Win 10 - oh boy, she's ugly

[Almot]

Got a "new old" Dell Intel 4500 USFF with Win 10. For use as a poor man's HTPC, $80. VLC player runs, Firefox works, RF remote works. Previous machine was running Win XP - just to show how humble my needs are.

Should've got Win 7 instead. I've been warned.

Start menu with sh-t load of bloatware, most of it I don't need and can't unpin or uninstall.

Stupid apps tiles making Start nearly full-screen wide, I removed them all to keep the width narrow. You have to remove all tiles, otherwise window remains wide.

Alphabet letter tabs in Start - what is this, a school library? Just make a clean list, sorted alphabetically.

No apps icons in Start, have to read before you click, and fonts are white against color background. Most readable fonts are black on white, or black on some pale color, not the other way around. White fonts on dark background are only good for a big 10ft interface like those on TV screens, and for this people have TV box or Kodi or Roku.

Ugly choice of colors for desktop, Taskbar and Start menu. Icon size is not adjustable (it is, through Custom size, but you'd better not use it).

File window in Win Explorer is crowded with dozens of toolbars and menus that you might never need and can't remove.

Scroll bar is 0.00000000...1" wide, can barely see it, can imagine somebody with poor eyesight or with tablet.

Windows have no borders - multiple open windows are white on white, can't see where one ends and another one begins. (Teeny-tiny border can be added through Personalize, barely visible).

All in all, Win 10 leaves impression of unfinished high-school project. Not as disastrous as Win 8 was, but not worth upgrading from Win 7 either.

MS Edge browser is a "ok", compared to IE, still not as nice as Firefox, so - no benefits here.

Can't wait to install Kodi full-screen to auto-launch every time machine starts, so that I won't have to look at this ugliness.

Rant off.

[ReadyToGo]

Yes I was. Just making a point that every application needs customizing.

[sherlock62]

bwanshoom wrote:
Maybe you were being rhetorical, but you can change the download location in Firefox and the home page in Chrome.

X2

[bwanshoom]

ReadyToGo wrote:
For myself, I think it's terrible that Firefox picks a location for downloads that I don't want, so if you don't want that also never use Firefox, use chrome instead. Wait a minute, chrome forces a home page I don't want so everyone don't use chrome.

Maybe you were being rhetorical, but you can change the download location in Firefox and the home page in Chrome.

[ReadyToGo]

First,if you don't want to offend others, I suggest you might want to stop using the word "suck".
Most of your rant is about things that you don't like and some others don't like.
So, who should MS cater to, those who like the default or those that don't?
You might try being thankful that you have an OS that is customizable.
For myself, I think it's terrible that Firefox picks a location for downloads that I don't want, so if you don't want that also never use Firefox, use chrome instead. Wait a minute, chrome forces a home page I don't want so everyone don't use chrome.

[wa8yxm]

One thing about win-10 is the APP store.. Now I'm with the rest of you I do not like that word "APP" (APPlication) I much prefer Program. but let's not argue

Two of the FREE apps in the App store are:
The US Constitution
The Declaration of Independence

I highly recommend them

NOTE: also in the Android App Store

Do not have an Incomplete Operating System (IOS) Device so do not know if they are in that app store but suspect they are.

[drsteve]

Run is now hidden - in Win 7 it was displayed in Accessories outside other folders, this makes sense because Run you use more often.

Just like in Win 8, in 10 if you place the cursor in the bottom left corner and right click you get a list of Windows functions like control panel, task manager, and yes, the run box.

Cheers!

[crcr]

Almot wrote:

LittleBill wrote:
classic shell makes 10 pretty tolerable.

Have just found it yesterday, thanks.
Google up "win 10 start menu" and dozens of entries come up, articles on how to fix it and other things that make Win 10 more "usable". Sounds like for many people it is less usable than Win 7.

A lot to fix. Many complain on narrow scroll bar, especially in tablets. I found the entry in Registry and changed the value, it helped a little.

In Win 7 all "windy" apps and groups like Ease of Access, Accessories etc were grouped into Accessories - fine, you don't need them often. In Win 10 they are separated. Run is now hidden - in Win 7 it was displayed in Accessories outside other folders, this makes sense because Run you use more often. Things like Phone or Mail in Win 10 are listed separately and permanently - not too many people dial a phone from desktop.

After "anniversary update" all stupid (or useless to me) apps came back, like Solitaire or 3D Builder. I uninstalled them but am afraid they will re-appear again with another major update.

I didn't intend to take the Win 10 upgrade to my 8.1 desktop, but my desktop developed some severe problems that looked like they could be caused by a virus, but none of the three anti-virus programs I tried could clear up the problem.

This isn't a "virus", this is M$. Hundreds of KB's (updates), some of them doing more harm than good, you can find the list of bad ones and restore your system to earlier point if you like. Wait until you get tons of updates from Win 10, and it will slow down too.

Good 3-rd party antivir is a must anyway. Malware Megabyte, AVG, ADWcleaner, Zemana - they are good even in free version (Zemana isn't free, only 30 days trial). In Win 7 I was keeping AVG for permanent protection and run free Mega and ADW once in a while. Mega finds more than AVG but free Mega won't run as a permanent protection, you have to run it when needed. Funny, last week ADW found some "browser tune up" that was installed by AVG and slowed down the browser 🙂

Thanks. Re updates, for the last year, I had done regular research on the "updates to be avoided", and I carefully avoided any and all updates that were questionable. Even so, as I said, my machine developed major problems that not even a "reset" would cure. My only out was to try the Win 10 upgrade, and for now, that has made my desktop usable again. I use some of the anti virus you mentioned, also Malware Bytes and SuperAntiSpyware.

[Almot]

LittleBill wrote:
classic shell makes 10 pretty tolerable.

Have just found it yesterday, thanks.
Google up "win 10 start menu" and dozens of entries come up, articles on how to fix it and other things that make Win 10 more "usable". Sounds like for many people it is less usable than Win 7.

A lot to fix. Many complain on narrow scroll bar, especially in tablets. I found the entry in Registry and changed the value, it helped a little.

In Win 7 all "windy" apps and groups like Ease of Access, Accessories etc were grouped into Accessories - fine, you don't need them often. In Win 10 they are separated. Run is now hidden - in Win 7 it was displayed in Accessories outside other folders, this makes sense because Run you use more often. Things like Phone or Mail in Win 10 are listed separately and permanently - not too many people dial a phone from desktop.

After "anniversary update" all stupid (or useless to me) apps came back, like Solitaire or 3D Builder. I uninstalled them but am afraid they will re-appear again with another major update.

I didn't intend to take the Win 10 upgrade to my 8.1 desktop, but my desktop developed some severe problems that looked like they could be caused by a virus, but none of the three anti-virus programs I tried could clear up the problem.

This isn't a "virus", this is M$. Hundreds of KB's (updates), some of them doing more harm than good, you can find the list of bad ones and restore your system to earlier point if you like. Wait until you get tons of updates from Win 10, and it will slow down too.

Good 3-rd party antivir is a must anyway. Malware Megabyte, AVG, ADWcleaner, Zemana - they are good even in free version (Zemana isn't free, only 30 days trial). In Win 7 I was keeping AVG for permanent protection and run free Mega and ADW once in a while. Mega finds more than AVG but free Mega won't run as a permanent protection, you have to run it when needed. Funny, last week ADW found some "browser tune up" that was installed by AVG and slowed down the browser 🙂

[drsteve]

Win 10 works fine for me. I don't understand all the angst over the start menu, which I've always found a little clunky anyway. I have a desktop folder full of shortcuts to stuff I use a lot, and right clicking on the bottom left corner of the screen brings up a list of Windows features like command prompt, control panel, task manager, etc. And for some reason, the printer responds much more quickly to Win 10 than it ever did to Win 8. With 8 I was always looking at a minute or more delay between hitting "print" and getting action. Now, it's almost instant.

The only issue I have is the network icon always tells me I have no internet access, even though I do indeed have internet access. I suspect some sort of router weirdness. Extensive searching of teh Google have failed to reveal a solution, but if that's the worst problem I have, I'm happy.

[LittleBill]

classic shell makes 10 pretty tolerable.

[crcr]

I didn't intend to take the Win 10 upgrade to my 8.1 desktop, but my desktop developed some severe problems that looked like they could be caused by a virus, but none of the three anti-virus programs I tried could clear up the problem. Much to my surprise, even a "reset" didn't fix it! It was almost unusable, so two days before the end to free Win 10 upgrades, I took it as a last resort, as I had nothing to lose, as otherwise I was going to have to throw my CPU away and buy a new one.

Well, much to my surprise, since the upgrade to Win 10, all the problems my computer had are gone! Plus it runs faster than before. We use Classic Shell.

As a result, with one day to go on the free Win 10 upgrade, I upgraded my wife's Win 7 machine to Win 10. It runs faster and she is happy with it.

I did keep my laptop on Win 8.1 because its main usage is when camping, at which time I am tethering it to my Android phone. The difficulty of controlling when the Win 10 Home updates come, plus the fact that there are reported difficulties with getting FoxFi to work with Win 10, caused me to leave the laptop on Win 8.1.

[joebedford]

You have a number of things misconfigured. I don't have any of the problems you mention.

[Almot]

wa8yxm wrote:
You can switch your start screen from the "Windows 10" Start screen to your Desktop, which you can populate just like Windows XP... I did

I'm with you on the stupid bloatware

Also.. On all apps. right click and TURN OFF LIVE TILE.. That is one of the hidden horrors of Windows 10, Live Tiles,, Eat up tons of processor time and in somne cases bandwidth.

Loading Desktop on start-up is not a problem, but making Start Menu nicer is.

Icons on Desktop can be made bigger/smaller but it works weird, 3rd party apps icons that I've added react differently than those pre-installed.

Live Tiles I already turned off and removed all apps tiles. This helped to narrow the Start width.

Bloatware was partly from manufacturer, and those I could remove. The rest is from Win. Neither Unpin from Start Menu nor Uninstall options work for that, no matter via Start Menu or Control Panel. In Win 7 this Start was grouped into 2 columns, one opened first and then another one when you hover the mouse at the bottom, but in Win 10 it's different.

I doubt that old PC affects how Win 10 looks - missing icons in Start Menu, no window borders etc. PC is Intel-2 E8400, not 4500, my typo. I also doubt this PC had Win XP immediately before the seller installed Win 10 (don't know where this came from - likely from not reading before answering). Some remnants are telling me that it had Win 7 earlier.

Win 10 Version 1511. Will see if their "anniversary" thing will really make a difference but don't expect much.

I realize it's too late for this, but if somebody isn't sure whether they need to upgrade Win 7 to Win 10 - then they don't :). The product is a bit raw and I'm glad that didn't upgrade my other machine from Win 7.

My apologies for hurting the feelings of Win 10 users - this wasn't the intent. Just don't see anything special about 10 or any benefits for me compared to 7.

[AsheGuy]

wildtoad wrote:
But at 63 I am now part of the old crowd.

I'm 77 and also OLD, but age has nothing to do with it.

I have installed Windows 10 on at least a couple of dozen PCs including four of my own. No problems.

You can follow others advice of how to configure Win 10 more to your liking or do it the easy way and install StartIsBack or Classic Shell and it immediately looks and acts like Win 7 again. If you want to experiment with Windows 10 features you can, but you don't have to.

I only use Windows as a platform for non-Microsoft applications and Win 10 works great with no problems, better than any previous release.