I don't mind change.

I do mind mindless change.

Those who read this blog know that I am not hesitant in knocking things that are truly worthless or bad.   I don't twit or facebook because social media is a complete waste of time to me.   I don't find Apple operating systems intuitive.   I don't like smartphones because I don't see the real need for them.   I relented and purchased one last July so I can deposit checks from home.  Aside from that I find nothing about the phone to be remarkable or necessary.   I've made maybe five phone calls and received about as many on it.   I chose wisely and am not getting soaked on the cost of the service and the phone itself was only about $100.   It has a recent version of the Android operating system and it works as it should.

I just don't see the need for it.    Really.    And I don't like phones at all anyway.   

So when I first heard about Windows 8, I was perfectly okay with the world with Windows XP.   But since I had a compute that I could use as a beta machine, I installed the dreaded and hated Windows 8 when it was first in development.   

Funny thing happened.   I immediately liked Windows 8.   And it started and closed faster than the Windows 7 machines that I've worked with.   And Windows 8 was faster in overall operation as well given the same ram and even on older hardware.   And with one free app, Classic Shell, Windows 8 became the fastest version of Windows 7 ever.

As I began to add broken computers that I fixed up for my business, I went with Windows 8 and then later 8.1 with glee.   There was absolutely nothing wrong with Windows 8.1.   All things considered I would gladly stay with this forever.   Just as Windows XP was perfected during its life, Windows 8.1 became the most stable operating system I've ever used.

And along came Windows 10.   For some reason everyone was praising it in beta mode.  I became suspicious.  With nothing wrong with Windows 8/8.1 that could not be solved with Classic Shell, I suspected there was a cottage industry of idiots who were too stupid and too lazy to install something that was free like their phone apps and which solved every complaint they had with the operating system.

So I found an older laptop that needing fixing and proceeded to install Windows 10 beta.

It was awful.   It was one of the worst operating systems I've ever used.   It was illogical like Apple's stuff and it was not fast.   It was not organized.   Even as the betas improved with cosmetics, it became clear that Windows 10 was being oversold and it was a dog with as many fleas as Vista.

We were being lied to.    Windows 10 was not good.

Even as my insider preview versions of Windows 10 were now mirroring Consumer Release versions, I hated Windows 10.   It was the least used machine - even used less than my restored Mac and my test Linux Mint machine.

Then a funny thing happened.   One of my Dell laptops that I used for four years that I paid about $50 to acquire and another $50 for a hard drive started acting up.   I used this for my business and I wasn't going to have something that was going to give me problems so I searched and acquired a new Asus that I expanded to 12 gigs of ram and had an i5 processor and all told my budget shopping had me getting it for less than $500 at Best Buy.

Egads.   It had Windows 10.   I was doomed.

The first thing I did was to install Classic Shell.   Gone was the worst ever User Interface ever conceived by man and back was the logical Windows 7 start menu when I clicked the start button.    I then starting installing each and every piece of software that first worked on XP and then worked flawlessly on Windows 8.1.

To my surprise, everything worked in 10.

Fast forward 1 month and I can say that there is nothing repugnant about Windows 10 that wasn't solved by the latest update - once called a service pack - now given a four digit number.   This upgrade resolved just about all the performance issues I have had in beta testing with Windows 10. 

Honestly, Windows 10 has NO ADVANTAGES over Windows 10.   The live tiles suck in comparison to Windows 8.   I can get to them with a click on the Windows 7 style menu and thankfully there is no need for them.   I find the live tiles in Windows 8.1 to work great on my tablets that I acquire through ebay.   I love working on broken things and fixing them.   Windows 10 would make a horrific tablet operating system.   But thankfully even 10 can have classic shell and you can boot a tablet to desktop and "pin to taskbar" the tiles you like and never have to go into the horrific Windows 10 standard interface.

I have now upgraded every laptop that had 8.1 to Windows 10 and have disabled the horrible Cortana and sent her packing.   Privacy issues have been stated about Windows 10 and I have disabled everything I can find that sends anything back to Microsoft.

Windows 10 upgrades have worked flawlessly.  I was so surprised.  

I now can fully endorse Windows 10 - but only since the last major update of 1511 and with Classic Shell installed.    I cannot support any install with Cortana or the huge search bar on the taskbar (you can make it only an icon).    Windows 10 is not better than Windows 8.1.   It just is a smoke and mirror show for idiots to make them think it is better.

By now you have likely read the reviews from the experts.

They are glowing reviews.

Have you asked yourself how a company that could build such a "horrifc" operating system like Windows 8/8.1 could suddenly come out with the greatest thing since sliced cheese?

Well, now let's deal with the world of reality.

Windows 8/8.1 were not "horrific" and Windows 10 sucks.

Those who read this blog know that I am rarely impressed with new things and seek to find the weakness of everything I try.    I have never been in the "in crowd" and have marched to my own drummer.

Back when Windows 8 was in beta testing, I signed up.   I had heard the early reports that this system was a disaster and wanted to be able to see for myself if it was as awful as it was said to be.   Nothing like piling on and kicking a dead horse so to speak.    After installing Windows 8 beta on a spare laptop, I was shocked to find that the operating system wasn't half bad.    It booted and stopped far faster than the boat anchor Windows 7 which is glacial at times (after all, it is Windows Vista with frosting).

Yes, Windows 8 had those live tiles.   But along the way of the Windows 8 beta test came an early version of a free app, Classic Shell, that said it could give you back your start menu FOR FREE.    I installed this "app" just like any asswipe with a smartphone can do these days, and presto!    Windows 8 booted to desktop, had a real start menu, and those live tiles could be accessed going to the right side as usual with Windows 8.   What I was not prepared for was that Windows 8 was far faster than Windows 7 at just about every task.

I was hooked.    I became one of the ten people in the world who learned to love Windows 8.    And when the upgrade of Windows 8.1 was launched, this OS became blazing fast even on old systems and could boot within 10-12 seconds from power button to lock screen - something you could never do in Windows 7 or earlier operating systems.    IMHO Windows 8.1 is the best operating system ever conceived - but then again, I am not a mind-numbed robot who is fooled by so-called journalists.

And now we have Windows 10.   And yes, I am beta testing this mongrel of an operating system and have loathed every minute of this grand disaster.  

The best way to describe Windows 10 is that a group of computer operating system designers sat around drinking beer and decided to just throw Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 into a blender and whatever came out was to be called Windows 10.    This is one of the least intuitive operating systems I have used and it operates slower at boot than 8.1 and about as fast the rest of the time.

The start screen combines all of those tiles everyone (but me) hated into a fake start menu that makes you search for menus and even then the menus are not as you are used to.   They are alphabetized by no purpose or function.   Live tiles aren't organized in any particular fashion that I could see and scroll up and down, not side to side.   I got the side to side thing -the up and down was useless to me.   It was just a lot of scrolling for nothing.

Then Windows 10 hides things and removes the preview function off of your porn image galleries.    You can't right click and get preview and then the slideshow.   That's gone.  I also noted that if you are burning a data dvd to back up your porn stash, there is no way to find out how much space is left on the dvd you are burning unless you right click on the dvd to the left.   I tried.   I figured some status bar wasn't enabled.    After half an hour I gave up.   I just learned that new is not better - you just have to compensate.   I went back to my Windows 8.1 machine and just had a blast being able to preview and to check DVD available space right there at the bottom of the screen.   Who knew?

I heard one of the most disturbing reports from competent computer radio shows about the privacy concerns about Windows 10 - apparently the installation allows "express" or "custom" setting and the "express" EULA agreement (End User License Agreement) has it set up as a default that Microsoft has the ability and permission by you accepting the agreement, if notified or it finds out you are pirating software or have ill-gotten anything, that Microsoft can then monitor your computer for further investigation to authorities.   Typically I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but the experts did a much better job explaining the whats and wheres of this potential issue.   The recommendation was to install Windows 10 under "customize" option and then to check and uncheck boxes and to read everything.

I absolutely hate Windows 10 - I am waiting for my beta machine to start making me reboot every few hours and then I'll pull the test hard drive out, put in a new one, and install Windows 8.1 in that machine and use it as a backup system. 

Windows 10 is not even good, friends.   You are better off installing 8.1 and then installing Classic Shell for free and having a damned blazing fast Windows 7 with live tiles when you want them.

If you have installed Windows 10, I hope you get what you deserve.  Being conned into thinking something is great to find out later you've been trapped in the new Windows annual subscription business model is bad enough - you've been sold a worthless operating system as well.