Windows is really so bad, bad, bad

[dmr727]

I haven't had to reinstall Windows since the 98 days. That said, Microsoft's BS is pushing me to transition my PC over to Linux full time. Proton is good enough that I don't think I need the Windows partition for gaming anymore - just need to make sure my Excel stuff prints properly under Wine and I should be good to go.

Just waiting for MS to finally turn off the Windows 7 license I've been using for years and years, and I'll make the switch.

 

[diamond.g]

I haven't had to reinstall Windows since the 98 days. That said, Microsoft's BS is pushing me to transition my PC over to Linux full time. Proton is good enough that I don't think I need the Windows partition for gaming anymore - just need to make sure my Excel stuff prints properly under Wine and I should be good to go.

Just waiting for MS to finally turn off the Windows 7 license I've been using for years and years, and I'll make the switch.

Why not switch full time to macOS?

 

[dmr727]

Why not switch full time to macOS?

Good question - my daily driver is an M1 MBA. The main reason is that I do some gaming and I've got a 4070 in my desktop PC that I'm not willing to walk away from yet. But I think that'll be my last big desktop, and there'll be a day where I replace my MBA and desktop with one laptop that does it all. If Apple doesn't piss me off *too* much in the meantime, it's quite possible that machine will be an M5 Macbook Pro.

 

[diamond.g]

Good question - my daily driver is an M1 MBA. The main reason is that I do some gaming and I've got a 4070 in my desktop PC that I'm not willing to walk away from yet. But I think that'll be my last big desktop, and there'll be a day where I replace my MBA and desktop with one laptop that does it all. If Apple doesn't piss me off *too* much in the meantime, it's likely that machine will be an M5 Macbook Pro.

If you don't play online games that require anticheat there is no real reason to keep a gaming PC since macOS plus GPTK can play everything now.

 

[dmr727]

If you don't play online games that require anticheat there is no real reason to keep a gaming PC since macOS plus GPTK can play everything now.

I know, but you currently need to spend some pretty big money on a MBP to get performance approaching a 4070 and I don't like going in reverse, even if it's close. I also have a Steam Deck for taking things on the road. I'm thinking M5 will be Apple's next GPU performance push, and once that's released I might be able to finally take everything down to a single device. Everything works fine right now, so I'm in no hurry.

 

[Adora]

I always wanted to have Windows 3.0 on my 6MHz intel 186, with 20MB HDD, 640KB RAM and 360KB 5.25" Floppy Drive, because 3.1 stopped support for 8 bit devices. But nobody had 3.0, I only found a copy of 2.11 somewhere and that was really bad.

 

[dmr727]

I always wanted to have Windows 3.0 on my 6MHz intel 186, with 20MB HDD, 640KB RAM and 360KB 5.25" Floppy Drive, because 3.1 stopped support for 8 bit devices. But nobody had 3.0, I only found a copy of 2.11 somewhere and that was really bad.

Holy crap - what kind of computer was rocking a 186? That's a pretty rare version of the x86!

 

[Adora]

Holy crap - what kind of computer was rocking a 186? That's a pretty rare version of the x86!

Yes it was really a rare one and I even had two. But the other one only had a 12MB HDD and came later to us. I got them from my father when his office got new ones, he used it first until he bought a 386 DX 33.

It was one by Triumph-Adler. I once found the exact Model and a similar picture somewhere in the Internet. The Monitor was kind of orange and it had CGA-Graphics.

The Informatics teacher in my school didn't believe me that a 186 even exists. I had the CPU always in my porch later, because I brought it to show him. He thought there was only the 188 with 4.77MHz before the 286.

 

[dmr727]

It was one by Triumph-Adler. I once found the exact Model and a similar picture somewhere in the Internet. The Monitor was kind of orange and it had CGA-Graphics.

That's awesome. I've always had a soft spot for weird microprocessors. I keep wanting to buy an Amiga 500 just to have an excuse to buy a 68010.

 

[Cape Dave]

Yes it was really a rare one and I even had two. But the other one only had a 12MB HDD and came later to us. I got them from my father when his office got new ones, he used it first until he bought a 386 DX 33.

It was one by Triumph-Adler. I once found the exact Model and a similar picture somewhere in the Internet. The Monitor was kind of orange and it had CGA-Graphics.

The Informatics teacher in my school didn't believe me that a 186 even exists. I had the CPU always in my porch later, because I brought it to show him. He thought there was only the 188 with 4.77MHz before the 286.

I remember the mighty 386 DX 33 very well! It was a kick ass chip at the time!

 

[DCBassman]

Windows key -> enter "Programs" and select "Add or remove programs", you might be surprised with how much bloatware is installed in your system - some of which Windows refuses to uninstall. 😡

Just as with macOS, there are ways to get rid of most of it. But it shouldn't be necessary with any OS.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

Well, I built a PC. Nothing special, Intel i5 10600, RX5500, 16GB of RAM, Asrock mainboard.
In a month I had to install Windows 10 twice. I have all legit MS software, Office, etc. but the software really sucks.
Applications disappeared, apps I bought from MS Store, disappeared from the store's my account so I can't install them,
GPU drivers conflict, USB wifi loses connection, Acrobat installation brought McAfee, which borked my install, Windows update is really sh*tty
In short, I got reminded how bad, bad, bad Windows still is.

I built a gaming PC for my son. In a year he started a summer job and decided to upgrade his rig, so I took the "old" one. Haven't had to reinstall Windows in about two years now.

Windows deserves criticism for many things, but stability has not been an issue since at least v8.1 and definitely not since W10 matured.

 

[sgtaylor5]

As a long-time Windows user (from Me, XP to 7, 10 and now 11, skipping the infamous Vista and 8, all the while using MacOS every now and again, right now trying to get back to it hence my presence on MR), I'd have to say that I have never experienced such series bad events despite yeah the rare BSOD (at least not from Win7 on, maybe the best OS ever in some sense) - but I'm no gamer, and it looks like it makes quite a difference.

Anyway I thought I should leave a note here to sort of balance the initial impression from the thread title and 1st post.

Now having said that, Windows has gotten TERRIBLE in some related aspects :

• at OS install time, tries to force you into going on-line to create a M$oft account
• modifies your setup without asking permission, heck without even just TELLING you
• installs bloatware every now and then - again without asking permission
• updates the OS whenever they please, and there's no way out you can't chose not to update
• continuously sends information to their servers ("telemetry") about your machine and what you do with it
• apparently plans to launch a *mandatory* app that will take regular screenshots on your screen (!!!) and do god knows what with that data (presumably to "enhance" their AI capabilities...)

and I'm probably forgetting some other stuff of the same caliber.

This is why I have embarked a project to progressively move all my activity from Windows to Linux, or at least to reverse the Win/Linux mix in favor of the latter (afraid it'll be difficult to completely erase Win11 from my PC, still some stuff that do require this OS).

(as for MacOS, I'm just playing around with my 2004 Powerbook more for fun and out of nostalgia than anything else, although I'll definitely want to spend more time on it in the future once I've been able to set it up S/W-wise in a reasonably usable state)

and the worst one, from a technician's perspective, is the automatic full disk encryption in Windows 11, with not a peep from Microsoft to the user that's it's being encrypted in the first place. Sometimes, the FDE encryption key isn't even stored in the user's Microsoft account. Seems like losing all of your data is a feature, not a bug, Windows OneDrive Backup (really a sync) notwithstanding.

 

[DCBassman]

and the worst one, from a technician's perspective, is the automatic full disk encryption in Windows 11, with not a peep from Microsoft to the user that's it's being encrypted in the first place. Sometimes, the FDE encryption key isn't even stored in the user's Microsoft account. Seems like losing all of your data is a feature, not a bug, Windows OneDrive Backup (really a sync) notwithstanding.

Hmm, didn't know that. As my Windows machine is not up to W11 spec, it's probably not encrypted. Will investigate.

 

[Snowlover]

Turn On or Off Device Encryption in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off device encryption on a Windows 11 PC. Device encryption is a Windows feature that enables BitLocker encryption automatically for the Operating System drive and fixed drives. It’s particularly beneficial for everyday users who want to ensure...

www.elevenforum.com

 

[sgtaylor5]

Turn On or Off Device Encryption in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off device encryption on a Windows 11 PC. Device encryption is a Windows feature that enables BitLocker encryption automatically for the Operating System drive and fixed drives. It’s particularly beneficial for everyday users who want to ensure...

www.elevenforum.com

true that.

My problem is data recovery when Windows doesn't boot. Removing BitLocker is only possible if the machine can boot; that's it's function.

The problem for my clients (most of them older) is they've forgotten they HAVE a Microsoft account, or that it needs a password in the first place. Microsoft demands they use a PIN. Easier to remember and more secure. Takes a while to find or recreate the password, fighting the usual near lack of recovery information in the account. If I can get into their Microsoft account, I make sure they have the recovery information entered before I leave.

Had a client a while back that had a Windows Update that changed some aspects of Secure Boot; that required the entry of the BitLocker recovery code on reboot. He had another computer and he know how to get into his Microsoft account (younger gentleman). We looked, and there was no BitLocker recovery key saved into his account. He lost everything, so I had to install a fresh copy of Windows 11. He did have OneDrive installed and running before the update, so he didn't lose many of his files, but he did lose all of his CAD and podcast software.

My Point: Most of my clients don't need the extra security of BitLocker. My insurance agent clients have to have it, on the other hand. BitLocker should be applied when it is needed, and explicitly ONLY with the user's knowledge.

Because of all of this; I'm making my clients use OneDrive, and if they can afford it, getting them to buy Microsoft 365 Basic ($21.77/year with WA State sales tax) so they have some kind of automatic backup.

EDIT 2: Found this in my notes:

Disable BitLocker automatic device encryption

Subkey: HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BitLocker
Value: PreventDeviceEncryption equal to True (1)

Type: REG_DWORD

Decrypt Bitlocker Disk from command line

• Click on Start, search for Command Prompt, right-click on that, and click on "Run as Administrator"
• Type this command to unlock the drive and press Enter:

  manage-bde -unlock D: -RecoveryPassword YOUR-BITLOCKER-RECOVERY-KEY

• Then run this command to disable the BitLocker:

  manage-bde -off D:

• When finished, the drive should be unlocked and Bitlocker disabled.

 

[ADGrant]

Macs also now encrypt their SSDs by default (started with the T2 Intel Macs I think). If you have proper backups you should never lose any of your data. At least on a Mac all you need to do is plugin in a large external SSD and MacOS will do the rest. For a laptop that leaves the home or office, encryption seems like a good idea.

OTOH Windows is a very irritating system. It still has those ancient drive letters, the directory separators are escape characters in most programming languages and the system won't let you delete files that are in use and won't tell you what app has the file locked so you have to guess.

 

[carylee2002]

In windows, its important to get your downloads from the original website, third party sites will add bloatware as a cost for your so called free download. IE..if you google a program, it is most likely the top three sites are posing as legit, but its not. do your research.