Windows 10 - Overall Review and Modding

[DoubleYou]

If that's the case, why did we agree to put 8 there??? Minimum can't even be XP anymore with Mod Organizer.

[GrantSP]

Despite the intrusive push into everyone's personal life with Win10, I too tend to agree that the central framework of it is a solid base for an OS. Give it a month or two and we will have mellowed somewhat about the bloatware & phone-home apps. The difference in art style is irrelevant, all of that is too subjective to be of any consequence.

 

I've got a fair few issues with my laptop not functioning as it should, but that is due to Toshiba not providing updated drivers, not Windows messing things up. The wife seems to happy so far with her less powerful laptop so that's a win.

 

I'm with @DoubleYou on this one, why go for Win 8.1 as standard but then baulk at 10?

XP is dead and buried and Win7 will be here for a while yet, but if 8.1 was deemed good enough I see no reason to think 10 will not also.

[Octopuss]

I really wish they'll do something to give us the option to use TRUE Start menu at some point. This abomination mix of both 7 and 8 is just horrible. Those colourful tiles make me sick and I don't understand what's the purpose of it on a desktop.

Also, the icons and general visual aspect of Windows 10. If I ever make the switch, I will cry a river over the loss of Aero and perfect style of Windows 7. I don't understand what kind of drugs are they taking to take good and working things away.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Octopuss

[GSDFan]

We have to resort to third party apps:

Start10, the first Windows 10 Start menu alternative! Is a paid app.

Start Menu X is a free with a paid option for more features.

Classic Shell is a free alternative which is donation supported.

Iobit Start menu 8 supports windows 10 and looks to be free.

 

There are others also.

 

I use Start10 and it allows you to choose between Windows 7, Modern style and Win 10 style and provides options to enhance your Windows experience.

[z929669]

If that's the case, why did we agree to put 8 there??? Minimum can't even be XP anymore with Mod Organizer.

I did NOT agree. We should be recommending Win 7 or greater

[TechAngel85]

Yep, should be 7 or greater.

[DoubleYou]

Well, it's changed.

[DanimalTwo]

After 3 weeks with Windows 10, I switched back to Windows 7. The deal breaker was lack of control over updates.

[GrantSP]

Maybe a case of 'caving in to pressure'? Microsoft has released an update that prevents some updates from automatically applying themselves to your system.

[DoubleYou]

After 3 weeks with Windows 10, I switched back to Windows 7. The deal breaker was lack of control over updates.

You could just disable the Windows Update service and use WSUS Offline Update to install updates...

[z929669]

I have been using WSUS for years now. Much better than hours-long install of Win 7, given all the time it takes to download and install the updates in something like 10 iterations.

 

On another note, I finally did embark on a clean install of Win 10 on my own system (after imaging my Win 7 config). I will say that driver installs were very clean and seem to be pretty much trouble free in Win 10. The only '?' in my Device manager was for my old CanoScan scanner. All other drivers seem miraculously correct.

 

I am also a bit happier after removing all of the useless bloatware using PowerShell. The hidden 'dark' theme also makes the 'mobile' system app a bit more tolerable.

 

Overall, it seems to be a bit better than my update experience or my experience with my father-in-law's computer.

 

I will say that there are some things lacking though in Win 10 ... like, where the heck do you control theme backgrounds? (I did find the background config settings, but they are now limited). In Win 7, you could go to 'personalization', select/download a theme, and customize the frequency with which the background changed (30 min by default) or tick/untick only the backgrounds of the theme that interest you ... even the screen saver settings (loading a theme wipes your screen saver if the theme does not define one, since this is part of the theme). These are all aspects of the theme config, which are missing in Win 10.

 

Example: I use the Halo Reach theme. In Win 7, I normally do Personalization > "Get more themes online" > Install ... then I go to Desktop Background and untick all but the first and set the background change/rotation to "never". In Win 10, all is same, but the config settings for the theme itself are gone. The only way I could get it to work as i want was to move out all of the images in my theme directory except the one. Removing control functionality like this is really annoying. In most cases, the settings have either moved or changed a bit, but in this case, there appears to be no system settings at all.

[DoubleYou]

The photo/background-color/slideshow settings are located in the modern Settings --> Personalization --> Background.

[z929669]

Yes, I know, but you will find no way of selecting which of the background images in a theme to use or not use, nor will you find any way to set the duration for the background to change. These all used to be under the Theme selection area in Win 7, but now there is no theme settings area in Win 10.

 

Win 7 (all aspects of the theme are accessible via the GUI):

 

Win 10 (no theme settings accessible from here & others inaccessible from anywhere):

[DoubleYou]

Your right, in a sense. While you can manually set up a slideshow with a timer, downloading a theme like this won't allow you to.

[z929669]

Yes, I thought the slideshow was the key, too, but after loading a theme, the slideshow is not pointing to the theme images folder content. Removing the undesired images forces the behavior I want, but there is no way to increase/decrease the frequency of the background change (which I do not want anyway). I assume (like hidden dark Continuum UI), that theme config has yet to be finalized under Win 10. For now, it supports Win 7 themes with limited config.

 

This is one good example of how the PC is being treated more like a mobile device instead of a PC ... not ideal, and I see no way of fixing issues like this unless there is an optional toggle/module that configures system apps for PC distinct from those for mobile.

 

... now I need to figure out why my RDP is not working under Win 10 ...