
Useless Windows 10 Features - ducaale
https://www.howtogeek.com/437942/all-the-useless-windows-10-features-microsoft-should-remove/
======
orev
I honestly think that the new tab/news/spam page in IE/Edge is (and has been,
forever) the single biggest factor driving people to Chrome and Firefox. Every
time you open it you’re greeted with all this complete junk, making the whole
experience stuttering and slowing down your flow. I dread having to open IE on
systems with no alternative just because it’s always so bad. Edge might
actually be pretty good, but I will never know it because the initial
experience is just so bad.

~~~
SyneRyder
Edge lets you turn that off - on the New Tab page, click on the cog symbol
(Customize) and you can choose from New Tab page display settings: Top Sites &
My Feed, Top Sites, or Blank Page.

ChrEdge Beta can hide the news feed if you choose Focused view, but currently
all they do is put it after the page fold, so you see it if you merely scroll
down. I've sent a Feedback request saying that's something that might keep me
using Firefox as my default, and supposedly that's a feature they're working
on.

~~~
flukus
> Edge lets you turn that off - on the New Tab page, click on the cog symbol
> (Customize) and you can choose from New Tab page display settings: Top Sites
> & My Feed, Top Sites, or Blank Page.

I shouldn't have to turn off whatever spam they build into a paid for product.
It should also be in the browser settings, not a confusingly placed and easy
to miss hieroglyph. For me I don't even get those options, it's just a toggle
to turn the news feed on or off, off leaves you with just a search bar, and
bing is the only option builtin.

~~~
kirb
Unfortunately Microsoft are the ones who decided to make Windows 10 a free
upgrade for Windows 7/8 users, so we all bear the awfulness of them needing to
sell sponsored spots in the OS to compensate for that loss of revenue. At
least if the OS basically makes money on its own on an ongoing basis, we won’t
need to ever pay for Windows updates again? Still, ugh.

edit: I’m agreeing with you guys here. I’d spend more on an “ad-free” Windows
license if I had a choice, but that doesn’t exist unless you’re a volume
license customer (LTSC) I wish they’d find some way to let people avoid the
ads, like having them in Home and disabling them in Pro, as most laptops (even
my Dell XPS) ship with Home. (They did try “Windows 8.1 with Bing” once. I
guess it didn’t work out?)

~~~
barking
For every previous version of windows you typically bought a new licence only
when you purchased a new PC. The fact that MS allowed upgrades to Widows 10 on
old machines should not have affected their revenue to any great extent, those
machines were never going to have a paid upgrade anyway.

~~~
kirb
I may be completely off-base since Microsoft surely has some numbers we don’t
that justify their choice of licensing model, but from my perspective, and
from a few real experiences helping family and friends, people figure their
PCs were at the end of their life and needed an entire replacement. Installing
the free Windows 10 upgrade changes their mind - now they think their computer
is perfectly up to date, at least for a few more years. These are machines
with specs that look like Core 2 Duo or 1st gen Core i3, 250 GB spinning rust
drive, 4 GB RAM. Those specs are especially prolific in decommissioned office
PCs sent to recyclers who give them a fresh 7 or 10 license. They’re cheap,
plentiful, and come with warranty, so plenty of people go for them.

Another thing to consider is volume licenses weren’t able to take up the offer
- the company had to pay for their Windows 10 upgrade. Enterprise licensing is
the Microsoft money maker.

~~~
crooked-v
That should be _plenty_ for the basic 'grandpa wants the internet and Word'
use cases, though. If it's not, I blame Microsoft.

~~~
boring_twenties
Not using Windows, but I have some machines with similar specs and they are
quite useful even for browsing many if not most websites. But, you must have
NoScript and ad blocking.

So to be fair to Microsoft, at least some, if not all of the blame must go to
web developers.

------
LinuxBender
I agree with this article, but I think it can be summed up as, "People need
the option to buy the LTSB release of Windows 10". Microsoft refuses to sell
it to consumers. It is an enterprise only option (unless that has recently
changed and I am not aware of it).

I have one windows 7 machine for playing WoW and it will stay on 7 until I can
get the LTSB release of Windows 10 and the ability to turn off 100% of the
telemetry, for real. If Blizzard would build an unsupported 64 bit ELF binary
for WoW, then I would not even have windows. I'm not using wine.

~~~
miles
Anyone can buy LTSC for a few hundred dollars.

I cobbled together a post last year on acquiring it:

[https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html](https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html)

However, it does require a willingness to enter into a VL agreement with
Microsoft.

~~~
herpderperator
I recently found out that people are selling legitimate keys on eBay for a few
bucks:
[https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+ltsc)

According to people who have purchased from there, they're VL keys that can be
used many times (e.g. 2500 times), so they just sell the same key over and
over to multiple people:

> ...sellers on eBay are probably people that work for companies that get GVLK
> and MAK Product Keys from MSDN/Microsoft and then just sell 'em off because
> the companies they work for more than likely would never even notice? I
> mean, with MAK Product Keys having from 2500 to 5000 activations per key, at
> least if they still work the same way they did in Vista/7 days, most
> companies that pay for volume licensing never ever actually use anywhere
> near that many. [0]

> after about 3 hours I got a mail with a key and a link to download
> "LTSCX64.2019.ENU.JAN2019.iso" from googledrive. I did not download the ISO,
> so I cannot comment on that, but I typed the key into VAMT and its
> description is "Win 10 RTM EnterpriseS Volume:MAK" and the key had 50
> activations left. I tried it on one of my LTSC 2019 installations and it
> worked fine. I assume that the remaining activation count will decrease over
> time, even when I do not use the key on my other installations, as I suspect
> that the seller sells the same key to more than one buyer.. [0]

> so, after about a week all 50 activations of the key I got are gone. since I
> only used 8 activations, one can be sure that the key was sold to multiple
> buyers. business as usual on ebay.. [0]

It's probably against some contract somewhere, but IANAL.

[0]
[https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterpri...](https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-enterprise-
ltsc-2019-can-one-actually-buy-a-unique-key.79241/)

~~~
michaelmrose
They are pirating windows. They could be fined anywhere from hundreds of
dollars to 150k per installation.

They are also participating in a commercial piracy endeavor that the company
who was issued the key AND Microsoft have an interest in shutting down. Ms
because such endeavors attract customers who could otherwise trivially be
converted into buyers. Companies because they could get audited and fined.

This is as illegal and higher risk than torrent sites.

~~~
josefx
Depends on the country. I think the EU declared the resale of Windows licenses
legal a few years ago. Microsoft trying to fight that doesn't make it illegal.

~~~
michaelmrose
When you bought a physical item in a store you have a right to resell it be
that a computer or a disk.

Even if you can resell a key as part of selling a copy of windows you paid for
you can't sell your employers property, can't sell part of a contract, can't
sell more than you actually paid for.

If the company purchased the right to have n machines at their company run
windows and each key can be activated n * x times nobody sold you the right to
sell n * x copies of windows to everyone on the internet.

Like it or not those agreements aren't sales and the keys aren't a physical
item you have purchased they are just a technical measure to constrain users
from sharing a single ISO file to their million closest friends.

------
ryandrake
Most of these are similar manifestations of the same root evil (not specific
to Microsoft): Users don’t want Feature X but Company wants users to want
Feature X. They release Feature X to the world. It’s a failure—nobody uses it.
The PM or developers who invested in that feature need to justify the
investment. So they make Feature X enabled by default. Users disable it. So
they remove the disable option. Users ignore it. They add flashing
notifications begging users to use it. They’re ignored too. They give Feature
X a prominent, always on button right on the main screen. They add more
keyboard and mouse shortcuts so there are more ways to invoke Feature X. They
add dedicate hardware keys/buttons to invoke Feature X. They add full-screen
reminders to remind users Feature X is so cool! They even make it so it’s easy
to invoke Feature X by accident. While these things may slightly juice Feature
X’s usage metrics, it just never takes off because users fundamentally don’t
want it and nobody wants to admit failure.

Look at the software your company makes and I bet you can quickly find an
example of this. It’s everywhere and it’s shameful.

~~~
aksss
Are you talking about Cortana right now? Cuz it sounds like you’re talking
about Cortana.

~~~
59nadir
I actually wanted to like Cortana and really tried, but between the service
actually being down, somehow not being available just from my device other
times and the phone assistant app straight up not being available in my region
it was just never good enough to like.

------
cookie_monsta
I've installed Win10 on dozens of machines and I've never seen ads on the lock
screen, in the taskbar, and in notifications like the article talks about.
Maybe because I always say "no" to all those creepy tracking/advertising ID
type options on the initial config screen and I always say no to Cortana at
the same time. What I heard (and it seems reasonable) is that MS included
games like Solitaire and Minesweeper in 3.1 as a soft way of training the
enormous user base who were using PCs for the first time in mouse functions
like click, drag, right click and click precision. I guess now that everybody
knows that , MS sees no practical reason to keep those games free.

~~~
cVwEq
Same here, but maybe the difference is that we install Windows 10 Pro whereas
the author is a Windows 10 Home user? The article doesn't seem to state the
version they are using.

Most annoying is that there are a large number of little bits of functionality
that phone home or send information out into the ether: Windows Defender and
its submitting of samples, searching via the Windows button, Task Scheduled
telemetry items, a plethora of Control Panel privacy settings, etc. etc. etc.

Also annoying on Windows 10 Pro is that _the same windows builds_ have
slightly different functionality --- even if the machines have the exact same
hardware.

For example, the Search History and Permissions is sometimes named Change the
permissions and history of search, even for the same Windows 10 build. It's
bizarre.

Also, don't get me started on the intellisense typing when the windows menu is
open. (Really Windows, when I press the Start button and then type in Update,
you search the web and show me Wikipedia information? And it takes like 5
seconds?)

Don't forget the lame This PC icon...

Sorry, this turned into a cathartic listing of Win 10 grievances. :)

~~~
gurkendoktor
> maybe the difference is that we install Windows 10 Pro whereas the author is
> a Windows 10 Home user

No, every installation of Windows 10 Pro I've seen had a start menu that was
mostly ads (links to Candy Crush, Spotify, Office etc.) - I've also had the OS
nag me about giving Edge a second chance.

This is in Germany, in case the region matters, and I always deny all spyware
as far as possible using the GUI.

~~~
throwaway8941

        Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
    

This is the first thing I run on any Windows box I am forced to interact with.

Removes all the junk in the Start menu in one command.

~~~
aphextim
I just take all the ones I want form this list and you can copy/past them in
PowerShell and they execute one after the other.

I would not do what he suggests as that will remove every app.

    
    
        To uninstall 3D Builder:
        get-appxpackage *3dbuilder* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Alarms & Clock:
        get-appxpackage *alarms* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall App Connector:
        get-appxpackage *appconnector* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall App Installer:
        get-appxpackage *appinstaller* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Calendar and Mail apps together:
        get-appxpackage *communicationsapps* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Calculator:
        get-appxpackage *calculator* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Camera:
        get-appxpackage *camera* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Feedback Hub:
        get-appxpackage *feedback* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Get Office:
        get-appxpackage *officehub* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Get Started or Tips:
        get-appxpackage *getstarted* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Get Skype:
        get-appxpackage *skypeapp* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Groove Music:
        get-appxpackage *zunemusic* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Groove Music and Movies & TV apps together:
        get-appxpackage *zune* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Maps:
        get-appxpackage *maps* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Messaging and Skype Video apps together:
        get-appxpackage *messaging* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Microsoft Solitaire Collection:
        get-appxpackage *solitaire* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Microsoft Wallet:
        get-appxpackage *wallet* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Microsoft Wi-Fi:
        get-appxpackage *connectivitystore* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Money:
        get-appxpackage *bingfinance* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Money, News, Sports and Weather apps together:
        get-appxpackage *bing* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Movies & TV:
        get-appxpackage *zunevideo* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall News:
        get-appxpackage *bingnews* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall OneNote:
        get-appxpackage *onenote* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Paid Wi-Fi & Cellular:
        get-appxpackage *oneconnect* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Paint 3D:
        get-appxpackage *mspaint* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall People:
        get-appxpackage *people* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Phone:
        get-appxpackage *commsphone* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Phone Companion:
        get-appxpackage *windowsphone* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Phone and Phone Companion apps together:
        get-appxpackage *phone* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Photos:
        get-appxpackage *photos* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Sports:
        get-appxpackage *bingsports* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Sticky Notes:
        get-appxpackage *sticky* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Sway:
        get-appxpackage *sway* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall View 3D:
        get-appxpackage *3d* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Voice Recorder:
        get-appxpackage *soundrecorder* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Weather:
        get-appxpackage *bingweather* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Windows Holographic:
        get-appxpackage *holographic* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Windows Store: (Be very careful!)
        get-appxpackage *windowsstore* | remove-appxpackage
    
        To uninstall Xbox:
        get-appxpackage *xbox* | remove-appxpackage

~~~
criddell
Most of those you can right click on and select uninstall now. It takes
longer, but it feels safer to me because I have to take a second for each to
think if I want it or not.

~~~
boring_twenties
I think being forced to think about ads for Spotify and Office is exactly what
he's trying to avoid.

------
projektfu
How about all the ways windows goes out of its way to hide the home folder,
and then is now generating multiple places it calls “Documents”, “Pictures”,
etc so you’re never really sure where anything is?

~~~
harrygeez
I think this is godsend. Before they do this people litter their files all
over the filesystem. These magic folders reside in a user's home folder by
default anyway.

Most Windows users don't really have much clue about the filesystem like
everyone here does.

~~~
beatgammit
And is that desirable? Why do we want users to know less about how their
computer works? Is it really a problem to know that you have a user directory
with a bunch of other directories inside that hold certain classes of
information by default?

When I open a command prompt (yes, I'm not the average user), I'm in my home
directory, and if I create any files or folders, they'll be there by default.
To access those files/folders, I used to go through the root of the filesystem
(Users -> <username>), but I eventually just made a link in the file explorer
to my home directory. Why doesn't that link at least exist by default? I've
used enough GUI tools that default to that directory (i.e. WinSCP IIRC) that
getting to it should be easy.

I think the reason that "most Windows users don't have a clue" is because
Microsoft wants it that way for some reason. People were able to figure out
DOS, yet these days giving them a link to their home directory is "too
complicated"?

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
The modern developer mindset is that users are cattle. Explore pretty much
anywhere developers hang out and ask them why things are the way they are and
they'll tell you it's because users are morons. Developers used to want to
actually help users make better use of their tools. Hell, computers used to
boot into BASIC. Now developers just want to force carefully crafted single-
purpose appliances on people so they have total control over what they do with
it and can track everything for the purpose of making money. Then they lament
that they are "forced" to do this. Jackasses.

~~~
jolmg
As time has gone by, more and more people are starting to use computers.
Before, only technically-minded people that were willing to invest in a
learning curve would buy and use computers, but now even toddlers are users.
People need computers, but they have other work to do, other things to learn.
They don't want to have to invest time in learning how to use a computer, and
I believe that's what's driving the dumbing-down of user interfaces. I don't
think this was initiated by developers, and in that sense, they are forced to
comply to market forces.

I still hate developing GUI apps on Web technology. Most of the stuff I
program would best be used on a CLI. It would be simpler to program and would
provide much more productivity benefits to an experienced user. However, it's
not really an option, when most users don't even know how to make a bookmark
or have little notion of what files are, much less how to use a terminal.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
There's a difference between making things easier to understand and turning
them into a nigh-useless playschool-brand version of themselves. The original
Macintosh is what the former looks like: coherent metaphors, expected
behavior, simple design. Today's "apps" are what the latter looks like.

------
Nextgrid
It’s hard to believe how despite all the telemetry, Microsoft still manages to
be so out of touch with their users’ actual needs. It’s almost like there’s a
hidden agenda somewhere.

~~~
philliphaydon
If the telemetry says that many people use these features, are Microsoft out
of touch? These are features we don’t use. But other people might.

My dad rang me once said that when playing solitaire it kept playing ads. I
said he can buy it so the ads go away or find another app that doesn’t have
ads. He’s like “ah what ever I’ll watch the ads”. He’s happy and content. Just
wants solitaire.

~~~
saagarjha
> He’s happy and content. Just wants solitaire.

Would he not be happier without the ads, then?

~~~
philliphaydon
Sure, but he doesn't want to pay and doesn't want some other app. So just
accepts it.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I wouldn't call it being content, I'd call it being stuck in a situation that
sucks.

I mean, if I gave you a script that would patch up Solitaire executable to
remove any and all ads and telemetry with a single click, wouldn't your dad
want it if you offered?

~~~
boring_twenties
There's almost certainly a free app for Windows that's even better than the
Microsoft version. He said his dad doesn't want "some other app," for whatever
reason, but he's not stuck if they are available.

Hell if push came to shove you could probably get GNOME's solitaire running
which at least has the advantage of supporting something like 100 different
solitaire games.

Lastly I was curious how much the Microsoft solitaire costs and OMG. They want
you to pay an ongoing subscription for it. Wow.

------
_trampeltier
Standart folders, does anybody really use them?

I upgradet one Notebook at home to from Win7 to Win10. Besides of other things
I couldn't believe the added Candy Crash in my Start Menu. In a home edition
maybe .. but on Win Pro, serious?

I played back on the Win7 image pretty quick.

I'm anyway mostly Linux, but I don't think I'll ever move any machine to
Win10.

~~~
ken
> I couldn't believe the added Candy Crash in my Start Menu. In a home edition
> maybe .. but on Win Pro, serious?

Are you surprised? The file search on Windows XP Professional used an animated
cartoon dog. This is just what Microsoft does.

As Steve Jobs once said, "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no
taste. They have absolutely no taste."

~~~
mschuster91
At least the dog was cute and not an advertising vehicle.

------
IdontRememberIt
The most critical useless feature (as it is now) is actually the Windows
Store. What is Microsoft doing wrong that makes nobody use it? It could be a
revolution (selling + updates).

~~~
40four
I think the only thing I've used it for installing Windows Subsystem for Linux

~~~
kyriakos
Also the beta version of the new Windows terminal

~~~
sundvor
Yes! And Python.

~~~
Semaphor
What’s the advantage of the store version of python over the normal installer?

~~~
atVelocet
Auto Updates.

------
Causality1
How about giving us back the features we lost with Windows 10?

Like if I want a desktop shortcut to Notepad in W7 I open the Start menu,
begin typing Notepad, and when it shows up in the search results I drag the
icon onto the desktop or right click on it and hit "send to desktop". Neither
of those work in Windows 10. Clicking and dragging does nothing, and right
clicking doesn't let you make a desktop shortcut either. You have to add it to
the Start menu, then drag it to to the desktop, then delete it off the Start
menu.

~~~
jplayer01
Yeah, they keep making trivial things harder to do for no reason. You used to
be able to right-click the icon and go directly to the classic control panel.
Not anymore. The whole start menu is a failure and they need to overhaul it.

------
siempreb
> Windows 10 has more built-in advertisements than Google’s Android and Chrome
> OS do.

It's still hard to believe that after paying a few hundreds of dollars for a
new OS you will be treated with advertisements, as if it were freeware.. I'll
never buy that shit.

~~~
jplayer01
> It's still hard to believe that after paying a few hundreds of dollars for a
> new OS

I haven't checked, but are the ads in the enterprise versions? Otherwise, I'd
guess that the vast majority of home consumers have an OEM key that came with
their laptop or PC (or upgraded from Win7), and they didn't pay hundreds of
dollars for. While the price of Win10 is included in some way in the price of
the device, it wouldn't be nearly as much. Also, from what I remember, 1903
has gotten rid of most of the ads on a fresh installation, so it seems to be
improving.

edit: Actually, I didn't realize there were actual ad notifications at all in
Win10. Never seen them before. Maybe region/setting dependent? I only meant
the games and other third party stuff that show up in the start menu.

~~~
AnonymousPlanet
As a freelancer, I'm not some home consumer, but someone with a business
laptop. A business laptop I need to take to meetings. I need to show my
business partners what is on my screen. This is not the time for some bloody
Candy Crush ad popping up. And this is not the time to realise that last
night's forced update borked your presentation.

As a freelancer, however, I cannot get the enterprise version of Windows 10
unless I buy at least n instances of it. I'd rather use that money to buy a
real business laptop like a Mac Book Pro. No ads. No work ruining updates.
Professionally maintainable without having a Windows Server sitting next to
it. Backups that work. Real UNIX underneath.

I also was very happy with a Thinkpad plus Ubuntu LTS. Professionally
maintainable, UNIX like underneath, smooth updates. I set up backups myself,
but at least I had full control over it.

I had to settle on the Mac because of the availability of MS Office. I got
tired of having to run that using a VM inside which I, yet again, had to
maintain a Windows.

I tried Windows 10 for a while. At first I was pleasantly surprised, but then
all the problems piled up. Fighting shitty drivers just to get sound working
properly, constant updates, ads popping up again and again in the start menu
and even on the lock screen, fighting to get at least a semblance of a usable
command line.

~~~
jplayer01
I think you misunderstand. I'm not defending them at all.

------
whamlastxmas
In other news, I still cannot disable Windows update on the home edition. I've
spent hours and hours and virtually every solution I can find other than
giving MS more money to upgrade.

Updates keep failing on my machine, which means it just tried again the next
day and forces a restart, closing everything I have. Fails day after day after
day. I'm not sure why, I frankly don't care. Just ridiculous how impossible it
is to disable.

~~~
Someone1234
> Updates keep failing on my machine

By any chance did you run some script or random "de-bloat" tool someone
linked? Half of those break Windows Update and cause it to keep failing
(either via setting permissions, host file changes, or registry alterations).

~~~
whamlastxmas
No. I think it's related to my full disk encryption that uses a custom boot
loader or whatever

------
SignalsFromBob
Wait, what? There are ads in the OS? That's insane.

~~~
windexh8er
The entire consumer oriented line of Windows 10 feels like a bad trip to a US
strip mall. It's preinstalled with loads of junk you can't remove easily. For
a while I spent some time putting together a small workflow to clean up
Windows 10 builds for a project I was working on. If your hand is forced and
you need a minimum amount of tools to get rid of as much bloat and telemetry
there are two tools you need:

1) Geek Uninstaller [0] 2) O&O Shutup10 [1]

Both are free. Maybe there's better options now, but... They helped
tremendously a short time ago.

[0] [https://geekuninstaller.com/](https://geekuninstaller.com/) [1]
[https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10](https://www.oo-
software.com/en/shutup10)

~~~
jayalpha
Great post. I don't use windows but my girl does. Her compi (Win 10, SSD, 8 GB
Ram, i7) has become unusable slow. She does not much besides watching Movies,
surfing and using Word. I installed a free reliable antivirus (Avira) when she
got it. I will have to look into this problem soon.

Any further suggestion? I will definitely try your recommended programs.

~~~
cannonedhamster
I say this in all seriousness, Linux is probably a better experience if that's
all she does. Give something like Ubuntu or elementary os test run with a live
version and see if she's missing anything you'll either find out she needs
Office specifically or it will probably work for her. Linux right now is in a
great spot for people who need little customization and people who really love
to tinker. If you're in the middle of that group is where friction lives. If
linux won't work for you then the suggestions above are great.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Manjaro comes OOTB with MS Office 365, and it's super easy to install, easier
than Ubuntu if you're doing Nvidia drivers. I personally can't comment on how
well their Office works as I avoid anything Microsoft makes, but it's an
option.

~~~
Vogtinator
> Manjaro comes OOTB with MS Office 365

Huh?

~~~
Joeri
They include wrapper apps for office online. You can just use the web apps in
any browser on any OS though.

------
molteanu
I've tried to change my video settings the other day. Bam! A nice guy with a
big smile on his face filled my entire screen selling me Xbox and other junk.
I've told my girlfriend I'm feeling like shopping in the mall while using
Windows 10.

------
leonroy
Windows 10 Debloater is a pretty cool script which strips a tonne of cruft
from Windows. Worked very well for me:
[https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater](https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater)

------
locusm
Worst thing in Windows is still search, it doesnt work unless you type the
exact letters in order.

~~~
CathedralBorrow
I still laugh whenever I can't remember the exact name of my bittorrent client
and Windows has no clue what I'm looking for when I enter "torrent" or
"bittorrent".

It's called qbittorrent.

~~~
stallmanite
Microsoft research is still perfecting the "substring search" technology.

------
mopsi
I encourage everyone unhappy with Windows 10 Start menu to give Open Shell a
try: [https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu](https://github.com/Open-
Shell/Open-Shell-Menu)

It replaces native Start menu with Win7/8 lookalike that's highly customizable
and much faster. Search works better, too.

------
teddyc
Nobody mentions:

"Hi, I'm Cortana. A little sign in here, touch of wifi there..."

Not now. Not ever.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/iiiiiiitttttttttttt/comments/a36m6j...](https://www.reddit.com/r/iiiiiiitttttttttttt/comments/a36m6j/a_little_sign_in_here_touch_of_wifi_there/)

~~~
Macha
The first time I saw in the win10 update screen with "don't worry, your date
is safe", I panicked thinking I had got some ransomware. The opposite of the
intended effect.

------
ilaksh
In case people are really ambitious or adventurous and want to avoid all of
this stuff completely, what Linux distro (or other open source OS) is
currently trendiest/most useful/relevant? Is it still Ubuntu?

~~~
zeta0134
I would strongly vote in favor of Ubuntu for your first distribution. It's
still wildly popular, and despite some mishaps, Canonical tries pretty hard to
make sure it's a smooth installation process, and has enough standard
applications installed to be useful right away. If you just want to get your
feet wet, and especially if you'd rather not mess around with the command line
unless absolutely necessary, Ubuntu is great.

Depending on your needs, Fedora is also quite usable. It leans more in the
FOSS direction, and while it is fairly bleeding edge with regards to Linux
specific tooling, it is somewhat more hesitant to include non-free software,
which may include device drivers and firmware. Last I checked, Ubuntu still
had a higher degree of Just Works(tm) than Fedora for this reason. Fedora is
very similar to RedHat and CentOS, so if you're looking for a business-focused
distribution, this is a strong contender. Might not be as useful as a casual
desktop install though.

Linux Mint is also wildly popular. It's Ubuntu-based, but it leans much less
in the pure-FOSS direction, and is willing to include more grey area tools
like video codecs and non-free device drivers. It also uses the Cinnamon
desktop environment, which may feel a bit more familiar if you're coming from
Windows. Some of my colleagues swear by it, so I think it's worth checking
out.

Of course, take this with a grain of salt. I run Arch Linux and am perfectly
happy to tinker around with the deepest guts of my system when needed. I
wouldn't actually recommend that to a new user though, while I enjoy the
absolute freedom to dive that deep, it can occasionally be quite frustrating.

~~~
twic
My experience has been that Fedora does better at "just works" than Ubuntu,
over the working life of the installation. Ubuntu may install easily, but it
builds up weird stuff over time - thing randomly crashing, stuff not working
in weird ways after updates. Fedora just keeps on trucking.

+1 to Cinnamon - AFAICT it's the best way to preserve a classic desktop-style
desktop, rather than having a desktop which is trying to be a giant mobile
phone.

------
IdontRememberIt
Has someone a clue why Xbox Game Bar app cannot be removed with a Windows
10... __pro __?

------
windsignaling
Haven't used Windows for over 10 years and I'm surprised to see how far it has
fallen.

It's weird to me that the author thinks of these problems as mere annoyances.
To me it's utterly ridiculous to have any of these features be part of an OS.

It's like I bought a big advertisement machine.

Tried it out recently and was greeted with the usual endless automatic updates
and messing up my dual boot.

What's with the "people" tab? This is the kind of half-drunk idea I've come to
expect from Microsoft. When I want to talk to people on Skype, I open Skype.
It might be a nice abstraction at a very high level mentally (these are apps I
use to talk to "people"), but it seems pointless to have this in software.

------
superasn
I'm deliberately trying never to update to Windows 10 because I think Windows
7 had everything I could ever need from the OS.

I wish the hardware drivers weren't so restricted as for my latest laptop no
driver exists for Windows 7 so had to be forced to install Win 10 nightmare.

One tip for you guys is that if you want to get rid of most bloat that comes
bundled with Win 10, I found this freeware software to be pretty effective:

[https://www.thewindowsclub.com/10appsmanager-
windows-10?&amp...](https://www.thewindowsclub.com/10appsmanager-
windows-10?&ampcf=1)

So far I haven't witnessed any issues in terms of stability after removing
almost all bundled crap.

~~~
Const-me
I once needed to test and debug my software on Win7. The app uses hardware
video encoder, virtualization doesn't work, so I had to install Win7 on a
hardware PC.

The hardware drivers are there. It just takes some time to find them, and then
some time to integrate into Win7 ISO so the installer doesn't fail.

I liked Win7 very much for the first couple of days. However I've reverted to
Win10. Too many things are broken on Win7 in comparison: high DPI support,
usability features like Win+arrow keys, no MS Edge.

~~~
jplayer01
I genuinely think Win10 has made huge leaps in many areas compared to Win7.
It's just that they make so many bone-headed design decisions across the OS
that detract from it. I wish I could recommend Windows 10 wholeheartedly, and
generally I do recommend upgrading to it, it's just a ... problematic OS.

~~~
Const-me
Could it be MS deliberately trying to train users to read and understand
messages, especially long ones, before clicking "I agree"? I think you can opt
out of many problematic features if you pay attention where you click during
the OS setup. The licenses are checked online in Win10, so you can download an
ISO from Microsoft.com, do clean install, and if you've installed same edition
on the same PC it will be activated.

~~~
jplayer01
No, I don't see it. I'm utterly annoyed with Windows 10 even after declining
any and every ridiculous request from Microsoft. It has nothing to do with
'training users to read' that the start menu is terrible or the new control
panel is an abomination. And their asking for permission to track you has
nothing to do with want to train users. They just want to track you. And even
_if_ you decline everything, there's plenty of telemetry that isn't disabled.

------
szggzs27
I use windows at work, on 3 screens.

One thing pisses me off to no end: When you drag a window and accidentally
make a small "left-right-left" movement, everything on your screen is
minimized to the tray. There is no button to restore this.

f*cking retarded features.

~~~
rharb
You can actually just grab the same window and make a corresponding "up-down-
up" movement and it'll bring everything back. On personal machines I turn it
off but if I'm doing something for someone else, this is a good thing to know.

~~~
genpfault
Hrm, is there a keyboard shortcut for that restore action? Win+M will do the
minimize-all thing but I never could figure out one for restore-all.

EDIT: Ah, of course, Win+Shift+M :)

------
ZuLuuuuuu
I would also add lock screen which is shown before login screen. It makes
sense on mobile devices but I never understood the use for it on my desktop
and laptop. Especially when my laptop and desktop does not have any bio
authentication.

~~~
pfranz
Oh, that's what that is supposed to be! The same thing is in CentOS. You
literally click and drag the mouse upward to get the login screen. New users
often think the computer is broken.

~~~
input_sh
Any default GNOME environment does this.

> You literally click and drag the mouse upward to get the login screen.

Yeah, you can, but hitting a space bar before typing in your password is so
much easier. I _think_ any "normal" key (as in letters, numbers, space) would
work, but I'm not near a system to check.

~~~
cesarb
You can just start typing your password, it'll automatically unhide and put
what you typed in the password field. Or you can press Esc to just unhide
without starting to type your password.

~~~
doubleunplussed
If your password starts with a space, then you have to either tap an extra
space, or hit escape as you mentioned.

------
QuadrupleA
Still using windows 7 for as long as I can. Pretty livid that they're
discontinuing support and forcing people to 10 soon, I have 10 on another
machine and it really feels like losing control of my PC. Very locked down,
filled with ads and interruptions, affiliate software and marketing junk.
Seems like one of the last bastions of autonomy and privacy in the computer
world, the desktop OS, is jumping fully onto the surveillance capitalism
bandwagon now. Pretty depressing. Would switch to Linux but it's pretty much a
nonstarter for game dev.

~~~
krylon
At work, I have been using Windows 10 Pro for a couple of months now after
holding out on Windows 7 for a long while.

I have to say, I am surprisingly happy with it. It has native SSH, WSL,
performance is decent, and our admin no longer installs 3rd party AV software
on Windows 10.

Now if only Microsoft could get their act together when it comes to updates -
it has been a mess a for a long time, but I got the feeling it has gotten much
worse ever since they decided to bundle all their updates into single large
packages, and especially with Windows 10.

------
skocznymroczny
> They all have one thing in common: No one wanted them. Who wants a Windows
> PC that can’t run standard Windows applications?

People who want a tablet experience. Surface Go is tablet first, it can be
used as a laptop substitute, but only a substitute. I can imagine there are
many people who would be satisfied with a Windows S only device, using only
the Microsoft Store apps.

~~~
Macha
Even on the surface go the first thing I did was unlock it so I could run apps
like Firefox, OpenTTD and Steam.

~~~
skocznymroczny
So did I. But more casual users would be completely content with Edge, Netflix
and Facebook apps. And they'd get longer battery life too in exchange.

------
wozniacki
This might seem minor in the scheme of things that Windows 10 has regressed on
(compared to even Windows 8.1) but has anyone found a cure for the atrocious
way Win 10 does the "Show windows side by side", now.

Previously it would just evenly split the existing windows into equal sized
ones spread across the width of the screen. It worked beautifully! If there
were two windows they would neatly fit into each half of the screen, fully
sized respectively.

Now it does this strange quarter-stacking of the said windows on top of each
other, squeezed into ONE HALF of the screen and leaves the other HALF EMPTY
(exposing the destop) !! This absolutely drives me nuts. There are Chrome
extensions ("Tab resize") to cure this but its a pointless added series of
steps where you individually tweak each open window to the size you want. Its
bonkers.

I don't get who in the right mind would come up with this as an enhancement
when the previous one worked just fine !!

Please reverse this.

------
Spearchucker
Surprised to not see Albums included. Every time my camera roll updates with
photos from my phone or compact there's another notification about this new
album that Windows created for me.

I. Never. Look. At. Their. Albums.

Writing this makes me wonder if there's a way to turn it off and why I've
never thought to look...

------
neuronic
Completely left Windows 10 (after several parallel years with Linux based
systems such as openSuse/Ubuntu) for macOS.

I get a workstation that has sensible defaults and gets out of my way 99.999%
of the time. I get why others prefer Linux systems in development but within
my ecosystem I am simply happy I don't have to configure my fan speed and
install fourth party drivers to get WLAN to connect after the machine sleeps.

The only things that Windows really excels in are gaming and office. Open
source office suites are simply many levels below MS Office, and no I won't
use LaTex at work although writing my thesis with it was indeed amazing. The
macOS office variants (by Microsoft) are also severely lacking in
comparison...

But other than that if you're not tinkering with .NET stuff...

~~~
twodave
Even if you ARE tinkering with .NET stuff. I work for a .NET shop on my MBP
and the only things I remote into my Windows workstation for are some of the
old .NET Framework projects we have that I still need to touch periodically
and generating dacpac files from data projects (which is being worked on macOS
so I'm really looking forward to that day). Many things (Docker is a huge
example) just work better on macOS, and overall I find myself more productive.
I feel that macOS is just a more "terminal-first" environment than Windows,
and I'm more at home there. It's a shame.

I actually don't hate Windows, I used it for decades and still switch over to
it as needed. But I really love macOS. I just wish they'd fix some of their
hardware lately.

------
lostgame
It has been about a decade since I used Windows (XP) as a daily driver, and I
am _shocked_ , and seriously disgusted, when I see my friends or co-workers
using it.

Can I ask why anyone is _paying_ for this pile of crap?

There are literally no improvements from Windows 7 vs. Windows 10, that could
convince me this level of built-in telemetry, and, God forbid, built-in
_advertising_ is worth an 'upgrade'.

For God's sake, they are in the freaking _start menu_ , and slow down several
of my friends older computers who were force-upgraded.

And before you tell me what I already know, that you can 'opt out' \- _we
should not have to opt out of advertising on an operating system we pay for_ ,
especially one that did not have advertising before.

As far as I'm concerned, for all the talk about Apple's 'walled garden,' folks
are so addicted to Windows x86 and x64 apps, and so locked into _that_ walled
garden, they are now willing to accept being tracked, and to literally have a
slower OS due to the baked in advertising.

The failure, and massive financial deficit, that occurred from Windows RT
should be more than enough evidence of this. Without its history of apps,
Windows isn't Windows.

Knowing that, Microsoft can pack whatever bullshit it wants, including, but
not limited to, tracking and advertising, and we _still_ buy.

The only inherently worse-for-the-user OS out there is Android. I will no
longer use Google services, even by request. I'm literally trying to ween
myself off YouTube, reporting a post on HN yesterday that was merely a YouTube
link to a guy talking about how his wife left him that had somehow snuck it's
way onto the front page.

I pray one year, we will have that 'year of Linux,' and Microsoft can go back
to creating a quality product, instead of focusing on new ways to get
information out of users.

Edit: I also pray for, and would even contribute code to, a _meaningful_ third
party mobile OS solution. I'm worried Apple will realize they are the last
company to respect user privacy to even a reasonable degree, and get greedy.

However, there are so, so many issues with a new mobile OS, between devices,
carriers, a bootloader compatible with said devices, licensing, and such, that
at the moment, I am not seeing any of the projects in the works as feasible.
To be honest - the world of commercial operating systems has never looked so
grim.

~~~
gambiting
>>Can I ask why anyone is paying for this pile of crap?

Because for certain areas of programming, Visual Studio is still king and if
you want to develop for Playstation/Xbox then Windows is the only choice.

And of course playing video games in general requires Windows - it's less true
than it was few years ago, but there's still plenty of games which give you
very poor experience on anything but Windows.

~~~
lostgame
You've contradicted yourself by displaying a pleasant alternative to Windows
gaming - consoles.

Even as a game developer, for home brew like the Sega Saturn, as well as
various Unity projects, I use a Windows XP VM maybe once a month for some
obscure utility.

I never play games on PC's. I buy a console, it's good for ten or more years.
I still play my Saturn and Dreamcast, whose emulation leaves much still to be
desired.

If I want to purchase a game, I don't have to worry about if my video card is
compatible, or if I have enough RAM, or, even if my OS will run it! I just
play it.

You are part of a niche developer system, that, granted, you require Windows
10 for your very, very specific case.

Similarly, I am required to use a 2017 MacBook Pro with a touch bar at work,
as I am an iOS developer. I would _never_ , on principle alone, purchase such
a unit. I use a Mac at home, but I use a 2012 model I have chosen to stick
with for a number of reasons. I'm running the newest MacOS because it's
actually offered me reasons to upgrade.

This has nothing to do with my personal preferences, or my point.

I'm not talking about the use of Windows itself, when I say 'why would anyone
pay for this crap' \- I'm talking about the "upgrade".

Windows 7 still more than meets my needs and the needs of most consumers.

Windows _XP_ still more than meets my needs and the needs of most consumers,
though it has security issues that make Windows 7 a better general option.

Windows 10 has added nothing, as far as I can see, beyond leaving behind some
of the UI/UX disaster of Windows 8, the result being a slightly less usable
Windows 7 (especially to the average Jane or Joe) - with baked in advertising
and tracking that they _know_ Jane or Joe, who got the OS pre-installed on the
Asus they bought from Best Buy, is not going to disable.

In fact, they're counting on that.

When we _pay_ for services, we expect no advertising, especially on services
that did not contain it before. Cable television is an exception to this -
what we pay for in that instance is more selection.

But can you imagine if Apple Music just suddenly started shoving ads in their
stream? They'd lose two million subscribers overnight.

It baffles me that people have Stockholm Syndrome enough with Windows to stick
with it through such obvious distaste for the users themselves.

Since 98SE, we've got a pattern of every other Windows release simply being an
unmitigated disaster -

98SE - good / ME - awful / XP - good / Vista - awful / 7 - great / 8 - awful /
10 - at least not as shit as 8

What this shows me, is that Microsoft seems to not learn from mistakes until
an entire version number later.

There have only been a handful of releases in MacOS/OS X's brilliant history
since OSX came about in 2001 that have been shit. Since Tiger, we've praised
virtually every release - and they are still adding meaningful and impactful
features like dark mode. Now it's their laughable hardware options that is the
issue.

~~~
gambiting
>>You've contradicted yourself by displaying a pleasant alternative to Windows
gaming - consoles.

But games aren't interchangable like some other media is. If a game that I
want to play is only available on Windows, then I will put up with whatever
bullshit Microsoft throws at me to play that game, I won't go "oh well, I'll
just play something else on the PS4 instead".

And yes, Win10 is a disaster - but you can't use certain things like the
latest GamePass subscription without it, or adjust your settings for the Xbox
Elite controller without Windows 10.....sticking with Windows 7 forever is not
the solution(as much as I would like it to be).

I'm both a consumer and a developer, and use windows for both - it's just the
right choice for what I need at the moment. If those needs change then the
operating system will change as well.

~~~
lostgame
Exclusivity for games has always been the case, except for those who choose
multiple platforms. When I was a kid, you had a Sega or a Nintendo, and so you
had Mario, or Sonic.

IMHO the selection of games for consoles is much broader, and, overall, seem
to generally have less initial issues. Furthermore, we don't get the awful DRM
that causes us to go find a crack on launch day anyway, just because of the
annoyance.

Microsoft's attempt to lock me into an OS I would never allow within ten feet
of any of my computers, or any developer's, just means I won't use their
software. No game title is worth having an awful experience with the rest of
my OS, that's what dual booting is for.

Furthermore, Microsoft even offers its own console! If I want to use GamePass
or an xBox controller, why am I not just using an xBox One (Pro?) - the
lifespan of consoles and the length of time games will still work and be
released for them, is far greater than the upgrade paths I had to suffer
through with my PC growing up.

Microsoft is removing its own reason to use Windows as a gaming platform. I'd
happily buy an xBox, but if I can't play a title on Windows 7, I'm just not
going to purchase it.

If the developer doesn't care, and isn't willing to support it, sucks for
them.

With tools like Unity and Unreal Engine, we have very, very little reason for
anything but the biggest AAA games, which require seriously custom engines,
which will have console versions anyway - to be Windows-exclusive.

Could you, off the top of your head, name five, significant PC-exclusive
titles from the past five years that did not have a console equivalent? Not a
rhetorical question, just genuinely curious. I've not heard of a single,
standout Windows-exclusive title on any of the tech or gaming blogs I
obsessively follow.

In fact, I've seen Microsoft make it even easier to directly port your games
to xBox.

------
mehdix
After switching to Archlinux and putting Windows 10 in a Qemu VM my life got
way easier. One is driven by the corporation behind it to form and change user
behaviour in order to make more money, and the other is made by like-minded
hackers.

~~~
beatgammit
I just keep a crappy Windows laptop next to my desktop and use that whenever I
absolutely need Windows for something. I don't need heavy software, just
sometimes a program to reproduce an issue a consumer has. I have a Windows VM,
but it stays off most of the time, and I have a separate disk in my desktop
running Windows in case I need something more serious than my laptop can
handle (I boot to it once a month or so to run updates).

I've tried making WSL work for me, but I just find Windows gets in my way more
than it actually helps. I'm a little sad that I can't use Visual Studio (the
number of times I've had to hack together a CMake build to make small change
is way too high), but it's not worth the pain of using Windows. How to do X on
Linux is usually much easier to remember and faster than the equivalent on
Windows, and I spent enough time on WSL/git bash that I just stopped
bothering.

Now, if I can get a hackintosh VM going, my life will be complete.

------
Multicomp
Why Microsoft expects me to voluntarily move from Windows 7 to this OS is
beyond me. I will however be moving from Windows 7 to Windows Embedded POS
Ready 2009, which due to contractual obligations will be supported a few more
years.

After that? Either pure Debian KDE if I can stand to jump the gap from RPM-
based to Apt-based linux, or Fedora Lxqt if not. (IMO -> if 'Linux' could just
not be split down the middle between the two big families of
Debian/XLUbuntu/Peppermint and RHEL/Fedora/CentOS/Manjaro we could get more
grannies as it were)

I am the master of my computing fate, not Microsoft.

------
w1nst0nsm1th
Let's face it. These stuffs are not only useless shit: these are deal
breakers.

having been successively into Linux and macOS these last 7 years, I find the
amount of junks produced by Windows staggering.

------
RenRav
Interesting how butchered my setup is, out of all those things I've only seen
the 3d objects folder.

------
jokoon
They removed the good solitaire classic and made it non-free.

There are clones, but I find this really to be a dick move.

------
ilaksh
If you want a completely opposite alternative to Windows that has none of
this, take a look at OpenBSD
[https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html](https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html).

------
JulianMorrison
This all feels to me like Microsoft is getting desperate - it's the usual
experience when the money in a niche is drying up: aggressive upsell and every
damn thing trying to squeeze another dime out of you.

Have their revenues been tanking?

~~~
twodave
Nope, they just set an annual record and beat analysts expectations last
quarter[1]. Azure is helping them a great deal and just overtook their PC
division (which includes everything from Windows to the Surface laptop).

[1]: [https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsoft-trumpets-record-
year...](https://www.geekwire.com/2019/microsoft-trumpets-record-
year-126b-annual-revenue-14-quarterly-profits-beat-estimates/)

~~~
JulianMorrison
Odd, so why the huckster impression?

~~~
cherrypepsi
Android and Google Docs are overtaking their main turf, even if it is for
regular consumers as of right now, it is still a huge change. The Azure stuff
is recent and can't attempt vendor lock-in yet, maybe never, at least not to
the extent Windows and Office were able to.

------
bytematic
I agree but honestly it takes 30minutes to disable all of these

------
sys_64738
Timeline is bewildering to look at when crammed full of stuff.

------
Mockapapella
Almost none of these are an issue with Windows 10 LTSC

------
kerberos84
windows 10 itself is useless. I miss Windows 7.

------
7532yahoogmail
The dumbest windows feature? When you accidentally touch the top of a window
to top of screen, it maximizes. On Mac it's sort of the opposite: you can't
relocate a window to another screen if it's maximizes. It "helps" you by force
partitioning the screen.

~~~
philliphaydon
Huh, how is that 'dumb'?

Resize a window and drag it to the top will increase total height of screen.

Drag a window to the top and it maximizes.

Drag to left to dock to left side. (repeat for right side)

Drag to top left to dock to top left corner. (repeat for all corners)

Win+Arrow (Up) to full screen.

Win+Arrow (Down) to un-full screen. Down again to minimum.

Win+Shift+Arrow (left/right) to change screen.

Win+Arrow (left/right) to move between docking left/right.

On a mac you cannot even maximum a window properly, and works differently in
different apps. Window management is terrible on a mac. The only window
management it does right is the way it handles the virtual desktops. Cos that
still sucks on Windows.

~~~
xeeeeeeeeeeenu
>On a mac you cannot even maximum a window properly

Indeed, to actually maximize a window on macOS, you have to purchase a third
party app (BetterSnapTool). I think it's hilarious.

~~~
filleduchaos
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this - my windows seem to maximize just
fine

~~~
pluma
It's a fairly new thing. [https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/how-to-
maximize-a-windo...](https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/how-to-maximize-a-
window-in-mac-like-you-do-in-windows/)

("fairly new" in this case meaning over five years but still)

~~~
philliphaydon
It doesn’t work in every app. It doesn’t even work in a lot of apples own
apps... you hold shift and click in 1 app, it works, try it in another app and
it only resize vertically and not horizontally.

~~~
filleduchaos
I suppose I've never really felt the need to "maximise" a window as opposed to
putting it in fullscreen.

------
brynjolf
I disabled the allow Microsoft to send application history to their servers.
They still do it. They just ignore the fact I have disabled it explicitly. It
should be reason for me to be able to sue but I don't know where to start.

~~~
AnonymousPlanet
Out of interest: How do you know they send the application history? The
connections to their servers are encrypted. So the only options you have are
the MS information tool for telemetry and low level forensic tools.

~~~
brynjolf
You can view the history online on their privacy dashboard at
privacy.microsoft.com There I could see all the applications I launched even
though I had denied them that permission. You should be able to do the same if
you linked your Microsoft account to your Windows installation.

------
dzonga
I feel deeply sorry, for those poor consumers who are unaware of other OS's.
It should be a duty if you're in tech, to advise your fellow holoi polloi
about Ubuntu since it's the most consumer friendly distro. Everything now days
is done in a browser so that shouldn't be a problem. & at those who work at
capitalistic corporations push for electron apps or apps that can be easily
bundled and installed e.g snap apps / flatpaks.

------
anewguy9000
shame on you windows team.

~~~
dang
Please don't do this here.

~~~
anewguy9000
do what? there are only 3 legitimate choices when it comes to operating
systems (the thing that underpins every single computer). with that comes real
social responsibility. this thread is evidence that microsoft is showing no
regard for that responsibility.

------
IronWolve
You can buy win10 pro for 12 bux on many sites, office 2019 professional for
40. Those keys sites do ads on linus techtips.

~~~
sys_64738
You don't need to buy Pro as you can simply run it unactivated for years. I've
done that without incident.

~~~
userbinator
Wow, I had to check that it's already been "years" since Windows 10 was first
released --- a little over 4, to be precise. No one I know actually likes it,
the closest has been "tolerate". MS has done a great job of dragging its users
through the mud and beating them into submission.

~~~
NikkiA
I love it, tried to go back to 7 and couldn't, it just feels so awkward and
unrefined now.

~~~
Nextgrid
Windows 7 is unrefined? I have the opposite experience. Windows 7 feels like a
finished product, that in addition is designed to help me _work_. Windows 8+
feels more like a Linux distribution in comparison, with inconsistent features
& UIs everywhere, as if they were just a mash-up of random packages made by
random open-source developers with no leader nor common goal. Actually the
only thing that can be compared to a goal is that all the features are in some
way or another designed to get in my way, waste my time, compromise my
privacy, and just in general prevent me from doing actual _work_.

------
morten-oddvar
"All the Ads. So, So Many Ads"

Seems odd to see complaints of many Ads in an OS--analogous to buying a car
and having advertisements show up in the instrument cluster when stopped or
not being able to exit the vehicle until watching an Ad.

Haven't used Windows in recent memory (probably since these Ads appeared or I
just didn't notice them).

Is it as bad as the article describes?

~~~
krylon
At work, I have been using Windows 10 Pro for a couple of months now after
sticking with Windows 7 for as long as I could. I cannot remember seeing any
ads so far.

~~~
ecmascript
When switching default browser, it will ask you one more time if you really
don't want to use Edge.

Gaming ads will be seen in the start menu.

Ads for Onedrive will be seen in file explorer.

If you ever start skype, don't be expected to be able to log off or even shut
the app down unless you kill the process or uninstall it entirely.

With every update, it will ask you again to put tracking on, making the ads be
more vigilant.

Just a few of the stuff I find incredible annoying with ads in Windows 10.

