NoelC

No maybe about it. Windows Search, presumably modeled after the oh-so-rigorous (NOT) search Google provides, has migrated over the past 10 years from "Find the file(s) I want" to "Show me something interesting because I'm bored". Ask yourself this: Would you TRUST Windows Search to locate all your tax documents for an audit? Even with indexing on? Doing exact things is so last century. -Noel

A funny thing happened the other day... I have a system that's running Win 7 whose role is file server. But since it's another hardware system I sometimes use it for testing my OpenGL graphics software. Since Remote Desktop run on my Win 8.1 workstation doesn't provide RemoteFX, I have always just gone to the console of that Win 7 system to do whatever testing, and the Intel chipset GPU provides the OpenGL acceleration. One day I left it logged-on and running my software under test. Coincidentally, when I used RDP to access it later, I absent-mindedly tried using my software and it worked! So here's a system that when I RDP into it will NOT provide GPU support, yet when the software is started on the local console the GPU support REMAINS FUNCTIONAL even during a later established remote session. It works perfectly. Microsoft: One of the best companies around for making things not work. On purpose. -Noel

What it Microsoft released an OS that made all fonts "white on white"... And nobody reported negative feedback? Must be a damned good OS, eh? And more secure than ever. -Noel

More... Every new update brings more processes that seem to need to run just to support doing nothing. Prior to the "Anniversary Update" (build 14393) I had 42 processes on an empty desktop with just Process Hacker 2 or Task Manager running (to list/count the processes). Now with build 14393 it's 46 to 48. Intrusive things like Cortana can't be removed without doing backflips. And jaclaz is right, those backflips are becoming more and more tiresome. If only Win 10 brought some "must have" functionality we'd keep doing those flips but frankly I'm losing interest. -Noel

No one who gets access to surveillance info ever uses it for wrong or nefarious purposes, do they? Perish the thought! -Noel

I think maybe xpclient started a topic like this once, but I don't see it, so... Please list the things Windows 10 doesn't do FOR YOU as well as it used to, and which make Windows 10 simply unacceptable for you to use. It would be cool if you'd list any workarounds you've found/implemented as well... Here's a brief start, with the most obvious things from my list: The ATI folks have dumbed down their display drivers they're preparing for Windows 10 so that functionality I found essential (per-channel color calibration and preset management) is just missing. Since I develop color-managed software I have a need for a very configuration, and I cannot achieve it with Win 10. There is a rumor that the drivers for a MUCH more expensive workstation graphics card still offer these features, but those drivers traditionally lag behind those for the mainstream cards, and probably will eliminate the features sooner or later. Microsoft keeps releasing updates or upgrades that revert key things and cause new problems. Huge numbers of settings/tweaks, including some privacy settings, got reverted during the 10586 and 14393 upgrades, yet even small things get reverted during updates. For example, I absolutely DON'T want "Desktop" showing up under "This PC" in Explorer, yet back it comes after a Windows Update. The desktop "flat, borderless, lifeless" look and feel, well, there's no other way to put it: Sucks. Even beyond the aesthetics, who thinks borderless windows actually work right? Have you seen the edge of a window just showing behind the edge of a borderless window, and want to click it but can't? Aero Glass for Win 8+ helps a lot with the aesthetics, but it doesn't re-theme the controls. A 3rd party theme would probably help, but I haven't taken the time to figure out what works yet. The worst of it is that these things get re-broken by Microsoft on a regular basis, so finding an acceptable tweak isn't permanent. And I'm sorry, but their default look and feel isn't usable. I have many more things on my list, but these will serve to get things started. What can't you live with? Don't hold back! -Noel

One difference is that today, because of the spreading of much FUD over so long a time, some people - even those with sage experience - will tell you that "if you're not doing Windows Updates (to get so-called "security updates") then you're being irresponsible". What a load of crap! Those who would accuse users who choose not to blindly take what Microsoft is delivering of being irresponsible conveniently forget who it is that put the security vulnerabilities in the software in the first place, yet somehow they expect perfection from those same programmers when it comes to making changes that go into Windows Updates. After all, who would ever suspect an update of being bad? Such things are ALWAYS treated as anomalies. Somehow they imagine that if only the programmers are told to "pay attention, dammit" that NOW they will do perfect work. It's quite funny once you get your head around it all. In reality Microsoft knows there will be (and more importantly WANTS there to be) problems - they most certainly don't want to achieve perfection! Why? Because they want us to be locked-in to their vicious cycle. The cycle doesn't matter, it's the "locked-in" part that matters to them. No one is better at managing and leveraging mediocrity into user control than Microsoft. -Noel

I see the same thing. The error message *** ERROR: HTTP_STATUS_NOT_FOUND is being returned from the server upon attempt to download a new dwmcore.pdb. Usually what happens in these cases, where it seems to work for some and not others is that another try in the future (e.g., because of a reboot or restart of DWM.exe) ultimately nets a successful symbol file download. For what it's worth, right at this time I'm waiting for a set of symbols to download into Visual Studio so that I can do some debugging on something completely unrelated to Aero Glass and Win 10, and that's taking an age. Microsoft's servers are probably overloaded. -Noel

Nor do I want to take any further updates from them for my pre-Win 10 systems. -Noel

Nice link - thanks. >"enhanced services" half of which you may have no use for. Half? Does Microsoft have ANYTHING useful to offer? I think the only thing, now that the Anniversary Update dust has mostly settled here, is that I let Windows Defender contact Microsoft for definitions updates. I guess I do occasionally check for Win 10 Windows Updates, but not often. I tried setting up a VM that would support Apps, but I found running Windows with UAC off unacceptable. Some things I've found useful in the "Windows, STFU" arena: O&O ShutUp10 Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control (version 8, now available as a beta, really rocks) Dual DHCP DNS Server (open source) My own Windows 10 ReTweaker script -Noel

Maybe the whole thing will just fall so flat on its face that they'll resurrect the Win 7 source code and start again there. Hey, it's what *I'd* do if I were hired in as CEO to replace a failed regime. -Noel

Big Muscle, I just caught a minor ModernFrame glitch... The border went completely transparent. I had just clicked on the desktop after the Settings App was current, and it showed the inactive frame briefly, then this. -Noel

Yes, I see the same as carlitosoo555. Looks nicely integrated. You just have to make sure the string in AppInit_DLLs exactly matches the name of the DLL. Only thing I see slightly wrong is you have to just know that to the left of the title in the Settings App is where the back arrow should be. It works fine, you just don't see it. -Noel

Are you implying Cortana is acting with divine intent? That was ultimately Hal's excuse. That could explain a lot. Cortana driven by Lucifer. -Noel

For what it's worth, I have found SSDs utterly reliable. I have created two RAID 0 arrays of 480 GB SSDs in my workstation, 4 drives in one (system volume C:) and 2 in the other (volume V:, which backs virtual machines). I got the first 4 SSDs back in 2012. I have never had even the slightest glitch. They have delivered 100.0000% reliability, and that's with heavy use. These drives are OCZ Vertex 3 models - way out of date per today's tech, but still seriously fast overall, especially combined together. A key to getting and maintaining tip top SSD performance is to overprovision. Get about twice the space you anticipate using and the drives will love you. Put several in RAID 0 so the load is spread and they'll love you even more. Yes, that gets even more expensive, but it works. -Noel

With near 400 ft-lbs on tap you really only need one per perp if you're any good at it. Do you see a lot of situations with more than 15 people trying to take your computer? If you do, there's always the concept of having a second mag ready. -Noel

How many processes is Windows 10 running to support an empty desktop (i.e., doing nothing at all). Compare that to the numbers from prior versions. For me - even after my best trimming efforts - there are something like 6 more processes. Remember XP? Remember that you could boot up a basic system with under 20 processes and some could even get under 100 MB? The new software is NOT faster, not by any reasonable measure. A Win 10 system running more junkware simply isn't going to be more efficient. The one overriding thing that always drives "new Windows is faster!" hype is this: For MOST folks, a freshly installed Windows system will run rings around a system they've had running for a long time, because they're not smart or vigilant enough to keep a Windows system running at the peak of performance by keeping it from getting laden with any number of useless features and packages. The secondary thing is that hardware is continuing to get faster. People tend to compare their experience running the new software on new hardware with running old Windows on systems from yesteryear. Boot up Windows 7 on a modern system... Even without any of the hybrid BS for me here it cold boots on my Dell PowerEdge T20 server (cheap 2 core Haswell processor and booting from SSD) in under 15 seconds. If you're not using Autoruns, ShellExView, Process Hacker et. al., nightly runs of things like TASKLIST into log files, etc. (or their equivalents) then you're probably not keeping your Windows system in tip top shape. Imagine how bad Windows 10 is going to get, considering it STARTS OUT laden with so much extra junkware running. -Noel

In my opinion a username/password is enough, and... -Noel

Somewhere a marketing dweeb is thinking, "That's not a bug, it's a modern feature, and we'll work tirelessly to make you into a tin foil hat-wearing dinosaur outcast oldster hater in the eyes of others if you even hint at otherwise!" -Noel

ReactOS is a good idea, but isn't mature. Perhaps Win 10 will spur it on to be finished. Have you compared a freshly installed Win 8.1 system with the freshly installed Win 10? The results may surprise you. For me there are quite a few more things running in a quiet Win 10 system than with the older OS. Regarding accumulating crud... I've found it possible to keep a Windows system running efficiently, but it does take some ongoing work... Though I have a fair number of accessories also, generally speaking I stop needless services and applications that start up. I ruthlessly remove unneeded things that show up after installs using tools such as Autoruns and ShellExView. On my main Win 8.1 system, a quiet desktop generally settles to a bit more than 40 processes, 11 of which are svchost wrappers for services. Here's what a nightly poll of running things turns up late at night on a logged-in system... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TaskList /V /FO:CSV /NH (processes running): "aerohost.exe","1260","Services","0","652 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:04:12","N/A" "atieclxx.exe","10228","Console","1","7,160 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:00","N/A" "atiesrxx.exe","180","Services","0","1,940 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:00","N/A" "ClassicStartMenu.exe","8096","Console","1","9,168 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "CLOCK32.EXE","4232","Console","1","5,940 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "cmd.exe","5656","Services","0","2,740 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "conhost.exe","5928","Services","0","7,392 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "csrss.exe","3996","Console","1","7,092 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:24","N/A" "csrss.exe","656","Services","0","2,280 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:02","N/A" "dasHost.exe","2260","Services","0","7,084 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE","0:00:00","N/A" "dllhost.exe","3028","Services","0","4,616 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:00","N/A" "dwm.exe","7444","Console","1","54,692 K","Unknown","Window Manager\DWM-1","0:04:51","N/A" "explorer.exe","3660","Console","1","138,796 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:01:14","N/A" "gsort.exe","6840","Services","0","1,712 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "lsass.exe","808","Services","0","23,140 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:05:30","N/A" "mainserv.exe","1508","Services","0","4,320 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:21","N/A" "OutlookPasswordWorkaround.exe","3408","Console","1","10,864 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "services.exe","800","Services","0","6,028 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:14:26","N/A" "ShellFolderFixUI.exe","4296","Console","1","10,100 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "Skype.exe","6120","Console","1","161,768 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:08:36","N/A" "smss.exe","524","Services","0","520 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:32","N/A" "spoolsv.exe","1272","Services","0","14,676 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:03","N/A" "svchost.exe","1088","Services","0","28,048 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE","0:04:28","N/A" "svchost.exe","1308","Services","0","23,404 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE","0:00:48","N/A" "svchost.exe","1704","Services","0","10,236 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE","0:00:02","N/A" "svchost.exe","2352","Services","0","1,164 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE","0:00:00","N/A" "svchost.exe","2856","Services","0","10,720 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE","0:00:01","N/A" "svchost.exe","512","Services","0","27,720 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE","0:01:41","N/A" "svchost.exe","588","Services","0","31,764 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:22","N/A" "svchost.exe","652","Services","0","25,216 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE","0:00:09","N/A" "svchost.exe","812","Services","0","68,284 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:52:50","N/A" "svchost.exe","920","Services","0","10,804 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:02:55","N/A" "svchost.exe","968","Services","0","13,756 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE","0:02:00","N/A" "System Idle Process","0","Services","0","4 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","4221:34:12","N/A" "System","4","Services","0","144,892 K","Unknown","N/A","6:45:39","N/A" "taskhostex.exe","7708","Console","1","22,748 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:02","N/A" "tasklist.exe","9480","Services","0","6,028 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:00","N/A" "TortoiseProc.exe","8700","Console","1","33,624 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:01","N/A" "TSVNCache.exe","5860","Console","1","52,728 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:08","N/A" "vmware-authd.exe","1804","Services","0","4,324 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:02:51","N/A" "vmware-usbarbitrator64.exe","1036","Services","0","2,968 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:00","N/A" "Windows10FirewallControl.exe","4176","Console","1","24,684 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:18:04","N/A" "Windows10FirewallService.exe","1352","Services","0","14,248 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:34:35","N/A" "wininit.exe","744","Services","0","1,500 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:00","N/A" "winlogon.exe","6328","Console","1","6,048 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM","0:00:00","N/A" "WizMouse.exe","6104","Console","1","1,120 K","Unknown","NoelC4\NoelC","0:00:06","N/A" "WmiPrvSE.exe","10700","Services","0","6,596 K","Unknown","NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE","0:00:00","N/A" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TaskList /SVC /FO:CSV /NH (services running): "atiesrxx.exe","180","AMD External Events Utility" "lsass.exe","808","EFS,KeyIso,SamSs,VaultSvc" "mainserv.exe","1508","APC UPS Service" "spoolsv.exe","1272","Spooler" "svchost.exe","1088","CryptSvc,Dnscache,LanmanWorkstation,NlaSvc,TermService" "svchost.exe","1308","BFE,DPS" "svchost.exe","1704","stisvc" "svchost.exe","2352","PolicyAgent" "svchost.exe","2856","SSDPSRV,upnphost,wcncsvc" "svchost.exe","512","Audiosrv,Dhcp,EventLog,lmhosts,Wcmsvc,wscsvc" "svchost.exe","588","Browser,CertPropSvc,IKEEXT,iphlpsvc,LanmanServer,MMCSS,ProfSvc,Schedule,SENS,SessionEnv,ShellHWDetection,Themes,Winmgmt" "svchost.exe","652","EventSystem,FontCache,netprofm,nsi,WdiServiceHost,WinHttpAutoProxySvc" "svchost.exe","812","AudioEndpointBuilder,DeviceAssociationService,PcaSvc,SysMain,TrkWks,UmRdpService,WdiSystemHost" "svchost.exe","920","BrokerInfrastructure,DcomLaunch,LSM,PlugPlay,Power,SystemEventsBroker" "svchost.exe","968","RpcEptMapper,RpcSs" "vmware-authd.exe","1804","VMAuthdService" "vmware-usbarbitrator64.exe","1036","VMUSBArbService" "Windows10FirewallService.exe","1352","Windows10FirewallService" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beyond that, and assuming you have leaned-down your setup similarly, I see that you mentioning late opening menus... If equipped with an electromechanical HDD, your laptop could be suffering from being bound by slow I/O, especially if it's doing any swapping to disk. It might be worth investing in a big, fast SSD. I run everything from SSD here. Like you, I find delays in control response unacceptable, and SSD is the single easiest upgrade you can do that will net results (and ongoing results, as increasing fragmentation doesn't bother an SSD-equipped system nearly as much). -Noel

Nothing here since June, so once again we have reached stasis... Owing to the hard work xper (and others?) have put in, the site is more or less usable, though there are still quirks. We have this level of performance, where the insertion point cursor sometimes fails to show, or more of the page is whitespace than is needed, or quoted quotes don't show, or [insert your pet peeve here] - and we've learned to work around them more or less... It is the New Normal. Is anything actually better than it was before? -Noel

What I missed was the (lack of?) anticipation that RS1 wouldn't add anything impressive - or frankly even appreciable - to Windows 10, and so there is still precious little interest. The only recent tweak that's caught eyes around here is that Big Muscle has resurrected Aero Glass for build 14393. But even then it only almost brings back the functionality we had already achieved on earlier Win 10 releases. It's not like it's faster, or can make the Taskbar look as good as Win 8.1 and earlier, or is as bug-free, or... I have had a fair number of queries about my re-tweaker script, which automates the removal of most everything "new and [not] improved" that Microsoft has hung all over the NT kernel lately. End of an era. -Noel

Here it is, 3 weeks later and... 1. I didn't upgrade my workstation - the machine I need to do work. It's still on Win 8.1. 2. I upgraded my Win 10 test VM to the RS1 release. 3. Courtesy of Big Muscle elsewhere on this forum, I've even resurrected Aero Glass. Again. I'm STILL so thoroughly unimpressed with Win 10 version 1607 AKA build 14393 AKA "the Anniversary Update" AKA Redstone 1 that I'm not just glad for item 1 above, but I'm f****** ecstatic that I didn't choose to upgrade the workstation! Now it's clear why they didn't want to roll out the software before the "end" of the free downgrade period. They would have duped even fewer people into adopting it. -Noel

Can you describe what "manage memory as well as Win 10" means to you? I haven't noticed my best lean, tweaked Win 8.1 using any more memory than my best lean, tweaked Win 10 setup TBH. If anything there are something like 6 to 10 more processes running on an idle Win 10 system. In very round numbers, both systems seem to use about 1 GB of an 8 GB RAM available just sitting at an idle desktop. But even that's misleading; you really do want the system to use your RAM as needed, that's what it's there for. Are there specific things you're finding you can run on Win 10 that wouldn't run on Win 8.1? -Noel