Windows 10 - Am I too late for free upgrade?

RumRat

prosaver wrote: »

I put my lap top to factory settings and got windows 8 back ..well chuffed ☺ cant stand windows 10, no wonder its free

What exactly was it that you didn't like, that you liked in W8 or W8.1?

Double_V

Win 8 was the worst windows ever after vista.

bod1467

Windows Me wasn't universally liked.

Johnmcl7

RumRat wrote: »

What exactly was it that you didn't like, that you liked in W8 or W8.1?

Windows 8.1 is Windows 10 without all the tracking parts and a working touch system, a 'clean' install of Windows 10 feels more like a laptop OEM build - the start menu is a mess (Candy Crush Saga is installed by default), the default media players are all very spammy and don't generally work (codec support is strangely small compared to Windows 8.1) and there's lots more tracking such as Cortana which isn't easy to disable and these features are getting tougher to disable through Group Policy.

Touch is essentially useless in Windows 10, rather than have seemless transitioning between desktop and tablet modes it's now a clunky switch and worse yet, the 'tablet' mode isn't anywhere as good as the touch mode in Windows 8.1 where you had gesture controls and much bigger buttons to account for the lack of precision when using touch. I stupidly thought Windows 10 would improve the touch system in Windows 8.1 and first installed it on an 8in tablet which lacks a keyboard but it's almost entirely unusable as there's so many mis-clicks when trying to use the 'tablet' mode.

Windows 8.1 was by no means flawless but its reputation doesn't match the reality - almost every time I ask someone why they think Window 10 is much better than Windows 8.1, they reel off a list of Windows 8.1 features. When I point that out to them it turns out their total experience of Windows 8.1 was that a friend told them it was rubbish or they'd tried it for five minutes in PC World. It's no surprise I guess how much marketing, branding and perception matter compared to the actual product itself.

John

Jivesinger

I have to admit that I found Windows 8.1 more reliable than Windows 10.

I think the user interface in Windows 10 is easier for a newbie to get the hang of, at least on a non-touch laptop or desktop. But I still feel Windows 8.x was more solid underneath.

Windows 10 has a nasty habit of just not opening an app, or opening and then closing it, with no error message or any indication you ever clicked it in the first place.

And Microsoft's handling of recent W10 updates doesn't bode well either.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3113078/microsoft-windows/fumbled-fixes-highlight-problem-with-windows-10-cumulative-updates.html

RumRat

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Windows 8.1 is Windows 10 without all the tracking parts and a working touch system, a 'clean' install of Windows 10 feels more like a laptop OEM build - the start menu is a mess (Candy Crush Saga is installed by default), the default media players are all very spammy and don't generally work (codec support is strangely small compared to Windows 8.1) and there's lots more tracking such as Cortana which isn't easy to disable and these features are getting tougher to disable through Group Policy.

Touch is essentially useless in Windows 10, rather than have seemless transitioning between desktop and tablet modes it's now a clunky switch and worse yet, the 'tablet' mode isn't anywhere as good as the touch mode in Windows 8.1 where you had gesture controls and much bigger buttons to account for the lack of precision when using touch. I stupidly thought Windows 10 would improve the touch system in Windows 8.1 and first installed it on an 8in tablet which lacks a keyboard but it's almost entirely unusable as there's so many mis-clicks when trying to use the 'tablet' mode.


Windows 8.1 was by no means flawless but its reputation doesn't match the reality - almost every time I ask someone why they think Window 10 is much better than Windows 8.1, they reel off a list of Windows 8.1 features. When I point that out to them it turns out their total experience of Windows 8.1 was that a friend told them it was rubbish or they'd tried it for five minutes in PC World. It's no surprise I guess how much marketing, branding and perception matter compared to the actual product itself.

John

I agree that W8.1 wasn't as bad as the haters made out. I liked it and used it from day one. Some couldn't be bothered with learning the changes and so would just knock it at every step.
That said, I do think W10 improved on it and I quite like the start menu. Two clicks gets rid of 'Candy Crush' etc.
I don't get paranoid about the system, because, I can't see the point. I'm sure some people think that MS have thousands of employees looking at every detail of their lives......Plus, I use Google on my Android, so, worrying about some fictitious invasion of privacy is a waste of time, not that I don't turn off what I need to, but, I still want functionality...;)
Thank you for providing a proper answer to the question. Each to their own, if W8.1 makes you happy, then power to you..:)

Johnmcl7

When you say two clicks, have you got a script to clean it up or are you just meaning to unpin/uninstall it from the start menu? I think I've got one PC mostly to where I want it (apps cleaned up, media player set back to W7 default etc.) so I'm wanting to automate that for the rest. I need Windows 10 on one machine and prefer to keep all the same but finding it irritating on the touch only machines and just not as fast or consistent as Windows 8.1 either.

It's not so much paranoia, it's more just breaking things - there's less control over updates with Windows 10 and there seems to be less testing, the recent anniversary update for example completely broke VR. It's irritating even in the pro version they're removing more control over that sort of thing through group policy.

John

RumRat

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

When you say two clicks, have you got a script to clean it up or are you just meaning to unpin/uninstall it from the start menu? I think I've got one PC mostly to where I want it (apps cleaned up, media player set back to W7 default etc.) so I'm wanting to automate that for the rest. I need Windows 10 on one machine and prefer to keep all the same but finding it irritating on the touch only machines and just not as fast or consistent as Windows 8.1 either.

It's not so much paranoia, it's more just breaking things - there's less control over updates with Windows 10 and there seems to be less testing, the recent anniversary update for example completely broke VR. It's irritating even in the pro version they're removing more control over that sort of thing through group policy.

John

Uninstall it from the machine with the right click - uninstall
You obviously use yours for far more than I do, so, I probably suffer far less problems or see fewer problems.
I guess there will never be the 'perfect' OS that pleases everyone. But, it is what it is for the moment and everything I need is working, so I'm happy.
Hopefully they'll pull there fingers out at some stage and fix your particular problems. Either that or someone else may...;)

I_have_spoken

people who have black market blue badges and park in disabled bays just because they are nearer the shops

You make it sound like that's a bad thing!

paddyrg

My argument with win 8.x was the damn METRO apps taking over an entire screen then wasting most of it on whitespace. It works drive me nuts when the wrong version of Skype started, or another basic app that didn't deserve to turn my expensive laptop into a dumb app-at-a-time heavy tablet with keyboard. Even my phones have been able to run 2+ apps simultaneously for at least 3 years now. Bad backward step.