Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Share Your Experiences With Windows 10
Long-time Slashdot reader shanen writes: The Start button is broken on one of my Windows 10 machines. Left click is dead. Fairly well known problem, but none of the solutions from non-Microsoft web pages has fixed it... My little meta-problem of the day is being locked out of Microsoft's so-called support. The email part (on outlook.live.com) works as usual, but every attempt to access the support part returns "Something went wrong and we can't sign you in right now. Please try again later." It's a black hole page with no links or options or suggestions. Once you get there, you are dead to Microsoft. Whenever I try to go to Microsoft support, that's all I've seen for several weeks now. ..
In general, Windows 10 seems to be a good thing -- but I don't really know how much it is abusing my personal information and privacy. The abusive relationship with Microsoft support is clearly the same, bad as it ever was.
The original submission has more thoughts on the market for consumer operating systems, and asks for suggestions about these two previously-known issues -- a start button that ignores left clicks, and an ongoing lock-out from Microsoft support. But there's obviously much more to talk about -- so share your thoughts in the comments. Have you had any interesting recent experiences with Windows 10?
In general, Windows 10 seems to be a good thing -- but I don't really know how much it is abusing my personal information and privacy. The abusive relationship with Microsoft support is clearly the same, bad as it ever was.
The original submission has more thoughts on the market for consumer operating systems, and asks for suggestions about these two previously-known issues -- a start button that ignores left clicks, and an ongoing lock-out from Microsoft support. But there's obviously much more to talk about -- so share your thoughts in the comments. Have you had any interesting recent experiences with Windows 10?
Twice now I've had updates kill minor programs such as the built in photo editor. But a couple of weeks later, another update brings it back to life. Perhaps this is an artifact of the faster release cycle. Fortunately this computer isn't use for any actual work. I can understand why my employer is still just barely finished rolling out 7 to all company laptops.
That I actually use. Storage spaces is about the only thing that gives it an advantage over windows 7.
Windows 7 trumps it in user interface and experience, multimedia was superior in 7 (Media streaming was destroyed, and the player no longer plays dvds/svcds)
The update has the bad habit of reverting settings that you specifically configured, and persisting settings that should be reverted. For example, if you use other virtualization solutions, you probably turned Hyper-V off since there's conflicts. The update turns it back on for some reason without telling you which can really mess you up. Next, Fast Startup is re-enabled even if you disabled it because it's broken (which it is for me). Lastly, Cortana is designed to be enabled all the time with this update, and the UI switch to disable it is gone. The problem is it should turn itself back on, otherwise it is difficult to determine how to do it without the UI. Sure, keep the registry setting so users who want to risk going into unsupported territory can keep turning her off, but the update really should switch things back to supported territory...
This keeps happening, big update comes out and all of the defaults reset to Microsoft products. It's been a constant problem since I've installed Windows 10 and at this point I'm willing to call this a feature rather than a bug. No I do not want to use your PDF viewer, Media player or Edge browser, stop forcing it on me Microsoft.
The Anniversary update has caused my ThinkPad laptop (gen 5 Core i3) to occasionally freeze up. A hard reset then takes over a minute on a black screen after the splash screen shows up. This machine has an SSD and normally boots in about 15 seconds. So, this is an annoyance that I hope gets fixed fast.
The post is a gentle joke. It's a parody / satire of the 2005 "Windows rapidly approaching desktop usability" article that Roblimo wrote in 2005, which was a parody / satire of all the "Linux approaching usability" articles that every tech reporter hack was writing about Linux and its apparent emergence as a legitimate desktop alternative at the time. Don't think too hard about it.
"Uh... yeah, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants our size?" --Pinky
I'm a retired computer guy, and I support a couple of large communities of retired folks, basically old people with computers. Naturally most got upgraded to Windows 10, whether by choice or by MS trickery. I have developed a standard protocol after which Windows 10 operates much like an improved Windows 7, and it works very well, and is less confusing for my customers (and me :)).
* Local Account - Ensure a local account, preferably with no password, boot straight to desktop
* Install and configure Chrome (or Firefox) - Add ad-blocking, turn on and populate bookmark bar, make friendly for user (I use "Disconnect" and "Ublock Origin")
* Install Classic Shell - Friendlier Start Button
* Install Spybot Anti-Beacon - Turns off a lot of Windows telemetry (fancy word for spying on the consumer's dime)
* Hide Cortana and unpin Store from the Task Bar
* Install old Windows 7 style Games - Available from 3rd party sources, Spider Solitaire anyone?
* Turn off as much of Quick Access as possible, and unpin what's there, and change the Options to default to "This PC" instead - QA is not controllable by the user, try to remove a dead link, I couldn't. Using "This PC" is dead reliable.
Windows 8-10 stupid decision to disable the F8 key by default, therefore can't use safe mode unless you can boot into windows, then what's the point? Enable F8 support by disabling Fast Boot, boot will only be a few seconds more but it's worth it.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
Only one problem. Next forced update, your stupid search bar and windows store etc. will be turned on with no possibility of turning them off again.. Enjoy your 'operating system'..
Windows anniversary update:
http://www.howtogeek.com/24817...
Some useful group policy options no longer function on Windows 10 Professional and require Windows 10 Enterprise or Education. These include the ability to disable the lock screen, tips, and “Microsoft consumer experience” that downloads apps like Candy Crush Saga.
https://blogs.windows.com/wind...
http://www.pcworld.com/article...
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/...
Basically, all those things you turned off, you did through the group policy editor.
Store? Its on permanenty and you won't be able to disable it unless on enterprise.
That search bar? Its cortana and you won't be able to disable it for the same reason.
All that tracking and ads same reason. So Aftre the 9th when all your hard work is undone and you get the real taste of 10 come back and share.