Windows 10, the TechSpot Review

[Squid Surprise]

NO.... the onus is on the person REFUTING the article in question.... that is where proof needs to come in...otherwise, why argue?

If I agree with something already posted, why would I need to provide evidence?!?!?!?

And just because there isn't a Windows XP Compatibility mode doesn't mean that you can't run XP software....

Now, since I'm going to refute what YOU said, I need to provide some proof...Here's a quote from the link YOU provided...
___________

Any application or hardware that requires an old driver will be a problem. If you depend on an application that interfaces with a Windows XP-era hardware device and the manufacturer has never provided a driver that works on Windows 7, you’re likely in trouble. On the other hand, if there is a driver that does work on Windows 7, your hardware should continue working properly on Windows 10.

____________

So yes, if it didn't work on Windows 7, it PROBABLY won't work on Windows 10... but we're talking about the difference between Windows 7 and 10 (and 8)... so if it works on 1, it works on the other!!

Most XP software works on Windows 7 already... so it will continue to work on Windows 10 as well.... if you REALLY need a specific program/device to work on Windows 10 - and for some reason it doesn't... you can probably get a 3rd party driver to make it work anyways...

 

[OortCloud]

Techspot please add a feature (on by default)... "Hide Guest comments."

 

[Mike89]

Dunno, I'm just not that excited in Windows 10. I'm still perfectly content with Windows 7 cause it still serves me well, it's a true desktop OS and I still don't think Windows 10 is. In my opinion Microsoft is still stuck on a one size fits all mentality instead of separating out tablets, laptops, phones and desktop and creating what works best with each with the most options and user customizations. Don't see it happening here. I'm not saying an absolute no at this point but I'm going to take my time to see what's up with this OS and if it's going to fit me. I skipped Windows 8 entirely so I'm in no hurry to jump on the "new OS bandwagon". I got to have a reason and don't have one yet.

 

[creativeopinion]

I like what I see even though I haven't tried windows 8 at all but automatic drivers updates are a deal-breaker for me and I'll be staying on Windows 7. Microsoft can push security patches as many as they want and I agree but if they want to take control of my drivers I simply say NO. I'm reading the comments and people say "update to 10 because you'll be secure". It's bull****.. If you want to stay secure from malware you don't trust Microsoft or Windows Defender or any updates 'only' but you'll need proper software to defend you like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware/Exploit + you need a brain. Without it an infection is guaranteed even when using Windows 10. Simple as that.

I heard about a new tool to block some updates but it's not a good solution. it will still update, break something in your PC and then you have to remove it and block. Most importantly you have to be constantly aware that something can change for the bad on your PC and you'll need to fix it. You! Not Microsoft.

We have 1 year to decide if we want our free upgrade and I'll wait.

 

[Axle Grease]

I've been using my 2009 PC which includes a i7-965 and a GTX 590 (dual GPU) to test Windows 10 builds. There's only two real annoyances. 1) Cortana is not available in my region which is New Zealand, and as I don't have an American accent, Siri does a crap job of recognising mine. 2) The nVidia display driver keeps on stopping and recovering. I've used DDU, disabled the automatic driver update from Windows Update, and installed the latest driver 353.38. The driver still stops & recovers. Other than Cortana and the nVidia issue the OS is a pleasure to use. I will be replacing Win 8.1 and Win 7 with Win10 this week. BF4 and BFH run well, so it's all systems go for Win 10.

Wow... The day after, a new nVidia driver is issued through Windows Update (353.62) and the display driver stops and starts are no more. Oh, yes. Each driver release I run the features test in 3DMark for DX12. Still no DX12 support for Fermi cards, but at least this driver appears reliable so far.

 

[Puiu]

I like what I see even though I haven't tried windows 8 at all but automatic drivers updates are a deal-breaker for me and I'll be staying on Windows 7. Microsoft can push security patches as many as they want and I agree but if they want to take control of my drivers I simply say NO. I'm reading the comments and people say "update to 10 because you'll be secure". It's bull****.. If you want to stay secure from malware you don't trust Microsoft or Windows Defender or any updates 'only' but you'll need proper software to defend you like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware/Exploit + you need a brain. Without it an infection is guaranteed even when using Windows 10. Simple as that.

I heard about a new tool to block some updates but it's not a good solution. it will still update, break something in your PC and then you have to remove it and block. Most importantly you have to be constantly aware that something can change for the bad on your PC and you'll need to fix it. You! Not Microsoft.

We have 1 year to decide if we want our free upgrade and I'll wait.

if you have the pro version then you will not get automatic updates. you will be able to install them when you want to, like you do now.

PS: for the several guests/people who wrote that they are "forced to do everything online". what are you guys smoking? you can easily create a local account and not even touch the app store or other cloud services.

can we remove the guest posts please? it's getting retarded with how many trolls we get and it's not just here.

 

[uzerr]

Techspot please add a feature (on by default)... "Hide Guest comments."

If you actually look up and count guest vs member posts you'll see guests are a minority, you can ignore them if it displeases you, including those that will agree with you ^.^ (seriously go look) but why would you want to censor them for other people?

people are projecting your displeasure (mistakingly) at reading dissenting views to their own. To sign up you need to faff about remembering 2 extra logins and passwords, having yet another email address linked to a website. Guests are just people that don't want to make or give away another damn email to yet another website. Dictating a censor on them isnt going to censor members disagreeing with you.

Thats for all the others too, crying guests shut up, gag them, theyre all trolls. Scroll up and look and calm down ^.^

 

[Puiu]

If you actually look up and count guest vs member posts you'll see guests are a minority, you can ignore them if it displeases you, including those that will agree with you ^.^ (seriously go look) but why would you want to censor them for other people?

people are projecting your displeasure (mistakingly) at reading dissenting views to their own. To sign up you need to faff about remembering 2 extra logins and passwords, having yet another email address linked to a website. Guests are just people that don't want to make or give away another damn email to yet another website. Dictating a censor on them isnt going to censor members disagreeing with you.

Thats for all the others too, crying guests shut up, gag them, theyre all trolls. Scroll up and look and calm down ^.^

tell that to the guests that keep posting "job" offers or intentionally troll in the comments.
techspot is popular enough to stop allowing guests to post. most other big tech websites already do it.

 

[Runt1me]

Actually you know what would be fair? to actually have some articles on alternatives to balance all this sponsored windows hype, we need some healthy innovation away from dogmatic corporate lock-ins strangling the industry, everyone would benefit a great deal if the media actually widened its coverage and presented healthy choices.

+ it'd give microsoft evangelists a fair chance to siege the comments of those articles try to keep it civil though guys eh.

 

[uzerr]

tell that to the guests that keep posting "job" offers or intentionally troll in the comments.
techspot is popular enough to stop allowing guests to post. most other big tech websites already do it.

Im with you on the spamming thing, but not if its just to shush someone in a disagreement, that wouldn't change anything. Tbh I havn't noticed many, if any, spammers or trolls on techspot, other sites use that damn disqus which is spammed to hell (its not even hard to spam filter that job junk out if they cared which they dont). Here from casual viewing, its seems quite civil and taken care of? EDIT:A personal filter 'hide guests' would legitimately ignore guests and not be seen as a way to just force personal views.

 

[Igrecman]

People who are afraid of compatibility issues, just need to install VirtualBox (free) and install in it any OS they want. I have all versions of Windows, Android, Linux and Mac Yosemite installed in it. The only down side is that VirtualBox can't use the real display drivers of the host display adapter, so gaming is limited in a virtual machine.
For old DOS 16 bits programs or games, you can use DosBox (free) for better gaming support.
So no need to to stick with old XP for compatibility sake despite the risks.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Actually you know what would be fair? to actually have some articles on alternatives to balance all this sponsored windows hype, we need some healthy innovation away from dogmatic corporate lock-ins strangling the industry, everyone would benefit a great deal if the media actually widened its coverage and presented healthy choices.

+ it'd give microsoft evangelists a fair chance to siege the comments of those articles try to keep it civil though guys eh.

Alternatives? To Windows?
If you are running a PC, there really aren't any... Linux and its various shells make up something like 5% (and I'm being generous here) of desktop OSes...
And they still are a bit difficult for the average user to install/maintain/utilize...

I suppose you could dig up a copy of OS2 Warp?

 

[Runt1me]

Alternatives? To Windows?
If you are running a PC, there really aren't any... Linux and its various shells make up something like 5% (and I'm being generous here) of desktop OSes...
And they still are a bit difficult for the average user to install/maintain/utilize...

I suppose you could dig up a copy of OS2 Warp?

Saying there aren't any is like going lalalalala with your fingers in your ears at this point, you know there are and it's just not true, hence the linux mention. It's just they get no coverage/tutorials so average user keeps thinking its some kind of tech voodoo hackery not to use windows, when its download to usb using a free app, boot and be exploring or watching youtube or whatever average user does, no hard drive install needed. Give average PC user some credit, they've at least ascended from console and tablet user.

The media kind of holds the keys on this and most of of it is blanketted with features on windows or the sites themselves are ms affiliates. Everybody cries when theres some hacking or spying scandal, then a day later its back to the usual? Its old and going nowhere.

 

[sgoodwin]

As far as I"m concerned, there is no reason to *ever* upgrade or change an OS unless the stuff you mostly use (incl productivity, gaming, whatever) stops working on your current OS. Anyone who gets excited to go through the hassle of such a big change needs to get a life as far as I'm concerned. I stayed with XP for years until I had no choice but to jump to Win7 for those very reasons.

Even with 7, I've gone through all the Black Viper optimizations (and anything else I've been able to find on-line) and I still have more than 60 processes running at any given moment. I can only cringe at the thought of how many non-essential processes will be running under 10. And apps are for kids.

 

[DelJo63]

As far as I"m concerned, there is no reason to *ever* upgrade or change an OS unless the stuff you mostly use (incl productivity, gaming, whatever) stops working on your current OS.

Strongly agree (y)(y)(y) That's the boundary condition we use here - - for ALL platforms - - Linux, Mac OS x, and Windows. Our latest upgrade was an OS X PowerPC to OS X intel 10.11 due to browser incompatibilities.

Old and effective axiom:- If it aint broke, don't fixit !

 

[Squid Surprise]

Saying there aren't any is like going lalalalala with your fingers in your ears at this point, you know there are and it's just not true, hence the linux mention. It's just they get no coverage/tutorials so average user keeps thinking its some kind of tech voodoo hackery not to use windows, when its download to usb using a free app, boot and be exploring or watching youtube or whatever average user does, no hard drive install needed. Give average PC user some credit, they've at least ascended from console and tablet user.

The media kind of holds the keys on this and most of of it is blanketted with features on windows or the sites themselves are ms affiliates. Everybody cries when theres some hacking or spying scandal, then a day later its back to the usual? Its old and going nowhere.

Blame the media all you want - facts are facts...
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

Linux has less than 2% market share... I don't care how good YOU think it is - clearly the masses have spoken...

Heck, even MacOS just about quadruples Linux.... If you have a non-Mac desktop/laptop, you have no REAL alternative to Windows... sorry *NIX users - the masses have spoken

 

[Runt1me]

Blame the media all you want - facts are facts...
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

Linux has less than 2% market share... I don't care how good YOU think it is - clearly the masses have spoken...

Heck, even MacOS just about quadruples Linux.... If you have a non-Mac desktop/laptop, you have no REAL alternative to Windows... sorry *NIX users - the masses have spoken

The 'masses' have hardly spoken because they barely know the alternatives exist, maybe beyond Mac and PC boxes, because of a dogmatic industry dominated by an aging monopolist with its hooks in the hardware, vendors and the media. 1-2%? that's quite substantial for desktop consumer share considering all this and that there is no marketing or dirty tricks helping it grow. That is people willfully seeking out alternatives, going against the grain.

EDIT: saying 'the masses have spoken therefor you are wrong' is just a cheap shot :/ (I'm not arguing for the sake of winning a this vs that argument). I'm suggesting we get out of this entrenched mess by giving more coverage, it will be healthier all round.

 

[GaryZ]

I'm amazed at some of these comments,

seem like stubborn people stuck in the stone age.

I've got to be honest, I don't like the presentation of windows 8.1, but I personally bought a start is back license and an aero8 key (technically a donation but still), but I moved onto 8.1 as its better in every other way

as for the comment about not liking an os because it includes updates? well, that's good, I mean sure it is annoying that the pc patches itself every week free of charge, and yes, the 2 or 3 updates that broken windows out of thousands was annoying for some users, but if your posting on a tech site I would imagine you would be able to recover past that, unless you also don't believe the built in restore functions are worthwhile so they also get disabled...

I'm still not a fan of the 10 start menu, but its better, and I will probably end up using startisback again, and the aero glass utility

another glaring thing about this article, its compared it to mobile os's android and iOS both known to have major issues on every major release, and the lock down of those too, at the moment I believe windows phone is the most secure, and android the least secure, ios sitting between the two, but facts don't really matter, as most things in life, the most technically impressive is the least popular based on bizarre ideal's that always sway to the lesser product. any market you look at you will see, with maybe the exception of intel that the best product never sells the best, always an inferior one that has some amazing marketing, think apple, vw, Samsung, K & N, Shimano, the classic Henry vacuum, (windows xp which will spark some anger, but do a like for like test on an xp and a 2000 pro machine and I would be surprised if 10 out of 10 times 2000 didn't perform the task faster) pretty much all markets the better product fizzles out, and usually due to some stupid brand loyalty without any knowledge about the products

for me windows 10 has some funky design choices, less so than 8, but its excellent, and its free for nearly everyone with a valid license, I'm not sold on unifying app's, I don't see how they can run across all platforms without a performance penalty, think java, but for some reason that's always been awesome in the public eye????

its a shame this article doesn't really reflect on the technical changes, only the superficial, I haven't tested the RTM build, but I'm curious if its till includes IE, after all, will applications designed for IE work with the Edge browser? that's pretty huge problem if it doesn't, alternative browsers aren't really the solution in an enterprise environment, although many software companies do think its awesome to write sub standard web ui's that only work properly in chrome or Firefox, its a pain in the a$$ when forced to use them, especially when they replace a nice dedicated management program, or an mmc snap in that works flawlessly, NetApp I'm looking at you here!

I'm assuming like PowerShell has been improved in 10, I'm also curious to the improvements with Hyper-V if any, something more and more home users do use now, I appreciate these are more for server/enterprise users, but they are very useful features.

I'm not saying windows 10 is the best os, but a lot of the criticism is just people complaining for the sake of complaining, windows 8.1 from pressing the power button is usable within 5 seconds on most computers, how many os's can say that?

-----
Whoever you are, I think you are a good technical thinker. Just to address your question on how they achieve universal binary on all platforms (including the phones) without major performance issue. It's not like Java or .net framework, instead, MS took a new path: Developer writes universal app -> it must be distributed via Store -> Upon install on a device Store 2nd-compiles it to native -> plus download only targeted resources (like the background pic for phone only). Bottomline: Store is a re-compiler! This is true innovation - real cross platform, real performance, plus MS gets a cut of revenue to patch up the free upgrade loss. Apple doesn't have it. Google neither.

It is this type of "new features" that make Win10 a serious. Those talking about UX, auto-patch or not, possible bugs, Win7 love, what do they know? Will they even understand what I just mentioned? There are a lot more hidden gems in this release that all the shallow whiners simply can't understand.

-gz

 

[Squid Surprise]

The 'masses' have hardly spoken because they barely know the alternatives exist, maybe beyond Mac and PC boxes, because of a dogmatic industry dominated by an aging monopolist with its hooks in the hardware, vendors and the media. 1-2%? that's quite substantial for desktop consumer share considering all this and that there is no marketing or dirty tricks helping it grow. That is people willfully seeking out alternatives, going against the grain.

EDIT: saying 'the masses have spoken therefor you are wrong' is just a cheap shot :/ (I'm not arguing for the sake of winning a this vs that argument). I'm suggesting we get out of this entrenched mess by giving more coverage, it will be healthier all round.

Are you trying to insinuate that the "masses" don't know about Linux? Despite it being around for over 2 decades? I hardly think that holds water....

And you think that less than 2% market share is GOOD?!?!? Linux is NOT a viable alternative for the masses.... If it was, more people would use it....

There has to come a point when you realize that no matter how good something might be to you, if no one else chooses to use it, maybe it's not as good as you think....

 

[creativeopinion]

if you have the pro version then you will not get automatic updates. you will be able to install them when you want to, like you do now.

I don't think you're right. Pro version gives you more control, but you can only delay updates not stop them. Feel free to prove me wrong. Remember: I'm talking about drivers updates, not security related patches.

 

[Runt1me]

Are you trying to insinuate that the "masses" don't know about Linux? Despite it being around for over 2 decades? I hardly think that holds water....

And you think that less than 2% market share is GOOD?!?!? Linux is NOT a viable alternative for the masses.... If it was, more people would use it....

There has to come a point when you realize that no matter how good something might be to you, if no one else chooses to use it, maybe it's not as good as you think....

Hey bleating on about marketshare to prove it doesn't exist and nobody uses it? um your'e saying 1 in 50 desktops are on linux there, of their own volition, that's in a sea of average people forced into default windows installs, bombed with microsoft marketing, herded into the windows services ecosphere, and are too ignorant to know how to use anything else (to paraphrase you) - and I only say that since to tried to wrangle me into saying the masses are wrong

You're arguing against your own arguments mate, totally missing the point, I'm not even engaging in a petty windows vs linux 'debate' lol its done to death. You said there are no alternatives and just argued with yourself proving there are and that people are using them ^.^

Go tell the people at http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/ they imagined the whole thing and that they're wrong instead of trying to get me to say people are wrong.

Besides.. techspot did nice little article a year ago about trying linux: https://www.techspot.com/guides/809-run-linux-from-usb-drive/ so cudos there, things have gotten better since but average media coverage generally has bombed elsewhere with the ms spam.

 

[Amy Grant]

Windows 8.1 Pro on a Surface Pro is a pain to manage and conduct real work compared to Windows 7 Pro on a newer Desktop machine. After reading this article I deselected Windows 10 update to both my desktops. I will try Windows 10 Pro on my Surface Pro to work out all the inherent bugs that come from updating an operating system. Legacy software and hardware device drivers concern me going forward. After being force to abandon several printers and peripheral devices with "the latest and greatest" OS update I remain very cautious. Let the millions of beta testers lead the way on this one... Additionally, I am concerned over data leakage as this OS reaches into my data AND Microsoft controls future tweaks and updates "automatically" for me.

 

[Hugo D]

Is the font scaling and smoothing better than in Windows 8? I've had issues of blurry text in many applications, including Windows system dialog boxes, when using a high-CPI (high resolution) screen with large/x-large fonts.

 

[Puiu]

Is the font scaling and smoothing better than in Windows 8? I've had issues of blurry text in many applications, including Windows system dialog boxes, when using a high-CPI (high resolution) screen with large/x-large fonts.

it should be much better. the did replace many of the UI elements like context menus, etc.
but it's not just the OS that has to support high DPI. the software you use must be able to do it as well.
we'll see more and more of the UI changed for high DPI compatibility and consistency in future builds too. I expect it would take 1 or 2 big updates similar to the 8.1 update.
follow the insider program beta builds to see the changes they will be working on.

 

[misor]

I'm still waiting for my download to finish.