Ask Slashdot: What Should A Mac User Know Before Buying a Windows Laptop?

New submitter Brentyl writes: Hello Slashdotters, longtime Mac user here faced with a challenge: Our 14-year-old wants a Windows laptop. He will use it for school and life, but the primary reason he wants Windows instead of a MacBook is gaming. I don't need a recommendation on which laptop to buy, but I do need a Windows survival kit. What does a fairly savvy fellow, who is a complete Windows neophyte, need to know? Is the antivirus/firewall in Windows 10 Home sufficient? Are there must-have utilities or programs I need to get? When connecting to my home network, I need to make sure I ____? And so on... Thanks in advance for your insights.

Comments

Re:Raise your child properly

[Calydor]

give em Linux and tell them to figure out how to run Windows games

And then tell the rest of the world how he did it.

Windows 10 Field Guide by Paul Thurrott

[Anonymous Coward]

I would recommend the Windows 10 Field Guide by Paul Thurrott : https://leanpub.com/windows10fieldguide

Re:Raise your child properly

[rtb61]

First up gaming laptops have a real problem, overheating to death. Basically whilst they last they last, but once warranty is over don't expect them to last more than say three times the warranty period. They run hot, real hot and system elements will fail. That is a high powered gaming laptop. Reality is for gaming get a good desktop and for school and other stuff get a cheap near disposable notebook. Cheapest notebook pretty much anything running Linux and a range of free open source software will be good enough (for computer learning experience they now have a foot in both games, windows for gaming all it pretty much can sort of be relied on for and Linux for everything else). So desktop to play games and the cheapest possible Linux notebook for school work, some of the work can still be done on the desktop. Just remember to remind them M$ will be spying on them and not to 'you know' in front of the microphone and camera that M$ is monitoring.

Re:You Will Save About 270% For the Same Hardware

[roc97007]

A lot of that, patches that break apps, applications that corrupt registry, driver issues, were real and extremely annoying issues a few years ago, not so much now. It's like jokes about Harleys leaking oil. It was a real problem. Back in the eighties.

The workstation on which I do business (photo and video post processing) runs Windows. This is because Adobe Creative Suite runs on (a) Windows, or (b) Mac. (It *almost* runs on Wine, but not close enough.)

I switched from Mac to Windows back when Apple and Adobe got into a pissing contest, I believe about that very same trackpad you like so much. I work with a mouse in my right hand and a midi controller with motorized sliders under my left hand. A trackpad does nothing for me. It's just something to accidentally touch when I'm using the keyboard. Typically the first thing I do on a new laptop is disable the damned trackpad.

The computer on which I do everything else, runs Mint.

I've got two elderly, high-end-at-the-time G series Macs parked under my desk. I need to remember to take them to freegeek.

I'm not a Windows fan. The moment Adobe comes out with a native Linux port, it'll be a pox on both your houses. I'll dump the Big Two and never look back. But until then, I have to put up with Windows.

And I have to say truthfully, although I've pushed my current and previous Windows 10 boxes pretty hard, both in the work I do, the ancillary apps I run, and the hardware I attach, I have yet to have a single blue (or whatever color it is this iteration) screen of death. I've never had a hang. I've never had a USB device not be recognized. It Just Works. Windows used to be a heaping pile of garbage, and with one release to another the heap just got taller or shorter. But right now, it appears to be dead nuts stable. Imagine my surprise.

It does a lot of things I find annoying, like constantly begging me to use Edge instead of Firefox, and shamelessly promoting Cortana at every opportunity. But it runs Adobe CC acceptably well. And it hasn't crashed since I "upgraded" to Windows 10.

In summary, that patter is getting a little stale. You might think about harping on lack of privacy and interrupting one's work with "Ask Cortana a question! Go on! You know you want to!" instead. There's still lots of reasons to hate Microsoft. Your arguments would carry more weight if you used ones that were still valid.

Some quick differences

[Actually, I do RTFA]

The menus don't float at the top of the screen, they're attached to the window. Closing all the windows will quit the app.

The filenames are case insensitive. This can cause some problems if you're moving them back and forth between the OSX and Windows machines.

Microsoft will try to convince you to get a hotmail account to use your machine. This isn't necessary, but I don't recall how to avoid it. Play around on that screen to keep your accounts local (unless you want them tied together).

Re:Raise your child properly

[CohibaVancouver]

Ever notice how they always get viruses

Spare me this tired meme from 20 years ago.

We've got five Windows 10 machines in our family, used by me, my wife and my two kids. I just let Windows Defender do its thing and I haven't seen a virus in years.

Re: Raise your child properly

[Type44Q]

I haven't seen a virus in years.

Then you couldn't possibly have one!

Re:ugh

[AmiMoJo]

Wow, you can't have used Windows since the XP days, prior to Service Pack 1... So 2002 maybe?

- Accounts haven't run as admin since Vista.
- The firewall has been enabled since XP SP1.
- Windows Defender has been on by default since Vista.