What is your preferred release version of Windows 10?

[AstroSkipper]

5 minutes ago, legacyfan said:

for me version 1709 is my favorite version of windows 10 (before the telemetry started)

Telemetry is not my main problem with Windows 10. The overall restrictions inside this OS, the access to the system only via account, the cutted rights of an administrator and the disastrous user interface are much worse. 

[mina7601]

11 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

Windows 7 was or is a worthy successor to Windows XP.

Completely agreed!

[NotHereToPlayGames]

19 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

Telemetry is not my main problem with Windows 10. The overall restrictions inside this OS, the access to the system only via account, the cutted rights of an administrator and the disastrous user interface are much worse. 

Agreed, same here.  The whole "Trusted Installer" BS in Vista and everything higher is freakishly annoying!

[cmccaff1]

7 hours ago, legacyfan said:

for me version 1709 is my favorite version of windows 10 (before the telemetry started)

I do recall testing that version and enjoying it a lot. While 10 does have its annoyances, and keeping in mind what you and others have shared, I've migrated yet again, settling on what I think is the best compromise: LTSB 2016. This version of Win10 will still get extended support until October 2026, which isn't too bad...maybe I'll look again at LTSC 2019 and IoT 2021 when the time is right. I'm getting much better performance (actually, surprisingly close to 7), and less noticeable bugs, compared to later versions of 10.
THIS is the version I would recommend to anyone who wants to use 10, without having to deal with some of the BS of later releases. It seems to be the best possible compromise (updates are only security/stability-based, no telemetry, and all the benefits of the 10 kernel).
At this point I'm pretty much squared away, and plan to stay with 10 as my 'main' OS (though I'm not opposed to returning to XP/7 on a temporary basis, to test software that seems interesting--luckily, my PC has full driver support from Win2000 to Win10).

If I were to sum it up, I'd say Windows XP was the greatest OS Microsoft ever made, Windows 7 is the last great OS from Microsoft, and Windows 10 (all versions up to/including 1709) was the last good Microsoft OS. Love it or hate it, it may be better to get used to 10, and for what it's worth it's definitely the most future-proof option. The most bleeding-edge motherboards on the market still have full support for 10. LTSB 2016, however you may obtain it, is a good way to get acquainted with 10 and have a good experience while using it, and even my old HP S5-1020 is doing just fine with it. LTSC 2019 definitely felt slower than 7 on this machine, but LTSB 2016 is actually pretty close to 7 in performance on the same hardware. So it should be snappy on old PCs.

[legacyfan]

On 3/2/2023 at 11:46 PM, cmccaff1 said:

I do recall testing that version and enjoying it a lot. While 10 does have its annoyances, and keeping in mind what you and others have shared, I've migrated yet again, settling on what I think is the best compromise: LTSB 2016. This version of Win10 will still get extended support until October 2026, which isn't too bad...maybe I'll look again at LTSC 2019 and IoT 2021 when the time is right. I'm getting much better performance (actually, surprisingly close to 7), and less noticeable bugs, compared to later versions of 10.
THIS is the version I would recommend to anyone who wants to use 10, without having to deal with some of the BS of later releases. It seems to be the best possible compromise (updates are only security/stability-based, no telemetry, and all the benefits of the 10 kernel).
At this point I'm pretty much squared away, and plan to stay with 10 as my 'main' OS (though I'm not opposed to returning to XP/7 on a temporary basis, to test software that seems interesting--luckily, my PC has full driver support from Win2000 to Win10).

If I were to sum it up, I'd say Windows XP was the greatest OS Microsoft ever made, Windows 7 is the last great OS from Microsoft, and Windows 10 (all versions up to/including 1709) was the last good Microsoft OS. Love it or hate it, it may be better to get used to 10, and for what it's worth it's definitely the most future-proof option. The most bleeding-edge motherboards on the market still have full support for 10. LTSB 2016, however you may obtain it, is a good way to get acquainted with 10 and have a good experience while using it, and even my old HP S5-1020 is doing just fine with it. LTSC 2019 definitely felt slower than 7 on this machine, but LTSB 2016 is actually pretty close to 7 in performance on the same hardware. So it should be snappy on old PCs.

Windows XP Thru 7 Are Definitely The Best Versions Of Windows With Windows 10 As The 2nd Best Windows Version On My List

Edited March 7, 2023 by legacyfan

[NotHereToPlayGames]

1 hour ago, cmccaff1 said:

LTSB 2016 is actually pretty close to 7 in performance on the same hardware

Portions of my job used to be WFH (work from home) so I've always had the advantage of running corporate OSs.

My Win7 was Win7 Enterprise and my Win10 is 2016 LTSB.

I never really liked either compared to XP x64 so I would run them from within a VM whenever working from home.

Win10 always felt much better then Win7 and I could never see myself reverting to 7.

Even more so nowadays because as you mentioned, 10 should be much MUCH MUCH more future-proof - I will not run any "extended kernel" in 7 just to use a web browser and it's starting to look like that is the only "future" for Win7.

 

[legacyfan]

I'm actually looking into ltsc 2019 (ver 1809) now as a new option going forward (it has support until 2029) and is less bloated compared to normal windows 10

Edited March 3, 2023 by legacyfan

[mina7601]

13 hours ago, cmccaff1 said:

If I were to sum it up, I'd say Windows XP was the greatest OS Microsoft ever made, Windows 7 is the last great OS from Microsoft

Yes, Windows XP and 7 were great OSes in terms of design, features, functionality and customization.

[cmccaff1]

1 hour ago, legacyfan said:

I'm actually looking into ltsc 2019 (ver 1809) now as a new option going forward (it has support until 2029) and is less bloated compared to normal windows 10

An excellent choice, friend...feel free to let people know your thoughts on it! To me it's a great OS. You really can't go wrong with the LTSB/LTSC versions of Windows 10 in general.
For now, I've gone back to 7...and before the admins get mad (I apologize for the multitude of posts--I have tried to keep them at least tangentially relevant) & other users start raising their flaming torches, this time it's pretty much final until I'm on a newer computer that doesn't properly support 7, upgrade from a HDD to a SSD, or am basically 'forced' to upgrade due to browser needs. Besides the fact that 7 just gives me better overall performance anyway, the biggest problem I've found is that 10 seems to write to disk a lot more frequently than 7 does...both tend to write to disk quite heavily at times but it's a lot worse with 10 than it is with 7. It wouldn't be an issue with a SSD, but I'm still using a HDD, and don't want the performance on that thing to suffer due to constant writes (after all, if it ain't broke you shouldn't fix it, and that old HDD is still working fine).

So here's my final summary for now: if you are on a machine with a SSD, by all means go with 10 or whatever you're comfortable with running...you're pretty much good to go. If you're like me and still using a HDD, my best advice is to stick with 7 because it is much, much friendlier with older hardware in general, and with hard disk drives (and properly supports SSDs, so you're fine both ways). If your heart is set on using 10, stick to an LTSB/LTSC version--they're much more stable and 'sane' than regular 10 has ever been. If you care about performance, you may get better results with 7 on older hardware, but there should be little noticeable difference on much newer hardware, and assuming you're on a machine with full 7 driver support and a SSD, the choice is yours. I speak only from my own experience, and as others have probably figured out I'm not the most 'stable' source of information...but then again, all of us are constantly learning!

Edited March 3, 2023 by cmccaff1
Trying to get in the habit of italicizing instead of capitalizing for emphasis...it's a bad habit I've carried from my earlier days of being online. When you can use emphasis without capitals, you ought to take advantage of it!

[AstroSkipper]

31 minutes ago, cmccaff1 said:

If you're like me and still using a HDD, my best advice is to stick with 7 because it is much, much friendlier with older hardware in general, and with hard disk drives (and properly supports SSDs, so you're fine both ways).

Totally agreed!  For older (not as old as mine) hardware, Windows 7 is a very good choice. 

Edited March 3, 2023 by AstroSkipper

[UCyborg]

I only started using Win10 seriously with version 1809, though I ended up with 20H2 on home desktop, mostly 'cause I was curious about 1909, then installed it, then later I got curious again about 20H2, now I'm just holding position here. Besides MS continuing to make questionable changes that are either difficult or impossible to undo, just overall less time that I'm willing to spend messing with Windows.

I suppose there were the least surprises with 1809, after it got some patches. Interestingly, a bit off-topic, but another MS product from the time, SQL Server 2019, is supposedly very popular version of SQL Server these days and it will also be supported for the longer period.

I ended up turning off a bunch of scheduled tasks, so things don't get fired left and right, reducing disk activity. Bells and whistles should still be functional.

Still using plain HDD, interestingly, the one data disk being written to the least was the one that ended up developing few bad sectors there and there while the other two disks are OK for now. SuperFetch behavior seems to be a lot like Vista's, I don't remember Windows 7 preloading as much data. Loading user profile takes several seconds though, significantly slower compared to previous versions, all seems good when things settle.

[UCyborg]

Yay, bugs:

If there's something I learned working in IT, it's that things never work as expected. It's an endless cycle of trying to get basics to work right, then there's constant want of new features while the basics still don't work and then there are regressions when either implementing or fixing older flaws...rinse and repeat.

Windows...I ran them all from 95 to 10, except ME. Still can't say I have a favorite in 2023.

But I've grown to accept the flaws so they don't get to me as much as they used to.

Some relatable reading:

https://www.bruceb.com/2016/05/personal-computers-are-just-too-hard-to-use-and-it-isnt-your-fault/

https://www.bruceb.com/2019/01/its-not-just-your-computer-everything-is-too-hard-to-use-and-its-not-your-fault/

[cmccaff1]

Thank you for sharing those articles, UCyborg--I can definitely relate.
It took a lot of consideration, but I decided to migrate back to Windows 10 LTSC, but went for 2021 instead of 2019. I've said before you pretty much can't go wrong with any of the LTSB/LTSC versions, but it seems that the newer releases offer various improvements, small but quite meaningful in some cases, over the earlier ones.
(And a big benefit you get with using any version of 10 is being able to use modern browsers...the latest Chromium runs great.)

For what it's worth LTSC 2021 does seem to have a few bug fixes compared to 2019, but both are excellent, the bugs are nowhere near significant, and LTSB/LTSC in general, again, comes highly recommended for anyone who wants to bite the bullet and ride the '10 express'.
It's really up to your preference: the older ones will play nicer with older hardware and the newer ones may work better with newer PCs. For my part I'm still using my trusty old HP S5-1020, and when properly tweaked (there's no exact science, and in my cases it's taken a ton of trial and error) it pretty much runs as well as you could hope for it to on something that's now over a decade old.

Actually, the performance is competitive with 7 and 8.x...it still falls slightly short, but not nearly as badly as it would if left untweaked. I've learned more about 10, and it seems to be the absolute best option going forward for old and new PCs. Turns out Win11 went the x64 or bust route so 10 is the final version of Windows that supports 32-bit processors, and also appears to be the last that retains a good amount of legacy NT code; it appears that much of it has been rewritten or removed in 11 already, and I predict MS will stay on this path going forward. So if you're running legacy hardware & software, Win10 may be your final refuge before a Linux leap. (I'm not opposed to that in the future, having experimented with Linux before, but to me that's the last resort.)

To sum it up I still rank XP as the greatest OS Microsoft ever made. 7 comes in second, and 10 LTSB/LTSC takes a respectable third. Vista and 8.x are fantastic despite the bad reputations they unfairly gained, but honestly neither is a big leap over its predecessor. (They did introduce some nice innovations that their follow-ups improved upon, though.)

If you're willing, I would give 10 a try. It's gotten a lot better with time and I believe it will be remembered as a great OS when the plug is inevitably pulled, many years from now. Just as XP and 7 ascended to the pantheon of the great OSes after early struggles, I believe 10 will also get there one day. (Depending on who you ask, it might even be there now.)

[legacyfan]

actually my preferred release is windows 7 7601 (with all the 'importent' updates installed only) it's runs really well for a almost 21 year old and does everything I need it to do (including gaming) but windows 10 works pretty good as well and would be my 3rd choice if anything else should fail (my 2nd Choice would be linux)

Edited March 22, 2023 by legacyfan

[mjd79]

4 hours ago, legacyfan said:

actually my preferred release is windows 7 7601 (with all the 'importent' updates installed only) it's runs really well for a almost 21 year old and does everything I need it to do (including gaming)

The thread is about preferred versions of W10.... In the case of Windows 7, there isn't even much to choose between, well maybe between build 7600 and 7601 (SP0/SP1)

Personally at this moment I am using Windows 10 21H2 LTSC on my main computer, I have never been so happy with W10

Edited March 22, 2023 by mjd79