back to article Creators Update gives Windows 10 a bit of an Edge, but some old annoyances remain

Windows 10 was launched on July 29, 2015, just over 18 months ago, consigning the Windows 8 experiment to history and introducing the idea of "Windows as a service" – or in other words an operating system that (with a few exceptions) updates itself whether you like it or not. Now here comes the Creators Update, or version 1703 …

  1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Annoyed by ads in File Explorer?

    Hang on! Ads in Explorer?

    Some people get that? (Makes my hair stand on end in horror..)

    1. John Riddoch
      Black Helicopters

      New one on me too, although I use Windows 10 Pro hooked up to a domain (Samba on the NAS) rather than a Home version which may make a difference.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ads

      Not sure what the raison d'etre for this is. I'm looking at files on my local machine and it's showing me ads? The likelihood is that I would never, ever buy any product/service marketed in this way.

      Of course, being slightly technical, a hosts file update or a firewall rule would be swiftly put in place.

      1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: Ads

        I'm looking at files on my local machine and it's showing me ads?

        And given how often Explorer just hangs waiting for something random that you aren't even remotely interested in, what are the odds that this won't make Explorer even more intolerable?

        If anything ever needed a complete rewrite from scratch it would be File Explorer. It it still part of the entire desktop GUI, BTW?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ads

        except Microsoft now has a habit or ignoring the Hosts file. :-(

      3. joed

        Re: Ads

        While you may "never, ever buy any product/service marketed in this way", you may end up in Windows Store looking for an add blocker app for your File Explorer. This is how MS wins.

    3. Dan 55 Silver badge

      If you uncheck sync provider notifications then you will also not know when your cloud storage is full or similar problems.

      Essentially they stuck adverts on OneDrive desguised as info or warning messages.

      1. Steve K

        So does that mean that if you don't use OneDrive then you won't see them?

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          So does that mean that if you don't use OneDrive then you won't see them?

          No. One more reason not to use it.

      2. RonWheeler

        Android

        still leads the way in this junk. Every other app spams you with ads for sister products under the guise of notifications. Sad to see MS follow it down the plughole.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Android

          But I can still compile Android without the crap or still root most devices to add blocking.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Ads in Explorer?

      If I was head of marketing at Ubuntu, I'd try and get my ads into Explorer asap.

      This will get hacked to buggery, and the results will be hilarious.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: Ads in Explorer?

        "This will get hacked to buggery, and the results will be hilarious."

        MS boasts that Win10 has, what, 10 million installs now?

        I see nothing hilarious about a botnet that size!

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Windows

      @ABC ;-)

      "Hang on! Ads in Explorer?"

      I was wondering about that myself as well. And it seems Microsoft even tries to add insult to injury because how do you combine that with this one: "Privacy and Windows 10 is a hot topic."?

      Doesn't one, by definition, rule out the other here?

      Anyway, thanks El Reg for a really nice insight article. I still don't like the very flat and dull looking interface, especially not when compared to my trusty rich looking Windows 7. I still don't understand why people would go along with that.

      I mean... We've had years worth of development with graphic cards (GPU) and accelerators and all that. And what do you get with Windows 10? A flat, dull, colorless interface which sometimes makes me think back about Windows 2.0.

      Even Windows 3.1 / 3.11 was better looking (in comparison), they really worked hard on some of the icons and some were honestly small pieces of art. This became especially true when the real fans started to release icon libraries of their own.

      But now? I still have zero motivation to upgrade, and it's not because I'm unwilling to try something new but because the whole thing looks so horribly unappealing to me.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'Hang on! Ads in Explorer?'

      Win-10 Ads are standard now... Been hiding away somewhere?..

      Win-10 bypasses Hosts file requires blocking at Router level!

      https://betanews.com/2017/03/12/disgustingly-sneaky-windows-10-ads/

      1. Kubla Cant

        Re: 'Hang on! Ads in Explorer?'

        Win-10 bypasses Hosts file requires blocking at Router level!

        Presumably you can use an ad-blocking proxy server such as Privoxy. You might need to run it on a separate box, but any old retired computer running a basic Linux would probably suffice.

        1. HelpfulJohn

          Re: 'Hang on! Ads in Explorer?'

          "... unning a basic Linux would probably suffice."

          If you are going to the trouble of running Linux, basic or not, why would you cripple it by linking it to a Win-10 box? Just replace Windows. Then you don't need the "... old retired computer ..." as an intermediary.

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yep, depending on where you live and how much you paid for your version of Windows 10. You will be monitised to pay it back.

  2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    "Compact Overlay"

    What a great, great invention!

    Had it in 1993 in Linux... (fvwm or some such window manager. Those were the days!)

    1. gv

      I still use fvwm -- lovely window manager.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Had it on my Atari Falcon, nice to see Linux playing catch up.....

      1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

        Falcon

        Ah, so it was you who bought the third one... ;)

        Pleased to meet you after all these years.

    3. I am the liquor

      WS_EX_TOPMOST

      Windows has had it at least as far back as 3.1 in 1992. Probably further. The news is they've re-invented it for The Interface Formerly Known As Metro.

      I hear the next version of UWP brings back CGA graphics compatibility.

      1. Kubla Cant

        Re: WS_EX_TOPMOST

        I hear the next version of UWP brings back CGA graphics compatibility.

        Ah, but will it have the authentic on-screen snow when refreshing.

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: WS_EX_TOPMOST

        "I hear the next version of UWP brings back CGA graphics compatibility."

        To go with the 'worse than Windows 1.0' 2D FLATSO FLUGLY no doubt. We don't *NEED* more than 4 colors!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Auto Wastebasket purging based on date?

    God no, please do not make this the default.

    I have rescued many systems over the years because the 'user' does not know how to empty the Wastebasket/deleted files folder. One was a scan of a passport that had been deleted a year before. Some scumbag nicked it during a burgulary. They wanted to know the Passport number. I found the .jpg waiting to be properly removed. If this was in place then that would have gone bye-bye a long time before that.

    I know why MS wants this but please don't make it the default OOTB. I expect they will.

    I'm so glad that I no longer have to use this POS on a daily basis. I'd have been tearing what little hair I have left out long ago.

    1. phuzz Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: Auto Wastebasket purging based on date?

      Reminds me of an old boss who would delete every email that hit his inbox, other than what he was working on right now. If he needed an email after that he'd just trawl through the bin.

      Odd behaviour for an IT manager, and he was particularly annoyed when I empted the bin whilst fixing some other email problem on his computer. After that when I had paperwork for him to sign, I'd walk up to him and throw it in the bin. Oh how we laughed!*

      (* actually laughing may vary)

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        Re: Auto Wastebasket purging based on date?

        I had a particularly daft "office manager" who stored emails that she didn't want in the deleted items in her mail client. These got deleted after a while (server based, therefore a deleted items purge was occasionally needed to make space). She only finally understood the stupidity of this when I went to went to her desk, took her paperwork in her in-tray and put it in her bin and asked her if she expected to see it there tomorrow after the cleaners had been in the evening. Sometimes physical demonstrations work well.

    2. davidp231

      Re: Auto Wastebasket purging based on date?

      "Wastebasket"

      Have you been loitering on UK installs of MacOS up to 8.6? Everyone else (and 9.0.4 and beyond) got 'Trash', and Win95 gave us Recycle Bin. Oh and OS/2 had 'Shredder'.

      As for auto-purging... System 6 and below did that every time an application was opened or was restarted. I think things stayed if Multifinder was running, can't easily check.

      I think 'Wastebacket' was the bst out of all of them though, but then System 6 was the first GUI that I used.

      1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

        Re: Auto Wastebasket purging based on date?

        The word "wastebasket" is unknown in written English before the British-English version of the Macintosh system. It was coined by someone in Apple's Engineering department because the proper translation, "wastepaper basket", was too long to fit on the icon label.

        "Bin", the direct translation of "Trash[can]", may have been ruled out because of the word's meaning as an abbreviation of "binary", or maybe it just looked too short on-screen.

        Translating this wasn't exactly Apple's finest hour, and there's a certain fascination with wickerwork running through these. German used "Papierkorb", which, while at least being a real German word, was one that didn't universally mean "trashcan" - I have heard more than one German use the word to refer to an in-tray (literally it means a "basket for papers"). The French translation, "corbeille", gave up on the concept of paper altogether, and so simply meant a basket of any kind, including one you'd use for fruit or flowers.

        However, I'm deliberately using the past-tense for all these, because over the three decades, the repeated use of these translations in computer interfaces has retroactively given them the originally-intended meaning. "Wrong" words become "right" words once they're understood by enough people...

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Auto Wastebasket purging based on date?

        I usually rename 'Wastebasket' or 'Trash' or whatever, using a Navy term.

        Back in the 3.1 era I had a shareware application called 'Toilet' that would flush, with (poorly done) animation and sound effects. when items were in it, the water was green [and of course the lid was up]. otherwise it was blue. And the lid would slam shut during the flush process, just because.

  4. 0laf
    Trollface

    "Windows update no longer reinstalls removed applications"

    I'll believe it when I see it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Indeed, I gave up removing the monitised crap they load up, as within a day, it was forced back upon me.

      1. Alumoi Silver badge
        Trollface

        It's normal because the crapware is part of the operating system and not some apps installed by malicious 3rd parties.

        So MS is not lying, removed apps will not be reinstalled. Essential system components, on the other hand...

    2. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Does it still remove reinstalled applications?

    3. Law

      Will it let you remove apps like groove music? It's neither essential or wanted, yet, I can't uninstall this crap and many other nonessential uwp apps.

      1. D@v3

        Github power shell script

        I've been 'cleaning up' a bunch of windows 10 pro machines for deployment this week, and cam across a handy power shell script that removes a whole bunch of, stuff.

        https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10/blob/master/scripts/remove-default-apps.ps1

        True to windows nature, doesn't work every time, sometimes needs to be run a couple of times, sometimes needs a re-boot, but it does (seem) to work.

        1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

          Re: Github power shell script

          True to windows nature, doesn't work every time, sometimes needs to be run a couple of times, sometimes needs a re-boot, but it does (seem) to work.

          This is due to the incompetent way the Windows store application works. If an update for an application is queued in the windows store (this is, of course, an invisible queue and cannot be purged) then regardless of whether or not you uninstall an application in the mean time the application will be reinstalled later. This gets dafter because of the useless speed of the process (probably due to not wanting to grind a PC to a crawl on startup, therefore understandable in intention) an update to an update can also be added to this update/installation queue. What should happen is that when uninstalling an application all pending update to the application are purged from the installation queue, but this seems to be beyond Microsoft.

          Of course, every time a new user accesses a Windows 10 system all the crappy default windows store applications are installed for them - these buggers are on a per user, per machine installation profile. Which gets added to arbitrarily by Microsoft.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    As a non-Windows user, this is getting funnier and funnier.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >You release a surveillance product dressed up as an operating system, with adverts and a rent-able office suite, and they still don't switch away.

      1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
        Linux

        The Stockholm syndrome is strong with Windows users...

  6. Clockworkseer

    "Option to install apps from Store only"

    And next version, it will be "Option to be able to install non-store apps."

    and then a version after that, the option will move to Advanced Developer Settings (like Android/iOS) and hidden from regular users.

    Eventually... well, you get the idea.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Linux

      "Option to install apps from Store only"

      And next version, it will be "Option to be able to install non-store apps."

      Next will be:

      a) Option to allow Win32 API applications to work [followed by complete blockage, "signed" UWP-only from "the store" only]

      b) Option to allow compiling from source on your own computer [followed by "disallow this renegade behavior"]

      c) Option to keep your existing version without paying a subscription, followed by (you guessed it) monthly rental of the PRIVILEGE of using Win-10-nic on YOUR computer.

      d) Option to allow ANY! OTHER! OPERATING! SYSTEM! on ANY! hardware upon which Windows could _POSSIBLY_ run. Then (you guessed it) the Micro-shaft Monopoly

      time to abandon Micro-shaft, for "a proper operating system" without "allow you" nor "prevent you" in it.

      (see icon for what I'm recommending, k-thx)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LTSB is the only version I would let anywhere near me

    All other Windows 10 editions can FOAD

    1. Planty Bronze badge

      Re: LTSB is the only version I would let anywhere near me

      Ironically the only version of Windows 10 I would go anywhere near (LTSB), is the one that normal Plebs on the street can't get.... Microsoft don't want you running the version of Windows 10 that only has the good stuff, and none of the bad stuff.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: LTSB is the only version I would let anywhere near me

      All other Windows 10 editions can FOAD

      fixed. you're welcome.

    3. joed

      Re: LTSB is the only version I would let anywhere near me

      The problem with LTSB is that:

      - it requires KMS server (this can be arranged for;)

      - technically, one is breaking law just by distributing it outside corporate environment (so what;)

      - just like every other Windows version it's a rolling set of features. Tomorrow's LTSB may suck as bad as Anniversary edition. No fix here.

      At this point the version to have may the Chinese copy. Would this be grey or red import?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'you now get a list showing which service belongs to which process'

    Here's hoping this helps kill off some of the more invasive 'features'...

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: 'you now get a list showing which service belongs to which process'

      Well, the service which tends to bog down all the machines I've investigated is... wuauclt, aka Windows Update. That's one hell of an invasive feature!

      1. VinceH

        Re: 'you now get a list showing which service belongs to which process'

        "Windows Update. That's one hell of an invasive feature!"

        For many people, an invasive feature is exactly what it became on 29th July 2015.

      2. Stevie

        Re: wuauclt

        Yet after seven months of trying everything on the web to get WU on my Win 7 lappy to do more than spin using 51% of the processor to no effect, on Monday I got notification of 10 updates waiting (which naturally became 11 after a reboot). After a "rollup" upgrade was installed the service stopped eating cpu cycles so I stopped turning it off when I needed to do heavy lifting.

        Funny that my Win 7 system starts working as it used to right after this Win 10 update was pushed out.

        1. bin

          Re: wuauclt

          wsus offline is the only tool I have found that sorts that issue.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Feeble

    "The Windows 10 Start menu, which evolved from Windows 8, remains infuriating in its unreliability when you simply type in a search and expect it to find an installed application; sometimes it does not."

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Privacy options are many; good luck navigating through them"

    "There is no simple opt-out; instead, a huge and intimidating set of options in the Windows 10 Privacy settings."

    .... Total and utter Deal breaker!

    .... Go and get fucked Redmond!

    1. joed

      Re: "Privacy options are many; good luck navigating through them"

      That "a huge and intimidating set of options in the Windows 10 Privacy settings" is not a problem. The options not exposed through any of user accessible interfaces are.

      BTW, I can't think of any any o these options I'd leave at default setting. But the time it takes to tame the beast just turns me off from logging in to new systems. Far from perfect when ones job is to support this turd.

  11. Natalie Gritpants

    "Now here comes the Creators Update, or version 1703"

    Complete with millennium bug by the looks of that version scheme.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Creators Update?

    This is the "Gamers & Surfers Update", wake me up when the "Power Users & Privacy Advocates Update" comes out ...

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Creators Update?

      "wake me up when the "Power Users & Privacy Advocates Update" comes out ..."

      compared to YOU, Rip van Winkle will look like an INSOMNIAC when you consider how long you'd be asleep before THAT happens. Heh.

      1. the Jim bloke

        Re: Creators Update?

        find a comfy spot between John Wayne and Walt Disney.

        (apparently neither were frozen after all, but the legend persists)

  13. Halfmad

    I'm only here for the MS hate.. but

    I quite like Windows 10, I just wish they'd stop all the bullshit with it. As a core operating system it's fine for most users and it's relatively easy to support.

    But my god can cortana get to ****.

  14. frank ly

    Getting Creative

    "Download options now include "Run" for executable files ..."

    They need to have 'Run As Administrator'. That would give one heck of a Creators facility.

    I shall look forward to getting this eventually. I know, from experience with the Anniversary Update, that I'll have to set aside about an hour or so for the update process and I'll never be sure if it's finished, what with all those restarts.

    I've stopped/blocked LAN access because it started writing its crap onto my network drives. I thought that they were MY network drives but I was obviously wrong. Now, I use a FAT32 USB stick if I want to transfer anything into Windows on the rare occasions that I use it (Daz Studio 3D and Photoshop CS6).

  15. shade82000

    Regedit Address Bar

    If that is what it sounds like, I have wanted something like that since Win95.

    I know you can add favourites to Regedit and export them to a .reg file and import them to other computers or when you rebuild etc but I only do that for 10-20 locations that I use a lot.

    Now by the sound of it we can highlight a location on a web page, ctrl+c, win+r, regedit, ctrl+v.

    1. psychonaut

      Re: Regedit Address Bar

      wow. a +1 for win 10. never thought id see the day. about fecking time, this would be handy. not handy enough to change from 7 mind you.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: Regedit Address Bar

        yeah, that makes 2 improvements in Win-10-nic. The first was integrating multiple desktops.

        /me slow-claps

        1. psychonaut

          Re: Regedit Address Bar

          ive got 3 screens, so multiple desktop not really an issue for me. of course now i want 6. once you go black, theres no going back and all

        2. joed

          Re: Regedit Address Bar

          That virtual desktops are nowhere near what virtualwin in less than 1MB of code. I've given up on using this crappy implementation.

  16. Unicornpiss
    Meh

    It's a start..

    Now how about bringing back Windows 7's "Aero" elegance with the glass windows as an option instead of the blocky, annoying, generic title bars, and adding choices for menus such as what you get with "Classic Shell", a freeware app that makes 10 so much more usable. Yes, the Metro-style menus are more usable on a mobile device or tablet, but how about options for the rest of your desktop and laptop users?

    For us poor saps that need to deploy it to an Enterprise environment, how about a Microsoft-sanctioned utility that allows customizing settings for all users, instead of the generic sysprep options and behind the scenes reg hacks and trickery we have to do now?

    Why do all OS and equipment purveyors (except arguably some Linux distros) try to tell their users what they want instead of just listening to them? When it comes to UIs, why does everyone have to reinvent the wheel every few years? Maybe this has some limited usefulness every time a new generation of users goes online, but for business, people like the option to use the menus and shortcuts they've been using for years, without having to spend time finding workarounds for the "improvements."

  17. cd / && rm -rf *

    Creators Update, or how to apply lipstick to a pig.

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      Creators Update, or how to apply lipstick to a pig.

      And not the oinky end...

      1. 0laf

        Re: Creators Update, or how to apply lipstick to a pig.

        The art of turd polishing

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Creators Update, or how to apply lipstick to a pig.

          The art of turd polishing

          Yes, that reminds me of a YouTube video someone referred to yesterday - it's EXACTLY like that.

          Instead of addressing the real issue why people don't like Windows (and CERTAINLY won't become "fans"), they make it worse. Much worse. I honestly have no idea what these people are thinking, but they seem to be as connected to the real world as your average hardcore LSD user whilst under the influence.

          Unbelievable.

    2. W4YBO

      Re: Creators Update, or how to apply lipstick to a pig.

      "Lipstick is easy. They really hate mascara, though." - Algernop Krieger

  18. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Trivial

    A few minor feature improvements ( like the address bar in regedit). Otherwise not worth even thinking about. Waste of bandwidth.

    1. joed

      Re: Trivial

      Yep, just "Waste of bandwidth". I can't imagine running this crap at default settings. All the crApps updating all the time (and MS adding new sh!tware to the start menu at a whim) and then Windows updates pulling a GB at a time. And then MS hovering your data (to balance their data link usage;). All this why I wait for the page to load in my browser.

      Does "Creators edition" disable the metered connection fix for all interface?

  19. Colonel Mad

    Calculator App Win 10

    You can adjust the size of the calculator app by grabbing a corner and shrinking, it will then remain at that size until adjusted again.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Calculator App Win 10

      How discoverable, and just to save face.

      1. Colonel Mad

        Re: Calculator App Win 10

        A fairly conventional way of adjusting the size of a window I would have thought?

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: Calculator App Win 10

          Not when it starts off maximised.

          Try and resize a Win32 executable's maximised window. You need to restore it to normal size first before you can drag the sides/corners. I wouldn't even try to resize it before restoring it because that's the way it's worked since Windows 3.1 or before.

          TIFKAM does not offer expected behaviour.

  20. Triggerfish

    Aaah Win 10

    You could have been so good, if you hadn't let those bastards from the marketing division* try to turn your computer into a platic pal whose fun to be with, and your customers into a revenue stream.

    *mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

    1. Wade Burchette

      Re: Aaah Win 10

      Are you sure it is the marketing division and not the people who are straight out of college with no real world experience and who have never talked to people outside their bubble? I am thinking it is the latter because there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. A educated person follows what the book says, and the book says that mobile is the future. A wise person knows to listen to paying customers and not to piss off paying customers.

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: Aaah Win 10

        Well I was being a bit tongue in cheek, but as a serious answer.

        No I think this is driven by people who have realised that now many people will let their data be borged and know they can get away with it, thats not neccesarrily young people.

        In fact I'd say it's a calculation, yeah you can turn techs off and off we all fuck to Linux, but you should expect techs to be more data wary anyway so they are bit of a lost cause to monetise.

        However the people who several months ago it just updated and don't know what to do with it, the people who go I'm being tracked who cares, stuff like that totally outweigh the few who leave; so in the long run (if say you are doing the calculations) no loss there.

        A wise person might know how to listen to his customers and not piss them off, a cynical bastard with experience knows how much you can get away with first.

        1. Terry 6 Silver badge

          Re: Aaah Win 10

          Triggerfish

          I agree completely. Think how happily the gen public uses Google to make their calls, carry their emails, store their data, use the internet. Or would willingly let an Amazon microphone (other spies are available) sit in their living room.

          1. Triggerfish

            Re: Aaah Win 10

            As I have commented before it's a case of boiling the frog, making things super useful is the way you get people to sign up to these things and as each new tech generation comes along more are doing so, until it swings back the other way (if it ever does), this is the way it goes. As people get more and more used to the fact that their private life to some degree is out there, and if you can combine it with things that are useful. Then it becomes more and more easy to go from an inch to a mile.

            There's probably not many of us who are so locked down nothing is available.

            1. hplasm
              Devil

              Re: Aaah Win 10

              "...making things super useful..."

              ...is not the Windows way. Not any more.

      2. David 132 Silver badge

        Re: Aaah Win 10

        Wade Burchette I am thinking it is the latter because there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom.

        As I always remember it: "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is technically a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in the fruit salad."

        1. Scubaman66

          Re: Aaah Win 10

          The pedant in me needs to point out that a Tomato is in fact a 'false fruit' as the true fruits are the pips, also it is quite possible to use certain cultivars of tomatoes (specifically some very high sugar content 'cherry' types) in a fruit salad as they can add a very interesting and enjoyable balance to the other fruits (and false fruits.)

      3. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: Aaah Win 10

        "Are you sure it is the marketing division and not the people who are straight out of college with no real world experience and who have never talked to people outside their bubble?"

        Them, too. Some people call them "4-inchers" as in "they view the world through a 4 inch screen" via Faceb****, Tw*tter, and other 'social media'. Yeah, they are the ones that *FEEL* (no thinking involved, just emoting, widdle snowflakes can't think any more) that everyone using a computer is a MARKETABLE CONTENT CONSUMER and needs to be "guided" (read: herded) into doing things "the Microshaft way" because, superiority complex like a bunch of brown-shirts. OK maybe not like brown-shirts, but you get the idea...

        yeah, blame THEM too. mega-thumbs-up for pointing it out.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Aaah Win 10

        Are you sure it is the marketing division and not the people who are straight out of college with no real world experience and who have never talked to people outside their bubble?

        There is a difference?

        :)

    2. ArchieTheAlbatross

      Re: Aaah Win 10

      Share and enjoy!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is the only time in my entire life that I have welcomed a windows update and that's because on my only used as a blu-ray player because it is cheaper than a 4k bluray player x-box one s I can now do bit stream audio.

    Thanks Microsoft.

    p.s. Windows 10 pc is still looks shit with less privacy than the town gossip after a couple of beers in the local.

  22. Shadow Systems

    Better Braille & Narrator support is a good thing...

    But the bragging about Narrator auto-defaulting to edit fields is so laughably bad it makes me shake my head in disgust. Jaws from Freedom Scientific, NVDA, & all the other screen readers have been able to & done this for years, so what's taken MS so long to catch up?

    Unfortunately it's too little & too late because Win10 still plays merry hell with screen readers. Jaws tells it's users NOT to use the built in Win10 mail client because it renders Jaws FUBAR; not to use the Edge browser but to use the copy of IE instead because Edge still can't decide if it wants to let Jaws work at all; & not to use a brace of other built in Win10 programs for being inherently NOT accessible.

    The folks at Jaws work their asses off to try & figure out how to make their program work with Win10 so they can support their paying customers, to make our lives just a little bit easier in navigating our own computers, but it seems like MS is *actively hostile* to any attempts by third party accessibility vendors to make their OS useable.

    Congratulations MS on improving your native screen reader to finally do stuff everyone else has done for a decade, but I've already decided to upgrade right the hell off the MS treadmill. I've got work to do & MS won't let me do it.

    1. Vic

      Re: Better Braille & Narrator support is a good thing...

      Jaws tells it's users NOT to use the built in Win10 mail client

      I think that's good advice anyway.

      I've spent years trying to get people to look at the headers of any suspicious mail; it gives real insight into who is telling which lies, and makes email security so much easier. And so Microsoft have shipped their default client with no way to see the headers[1].

      I have to use Win10 at work. I've switched[2] to using Thunderbird for my mail, but it really isn't much cop. I'm actually thinking about running Squirrelmail in one of my Linux VMs...

      Vic.

      [1] Unless anyone here knows differently - I'm all ears.

      [2] At least I tried. It turns out that Win10 still reads your emails even if you're not running the mail client. I've now deleted that account entirely - let's see if it's really gone...

      1. Shadow Systems

        @Vic Re:Outlook.

        I don't know if it works in the Win10 mail client, I only know that it works in Outlook 2010.

        Alt+F+I+V will get you to the Internet section of the properties of the email, & cursoring down gives you the headers. It's a total pain in the ass, but it is possible. You may have to use the shortcut keys multiple times to convince Outlook that you really want to view the headers, but once you're there it's good.

        HTH.

        1. Vic

          Re: @Vic Re:Outlook.

          I don't know if it works in the Win10 mail client

          It doesn't :-(

          Vic.

  23. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    No compelling features in Edge?

    After decades of campaigning in favour of standards compliance, I'd have thought that "no Edge-only features" would be the only possible compelling feature!

  24. handleoclast
    Flame

    Ransomware

    Ads in fucking file fucking explorer?!?!?!?!

    I get ads in android apps from the play store. A lot of the better apps that have ads also have a "pro" version or a "donate" option to get rid of the ads. This is intuitive, ethical, and sane. Free software may have annoying ads, pay for the software and you get rid of the annoying ads. My choice to uninstall, tolerate the ads, or pay some money. But file explorer isn't really optional, it's a necessary component of the OS (however infrequently you use it).

    So Microsoft make you pay for their (mostly shitty) software and then fling ads at you? Unless you pay extra? Let's call it what it is. It's fucking RANSOMWARE. The usability of your computer is compromised unless you fork over dosh.

    Thank fuck I don't have to use this shiteware.

  25. Tim Brown 1

    "Windows 10, designed to make you appreciate our earlier work"

    I'm staying with Windows 7.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    US Users

    so as all internet connections move back to metered connections all these application/OS companies think its okay to run your bill up or run over you CAPS?

    I have to assume that since there really is no way to shut off the "chatting" back to the mother base.

  27. Dwarf

    Irony

    They force a flat user interface on you, then give you a 3D paint application

    I've got an idea - why not give that 3D paint application to the developers, perhaps they can use it to wake up the user interface a bit.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't know why they don't just get the NSA to program it. They'd probably do a better job...

  29. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Stellar journalism as ever...

    What's with comparing Edge's HTML performance (in fact, the performance of a future version of Edge) to Firefox 48, which it conveniently beats? The current version of Firefox is 52, which scores 474, beating the current and future versions of Edge. An inconvenient truth?

    And as has been pointed out elsewhere, you change the size of the calculator app like any other window since god knows when. The new size will persist. Only a moron would be complaining about this "bug" this long after the OS launched.

  30. psychonaut

    bipolar

    just get rid of

    1) the tifkam control panel apps. seems to be random as to which one you get

    2) the "change default browser" annoyance. change it. get taken to tifkam page. change it. "are you sure, why not try edge"? just change the fucking thing already

    3) add user. just add a fucking user. dont hide making a local account, having to seleect "i dont have this persons login details" , then ask me if i want to use a ms account, then finally get to a local account. just have dropdown if you must. and just give me the win 7 style user management page. not some crap about this user, other users, add a family friend, add a dog. alright, i could net user /add etc

    4) if i do a search from the start menu, im not interested in internet results, waiting for 2 minutes whilst it tries to find device manager or whatever. (ok, so i know i can use devmgmt.msc instead...)

    5) theres ads in explorer? ive not seen this actually, but it wouldnt surprise me.

    i wonder what this update will break / uninstall. usually network cards in my experience, and security programs.

    incidentally, ive had a 2 jobs this week on lenovo's with win 10 where a firmware update for some uefi component that i cant remember at the moment borks the external monitor output. just roll back the driver for it and it works. maybe this will help someone

    seperate processes sounds great, however, it'll probably always be the Windows update service that causes the problem as usual

    1. Paul Shirley

      Re: bipolar

      3) add user

      Learned the hard way, if you let Win10 switch a local account to an MS one, there's no way back. It will let you try but apparently it's never worked. If you bound your licence to an MS account, create a new MS login if you ever need to re-activate Win10, don't let the activation troubleshooter bork your local login.

      Windows, the best argument for nightly drive imaging ever.

      1. Bluto Nash

        Re: bipolar

        Pfft. I'm on the Windows Insider Edition (now with extra snoopiness!), running as a VM on my Mint box. Used only as a machine to see how this is evolving and to run the occasional "ONLY on Windows" application (like Paint.Net, which I love). Otherwise it's fired up about once a month to pick up the latest updates. After a VM snapshot, of course. MS must be very disappointed in me if they look at my profile - I just don't DO much in Win 10.

        1. Scubaman66

          Re: bipolar

          That's what I'm planning to do as the only reason I have for using windows is that Jack and ALSA are total pains to get running properly and quite a number of VST's and VSTi's just don't play nicely under Linux. If I could get Focusrite Mix Control to see my USB ports and my Scarlett 18i8 under Wine I'd dump MS for good.

    2. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

      Re: bipolar

      What really annoys me, apart from the add user bit you mention, is the "fast start". It's one of the stupidest dodgy workarounds that microsoft have done. To cater for the fact that starting up / shutting down is painful on older machines with spinning disks, fast start simply replaces "shut down" with "log off and hibernate" (or something very close to that). It also rather disingenuously turns off the display before it's actually finished, to make the user think it's shut down quickly.

      Starting up is then a bit faster because all it has to do is basically an un-hibernate from a memory image hibernate file.

      But the whole thing is flawed. Windows, as we know, is incapable of staying up for more than a few days without slowing down or having "problems". So the user shuts the computer down every night, except it doesn't really shut down fully. The problems start after a few days with problems like internet access being sporadic, the computer being slow or some such thing. I tell users to restart their PCs, and they say "but I have" and I say "no you haven't, it says it has been up for 30 days" and they say "no but I shut it down every night". So I ask the user to restart properly NOW, not a shutdown, but a restart. And the users think they know what I mean, and shut down, then turn it on again. And the problems don't go away. Until they actually RESTART the bloody thing.

      The worst things about this arrangement are that a) the fast start option seems to keep being set back on every few updates as if the users' wishes really don't count and b) on modern machines with SSDs, you can't tell the difference between a 'fast' start and a normal 'not fast' startup anyway. It's just so damn pointless!

      When will people realise that windows is a turd that has only a light veneer on it to make it slightly glint in the sun?

      1. hplasm
        Thumb Up

        Re: bipolar

        "the users' wishes really don't count"

        The new Win10 slogan!

        1. psychonaut

          Re: bipolar

          @anthonyhegedus

          yes. fast start is a giant pain in the arse. ive only recently figured out something that has been bugging me for ages. if you shut down a win 10 pc (with, as i now know, fast start enabled), and then bung the disk in a caddy to move data to it from another machine, and then bung the disk back in the machine, it goes ape shit, runs check disk. then the data you moved dissapears, (actually it turns up in lost files) but it reports the available space to be what it would be if the data is actually there. the first few times i tried this with win 10 (i do a lot of this because i run a repair shop, copy data to data server, rebuild , copy data back) i couldnt figure it out, so i started doing it the other way (copy data from win 10 machine to caddy, but i dont like doing this, id prefer to have their data on my data server rather than having to have lots of external drives hanging around).

          its fast start that causes this. turn it off and it behaves itself.

          im with you on the turn it off front. dont hibernate, sleep, any of that shit. on or off. all the machines i build these days have 850 pro ssd's in them, and as you rightly say, its 15 seconds to windows from cold, so fast start is not useful there. whoda thought restart to turn off, instead of turn off?

  31. Gis Bun

    Microsoft probably lost many IE supporters when w10 came out because they used Edge as the default browser and didn't even tell novices that IE still existed. Some then flipped over to Chrome [the web browser version of Macs] and probably won't head back.

    When I mentioned to some that IE was there - just hidden in the menus - I'd get "whaaaaat?" But most of them will stick with their current browser.

  32. Zoopy

    Blocking unwanted phone-home?

    AFAIK, everything that's keeping me from using Windows 10 would be stopped if I can prevent Windows from phoning home.

    I've read that Windows 10 will ignore any firewall software that would prevent it from phoning home.

    But does anyone know if using an external firewall is known to work? I.e., is there a reasonable set of rules that an external firewall can use to suppress:

    - Unwanted update pushes.

    - Unwanted snooping by Microsoft.

    - Unplanned system updates.

  33. unicorn

    Ubuntu linux subsystem now usable

    This update allows the linux subsystem to use more/all? RAM - now I can run java builds and tests under linux and windows which is pretty sweet.

  34. Dr Gerard Bulger

    Settings

    Nothing about the crap settings menu whereby you have to jump though a series of clicks to get to the old style setting pages, such as adaptor settings where you can actually do stuff. You cannot go direct from the wifi connection icon on the task bar. You cannot see IP/gateway from there. Similarly actual graphic settings are hidden behind a tree of useless GUI guff.

  35. Eduard Coli

    Edgey

    If you care about privacy then you don't use Windows because by using Windows you have no expectation of privacy and this is common knowledge considering the past behavior of this corporation. That being said Edge would be better if they restored the delete usage data that they aped off of Firefox.

  36. NiteDragon

    Sooo - why exactly were they poking around with the code in regedit?

    Hint: I doubt it would have been driven by a sudden need to make it more friendly.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have friends who've just upgraded to Windows 10, and, of course nothing works at all or like they expect it to. So they ask me for help and I tell them to buy a Mac.

    1. psychonaut

      a big mac?

  38. Unicornpiss
    Trollface

    You'd expect better Braille support to be included..

    When obviously in UI design you have the blind leading the blind.

  39. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Report from WIndows 10-land

    My private laptop, which came with Windows 10, now claims, in Settings->Privacy, at the top of the page, in red:

    Some settings are managed by your organisation.

    What organisation would that be? And what settings?

    W10 has been preparing to install the Creator's update. I had to turn off some spying, and for Windows to NOT spy on my browsing it seems I have to allow cookies and history, as MS says:

    To opt out of personalised ads in this browser, your browser history must allow first-party and third-party cookies and you must have your browsing experience set to NOT delete browsing history on exit.

    This seems bizarre.

    W10 is still preparing, so we'll see how bizarre things end up being.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like