Windows 10

[thesameguy]

I think MS lost a lot of ground with 8. Vista was pretty bad, but peoples' terrible reactions to 8 really influenced the adoption of 10. Their strong-arm rollout of the free upgrade didn't help matters in the least - not because it was actually that problematic, but because we didn't have Trump back them so the media just bashed MS all the time.

Now that all the idiotic reactionary press is done banging the fear drums, I suspect 10 will build some momentum. I have had several long-time, hard-core Mac owners approach me about Surface (oddly, especially the Studio) and 10 - and that is a conversation that has never, ever happened before.

If they could just sort out Edge I'd be happy. I really prefer the conversation that goes "Here's 10, have a ball" over "Here's 10, the default browser is a little iffy, but you can do a secret handshake and invoke the old browser, which is also a little shitty, so here, download something else and then choose between them individually for every website you visit."

[Yw-slayer]

The Surface Pros are beautiful machines but are still not ready for prime time. Random problems aren't acceptable. They're more like prosumer machines. And that's why I'm going back to a ThinkPad.

[Tom Servo]

Finally picked up Windows 10 in a last ditch attempt to get my Oculus Rift to work (didn't help). So far I like it, though it's annoying that the old default solitaire is now replaced with an ad-laden thing that actually pauses the ads if you switch to another window. Does seem to run nice and snappy though, it takes like 5-6 seconds to boot on my machine, which is ludicrous.

I do wish that I'd realized that signing into the Windows store would change my default account/password for the machine. For my normal Windows login I use a quick and easy password, but since the Windows store actually involves real money, I've got a 20 character randomly generated password for that that is now my windows password. I did that so I could check out Forza Horizon 3 on the PC and see if the graphics looked any better/different, only to have FH3 lock up as soon as the car started to move pulling out of the festival building.

Also, any way to have the start menu actually be organized? Right now it's this big mash of crud that's alphabetically sorted, but that's it.

[thesameguy]

The intention with the start menu (and 10 in general) is to use search. Windows key, a few characters of what you're looking for, then enter to launch. Much faster than mouse navigating by far. The same technique works in control panel, explorer, etc. Obviously minus windows key...

You don't have to merge your local account with a Microsoft account just to log into the store, but if you miss the prompt asking if that's what you want to do or not, it will merge them.

[Jason]

O/T from the current topic, but the Netflix app updated today with support for offline viewing

[thesameguy]

That is excellent to know, thanks!

[Tom Servo]

Hey, and it turns out it wasn't too hard to switch back to a local account. That improves my life greatly.

[Freude am Fahren]

So after like 7 years of nearly flawless performance of Windows 7 and now 10 on this machine, I'm having issues. Slow startup (long time on motherboard screen, sits on the windows logo for like 3 minutes, when it gets to desktop, shortcuts don't show up for 20-30 sec.) It may be my MB, but I think it's windows. However, I no longer see the restore point options, just a "reset" that will uninstall everything.

Are restore points still a thing in Win10?

[thesameguy]

Yes, they are still present under System Properties -> System Protection.

I'm sure you know Windows can't cause your computer to linger at the BIOS screen - that's all the domain of the BIOS.

Did you do an upgrade or a fresh install?

[Freude am Fahren]

where is system properties now?

I may have imagined the BIOS hang, not sure.

It was an upgrade, but a long time ago.