{"id":22298,"date":"2023-12-07T12:04:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T23:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/?p=22298"},"modified":"2023-12-16T14:10:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T01:10:30","slug":"i-use-windows-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/computing\/i-use-windows-7\/","title":{"rendered":"I USE WINDOWS 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

My geek secret – I am dirty and bad. I still use Windows 7<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although I like to tell everyone I’M NOT A GEEK, I do have more than a dozen computers, laptops,\u00a0 & tablets.<\/p>\n

The reason I reassure myself that I’M NOT A GEEK is that I find it a bit of a struggle to understand all this stuff.<\/p>\n

But back in the day I used to do web pages about Microsoft operating systems as I slowly learned about them – so I had pages about Windows 2000, XP, and 7<\/p>\n

Then Windows 8 came out, and I gave up. What a pile of shit it was.<\/p>\n

And these days most people seem to just accept Windows 10\/11 as the new normal.<\/p>\n

They don’t bother to question that crap any more than all the other mainstream programming.<\/p>\n

And that is what Windows 10\/11 really are – social programming rather than an operating system.<\/p>\n

Although I do still use Windows 7, (along with Linux Mint and Android) I would never use Windows 10\/11.<\/p>\n

When 10 first came out, in 2015, rather than doing a post about it I just posted a copy of this review as an explanation of why I will never use it.<\/p>\n

If people still haven’t woken up to what Microsoft is all about, they may not be the sharpest tools in the shed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WINDOWS 10 IS BADLY DESIGNED SPYWARE<\/h2>\n

There is a line and Microsoft have crossed it with Windows 10 \u2013 I don\u2019t plan to ever use it, which is why I have copied this information from another site rather than researching it for myself<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There are two kinds of issues with the Windows operating systems created by Microsoft. Problems common to every version of Windows, and problems specific to Windows 10.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Problems which are present in every version of Windows<\/h3>\n

No enforced file system and registry hierarchy (I have yet to find a single serious application which can uninstall itself cleanly and fully). The $USER directory in Windows, specially in Windows 10, is an inexplicable mess.
\nsvchost.exe (the whole philosophy of preserving RAM this way became outdated years ago).
\nNo true safe mode (rogue applications may easily run in it).
\nNo clean state (for most OEM installations out there).
\nThe user as a system administrator (thus viruses\/malware \u2013 most users don\u2019t and won\u2019t understand UAC warnings).
\nNo good packaging mechanism (MSI is a fragile abomination).
\nNo system wide update mechanism (which includes third party software).
\nIn certain cases it\u2019s extremely difficult to find drivers for your hardware devices.
\nWindows is extremely difficult to debug.
\nWindows boot problems are too often fatal and unsolvable unless you reinstall from scratch.
\nWindows is hardware dependent (especially when running from UEFI).
\nWindows updates are terribly unreliable, very slow (to install) and they also waste disk space.
\nWindows keeps trying to reinstall failed updates over and over (in certain cases every such cycle of \u201cupdating\u201d can render you PC disabled for hours!).
\nThere\u2019s no way to cleanly upgrade your system (there will be thousands of leftovers), etc.
\nWindows OS installer doesn\u2019t give a damn about other OSes installed on your PC and it always overwrites the MBR. In case of already existing Windows installations, it sets the newly installed Windows as the default OS \u2013 no questions asked. In case of UEFI booting of other non Windows OSes is unsupported and Windows actively prevents this.
\nWinSxS, though a neat idea, turned into some madness: Windows keeps the versions of files the user won\u2019t ever need: for instance the English version of Windows will have copies of files for many other languages irrespective of the chosen locale or MUI.
\nCryptic error messages (considering the size of the OS (>9GB as of Windows 10) this practice is simply ridiculous).
\nMost malware writers target Windows as the most popular desktop OS, so it has the biggest number of viruses among all other OSes (over five thousand new viruses daily).
\nWindows loves thrashing your HDD.
\nMicrosoft has gone crazy: KB3083710 which is a prerequisite for Windows 10 upgrade is being foisted on Windows 7 users as a security\/mandatory update.
\nDevastating Windows rot.<\/p>\n

\"image.png\"<\/p>\n

Issues specific to Windows 10<\/h3>\n

Windows 10 features an EULA which grants Microsoft the rights to use any content found on your PC: \u201cyou grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content\u201d. You can read Microsoft\u2019s response here which paints everything in a positive light however after Snowden\u2019s leaks it\u2019s hard if not impossible to take them seriously.<\/p>\n

Windows 10 spies on you and even more so on your children aka phones home (welcome NSA\/CIA\/thoughtcrime\/1984)! (Microsoft added spying features to Windows 7\/8 as well)<\/p>\n

Windows 10 is a beta quality release (at the time of writing, \u2013 August, 2015):
\nMicrosoft hides the information about Windows 10 updates, so often you won\u2019t even know what certain updates are aimed to fix or improve. Also Windows 10 updates may have unintended consequences and unannounced changes in behaviour (it\u2019s already been confirmed).<\/p>\n

Many users report that their sound card stopped working after upgrading to Windows 10.<\/p>\n

Windows 10 updates\/upgrade can send your PC into an infinite loop.<\/p>\n

In certain cases Windows 10 may kill your display if you are an unlucky owner of a laptop made by Alienware, LG or Samsung.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got no real control over crucial features of the OS:
\nWindows 10 will have no service packs which means it will always be a work in progress and you are a perpetual beta tester.
\nForced upgrades you cannot opt out of (and Microsoft have borked quite a lot of them recently so prepare to see your Windows die after installing a new portion of updates \u2013 actually Microsoft has already borked one update, read horror stories about KB3081424).<\/p>\n

Windows 10 features terrible UI inconsistency, not limited to:
\nTwo kinds of fonts antialiasing (ClearType v2 for classic applications and some awful dirty grayish shit for Modern apps).
\nAll kinds of varying visual decorations and styles (some people have discovered up to seven varying styles in Windows 10).
\nAbsolutely dissimilar classic and modern (PC settings) control panels.
\nDifferent fonts faces and sizes all around.
\nDifferent styles of settings for modern apps.
\nAbsolutely different context menus and their appearance in different applications and apps.<\/p>\n

Terrible hardly configurable appearance, dubious design choices and extremely limited functionality (vs Windows 7\/XP):
\nTwo Control Panels with absolutely zero thought given to how they differ and why each one should be used.
\nSome Control Widgets are spread between the two Control Panels which is utterly confusing (e.g. Users Management).
\nNo Windows classic UI for windows decorations. Windows decorations can hardly be configured at all in Windows 10.
\nAn awful choice of colors\/palette.
\nAbsolutely awful, childish and amateurish icons as if we live in the era of 8bit displays (only rivalled by those in Windows 3.1 from 1992). Windows 2000 in 1999 looked better than Windows 10 in 2015.<\/p>\n

A big number of Windows 10 apps are still NOT on par with their classical counterparts from Windows 7\/Vista\/XP (many features are missing or many options are not configurable).
\nThe start menu is an unusable abomination. Applications are listed as a list which is nigh impossible to scroll.<\/p>\n

Windows 10 sucks terribly if you are an unlucky user of a metered Internet connection:
\nIt features huge mandatory system and apps updates (you cannot disable them, you can only postpone the system reboot after their installation).
\nAs if it wasn\u2019t enough, Windows 10 gets downloaded automatically if you run Windows 7 or 8.1. We are talking about 3 gigabytes of data some people absolutely do not need.<\/p>\n

It uses your free bandwidth to distribute updates to other users nearby you.
\nWith Wi-Fi sense enabled anyone you have in your Skype, Outlook or Hotmail contacts lists \u2014 and any of your Facebook friends \u2014 can be granted automatic access to your Wi-Fi network as long as they\u2019re within range.
\nA newly created user profile weighs over 300MB (!) while containing zero (!) information about the user.
\nA newly created user profile is populated with all the default apps instead of giving the user a choice.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has lost its mind and they now desperately try to foist\/force Windows 10 on unsuspecting users.<\/p>\n

\"image.png\"<\/p>\n

Some ways to fix\/configure Windows 10<\/h3>\n

Do not install it or \u201cupgrade\u201d to it if you\u2019re running Windows 7<\/p>\n

If you did, read further:
\nInstall Classic Shell aka Windows 7 (XP) Start Menu for Windows 10.
\nUninstall\/remove most built-in Metro\/Modern apps in Windows 10 (quiet a lot of them are immutable and cannot be uninstalled no matter what):
\nFire up administrator\u2019s PowerShell (Start -> Search -> Power -> Right mouse click -> Run as Administrator).
\nRun (copy and paste):
\nGet-AppXPackage -User | Remove-AppxPackage (remove the user\u2019s apps)
\nGet-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage (remove all system wide apps)
\nDisable Windows 10 most spying\/tracking\/call home features (you may also try the DoNotSpy10 application but I don\u2019t recommend it).
\nYou can disable built-in torrent-like\/bandwidth sharing feature by going to the Start Start button icon \u02c7, then Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and then select Advanced options.
\nThe other things mentioned above cannot be fixed unfortunately (UI inconsistency, two Control Panels, very little UI customizability, disabling of updates, etc.).<\/p>\n

\"image.png\"<\/p>\n

Busting Windows 10 myths<\/h3>\n

There are many myths that are spread on pro-Microsoft forums and websites, and I want to take a bit of time to debunk some of them.<\/p>\n

Windows 10 is more secure than any previous version of Windows<\/h4>\n

This is complete bollocks. Windows 10 offers exactly zero new protection mechanisms to the end user vs. Windows 7. I haven\u2019t forgotten that Windows 8\/10 apps run a sandbox and they are all verified by Microsoft, that\u2019s true, but most of them are made purely for content consumption (so they won\u2019t cut it for power users), besides people will still download executables from the Internet and run them relentlessly. Normally you should never run Windows without a decent antivirus installed (Microsoft Security Essentials is not an AV your can rely on, in fact you\u2019re crazy if you believe it protects you). Head to av-comparatives and check out their real world tests to see what\u2019s best for you. According to various AV comparisons MS Security Essentials misses over 10% of in-the-wild viruses (i.e. over five hundred new viruses every day).<\/p>\n

The truth is there are some new security features but they are invisible for most users out there.<\/p>\n

Windows 10 is a more modern OS<\/h4>\n

What does it mean it\u2019s more modern? How exactly do Windows 7 and 8 differ from Windows 10? This is more bulllshit from the Microsoft fanboys.<\/p>\n

Windows 10 is faster<\/h4>\n

There\u2019s no discernible difference in speed between Windows 7, 8 and 10. Windows 10 features an improved memory handling for certain multithreaded applications like WinRAR but most other applications have the same performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have installed Windows 10 and it feels faster\u201d, right, like with every Windows release it feels fast when you install it from scratch. Then, strangely, it slows down significantly.<\/p>\n

\"image.png\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My geek secret – I am dirty and bad. I still use Windows 7 Although I like to tell everyone I’M NOT A GEEK, I do have more than a dozen computers, laptops,\u00a0 & tablets. The reason I reassure myself that I’M NOT A GEEK is that I find it a bit of a struggle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/124266.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9307,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/photos\/this-new-steemit-photo-geek-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":22298,"position":0},"title":"This new Steemit photo geek thing","date":"September 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This new Steemit photo geek thing The hot new trend on Steemit seems to be to post a single photo with nothing else with it but some photo geek tech specs. Typically this will be something along the lines of Canon SX666, ISO 666, 66mm, 6 ev, f\/6.6, 1\/66. Clearly,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NEW ZEALAND"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3598,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/computing\/windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":22298,"position":1},"title":"WINDOWS","date":"March 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Why did I post a bunch of pages about windows? In 2010 I was asked to find and copy some files from an old computer that had just been replaced. It had an old operating system I hadn't used before, and the computer was a relic that barely ran. 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