New
#1
Finally installed Windows 10...
So I FINALLY got around to installing the Windows 10 build 9926 onto my main system, as the VM of it would not allow me to sign into my Microsoft Account whatsoever.
Wow. It's not the "whoa" I once had about three years ago with the Windows 8 Developer Preview, but wow.
First and immediate concern, holy crap on a thermometer, Microsoft Account syncing from 8.1 to 10 is basically nonexistent. Almost all your synced info is basically null for me. All my Start Screen IE pins from 8.1 got thrown into All Apps and they're all just null shortcuts that don't do anything. That's kind of a big problem.
The new Start Screen....sigh...
As my main tiles group title says, this is not going to work. Pinning is sometimes hit and miss and makes duplicate shortcuts within the Start menu directory but only one pin shows up on Start, or even not at all. I've had explorer.exe crash quite a few times just moving tiles around. Some tiles overlapped and had to be moved around to fix it. The two column set up is iffy to me, and honestly I miss the old 8.x side to side scrolling motion of Start. You were able to view more content and tiles longer than up and down scrolling. And the side MFU list and the Places list, what? Why is that there and why can't it be removed? You can't even really use Places and oddly enough, the file location is in the ProgramData directory I think and there are several shortcuts there, but only three or so actually show up on Start. It would be nice to actually pin File Explorer locations to Places and remove those tiles from Start for other things. The MFU list is just nonessential to me as well. I'm waiting for vertical tiles to show up in the upcoming build, that will be nice! Start Screen transparency is a must. It might be a shame to some people I know that they can't really deck out their Start Screen with all the different patterns 8.1 had in 10.
All Apps, also not going to work. It's a claustrophobic mess and a massive step backwards. Windows 8's All Apps view worked because EVERYTHING you have installed on your PC was exposed and you had a whole screen to view all of that. Yes, some people wanted folder hierarchies, yes that could have been added but not like the Windows vista/7 style. That is just no good. Even more tedious is the lack of jumplist capabilities where you can click on the letter and jump all the way down to entries that start with "W" even though the list seems like it was designed for that.
Some behaviors bother me, for example I have Cortana's icon on the Taskbar to be just the icon and not the search bar as it eats up a lot of Taskbar for me. In Start, I'd like to keep it that. Ideally, on Start there would be no visible Taskbar and Cortana can really take over all she wants. The other odd behavior is when I right click on Desktop based tiles and hit Open file location, it doesn't go to that window, you have to leave Start. Bit tedious.
Speaking of Cortana, voice input is a bit iffy for me. Granted I am using a cheapy mic but still. It's also hit and miss to use the Hey Cortana feature as well. I only got that to work a few times and not since then. I'd love to see a keyboard combo that will open up Cortana and allow speech input, much like how on Windows Phone you can press and hold the Search button, Cortana starts listening. Bing SmartSearch needs to come back with Cortana. That was a pretty cool feature from 8.1. I don't really like how web searches go to IE automatically, I'd prefer to a SmartSearch experience for that within maybe the Cortana pane or a separate app window.
The obligatory "Xbox Music still sucks" comment.
I've noticed on 10, some of the WinRT apps behavior weirdly too. If you keep a few apps open and either minimize them or just keep them in the background, sometimes they just get tombstoned by the system or something. I've had Xbox Music do that to me a few times where it would be playing music, and then stop because the app got suspended. Settings does that too. That needs to be figured out, as well as the playback control UI with Xbox Music with that annoying banner in the top left corner that just lingers there... Or apps that crash and are still on the Taskbar, that's a bit awkward.
It might be just me but everything seems smaller with the apps, text, UI, everything seems tinier than before. On Start it's apparent. In the apps, you can notice this as well. If you compare the apps on 8.1 to 10, it's just scrunched down. Not that it's a bad thing, but for some people I can imagine that small text is difficult to read. Shoot, even for me sometimes it's a bit of strain to read.
I do have to say, quite surprised at the fact that even though the kernel got bumped from 6.4 to 10, not really any issues with programs have come up. Kaspersky Interwebs Security 2015 will not work at all in compatibility mode or anything, but that's the first hiccup and that's understandable. Zune works fine, H&R Block works just fine as well. It makes me wonder if in reality, the kernel is actually just at 6.4 with 10 being masqueraded as the new kernel, but nothing is actually different.
Haven't really used Task View that much nor virtual desktops. I don't think I'll be using that feature ever as it just seems like it's getting from point A to point B in a different fashion that isn't better nor worse than what I'm already doing.
Overall, Windows 10 is bridging the gap between Windows 7, a files and programs based UI and OS; and Windows 8, an internet based touch first UI and OS with some files and programs. It's not a buggy release performance wise, it's just really buggy interacting with the UI. Windows 8 DP and subsequent previews didn't have a slightest issue being ran as my main OS. Windows 10...I may or may not have made a mistake doing this as my main OS. Some things I want back, like IE live tiles but that probably will be a Spartan fix soon. I'd really like to have more UI options for people that have such muscle memory from Windows 8.1 (and used 8 for several years) as it is a very spatial UI design to be able to adapt the UI of 10 closer to what they're used to, as 10 is basically being built around that concept.
Quote
