{"id":8548,"date":"2014-11-04T18:29:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T23:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=8548"},"modified":"2014-11-04T18:36:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T23:36:22","slug":"windows-10-the-best-windows-since-windows-xp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/windows-10-the-best-windows-since-windows-xp\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 10: The Best Windows Since Windows XP?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of you know I’m not a fan of Windows 8.x. In fact, it’s the first Windows version I skipped since Windows ME. I have a Windows 8.x computer that I bought to learn Windows 8.x and to test things on, but other than learning Windows 8.x and testing it, I just don’t like it and don’t use it very often.<\/p>\n

I finally got a chance over the last few days to install Windows 10 (Windows Technical Preview) and play around with it. Since it’s a virtual machine I can play around with it with reckless abandon since it takes just about 30 minutes to create a new virtual machine to replace the old one. And this is what I’ve been using the last couple of days to test different software like Avast and AVG. In fact, just to prove to you we really do test software, and we based our article about AVG on actual testing<\/a>\u00a0<\/span> you can see AVG is still installed on this virtual machine and will be until I get around to uninstalling it – not as easy as you might think. To get rid of it all you have download the AVG removal too…another thing I don’t like.<\/p>\n

But this article is not about AVG or any other software program, it’s about Windows 10 and how much I like it. And the more I use it the more I become convinced that Windows 10 will be the best Windows since Windows XP. And I’m basing that on my experience with this early technical preview. Even at this stage of its development, it’s fast, stable and intuitive. I haven’t like a Windows preview edition since the early test versions of Windows XP. Windows 10 is so good even at this early stage, if I didn’t use my computer for business I’d use it on my main computer – it’s that good. But I warn you – don’t do it. When the preview expires you won’t have the option to upgrade it and preview editions of Windows expire. If \u00a0you install Windows 10 Technical Preview on your main computer, you’re going to lose everything you haven’t backed up when the retail version is released or soon thereafter.<\/p>\n

I’ve not been a big Microsoft fan lately – in fact, I’ve been extremely critical of them for being followers instead of leaders. You know, iPod (Zune), iPhone (Windows Phone\/Kin), iPad (Surface). It seems to me over the last decade, Apple has been the innovator and Microsoft the follower, always trying to catch up.<\/p>\n

I think Windows 10 is going to be a hit and I’m basing that on an early test version of it. Many features are still missing but the operating system is super stable, smooth, and fast \u00a0– and I’m running it on a virtual machine with just 2 GB of RAM. I would never buy a computer with less that 8 GB of RAM but Windows 10 runs great on just 2 GB of RAM — I can’t imagine how well it would run with 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM.<\/p>\n

Rather than rattle on and on, I took some screen shots and, when necessary have added a little descriptive text beneath the screen shots.<\/p>\n

I hope you find this interesting and useful. \u00a0Let’s take a short tour of Windows 10 Tech Preview.<\/p>\n

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Windows 10 build 9860 allows you to easily remove the apps you don’t want .<\/p>\n

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Some of the features coming in Window 10 show up as Pending or Deprecated. Some of these word now, or work with limitations, others don’t work at all yet.<\/p>\n

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\nSome additional APP controls – it’s kind of self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

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\nOne Drive (Cloud storage) comes with Windows 10 – you get 15 GB of storage space with the option to buy more. You will also have the option to store your Documents folder on One Drive. It may be a good idea to do that since your Documents folder, by default, contains all your pictures, videos, music, and documents. Storing them in the Cloud is a good way to protect them from the capriciousness of PCs and laptops. Something to think about anyway. You could also store your Documents folder on your own hard drive and sync it with your One Drive account – that way you have the best of both world – your Documents stored on your local machine and backed-up automatically to One Drive.<\/p>\n

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Above and below: Windows 10 will show you how much bandwidth you’ve use and are using for those of you on metered connections.<\/p>\n

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Microsoft is really listening this time. My PC Settings seemed a little sluggish; when I closed it, I got the message you see above along with a feedback form to send to Microsoft.<\/p>\n

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The Windows 10 start menu is a welcome change from Windows 8.x and from having to install a 3rd-party program just to have a start menu. It’s better than the Windows 7 start menu, I think. If you don’t like the Apps showing on your start menu, it’s easy to take them off. Just right-click and choose “Unpin from start” or if you really don’t want the App, “Uninstall”.<\/p>\n

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\nGet rid of the tiles on your start menu, if you like, a couple different ways. You can also make them larger, smaller or turn off Live tiles.<\/p>\n

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Windows 10 shows notifications – and allows you to manage them, turn them off or delete the ones you don’t want.<\/p>\n

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Took my blue theme and made it purple…just for you!<\/p>\n

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Right-click the start button and you see the menu above.<\/p>\n

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Change your Lock Screen picture, add your own picture or turn your Lock Screen into a slide show.<\/p>\n

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Lock Screen Personalization is easy…<\/p>\n

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Rather than going to Control Panel, Programs, Uninstall a Program, you can just right-click any program on the Start menu and choose Uninstall. It sure makes uninstalling programs more convenient.<\/p>\n

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Windows 10 – the best Windows since Windows XP – it just might be but right now it’s too early to tell:<\/p>\n

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

Most of you know I’m not a fan of Windows 8.x. In fact, it’s the first Windows version I skipped since Windows ME. I have a Windows 8.x computer that I bought to learn Windows 8.x and to test things on, but other than learning Windows 8.x and testing it, I just don’t like it and don’t use\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8552,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions\/8552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}