Sharing a little feedback/my own opinion on my use of Windows 10 RTM x64 [10240] as my main OS since Saturday 18th July 2015:
The information shared here is purely my own opinion, you have every right to disagree or say otherwise, I kindly ask that your comments regarding anything I've said here to be constructive if negative. Don't mind any spelling mistakes as I typed this quickly, point them out and I will correct them. Cheers.
The good:
Overall it feels and behaves very fast, responsive and fluid and has been stable for me.
I'm a multitasking power user that clicks around every fast and generally has a big handful of windows and applications open, the system can keep up with me with no stalling which is a good thing as nothing is more frustrating then feeling like you're too fast for the OS.
I'm not even on a SSD (I'm on a 1TB SSHD) so for those that are I can picture them being very pleased with speed and response, start up time and cold starts of various applications etc because as for me right now all is fast and responsive in this regard.
Since our systems/hardware are all different your results may vary and instead of taking my word for it you'll have to try it on your own system (I suggest a real install and not base your opinion off a virtual machine installed Windows 10) to either agree with me, call it placebo or share bad news.
So far for me it's been nothing but smooth sailing and positive usage, I don't have anything that's making me want to go back to Windows 8.1 and until a big enough issue/reason arises I can see myself staying on Windows 10 for the future, I have all the software and applications I need installed and they're working fine. Testing a few games too which no trouble.
Regarding privacy concerns, I did not Express install Windows 10 and instead I checked "No" for all the "data snooping" options.
I use Windows Firewall Control with strict settings/notifications/wiped Windows default firewall rules and instead started building my own rules list: What this had allowed me is essentially full control over what software & system services are allowed to access the internet, up here I have full control I like to think and so far I have witnessed alot of attempted outbound connections to Microsoft IPs and since I only need my web browser / VPN accessing the internet these attempts get blocked as I don't need them getting internet access. I don't use OneDrive or have Skype installed. I have also done a various number of other edits to change / stop forced data feedback imposed by Microsoft / Windows Defender.
I'm curious to see if the public retail release will allow the data feedback option to be disabled easily without having to hack away at the system to force it off, using firewalls, etc.
For more information and about Telemetry and what else I've done to disable data collection features.
Read the "Windows Changes" information in
my configuration.
">implying you can opt out of the botnet.
you cant disable the nsa backdoor in the kernel ;^)"
- /g/
;^)
The not so good:
Edge:
- While various benchmarks show Edge to be a top score performing browser right now, personally it's not my type of browser, I use Cyberfox x64 for reason and that is add-ons, I have over 40 add-ons installed that make browsing the web usable and feature rich for me personally and that includes uBlock Original and various privacy add-ons and changes to about:config.
I did however enjoy testing Edge on my 10-point touch screen and with its large buttons and spaced dropdown menus keeps it easy and simple to use.
I just find Edge, right now in its current state is too minimal for me and lacks features a power user like me needs and use.
None the less I did find Edge to be very quick with loading webpages that I was happy with and I'm not claiming Edge to be bad or unusable, just not feature rich for me personally or enough reasons / pros to use it over Cyberfox x64 for example.
New Start Menu:
- Being un-able to pin shortcuts/applications to the very left menu, this was something I could back on the Windows 7 start menu but can't do here even though it seems like one should be able too. For now it only shows recently used applications in the said space.
Besides that I do not have a use for tiles and the modern apps, the other tile I actually find useful to me personally is the weather and news (customized with tech feeds and local news). The rest of the modern apps are un-pinned and replaced with my own installed applications. Due to this I have been looking at 3rd party software such as StartIsBack++ for Windows 10 as I think I'm more suited for the Windows 7 style start menu. Besides this though I have found the Windows 10 Start Menu to maybe be a little lack luster in terms of options and features for power users rather than the average joe / consumer and would have liked something a little more better.
Forced Updates:
- "Check for updates but let me choose what to download", this is what I always used on Windows 7 / Windows 8.1 and seeing this option gone doesn't do well by me, While I've already read and seen both sides of the arguments to why this is good and why this is bad, to me personally, being advanced and a power user I don't need Microsoft being my Nanny.
Because of this I have the Windows Update service disabled.
We've seen the past, various updates released and installed automatically breaking peoples systems, reboot loops, BSODs and other problems that arise, this why I much prefer waiting for majority or the Microsoft Insiders to basically be genuine pigs, test the updates and wait to see that there isn't widespread reports of a certain update breaking systems as there has been in the past.
Microsoft also provides very lack worthy descriptions for the updates they release and I would much prefer detailed information on exact what each update does/adds/fixes/etc and I do miss the classic Windows Update window over the built-in to Settings one that we have now. I personally find this to be a double edged sword, for now though I have installed the latest security updates for Windows 10 so don't think that I'm leaving myself vulnerable by not gobbling up every update Microsoft pushes out without even knowing what they do. In future I may look into 3rd party freeware
(such as WUD, WSUS, WHDownloader but supporting Windows 10) to manually download selected updates and install them.
Windows 10 Hero Wallpaper as the sign in background:
- Disappointing this can't be changed easily in Settings. Instead one has to look to 3rd party tools to force this to be changed. (MyDigitalLife Windows 10 Forums have a GUI tool in development that uses a PowerShell script to change this, I haven't tried this so I can't say if it will work for everyone or not, use at your own risk and backup first.)
Other:
Notification Side Bar:
- To be honest I haven't used it barely at all nor had reason so no comment in regards to real usage. I'm sure if I used plenty of modern apps and social apps such as Facebook/Email/Skype/OneDrive etc there would be more notifications on the sidebar showing.
Task View: ALT-TAB is basically the same thing but none the less I use it as much as I did on Windows 7 / 8.1.
Virtual Desktops:
- Being a multitasking power user often with many windows, applications open at once I'm actually find this feature helpful and useful and have been using it more than I thought I would. Yes there have been 3rd party tools and even an official Sysinternal tool available for a long time that has allowed Windows 7/8.1 users (and various GNU/Linux distros have always had it too) to use this but I haven't used virtual desktops up until this point nor considered them that handy until now. Gimmick? Up to you.
New Control Panel "Settings":
- Done the job so far for basic actions and settings I wanted to change, how ever for the more technical stuff I had to use the classic Control Panel and for the even more technical settings I had to use Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) as the settings aren't available for the user to change in Settings and fair enough, wouldn't want Average Joe or Marry messing up his system playing around with potentially system wrecking settings.
Windowed Modern Apps:
- I'm liking this, applied to Settings window aswell, though I don't use modern apps I can see how much better from a usability point this is rather than forced full screen, especially to those on a keyboard/mouse and don't need their entire screen real-estate being taken up.
New Icons:
- If you seen the early versions, they were too bright or oddly shaped. I personally find the new icons fine, even so they're basically just the flatter variants of their predecessors I have no complaints, atleast they aren't a super bright eyesore as they were before as seen in the earlier Insider Builds.
Inconsistency is the main factor I dislike. There are still plenty of remnants to Vista/Windows 7 Aero icons and still tools such as Regedit still uses the same ancient icon, plenty of options in the classic Control Panel still are a mix of these with modern/flat icons, me being a hobbyist UI designer as some of you may know this is something that can "trigger" me to say and of course I wish every icon was modernized system wide. Consistency!
Search Box on taskbar/Cortana:
- I have no use for Cortana and have her disabled and the "Search the web"/"Search online and include Web results" functions disabled.
I only use it to search my installed applications and files and regarding that searches are working fine, on Windows 8.1 I often experienced slow results, this doesn't seem to be the case here.
Shadow Defender:
- (The newest Windows 10 compatible release), I've tested and used this just fine with no BSODs.
Changes were saved to 8GB of RAM and flushed on restart. I do not ever use Shadow Defender for testing malware, instead I prefer testing malicious software inside of VMWare Workstation regardless of some malware being VM/Sandboxie aware.
Problems I've experienced so far:
- NVIDIA Graphics Driver crashes when using MadVR in MPC-BE. I didn't experience this problem back on Windows 8.1.
I don't know if MPC-BE is to blame, MadVR or the NVIDIA Driver itself, for now I've disabled MadVR. I've recently installed PotPlayer x64 for a trial run. I'm keeping an eye out for new beta drivers for Windows 10.
- Explorer Error Message: (explorer.exe restarts itself), only had this happen twice since installing Windows 10, I don't know what causes this or how to replicate. Windows Error Log doesn't provide helpful information.
My guess is a program such as 7-Zip context menus or another program that's added context menu items is causing it.
Will use 2 tools from Sysinternals to disable items that might be causing it / in 7-Zip settings disable context menu if needed.
- PC shuts down (not Sleep) when I close the laptop lid, this might just be related to my laptop, In settings I have 'Choose what happens when I close the lid' set to Nothing yet closing the lid still shut downs my laptop. I'm looking into this but for now I just keep my laptop lid open a little. if you have a laptop I'd be greatful if you could test this for me, does it happen to you on your laptop with Windows 10 [10240]?
No other problems to report, like I said it's been smooth sailing so far and I'm liking Windows 10 overall, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll answer if possible, I might have missed something I would have otherwise shared here.
tl;dr:
Does Windows 10 attract or repel you?
For now I stay attracted so long as Windows 10 on my system stays stable and fast.
Thanks.