This is not a rant. This is not a complaint. This is an observation. So I've recently tried installing (and subsequently running) the Forza Horizon 4 demo to determine whether or not I'm willing to waste another $60 on a Turn 10 sim-cade experience, because FM7 is just so great. Upon finding the demo on the Windows Store, which was a PITA in and of itself, I proceeded to install the broken piece of unholy software. To my surprise, they've FINALLY enabled the option to choose an installation location. That should have been there since day one, but I digress. Downloading the "game" took nowhere near as long as I thought it would, considering my track record of downloading Forza games from the MS store and the average time to completion being something like 236.64 years... The Xbox app is broken. Ignoring the fact that FH4 REQUIRED a GPU driver update to make it to the menu and ignoring the fact that recent Forza games are ALWAYS ONLINE and ignoring the fact that a solid 86.5% of the time FH4 doesn't even successfully make it to the main menu (despite the driver update)... It could all be forgiven if I wasn't getting the dreaded 0x80070520 error that completely stops me from playing Horizon 4's demo... or FM7... or FH3, for the matter. There are no first party support pages for this error, and all third party pages and forum posts on MS websites say exactly the same rigmarole that doesn't work. Windows Store resets, Xbox app resets, reinstallations of both, updates to Windows, downgrades to Windows, blue screens, failures to boot, OS resets... Hell. It's been Hell. And with nothing to show for it. A Windows reinstallation is what fixes this issue theoretically. What a load of old cruck. I have to re-initialize a RAID 0 array, go though the pain of getting the Windows installation to even think about using the RAID driver for my motherboard, then pray as Windows installs to the array without failing (which it did twice initially), all for a broken promise and a supposed fix that may or may not work. It it just me? Maybe. But previous Win10 installations and all the spywar- I mean, features it comes with were rock solid before the April 2018 update. I miss my Mac.
I use windows 10, but I hate it. It has too much problems for me. First of all: Updates. Back in windows 7 you had a option to only install critical updates. With windows 10 you can't even choose. 2nd problem: Privacy, there is no option to turn off collecting data, No option to disable cortana since some update. 3rd problem (Only now): The october update, it will delete files from you if you have installed the update. 4th problem: When I click on shutdown my programs will be open still even if the pc is off. This option was silently put in by some update and there is no option to disable it. My current solution is just logging off before shutting down. I have many more problems but I really dislike 10, sadly there isn't a option to go back to 7 for me since windows 10 is required for some stuff like fh4 for example.
8.1 is an unholy abomination that should have never existed (not as much as ME and pre-SP1 Vista were though). I mean, Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to remove the most iconic feature of Windows since 95. That obviously did not go over so well since 10 came along with the start menu back Microsoft software has pretty much always been either a buggy mess, or lacking in features. Of course, sometimes they got something really right like Windows 7, but that's rare (and even Windows 7 had its share of nightmares...).
Thankfully there is mod which makes it possible to have Win8.1 much more like Win98 than what is possible with Win10, so while out of the box Win8.1 is horror, with mods it is like good old XP and before, much more than Vista, Seven or win10 is out of the box, so UI is definitely not the reason to stay away from Win8.1. Also automation is quite largely possible to disable, as well as telemetry etc. However Intel has very much jumped to Win10 bandwagon, they have removed working drivers from their servers for Win8 etc. really stupid, so in practice with 8th gen and newer Win10 is only thing that is going to work and it is such horrifying automated mess that I doubt I will go for that, even I do have license for 10. Any automated background task is bad for performance, because they always run at the wrong time causing lag etc. Keeping wrong things in memory and forcing updates that only bloat the system. If someone relies on updates to keep system secure, then he should not be admin of his computer, updates have pretty much zero meaning getting computer infected, etc. Security layers are before anything reaches OS, OS is not a security layer, that is if one wants to keep things running clean. Sadly great majority runs browsers that automatically execute everything and allow all request to everywhere by default, such system is never going to be secure, no matter how much one updates, often those updates open just new holes so that you can't even know what is status of your system as it is changing so rapidly thanks to constantly changing updates. Whole this updating philosophy is wrong, people should manage their systems and know how to use them, not this babying of ignorant ones with bloated automation. But ok, I'm old fashioned, I had no trouble getting around with DOS which I preferred long for many tasks after Windows came to mess things up, Windows just was so slow. XP was fine after some stage, there was absolutely no need to reinvent that wheel, efficient is always better than overly simplified automation and there is good middle ground too.
Win7 >>>>> Win10 I've had Windows 7 (Professional) for 5/6 years and I've never had a single problem. No bluescreens nor incompatibility issues. On my new pc I had to use Windows 10 (always Professional) and... OOF... No colors, no aero thingy, everything is "flat". I had problems with .Net framework not installing properly and bluescreens with no particular explanation. All this matched with a non-existing privacy. I was disappointed then. I'm disappointed now.
I've had a computer with Windows 10 for about 3 years now, and most of the time, it's not too bad. But there are problems. The automatic updates, I hate it when I'm using my computer normally, and then I get a notification saying that my computer gonna restart to install a feature update. I've enabled metered connection, which usually blocks the updates from downloading, but sometimes they slip through. The amount of bugs. Windows 7 was so much more stable than this. Since I've updated to version 1809 (against my will) I find out there's a memory leak in Photos. If I leave the program open for >1 hour, System starts to use 100% disk, and my memory usage shoots up to 99%, slowing my system to a crawl. I have to spam the 'end task' button for Photos to even close. There's an issue where sometimes, I lose all keyboard functionally in any Windows App/Shell. 3rd-party programs work fine. The only way to fix it is to restart. Sleep mode was broken for me, since sometimes when I put in sleep mode, the computer wouldn't completely turn off, forcing me to shut it down. When I would start it back up, it would blue screen. Now I have it set to never sleep, and I just turn off the monitors when I'm done.
I have win10 on my work PC, and it works very well for productivity, but not for much else. It’s trying to be a macOS duplicate while that isn’t what customers want.
The Drivatars are an always online feature. FH4 requires an always online connection to download Drivatar data, DRM, leaderboards, etc.
Install location has been a thing since windows 8, hence why my pre-ordered FM7 has always been on D drive. Nor is it always online.
I'm a stupid user and as such I notice one thing: There is ALWAYS something wrong after a new update. Settings are randomly resetted, software errors occur out of the blue which turn into hours of professional fathers cursing at various screens throughout the house, I have no idea how a company can be such a joke and still hold a monopoly on the most important thing in the life of a modern person.
That has been the thing with updates always, they might work fine, but also they tend to change things so one spends hours fixing stuff. If I could charge from all the hours their updates have taken from me, I would be a millionaire. TBH Microsoft is not the worst, there are companies that charge from update, then it breaks something, you have to pay again from next update that fixes what previous update broke. Bugs including like person who need to pay and who gets payment gets mixed up, that is in live production software, cost of a fix for that bit over 100 000 euros and that is perfectly legal as well as standard practice on that area. So for the cost, Microsoft does provide lot of stuff, even it is not perfect, it does the job and is good value. I can't tell any situations where there would of been problem from not updating, there was something that would not run with XP SP2 and that needed to be updated to SP3 for numerous of clients, but reason for getting viruses etc. was always someplace else than lack of updates. I do know few situations where lack of updates did save from getting infected though. So possibility to disable updates wins in my books.
Honestly what black market did you download your OS on? W10 Pro works awesome for me. I haven't had a problem with it. My theory is that W10 is not meant for systems >3 years old, it killed my old HTPC (even with great specs for the time) and slows my old PC which both ran W7. Your OS should fit your time period.
my parents had their old laptop killed by a windows update, it was "upgraded" from 7 to 10 and worked well for a while until that one update that corrupted the hard drive and I could never get any data off it
yet a win 8 laptop that received the update to 10 was just fine. *puts on tinfoil hat* what if Microsoft is purposely killing old pc's to make people buy new ones
