No, they are wanting to gain a foothold with the Windows Store and become an alternative to Steam, with it all built into Windows, all the while selling your privacy to the highest bidders, which ofcourse you can turn off, you just have to bend over backwards to do it.

Windows 10 is supposed to be the final big version, though to be honest the way the m$ store is i don't see that being a good source of revenue to allow Windows 10 to be the last.

I don't like them either, but transparency can be disabled, you know?

Yeap, lots of things can be disabled, even the whole Aero. I still dislike the idea that lots of useless or even harmful features are enabled by default, and you have to hunt down where to disable or change them.

Some other similar things that I always try to remember to disable when dealing with a new Windows installation (I think this concerns both Windows 7 and 10, some even XP):

1. "Hide extensions for known file types", I've hated this since Windows XP, where I think it appeared the first time. This also makes it more difficult to explain things to new Windows users, like explaining them that bigger GOG offline installers consist of one .exe file and one or more .bin files, and they are like "Huh?" because their damn Windows doesn't show the file extensions. Stupid stupid stupid STUUUUUUUUUUUUPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!

2. The god awful file indexing thingie that starts indexing all your files at the very wrong times, like when you want to detach your USB hard drive and you can't because apparently it has started indexing its contents, or generally making things slower.

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/simple-ways-to-increase-your-computers-performace-turn-off-indexing-on-your-local-drives/

3. To this day, I don't understand the logic on how vanilla Windows sometimes snaps your Windows. If I merely move around a window or move one of its borders, sometimes Windows tries to predict what I want to do, and maximizes the whole window, or makes it as tall as possible from top to bottom, or various other things. I am quite often fighting this with Windows, reversing the windows resizing changes that Windows did but I didn't want. I just want to disable all shitty "predictions" like that.

4. A bit similar as the earlier one, I've always hated how Windows has some default assumption what I want to do when I e.g. drag an item from a folder to another, ie. do I want to move it, copy it or what. The workaround for this is that I try to remember to always use the right mouse button for dragging as then it asks me what I really want to do.

Even then, because of this feature I quite often accidentally move whole folders within other folders when I misclick something while moving around the mouse on e.g. File Explorer. "Where did that folder disappear? Did I just move it into one of those other folders?". That has happened to me lots of times, last time a couple of weeks ago at work. Phuck it.

(I don't quite recall if Linux desktops generally work similarly, but there I seem to have to fight the system less, not having to deal with it deciding for me what I really want to do.)

+1
I think even novice users now want to differentiate between different types of files (documents, like the contents list of an album — does music still come in albums in the age of Spotify? — or the lyrics of a song and the binary song encoding itself). This was a thought bubble that should never have been deployed, since now it is legacy and "backward compatibility" requires it to be offered for newer versions.
Is it possible to schedule the indexing? (I have had it turned off forever for just this reason.) not that I have a schedule, but at least I could limit the interference to particular times of the day when it is less likely to mess up everything.

There is a task scheduler (Win-7 Control Panel, under Administration), but I need to trigger the indexer by filename (which I haven't got time to investigate further now … maybe later).
Yeah, early pseudo-intelligence is constantly counter-intuitive to my workflow.

I also can't stand that paper-clip character from Office (who thought that was a good idea?).

Microsoft really are bad at predicting what I want to do. I wish they would stop it, and just do what I instruct.

Another example is where I am constantly re-adding the lines that Word removes at the end of my documents to space different formatting, whilst also deleting those it adds within copied blocks of text within the document.

Not to mention re-applying the text language for spell-checking and predictive word insertion (for which I have manually added the words I want to insert, like the days of the week for headings in Italian), since this is lost, frequently, whilst my version of Word re-paginates.

Yet another example, after a decade of working, now Word no longer converts the right bracket to a parenthesis (if there is an open left parenthesis). (I have created a work-around, but I'm probably going to delete it since I undo it as often as I don't, since the shift key is not difficult to incorporate into the whole parenthetical syntax construction thought process.) I'm not sure how it worked, but it did and now it doesn't. It just stopped working about a month ago, after more than a decade of background operation (that doesn't occur on my other installation).

1. This is a GOOD thing imo as it prevents some from editing their file's extensions off/wrongly and causing the files to stop working properly.

2. n/a

3. I hate the window thing myself.

4. I also dislike a bit when it assume I want to COPY a file when dragging as opposed to moving it entirely.

Good thinking.

They have tons of information to sell since every user is a potential product, it's not written in stone that you have to worry about subscription fees.

While I can see how subscriptions work for ancillary software (antivirus, Office) and businesses (support contracts), I struggle to see how subscription operating systems could work for ordinary users.


In the most extreme case, it approaches ransomeware "You are no longer eligible to access your files. Send 1 bitcoin to microsoft to unlock your computer for the next 12 months...


Any subscription would be tied into optional extras, like currently happens in Windows 10. If you want to play Solitaire or Minesweeper without ads, there is an annual fee.

I admit I am at a loss for words to say nice things about solitaire ads.

If they do anything it will be charging for the next big update.

They currently want to go the way of Google, and get revenue through Advertising, Windows Store, and selling data on, that sort of thing. They intend on Windows being free for everyone so they can do just that, as they wern't earning enough from leeching from Gamers alone by forcing them to upgrade for DirectX and now CPU updates.

It's the only reason i moved to 10, that and it was a cheap buy for me, but i wanted control and i have it, i could leave windows update enabled and never get an update.

No store, no onedrive, no edge, no cortana, no bull, just Windows.

And yes, your porn stash is valuable information.

That's a pretty neat trick.

Like i said NTLite. :)

I shall investigate this a little further.

Solitaire has ADS now?!?

1. Yeah that whole "you need the new OS version to use the latest DirectX version for new games" thing really irks me. I hope more games switch to those DX alternatives eventually.

2. How so? Most say/claim if you do so it borks windows eventually.

3. Tbf I LOVE edge.....if my browser doesn't support something usually edge will. Also it helps to have more than one browser in case one gets hit by a virus/malware/etc.

4. An d in today's day and age one's fetishes/etc can be used as blackmail in social media circles.

New and improved, want Solitare to run extra fast and look extra cool? get the latest Intel CPU and Nvidia card right here! for next-gen Solitare!

Nah, they are folks who don't really know what they are doing, but think they know and then claim such things.

The thing is, what people tend to do is remove crap they don't need, but then try to update or install things they do need, that rely on the things they originally removed, thus a borked windows.

When you go the NTLite route for example, you need to research, you cannot just wing it unless you are happy to reinstall multiple times until you have everything you want on, and everything you don't, removed.

My setup allows me to format whenever i choose, it doesn't take me long and i don't really lose anything in the process, so even if i left something on, or removed something that i would later need, i could easily redo the ISO and reinstall in a jiffy.

Windows update is something that partly needs to be left on, and in Windows 10 can end up getting turned back on (my modified Windows 10, it has remained disabled) but even if it did, with my setup it wouldn't be able to connect out, as my firewall lets only svhost connect, only on specific ports for internet to work.

Nothing else from Windows can connect out, normal firewall rules let Windows stuff connect, so i had to create custom rules and add my own programs to an allow list. It can be done with Windows Firewall, but Windows has a habbit of readding it's own rules.