QOTW: What are your first impressions of Windows 10?

[Attila the Bun]

(no)

[anacdahudee]

There's a bunch of other things to change after customising the install (make sure not to select express settings there). You need to go through all the settings and have a look. You need to turn off Cortana as well, plus the cloud one drive thing or whatever it's called. Don't login with a Microsoft account either. Once you've done all that, then take a look at the privacy policy and see what you think. Doesn't look good to me. But as we were discussing a few posts back - the privacy policy seems the same whatever version of Windows you use, unless I'm mistaken. They're outright saying they'll spy on you and take copies of your data if they believe it is in "good faith" to do so (not just for law enforement purposes). I give them some credit for stating it, but do you trust them for that? What happened to getting a warrant for things like this.. I Wouldn't assume you're any safer on any other version of Windows.

So if you need Windows 10 or can really benefit from it, then you might want it. I know I can benefit from it for the software I use and playing games. But, I'm trying to find a way out of having to use it right now and still be able to run all my software to a reasonable standard. I fear I will not find a good solution. If you think you can find an alternative solution for your needs by using Linux or something - TAKE IT

For me personally I can't totally leave Windows just yet (as discussed in your topic on Linux), though I do look forward to the day I can. My new rig has been on hold while I wait to see Windows 10 and Skylake, it seems both have now been answered. I'll probably make the upgrade to Windows 8.1 and from past experiences it seems skylake really wont have that much impact on current prices and isn't really worth the extra pennies for me. At least now I know I just need to finish saving up for the new rig .

[smilertoo]

Appeared decent initially, then it started losing the right click menus and locking up application windows; I'm back on 8.1 now.

[3dcandy]

Couple of quick things - gets to login very quickly on most computers but then takes ages to actually get to desktop unless you have an SSD!
Upgrade from any activated Win 7 means you get an activated Win 10 (make of that what you will)
Want WMP and DVD player functionality? Upgrade from a fully upgraded Win 7 installation and you have it... (make sure you keep all files etc.)
Privacy - I'm afraid most people don't give a rats ass it's new and improved!

[AlexKitch]

It works flawlessly for me. Can't say I've had any problems at all

Loving it.

[The Hand]

On the privacy side:

http://www.newsweek.com/windows-10-r...ry-move-358952

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...fault-settings

Hmm.

[Corky34]

Privacy - I'm afraid most people don't give a rats ass it's new and improved!

IMO it's not that people don't give a rats ass, its that most people have difficulty in understanding what the implications are.
Privacy is one of those things people don't value until it's taken away or impacts them directly.

[Saracen]

IMO it's not that people don't give a rats ass, its that most people have difficulty in understanding what the implications are.
Privacy is one of those things people don't value until it's taken away or impacts them directly.

I'd say there's groups.

1) Don't understand the implications.

2) Do understand the implications, but don't care.

3) Do understand the implications, and care, but judge it a price worth paying.

4) Do understand, and judge the price too high.

And possibly, ...

5) Just paranoid.

I'm a 4).

But I hesitate to ascribe sizes to each group, having no real data to base it beyond, beyond gut feel.

[ZaO]

I'd say there's groups.

1) Don't understand the implications.

2) Do understand the implications, but don't care.

3) Do understand the implications, and care, but judge it a price worth paying.

4) Do understand, and judge the price too high.

And possibly, ...

5) Just paranoid.

I'm a 4).

But I hesitate to ascribe sizes to each group, having no real data to base it beyond, beyond gut feel.

I'd pretty much agree. There's true ignorance, then there's chosen ignorance. It's really tough to handle and worry about all this stuff. Modern life is complicated and most people don't like the idea of stuff like this, but regardless of how well they understand it, convenience seems to win over most of the time. Most people can't/won't put the time in to be as knowledgable as people on tech forums. Companies like Microsoft know this, and that's how they pull it off. Sad thing is, a lot of people would be fine on Linux, but they think there's only Windows and Apple to choose from. Then there's some of the websites - Google, Facebook, Twitter etc.. I don't like the idea of them (though at least they're just websites which you can control better. Not as bad as your operating system trying to track you). I know how much those sites suck, but I need to use them for what I do. I don't use Facebook though. It has an impact on me, but I have to draw the line there. God damned site of it makes me sick.

[AlexKitch]

I'd consider myself to be a number 2 (so to speak...)

I'm well aware of the privacy issues, but quite honestly I couldn't give a damn. My computing and online habits are so indescribably dull that anyone is quite welcome to extract data concerning it. There is really nothing to see here

[cheesemp]

I'd consider myself to be a number 2 (so to speak...)

I'm well aware of the privacy issues, but quite honestly I couldn't give a damn. My computing and online habits are so indescribably dull that anyone is quite welcome to extract data concerning it. There is really nothing to see here

Got to agree there. Feel the same with Google - the benefits I get with gmail, google maps etc far out way any issues I have with privacy. If Google or Microsoft give me useful features for nothing more than knowing I like computer gaming i'm not going to complain. (Google maps sat nav with live traffic has saved me 10-15 minutes a week being stuck in traffic regularly.)

[The Hand]

Looks like only the enterprise version has the option to disable the diagnostic and usage data off completely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfzWxxDV13w

Home and Pro versions can reduce sending diagnostic and usage data to Microsoft to "Basic" what ever that is!

[crossy]

I'd say there's groups.
...
3) Do understand the implications, and care, but judge it a price worth paying.

4) Do understand, and judge the price too high.

And possibly, ...

5) Just paranoid.

I'm a 4).

But I hesitate to ascribe sizes to each group, having no real data to base it beyond, beyond gut feel.

Sounds like this is a good thing (relevant with the Windows10 issues) to have a Hexus poll on?

Personally I'm on (3) - I use GMail, Hotmail, G+, Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, and have a Twitter account (seldom used). This being because those make my life easier - the GMail and Hotmail have good spam filtering and are easy to give out. I like cloud storage and am careful not to put anything really sensitive in there unprotected. On the other hand, I can't see the use of Facebook - but that's probably because I'm an obnoxious s.o.b.

I tried W10 on a low-powered netbook (Samsung NC10) thinking that if it performed acceptably there then it should be dynamite on more mainstream kit. At present I still like it, but those privacy concerns have me holding fire on doing the updates - especially those from Windows 7.

[Corky34]

I'd pretty much agree. There's true ignorance, then there's chosen ignorance.

I would argue that everyone is ignorant, after all there's no way to know exactly how your private data is being used, it's like giving someone your house keys, sure you may trust them, you may even be 99% sure their not going to abuse that privilege, but the moment someone else has your house keys you no longer know how they're used, or abused.

[Plasmastorm]

The problem is that a lot of the tech/features people want and expect require a level of user data to be collected.

There has to be a level of trust involved which is hard to get and sustain.
Personally I'm not sure MS is there yet. Even Google whom I generally trust (although I may yet be shown to be wrong) I give limited access via android. Rooted, custom android install etc.

[ZaO]

I would argue that everyone is ignorant, after all there's no way to know exactly how your private data is being used, it's like giving someone your house keys, sure you may trust them, you may even be 99% sure their not going to abuse that privilege, but the moment someone else has your house keys you no longer know how they're used, or abused.

Yeh of course. But you know what I mean..