![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Windows 10
2014-Oct-19, Sunday 09:13 pmFor the last few weeks, I've been using the Windows 10 beta on my home pc. The short review:
Yes, they skipped Windows 9. The most plausible explanation is that many programs may make the mistake of looking for earlier versions of windows with a search string similar to "Windows 9*", which would find instances of Windows 95 and Windows 98. Skipping ahead to Windows 10 will avoid that problem scenario where a program thinks it's running on an old system instead of a new one.
I upgraded my existing Windows 7 to Windows 10, so the process took a long time with a lot of reboots. Afterwards, performance was awful. It was really, really slow. I started disabling services that were hogging disk access. It was automatically defragging, it was monitoring usage to "optimize" disk access... and I turned it all off if I noticed an active service that I didn't immediately need. Finally, performance was back up to Windows 7 speeds.
I started up powershell. I checked, and, it's running at version 5 now. Yay! I tried out the new command that linux people will recognize from Debian's "apt-get". It allows a 1-line command that will install a software program onto your computer from a centralized host. It makes software management much easier on linux, and now Microsoft has caught up. There weren't any packages available yet that I was interested in using... but the available libraries will grow with time. This feature is very nice!
The interface is still a little goofy, and I still like Windows 7 better. I can tolerate this new one, at least. The only interface issue that gave me trouble was my difficulty in detecting where the slider is located on a scrollbar. The whole thing is soft grey, and one grey is not sufficiently distinct from another grey. Click the picture on the right to see for yourself. It's a screenshot from my desktop. I have to look for a moment before my eyes finally detect the slider in the scrollbar.
I decided to provide feedback to Microsoft about the scrollbar. Bad move! Doing so somehow tied my profile (which was previously a standalone account) to my Microsoft online account (which I never wanted). It also activated OneDrive and started syncing files on my pc to Microsoft's servers (which I definitely never wanted). I disabled it immediately:
I also took back control of my profile by disconnecting the Microsoft online account:
I've decided that Windows 10 is passable. There's no compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 10... except the eventual shutdown of support for Windows 7 by Microsoft. Welcome to the future. Hurrah?
It's not as awful as Windows 8, so I guess I could use it.
Yes, they skipped Windows 9. The most plausible explanation is that many programs may make the mistake of looking for earlier versions of windows with a search string similar to "Windows 9*", which would find instances of Windows 95 and Windows 98. Skipping ahead to Windows 10 will avoid that problem scenario where a program thinks it's running on an old system instead of a new one.
I upgraded my existing Windows 7 to Windows 10, so the process took a long time with a lot of reboots. Afterwards, performance was awful. It was really, really slow. I started disabling services that were hogging disk access. It was automatically defragging, it was monitoring usage to "optimize" disk access... and I turned it all off if I noticed an active service that I didn't immediately need. Finally, performance was back up to Windows 7 speeds.
I started up powershell. I checked, and, it's running at version 5 now. Yay! I tried out the new command that linux people will recognize from Debian's "apt-get". It allows a 1-line command that will install a software program onto your computer from a centralized host. It makes software management much easier on linux, and now Microsoft has caught up. There weren't any packages available yet that I was interested in using... but the available libraries will grow with time. This feature is very nice!
powershell
Import-Module OneGet
Find-Package
Import-Module OneGet
Find-Package
The interface is still a little goofy, and I still like Windows 7 better. I can tolerate this new one, at least. The only interface issue that gave me trouble was my difficulty in detecting where the slider is located on a scrollbar. The whole thing is soft grey, and one grey is not sufficiently distinct from another grey. Click the picture on the right to see for yourself. It's a screenshot from my desktop. I have to look for a moment before my eyes finally detect the slider in the scrollbar.I decided to provide feedback to Microsoft about the scrollbar. Bad move! Doing so somehow tied my profile (which was previously a standalone account) to my Microsoft online account (which I never wanted). It also activated OneDrive and started syncing files on my pc to Microsoft's servers (which I definitely never wanted). I disabled it immediately:
mmc.exe, then add/remove snapin: Local Computer Policy (or run gpedit.msc)
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\OneDrive
edit "Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage"
set state to Enabled
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\OneDrive
edit "Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage"
set state to Enabled
I also took back control of my profile by disconnecting the Microsoft online account:
PC Settings / Users and accounts / Your profile
Disconnect
Disconnect
I've decided that Windows 10 is passable. There's no compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 10... except the eventual shutdown of support for Windows 7 by Microsoft. Welcome to the future. Hurrah?