Windows 10 continues to be a crock of sh1t

I don't normally get this het up about software and I don't normally say it out loud but it must be said - Windows 10 has been a crock of sh1 t since it arrived a year or so ago. The poor tablet-centric interface on top of just another NT6 with no real major improvements to the core o/s but instead just major changes to the GUI whilst adding a load more inconsistencies/bugs is really not good enough. Win7 was really the last decent desktop o/s to come out of Microsoft. Early versions of Windows 10 seemed as unstable as good old Windows 98 but not quite as bad as Windows ME - that's not really saying much. To summarise I have had to reboot daily, basic functions can be unstable and many of my applications simply do not work. That really sounds like Windows 98 to me.

On top of the applications that no longer work, so much in Win10 is tatty and unfinished, it is impossible to theme properly and it keeps generating fundamental errors that make it unusable for enterprise level software. There is this component called WMI which is the Windows Management Instrumentation layer that is meant to provide system level information in a standard fashion to allow monitoring programs access to core data. This is vital stuff for businesses to test whether their PCs/servers are functioning correctly. In Win10 after an upgrade  from Win 8, WMI either does not work, is corrupted or just stops working for no apparent reason. WMI is one of those fundamental building blocks that HAS to work in order for Win10 to be seen as a decent and grown-up o/s. It worked well enough in XP, Vista, Win 7 and 8 but not in 10. I suspect that the WMI repository was broken during the update from Win 8.1 to Win10 as straight blank installations of Win10 don't seem to have exhibited this same problem. As most casual users are not using WMI they would not be aware of this issue.

Recent updates to Win10 have broken other things like GDI font rendering, breaking any utility that uses pretty GDI fonts - Rocketdock, Objectdock and Winstep Extreme have all been affected, if only temporarily. These and other sorts of errors show that Windows 10 is flaky and should be avoided if at all possible until it is fixed. Rule 1: Don't install a new o/s, what you always need is the stable old o/s - not the new. I wish I'd followed my own advice. So far my experience of using Win10 is like using a new car where 50% of the bolts haven't been properly tightened yet - you don't know what is going to fall off next. Lots of people complaining about it, including me.

NVidia - BSOD




The latest issues I  faced were the regular crashes with a BSOD with "IRQ IS LESS THAN OR NOT EQUAL..." from the NVidia driver when playing videos and doing other graphical functions involving transparencies/animation simultaneously. Microsoft are pushing graphics driver updates automatically with Win10 which means that you get the latest driver whether or not it is stable for your machine to use it. The last few days the graphics sub-system has been made very unreliable. You may have to download and install an older version of the Nvidia drivers and then do that again in a week or two when Windows overwrites them. These initial graphics problems have started to subside since Nvidia and Microsoft have got to grips with how to create and distribute drivers for Win10, however this problem still persists for some that are using older hardware with Microsoft pushing driver updates that are inappropriate for their hardware (eg. AMD systems).

Sound Problems:

Some strange sound issues appear daily when using a browser to watch videos. The sound suddenly cuts out and the volume slider will no longer appear from the systray. Any changes to sound have no effect, the only solution is a soft reboot. Delving into the sound components attempting to make a change, results in the message "the device is currently locked by another application". These sound issues have been here since the beginning of Win10 but now they happen intermittently and frequently. In fact, it just happened as I write this, the words just stopped coming out of a commentator's mouth... nothing but the sound of silence. The volume icon sometimes fails to show itself on the systray. This problem has been happening every two days or so - a reboot ha been required almost daily. Note: These initial sound problems have started to subside since Microsoft has worked on sorting its sound control in Win10.

Wireless Problems:

Wireless disconnects are happening far more than I would expect in a operating system that is supposedly in general live use today. The symptoms are that the wireless connection is cut unexpectedly and repeatedly, especially after the system has been restarted from a system sleep/hibernation. From this point clicking on the wireless icon in the systray does not always cause the list of active wireless points to pop up. Shutting down has been the only course of action but after one of these wireless problems a shutdown seems to take an abnormally long period of time. It is as if the connection between the desktop, explorer and the wireless state has its knickers in a twist. A hard reboot has often been required to recover from one of these, sometimes even a hard power off when the desktop is unresponsive.  The wireless pop-out has reduced functionality compared to the older Win7 version "open network and sharing centre" is no longer present, instead we have "view connection settings" which when clicked takes you to the settings page at the top level, not even to the networking page, what's the point in that?

OK, you then have to open the network tab and you see a little pictorial of your network, on Win7 you can click on any item on the picture and it will open that element, the PC, the internet or a network map. All of this very useful but NONE of it available on Win 10.

Desktop Configuration:

The taskbar cannot be resized below a certain point. Windows XP's taskbar is superior in this respect, you can make it shrink to a very small size, Windows 10 has a minimum set size. On top of that Explorer gets in a tizzy sometimes and refuses to auto-hide the task bar due to some unknown explorer systray issue. So, if  you have moved your taskbar to the top of the screen, it can end up sitting on top of the title bar for some of your overlapped windows meaning that you can't minimise or move them about. Annoying. I kill the explorer process when this happens, this used to fix it on Win7 allowing the taskbar to auto-hide again. Killing the explorer process used to be an easy option under XP just open task manager and kill explorer.exe. Doing so on earlier versions of Win10 resulted in the desktop not coming back properly... Doubly-annoying, as a reboot was required. This latter issue seems to have been sorted now though the inability to reduce the taskbar height by dragging it edge is a facility that is still missing.

The background has now been tied into Windows explorer whereas it was previously independent of it. This means that when explorer.exe is not running the desktop is blank. This ties any look and feel into explorer's GUI and prevents you from running alternate shells that do not have the means to update the background themselves. Previously you could add a background, shutdown explorer and use alternate shell elements such as rocketdock and jetstart and have a usable desktop without explorer running.

Look and feel:

If you were happy with Windows XP, Vista and 7's desktop orientation you would have been upset with Windows 8's GUI and disappointed that Windows 10 doesn't provide a proper desktop interface. Instead, the whole user interface has been modified to try to get you to use live tiles on the desktop as you would on a Windows phone, to make you use tablet-style 'apps' rather than programs as you would on the desktop. This schizophrenic approach to a desktop o/s is hoisted upon you as Microsoft has no decent tablet-centric o/s and instead are trying to squish Windows onto tablets - it isn't working, look at the death of windows phone and even more recently, the death of Windows on tablets. Both of these avenues have been confirmed as no longer Microsoft's key direction, that is Microsoft-speak for 'abandoned'. They tried to get you to adopt a new GUI so that you personally would conform to the business plan they have in mind for Windows. That business plan is now a failed model but you, the consumer is still suffering for it.

Themeing is not really possible with Windows 10. Microsoft have been clamping down on themeing over time. The desktop as a concept has been largely sidelined by Windows 10 new taskbar with the live tiles hovering over the desktop area. Windows colours, fonts and styles have been made difficult if not impossible to modify. Microsoft does not want you to alter the look of Windows 10 as it is the key selling-point and the one differentiator that Microsoft has distinguishing one version of Windows from another. Classic shell allows you to regain some of the Windows 7 or XP style, Aero Tweaker allows you to get more control of the look and feel of the Windows 10 GUI and the result can be a usable GUI that is both familiar and friendly.

Fonts can't be changed! OK they can a little bit, size, cleartype &C but try to change the fonts for specific items such as window titles or buttons, try to define a system wide font? You cannot. Under almost all prior versions of Windows all the fonts were fully customisable. Winaero is your saviour here as it will allow you to regain some of that control - www.winaero.com.

Right click menus have been optimised for Microsoft touch-based devices (and then Windows Phone died and the Surface tablets were pulled from the market). We now have menus that are too wide and too long with too much space around the text.

The vertical line spacing in context menus seems to have grown by a factor of two/three making a perfectly usable context menu (under winXP, Vista or 7) fill the whole screen and sometimes they can disappear off the bottom of the display. Altering the font size has no effect on the spacing. I find that Winaero tweaker has an option to revert the context menu format to a previous style but on the latest version of Win 10 it has zero effect. This option sees to have been countered by Microdolts. They obviously want menus to be too long to use on desktops.

In addition, Windows 10 has eight different styles of right click menu dependent upon what you are doing and when you are doing it. An interface needs consistency and Windows 10 really has none. I really struggle with Microtwot's inability to do ANYTHING right with a GUI. Their designers are a gaggle of unprofessional knob-ends that couldn't design a door without turning it into a catflap.

Task Manager:

The new task manager uses up more resources, uses up too much space and has been optimised for touch devices. The layout and operation is just different enough from the old task manager to make it annoying to use. To improve my own personal experience, on every Win10 machine that I operate, I now copy the Win7 task manager to the windows system 32 folder and as a result I have the old familiar task manager working again in Win10. How to get this working for yourself? Try here at Winaero: How to get the old task manager working again. winaero.com/blog/get-classic-o…


Fig. Windows 7 Task Manager

The good old Windows 7 task manager looks a lot more usable as it isn't padded out with useless space for pudgy fingers but the old XP "extended task manager" by Extensoft looks even better. That task manager replacement was a huge improvement of XPs task manager (which wasn't bad)  but many had problems getting it to run on Vista + (NT6). It does run however, if you select it to run in compatibility mode for Vista and allow it to run with full privileges. On Win7 it functions in all respects, on Win10 it shows everything except memory usage. Still good though. You can get it here: www.extensoft.com/?p=fr…


Fig. Extensoft Task Manager on Win7

Split Personality:

Win10 has this strange split personality, it has a settings windows when called from the metro menu bar which does some of what I want (but in a manner that makes it difficult for me to find the things I want to manipulate) but what I'd really like is the old control panel which I can get to only with some difficulty (it is however, easily available in its proper location using the classic shell utility). Useful control panel links such as the Windows update utility have been removed from the control panel completely. Why on earth would you want to move an essential Windows function from the control panel? Here is a link to show you how to put it back:
winaero.com/blog/how-t…

Once again it would be rather good if there was some consistency. Leave the old control panel applets as they are and reintroduce those that have worked well in Windows 7 and then create new metro/modern interfaces to those same panel items. This means that desktop users can have a desktop interface and tablet users can have an appropriate interface for a tablet.

One if my current peeves is the networking fly-out. In Win7 if you click on the wireless tray icon you generate a small pop-up that shows wireless points in a compact and discrete form. On Win7 it closes when it loses focus and it uses up very little of the screen. In Win 10 a big blue fly-out pops out from the right and fills 1/5th of the screen. If you have any networking issue then it persists until it resolves the problem and if this isn't possible then all your desktop applications underneath are no longer accessible. When the fly-out is in this state it stays put even when it loses focus. The only way to clear a hanging network fly-out on Win10 is to kill explorer.exe.


Fig. Windows 10 Network flyout Taking up the whole right hand side of the screen


Fig. Windows 7 Network pop-out, compact and useful


Apps:

There are also these tablet style 'apps'. The difference between apps and programs? So far it seems to be that apps are things I never, ever use, not once have I found myself wanting them. My Win10 computer seems to run programs such as photoshop, thunderbird, firefox &c. Win10 has a large number of customisations for tablets that are basically unwanted on a Windows desktop. What were MS thinking? This is their flagship product and it is full of unwanted and unused junkware - see OneDrive*...

After a year's experience of using Windows 10, I found that we have only used one app in all that time, that being World of Tanks Blitz. My children use it from time to time but apart from that single app we use no other Windows metro/modern 'apps' at all.

OneDrive:

Onedrive was foisted upon us as Microsoft's answer to your cloud storage requirements. It comes installed on Windows 10 by default and as a result it aimed to displace dropbox as everyone's favoured cloud storage/file transfer option. It could have worked too, being as Microsoft's space allocation was generous at 15gb with an extra 15gb for the use of the camera roll function...however, Microsoft have just pulled the plug on that 15gb, reducing it to 5gb, meaning that a service that was previously useful for storing a 'normal' amount of data for a standard user, is now quite useless as 5gb is just not enough. Microsoft responded to complaints by allowing users that complained the ability to retain those original amounts. However, MS  did not publicise this fact widely and so, for those that never complained and did not receive the message until it was too late, all their accounts were reduced to 5gb. Despite the unexpected downgrade users that want to transfer their storage to other providers (Dropbox, Google Drive) will still find that annoying OneDrive icon on Explorer as Microsoft do not provide an uninstall option for OneDrive. In earlier  versions of Windows 10 to get rid of OneDrive you need to remove the oneDrive folder in your user folders, run a couple of commands to remove OneDrive altogether, then a couple of registry commands to remove that annoying OneDrive icon... now you can simply uninstall it.

Can't say I'm impressed with OneDrive. It was useful but now it is not. Instead I recommend Dropbox or Google Drive that comes with a lot more space by default.

Privacy and spying:

Windows 10 out of the box sends a lot of information back to Microsoft by default. If you don't want this (you should never actually want this to happen) then you need to disable it with a tool such as www.oo-software.com/de/shutup1…

Just install it and disable as much as you can, use the recommended settings and you should be OK. Microsoft - what is this rubbish that you are doing? Winaero can silence this feature.

Performance:

Windows 10 seems somewhat slow compared to Windows 7. I have a core2Duo 2.5ghz system running Win7 and an AMD 2.5ghz hexacore (quad) with Win10. The individual Intel cores on the win7 seem to respond snappier than Win10's quad AMD cores. It could be the processor types I suppose but the AMD system is still capable of running software that the Intel machine cannot. It is the operation of Windows that seems sluggish and slow to respond. This is possibly due to such things as pauses to determine finger-presses on a tablet. For example you'll see that each interaction on the settings panes has a small pause where you have to wait for each screen to respond. Win 7 control panel responds immediately.

Windows 10 does a lot of updating and I mean a LOT! It is always downloading an update or installing one. It seems to dislike running more than one i/o task and whilst it is downloading it is best to leave the system alone to let it complete. I find that Win10 is best left to sort itself out for 10 mins before I start any serious usage. If you have dropbox or Google drive synching on startup this also slows the whole system down. Go and have a cup of tea. When TrustedInstaller.exe is running you need to reduce its priority below normal or your system's responsiveness will suffer. This is also true of Windows 7 but Win 10 seems especially slow.

When a Win10 system has settled down, all updates have been carried out, it seems to perform adequately though I still tend to find my core2duo is more than adequate and I certainly prefer the snappiness I receive from interacting with Windows 7. My preference would always be for Windows 7 as a daily use o/s in a daily use machine. Windows 7 feels simply faster, faster to boot, faster to be actually usable.

-oOo-

Explorer:

I find Windows 10 Explorer a downgrade on what I am used to. XP's file manager interface was simple and more effective in many cases, certainly more intuitive.


Fig. Windows file explorer as originally sported by NT and Windows 2000.

Vista provided animated dogs to help you find your files, talk about Windows for Teletubbies...

Windows versions since Vista to Windows 10 all still have that appalling search index function that supposedly serves to find files on the drive much faster but in reality just causes almost all file searches to slow to a crawl - while the grey bar scrolls across the top. The search results are slow to arrive and any Windows search becomes a frustration.

The lack of any easily-configurable options within Windows search such as date ranges, sub-folders &c means that any search is a hit and miss affair. The old XP search utility was compact, configurable and the results came fast. NT6 systems simply take ages to find any files at all meaning a search becomes a deeply frustrating experience - each and every time. The underlying indexing tool takes up so much cpu and causes such high disc i/o that on a laptop the hard drive and CPU can start to heat up. The first thing many power users do is to disable the indexing service. This can actually increase the life of your hard drive and motherboard by disabling this windows function as well as speeding up your system. You do this by going into control panel and clicking upon the "programs and features" applet. Selecting "Turn Windows features on or off" allows you to select the search indexing feature for removal.

Note that this will disable Windows search entirely (no F3, no search bar) but the good side is that you'll never be frustrated by Windows search again and it will force you to the better alternatives such as those listed below.

The first thing I have to do with every recent windows installation is to install search alternatives such as FileSearchEx, FileSearchClassic or my favourite, Effective File Search. The first is so much easier to use than Windows 7 or Win 10's search, it pops up in a discrete window with several useful search options that look and operate just like WinXPs search box, however it is commercial. The second is free, it looks a little more complicated but in effect works in a very similar fashion, the third is straight forward and is my default search application. Each is accessible by a right click on the folder you wish to search. These sort of tools are essential if you want to make Windows search usable on Windows 7 or 10.

Another pet hate, the Microsoft ribbon interface on Windows 10 that thankfully, can be disabled. Winaero has a tool for this too:

-oOo-

Conclusion:

Having said all this, I have forced myself to use Windows 10 daily and despite the regular crashes and hard reboots (one per day was not unusual in the early days) for ordinary use it has been usable. Initially it was also bearable, but only just. Since then, a myriad number of bugfixes have been applied and the Windows 10 I am using today is much more stable. My Win10 desktop is now heavily customised to remove most of the new metro/modern tiled interface and also to replace the massive metro menu with the Classic Menu replacement. In addition, the replacement of the Windows 7 task manager, the system becomes somewhat similar to Win7 or XP in operation. The majority of current Windows applications and games work out of the box - so, for most people Windows 10 will be good enough - as long as their hardware/software is up to date and works. However, some of the advanced functions are still rather buggy and that is where I come to grief. My biggest gripes so far are the control panel/settings interface, the inconsistencies, driver bugs causing crashes, continuous forced updates and the absence of some DRM support for older applications.

Bear in mind that I am a bit of a power user, I use the following apps - Pale Moon browser, Firefox,  Mozilla Thunderbird, a few text editors, Audacity, Photoshop graphical creation, developing javascript applications using node.js, Konfabulator and Xwidget engines - I use these almost continuously. Occasionally I might play an old game or two or a current one like World of Tanks. Individually, these tasks should not tax a normal system and should not be stretching the capabilities of Windows10.

When I open my old XP laptop I see what a great o/s it was in comparison, the interface is consistent and designed for a desktop usage, no feely, touchy-crap for tablets, everything works, it is easily cutomisable and it is lovely to use. However, I am stuck with Win10 on my new lappie and I have persisted with it but I am starting to hate the Win10 specific features.


Fig. The classic theme as originally sported by NT and Windows 2000.

So with this in mind at the moment I can only suggest that you continue to use the last stable o/s from Microsoft, not Vista which screwed up XP, not Windows 8, nor 8.1 both of which broke the Windows desktop interface, not Win10 -  which is just again attempting to fix those Win8 GUI things already broken (whilst introducing a raft of new changes and bugs) - yes, the last stable and usable o/s from Microsoft really was Windows 7. I am using Windows 7 professional 64 bit now as my main o/s and it is utterly usable and stable as it has always been.

Note: Between them, at the time of updating in November 2017, Win7 and XP still have 51% of the installed user base whilst Windows 10 has only 29% of the market.

Personally, I can only pray for ReactOS! An O/S that will run win32 programs and drivers without MS MicroShafting us with an unfinished GUI every year or so. ReactOS an o/s that looks/works like Windows? As soon as ReactOS becomes stable for my suite of apps I will start to switch.

Software that fails under Windows 10 that worked perfectly under previous versions of windows:

o  Battleground Ardennes (16bit stub does not work on a 64bit o/s)
o  Rome Total War (DRM) - requires re-purchase on Steam or cracking even though I have a valid key
o  Mediaeval War (DRM) - ditto
o  Oracle VM Virtualbox (now fixed)
o  Photoshop CS ver 8.0 - a problem or two causing crashes but usable
o  My VisualBasic programs compiled for 32 bit windows not running under a 64 bit system

It seems that I still need my XP system to run my favourite applications...