So... what's up with this Windows 10 thing?

Microsoft is getting pretty pushy about this Windows 10 thing. Can't turn on my computer without getting that big upgrade message. So, basically, I guess it's decision time.

For those of you with Windows 10, would you recommend it as an upgrade over Windows 7?

Brought to you by @internetofshit (which I just discovered today)

There are actual performance reasons why you might want to upgrade, but there are compatibility reasons why you might not. If you're going to use DX12, you MUST upgrade. Also, if you have a Skylake or newer processor, you also pretty much do not have a choice but to upgrade.

--Patrick
 
The PC gamer article linked from that video gave the actual information.

Basically, as a consumer, having access to UWAs doesn't harm your machine in any way that I can tell, but they are inferior to normal Windows applications. Thus I wouldn't put the presence of that as a reason to not upgrade.

Long term, I agree with what was said about the dangers of a walled garden. That's why I use Android devices and not Apple. Particularly devices I can root! But I'm OK with that general idea of an app on Windows as long as I can "root-interact" as well.

From a technical and security perspective I actually like the WinRT interfaces for programs better, as you can definitively KNOW what types of things they are allowed to do, while normal Win32 (or .NET, same concern) applications can do anything they like. So I'd rather have most programs with app-like restrictions (in a domain you can do this with group policies, but that is super-advanced), but be able to run certain root-like features as well, and mess with the install directory, etc. Some of the decisions are moronic, like if you couldn't choose to install outside of program files. Idiotic decision. Basically, the platform isn't advanced enough yet.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
UGH! Upgraded to Windows 10 only to find out that AMD doesn't support my video card. I can play games just fine, but I have no Catalyst Control Center, so I can't set options outside of the game, and the worst part is that I can't have it scale resolutions before passing things on to my monitor. Which means that most resolutions don't display right (even 1280x720, oddly enough.)

Guess I get to revert back to Win 7.
 
Heaven help me, I'm gonna try to run the upgrade tonight while I still can for free (especially since I am running Win7Pro and so qualify for the $200 version). Gotta get my code validated before the deadline.
But I'm making an image backup first, just in case I want to revert and the process doesn't go so well.

--Patrick
 
As of today (well, EVER really), do NOT use IE or Edge if you're on Windows 8 or above: https://www.perfect-privacy.com/blog/2016/08/01/security-issue-in-windows-leaks-login-data/

Basically, if they have an image embedded on what is a windows share, your computer will happily send your login data (password hashed) to the remote server. The problem is that NTLM has been broken for years, with every possible hash being "known" so it sends your windows login/password directly to the server. So if you're using a Microsoft Account as your account on your PC, you're hosed.

Chrome/Firefox/other not affected.
 
Well, crap. I just recently started using my MS account as Windows log-in because it's required for quite a few apps. And since I use Chrome and don't like her setting it to remember all of her passwords and the like, I have my GF use Edge all the time.
 
I'm no Jack Byrnes, but if anything offers to automatically sign you into anything where you keep your personal data every time you go there, you should probably turn that off.

This includes Facebook. And Twitter. And all the Google-related services. Sign in when you use it, sign out when you're done.

--Patrick
 
Top