
Ask HN: How do you make Windows 10 tolerable? - tarnod
I have recently bought a new laptop which is not compatible with Windows 7, so I have installed Windows 10 Professional. Although 10 has some improvements over 7, my impression of Windows 10 has so far been overwhelmingly negative.<p>For example, I am shocked by the number of useless pre-installed apps that come with Windows and demand attention, e.g. with top-level Start Menu icons. Most of these are at best irrelevant (e.g. OneDrive) and at worst completely inappropriate for a work machine (e.g. Xbox). Even worse, it seems that this is just the beginning: Windows will automatically download more inappropriate apps in the future. [A]<p>What changes have you made to your Windows 10 install to make it suitable for professional work? For example, I am looking for ways to:<p>1. Remove all of the irrelevant apps cluttering my machine, and prevent any more from being downloaded. Control of what is installed on my computer should rest with me, not with Microsoft.<p>2. Remove advertising from the operating system. I can&#x27;t believe anyone considers this acceptable.<p>3. Ensure Windows is respecting my privacy. I already changed the relevant settings [1] to off&#x2F;basic when installing Windows - is there anything else I should do?<p>4. Prevent the OS from restarting to install Windows updates, except when specifically told to do so.<p>With Windows 10, I&#x27;m so pleased that I can do most of my work in Linux and macOS. However, as long as some of my customers use Windows, I have to keep it installed.<p>What can I do to make Windows 10 &quot;Professional&quot; worthy of the name?<p>----<p>[A] I don&#x27;t understand this at all. On the one hand, Microsoft sell &quot;Signature Edition PCs&quot; [2] which avoid the problems caused by PC manufacturers&#x27; &quot;pre-installed junk&quot;. At the same time, they have started propagating the same junk themselves?<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hexus.net&#x2F;media&#x2F;uploaded&#x2F;2017&#x2F;4&#x2F;4d9dfa9f-69ec-4378-9688-8e7cd7e8d009.jpg<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;store&#x2F;b&#x2F;pcsignatureedition
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baystep
I've honestly had a _strange_ experience with Win10. On my home PC I built I
installed Win10 from an OEM disk (not the off the shelf edition) and I'm not
sure if that made it different, but I loved it then. Worked flawlessly, just
deleted the stupid XBox icons and was never bugged again.

Then I got a work issued laptop with Win10, and it's been ATROCIOUS for me. I
don't have any ads or whatever (is this gonna be a new feature?) but my
permissions model is royally screwed. For instance, I had to activate root
administration controls on my user, cause you know, it's my computer. And some
how because of this, I can not run the built-in Calculator app. That's right,
can't run the calculator because I'm an admin. I had to write my own. So it's
been hit and miss. But so is my story with every OS.

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brudgers
I use the settings to configure the system including tuning which applications
have permission to create notifications and which applications have permission
to access system features like the address book, location data, and calendar.
The control is fairly fine grained. Settings also allows using a local login,
turning off Cortana, changing the default search provider, and so forth and so
on. The control is pretty fine grained. All that with the caveat that my
experience is that 8.0 was better than 7 and 8.1 was better than 8.0 and 10 is
better than 8.1.

When I first switched to Windows 8.0 I freaked out and thought it was an
unusable mess because Windows 8 was _different_. I thought I would never be
able to use it productively. Then for some reason after a few hours, I
reframed it as just learning another piece of software or another programming
language and gave myself permission to learn how to use it. I spent less than
an hour (and probably less than half an hour) going through the "Tour" and
reading a couple of things online and then I pretty much got it. The long and
the short is that for me, learing how to use Windows 8 (and 10) made me
appreciate what works.

Maybe there are three or four or ten gigabytes of stuff on the disk with
Windows 10 that I don't use. The days when that mattered to _me_ are gone. I
care about using it my computer not managing files on it. If some app does
something I don't want, then I deal with it.

Good luck.

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FrozenVoid
I lost the last piece of respect for Microsoft back when they started the
forced windows10 upgrades and switched to Ubuntu. I don't agree with the
telemetery, keystroke recordings and overall loss of control from windows7 to
some piece of malware masquerading as an OS. Keep in mind, Windows7 itself had
to be neutered and configured properly(all these services, registry tweaks and
settings), but windows10 is whole another zoo of problems which i don't want
to touch.

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thecrumb
Install Linux. Install VirtualBox. Install Windows 10 in VM. Use Windows only
when necessary. Done.

~~~
CyberFonic
When I left my last job, I decided to ditch Windows as well. I use a MacBook
Pro for laptop and Linux on the desktop and on all my servers. Although some
people still send me .doc and .xls files, I can open them with LibreOffice and
make sense of them. Although it takes a bit of research, I have always been
able to find better programs for my work than the bloated and over-priced
software that Windows requires.

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redxblood
Dont use windows.

I use mac. It´s arguably better in everything except games.

