Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17083 for PC Fast+Skip Insider

Wynona said:

I agree, TC; if a client comes to me with a question about PaintShop Pro, I’m not going to tell her she should use Microsoft’s Photos or Paint 3D neither of which can compare to PSP. By the same token, if she comes to me and says she has 15 or 20 photos she wants to enlarge to 8 x 10, and wants to know which program to use, I’m not going to tell her to go out and buy PaintShop Pro. Instead I’ll point to the Photos app within Windows 10. However, if she tells me she wants to edit some 150 photos, we’ll have to discuss the pros and cons of how best for to proceed. In the end, I have a happy client who decided based on unbiased information.

I decided to check to see just how many “apps” are included with Windows 10 and how many I can/will use.

Some I choose not to use are Cortana, Games, Groove, Mail, News, Paint 3D, Photos, Sticky Notes and Weather none of which pretend to be production apps. They’re good enough for occasional use, but for something serious, a little more oomph is needed.

There are some I use now and some I will use in the future; Calculator, Calendar, Feedback, Notepad/Wordpad, People, Skype, Steps Recorder, Voice Recorder, and Windows Defender. I cannot, in all honesty, consider these as real production apps, although most will do what I need.

I have invested in several third party apps I regularly use, and have, of course, a number of free third party apps as well.

I was considering dropping my subscription to MBAM until I was referred to Bleeping Computer and read up enough to decide I will continue to use both Windows Defender and Malwarebytes. I may also need to add anti-exploitation to the mix!

And, finally … Quite frankly, Windows would be nothing without third party programs and apps; third party programs and apps would be nothing without Windows. I guess you could say it’s a symbiotic relationship. Both need each other to function properly.

Very True, I use Windows 10 as an OS and not a Store to get more Metro Apps that I do not want or need. I play games from Steam and Not Candy Crush, but some may like that sort of thing.

I use Mail, Weather, and Snipping Tool frequently. On occasions, I will use Facebook and Twitter. Otherwise, I use free and purchased programs. Some of the latter I purchased more than a decade and they have been updated.

I've joined Insiders primarily to get the newest versions of features like Hyper-V and Linux Subsystem for Windows. But I also have about 85 free and purchased 3rd party apps which I keep updated with Sumo.

Tony K said:

Don't mind me. I like giving people a hard time when it comes to fixing 3rd party apps. Never use them myself. Simply don't see the need in them if MS has it covered. Besides the on the Defender icon upon a Insider build update, which can hardly count, I can't remember having a problem with Defender. Been since 8.1 I think. It just works well. That's not to say some may have a problem at times.

Now it's time to mosey on over to the AV thread to see if I'm correct.

Oh, and the after sleep freeze in 083 has only been a one-time incident. So far anyway.

Lol - count yourself blessed. But, that is the fun part - breaking things, and then figuring out why they broke.

I've had numerous sleep issues with my legacy system and WinX. To the point where I disable Fast startup every time I clean install, and every time we get a new Insider build (except when I forget - and the system reminds me by, once again, acting weird after going to sleep / trying to reboot).

As for 3rd party apps, well, I spent most of my younger self avoiding Micro$oft applications as much as I could on my personal machines - the driving force behind why I went all *nix some 15, 16 years ago. And the driving force that brought me back was gaming, pure and simple. Everything else I do on a computer is OS-agnostic. Many will argue that so is gaming - well, yes, and no - some services to operate on *nix - and some do not.

Come to think about it, I've been testing MB for over 10 years now, I think....so I am rather entrenched with that.

I use a lot of 3rd party utilities on my computer on a regular basis - Nir Sofer's tools and SysInternals come to mind (but I was using Bryce and Mark's stuff well before Micro$oft bought them out), but there are others.

f14tomcat said:

I try to help 3rd party app users when they have a problem or issue. Not all PC/Laptop owners are as technically savvy as a lot are here. Lots of the time, they are just looking for a solution to a problem that is beyond them, and not interested in the deeper technical aspects of Windows. If a Windows solution is apparent and easy for them, then sure. But if they would prefer some other solution, that's fine also.

I've made this my life's hobby, as well as my job. I've been doing Tier I and Tier II end user support since before IT was called IT lol.

I just enjoy doing it.

Tony K said:

Hmm. I've noticed you two come in a pair lately.

I actually use third-party UWP apps out of the Store. Not going to say they don't flaw now and then, but I find them more reliable and actually handier for navigating to get tasks done quicker. Also easier to quickly fix now since they placed a repair in the Apps section of the Settings app.

A few examples; I have a UWP dictionary app that I tried out back in 8/8.1, then bought the Pro version for like $3. Whenever a word is copied anywhere it gives a definition and synonyms of that word from three different dictionaries.

The People app links items such as the phone number to automatically text with the Messaging app or call using the Phone app. An address link to open the Maps app to show that location. In 3D Street view yet. Then in Maps a link for the Navigation app while maintaining the Maps app for places close by for eats and potty break.

This is what Insiders is all about to me. Testing the UWP "creative" apps and features that MS and others implement. 10 isn’t Granny's win32/W7 OS anymore. I’ll guarantee when those dinosaurs die off 10 will be back to something very similar to 8. In fact, with miniaturization going at the rate it is there’s a very good chance the desktop PC will be quite different to what we have now. May be more like a folding phablet in a cooling dock with a monitor, touch desktop keyboard that switches back and forth to a start screen for touch navigating, and an exterior drive for backup or just backup to the cloud.

I go the exact opposite - I have apps that I install that I could use from the Store (IrfanView for one, several others - Remote Desktop, Skype (well that comes with WinX, but I uninstall it, along with most of hte other apps that come pre-installed that I am able to remove), etc.) and I use almost all 3rd party apps. Exceptions - I use Mail in WinX, I install the Office 365 X64 Insider Preview, and I do use OneDrive some for file sharing with family - for clients I use Google Drive. I use Google Maps, and many other things Google, because, as an Android user for 8+ years (my, how time flies) I'm rather entrenched in their universe lol - so all those you list above, pick the Google equivalent and I am there....with the same capabilities ( search for a restaurant, and then from the Google search I have basic info, with a clickable phone number, a link for their website, a clickable link for Maps for directions, etc...

Wynona said:

I agree, TC; if a client comes to me with a question about PaintShop Pro, I’m not going to tell her she should use Microsoft’s Photos or Paint 3D neither of which can compare to PSP. By the same token, if she comes to me and says she has 15 or 20 photos she wants to enlarge to 8 x 10, and wants to know which program to use, I’m not going to tell her to go out and buy PaintShop Pro. Instead I’ll point to the Photos app within Windows 10. However, if she tells me she wants to edit some 150 photos, we’ll have to discuss the pros and cons of how best for to proceed. In the end, I have a happy client who decided based on unbiased information.

I decided to check to see just how many “apps” are included with Windows 10 and how many I can/will use.

Some I choose not to use are Cortana, Games, Groove, Mail, News, Paint 3D, Photos, Sticky Notes and Weather none of which pretend to be production apps. They’re good enough for occasional use, but for something serious, a little more oomph is needed.

There are some I use now and some I will use in the future; Calculator, Calendar, Feedback, Notepad/Wordpad, People, Skype, Steps Recorder, Voice Recorder, and Windows Defender. I cannot, in all honesty, consider these as real production apps, although most will do what I need.

I have invested in several third party apps I regularly use, and have, of course, a number of free third party apps as well.

I was considering dropping my subscription to MBAM until I was referred to Bleeping Computer and read up enough to decide I will continue to use both Windows Defender and Malwarebytes. I may also need to add anti-exploitation to the mix!

And, finally … Quite frankly, Windows would be nothing without third party programs and apps; third party programs and apps would be nothing without Windows. I guess you could say it’s a symbiotic relationship. Both need each other to function properly.

Have to agree with pretty much everything you said there. I serve my clients' needs as they want them served - the only thing I've ever really suggested to any of my clients is Malwarebytes (an I don't have an affiliate code, so I make $0 from every license they buy - I just push for it because I am extremely well versed in the product, and it makes my life easier - but I have several clients who have told me they were not interested. More power to them. I'll support their Avast! or AVG or Norton (the usual suspects) on their machines as best as I can.

martyfelker said:

I use Mail, Weather, and Snipping Tool frequently. On occasions, I will use Facebook and Twitter. Otherwise, I use free and purchased programs. Some of the latter I purchased more than a decade and they have been updated.

I've joined Insiders primarily to get the newest versions of features like Hyper-V and Linux Subsystem for Windows. But I also have about 85 free and purchased 3rd party apps which I keep updated with Sumo.

Ahhh, yes, thanks for the reminder - Snipping Tool - OMG, I'd be fighting to get my Snag-It v9 license working on here if it wasn't for Snipping Tool...

For weather, I uninstall it and use Earth Alerts instead - tray app, small footprint, 0 ads, and very well organized. very few minor problems with the software in the 8+ years I have been using it....

I do have a lot of purchased software, some of which I still install (like Adobe Acrobat X -0 every clean install gets it on there again) and some of which have kinda gotten forgotten about (or replaced by better products), like ACDSee, GetRight, Download Accelerator Pro, even (don't laugh) Cyberlink's PowerDVD (which originally came with my Blu-Ray burner but which I upgraded 3 or 4 times before finally giving up a few versions back).

I use very few 3rd party Store APPs, there just isn't many I would b interest in but on the other hand. didn't uninstall any standard APPs, even ones I don't use. A good PC and lots of disk space makes it unnecessary to bother with it.

I have to say I've probably spent way too much money on 3rd party apps but I love to tinker with them. Ironically, the only app I paid for on Linux is Crossover Linux and that's because Wine is a pain (although I haven't tried it lately - it may be easier for me). That does not include VMware Workstation which has versions for Linux and Windows. In fact I've bought upgrades to VMware Workstation since version 1 (I still have the disk and box but unfortunately lost the S/N). I must say that I break stuff much less often than when I was younger. It's alway more challenging (as many of us have found) to keep stuff working than to break it.

AndreTen said:

Anybody else have strange readings of Memory usage in Task manager? Firefox usage showing 100 MB, no matter how many tabs opened..
Details showing different data, thou

Not here, Andre.

AndreTen said:

Anybody else have strange readings of Memory usage in Task manager? Firefox usage showing 100 MB, no matter how many tabs opened..
Details showing different data, thou

Not here, Andre. Mine is around 13%. Don't know what that would be with 24GB RAM, though.