Destructive upgrade

[Rachael]

I'm one of those "it works when it wants to" people. I've had good experiences with Windows overall, but enough bad ones that it's made me want to jump ship to Linux multiple times. (Honestly, updates are a breeze on Linux compared to Windows, and let's not even get started on the mandatory 6-month bullshit)

The only real reason I stick with Windows is because most apps still work with it, I can run what few Linux apps on Windows that I have, and that Linux is a pain in the neck to install on a secure-boot enabled medium. (It's doable, I just haven't found enough reason yet to do it)

There are so many things I don't like about Windows though - and it's all the corporate-centric bullshit that Microsoft seems to insist on sticking to, like how Windows is a "service" to them. (Actually, that's an industry plague that's been spreading like wildfire and has infected the games industry, too)

[insightguy]

Oh but Rachael, it's not a product, it's a license to use their product. /s

Yeah the new "service and license" mentality is not one I really like that much, but I do see benefits for the end user (guaranteed support and the like). I'd much prefer a hybrid. (same as the current, but if you stop your subscription, the current version you have simply stays. thus, guaranteeing continued support, constant revenue stream for the company, and a way out for the consumer.)

...Then again, corporations that adopt that model will inevitably attempt to do something screw with it. like lootboxing features or some shit.
(I will somehow laugh, cry, and rage at the same time if Microsoft hides word features in lootboxes. "want the word find functionality? just buy a wordbox for only $2.99")

[Rachael]

It's more likely they'll hide window skins inside loot boxes.

"Want it to look like Windows 7? You have a chance to do that if you unlock this box for only $1.99"

[wildweasel]

What's really weird is it's not like there isn't a precedent for this - after all, they did manage to put Achievements into MS Office, once upon a time.

[Cacodemon345]

As Graf said, Win10 is just unsuitable for a robust experience.

I dislike the overly-flat interface of Win10. I also had bad experience with Win10. Last time something like this destructive upgrade happened, my PC was completely frozen at first start and when I managed to reboot it, the UI was unresponsive and would only work if you click on them.

Now the only minor annoyances I experience is that whenever I try to extract wads/mods from archives by selecting them, my mouse cursor seems to instantly go to bottom-right corner of screen and the only other one is that there is a empty spot by the side of drive icons in This PC.

I also hate the Windows as a service bullshit. And like Rachael, there are so many things I don't like about Windows.

However, I also don't like Linux either. It doesn't have decent gaming compatibility on par with Windows and I keep coming back for Windows, especially with games like Fallout 4, Doom 2016 and GTA 5. And that's why I still stick to Windows as most of the apps run on it and for the fact that most of the proprietary document formats are only designed to work with software created for Windows.

I just wish Linux Unified Kernel was actually finished so that I could switch to Linux with most of my apps and games still intact.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsof ... 9984.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/windows- ... 9983.shtml

At the end, I just have to stick with Microsoft's cursed OS. I will probably switch to Linux once Wine is capable enough to allow almost everything to run on it.

[Graf Zahl]

I'd say the biggest failure of Linux has been that the decision makers were so deadlocked in their ways that they never managed to capitalize on any of Microsoft's massive strategic blunders over the last 7-8 years. Had Linux had some professional management I'd think its market share these days would be bigger and Windows under a real threat of getting pushed out of the market.

[Hellser]

Speaking as another "works for me" person, I'd say is a combination of the following:

- The people who have negative comments are often the loudest.
- Nobody really pays much attention when things are working fine.

Agreed. Windows 10 (Pro) works quite fine on my system, and I have a donated laptop of older specs than my computer that runs just fine with Windows 10. I quite like Windows 10, in fact. It is stable, there ARE problems with it that can easily be fixed by a power user. By way of comparison: Windows XP, the most beloved operating system that everyone has fond memories of had major issues, such as Service Pack 2 breaking compatibility with so many programs. It's also the new standard that I recommend everyone to switch to.

Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 is going to go the way of the dodo. Holding onto an old operating system because you don't like the looks of the new one is a silly concept. I am sure there were people back in the day who refused to switch to Windows 9x because they liked its interface. Thinking that Windows 3.11 is all they need... then programs and games started to drop support for Windows 3.11, going for Windows 9x.

[Graf Zahl]

Fortunately it's still many years off that Windows 8.1 is going the way of the dodo and I certainly do not plan to pay Microsoft for an upgrade on that computer. They got my money once and then didn't even offer a free upgrade of the Enterprise version I use.
And you can believe me: Once the time comes for Windows 7 to pass away the users' resistance will be 10 times higher than when XP went and Win 7 will linger on for even longer than XP did.

Also, few people dislike Win 10 for the looks, UWP nonwithstanding, but for the entire "Windows as a service" concept that seems to get gradually implemented and the forced update policy that has already burned many people, and the telemetry fiasco and all the other customer-unfriendly antics that have become public in the past.

About the looks? What Microsoft promotes as the future of Windows (i.e. UWP) is such a totally inept design that people are going to wish Win 7 back even more. Your entire argument will fall on deaf ears, trust me. Microsoft's Win 10 PR has been so abysmal that I have my doubts the system will ever fully recover from it, especially since they haven't learned anything ever since that UI debuted with Windows Phone 7. The near universal hatred for it has been one constant through its life, the other one Microsoft's stubborn refusal to fix it. This already cost them mobile, and if justice had something to say it will also cost them the desktop - it's really too bad that no viable competitor exists that could capitalize on it.

[Cacodemon345]

Sadly, when the time comes for Windows 10 to pass away without any replacement for it from Microsoft, people will have no chance but to go to MacOS and when it dies, what will only be there is Linux.

The game and software developers are biased on new and newer technologies introduced by newer versions of Windows, making them go for those Windows versions. These will eventually cause compatibility issues in older versions of Windows, forcing people to use Windows 10.

Also about going the way of dodo, sadly it will be the same year when Intel kills BIOS support when Windows 7 goes the way of the dodo. And I am one of those persons who dislike Windows 10 for their looks. I would have stayed with Windows 7 if I wanted to but as I said, biased game and software developers along with hardware manufacturers are keen on investing their money in new tech. Since taking advantage of new hardware features require newer Windows, people are eventually forced to use them.

I also doubt Windows won't be dead once Windows 10 goes out of support. Microsoft has done literally nothing to give peace of mind to people who think Windows will be dead when it goes out of support.

I also think Windows isn't really customizable anymore.

See this thread because I agree with the people there: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewt ... f=4&t=8147

[Naniyue]

I had XP forever until I got 8.1. It has its quirks, but I got things pretty much the way I want them. I know I'll have to get a new OS eventually, but can you really not stop auto updating of 10? And what's 11, or whatever silly name they give it, going to be like? Will I have to jump ship after all this time?

[Cacodemon345]

but can you really not stop auto updating of 10? And what's 11, or whatever silly name they give it, going to be like? Will I have to jump ship after all this time?

No, you can't stop auto updating of Windows 10 without resorting to hacky ways. And I think 11 is going to be even worse than 10. Microsoft is going to use more consumer-unfriendly tactics that will force us to flee to Linux.

Microsoft was a king back in the 90s. They already became a bad company once Windows Vista became a failure. They came back strong with Windows 7, but starting with Windows 8, they went downhill and removed features that would be useful and started adding stupid features that is of no real use, such as the Windows Store, which lacks proper apps and the redundant PC Settings for which most of the things that can be configured can be configured alone in the Control Panel. They also lack proper old game compatibility that made me once dual-boot Windows 7 and Windows XP to keep running them. As Graf said, it's too bad no viable competitor exists to capitalize on Microsoft's mistakes.

I am currently sticking to the Enterprise version because it gives me more control over Windows 10 especially after Microsoft shoved adverts down our throats starting with a certain version of Windows.

On the matter of OP's question, he will either need to downgrade Windows or move to Linux.

[dpJudas]

Let's not make Windows 10 worse than it is.

Yes, the OS is quite ugly and all new themes from Microsoft is a sad fillrect joke. But the Windows 7 "pastel colors with gradients and huge box shadows" theme looks very dated now and quite frankly at the end of my Windows 7 era I had grown quite tired of it. Compared to MacOS of the time the theme was way overdoing it - the entire theme screams "look!!!! we got composition now!! did you try the cmd+tab yet? Also, OMG look at the cool alt-tab!! Did we show you how we can do DROP SHADOWS now!?! And blur! check out our blur!!!!!" . All that shit is gone in Windows 10. Both alt-tab and cmd+tab stopped stinking.

The fisher-price theme in Windows XP wasn't exactly pure beauty either. As long as you avoid the Metro/UWP parts of the OS I can live with the looks in Windows 10, for now.

IMO the biggest problem with Windows 10 is the spying and constant flow of new (unwanted) features. The spying part was back-ported to Windows 7 and 8, so you're screwed no matter which version you use. The new features will eventually piss me off when they add something I can't ignore. They'll probably wait with that until both Windows 7 and 8 has gone EOL.

[Graf Zahl]

As long as you avoid the Metro/UWP parts of the OS I can live with the looks in Windows 10, for now.

... which inevitably comes down to stop using Microsoft's own utilities. My eyes nearly fell out when I saw the Win 10 calculator. It looks like it was designed by a 6 year old, but that's the story of Metro/UWP. I've rarely seen a piece of software degrade that much between 2 versions. But thankfully this is still Windows where it's easy to replace such shit with working alternatives. I guess if this was Apple they'd find their way to actually block third party calculator apps.

As things stand I never ever created a Windows Store account and obviously never ever installed a piece of software from that place, and unless they abandon their kindergarten-inspired design, that's not going to change. Fortunately Microsoft knows perfectly well that if they abandon Win32 in the future, they'd kill off their OS for sure because half the world depends on that.

[Rachael]

About Windows 10's interface: I am not a fan of "flatland" and have been highly critical of it in the past. However, it's a lot more tolerable than Windows 8's border decorations (not having the close button be a red box, which is really distracting), and it's a *LOT* better than Windows XP's.

Ultimately though I disagree with dpJudas about the Aero Glass interface. That was the single best interface skin that Microsoft had ever developed, seconded only by Royale Black (an abandoned Windows XP skin that can only be brought back with third-party software), and the only official interface skins that were ever better were actually done in Linux via Gnome 2/MATE.

[dpJudas]

... which inevitably comes down to stop using Microsoft's own utilities. My eyes nearly fell out when I saw the Win 10 calculator. It looks like it was designed by a 6 year old, but that's the story of Metro/UWP.

One of the first things I did when I switched to Windows 10 was to download the old Windows XP Calculator Plus. At the time Microsoft had not realized you could do that, so their website still offered a download. Of course they've removed the download since then, because that's how Microsoft solves indirect critique nowadays. Don't give them any ideas about blocking other calculator apps!! It is Microsoft we are talking about, they might very well scan for my old XP calculator app and delete it!

The picture viewer I replaced with MS Paint. Quite sad when the most primitive paint program in the world is more pleasant to use than the UWP picture viewer.. But as you said yourself, the solution is to avoid ALL new Microsoft software. Each time they "upgrade" one of their tools, I spend a little time finding an alternative.

One the plus side, the console window is significantly better in Windows 10.

Ultimately though I disagree with dpJudas about the Aero Glass interface. That was the single best interface skin that Microsoft had ever developed

Oh don't get me wrong. I think it is by far the best design they ever did. But if you are going to compare it to flatland, then at least be fair and admit especially the alt-tab part of that theme was quite terrible. And with Windows 10 cmd+tab is actually more than a sad tech demo for the DWM.