Hey guys.
Some of you might know that the original purpose of this blog is to organize all of my thoughts in one place. The blog format is pretty bad for this use case because posts are shown in chronological order and it's just not cohesive. So, I've decided to make one page called 'The Repository' where I will list the most update-to-date, and best phrased explanations of what I believe.
You can find it on the right hand bar of this blog, up top in the list of links.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Windows 10
There used to be a joke that every other Windows release is good and every other Windows release is crap. 95 (good), 98 (bad), 2000 (good), ME (bad), XP (good), Vista (bad), 7 (good), 8 (bad). And so it only makes sense if Windows 10 becomes a good OS. The media has focused a lot on privacy and some false rumors about Windows 10 killing pirated games. It feels like most people enjoy the new layout. I disagree, and here I will list what I like and don't like about this new operating system.
1. Too many context menus. I don't know what Skydrive Pro is and neither do I plan to ever use it. Shoving it in my face won't change anything. I also never use the "send to" button. I don't understand why there isn't a simple way of changing the context menus in Windows.
2. Start menu. Some praise it as 'the best of both worlds', noting how many people dislike Windows 8's start "menu". I don't think it's the best of both worlds. I think it's a random mishmash hybrid of 7 and 8. The tiles that come with the OS look good but custom tiles with the default blue background look like garbage. I can't pin items directly to the left side of the start menu a la Windows 7. I can't even access my documents or my computer without going through file explorer. The lack of options is very annoying. Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar corporation. This is not acceptable. I recommend purchasing Stardock's Start10 to replace the start menu. It's not glitchy and is only $5.
3. Default apps suck. I don't want freakin' Groove Music. I don't want your new photo viewer. I want Windows Image Viewer and Foobar2000 for music. I had to do obscure changes to enable Windows Image Viewer.
4. Cannot uninstall default apps. Why can't I uninstall crap I don't use? Why leave it on my computer? I don't use Windows Media Player or Groove Music. Let me delete it. Disabling it in the features section doesn't uninstall the software.
5. Can't revert... but data still on hard drive? We're given a month to decide if we want to switch back to our previous OS. There is no timer or reminder and when your time runs out and you try to revert, it says that the files are no longer on the computer so the reversion cannot happen. Except that it's still on the hard drive and I can see it under C:/Windows.Old. It's still taking up my hard drive space.
6. Higher idle CPU usage. The trend still is that new operating systems are using more and more CPU cycles. This is not readily apparent, especially to people with fast machines. But the trend is still there. It sucks for netbooks of yesteryear and I just don't like the idea of my OS doing stuff in the background when it's not needed.
7. Task manager woes. The task manager uses a little too much CPU usage. Also, it's showing my CPU as 5.6ghz. Which is cool if that was true, except it's not. Why can't we rearrange the context menu so that the first option after right click is 'end task'?
8. Privacy. Legalese is language you use when you want to be able to get away with anything. Microsoft is obviously not alone in this. I think it's acceptable that results for Cortana are analyzed by Microsoft, but I have no easy way of disabling Cortana. I don't want location data being used for this or that. And I should be given an option to ACTUALLY disable telemetry or other things that phone home. There are multiple fake options that claim to do this but in fact do not. That's lying.
9. Mandatory updates. What if I want to download a specific version of my GPU drivers? I don't want Windows updates in my face about that. The lack of options is very annoying. I see that this is a move to prevent computer-illiterate people from disabling updates and causing havoc down the line, but I actually don't see how such people were able to disable updates in the first place. These updates are also less transparent than ever. What the hell do the updates do? What do they change? Microsoft has snuck in non-security related updates into Windows updates. Just recently we found out that Microsoft added in a telemetry package for Windows 7. That is shady as fuck.
10. Oddities. I can't play ogg files from my cell phone when hooked up to my computer. WHY?
11. Folders keep re-positioning. I have a large monitor, and having a folder being shown at the very top of the screen makes it hard for me to see what's going on. And dragging that thing down is harder than it used to be because the flat UI makes it so that the bar you can actually click and drag the folder with is the same exact color as parts of the folder itself, so I keep clicking too low on the folder and failing to drag the folder.
12. Aero is gone. Start menu also has no real transparency.
13. Libraries harder to set up. It's now a pain in the ass to set up libraries for My Documents. I want My Documents to show the folder plus a few folders elsewhere, and I want it to be still called 'My Documents' and take the place of 'My Documents', not have to move it elsewhere, under Quick Acess and renaming it.
14. Other small things. Why can't I easily remove the quick access folders in My Computer? When I change the name of my PC, why isn't the name automatically adjusted in the Start Menu and File Explorer? Why can't I easily remove Skydrive from the file explorer left hand pane? Why is there both a control panel and settings panel? Why can't I shut up the notifications about my antivirus being off? Volume now doesn't show volume mixer by default. Why is resolution change under advanced settings? That's the most basic change I can think of. Quick access might be a good idea but it's so weird to use, it became a mess instead. Honestly, I am more tech savvy than the average user and if I can't figure it out, 1) Most others cannot and 2) The design just sucks in the first place.
1. Startup manager is now in task manager. That took long enough. Now people have a realistic change of finding out how to disable startup programs without checking how to do so on the internet. Seriously, what user would know to type in 'msconfig' in run without ever looking it up? It's counter-intuitive and it's stupid. However, I'm still not able to add files to startup, only disable the ones already set to start up.
2. Startup manager statistics beefed up. There's a seperate graph for IO usage, network, etc. Some nice improvements here and there. However, it's still a bit rough. What is "100% network usage" and how does Microsoft know what 100% of my network is?
3. DX12. The latest version of Directx is here. While people in some circles believe it will cause the second coming of Christ, it's still a nice thing to see. Support will take a while and CPU bottlenecked games get a boost. However, most games are GPU bottlenecked and the CPU bottlenecked games from the past aren't getting re-written to take advantage of the lower CPU overhead.
4. Upgrade process is generally smooth. The upgrade from 7 to 10 is as smooth as I could realistically hope for. Nothing broke or exploded, and I didn't need to boot from a flash drive to install the OS. (I did though, when I wanted a clean install.) Also, the ability to upgrade to 10 from 7 OR 8.1 is a good thing to see.
5. All in all I think the changed top bar in file explorer is a good thing. I can now easily enable or disable viewing of hidden files. The search function is still there and works even after I nuked Cortana.
6. Despite my annoyances with the notifications in the notifications bar, I think there could be useful uses for the bar. As is though, it's a little barebones.
7. The OS is basically free. Not so free for OEM system builders, but for normal people it's pretty free. Microsoft really wants everybody on Windows 10. Even the people that pirated 7 or 8 can hop right up and get 10. Is Microsoft really that desperate to get their phones sold? Reasoning is that a universal platform unifies desktop, mobile, and tablets, so that an app written on any of those devices work with all the others. Gotta attract them app devs.
The fact of the matter is that Directx12 is the future and Windows 10 is the future. Windows 10 isn't going anywhere for a LONG TIME. Eventually everybody will have no choice but to go to 10. Might as well cozy up now.
The Bad:
1. Too many context menus. I don't know what Skydrive Pro is and neither do I plan to ever use it. Shoving it in my face won't change anything. I also never use the "send to" button. I don't understand why there isn't a simple way of changing the context menus in Windows.
2. Start menu. Some praise it as 'the best of both worlds', noting how many people dislike Windows 8's start "menu". I don't think it's the best of both worlds. I think it's a random mishmash hybrid of 7 and 8. The tiles that come with the OS look good but custom tiles with the default blue background look like garbage. I can't pin items directly to the left side of the start menu a la Windows 7. I can't even access my documents or my computer without going through file explorer. The lack of options is very annoying. Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar corporation. This is not acceptable. I recommend purchasing Stardock's Start10 to replace the start menu. It's not glitchy and is only $5.
3. Default apps suck. I don't want freakin' Groove Music. I don't want your new photo viewer. I want Windows Image Viewer and Foobar2000 for music. I had to do obscure changes to enable Windows Image Viewer.
4. Cannot uninstall default apps. Why can't I uninstall crap I don't use? Why leave it on my computer? I don't use Windows Media Player or Groove Music. Let me delete it. Disabling it in the features section doesn't uninstall the software.
5. Can't revert... but data still on hard drive? We're given a month to decide if we want to switch back to our previous OS. There is no timer or reminder and when your time runs out and you try to revert, it says that the files are no longer on the computer so the reversion cannot happen. Except that it's still on the hard drive and I can see it under C:/Windows.Old. It's still taking up my hard drive space.
6. Higher idle CPU usage. The trend still is that new operating systems are using more and more CPU cycles. This is not readily apparent, especially to people with fast machines. But the trend is still there. It sucks for netbooks of yesteryear and I just don't like the idea of my OS doing stuff in the background when it's not needed.
7. Task manager woes. The task manager uses a little too much CPU usage. Also, it's showing my CPU as 5.6ghz. Which is cool if that was true, except it's not. Why can't we rearrange the context menu so that the first option after right click is 'end task'?
8. Privacy. Legalese is language you use when you want to be able to get away with anything. Microsoft is obviously not alone in this. I think it's acceptable that results for Cortana are analyzed by Microsoft, but I have no easy way of disabling Cortana. I don't want location data being used for this or that. And I should be given an option to ACTUALLY disable telemetry or other things that phone home. There are multiple fake options that claim to do this but in fact do not. That's lying.
9. Mandatory updates. What if I want to download a specific version of my GPU drivers? I don't want Windows updates in my face about that. The lack of options is very annoying. I see that this is a move to prevent computer-illiterate people from disabling updates and causing havoc down the line, but I actually don't see how such people were able to disable updates in the first place. These updates are also less transparent than ever. What the hell do the updates do? What do they change? Microsoft has snuck in non-security related updates into Windows updates. Just recently we found out that Microsoft added in a telemetry package for Windows 7. That is shady as fuck.
10. Oddities. I can't play ogg files from my cell phone when hooked up to my computer. WHY?
11. Folders keep re-positioning. I have a large monitor, and having a folder being shown at the very top of the screen makes it hard for me to see what's going on. And dragging that thing down is harder than it used to be because the flat UI makes it so that the bar you can actually click and drag the folder with is the same exact color as parts of the folder itself, so I keep clicking too low on the folder and failing to drag the folder.
12. Aero is gone. Start menu also has no real transparency.
13. Libraries harder to set up. It's now a pain in the ass to set up libraries for My Documents. I want My Documents to show the folder plus a few folders elsewhere, and I want it to be still called 'My Documents' and take the place of 'My Documents', not have to move it elsewhere, under Quick Acess and renaming it.
14. Other small things. Why can't I easily remove the quick access folders in My Computer? When I change the name of my PC, why isn't the name automatically adjusted in the Start Menu and File Explorer? Why can't I easily remove Skydrive from the file explorer left hand pane? Why is there both a control panel and settings panel? Why can't I shut up the notifications about my antivirus being off? Volume now doesn't show volume mixer by default. Why is resolution change under advanced settings? That's the most basic change I can think of. Quick access might be a good idea but it's so weird to use, it became a mess instead. Honestly, I am more tech savvy than the average user and if I can't figure it out, 1) Most others cannot and 2) The design just sucks in the first place.
Good
2. Startup manager statistics beefed up. There's a seperate graph for IO usage, network, etc. Some nice improvements here and there. However, it's still a bit rough. What is "100% network usage" and how does Microsoft know what 100% of my network is?
3. DX12. The latest version of Directx is here. While people in some circles believe it will cause the second coming of Christ, it's still a nice thing to see. Support will take a while and CPU bottlenecked games get a boost. However, most games are GPU bottlenecked and the CPU bottlenecked games from the past aren't getting re-written to take advantage of the lower CPU overhead.
4. Upgrade process is generally smooth. The upgrade from 7 to 10 is as smooth as I could realistically hope for. Nothing broke or exploded, and I didn't need to boot from a flash drive to install the OS. (I did though, when I wanted a clean install.) Also, the ability to upgrade to 10 from 7 OR 8.1 is a good thing to see.
5. All in all I think the changed top bar in file explorer is a good thing. I can now easily enable or disable viewing of hidden files. The search function is still there and works even after I nuked Cortana.
6. Despite my annoyances with the notifications in the notifications bar, I think there could be useful uses for the bar. As is though, it's a little barebones.
7. The OS is basically free. Not so free for OEM system builders, but for normal people it's pretty free. Microsoft really wants everybody on Windows 10. Even the people that pirated 7 or 8 can hop right up and get 10. Is Microsoft really that desperate to get their phones sold? Reasoning is that a universal platform unifies desktop, mobile, and tablets, so that an app written on any of those devices work with all the others. Gotta attract them app devs.
The fact of the matter is that Directx12 is the future and Windows 10 is the future. Windows 10 isn't going anywhere for a LONG TIME. Eventually everybody will have no choice but to go to 10. Might as well cozy up now.
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