4 ms·

> [Windows 10/11] fades into the background I strongly disagree with this. When I am forced to use windows, I am constantly fighting with it to not be obnoxiou

by topaz0 3y ago

> [Windows 10/11] fades into the background I strongly disagree with this. When I am forced to use windows, I am constantly fighting with it to not be obnoxious. It takes many seconds to do something as simple as bring up an explorer window. I can't count the number of times I have had to dig into menus to disable this or that ad panel or other bloatware. In linux, I occasionally have to figure out how something works and fix it, but there are generally many months between those events, when everything just works and gets out of my way.

Novosell 3y ago
Windows key+E opens explorer. Or do you mean that it's so slow that it takes several seconds?
- dspillett 3y ago
  On my work machine (approx 4 years old, Win10) and home machine (mostly 2 years old, graphics card, a 1060/6GB is more elderly, Win10) both take most of a second to bring up a fresh Explorer window, timing by eye from Win+E to the whole UI being present. It seems far more variable (sometimes feeling quicker, sometimes taking a couple of seconds) on my laptop (<1 year old, i5 CPU 16G RAM, Win11). All are using decently speedy SSD drives. Several seconds sounds like an exaggeration, but it never seems anything but sluggish to me. One UX delay that irritates me is the time it often takes between hitting Win+R and the run dialogue finally being ready for input. Regularly the first few characters of what I type after that ends up going to the app that originally had focus. That used to be instant, on much older kit.
  - topaz0 3y ago
    Several seconds is not an exaggeration. The window appears quickly enough, but then spins for several seconds (there's a progress bar in the path field) before showing any file. Win11 personal, on a brand new, middle-of-the-road desktop.
  - vladvasiliu 3y ago
    Have you tried opening some files over the network, then coming back to the explorer? It'll insist on showing those files in the Recents screen. Except it actually tries to touch them or something. Which, when I'm not at work anymore, takes forever waiting for a timeout. Hell, even at work it sometimes takes a while, while doing the AD handshake or whatever it is that it does instead of letting me use the freaking explorer. I don't use Windows often enough to go out of my way to customize it, plus I know that the next update will probably undo everything anyway, but now I have to wait around multiple seconds for it to realize the files are not there. And it won't even remember it from one instance of explorer to the next, or try to check on those files without blocking the entire app's UI. This shitshow also happens in the open / save as dialogs when called from other apps.
    - topaz0 3y ago
      Yes, this matches my experience -- I assumed it was something to do with waiting for cloud stuff, but haven't dug too deep.
Thlom 3y ago
Just took me 0.5 seconds to bring up an explorer window. I've mostly used OS X and Linux the last 25 years, but have been forced to use Windows at work and recently on my gaming computer, so I'm not really defending Windows here. But honestly, I don't have any big problems with it. It works OK for the most part.
RubyRidgeRandy 3y ago
super+e, clicking the explorer button? I think you're being purposefully difficult here. I cannot list any of the bugs I have had with Windows off the top of my head, but I can with linux. Driver issues, Pulse audio randomly playing static, updates breaking my system, fractional scaling not working, I could go on.
- topaz0 3y ago
  Certainly some of the behavior I am complaining about is the intended behavior (ads in menus etc), but yes explorer takes several seconds to initialize for me, after the window appears. Not an exaggeration.

by topaz0 3y ago

Novosell 3y ago

Windows key+E opens explorer. Or do you mean that it's so slow that it takes several seconds?

dspillett 3y ago
On my work machine (approx 4 years old, Win10) and home machine (mostly 2 years old, graphics card, a 1060/6GB is more elderly, Win10) both take most of a second to bring up a fresh Explorer window, timing by eye from Win+E to the whole UI being present. It seems far more variable (sometimes feeling quicker, sometimes taking a couple of seconds) on my laptop (<1 year old, i5 CPU 16G RAM, Win11). All are using decently speedy SSD drives. Several seconds sounds like an exaggeration, but it never seems anything but sluggish to me. One UX delay that irritates me is the time it often takes between hitting Win+R and the run dialogue finally being ready for input. Regularly the first few characters of what I type after that ends up going to the app that originally had focus. That used to be instant, on much older kit.
- topaz0 3y ago
  Several seconds is not an exaggeration. The window appears quickly enough, but then spins for several seconds (there's a progress bar in the path field) before showing any file. Win11 personal, on a brand new, middle-of-the-road desktop.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  Have you tried opening some files over the network, then coming back to the explorer? It'll insist on showing those files in the Recents screen. Except it actually tries to touch them or something. Which, when I'm not at work anymore, takes forever waiting for a timeout. Hell, even at work it sometimes takes a while, while doing the AD handshake or whatever it is that it does instead of letting me use the freaking explorer. I don't use Windows often enough to go out of my way to customize it, plus I know that the next update will probably undo everything anyway, but now I have to wait around multiple seconds for it to realize the files are not there. And it won't even remember it from one instance of explorer to the next, or try to check on those files without blocking the entire app's UI. This shitshow also happens in the open / save as dialogs when called from other apps.
  - topaz0 3y ago
    Yes, this matches my experience -- I assumed it was something to do with waiting for cloud stuff, but haven't dug too deep.

Thlom 3y ago

Just took me 0.5 seconds to bring up an explorer window. I've mostly used OS X and Linux the last 25 years, but have been forced to use Windows at work and recently on my gaming computer, so I'm not really defending Windows here. But honestly, I don't have any big problems with it. It works OK for the most part.

RubyRidgeRandy 3y ago

super+e, clicking the explorer button? I think you're being purposefully difficult here. I cannot list any of the bugs I have had with Windows off the top of my head, but I can with linux. Driver issues, Pulse audio randomly playing static, updates breaking my system, fractional scaling not working, I could go on.

topaz0 3y ago
Certainly some of the behavior I am complaining about is the intended behavior (ads in menus etc), but yes explorer takes several seconds to initialize for me, after the window appears. Not an exaggeration.