#Windows10 Lets You Evaluate For 30 Days. I Rolled Back After 1 Hour.

First, some back history.

• I've been using Windows since 3.1.  Yes, that long.
• I can clearly recall installing Windows ME on my friend's computer.
• I received a free copy of Windows 2000 as part of a fly-by-night self paced school and mastered it from that.
• I can clearly recall buying the boxed Windows XP from Staples in Chula Vista, San Diego, and how extremely buggy it was at launch.
• Windows Vista wasn't actually a bad OS, it was just buggy prior to SP2.  Once SP2 was released, it was an amazing OS on the right hardware. (keyword: RIGHT HARDWARE).  But Vista SP2 made for an awesome VMWare guest OS.
• I was one of the first to touch Windows 7 before it was released, and was certified on it shortly after launch.  I attended the "Windows 7 Experience" in San Diego at my own expense and walked away with a free copy of the OS.  Used it ever since.
• I tested the earliest build of Windows 8 on an Asus Eee PC touch tablet (which was actually an amazing experience, frankly) long before Surface was even thought of.
• I own a Dell XPS13 (2015) that came with Windows 8.1 and a free upgrade to Windows 10.  Free.  Everyone loves free.

I'm not new to Windows.  I've used Mac OS since it was the Apple System.  I've used various flavors of Linux including "Lindows" (aka Linspire).  I've been working with computers for over 30 years and I touched my first computer when I was 6 years old.

I gave Windows 10 a fair chance because usually, this is when Microsoft "gets it right" after botching things so badly.  And honestly, Windows 10 is an OK OS for someone who isn't tech savvy.  If you're the kind of person who just wants to fire up their computer and type out the occasional email or browse the Web, you're not a developer or anything like that, Windows 10 is perfectly fine.

The problem is, so is every other OS.  Windows 10 doesn't add anything constructive.

For me, the key indicators that an OS is going to work for me...it has to pass two tests: Quantifiable Benefits, and Justifiable Compromises (if any).  For me, a person who works as a software developer/consultant/PM/BA type role, Windows 10 fails both of these tests.  8.1 fails the Quantifiable Benefits test, but passes the Justifiable Compromises (because on my laptop, it doesn't compromise much of the experience).  Let's talk about it though.

Quantifiable Benefits

1. Does the OS add features that I would find useful?
1. The only feature I saw added to Windows 10 that might be of any value was the virtual desktop feature.  For those that don't know what that is, it allows you to basically manage multiple "spaces" with different things going on.  So for example, you could have a work "space" with all of your work apps, then a school "space" with all of your school apps, and a personal "space" with everything else.  That way it's easier to keep track of what app has what open, and why.  The problem is, Windows 10 doesn't even call out this feature.  It's buried behind a poorly sized, redundant search bar.
2. Does the OS perform better than the OS before it?
1. While Windows 10 was certainly faster at certain tasks, I didn't find it booted or rebooted any faster than 8.1 on this machine.  Edge is lightning fast so long as the website is properly written, but Edge doesn't support LastPass (meaning no logins to websites) and doesn't support AdBlock (meaning you're blasted with ads all over the place).  Besides, Chrome performed admirably well anyway on both 8.1 and 10, so no real value add here.  Honestly, if your machine has a solid state drive, you likely won't see any improvement from 8.1 or 7.
3. Does the OS provide functionality that improves application support?
1. Not only did app support not improve, I was frequently hit with "not supported on Edge browser".  Even Dell's own website had this issue!  Months of having access to Windows 10 (since they had drivers available) and they didn't bother to rewrite their web app to support the Edge browser?  Really?  Other apps I had installed continued to work, but if web apps don't work it's a moot point.  Yes, I could just run Chrome and Firefox, but isn't Microsoft's point that I should be using Edge for a superior experience?
4. Does the OS provide enhanced driver support?
1. A funny story is that prior to release, Microsoft released a borked nVidia (graphics card) driver that caused Explorer (the heart and soul of your operating system, in a way) to crash.  No Explorer, no use.  So I put this as a fail.  They fixed it since, but the forced update issue (more on that later) negates that fix.
5. Is the OS easier to use or better from a usability perspective?
1. The big news is that Microsoft made the OS more intelligent.  If it detects you have a keyboard and mouse, it will send you to the Desktop, not the tiled "Start Screen".  If you have a Windows tablet, it will boot you into the Start Screen.  The regular Start Menu is back, with tiles.  But that's largely it.  Everything else is as it was with 8.1, except that certain critical settings (like Windows Update) have been dumbed down and buried in the "Metro" interface.  So, this is a fail.
6. Does the OS enhance core functionality and stability?
1. Microsoft would claim that their forcing updates will make the OS more stable and trustworthy.  I disagree.  At best, buggy updates will be deployed or even stable updates that break critical features will be deployed (this happened with an application I support, where a patch broke ActiveX in our application, causing a total rewrite of the code unexpectedly).  At worst, some plucky hacker manages to inject malware into the distribution engine and deploys it to botnets around the world.  Did you know there's a setting that basically allows internet PCs to share their updates with other PCs?  Yeah no.

In short, I saw nothing benefiting me as computer user.  I saw a lot of misguided attempts to dumb down the computer experience rather than leave power to those who know how to use it.  Microsoft's answer to this: "Buy the Enterprise Edition".  And of course, I'm not spending thousands of dollars to regain basic functionality I already have...in Windows 8.1.

Justifiable Compromises

This one is subjective, so I'll give you an example.

In Server 2008, you had to go through Server Manager and provision roles for the server.  There's a bug in that UI that, if you do certain roles out of order or if you do them at the same time rather than separately, it won't register certain files that are part of the role.  You have to then write a script to get it to "stick" properly.

Server 2012 corrected this by making one of the roles include all of the features necessary.  That way, it didn't matter which order you added the roles.  The trade-off is that the UI where you attach the roles was dumbed down severely; but they exposed PowerShell capability, so you could write a small script that attached the roles instead.  The result was that you could provision servers with defined roles much easier and faster in 2012, despite the UI being dumbed down, if you knew PowerShell scripting (which I do).

That's an example of a fair trade.  While functionality was taken out of one area, it was enhanced in another area, so productivity wasn't lost, it was improved.

The same is not the case with Windows 8.1 vs. 7, nor is it the case with Windows 10 versus either of the previous.  Windows 10 instead removes things (i.e. Windows Update advanced controls to refuse or delay updates regardless of version) and provides no other alternatives.  They're forcing their belief system upon the user, and it's wrong.  That's not justifiable, and I don't want to hear "but people would be exposed to all sorts of security problems!"  Wrong.  All this will do is cause underpowered, underspec'd machines to drag to a crawl or run out of storage prematurely.  People won't upgrade, they'll just reinstall the software, and the same thing happens again.  Geek Squad will make a killing on reimaging machines simply because some rogue update borked it, and others will complain that their metered satellite connection out in Hangem, Montana can't keep up and is dirt slow.  It's a problem.

I saw way too many compromises and not many benefits with Windows 10.  They didn't do enough to revert the damage done with Windows 8.  It's not close enough to Windows 7 in terms of usability and functionality to be a super success, and my guess is, we will see some updates that slowly revert some of the bad design decisions out of the OS.  Unfortunately, I won't be around to see any of it, and if this truly is the last full "Windows" we ever experience, I guess that means my personal machines will never see anything beyond 8.1.  At work, I'm curious if they'll update Windows 7 ever, or just stay on it to give the finger to Microsoft.