Microsoft Windows 10: Clean or Dirty Window?

I found the HOW-TO GEEK forum while researching how to remove the Windows 10 upgrade notifier/installer from my PC. I had been almost pleasantly anticipating upgrading to Windows 10, thinking that M/S MUST SURELY have done something useful and advantageous for the end user "this time".

Alas! What a waste of my time... AGAIN! 

 

Despite all Microsoft's Win10 hype, that had me staring at that infernal system tray icon for a month or two, Windows 10 was a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT to me. I tried it for several days, and did NOT like it AT ALL. I restored my PC to Windows 7, today. 

 

I found that, despite the M/S hype about speed, clarity, and serviceability, Windows 10 is just another pile of excess baggage, except possibly for those people who revel in multimedia, games, and social media. Windows 10 tries to connect everything to everything, including an AI "personal assistant" that "learns" who you are and what you do, in order to try to "help you" figure out what you want to do or "should" be doing next. THAT latter element, alone, is an invasion of my space and privacy, and I do NOT want anything like that on my computer. MY computer is a tool, and not a toy, nor do I wish to date my computer, nor have "a relationship" with it. 

 

Adding insult to injury, Win10 is slower, booting, rebooting, AND shutting down. Win10 lagged behind Win7, even on my Dell quad x64 system with 12Gb RAM. About the only things that ran well were the strictly Microsoft programs. I can't blame Microsoft for other programmers not keeping up with all the major version changes to Windows, but then I also can't blame all the other programmers for not keeping up with the flood of Windows versions that have taken end users on such a disappointingly twisted and bumpy ride all these years. 

 

Win10 is more fragmented and confusing than Win7, if you are trying to shut down all the goop and fluff that M/S added, or if you are trying to do fine tuning on some aspect of your system. "Chop up and bury the victims!" must have been the M/S programmers' rally cry when writing Win10, or else M/S programmers must NOT have been communicating with each other. Win10 seems bent on trying to frustrate end users. Various related functions seem to be splattered all over the O/S menus, dividing and burying related useful functions in layer upon layer of menus and sub-windows. Some may defensively argue that if the user cannot find something one way then try another. That invites criticism about programming efficiencies and gratuitous self-justification of the menu quirks in the Win10 O/S. 

 

Win10, initially, made it look as if I didn't need to do any fine tuning, but, if one is not a newbie to computers, or not swallowing the M/S party line, then as a serious computer user you'll find yourself having to sift through numerous, scattered, new and old formats, menus, and sub-windows, to turn certain things on, off, or make detailed device setting changes. The corporate or programming assumption seems to be that the user has no business fiddling with anything that is not right in front of her/him within one or two menu levels in Win10. I tried to make a LOT of fine tuning adjustments that dead-ended in frustration. Though I have used Win7 since M/S pulled the support plug on XP, I am still not a huge fan of Win7. But, in all fairness to Win7, on my system, Win7 has proved itself faster and easier to use than Win10. 

 

What I REALLY WANT is Windows XP to be brought back and fully supported as the sound business and general work tool that it still is. Many of us end users are practically minded, and appreciate a functional and easy to maintain tool, like XP, so that we can get going quickly and get on with our work, with no mess and no fuss. End users like me have little or no use for social media, XBox, multimedia, or the 'everything-I-do-has-to-be-connected-or-I'm-not-somebody' fluff and frippery. 

 

The bottom line is that I rate Windows 10 as yet another very dirty Window in Microsoft's stable of software.