Re: Update?
I've updated a laptop from 8.1 to 10 purely for testing purposes; several users of my legacy shareware software lost their registry settings on doing the upgrade. Initially I tried the update tool but it crashed and burned with no explanation or error message. Eventually the automatic update has kicked in but instead of taking 3.8 GB as stated it actually took nearer to 7 GB making a serious hole in my internet monthly quota. I had to turn off the computer a couple of times during this automatic update to retain enough bandwidth for the other kit in the household (I'm limited to 2 GB per day) and automatic updates know nothing about this limit so happily burned through it one morning before breakfast leaving the household without internet for the rest of the day. Large automatic updates are going to be a pain in the rear for this reason if no other.
When Windows 10 finally finished installing I chose the custom setup having been warned about all the privacy breaching default settings. It was quite scary how much Microsoft wanted to spy on *everything* done on the computer, from typing, to programs run and websites visited etc. So I turned off just about every option.
The user interface has a horrible search bar on the taskbar, so got rid of that and the Microsoft shop icon from there along with some other clutter. The new start menu is pretty crap and has animated tiles which are just plain irritating and lots of other crap by default that I don't want such as Twitter and Faceache. Installed ClassicShell menu and it is much improved. It now looks very similar to 8.1 (with ClassicShell). Long story short, I'll leave Windows 10 on that laptop but only as the secondary operating system behind Linux. I was pleased to see that the Win 10 update didn't trash the existing Linux installation or revert the secure boot back on again.
My overall impression of Win 10 is that its interface is little better than 8.1 but I simply don't trust it. It is too scary from a privacy perspective and automatic updates can't be trusted not to take my entire daily bandwidth allowance with no way to stop them either. I won't use it for anything sensitive, online banking, personal documents or anything else to be honest unless I'm forced to do so e.g. if Customs and Revenue insist I run some Windows-only software, otherwise I'll never use Windows 10 other than for testing purposes.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
