Windows 10: Gripes about Windows 10 in general and updates in particular

I have several gripes about Windows 10 in general and Windows 10 updates in particular. I'm sure there are many people who feel similarly, but I don't want to just complain for the sake of complaining, so if there is a way to submit meaningful feedback about Windows 10 experiences that Microsoft will listen to, I would be grateful to know how.


On Monday afternoon late, some updates started coming through that pretty much broke Windows and cost me more than 20 hours work to recover from. These updates came through during my active hours, without any prompts or warning, and the next thing was my computer froze and stayed that way. After 30 minutes with no indication of anything happening and no feedback from Windows 10, I felt compelled to try CTRL-ALT-DEL. Nothing happened after several tries, Windows was just frozen. So, then I tried POWER OFF. After that Windows took an hour to restart, and was very very slow. It seemed as if something was happening behind the scenes but no feedback from Windows, and trying to see the Updates settings screen just did nothing. My web browser wouldn't start, not matter what. Anything that did run was very very slow.


So I figured I must have broken something when I powered off. CTRL-ALT-DEL took ages to bring up the Task Manager, but when it did I tried to restart. Restart took about 20-30 minutes, and I tried to recover from a restore point. That took about 2 hours but told me it was unsuccessful. Another 20-30 minutes for Windows to restart, and 20-30 minutes more so I could access the facility to create a recovery disk. Because I figures something must be very wrong now. Creating a recovery disk took damn close to 6 hours.


After that was done, though, there was some life in Windows and I used the opportunity to make backups of personal files. That process took ages and ages, and I let it run over night. The next morning, Windows restarted normally and powered off normally, so I still haven't used the recovery disk. I'm a bit stumped as to what happened.


But my gripes are:

• There is a Windows Troubleshooter that doesn't seem to do much. It takes ages to run and usually tells you it couldn't fix anything.
• There is a recovery disk creator which is nice but takes 6 hours to run. Is that normal?
• Windows updates just happen irrespective of what you set or whether or not you specify active hours. You don't get a warning or a prompt before they start, you only sometimes get told that Windows needs to restart.
• When Windows starts downloading updates, it affects Windows performance and my laptop gets really slow. Is that normal? I didn't have that with any other version of Windows.
• Windows notifications are annoying when they appear. They hang around and obscure not only other icons in the tray but a fair bit of that corner of the screen, and they take so long to disappear that you end up having to click them to dismiss them. Is there a way to make them smaller, or specify how long they should display? Yes, you can turn them off but that is also not always ideal.
• Windows 10 is slow and laggy. It's like Windows has to pause to think quite a bit before opening an explorer window or the start menu. I have a Core i5 CPU 2.50 GHz with 24 Gb of RAM. Does Windows really have to pause for 2 or 3 seconds to open the Start Menu? I get that Windows is not Linux, but I want to start spelling it "Win-doze".
• It would be helpful if there was more feedback from Windows with a time count or something so you know what it is busy doing and how long it might take without having to guess. You see the little spinning wheel icon but you don't know what Windows is doing or was trying to do, or if it's just stuck or frozen. That is incredibly frustrating, and more so when you are building a recovery disk and don't know that it plans to take 6 hours.

There are some things I do like about Windows 10. For example, I like:

• The Search bar next to the Start Menu. I find it very useful.
• I like all the options Windows has to recover from errors, but just wish they worked better.
• I like Microsoft Edge - it's a great browser, and fast. And I like Collections.
• I like the look and feel of Windows 10, and the layout of the Settings menu. I do miss the ability to create Desktop shortcuts of some of the Settings options, though - for example, I would like to make a desktop shortcut to the Proxy settings.

So, back to what I said at the top of this post: Is there a way to give meaningful feedback to Microsoft on my experience as a user that Microsoft will actually listen to, and that would ultimately help them and me?

:)

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Win10 updates

The initial one was KB3035583 to get the Get Windows 10 app (GWX). Though that particular update is probably pages upon dozens of pages down the list by now.

 

Looking for a particular web site ?

I remember seeing this here but i can't find it using the search thingy.

A guy posted a web site that had a comprensive list of all Windows update 32&64. I used to have it in my favorites before i formatted my HD.

Does someone know it?

They suggested a sticky for it but they never did.