Windows 10: 3 weeks on Windows 10 as main OS - My thoughts...

First off, for those interested in whether or not Windows 10 will serve in it's current state as a primary OS, my answer is yes. Granted, I don't do any heavy lifting really from this machine, but so far everything that I do has functioned just as well in 10 as it did in 8.1. The only exception is that my machine crashes when it tries to hibernate, but that was an easy thing to disable, and I generally disable that anyways.. For reference, I am running version 10049.

Over all, I am just kind of meh when it comes to windows 10... I don't find myself using many of 10's new features. It feels a lot like 8 or 8.1 to me with some new icons, new search and a changed start menu. I could go back to 8.1 tomorrow, and I wouldn't really miss much about 10. I don't really use the built in search myself, beyond searching for the occasional app or feature. Like many, I am a creature of habit, and when I want to search the web, I just head to google in the browser. So maybe the only thing to chime in about is the new (start) menu....

I am not a fan of the new (start) menu, although unlike others, I will call it an improvement over the (start) screen we saw in 8 and 8.1. You can tweak it to function such that you might like it, but it takes a bit of maintenance that was not necessary pre windows 8. I personally like that it is semi transparent, especially when big, which imo is a step in the right aesthetic direction. You should not leave your work completely behind when you click on start, but that is just my opinion. The fact that the shutdown button is back on the menu is a plus. I am glad I did not have to google how to shutdown my machine this time around, like I did when I first started using windows 8. Still, unless they really improve the menu quite a bit more in future releases, I probably will be loading classic shell over top of this thing. It may look pretty, but function trumps looks imo. I can't stand how they incorporated the alphabet letters as space fillers throughout the all apps section. It just breaks up the flow. We are not morons, we know how to scan alphabetically, I don't need a big announcement that I am now in the C section, and I imagine many others would agree here. Just list the apps alphabetically like was done in days of old and be done. This alone would help a lot.

Spartan needs some work. Don't expect to be able to start using this as your main browser. I am withholding judgment on Spartan until a later release.

I've been able to run all my programs and even run some games in windows 10, which all function just fine. hmm.. I guess that's all there really is to say here. Strange, I thought I would set out to right up a big long review, but in the end I can't think of anything more to say...

:)

 

Having trouble installing Windows 10 on Ubuntu

My main OS is Ubuntu 15.04, i like the OS but it's missing lot of features that i use.

I decided to install Windows 10 as my main OS and when i got the installation option i received error saying something like "Windows cannot be installed on that partition 0" I don't remember exactly what it said cause its been 2 weeks since i did this.

I search this error, and found that it has something to do with i have Ubuntu installed.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

Btw, sorry for my english, its not good.

 

LifeCam Studio Webcam - Windows 10 - No video

I can't be sure but the first windows 10 release I know the web cam was working (on multiple systems) I don't believe my main PC is using windows 10 creators edition, I thought only last week it was working on my main PC (can't be sure but skype was turning
on the device while I was talking VOIP calls).

I've made no changes to the device.

I disabled antivirus and this made no difference. Anti virus is provided by Avast (free) and using Malwarebytes (paid) (which I also disabled).

 

Nice review. I'm sure we are in for some more changes before RTM

 

Great review, I can't wait for the RC

 

I use my PC quite heavily, and I completely agree with the OP's statements. I finally moved from the Virtual stage to upgrading my primary OS to Win10 a bit over a month ago. Even with going through a major hardware upgrade, I have not been disappointed much at all. The start menu, and the app store need a bit of polish, but I've been quite impressed with the overall functionality.

So far the only real issues I have had are the DirectX-related problems with full-screen apps (easy workaround), and today after remoting into my PC from work, I was later unable to log in locally. It looks like that was the result of an update, and has finished installing while I wrote this.

 

the start menu in build 10056 is resizable and better IMO and the power button near bottom so close to start button so that should please windows 7 users ect cant wait to try the RC when it released

the RC should have some more nice improvements

 

They just need to take out the stupid letters under all apps. Totally not needed and serve no purpose, other than to break up the flow and make you scroll further to get where you want. I still don't see a lot of businesses coming on board with Windows 10. There is so much that they could do to improve the start menu/screen that they have not done up to now, and it is just crazy. Like, who is designing this stuff?

Why can't we have folders to help us get rid of bloat and keep things organized on the start screen?

Ok, I've got 30 programs installed on my machine, and yeah, I tend to use all of them. Do you know what a mess my start screen/menu would be if I tried to link to them all there given the tools that they have forced upon us. I usually just install rocketdock and call it a day. However, if we had folders where I could toss less used programs etc, I could see the start menu becoming a lot more useful.

 

When are we going to get native dual view built into File Explorer? Seriously, how often do you find yourself moving/copying files from one location to another, and how lame is it that you have to manage 2 windows to accomplish this? Yeah, I know, it's not a huge deal, but it seems like this should have come around long ago... Seriously, rather than just change the way icons look, and changing the word 'favorites' to 'quick access', buff up file explorer with some real muscle. Give us the means to easily retag or rename large groups of files. Give us better management tools without having to resort to 3rd party apps to accomplish this. These are things they can do at the OS level that are true improvements.

 

As far as the start screen/menu goes, 90% of their user base hated the changes that came in Windows 8, so what they are doing in Windows 10 is a clear backtrack, but in my opinion the changes are way to miniscule/conservative. They don't go far enough. All they really did was shrink the start screen, tuck all apps along the left side (Glad they did this - I hated all apps on the old start screen and felt a little bit dummer every time I had to look at it), made it see through and added the power button back to it. These are all clear improvements, but not enough to justify a two version marketing leap. Yes, they added some new stuff under settings, but nothing ground breaking.

 

Hearing that MS is stopping the W10 preview today was a huge surprise to me. I really hope the final isn't much like the current W10. They have a lot of work to do before the Summer 2015 release date... The new start menu is horrible. It's not very functional. I don't have time to elaborate, but yes, there's lots of work to do.

 

True. I wasn't very impressed either. It's hardly good.

 

Not stopping just some early builds are timing out *Biggrin

 

First... Why three separate posts? You do know you can edit your posts, right? If you want to add more to it, please do so rather than posting a long stream of consciousness in a never ending stream of posts.

I agree that the letters take up space, but they are mostly useful in touch when you "flick" a scroller at high speed and let you more quickly zone in on what you want when the letter is larger. You see this in Android and iOS as well, although they tend to pop up an overlay while scrolling. MS could do that as well here IMO.

This is a long game. Microsoft has to build the ecosystem and they have to start somewhere. Businesses may not be on board today, but in 5 years they will be, and in that time a large number of apps will have been built. Microsoft is not like Google... where if something doesn't become a smash hit in 6 months, they drop it like a hot potato... (although there have been exceptions... like the Kin).

You CAN have folders. In fact, there are several there already. Not sure why you think you can't... It's one of the major new features of the new Start Menu.

Probably never... simply put, almost nobody needs it. The only real use for this is people that need to compare two folders, and frankly there are much better tools than your eyes to do that. Get a folder comparison tool. I can think of not other good reason why you would need to have two folders open side by side and have to move folders back and forth between them... That doesn't mean such a reason doesn't exist, just that the reason is so obscure that I can't think of it, which means it's got to be pretty rare.

At most, all you need to have drop targets, ala your explorer tree in the left pane to drop files into.

Even so, even if you absolutely have this need... all it takes is to open two explorer windows and hit WindowsKey-LeftArrow and WindowsKey-RightArrow and you have two full-screen side-by-side explor windows in half a second. That takes too much time? Use any number of scripting tools to write a script to do it in one click. If you're that much of a power users, that shouldn't take much effort.

90% is stretching it. Check out the Feedback app for all the people that want the Windows 8 start screen back. All it took was a little getting used to, and now that they've done that... lots of people found out they liked it. Another larger percentage of people didn't care one way or another... it's just a program launcher, and they usually just put icons on their desktop or taskbar anyways. I'd say, and i'm pulling this number out of my rear end... 45% of users had an intense dislike for it. At most.

Still, I do find that the new menu has issues for me as well... I find it responds poorly, and I preferred the integrated search in the menu/screen rather than the separate cortana/taskbar search. But maybe i'll get used to it.

 

Again, this was the huge mistake they made with Windows 8, choosing to cater to touch users who represent a very small percentage of their user base. For the rest of us, they are useless and annoying.

Businesses were already on board. The vast majority of PC's running in the business world today are running windows by a long shot. They had already embraced windows xp, and were beginning to embrace windows 7 in droves. All they had to do was release an OS with smart new features that catered to all users, did not get in anyone's way, and/or did not attempt to heard their entire user base like cattle in a touch based direction. Had they done that, businesses would have been on board with 8 as well. I work in the IT world. IT folks in hospitals call me when they can't solve things, so I wind up talking with a lot of different end users and support personnel. I still have yet to hear anyone with anything positive to say about the Windows 8 start screen outside of these forums. This contributes to my distaste.

Uh, no you can't. When you said this I got all excited and raced over to the start menu to try to put some of my apps into folders. Unless I am missing something obvious, this cannot be done. I am not talking about the documents folder, that when clicked opens up the actual documents folder in windows explorer. I am talking about a folder, or a subdivision of the start menu, where I can put all my tools related apps, another for my office related apps, another for my social related apps, etc, and access them without leaving the start menu, like I do now on my android phone and did before on my IOS phone via launcher. This should have been obvious improvement that they could have made to the start menu, and I am surprised they have yet to implement it.

No, I disagree, it would get used if it were there. Sometimes I find myself re-arranging the thousands of files I have scattered all over the 6 different hard drives I have, and I wish I could just utilize a single window to accomplish it. I use the snap functions all the time, which is ok, but I would prefer it in one window with an arrow pointing both ways between for copy/move vs the clumsy drag and drop we now have with only a small shred of available space to drop into just to the left of the file name. Plus, this is actually a useful improvement. File management is a big deal and adding this and other features like it would be great improvements that could be made at the OS level.

I really don't think it was a stretch. As I said, I have yet to talk with anyone in person who actually liked the new interface. I've loaded classic shell for probably 20-30 friends, most of whom had a good month or 2 to fuss with the new interface, all of whom were thrilled to have the old way of doing things back when I gave it to them. I manage a team of 53 engineers, all of whom hate it. I've probably spoken with several hundred folk about windows 8 over the past 3 years, and still have yet to hear a favorable opinion. For your figures to be true, I would expect at least one person of the many I interact with outside of these forums to agree with you, but I have yet to talk with that person... I stand by my 90%. If anything, I would say it is higher. The only reason it sold, is because it was the most available option. By and large, it was a consumer failure, and that is a fact that cannot be argued.