Windows 10: R.I.P., Windows Media Center

well thats made my mind up no win 10 for me

 

You can still play some MS Games in 'Media Center' Mode! *Wink

 

*Ditto. . .Just couldn't get into it, nor could I in win 7. . .not a bad program just not my cup of tea. . .*Smile

 

oh darn. . .we will miss you here on the 10's. . . have a good life. . .*Party. . .*cake a cake to show you we care. . .

 

I bought a Nokia Lumia Windows phone a couple of years ago, at the time it was running WP8 but has since been upgraded to WP8.1 Like the desktop version, 8.1 was a marked improvement in almost every way.

The phone, and the OS, have been issue-free, and I was surprised initially to find that I like it very much. I do not have the phone and the laptop 'linked' in any way, nor do I intend to.

However, if I cannot prevent it from 'upgrading' to WP10, I'll be going back to an Android phone.

I'm similarly unimpressed with the desktop version of 10. Yes, I'll run a copy of it, but only in a VM. It will not be replacing my 8.1 setup under any circumstances. I don't think I've been less impressed with a Windows OS since WinME... even Windows 8 'grew' on me through successive betas, although initially I disliked it intensely. But this... each new beta introduces new disappointments without addressing the previous ones.


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Sad. You have already made up your mind over something that does not exist yet. . it is still in Beta. . .but then. . .what do I know. . .

 

So I take it you assume that I've simply installed it, seen something I don't like, then have made the snap decision that 'It's sh%t' and decided not to 'upgrade' to it?

Well, no. Not quite. Not close, actually.

I couldn't get the first beta when it was released, but did eventually and installed it in a VM. I'd started to explore it a little, and was initially quite pleased with what I was seeing. Then build 9926(?) was released, it also went into a VM initially but, after playing with it for a few days it seemed fairly stable and didn't have any glaring issues so I decided to try it out as a proper, working OS in daily use. So after taking an image of the 8.1.1 setup, I applied 10 as an upgrade install. Even that went well, it let me keep all of my programs and settings and everything (well, almost everything) even worked.

So I then used it as my primary OS, every day for six weeks. And apart from a few minor niggles (and one or two major ones) I was very happy with it. It was one of these major niggles (forced updates) which caused me to eventually roll back to 8.1.1, not any issue with 10 itself. And I figured that the odd few things which I didn't like, or that weren't working properly, would be rectified in later builds. I still had it installed as a VM at this stage.

Enter build 10061 - I'd just acquired this build and had installed it as a VM. I'd only had it for a few days and so hadn't had much of a chance to do anything beyond some initial customising when, lo and behold, build 10074 pops up. Having seen a July release date being bandied around, I thought, 'OK, this must be getting fairly close to what we'll get in the RTM' and so went to a friend's place to borrow his unlimited 'net connection (I'm on a paltry 15gb/month, which is why the forced updates were an issue) and downloaded the 10074 iso. I then installed it as an upgrade over the same 8.1.1 setup as I'd done with 9926.

And was very disappointed indeed. Things didn't work, the upgrade took forever, more pointless and annoying changes just for the sake of it, things moved for no discernable reasonin fact most of the issues I'd had previously were still there but even more had cropped up. And it had gotten both even more ugly and more difficult to 'pretty-up'. Couple this with the ongoing gutting of functionality and features like WMC, less choices when customising & personalising, broken Google search, IE itself is broken, and has been for several builds, 3rd-party programs not working in 10074 when they had in 9926 (Classic Shell worked but not properly, K-Lite media player & codec pack wouldn't work on WMP) and more, then no. Sorry, but there it is.

I'm no novice, and I'm no 'fanboi' of any particular version of Windows (and I've used and own most of them since buying my first 'real' PC with Windows 3.1 in the mid 1990s). I've also been beta-testing Windows and other MS products since the first Vista RC was released and I got my hands on it at an IT course I was doing at the time (I ran that RC for the six-month duration of the course, by the end I knew it better than my instructors did), so I've had more than enough experience with more than enough operating systems to be able to know and recognise when I'm being sold a pup. And that's exactly what's happening here. Most of the criticisms directed at Win 8 weren't really justified. Almost none of the criticism directed at Win 8.1 are justified. But this... *Sad*cry*cry

As I said earlier, I'll still run a copy, but it will be in a VM, not as my primary OS (10074 is there now, actually, running in Hyper-V on Win 8.1.1, it's been installing while I've been composing this post). But the fact remains, Win 10 is currently not ready for RTM, or indeed anywhere near it. And as it stands, it's not even close to being a worthy successor to the truly superb 81.1. In any way.

Your mileage may vary, but that's my considered opinion and, barring a miracle turnaround by MS, I'm sticking to it.


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You've installed Windows 10 for Phones on your Lumia? That's what we're talking about... You said you would not be upgrading your phone to Windows 10 for Phones, but you've never seen it most likely. That's what he was commenting on.

 

Now look here.....you don't know me. I have spent several thousand on software. I own Directory Opus, several versions of office, VMWare Workstaion7.8.9.10 and 11 and US and European versions of map point and more Windows 7 licences than you could shake a stick at. I also bought Blu Ray Player software for Windows. One of the reasons I use computers as media centers is I can put a blu ray and a second DVD drive and set that drive to play my region 2 DVD discs. If it is shareware I register it. Your comment is wrong and I expect an apology. I have three tuners in 2 machines, the 3rd machine just plays from the network. Tuners were about $100 each. Computers are my hobby, passion and I resent what you said. I do buy the software. I am in the process of typing my programs and keys into a spreadsheet in excel and so far I am a third of the way through the paper pile and I am up to 60 different programs.

 

yes and i can vouch for that,Kodi is great, with all those free movies.

 

I didn't say anything about you. It was more of a general comment about how people are much more willing to spend money on hardware. perhaps "won't spend a dime" was a bit harsh, but it was a turn of phrase, not intended to be taken literally.

 

I for one am "guilty" of being stingy with SW. Partly because I can't afford some or not being able to pay online for some. If a customer of mine didn't pay for MS Office I would never get it. There's a lot of free, good SW out there to do most I need. Another thing I'm allergic to is to pay exorbitant prices for some bloated SW that I need only few % of.

 

Yes, you won't miss anything, Win 10 is a refined Windows 8, that's all.

 

Even that would be enough.

 

Let see. . .XP was a refined Win 2000, Vista was a refined Win Xp, Win 7 was a refined Vista, Win 8 was refined Win 7, Win 8.1 was a refined Win 8, and now. . .whats your point. . .*Huh