Microsoft Windows 10 thread

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Another thought: Win10 is free for mobile device manufacturers. Win10 is distributed free of charge for every system
 running Win7 and Win8. What is the business model?

Will Microsoft charge for new devices?

It's only a free upgrade the first year. If you build a new machine, you have to buy a license. Longer term, Windows might become a subscription service. Would make sense considering they are saying this is the last Windows version.

[Airy]

Airy: What Surface model is it? Are you happy with it?

Yes. I got the original Surface Pro. Win 8 and Surface pro were a good match. I have used the MS SUrface in both modes, tablet and PC, and was equally satisfied. Only the price point was too high - a marketing blunder I guess.

Win 10 usability on tablets is now less, while usability of Win 10 on conventional PCs with keyboard and mouse is not improved compared to Win 8 (I still fail to understand why market takeup of the Metro interface was so bad, and would tend to blame it on conservatism).

[Jørgen Ramskov]

I find Windows 8/8.1 to be a bit of a mess when using it with a keyboard and mouse. On a tablet I can easily see it working well but it is 2 quite different use cases. Furthermore, they didn't complete the job, half of the interface was/is still the old interface. You could change some settings with the new interface but with many, you needed to find the old control panel and do it there.

[Airy]

I beg to disagree, which I am entitled to after two years of intensive usage.

With win 8, and without even involving any finger or tactile screen :
- Getting to an app is easier - windows key and one click
- if you forgot where to click, or if the app is missiing on the welcome screen, just type its name, it is not even needed to bring the search app in focus!
- inside an app, you get immediate access to common options with one dedicated key (on recent keyboards of course) or by swiping the right side with the mouse

The only significant "investment" with Win 8 is, organizing the welcome screen the way you want, not the way M$ wants, and M$ would let you do this. See attached example from my own laptop. Now with Win 10, we are back to the "desktop" where it is not even possible to group icons ! unless of course you invoke the "tablet" mode, inherited from Win 8.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

With a keyboard shortcut, there is even less clicking or writing .... I've been using that approach all the time for my main programs, from the days of Windows NT to today's Windows 7.

The desktop on every Windows version used by me (up to 7) has allowed user-defined placement of all icons/shortcuts. That implies you can minimise any mouse movement as well.

[Bjørn J]

Keyboard shortcuts are the fastest way of working. For example in Photoshop I have the whole range from F1 to F12 assigned to various tasks adapted to suit my workflow.

[Airy]

A pity the Fxx keys are no longer accessible directly on recent keyboards.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The entire discussion here in this thread shows people have different requirements of their machinery and operating system. I don't think there ever will be an OS that covers all functionality of its user community. It's more a question of whether one can live with the annoyances and still be productive.

All my PCs or laptops have Fxx keys.

[Frank Fremerey]

I really do not use the OS itself so often. The OS is to boot up the Applications I use like Photo Ninja, Firefox, Photoshop or Fast Stone. I like an OS to boot fast ... better not boot at all but be ready at once like Android is.

My High End Mainboard has so many extra functionality I do not really need that it boots really slow. My old ASUS-Notebook which died of RADEON-disease like another PC before was ready to work in 5 Seconds under Win8/x64.

My big machine still needs a felt minute to be ready (Boot, open a 30MB JPEG in Photoshop, all set to edit), that is not good. Next system will be a totally uncluttered mainboard and sure Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU.

I hate Power Management. My regime is: Switch on, use at full throttle, switch off.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Let the machine(s) run 24/7. You avoid the booting bottleneck ... They are always available to help secure your photographic achievements

[Airy]

FrankF :so you need an SSD machine...

BTW some good old things keep going strong. The task bar would not auto-hide. I rebooted and... there it works!

Now I am getting close to near-Win 8 ergonomics. Screen orientation is one of the still missing features...

[Jørgen Ramskov]

I have no problems with power management on my Macbook, I open the lid and it's pretty much instantly ready for use and when I'm done I close the lid and it goes hibernates.

[Airy]

Also the case with my M$ Surface pro + Win 8, and with Win 10 it works equally well.

[Jan Anne]

Until somebody puts a gun to my head and forces me to install W10, I will stick to W7. It does everything I want it to do, and I see no reason at all to "upgrade".

Because Microsoft stopped the support for Windows 7 last Januari:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle?C2=14019

We deploy tons of Windows patches each month to fix some serious security vulnerabilities, I don't know about you but in these times I don't want every wannabe hacker out there being able to hack my computer and publish whatever personal stuff I have on my laptop. One wrong comment on a forum or website is nowadays enough for them to target you and ridicule you publicly, seen it happen too many times to ignore.

Besides, this is what I do for a living, scaring people into upgrading their software to supported versions so I had to bring this up to sleep well tonight

[Øivind Tøien]

The date that matters for Win7 is that extended support lasts until 1/14/2020, security fixes are covered until then.