New
#131
My experience with personal computers (multi-platform) predates Win3.1 by several years, but I think Win10 is by far the best thing Microsoft has done to date. We've only had one official release of an OS since Win7, and that has been Windows 8/.1, and as there are billions more desktop computers in use globally than there are (or ever will be) tablets in use, the greater popularity of Win7 is quite understandable. Win8/.1 was crippled from day 1 because it was a tablet GUI that would never fly in the desktop environment. However, having bought Win8/.1 Pro direct from Microsoft for $39.99, I can attest to its being a much sleeker, faster OS than Win7, under the hood. But as I say its GUI doomed it from the start--somebody at Microsoft was asleep at the switch on that one.
But the Windows 10 GUI is very desktop-centric. It has a "tablet mode," an optional GUI mode if you are using it on a tablet, which is how Windows 8 should have been configured from the start. If you are not using it on a tablet then you don't have to look at and try to slog through a tablet GUI, thankfully--unlike Windows 8/.1. Using Classic Shell's start menu with Windows 8/.1 as I did for a couple of years was an unacceptable compromise for Windows 8, and I'm happy to say that I actually prefer the Win10 start menu as it has fleshed out in the latest build (10162) to the older Win7-style start menu...
At the beginning of Win10's TP road, I was worried just like you are that everything was getting dumbed down. However, as of now on the eve of the RTM release, I can see that this is not what's happening thanks to the feedback of many people aside from myself, I'm sure. All of the old Control-Panel information is still there, in the latest builds, it's just been moved around a little bit--taken out of the control panel and put somewhere else..! As far as the phone OS goes, Microsoft is seeing the writing on the wall on that one, and understanding that Windows phone probably doesn't have much of an immediate future--if any future at all. Ditto, tablets. The PC w mouse & keyboard is still far & away everyone's favorite computing device and thankfully Microsoft sees that now. Not surprising when you consider that everyone in the upper end of the company management who championed the Win8 debacle is gone...
I think very possibly your biggest problem is running Win10 in a VM. You can't feel the power of the OS at all from that position--you should be dual-booting at the least if you want to see the OS first hand but don't want to commit to it. I've found Windows 10 to be more backwards compatible with older software than Win8/.1, which I found more backwards-compatible than Win7. Pretty much, everything I've worried about in Win8/.1 has been addressed, correctly, in Win10. For several months I was running a dual-boot between Win10 and Win8.1, but I am now on Win10 exclusively, and my Win8 installation is no more. It's very fast--indeed my hardware feels almost "new" sometimes. I'm very pleased with it, actually--more pleased than I've been since Win7. You really need to get off the VM to see it, I think, and you need to use Win10 regularly so that you can adjust to the where some of the old stuff is--I actually think there's a method to the madness...!...
Does Office 2000 recognize newer document formats, such as docx, etc? Because frankly, this was the only reason I have updated the Office some time ago. And I did not update from 2010 to 2013 since if there are any new features, they are so advanced, I am not actually using them. At the same time, the horrible flat and square GUI ...
I agree with you. This was true for me with Windows 8.1. The VM in no way did its raw power justice. I am considering installing Windows 10 properly on my third hard disk drive to test its true power. I am intrigued to know how its performance compares with Windows 8.1. I am finding Windows 8.1 to be hugely efficient compared with Windows 7. Also, now being a full-time Windows 8.1 user (with Classic Shell installed), the transition to Windows 10 would be much easier if I ever choose to go down that route. I must say that I am quite intrigued with Microsoft's promise of frequent updates for Windows 10: it will be interesting to see how Windows 10 matures in the next year.
I tried the Open and Libre office suits, basically because at work we have Linux boxes with these things installed, but they don't really work in the sense that if someone sends you a Microsoft Office document there is no guarantee that they will render it correctly, in fact, in most cases they do that with multiple mistakes (the simplest being wrong paper and margin sizes). Therefore I use the Microsoft Office. At the same time, the only program that I use really often is the PowerPoint. In my world only secretaries use Word and I use it mostly to read what I receive from some secretary. And they use the new file extensions very rarely. So in 99% of situations Office 2000 would suffice.