Windows 10 beta 10041

By Frogboy on March 25, 2015 1:47:05 PM from

WinCustomize Forums

Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+1478

Windows 10 is coming along nicely. A definite nice step from Windows 8.1 (once the bugs are out).

Still, not all is well yet.

The Windows 10 skin

The Windows 10 skin has some issues. The title bar is thicker than some apps expect (such as Microsoft Live Writer). Stardock’s WindowBlinds has had to tackle this issue for years. I suspect WindowBlinds will be making a comeback with Windows 10 as the title bar and borders in windows 10 are a combination of not pretty and a bit hard to use at times (the border is one pixel making resizing a bit of a pain. Seriously.

The Start menu

vs.

I’ve seen people argue that there is no need for a Start10. I think these two screenshots (the Windows 10 start menu on the left and the beta of Stardock’s Start10 on the right) make it pretty obvious that yes, a lot of people will want Start10.

Let’s walk through some of the issues:

Where’s my home folder? Those items at the top left are hard-coded. You can’t remove them. Maybe they’ll fix that but time is starting to run short.
It has no context menu whatosever for the menu. So it’s not easy to understand how/if you can change its behavior.
If I want to pin my home folder, I have to pin it to the tiles part of it.
I don’t even want to go into the spam abuse here. It already includes a bunch of junk I have on interest in, didn’t ask for. I can’t imagine what the OEMs will do. One can almost picture that that is the purpose of the tiles in there in the first place.
You cannot pin short-cuts to the start menu.

If I remove the junk I get this.

This is what you get if you choose “All Apps”.

Please, someone go ahead and make the argument that this is an improvement on the Windows 7 design? Tell me how it’s superior. In fact, if you can name 1 way it’s more usable than the Windows 7 design I’d really like to hear it. I’ll start with 1 freebie: it’s easier for touch UI. But if I’m using touch, I’ll be using the Start screen.

Home Group

Speaking of the home group, these are the icons. I hope these are not what they plan to ship in the final. They’re very distracting.

Then there’s the ribbon. The giant “Pin to Quick Access” thing is very annoying. Luckily, I can minimize it but it seems like a step back. Another thing are all the little pins on the left. I get it, they’re pinned. I hope (assume) they will have an option not to show those. I couldn’t find any options in the folder options panel.

Did I mention how annoying it is that the borders are only 1 pixel?

It’s better than Windows 8

I prefer Windows 8.1 over Windows 7 with some caveats (Object Desktop installed). That’s because Windows 8 is so much better dealing with high DPI and it’s faster.

Windows 10 seems be be an improvement over Windows 8 in those terms as well. But the UX needs a lot of work still. On the other hand, if they don’t do that work, well, I guess I’ll be able to afford to send my kid to college after all. Winking smile

Here was the problem with dos vs windows, or real dos mode vs dos being a window. Basically there are more teenagers, and early 20 year olds than there are older people. It is easier to sell to people who haven't used computers very long.

They are telling us what we want. It is easier to convince someone who wants to be like everyone else than someone who knows technology, and wants better even if it means older. Stop telling us what we want, and ask us, also how about asking thr minority who have been around the block. Instead of asking young people who will like it because it looks good with advertising, or only cares that they have what everyone else have. Here's an idea how sbout asking people who have been around who know better technology, and advertise to the ones who will buy anything with advertising. Instead of having backwards priorities.

The issue if better gaming is not a concern untill games come.out for this. It is still to new.

Successfully updated karma reason!

and the jafo is not the only master of MS shatter in these forums, and some of us can even manage to re-assemble the shattered windows into a able to function window frame, even if there are a few lines across the view.

I have been breaking MS products since 1980, then getting them to work again afterwards.

Harpo, the NON-subscriber

Successfully updated karma reason!

If I remove the junk I get this.

Makes me Wonder, you tested the new build of the beta and i have seen you complain about the startmenu before in the previous one, did you report the problem with the startmenu back then?
After you removed all the live apps it stays at the same size. i would´ve reported that problem right away that is part of beeing an insider.
No that is what you are supposed to do, same when we beta test stardock products.
SO my question is did you or did you not, since they seem to have not noticed your previous comment about the issues, while everything else that was reported by the community has been fixed so far.

Successfully updated karma reason!

I have the feeling we're going to have to be brave explorers and muck about in the registry directly before this is all said and done, although it would be nice if MS would fix these issues directly.

Am still going to upgrade to Win10 because it's coming to me free of charge, and Win7 is starting to creak for me in some of my more common use cases.

Successfully updated karma reason!

An Irish friend of mine said that he'd read a lot about Win 10's icons and UI being butt ugly to look at.... reckons he especially bought a bottle of 'White-Out' for the bits that he doesn't like.

I tried to tell him about WindowBlinds but he rejected the idea outright cos he'd just bought new curtains and wasn't about to waste money replacing them just yet.

I dunno, you just can't help some people.

Successfully updated karma reason!

starkers, it sounds like your irish 'friend' is either pulling your legs extremely hard(and knows just how to get the largest reaction from you) OR is an illiterate irishman that can not learn.

my wild guess is the first

harpo, the NON-subscriber

Successfully updated karma reason!

Is there any particular reason why windows 10 should use 100% CPU.. ALL OF THE TIME?! Yes i know its a beta, and i did report the issue. I just want to hear other thoughts than "were looking into it".. Right now i am getting Vista flashbacks.

Here's the situation. I run Windows 10 preview build 10041 on Vmware Workstation 11. I allocate the recommended resources (2 core 3 gig cpu, 2 gigs sys. ram, 1 gig video ram, 60 gig VHD) VmWare wont let me allocate more than 2 CPU cores since my rig has a quad core cpu.

Win 10 PB Installs just fine. I use my Win 8 microsoft account. Then when its finished, and starts up it remains stuck at 99-100% cpu usage for the entire run. No matter what i do. Needless to say the lag, and delays caused by this is a major drag.

I saw the majority of the cpu use is used for the error logging, and phoning home to microsoft (dev mode) which kinda was expected. When i disable that it STILL uses 100% cpu. Search indexer uses a lot of cpu too, but after a while that stops once the indexing is done. I disabled system restore, and other stuff i dont use like bluetooth, printers, etc. to try and free up more cpu. In fact i ran it for a whole 24 hour period, and it never used any less than 70% cpu. I didn't install anything (other than the Vmware drivers, and tools). It was just windows 10 running. I did the windows update, and that made no difference.

I wont get started on the broken stuff like the store beta, and mail, people, and maps, yada, yada, There are "hacks" to fix that, but i really shouldn't have to "hack" a beta to get something to work.

I tried 3 complete clean installs, and its pretty much the same thing. I pretty much gave up, and stopped using it.

If Win 10 runs like this on a virtual machine that is well within the specs (on a rig that has PLENTY of resources). I don't even want to think of what it will run like as my primary OS on the very same rig. I ran Windows 8.1, 7, XP etc. on VmWare, and had far less trouble. They never ran at a consistent 100% cpu. Again i know win 10 is beta, but i find this very odd.

Thoughts?

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Major Stress,

reply 32

Thoughts?

I haven't dl'd a recent build...but the one I do have is under VB, not VM, and appears to be fine.

The one 'true' measure of an OS is for it to be installed and run natively, not virtually...

Successfully updated karma reason!

I want Start10 for sure!

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Jafo,

reply 33

Quoting Major Stress,

reply 32

Thoughts?

When running an OS within a VM you really should be suspicious of BOTH the OS AND the VM proggy. Yes, VMware may be entirely happy with 8, 7, XP, et al ...but that does not mean it must also be happy with 10 [or anything else].

I haven't dl'd a recent build...but the one I do have is under VB, not VM, and appears to be fine.

The one 'true' measure of an OS is for it to be installed and run natively, not virtually...

Understood,

I used Virtual Box before, and i had the opposite experience. Everything i loaded ran laggy, and choppy (even windows 98). I have had far better luck with VMware. I guess it depends on the rig, and host OS too. In my case its windows 8.1.

I suppose if i ran it natively it would run better, but i really don't want to risk it. Which is why i am using a virtual machine.

The fourth clean install seemed to be the charm. Plus a little bit of "Black Viper" . Disabling services i don't need nor will ever use. Especially in a virtual environment. Like printers, bluetooth, etc.etc. Helped a great deal. I don't get near the major CPU usage i had before. System runs now at a around 10% CPU which is a far cry from the consistent 100% cpu in the last few rounds.

Problems with store, and pre-installed apps not working still persist, but its a known issue. Other than that its running pretty smooth.

Successfully updated karma reason!

As my PC is just that,

when i decided to risk Windows 10 it took over the PC and it has been quite good from what I have seen so far

For what I use the PC for which is just home user things , Facebook being here doing stuff on Paintshoppro, some things dont work but you expect that shame that GForce and WhiteCap are in that list but expect they will work ones 10 is out there and programs catch up.

Stardock stuff is working ok but i expected that as have been around since XP days and it is the first thing on because i like/love it.

Thanks to them for making my computer time better for me.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Major Stress,

reply 35

Quoting Jafo,

reply 33

Quoting Major Stress,

reply 32

Thoughts?

Understood,

I used Virtual Box before, and i had the opposite experience. Everything i loaded ran laggy, and choppy (even windows 98). I have had far better luck with VMware. I guess it depends on the rig, and host OS too. In my case its windows 8.1.

I suppose if i ran it natively it would run better, but i really don't want to risk it. Which is why i am using a virtual machine.

The fourth clean install seemed to be the charm. Plus a little bit of "Black Viper" . Disabling services i don't need nor will ever use. Especially in a virtual environment. Like printers, bluetooth, etc.etc. Helped a great deal. I don't get near the major CPU usage i had before. System runs now at a around 10% CPU which is a far cry from the consistent 100% cpu in the last few rounds.

Problems with store, and pre-installed apps not working still persist, but its a known issue. Other than that its running pretty smooth.

My machine is a 'bit' of a beast...so should be capable of running 'anything'. 32gig of DDR4 and a i7 5960x with '16' cores. Multiple VMs along with VB doesn't raise a sweat...

Successfully updated karma reason!

I hate you....

I consider myself fortunate to have a 3 gig quad core laptop. With 8 gigs ddr 3 ram :/ (there is much worse out there that cost MORE money)

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Jafo,

reply 37

My machine is a 'bit' of a beast...so should be capable of running 'anything'. 32gig of DDR4 and a i7 5960x with '16' cores. Multiple VMs along with VB doesn't raise a sweat..

And if you'd gone with liquid cooling instead of that other monster, you could have 64 gigs of DDR4. Mind you, I had a similar issue with the Thermaltake cooler in my AMD rig, though I didn't have to resort to hacksaw to make things fit. No, I was lucky in that installing the RAM first solved the issue. Had I installed the cooler first I'd never have gotten the 4th RAM stick into its slot.

Anyway, saving for 'my' next beastie is going well and I'm on track for an August build... on which Win 10 will be installed. Hopefully the recognition issues you had with DDR4 in Win 7 will have been resolved in Win 10.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Jafo,

reply 37

My machine is a 'bit' of a beast...so should be capable of running 'anything'. 32gig of DDR4 and a i7 5960x with '16' cores. Multiple VMs along with VB doesn't raise a sweat...

Not quite its an 8 core CPU with the ability to adress 8 logical and 8 virtual cores in HV
Well i guess you can call it a 16 core, AMD did the same with the bulldog

However it can handle 16 theads simultaneously compared to the 2600k that only can handle 8 what makes it a beast.

Btw the VM will not be as fast as a physical installation.
However if your machine has enough calc.muscle and the right hardware the diffrence is only small like 5% (meanwhile) yupp i looked it up thought it would be more but i was proven wrong

Im sure Jafo wont notice the difference due to the build in Hardware

Btw each time i read your specs im tempted and want to upgrade my toaster aswell but my 2600k is still perfoming great and if i compare the performance increase to the 5820K for example only the OC multicore speed is more significant while single core speed is only 16 percent, guess ill keep it for another year or wait for next gen.
16% sounds like a lot but for a cpu that is almost 4,5 years old 16% is almost nothing.
Im not hating or beeing jelly, i just think for what im doin the old calculater is sufficient enough atm.

Successfully updated karma reason!