QOTW: What are your first impressions of Windows 10?

[Irien]

Upgraded my gaming PC, and lost most of the desktop programs on my start menu (was using Classic Shell). Tried re-installing the likes of Steam, Uplay, Origin etc and none of them reappeared. Search/cortana couldn't find them either.

Pin to Start also didn't work, so I basically couldn't re-instate any of my desktop programs on the "new" start menu (which is effectively just a mini version of the Win8 start screen, with reduced functionality if that's possible).

So, I ended up installing Classic Shell, and everything re-appeared. Doesn't say much for Windows 10 though, as that was really the only obvious improvement over Win8. "Upgrade to get your start menu back". They couldn't even do that right.

Let's hope DX12 lives up to the hype.

[ZaO]

After looking into the privacy policy a bit more - feeling concerned. Didn't trust Microsoft much anyway, now it's even worse. DX12 kinda hooked me in with its promise of better perfomance. Kinda not caring much about that anymore.. Trying to find the door out of here..

[DemonHighwayman]

After reading all these comments it certainly looks like windows 10 is yet another version for me not to bother with, I just hope somebody comes along and hacks dx12 into windows 7, which would have been my only big reason to upgrade to win 10.

[Spiralking]

Works fine and a few bugs that will vanish with updates. Slickest upgrade ever and able to use all previous programs I was working with.

[IT Troll]

Well I upgraded but I didn't get my Start Menu back. I just got this weird resized Start Screen which cannot be customised.

It transferred over my existing Start Menu folder hierarchy but then splattered the new modern apps at the root level. So I have an alphabetic mixture of apps and structured shortcut folders, Neither one thing nor the other.

There is no way to edit, move or delete this All Apps list through the interface. You can hack about with the underlying files but this is clearly not meant for the end user as changes are not reflected without a reboot.

Sure I can launch stuff through search, but this is just a workaround. If you are going to do that why bother having a Start Menu at all?

I used Start8 on Windows 8 but really hoped that third party tools weren't going to be needed in Windows 10.

[DanceswithUnix]

The free copy of Minecraft for Windows 10 isn't going well. If I click on the "redeem" button, I get an error from the Microsoft account page. Click on the very well hidden menu item for redeeming a code in the store app, and I get something similar. Anyone managed it?

[lumireleon]

Direct x12 is the first impression........the rest we already have in windows 8.1 coz i simply install start menu with iobit.

[GravitySmacked]

We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services.

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/

Nope, just nope.

[iranu]

The more I read about the privacy aspect of Win 10 the less I want it. Some of the Privacy Policy and Service Agreement is damn right sinister. It looks like they can and will slurp as much of your data as possible. DX12 is the only reason for me to "upgrade", but at what cost? I'll wait a while to see how things pan out.

I hope Steam OS is a massive success and finally opens the way to Linux gaming.

[Saizu]

As far as I remember discutions about privacy were heated when they launched vista and seven so they were bound to be this way with the new OS. Truth be told seems they want access to just about anything that's in your pc, even more than with the older OS's.

Like others have said, the most exciting thing will probably be dx12. Who knows, maybe it will be possible to somehow integrate it with 7. If the performance is true to what they said. If not, possibly not worth it.

[Saracen]

The more I read about the privacy aspect of Win 10 the less I want it. Some of the Privacy Policy and Service Agreement is damn right sinister. It looks like they can and will slurp as much of your data as possible. DX12 is the only reason for me to "upgrade", but at what cost? I'll wait a while to see how things pan out.

....

Absolutely agree, but of course, we each COULD significantly, if not entirely easily, pull the fangs of the privacy issue, not least (for now at least) by either refusing, point-blank, to have an MS account, or by careful research and by trawling through W10 disabling and turning off all the intrusive bits. And hoping you don't miss something crucial.

But by virtue of auto-update being able to change or add features in the background, I see it as a constant salami-slicing effort by MS, starting with W8 if not earlier, and there are NO signs of them giving in or changing direction. They might make tactical shifts for PR reasons but the strategy appears to be immutable. And obnoxious, IMHO.

[iranu]

Absolutely agree, but of course, we each COULD significantly, if not entirely easily, pull the fangs of the privacy issue, not least (for now at least) by either refusing, point-blank, to have an MS account, or by careful research and by trawling through W10 disabling and turning off all the intrusive bits. And hoping you don't miss something crucial.

But by virtue of auto-update being able to change or add features in the background, I see it as a constant salami-slicing effort by MS, starting with W8 if not earlier, and there are NO signs of them giving in or changing direction. They might make tactical shifts for PR reasons but the strategy appears to be immutable. And obnoxious, IMHO.

This is what concerns me. I may be able to follow a guide to turning off all the intrusive stuff but how am I going to keep track of that if automatic updates switch some settings back to default?

I run anti-virus software and the like to try to prevent people gaining access to my PC and the data therein. Windows 10 has access to the lot by default and the service agreement.

[Splash]

Why are people focussing on Windows 10 for the privacy policy? The policy itself states

It applies to Bing, Cortana, MSN, Office, OneDrive, Outlook.com, Skype, Windows, Xbox and other Microsoft services that display this statement.

source

Surely this applies as much to *any* version of Windows?

[EasterEEL]

Update went reasonably well although I think the reserve/download path proved very convoluted and creating a USB stick install from the MS web site might be the better way to go. Install took ~10GB of my partitioned SSD hard drive to complete and added a new hidden 450MB recovery partition between my C & D partitions.

Windows 7 Nvidia Graphics card drivers were up-to-date but I had to remove them and reinstall new Windows 10 version. Creative do not have drivers ready for my Soundblaster-z sound card yet so no SB control panel and reduced functionality for the time being.

Surprised I can't move tiles to the desktop e.g. to see the weather tile I have click on the start button first instead of just looking at a gadget. What's the point of a live tile if you can't see it? On a 1440p monitor I have plenty of screen space so I have installed gadgets-revived and put my old gadgets back. The only problem is they disappear when clicking show desktop requiring a further click to bring them back to the front.

Minor problem with Acrobat distiller not working until I went into temp folder and deleted all in relevant use files hopefully this wont return.

Hasn't significantly improved boot time despite promises. Maybe I need to enable Windows 8/8.1 bios features/fast boot etc, not sure yet.

Default browser is now Edge and not Firefox and bit concerned about all this info I have agreed can be sent to Microsoft.

Early days and waiting for something to jump out at me as a must keep.

[Saracen]

Why are people focussing on Windows 10 for the privacy policy? The policy itself states



source

Surely this applies as much to *any* version of Windows?

Indeed, but the more intrusive modules, like (but not limited to) Cortana, aren't in previous versions and nor is the auto-update facility. Win10 is not a "version" like any previous version. It's a paradigm shift in the entire Windows model. MS executives have actually outright said that. What they haven't said is exactly what the paradigm has shifted to. They've merely hinted at it, obliquely referred to it, and dropped VERY broad generalisations.

It's clearly not the case that Win10 is the first version of Windows to have privacy issues but the EULA, in it's entirety, has stepped it up a gear. Or rather, onto an entirely new level.

Here's the thing.

Some of the new "benefits" of W10, like Cortana, are going to HAVE to be incredibly intrusive to work right. And if they work right, they could be useful. That, at least, is the vision.

MS's view is that the "benefits" of that degree of personalisation justify the loss of privacy which, make no mistake, is very substantial. My view is that it does not, not now, not ever. I don't want ANY company, any at all, or for that matter, any government, having that level of access to data about my life. If you (the generic you, not you personally, Splash) aren t bothered, don't care, fair enough.

Just be aware, it IS a trade, privacy for tbe supposed "benefits". And be aware, privacy is rather like virginity .... once lost, it's too late to regret it, because you aren't EVER getting that genie back in the bottle.

I'm "focussing on" the privacy policy for a couple of reasons. One .... it's VERY important to me, to understand the implications before deciding when or if to upgrade. Because MS has only just released the new PP, it's only just become possible to read it. And I bet most people won't. They might, at best, skim it, but won't carefully read it. I do, however .... yeah, I'm sad like that but my anal retentive side likes to know what I'm agreeing to before I agree to it. We need to read such agreements very carefully, considering not what the sense of it appears to say, but what can vague wording be interpreted to say if MS want to slant it that way. Usually, these agreements/policies are VERY carefully worded to convey one impression, while actually capable of being interpreted as meaning something very different. The result is we're agreeing to more than a skim read would suggest.

Which is my second reason. Discussion here means at least I've done everything I can to ensure our members go in to this eyes open. If people are aware, and either don't care, or regard the trade-off as acceptable, fine. If they see my concerns and put it down to paranoia or whatever, again, fair enough. I tried. People don't have to agree, or take any notice, or care.

But W10, in new features COMBINED WITH those policy changes, represents a very substantial increase in intrusion into privacy, so yeah, while it refers to Windows (in, when I found it a Windows 10 section) it's the combination that poses the most serious risks of privacy loss.

[Splash]

Don't get me wrong: I've gone through the policy pretty in depth myself. The company I work for are primarily active in the information security sector, so it's important that I understand the implications of these kind of changes.

And I have no issue with people not wanting to upgrade to Windows 10, for any reason. What I *do* take issue with (and this is not focussed at anyone in particular, but it's all over the place) is people blindly making claims about the privacy policy of Windows, and then stating that they plan to move to Ubuntu (which is even worse, in my eyes). Sure: you can heavily customise your Ubuntu install, and disable the bits that you don't want, but you can do the same with Windows.

I have a Microsoft account for work purposes, but I'm certainly not going to be signing into any personal machines with it. Local accounts all around (one of the major concerns for a number of people in pre-release being that this wouldn't be possible). That said: I have a Google account, which is used for Apps for Domains and I have no issue with the use of this. I've read the Google privacy policy and *for me* it's an acceptable tradeoff for the functionality I get for my personal email, calendaring, search and the like. Your mileage may vary (again, not directed at anyone in particular)

For the record: I've not upgraded as yet, but this is largely due to a lack of disk space on my boot drive (I should really do a clean install, but I don't really have the time to get everything setup again afterwards at this point).


But back to my point: the privacy policy applies to a whole host of services, and if you're using Windows already then it still applies. Just not upgrading to Win10 doesn't get you out of being bound by it.