Windows is based on various multiple redundancy systems: the registry, NTFS, WinSxS, and the user interface with various shells: Commandline: Command.com, CMD.exe, Powershell.exe, Graphical: Explorer.exe, Start, aka Modern aka Metro aka Immersive shell, and Mini systems: Bootmgr, WinPE, WinRE, to name but a few, and then there are redundant action pathways, multiple browsers, Image viewers, text editors, fonts, resource monitors and so on. And all that is before third party replacements and enhancements to system apps and utilities.
Given the long pedigree of Windows, and the resistance to change by users as evidenced by the deprecation of novel versions such as Windows 8, and Vista, Windows tries to satisfy everybody, and sometimes fails because the User population covers a wide spectrum of humanity, cultures, and experience.
Ah, well, perhaps the difference comes with whether one uses one's computer as a tool for work, in which case one expects a hammer to be a hammer, and not a hammer that morphs into a spanner, or screwdriver, forcing one to interrupt the flow of one's work to choose which form to use - especially when one only sees a spanmer before one. I have been using computers for 30+ years (actually more if one includes my military use of mainframes), and vanity does not dictate how it is set up for use. (OK maybe vanity drives my choices in which details I like displayed.)
Nobody will appreciate all the aspects of diversity that Windows offers, as perhaps the old mythical 80% rule of thumb shows - 80% of users never use 80% of the features available.
Yes, exactly the problems Windows has always had. While it had the power to try and be all things to all people, it also designed for the least sophisticated user, or compromised how efficiently things worked. Imagine if the BBC announcers had to limit their vocabulary to that of an East End lorry driver, rather than aspire to use the King's English.
Office became the default that everyone had to use as MS conquered the markets, even though Word and Excel were less efficient, and user friendly, versions of word processors and spreadsheets. And (much as Win10, 8, Vista etc have been), MS products have been "modernized" frequently, requiring yet another learning curve period. This is fine if one has lots of time, but productivity falls off as one learns, or relearns how to do simple tasks that one has just gotten used to after the previous revision. Add up all the five minutes one searches to do something that formerly was a simple click, and years of labor, unproductive of the task at hand, are wasted. Modernization is fine if it serves one or solves a problem. Side mirrors which fold in when one parks is a solution to all the wasted hours of having them replaced. But so much of MS has been focused on the vanity aspects.
That makes 16% of features that perhaps 80% of users will agree are the most useful features of Windows, and 84% of features that 80% of users don't care or know about.
Yes, unfortunately I am one of the ones who uses 25% of the other 84%.
I'd just like to say to Gomer (Hi, Gomer, welcome to Tenforums
0, It won't get any better, unless you make your own OS that does just what you and only you want.
Of course you are correct, but as I get older with less time to look forward to, I am bothered by it apparently getting worse. And Thank You for the welcome, Fafhrd.
If you buy a suit off the peg, expect it not to fit perfectly, unless you have a perfect body.