical useless feature (as it is now) is actually the Windows Store. What is Microsoft doing wrong that makes nobody use it? It could be a revolution (selling + updates).
  • 40four 7y ago
    I think the only thing I've used it for installing Windows Subsystem for Linux
    • kyriakos 7y ago
      Also the beta version of the new Windows terminal
      • sundvor 7y ago
        Yes! And Python.
        • Semaphor 7y ago
          What’s the advantage of the store version of python over the normal installer?
          • trulyrandom 7y ago
            Automatic updates, I'm guessing.
          • atVelocet 7y ago
            Auto Updates.
    • throwaway8941 7y ago
      You don't even need it for that. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-manual https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-manual
  • 7y ago
• sys_64738 7y ago
  Timeline is bewildering to look at when crammed full of stuff.
• ilaksh 7y ago
  If you want a completely opposite alternative to Windows that has none of this, take a look at OpenBSD https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html.
• mrtweetyhack 7y ago
  Microsoft is irrelevant
• cookie_monsta 7y ago
  I've installed Win10 on dozens of machines and I've never seen ads on the lock screen, in the taskbar, and in notifications like the article talks about. Maybe because I always say "no" to all those creepy tracking/advertising ID type options on the initial config screen and I always say no to Cortana at the same time. What I heard (and it seems reasonable) is that MS included games like Solitaire and Minesweeper in 3.1 as a soft way of training the enormous user base who were using PCs for the first time in mouse functions like click, drag, right click and click precision. I guess now that everybody knows that , MS sees no practical reason to keep those games free.
  • cVwEq 7y ago
    Same here, but maybe the difference is that we install Windows 10 Pro whereas the author is a Windows 10 Home user? The article doesn't seem to state the version they are using. Most annoying is that there are a large number of little bits of functionality that phone home or send information out into the ether: Windows Defender and its submitting of samples, searching via the Windows button, Task Scheduled telemetry items, a plethora of Control Panel privacy settings, etc. etc. etc. Also annoying on Windows 10 Pro is that the same windows builds have slightly different functionality --- even if the machines have the exact same hardware. For example, the Search History and Permissions is sometimes named Change the permissions and history of search, even for the same Windows 10 build. It's bizarre. Also, don't get me started on the intellisense typing when the windows menu is open. (Really Windows, when I press the Start button and then type in Update, you search the web and show me Wikipedia information? And it takes like 5 seconds?) Don't forget the lame This PC icon... Sorry, this turned into a cathartic listing of Win 10 grievances. :)
    • sofaofthedamned 7y ago
      Wikipedia in this situation always uses Edge as the browser. I wonder if this helps inflate their user stats?
      • iggldiggl 7y ago
        Try EdgeDeflector (https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector https://github.com/da2x/EdgeDeflector).
• RenRav 7y ago
  Interesting how butchered my setup is, out of all those things I've only seen the 3d objects folder.
• superasn 7y ago
  I'm deliberately trying never to update to Windows 10 because I think Windows 7 had everything I could ever need from the OS. I wish the hardware drivers weren't so restricted as for my latest laptop no driver exists for Windows 7 so had to be forced to install Win 10 nightmare. One tip for you guys is that if you want to get rid of most bloat that comes bundled with Win 10, I found this freeware software to be pretty effective: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/10appsmanager-windows-10?&ampcf=1 https://www.thewindowsclub.com/10appsmanager-windows-10?&amp... So far I haven't witnessed any issues in terms of stability after removing almost all bundled crap.
  • Const-me 7y ago
    I once needed to test and debug my software on Win7. The app uses hardware video encoder, virtualization doesn't work, so I had to install Win7 on a hardware PC. The hardware drivers are there. It just takes some time to find them, and then some time to integrate into Win7 ISO so the installer doesn't fail. I liked Win7 very much for the first couple of days. However I've reverted to Win10. Too many things are broken on Win7 in comparison: high DPI support, usability features like Win+arrow keys, no MS Edge.
    • jplayer01 7y ago
      I genuinely think Win10 has made huge leaps in many areas compared to Win7. It's just that they make so many bone-headed design decisions across the OS that detract from it. I wish I could recommend Windows 10 wholeheartedly, and generally I do recommend upgrading to it, it's just a ... problematic OS.
      • Const-me 7y ago
        Could it be MS deliberately trying to train users to read and understand messages, especially long ones, before clicking "I agree"? I think you can opt out of many problematic features if you pay attention where you click during the OS setup. The licenses are checked online in Win10, so you can download an ISO from Microsoft.com, do clean install, and if you've installed same edition on the same PC it will be activated.
• molteanu 7y ago
  I've tried to change my video settings the other day. Bam! A nice guy with a big smile on his face filled my entire screen selling me Xbox and other junk. I've told my girlfriend I'm feeling like shopping in the mall while using Windows 10.
• ZuLuuuuuu 7y ago
  I would also add lock screen which is shown before login screen. It makes sense on mobile devices but I never understood the use for it on my desktop and laptop. Especially when my laptop and desktop does not have any bio authentication.
  • pfranz 7y ago
    Oh, that's what that is supposed to be! The same thing is in CentOS. You literally click and drag the mouse upward to get the login screen. New users often think the computer is broken.
    • input_sh 7y ago
      Any default GNOME environment does this. > You literally click and drag the mouse upward to get the login screen. Yeah, you can, but hitting a space bar before typing in your password is so much easier. I think any "normal" key (as in letters, numbers, space) would work, but I'm not near a system to check.
      • cesarb 7y ago
        You can just start typing your password, it'll automatically unhide and put what you typed in the password field. Or you can press Esc to just unhide without starting to type your password.
        • doubleunplussed 7y ago
          If your password starts with a space, then you have to either tap an extra space, or hit escape as you mentioned.
      • pfranz 7y ago
        That's right. It is GNOME. KDE takes you right to recent logins and a login/password prompt (without a transition). I primarily work via VNC or ssh, but get questions constantly from new users. Wiggling the mouse is universally benign. ESC, Space, or even clicking can be "destructive" in the wrong context.
• QuadrupleA 7y ago
  Still using windows 7 for as long as I can. Pretty livid that they're discontinuing support and forcing people to 10 soon, I have 10 on another machine and it really feels like losing control of my PC. Very locked down, filled with ads and interruptions, affiliate software and marketing junk. Seems like one of the last bastions of autonomy and privacy in the computer world, the desktop OS, is jumping fully onto the surveillance capitalism bandwagon now. Pretty depressing. Would switch to Linux but it's pretty much a nonstarter for game dev.
  • krylon 7y ago
    At work, I have been using Windows 10 Pro for a couple of months now after holding out on Windows 7 for a long while. I have to say, I am surprisingly happy with it. It has native SSH, WSL, performance is decent, and our admin no longer installs 3rd party AV software on Windows 10. Now if only Microsoft could get their act together when it comes to updates - it has been a mess a for a long time, but I got the feeling it has gotten much worse ever since they decided to bundle all their updates into single large packages, and especially with Windows 10.
• morten-oddvar 7y ago
  "All the Ads. So, So Many Ads" Seems odd to see complaints of many Ads in an OS--analogous to buying a car and having advertisements show up in the instrument cluster when stopped or not being able to exit the vehicle until watching an Ad. Haven't used Windows in recent memory (probably since these Ads appeared or I just didn't notice them). Is it as bad as the article describes?
  • krylon 7y ago
    At work, I have been using Windows 10 Pro for a couple of months now after sticking with Windows 7 for as long as I could. I cannot remember seeing any ads so far.
    • morten-oddvar 7y ago
      Thanks Krylon--it sounded strange to me, hence the question.
    • pjc50 7y ago
      They're probably turned off with Group Policy.
    • ecmascript 7y ago
      When switching default browser, it will ask you one more time if you really don't want to use Edge. Gaming ads will be seen in the start menu. Ads for Onedrive will be seen in file explorer. If you ever start skype, don't be expected to be able to log off or even shut the app down unless you kill the process or uninstall it entirely. With every update, it will ask you again to put tracking on, making the ads be more vigilant. Just a few of the stuff I find incredible annoying with ads in Windows 10.
  • 59nadir 7y ago
    > Is it as bad as the article describes? I run Windows 10 Pro (English, region: Bulgaria), so I don't know if that's the reason, but I don't have any popups (notifications or otherwise) and I have 4 static gaming tiles that are essentially ads since I never asked for these games at all and they're 3rd party products. I assume those come with some bloatware deal that Microsoft made with King.
• jhjohn 7y ago
  How to start my own banking account
• jhjohn 7y ago
  So I can take care of family friends a good offer the rewards u guys offered higher then that I got offered
• jhjohn 7y ago
  *80.000.000.00
• jhjohn 7y ago
  25.000.000
• hanselot 7y ago
  Using Windows in any capacity other than gaming (and dxvk is sorting that) seems like insanity. The difference between being a user and being used.
• locusm 7y ago
  Worst thing in Windows is still search, it doesnt work unless you type the exact letters in order.
  • input_sh 7y ago
    Absolutely agree. How hard is it to find the closest match? On my OS of choice, I can type pretty much anything resembling Firefox in the search bar ("ffx", "fref", "ref", "fox"...) and it'll output a proper result — instantly. Every Windows encounter feels dreadful in comparison. It can't get the simplest tasks right.
  • CathedralBorrow 7y ago
    I still laugh whenever I can't remember the exact name of my bittorrent client and Windows has no clue what I'm looking for when I enter "torrent" or "bittorrent". It's called qbittorrent.
    • stallmanite 7y ago
      Microsoft research is still perfecting the "substring search" technology.
  • lordgrenville 7y ago
    There's an amazing OS program called Wox [0], which uses Everything [1] (an infinitely better search program) to produce an experience similar to Spotlight on Mac. Can't recommend it highly enough. (No affiliation, just a fan) [0] http://www.wox.one/ http://www.wox.one/ [1] https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/
    • locusm 7y ago
      Cheers, will check it out
  • GordonS 7y ago
    I actually love Windows 10, but god, why is the Start menu search functionality is still so abysmally, terribly awful?! It gets me every time I want to open the control panel or a setting page - it's just... awful! And why does it still search the web when I've disabled Cortana?! If I want to search the web, I'll use a browser! It really doesn't seem like it would be difficult to fix - I just can't understand how it's still so bad.
• siempreb 7y ago
  > Windows 10 has more built-in advertisements than Google’s Android and Chrome OS do. It's still hard to believe that after paying a few hundreds of dollars for a new OS you will be treated with advertisements, as if it were freeware.. I'll never buy that shit.
  • jplayer01 7y ago
    > It's still hard to believe that after paying a few hundreds of dollars for a new OS I haven't checked, but are the ads in the enterprise versions? Otherwise, I'd guess that the vast majority of home consumers have an OEM key that came with their laptop or PC (or upgraded from Win7), and they didn't pay hundreds of dollars for. While the price of Win10 is included in some way in the price of the device, it wouldn't be nearly as much. Also, from what I remember, 1903 has gotten rid of most of the ads on a fresh installation, so it seems to be improving. edit: Actually, I didn't realize there were actual ad notifications at all in Win10. Never seen them before. Maybe region/setting dependent? I only meant the games and other third party stuff that show up in the start menu.
    • AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
      As a freelancer, I'm not some home consumer, but someone with a business laptop. A business laptop I need to take to meetings. I need to show my business partners what is on my screen. This is not the time for some bloody Candy Crush ad popping up. And this is not the time to realise that last night's forced update borked your presentation. As a freelancer, however, I cannot get the enterprise version of Windows 10 unless I buy at least n instances of it. I'd rather use that money to buy a real business laptop like a Mac Book Pro. No ads. No work ruining updates. Professionally maintainable without having a Windows Server sitting next to it. Backups that work. Real UNIX underneath. I also was very happy with a Thinkpad plus Ubuntu LTS. Professionally maintainable, UNIX like underneath, smooth updates. I set up backups myself, but at least I had full control over it. I had to settle on the Mac because of the availability of MS Office. I got tired of having to run that using a VM inside which I, yet again, had to maintain a Windows. I tried Windows 10 for a while. At first I was pleasantly surprised, but then all the problems piled up. Fighting shitty drivers just to get sound working properly, constant updates, ads popping up again and again in the start menu and even on the lock screen, fighting to get at least a semblance of a usable command line.
• skocznymroczny 7y ago
  > They all have one thing in common: No one wanted them. Who wants a Windows PC that can’t run standard Windows applications? People who want a tablet experience. Surface Go is tablet first, it can be used as a laptop substitute, but only a substitute. I can imagine there are many people who would be satisfied with a Windows S only device, using only the Microsoft Store apps.
  • pjc50 7y ago
    That's a Windows phone in tablet form. While there definitely are fans of Windows phone, there weren't enough of them to make it viable. Apparently the Android versions of Office apps are nicer than the Windows Phone ones, which is kind of baffling.
  • diffeomorphism 7y ago
    Different thing. They would be satisfied with the limitations, they were not asking for additional limitations.
  • Macha 7y ago
    Even on the surface go the first thing I did was unlock it so I could run apps like Firefox, OpenTTD and Steam.
    • skocznymroczny 7y ago
      So did I. But more casual users would be completely content with Edge, Netflix and Facebook apps. And they'd get longer battery life too in exchange.
• brynjolf 7y ago
  I disabled the allow Microsoft to send application history to their servers. They still do it. They just ignore the fact I have disabled it explicitly. It should be reason for me to be able to sue but I don't know where to start.
  • AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
    Out of interest: How do you know they send the application history? The connections to their servers are encrypted. So the only options you have are the MS information tool for telemetry and low level forensic tools.
    • brynjolf 7y ago
      You can view the history online on their privacy dashboard at privacy.microsoft.com There I could see all the applications I launched even though I had denied them that permission. You should be able to do the same if you linked your Microsoft account to your Windows installation.
• kerberos84 7y ago
  windows 10 itself is useless. I miss Windows 7.
• w1nst0nsm1th 7y ago
  Let's face it. These stuffs are not only useless shit: these are deal breakers. having been successively into Linux and macOS these last 7 years, I find the amount of junks produced by Windows staggering.
• wozniacki 7y ago
  This might seem minor in the scheme of things that Windows 10 has regressed on (compared to even Windows 8.1) but has anyone found a cure for the atrocious way Win 10 does the "Show windows side by side", now. Previously it would just evenly split the existing windows into equal sized ones spread across the width of the screen. It worked beautifully! If there were two windows they would neatly fit into each half of the screen, fully sized respectively. Now it does this strange quarter-stacking of the said windows on top of each other, squeezed into ONE HALF of the screen and leaves the other HALF EMPTY (exposing the destop) !! This absolutely drives me nuts. There are Chrome extensions ("Tab resize") to cure this but its a pointless added series of steps where you individually tweak each open window to the size you want. Its bonkers. I don't get who in the right mind would come up with this as an enhancement when the previous one worked just fine !! Please reverse this.
• JulianMorrison 7y ago
  This all feels to me like Microsoft is getting desperate - it's the usual experience when the money in a niche is drying up: aggressive upsell and every damn thing trying to squeeze another dime out of you. Have their revenues been tanking?
  • twodave 7y ago
    Nope, they just set an annual record and beat analysts expectations last quarter[1]. Azure is helping them a great deal and just overtook their PC division (which includes everything from Windows to the Surface laptop). [1]: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsoft-trumpets-record-year-126b-annual-revenue-14-quarterly-profits-beat-estimates/ https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsoft-trumpets-record-year...
    • JulianMorrison 7y ago
      Odd, so why the huckster impression?
      • cherrypepsi 7y ago
        Android and Google Docs are overtaking their main turf, even if it is for regular consumers as of right now, it is still a huge change. The Azure stuff is recent and can't attempt vendor lock-in yet, maybe never, at least not to the extent Windows and Office were able to.
• neuronic 7y ago
  Completely left Windows 10 (after several parallel years with Linux based systems such as openSuse/Ubuntu) for macOS. I get a workstation that has sensible defaults and gets out of my way 99.999% of the time. I get why others prefer Linux systems in development but within my ecosystem I am simply happy I don't have to configure my fan speed and install fourth party drivers to get WLAN to connect after the machine sleeps. The only things that Windows really excels in are gaming and office. Open source office suites are simply many levels below MS Office, and no I won't use LaTex at work although writing my thesis with it was indeed amazing. The macOS office variants (by Microsoft) are also severely lacking in comparison... But other than that if you're not tinkering with .NET stuff...
  • twodave 7y ago
    Even if you ARE tinkering with .NET stuff. I work for a .NET shop on my MBP and the only things I remote into my Windows workstation for are some of the old .NET Framework projects we have that I still need to touch periodically and generating dacpac files from data projects (which is being worked on macOS so I'm really looking forward to that day). Many things (Docker is a huge example) just work better on macOS, and overall I find myself more productive. I feel that macOS is just a more "terminal-first" environment than Windows, and I'm more at home there. It's a shame. I actually don't hate Windows, I used it for decades and still switch over to it as needed. But I really love macOS. I just wish they'd fix some of their hardware lately.
• Multicomp 7y ago
  Why Microsoft expects me to voluntarily move from Windows 7 to this OS is beyond me. I will however be moving from Windows 7 to Windows Embedded POS Ready 2009, which due to contractual obligations will be supported a few more years. After that? Either pure Debian KDE if I can stand to jump the gap from RPM-based to Apt-based linux, or Fedora Lxqt if not. (IMO -> if 'Linux' could just not be split down the middle between the two big families of Debian/XLUbuntu/Peppermint and RHEL/Fedora/CentOS/Manjaro we could get more grannies as it were) I am the master of my computing fate, not Microsoft.
• szggzs27 7y ago
  I use windows at work, on 3 screens. One thing pisses me off to no end: When you drag a window and accidentally make a small "left-right-left" movement, everything on your screen is minimized to the tray. There is no button to restore this. f*cking retarded features.
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  • lexapro 7y ago
    You can turn it off.
    • userbinator 7y ago
      The fact that it's defaulted to on and surprises users who don't even know about it is the problem. "Minimize all other windows except this one" is a function that is rarely used and definitely not something a small movement of the mouse should trigger.
      • mrguyorama 7y ago
        It was a feature advertised in commercials. It wasn't meant to be surprising
  • rharb 7y ago
    You can actually just grab the same window and make a corresponding "up-down-up" movement and it'll bring everything back. On personal machines I turn it off but if I'm doing something for someone else, this is a good thing to know.
    • genpfault 7y ago
      Hrm, is there a keyboard shortcut for that restore action? Win+M will do the minimize-all thing but I never could figure out one for restore-all. EDIT: Ah, of course, Win+Shift+M :)
• mopsi 7y ago
  I encourage everyone unhappy with Windows 10 Start menu to give Open Shell a try: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu It replaces native Start menu with Win7/8 lookalike that's highly customizable and much faster. Search works better, too.
• mehdix 7y ago
  After switching to Archlinux and putting Windows 10 in a Qemu VM my life got way easier. One is driven by the corporation behind it to form and change user behaviour in order to make more money, and the other is made by like-minded hackers.
  • beatgammit 7y ago
    I just keep a crappy Windows laptop next to my desktop and use that whenever I absolutely need Windows for something. I don't need heavy software, just sometimes a program to reproduce an issue a consumer has. I have a Windows VM, but it stays off most of the time, and I have a separate disk in my desktop running Windows in case I need something more serious than my laptop can handle (I boot to it once a month or so to run updates). I've tried making WSL work for me, but I just find Windows gets in my way more than it actually helps. I'm a little sad that I can't use Visual Studio (the number of times I've had to hack together a CMake build to make small change is way too high), but it's not worth the pain of using Windows. How to do X on Linux is usually much easier to remember and faster than the equivalent on Windows, and I spent enough time on WSL/git bash that I just stopped bothering. Now, if I can get a hackintosh VM going, my life will be complete.
• Spearchucker 7y ago
  Surprised to not see Albums included. Every time my camera roll updates with photos from my phone or compact there's another notification about this new album that Windows created for me. I. Never. Look. At. Their. Albums. Writing this makes me wonder if there's a way to turn it off and why I've never thought to look...
• leonroy 7y ago
  Windows 10 Debloater is a pretty cool script which strips a tonne of cruft from Windows. Worked very well for me: https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater
• Mockapapella 7y ago
  Almost none of these are an issue with Windows 10 LTSC
• lostgame 7y ago
  It has been about a decade since I used Windows (XP) as a daily driver, and I am shocked, and seriously disgusted, when I see my friends or co-workers using it. Can I ask why anyone is paying for this pile of crap? There are literally no improvements from Windows 7 vs. Windows 10, that could convince me this level of built-in telemetry, and, God forbid, built-in advertising is worth an 'upgrade'. For God's sake, they are in the freaking start menu, and slow down several of my friends older computers who were force-upgraded. And before you tell me what I already know, that you can 'opt out' - we should not have to opt out of advertising on an operating system we pay for, especially one that did not have advertising before. As far as I'm concerned, for all the talk about Apple's 'walled garden,' folks are so addicted to Windows x86 and x64 apps, and so locked into that walled garden, they are now willing to accept being tracked, and to literally have a slower OS due to the baked in advertising. The failure, and massive financial deficit, that occurred from Windows RT should be more than enough evidence of this. Without its history of apps, Windows isn't Windows. Knowing that, Microsoft can pack whatever bullshit it wants, including, but not limited to, tracking and advertising, and we still buy. The only inherently worse-for-the-user OS out there is Android. I will no longer use Google services, even by request. I'm literally trying to ween myself off YouTube, reporting a post on HN yesterday that was merely a YouTube link to a guy talking about how his wife left him that had somehow snuck it's way onto the front page. I pray one year, we will have that 'year of Linux,' and Microsoft can go back to creating a quality product, instead of focusing on new ways to get information out of users. Edit: I also pray for, and would even contribute code to, a meaningful third party mobile OS solution. I'm worried Apple will realize they are the last company to respect user privacy to even a reasonable degree, and get greedy. However, there are so, so many issues with a new mobile OS, between devices, carriers, a bootloader compatible with said devices, licensing, and such, that at the moment, I am not seeing any of the projects in the works as feasible. To be honest - the world of commercial operating systems has never looked so grim.
  • gambiting 7y ago
    >>Can I ask why anyone is paying for this pile of crap? Because for certain areas of programming, Visual Studio is still king and if you want to develop for Playstation/Xbox then Windows is the only choice. And of course playing video games in general requires Windows - it's less true than it was few years ago, but there's still plenty of games which give you very poor experience on anything but Windows.
• teddyc 7y ago
  Nobody mentions: "Hi, I'm Cortana. A little sign in here, touch of wifi there..." Not now. Not ever. https://www.reddit.com/r/iiiiiiitttttttttttt/comments/a36m6j/a_little_sign_in_here_touch_of_wifi_there/ https://www.reddit.com/r/iiiiiiitttttttttttt/comments/a36m6j...
  • Macha 7y ago
    The first time I saw in the win10 update screen with "don't worry, your date is safe", I panicked thinking I had got some ransomware. The opposite of the intended effect.
• jokoon 7y ago
  They removed the good solitaire classic and made it non-free. There are clones, but I find this really to be a dick move.
• bytematic 7y ago
  I agree but honestly it takes 30minutes to disable all of these
• windsignaling 7y ago
  Haven't used Windows for over 10 years and I'm surprised to see how far it has fallen. It's weird to me that the author thinks of these problems as mere annoyances. To me it's utterly ridiculous to have any of these features be part of an OS. It's like I bought a big advertisement machine. Tried it out recently and was greeted with the usual endless automatic updates and messing up my dual boot. What's with the "people" tab? This is the kind of half-drunk idea I've come to expect from Microsoft. When I want to talk to people on Skype, I open Skype. It might be a nice abstraction at a very high level mentally (these are apps I use to talk to "people"), but it seems pointless to have this in software.
• dzonga 7y ago
  I feel deeply sorry, for those poor consumers who are unaware of other OS's. It should be a duty if you're in tech, to advise your fellow holoi polloi about Ubuntu since it's the most consumer friendly distro. Everything now days is done in a browser so that shouldn't be a problem. & at those who work at capitalistic corporations push for electron apps or apps that can be easily bundled and installed e.g snap apps / flatpaks.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]