Windows 10 Rant

[ArasTM]

Hi,
now how do I start this...
Windows 10 for me was a bad experience. I'm a power user, I like to have control in what I do and generally know why things are the way they are, also I just dislike when something doesn't work, even when I don't use it.


And when features do work, they're often insanely messy and look very badly implemented.

Let's say I want to go install something in a game's directory and my game launcher is located on the start menu, I can right click it -> More -> Open File Location, then I'm greeted with a folder where the start menu shortcut is located rather than the actual place of the application.

50% of the time start menu looks completely transparent and blurry and there's nothing on it, I haven't found anyone with an identical problem.

What's the deal with two control panels / settings? It would look like microsoft really wanted to implement that settings menu and ditch control panel, but ran out of time and had to leave it.
Image:

And this gets so confusing let's say I want to disable most apps from running in the background, there are little to no options like this in control panel, so I try to find something in the settings panel, of course it'll be under System because this is about system and applications of it, what else have we got, apps and features, found it... nope completely different thing with very similar settings.
Here:

Let's try using the search, let's write background apps:

It shows this, clearly indicating that these options are under System settings, so I probably missed something, haven't I? Once you click it it opens Privacy settings and the name of the page is completely different as well...

Moving on:

Bing does not work, no matter what browser I try to use it on and also Edge doesn't work either, so Cortana is mostly useless. Google barely works as well, none of the features like unit conversion or something work, there's an old layout to it as well, image viewer has no options, and etc.
Attaching an image for that:

Just while writing this I've noticed another thing, using the snipping tool and saving the image to desktop requires me to right click and hit refresh so that I could see the file on desktop, again why?


Performance...

Take a note my PC is decent, I recently invested quite a bit into it and got myself an i7 6700, 24 gb of ram, GTX 690, 2 hdd drives, no ssd's yet.

The performance is the same or even worse as my 4gb RAM, intel pentium (dual core old one) windows 7 computer which is ridiculous.



One of the worst things is the background processes. There are hundreds of those. And they're not related to running applications, it's just utter trash like random microsoft applications: calculator, music player, search (which doesn't even work), loads of stuff related to printers while I don't even have one, settings, other apps you ran not too long ago, also chrome has like 20 processes (though it's not a windows 10 that much).
Image :

I generally like the simplistic design and some "new" ideas like some features from Linux (Desktops, quick multitasking and etc) but this OS is barely useable in my case.

Feel free to add to this post, or if you have any solution for these problems / are experiencing those as well, let me know, I'll appreciate it. c:

Regards.

Mod Edit for Language

 

[USAFRet]

Chrome is multiple processes on purpose. So that when your random torrenting results in something dying, it does not kill off the rest of the browser or PC.
TaskManager shows processes. Should it try to group them? Why?

If it were not displayed as individual processes, people would not be able to kill off any single 'process'.
And other people would complain about it being combined into one line item.

 

[USAFRet]

Ya know...there is nothing compelling you to use Win 10.
If you don't like it, use something else.

Win 7, Win 8.1, Linux, Apple...


"hundreds of background processes", yet your CPU is just idling along at 7%. Sounds like good management to me.
Snipping tool and Save to Desktop? Works just fine for me. Appears right away.


Personally, I like it.

 

[Colif]

Some of the background processes such as system and compressed memory actually make your PC faster, so careful which ones you stop in the aim of reducing background processes. I stopped groove but mainly as it was misbehaving. Most processes only run when they are needed.

I haven't stopped any of them and PC doesn't feel slow at all. Never had a lack of resources apart from when running an AV scan on my ssd but that is a physical restriction, not software. Win 10 generally runs all its processes when I am not using it.

I don't use Edge as it still lacks functions Chrome has, and its lack of add ons needs to improve before i will bother looking again. edge is just like IE to me, think I use it once to install Chrome and never look at it again.

you might want to try these two commands and see if they fix win 10

right click start button
choose command prompt (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
restart PC
then re open command prompt Admin
and copy/paste this in (needs to be exact)

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

see if that helps

 

[Colif]

There are two control panels/settings because of backwards compatibility reasons, all software written prior to win 10 would assume there is the old control panel in place and might not work without it. So that explains one of them, the other settings is the new style which I think probably works better with touch screens and might be the interface windows phone gets. Something about having a unified appearance across all platforms, it integrates the settings of both control panel and explorer into one place.

That doesn't mean I like having two of them but I understand why they exist. I still use the old control panel for some things as its just easier to use - more likely to remove programs via control panel than via settings/system/Apps and features. I am also more likely to use the old method of moving my library folders than doing it through settings/system/storage.

Win 10 keeps apps you ran recently in ram to make them faster to load if you open them again. It only closes them if you need that ram. Most PC these days have enough ram to not notice the fact win 10 has compressed old programs into ram. - that is what system and compressed memory is there for.

You appear to be using old version of win 10, you might want to go Here and click update now. IT will load update assistant which will get the latest build of win 10. I can tell as your settings menus are using old menu scheme.

The text under Choose which apps work in background is clearly wrong so I give you that point. It should say Privacy settings.

win 10 isn't polished as its not finished, its a work in progress and may never be finished. That is why they release a new version every 8 months or so for free.

 

[bentremblay]

I commend you for your effort.
As soon as I read your title what came to mind was "How do I describe that I'm tired (Not "fed up" ... tired.) from decades straining to make things better.
Again: I commend your effort.

For days / weeks I've been looking at my Win7-32 bit CDs and thinking of re-installing.
I can't bring myself to do it.
Win OS ... like most things in our universe ... it's all 80/20 and low-hanging fruit. And right now I'm working with 70/30 ... so re-install and ReDo from Start? I just can't bring myself to do it.

The ball buster for me ... very simple: throughput from net via Network Adapter seems low, so I went through an optimize / UpDate on the driver.
FAIL.
Network Adapter was no longer recognized. (For weeks I've been networked via WiFi. Pathetic.)

Intel and HP both tell me "The on-board adapter on your PC is not Win10 capable."
The fact that it had worked fine for weeks before I tried to tweak? Well ... why would would they ever bother relating to that existential fact?! (Young engineers / technologists who grew up with "Release early / release frequently." Not way to bridge that gulf. I'm a NASA Mercury and NORAD/SAC kinda guy.)

I hesitated to write this. I don't want to bum folk out.

This Small Format HP PC is working. It even runs some of my games.
So ... well ...

Cya next incarnation!
--ben

 

[GaryO63]

Either learn to get into 'services' and turn stuff off,download some 'legal' software to make some tweaks to the OS like I've done all the way back to XP...WinTweaker comes to mind and so does Black Viper (for services).IMHO,Windows 10 is efficient,snappy,fast and customizable.If you're a power user as you claim,you should have the know how to fix these issues that bother you.If not,use Linux.I did a clean,retail version install of Windows 10 Home in September of last year,and have had 0,yes 0 issues.I still have my Win 7 disc handy just in case,but will not use it again.And I liked it. A lot.

 

[cradelikz]

IMO it is depending on the hardware you use. I use it at work with hardware that is 7 years older than my laptop and it runs fine until it doesn't and needs a reboot (that is decided by the system for some reason and I hate that), but on my laptop it was a mess and it killed many important things (i.e. if you closed the laptop instead of sleeping it would shut down instead (and no it wasn't configured for shutdown at all). There was this issue with the auto-hiding taskbar that never really hid and many other quirks like overheating (even if the CPU was set to work in good balance via third party software).

In general, it depends in your hardware and from what I experienced and thus I decided to go back to Win7 and the troubles went away magically. So sad that I lost the free upgrade but hey, I'd rather have my laptop working as I expect it to.

 

[ledhead11]

The only part of this I will comment on and try to debunk: background processes. I've been working with MS OS's from MS-DOS days>95>98>XP(all three service packs)>Vista>7>8>8.1 and now 10. There've always been a lot of background processes/services. Towards its end, I witnessed XP having upwards of 60 and a minimum of 40. From 7 on I noticed an average of 70-100 depending on how much is installed and running.

The interface may look different and uncomfortable, but the background processes are not even close to being a '10' thing. They've always been there. These days people like having dozens of apps, windows, pages open at the same time. These additional threads will create many more entries in the lists. If you want less, then use less. The 10 entries of google chrome in your snapshot was a good hint of this kind of behavior.

It doesn't matter if your team red or green as both companies now install and have around 6-12 apps running in the background. Install a printer(any big name brand) and use the install disc you get another dozen added on. Install a camera, another dozen. Install a specialized keyboard, mouse, game pad, and another dozen. Use a prebuilt PC or laptop and you get around 2 dozen bloatware apps in the background. The only way around is to do clean install and manually install your own devices. That can be tricky and take a lot of time, but once done the PC will usually run better and have less junk in the background. Just make sure you have all the needed drivers on a flash beforehand. The math isn't hard and its still not just a '10' thing.

If you really want the customized minimalistic experience then start from scratch with the least amount of features installed available on a Linux system. It can be done, will take some time, but is its own reward. RockyBennett's post's are a great example of this more evolved approach. This is really the only recourse left for someone who doesn't want the AIO approach most big name companies are shelling out. It's not just a '10' thing. I'm not a huge fan of 10 but to me its just another OS. They come, they go.

 

[USAFRet]

Rrrrrrrrr you're a Pirate. You didn't have to upgrade so quit complaining.

I don't understand what you meant about upgrading, I did a clean install.

No you didn't do a clean install of Win 10! If you had there would be no "control panel" ONLY settings would be available! Control Panel is ONLY from Windows 7, it's not available from Windows 10

John Miller
Asst. National IT Manager
Mobile Systems Wireless

No, there is still a Control Panel in Win 10. Preinstalled, Upgrade, or clean install.

 

[Hlsgsz]

I find W10 to be excellent and alot better performing than W7. I guess one's mileage may vary.

 

[ArasTM]

I find W10 to be excellent and alot better performing than W7. I guess one's mileage may vary.

Hi, have you seen your taskmanager? When Windows 7 is cleanly installed there are significantly less random stuff going on and most of the above issues are not just mine, and even if they would be, if a part of the userbase have issues it's not the userbase's problem it's the software, isn't it?

Regards.

 

[13thmonkey]

At least 2 of your points that I tried to replicate on my win10 install I couldn't.

The example images page, mine looks normal in chrome, not like yours
Snipping and saving to desktop, it's just there, no refresh.

your instance of win10 is troubled, win10 isn't so much.

The start menu, never seen it like that on 3 machines

Yes two control panels, meh, pin one to the task bar.
The open location to the shortcut, well it's not what you want but it is precisely what you asked for, where is that icon, that icon is short cut, bit dumb overall on MS's part, not sure if it is different to 7.

I think that you have a poor installation, and i'd start again.

I not you have bittorrent as an app, installed much from torrents? Sure you haven't gotten anything dodgy with it?

 

[Hlsgsz]

Why woudl i care how many processes run as long as RAM usage is decent and teh system is fast?

 

[DeadRam]

Rrrrrrrrr you're a Pirate. You didn't have to upgrade so quit complaining.

 

[notlim981]

It still amuses me at this point in time the amount of people saying that Windows 10 is bad, this and that, and Windows 7 is the king. Windows 10 has a much cleaner kernel than 7. It's not all perfect but still for me is the best OS since 7 and much better than 7 was.

 

[Paul NZ]

One thing you should kill are the notifications. Noticed yesterday the disk usage was 100% the PC here could barely move. I thought the hdd was the prob. It wasn't

Then read online these stupid notifications are the cause. So I disabled them, and yup sure enough disk usage went down

The other things I've killed on this one is windows search and hibernation.

Since this is an SSD. Had to do it manually since Magician needs to be updated. It broke after doing a clean install of Win10 AU

Besides that it works fine. If you want to disable whatever you could use Shutup10. It'll do it for you

 

[ArasTM]

One thing you should kill are the notifications. Noticed yesterday the disk usage was 100% the PC here could barely move. I thought the hdd was the prob. It wasn't

Then read online these stupid notifications are the cause. So I disabled them, and yup sure enough disk usage went down

The other things I've killed on this one is windows search and hibernation.

Since this is an SSD. Had to do it manually since Magician needs to be updated. It broke after doing a clean install of Win10 AU

Besides that it works fine. If you want to disable whatever you could use Shutup10. It'll do it for you

Thanks for these tips, also disabling background processes under settings and privacy helps with the buttload of apps running.

 

[Paul NZ]

No probs

 

[ArasTM]

Ya know...there is nothing compelling you to use Win 10.
If you don't like it, use something else.

Win 7, Win 8.1, Linux, Apple...


"hundreds of background processes", yet your CPU is just idling along at 7%. Sounds like good management to me.
Snipping tool and Save to Desktop? Works just fine for me. Appears right away.


Personally, I like it.

New hardware often conflicts with older OS's and generally it's definitely not recommended. Of course I could use Windows 7 but I generally like Microsoft and I'd like to at least point out the issues I'm facing with Windows 10.

 

[ArasTM]

Rrrrrrrrr you're a Pirate. You didn't have to upgrade so quit complaining.

I don't understand what you meant about upgrading, I did a clean install.

 

[ArasTM]

At least 2 of your points that I tried to replicate on my win10 install I couldn't.

The example images page, mine looks normal in chrome, not like yours
Snipping and saving to desktop, it's just there, no refresh.

your instance of win10 is troubled, win10 isn't so much.

The start menu, never seen it like that on 3 machines

Yes two control panels, meh, pin one to the task bar.
The open location to the shortcut, well it's not what you want but it is precisely what you asked for, where is that icon, that icon is short cut, bit dumb overall on MS's part, not sure if it is different to 7.

I think that you have a poor installation, and i'd start again.

I not you have bittorrent as an app, installed much from torrents? Sure you haven't gotten anything dodgy with it?

While I did download some stuff, I'm pretty sure no sideloaded malware came with it, most of the stuff in task manager processes is just windows stuff in any case.

 

[ArasTM]

Why woudl i care how many processes run as long as RAM usage is decent and teh system is fast?

You see, it just should be that way, the cleaner the better, the faster your PC will be, if your games or something are working fine it's not a problem but you can always improve it, for example as I do a lot of stuff like rendering, design and * the more free ram / CPU I have the better and it always is that way. I understant that some stuff that you use often should be put into ram, like the start menu, but having separate processes for almost each app in the PC even when the app isn't used (like groove music) is just stupid.

 

[USAFRet]

Why woudl i care how many processes run as long as RAM usage is decent and teh system is fast?

You see, it just should be that way, the cleaner the better, the faster your PC will be, if your games or something are working fine it's not a problem but you can always improve it, for example as I do a lot of stuff like rendering, design and * the more free ram / CPU I have the better and it always is that way. I understant that some stuff that you use often should be put into ram, like the start menu, but having separate processes for almost each app in the PC even when the app isn't used (like groove music) is just stupid.

It's there in the background, using zero CPU cycles or RAM.
If you don't like that, change that service to low priority of disable it completely.
Or uninstall that thing.

 

[ArasTM]

Why woudl i care how many processes run as long as RAM usage is decent and teh system is fast?

You see, it just should be that way, the cleaner the better, the faster your PC will be, if your games or something are working fine it's not a problem but you can always improve it, for example as I do a lot of stuff like rendering, design and * the more free ram / CPU I have the better and it always is that way. I understant that some stuff that you use often should be put into ram, like the start menu, but having separate processes for almost each app in the PC even when the app isn't used (like groove music) is just stupid.

It's there in the background, using zero CPU cycles or RAM.
If you don't like that, change that service to low priority of disable it completely.
Or uninstall that thing.

It's just that I think, that a clean modern OS shouldn't have many background things running or at least they could be bundled somehow (in the UI) - let's say Google Chrome could be one single process, Windows services second process, maybe you could expand them and see what's exactly in there, but right now it's one big mess.
It might not use a lot of ram or CPU, but when there's hundreds of such processes on a system it does make a difference.
Some benchmarks of GPU / CPU rendering in Windows vs Linux proved that OS matters a lot often a Windows machine that was used for some time will be twice or more as fast in Linux, which is ridiculous.