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'Windows 10 Is Failing Us' (betanews.com)
Reader BrianFagioli writes: While Windows 10 is arguably successful from a market share perspective, it is still failing in one big way -- the user experience. Windows 8.x was an absolute disaster, and Microsoft's latest is certainly better than that, but it is still not an enjoyable experience. Before the company tries to add new features (and misses deadlines) like Timeline and Cloud Clipboard, it should focus more on improving the existing user experience. Right now it is failing us and things are not getting better. Even the third-party solutions that aim to turn this spying off aren't 100-percent successful. Unless you unplug from the internet entirely, you can't stop Windows from phoning home to Microsoft. This is a shame, as some consumers are being made to feel violated when using their own computer. Another issue that I can't believe hasn't been resolved is having two locations for system settings. Seriously, Microsoft? We still have "Settings" and "Control Panel" Live Tiles are still worthless, and it is time for Microsoft to kill them. Nobody opens an app launcher and stares at the icons for information. It is distracting and pointless. If I want the weather, I'll open a weather app and see it -- not stare at the icon for the information. It sort of made sense in the Windows 8.x era since you were presented with a full screen of app icons more often, but with a more traditional start-button design in Windows 10, it is time to retire it. Another example: Microsoft doesn't force you to use Edge and Bing entirely, but it still does force you. Cortana is a hot mess, but if you opt to use her, she will only open things in Edge. Searches are Bing-only. In other words, the virtual assistant ignores your default browser settings. Why? Not for the user's benefit. Sadly, the Windows Store is a garbage dump -- many of the "legit" apps are total trash.
No problems here. Every system at work has been upgraded to Windows 10 and users adapted to it faster than any previous iteration of Windows. OneDrive is being used for automatic backup and synchronization of library folder (Desktop, Documents, etc...) and Office365 has made deployment of the Office suite easier then ever before. OP would be better off with an iPad.
its still leaps and bounds ahead of linux (since we are rounding down) 2% and OSX at 3% and everyone here agrees those are the best damned thing since sliced Jesus
2% is the count of machines with a purchased license.
I mean, ever since computers became a commodity item, the operating systems they shipped with turned to trash. Even if you were happy with the (by current standards) clean and neat UI in Windows 7? Most PC manufacturers still loaded it up with garbage bloatware apps and utilities, killing the performance and taking your hours to uninstall. (Lenovo and HP often had items installed that refused to uninstall unless other pieces were removed first, so eliminating all of it was like playing a puzzle game.)
My workplace tried to migrate everyone from Win 7 to 10 and it's still a work in progress. It's incompatible with some software made by EMC that we still need for processing invoices for Finance (trying to use a new application instead, but it's still getting customized for our workflow and won't be ready for 6 more months). We acquired and merged with another firm that was still all on Win 7, so that, too, complicated the migration plan.
So far though? Lots of little things in 10 constantly frustrate. That garbage with having the classic Control Panel AND the new Settings menu is a big one. But also irritated with changes to the VPN options. (In the past, we had a custom VPN connection package built using Microsoft's CMAK wizard/tool. That no longer really works well in Win 10. You can still install the custom package, but you wind up with a confusing mess: You have one customized dialog box to connect the VPN and to manage multiple connection locations -- but the blue Windows 10 control panel/strip still opens up next and duplicates your connect or disconnect buttons.)
I'm also not liking the Windows Update services in 10. I can't really put my finger on it, but it seems like it can really mess things up in its effort to do things silently in the background? On my Surface Pro 4, for example? I went through a phase where every time I left it running, docked on my desk to a full size display, keyboard and mouse - I'd come back a day or two later and find a black screen with just a flickering mouse pointer I could move around. Clicking did nothing. Had to hard power off and back on to get back into Windows. It seemed to be a result of something Windows Updates was trying to do automatically, overnight - leaving the PC in a screwed up state.
Nobody knows what spying is happening, but the thing talks to the 'net so it obviously must be doing something unconscionable.
No need for conjecturbation. My conclusion Windows is spyware is based upon Microsoft's own documentation and privacy agreements.
there was also chatter about it being a file sniffer and keylogger, but that was debunked pretty hard.
Someone should tell Microsoft that debunked nonsense is still posted to their website. Some excerpts:
"If you turn on Speech, inking, & typing, we collect samples of your typing and handwriting info to improve our dictionaries and handwriting recognition for everybody who uses Windows"
"âAbility to run a limited, pre-approved list of Microsoft certified diagnostic tools, such as msinfo32.exe, powercfg.exe, and dxdiag.exe.
âAbility to get registry keys.
âAbility to gather user content, such as documents, if they might have been the trigger for the issue."
There's a short list of software that Windows 10 upgrades disable once at upgrade time, which lead people to conjecture that Microsoft gets a list of all third-party software you use continuously.
It's all on their website. Telemetry provides app usage data which is defined by Microsoft as:
"Includes how an app is used, including how long an app is used, when the app has focus, and when the app is started"
So far, nobody's clearly and definitively defined the spying; usually, when pressed, they give up
Personally I leave privacy statements, EULA and telemetry documentation Microsoft publishes speak for themselves.
arguing the conspiracy theories and say something about encrypted connections making it hard to identify what's being leaked, but that it must be something important if encryption is being used.
A conspiracy theory would be Microsoft installs Windows 10 when you dismiss the upgrade prompt. Microsoft collects information about the software you use. Or Microsoft has remote access facilities baked into windows that allow Microsoft to access configuration and content of individual systems without explicit consent or notification. These are all baseless conspiracy theories completely unsupported by documentation provided by Microsoft.
Editors, even in minimal-work aggregation sites like slashdot, you still sort of need to back-up a screed like this with the ranter's credentials to tell me why I should care what he thinks.
...okay, so I Googled him, and see he is a basement-dwelling tech-blogger who looks like a Despicable Me "Minion" but with longer legs. In other words, Walt Mossberg he ain't.