Your Experience with Windows 10

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Let's face it, every Windows is just a modification to the previous one. Windows experienced the most change in the 90s. Ever since XP, they added some security, some new software, and a GUI change. They're all built off the code of the previous one.

Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What does that mean? Perhaps that is why they named it 10, because 10 seems like a good number to end on? Will they maybe ditch their traditional code that's probably still in there from Windows 95, and start fresh with a whole new operating system?

For all we know, they may already be working on one, and may have been doing so for a few years already.

Perhaps Microsoft is working on a successor to Windows which could be a brand-new OS franchise. Much like how they moved from DOS to Windows, the same thing could be happening all over again.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Let's face it, every Windows is just a modification to the previous one. Windows experienced the most change in the 90s. Ever since XP, they added some security, some new software, and a GUI change. They're all built off the code of the previous one.

Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What does that mean? Perhaps that is why they named it 10, because 10 seems like a good number to end on? Will they maybe ditch their traditional code that's probably still in there from Windows 95, and start fresh with a whole new operating system?

For all we know, they may already be working on one, and may have been doing so for a few years already.

Perhaps Microsoft is working on a successor to Windows which could be a brand-new OS franchise. Much like how they moved from DOS to Windows, the same thing could be happening all over again.

That's actually what I hope for. Windows is one of the oldest OS's still in use today, and I'm not talking about just computer OS's. Most phone and mobile OS's date back to 2007ish, but Windows goes back to the early 90s, which sometimes can be bad because over time I would only assume (with my limited OS knowledge) that crap builds up, and new programmers start to forget what is where in the source code, or what on earth this code from 1995 is for.

 

[overclockingrocks]

My experience with Windows 10 has been fairly positive so far. Upgrade went smoothly everything worked OOTB no new drivers or anything needed. Noticed a speed improvement in my games, even more so when I upgraded my driver, Also really liking the email/contacts/calendars functionality. Never thought I would use a standalone mail app again but Windows 10 has converted me. Makes life so much easier being able to look at not only my emails but also my calendars associated with that email.

Issues with Windows 10 that would prevent me from giving it anything higher than a fairly positive would be mostly issues with the store. It would constantly crash for me after about 2 weeks of use grabbing apps for Netflix,Wikipedia and a few other things where the app is nice and I'm willing to give it a try. Once the store began crashing I found the solution was to use powershell to remove and reinstall it. Which REALLY borked things up. had to do an in place upgrade to fix the issues. Thankfully since I did that about 2 weeks ago Windows has been running smoothly. Here's hoping that was just a fluke

I would say it's well worth the upgrade if you're running 8 or 8.1 if you're running 7 like I was I honestly might hold off for a bit as there are some changes that will put things in places you never knew existed or didn't exist in Windows 7.

 

[LeRennais]

Many stupid irritations.

Login - endless problems, finally identified as number key pad not working at login time. Have to use number keys at top of keyboard. Possibly common on USB connected keyboards?

Edge browser is not yet fit for use. No favourites management, and stupid "reverse order" loading of existing favourites from IE.

I got favourite's and favourite bar on mine Edge browser also working as good as gold

 

[LeRennais]

I got favourite's and favourite bar on mine Edge browser also working as good as gold

Yes, but its the "getting them working" - or subsequently maintained that is the problem. No management facility to re-order/re-organise them.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

I got favourite's and favourite bar on mine Edge browser also working as good as gold

Yes, but its the "getting them working" - or subsequently maintained that is the problem. No management facility to re-order/re-organise them.

The problem with Edge, though, is there's no option to export Edge favorites to Internet Explorer and Edge does not sync its favorites to OneDrive. That is a problem when you have Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 devices. And Edge is not backwards compatible with Windows 8.1.

 

[granpa4075]

Hey there friends!

With everyone trying out Windows 10, we wanted to get your input on what works, what doesn't, and what your overall thoughts and experiences with the new OS has been. We'll be putting together some guides and how-to's on getting going on Windows 10, and your feedback and story on Windows 10 so far will be helpful in knowing where and what we need to cover.

Reply here to share your experience so far with Windows 10, and help Tom's Hardware discover some of the pain points for early adopters.

-JP

 

[granpa4075]

Well jpishgar, I have removed windows 10 from my HP laptop pavilion dv6 and gone back to windows 7. When I was running windows 7, my cpu was running at about 1-3%, with windows 10, 24% along with all the fan noise attempting to keep it cool. I feared that it might burn my house down.

My biggest beef is that windows 7 is supported until end of 2020, but MS is pushing windows 10 and the update comes back with every update. My solution to this is to disable auto updates, and do them manually once a month when I can make sure the win 10 update does not start.

Windows 10 is pretty, but when I say I don't want it , the leave me alone m$

 

[James Mason]

Let's face it, every Windows is just a modification to the previous one. Windows experienced the most change in the 90s. Ever since XP, they added some security, some new software, and a GUI change. They're all built off the code of the previous one.

Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What does that mean? Perhaps that is why they named it 10, because 10 seems like a good number to end on? Will they maybe ditch their traditional code that's probably still in there from Windows 95, and start fresh with a whole new operating system?

For all we know, they may already be working on one, and may have been doing so for a few years already.

Perhaps Microsoft is working on a successor to Windows which could be a brand-new OS franchise. Much like how they moved from DOS to Windows, the same thing could be happening all over again.

That's actually what I hope for. Windows is one of the oldest OS's still in use today, and I'm not talking about just computer OS's. Most phone and mobile OS's date back to 2007ish, but Windows goes back to the early 90s, which sometimes can be bad because over time I would only assume (with my limited OS knowledge) that crap builds up, and new programmers start to forget what is where in the source code, or what on earth this code from 1995 is for.

FYI, if they made a new OS, no program not specifically created for that OS would work.

 

[Guest]

I got favourite's and favourite bar on mine Edge browser also working as good as gold

Yes, but its the "getting them working" - or subsequently maintained that is the problem. No management facility to re-order/re-organise them.

What do you want to do with favorites in Edge? I can create a new folder and change the order of pages in my favorite. The only thing I can't do is to change the address of the pages currently in there. If I want to do so, I have to go to that page, remove the old one, and add the new one to my favorite.

Also, accelerators like translation and searching for a term are missing. "Save as" is not there either.

 

[Guest]

Let's face it, every Windows is just a modification to the previous one. Windows experienced the most change in the 90s. Ever since XP, they added some security, some new software, and a GUI change. They're all built off the code of the previous one.

Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What does that mean? Perhaps that is why they named it 10, because 10 seems like a good number to end on? Will they maybe ditch their traditional code that's probably still in there from Windows 95, and start fresh with a whole new operating system?

For all we know, they may already be working on one, and may have been doing so for a few years already.

Let's face it, every Windows is just a modification to the previous one. Windows experienced the most change in the 90s. Ever since XP, they added some security, some new software, and a GUI change. They're all built off the code of the previous one.

Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What does that mean? Perhaps that is why they named it 10, because 10 seems like a good number to end on? Will they maybe ditch their traditional code that's probably still in there from Windows 95, and start fresh with a whole new operating system?

For all we know, they may already be working on one, and may have been doing so for a few years already.

Perhaps Microsoft is working on a successor to Windows which could be a brand-new OS franchise. Much like how they moved from DOS to Windows, the same thing could be happening all over again.

That's actually what I hope for. Windows is one of the oldest OS's still in use today, and I'm not talking about just computer OS's. Most phone and mobile OS's date back to 2007ish, but Windows goes back to the early 90s, which sometimes can be bad because over time I would only assume (with my limited OS knowledge) that crap builds up, and new programmers start to forget what is where in the source code, or what on earth this code from 1995 is for.

How about Mac OS? First version was in 1984. Windows 1.0 was in 1985.

I heard new Windows OS(s) was/were re-written, not building/adding from old codes. For example, 60% for Vista. For the other 40%, unless we see it and experience for ourselves, we can't say it's crap. I believe it's the case for other OSs too.

Windows has to work with a variety of hardware (unlike Mac) and software. There're always compatibility issues for new OS. For interface and cosmetic change, we have to accept it. We have different opinions on what is and isn't pretty.

Starting from scratch? We'll simply lose too much doing it from scratch. It'll probably take way longer than we think and what's the end result? Something that basically does the same thing. So what's the business case for doing it?
That's an important point: it costs money to write something from scratch. How will we recoup that money? Many programmers ignore this point simply because they don't like the code--sometimes with justification, sometimes not.
However, if we are already fixing a bug, there is no reason we can't rework that specific part of the code with a "better" design.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

That's true not sure how I forgot about Mac...

But anyway why would they say it's the last version of Windows? How do you interpret that?

Let's face it, every Windows is just a modification to the previous one. Windows experienced the most change in the 90s. Ever since XP, they added some security, some new software, and a GUI change. They're all built off the code of the previous one.

Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What does that mean? Perhaps that is why they named it 10, because 10 seems like a good number to end on? Will they maybe ditch their traditional code that's probably still in there from Windows 95, and start fresh with a whole new operating system?

For all we know, they may already be working on one, and may have been doing so for a few years already.

Perhaps Microsoft is working on a successor to Windows which could be a brand-new OS franchise. Much like how they moved from DOS to Windows, the same thing could be happening all over again.

That's actually what I hope for. Windows is one of the oldest OS's still in use today, and I'm not talking about just computer OS's. Most phone and mobile OS's date back to 2007ish, but Windows goes back to the early 90s, which sometimes can be bad because over time I would only assume (with my limited OS knowledge) that crap builds up, and new programmers start to forget what is where in the source code, or what on earth this code from 1995 is for.

FYI, if they made a new OS, no program not specifically created for that OS would work.

Not necessarily. Look at programs like Wine that manage to recompile executable Windows software to use a library that functions with Windows programs quite well. In my mind, they could pull it off so a new OS could still run classic Windows programs. For one thing, they could make executable files have a new extension, so any file with "exe" would be a Windows-specific executable, in which this "new OS" could recompile and point it to a folder of Windows libraries it has to run old Windows programs.

 

[USAFRet]

For one thing, they could make executable files have a new extension, so any file with "exe" would be a Windows-specific executable, in which this "new OS" could recompile and point it to a folder of Windows libraries it has to run old Windows programs.

Not necessarily. try running a 16bit or 8bit windows executable on a 64bit Windows OS.

 

[Guest]

But anyway why would they say it's the last version of Windows? How do you interpret that?

You can read here http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8568473/windows-10-last-version-of-windows There may be other reasons we don't know.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

For one thing, they could make executable files have a new extension, so any file with "exe" would be a Windows-specific executable, in which this "new OS" could recompile and point it to a folder of Windows libraries it has to run old Windows programs.

Not necessarily. try running a 16bit or 8bit windows executable on a 64bit Windows OS.

When I say "old Windows programs" I mean current Windows programs that would be "old" 3-4 years from now.

How come 32-bit apps can run but not 16 and 8 bit?

 

[gangrel]

Linux came out in 1991. UNIX has its roots going back to 1969.

OF COURSE mobile OSs are newer. The devices did not exist.

16 and 8 bit apps don't run because the memory models they used are no longer supported. They also tended to write directly to hardware. Sometimes you can get them to run in DOSBox...sometimes not.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Linux came out in 1991. UNIX has its roots going back to 1969.

OF COURSE mobile OSs are newer. The devices did not exist.

16 and 8 bit apps don't run because the memory models they used are no longer supported. They also tended to write directly to hardware. Sometimes you can get them to run in DOSBox...sometimes not.

There is more to it than just the memory. The CPUs a lot of times no longer support the extensions or code to run them.

 

[gangrel]

True, but that's because they can be translated in software fast enough that there's no need to maintain them in hardware. The big hassle is the memory model. The whole 640K limit for DOS was because the memory above 640K was reserved for graphics.

That said, MOST old code runs. Heck, I just ran through the old SSI Gold Box games; those date back to 1990. Getting them to run is actually fairly easy. It's harder to get old Windows code to run. You're setting up VMs in each case...a DOS VM is just inherently easier than a Windows 3.1 VM. It can be done; I know I found a web site that had Castle of the Winds...a VERY old, VERY simple Win 3.x RPG. That site essentially provided a VM.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Older Windows code is harder due to changes in the kernal and file system. One of my favorite games when I was younger was the Die Hard Trilogy. When I finally went from 98 to XP I also moved from FAT32 to NTFS. The game would not fun on NTFS. Was a sad day.

Then we have the move from direct write to hardware from the drivers to APIs and then now changes in those APIs and how they work, even the WDDM model changes cause issues running older software.

Sucks but that is the price we pay for better systems in other ways (i.e. better stability due to APIs crashing instead of the whole OS).

 

[liberty610]

I am no expert in computers, but I do consider myself a power user to a degree. I would like to share my Windows 10 experience thus far, because it has been quite positive so far.

I recently bought a simple little laptop/tablet combo ordeal from HP to do some simple browsing and file transferring to my NAS. It's the HP Stream x360. It was only $250 new. I didn't wanna be stuck in front of my desktop 24/7 for the smaller computer tasks. This little laptop had everything I wanted. HDMI out, couple USB ports, and an SD slot for expanding the storage (it only has 30bb SSD). It also functions as a tablet, as it has a touch screen and the screen can rotate all the way to the back so it disables the keyboard and runs in 'tablet mode'. I'm a mouse and keyboard guy, but hey... it's a nice add on. It came with Windows 8.1 (which I tried out once last year - hated it), but it had a free windows 10 upgrade of course. I figured since it was a simple 30gb SSD laptop with only 2 core processor and 2gb ram, I would give 10 a shot.

I liked what I saw for the most part of Windows 10, so I decided to try to load it onto my main production PC. Now, I am a heavy user of my computer, as I run a small project studio where I do video editing, audio work for musicians (record bands demos, pod casts, ect), and I even do live streaming on Ustream and Twitch at times. So I have lots of extra software and hardware that ranges from PCIe cards, USB audio devices, VST plugins, ect. A lot of resource suckers... All with working drivers and updates that run great on Windows 7. So you can see where I was hesitant to install Windows 10 so early on. But I'm a geek at heart and I like to tinker and see where things go.

I did not want to do an 'upgrade' to 10. I feel there is just to many garbage files that are left behind when a OS is 'upgraded' to the next version. So I wanted to install a fresh copy. I attempted this 4 times on my production PC - twice from a USB drive, and twice from a DVD, and got the same results. Windows would load the setup screens, show me it was installing, and do the 'Finishing up - now restarting'. On restart, it wouldn't boot. It gave me a missing boot loader error (I know - I said my windows 10 xp was positive.... I'm getting to that haha.) My PC started doing other weird things when I re-installed a fresh Windows 7. Turns out, my 2010 motherboard was not performing like it should anymore, and was causing a lot of issues - including the Windows 10 boot issue, thus convincing me it was finally time to order the upgrades I have been planning for the last few months.

Here is my new PC setup:

-Cooler master HAf X Full tower case
-Corsair HX850 850W 80gold power supply
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 R5 motherboard
-AMD FX-8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz with aftermark heat sink 212 EVO from Cooler master
-G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series Ram - 16gb (2x8)
-MSI GeForce GTX 960 GTX 960 graphics card with 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5
-Intel 520 series SSD as my OS drive (240 gig), and 6 other standard hard drives for mass storage (not raided).

Other devices I use are the Avermedia Live Gamer HD capture card, The Happauge Colouses capture card, a Line 6 UX8 audio interface that runs via USB, and an M-Audio Midi box for transferring midi data.

I did a fresh install of Windows 10 on this setup. So far, with the exception of a couple driver hiccups in the early process of the build, Windows 10 has been great. All my devices that are a couple years old or more all have updated drivers from the manufacturer
s websites, and so far are working great. I have done some basic video editing tests, I have recorded a a few things in my digital audio work station, I have streamed a live gaming session on Twitch, and I have torture tested the CPU and Graphics card in multi hour sessions. Windows 10 has handled it all without any hiccups.

Besides the hardware and software behaving like it should, I also like other features of 10. Being a guy who multi-tasks A LOT on my pc, I LOVE the new snapping system where I can now snap more then 2 windows to each side. Yesterday I had 4 separate windows snapped in each corner of the screen to do massive file transfers, and it was extremely convenient. I also like the fact that my Desktop theme syncs with my laptop that is also running 10 - not a huge thing for some I know, but I found it pretty neat. And the multiple virtual desktops? THANK YOU MS - you did something right here in my book! I LOVE being able to keep my production programs on one desktop doing their thing, while all my file transferring is on another, while my web browsing and email is on another. It makes multi-tasking a lot more organized. And so far, 10 doesn't seem to be so demanding on resources when compared to 7.

The start menu? Meh... I like it, but then again I don't. I am sure I will get more use to it as time goes on, but it really sucks when some of my programs/apps don't pop up in the apps list and I gotta go hunting for them. Other then that, I like the grouping you can do with the start menu. I have all my PC Utility programs (like Ccleaner, afterburner, ect) in one group, with all my production software in another.

So far, the only real dislikes I have are minor. For some reason, when I attach certain USB hard drives to it, they won't transfer files to or from the PC. I will open the USB drive in one window, open the internal drive I want to copy to in another, and I will drag and drop a file or folder, and it just sits there. No error message pops up or anything. It doesn't copy over, and it pretty much just acts like I didn't try to do a transfer at all.

That has been my experience with 10 so far. I'll come back and add to it if I start to ru into trouble with my upcoming project sessions!

 

[Tony-S]

I like Win 10 so far. I find it a tad faster and smoother than Win 7 (I never used Win 8 on PC / laptops because I don't need touchscreen and I cannot stand the Metro UI getting in the way all the time).

I had no problem with any devices using Intel Core i3/ i5/ i7 processors. An old Core 2 Duo laptop with 6GB RAM (Win 7 pro 64 -> Win 10 pro 64) also runs smoothly. The only problematic machine is an old netbook with Atom processor, 4GB RAM and Win 7 Home Starter 32 bit (upgraded to Win 10 Home 32), which becomes really sluggish (even though it has an SSD).

The only pet peeve now is driver incompatiblity eg. for touchpad. Win 8.1 driver works but there are still minor problems.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Now with Windows 10 and DirectX 12, is it worth it to SLI my GTX 970 despite the "3.5 GB VRAM bug" or buy a GTX 980 Ti and use my GTX 970 as a PhysX card / DX12 secondary GPU? I'm noticing the VRAM on the GTX 970 becoming an issue in GTA V and I'm starting to think that upgrading to a GTX 980 Ti will remedy issues like recently exploded cars vanishing into thin air when 3.7 GB of VRAM are in use and bad fps when turning on HD shadows.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Now with Windows 10 and DirectX 12, is it worth it to SLI my GTX 970 despite the "3.5 GB VRAM bug" or buy a GTX 980 Ti and use my GTX 970 as a PhysX card / DX12 secondary GPU? I'm noticing the VRAM on the GTX 970 becoming an issue in GTA V and I'm starting to think that upgrading to a GTX 980 Ti will remedy issues like recently exploded cars vanishing into thin air when 3.7 GB of VRAM are in use and bad fps when turning on HD shadows.

Even if the combined VRAM is true, it is just a rumor right now, Rockstar would have to release a DX12 patch to take advantage of DX12.

Most likely they will not, instead they will release GTA 6 with DX12.

In your case, a GTX 980Ti would be the better option.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Now with Windows 10 and DirectX 12, is it worth it to SLI my GTX 970 despite the "3.5 GB VRAM bug" or buy a GTX 980 Ti and use my GTX 970 as a PhysX card / DX12 secondary GPU? I'm noticing the VRAM on the GTX 970 becoming an issue in GTA V and I'm starting to think that upgrading to a GTX 980 Ti will remedy issues like recently exploded cars vanishing into thin air when 3.7 GB of VRAM are in use and bad fps when turning on HD shadows.

Even if the combined VRAM is true, it is just a rumor right now, Rockstar would have to release a DX12 patch to take advantage of DX12.

Most likely they will not, instead they will release GTA 6 with DX12.

In your case, a GTX 980Ti would be the better option.

OK, thanks. Hopefully, though, Rockstar will patch GTA V for DX12. But yeah, I will look into getting a GTX 980 Ti and eventually perhaps sell the GTX 970 and get another GTX 980 Ti for SLI. By then, I would perhaps end up with a 4K UHD TV I could also use as a monitor.

 

[Clariska]

Windows 10 are just a glorified windows 8.After 3 years my hdd eventually crashed running win 7(Run win 8 on another hdd)so thought i'll try win 10 love the speed on my fx but same shyt different smell.How Microsoft has fallen specially win 8/10 with my motherboard drivers but can get it to work but such a drag....