Windows 10 Sucks Eggs

[Ericmopar]

BUT, have we not had automatic updates for years now? Even in Windows 7? I have never disabled automatic updates, and I think they have only hosed my Windows install once. That was way back in the awesome OS known as Vista.

Yes, but we could choose just security updates.
The one time I tried to leave my system on automatic updates was last year, and MS installed a Nvidia driver that hosed my system, even then it was set to only do updates for Windows... but slipped that driver in a back door.
The half assed install broke my GeForce Experience and if I remember right, was the first time I had seen the broken 2D map in TS2016.

I've always installed security and program updates, that's not the issue with me. The issue is forced driver updates.

I'm one of the people that's always known about MS' tracking and data collecting, long before 10 came out.
Even in 7 you can disable Customer Experience Improvement Program, and find it still running in the task manager.

I'm not so worried about them spying, as I'm not doing anything, but it's a security leak that outside sources can exploit and uses up system resources.

[ex-railwayman]

He most probably has too many things starting at startup. There is an option where you can customize what you want to start at startup. I'm not sure where it is, although I have used it. I have lots of things on my computer but it starts up fairly quickly. I log on to my computer. It takes about 30 seconds to get to the log on screen, then after that about 30 seconds to get to desktop then I wait a few seconds until the circle at the end of the mouse pointer stops displaying before I do anything.

Hello Trev, yeah, I have a freeware utility on my computer called End It All which stops things going off in the background and I can manually change things to my personal preference at any time to allow things to become activated, etc, I'll ask him if he has such a thing on his PC. I don't have WIN10 myself, I only got WIN7 last year, so, I have no reason to change, but, not having the same OS I can't really help him with anything technical if we aren't both singing from the same hymn sheet......

Cheerz. ex.

[peterhayes]

It might be worth checking that you do in fact have the Windows 10 anniversary update installed.
Using windows key+r/R - winver - OK - you should see Version 1607, Build 14393, if the anniversary update has indeed installed.

On some systems and OS versions (eg Home) - the Anniversary update installs a NVidia 369.09 driver - this has caused issues on some systems - reverting back to a 368.xx driver fixes any problems.

ex-Railwayman - Shutting off background programs is really "old technology" - with a modern OS - Windows allocates as much RAM as it thinks it might need and once that's allocated (circa 2.4GB on a 16GB rig - any of those background processes have little impact on cpu cycles - IMO its counterproductive to close background programs as there many complicated dependences between apps that may be broken if closed down.


msconfig now opens the task manager for "start-up items" which makes it easier to eliminate those that are not needed.

regards
pH

[Ericmopar]

Modern versions of Windows are very good about stopping background services while media streaming or gaming anyways. That really is old school to try and shut that stuff off.
If you run solid state drives, most of those background services aren't running anyways, or they get done so fast it doesn't matter.

It amazes me how the exact same OS will perform different things on different systems.

My Anniversary Update installed Nvidia driver 358.91. It works well but is dead dog slow to open up to the menus.

[buzz456]

win10 still needs some polishing for sure. Have a laptop with it and I hope it's not contagious to my other machines.

[peterhayes]

Eric
Windows 8 and now Win 10 including the anniversary edition wrt to SSDs has become quite smart - it does NOT defrag an SS it Optimises them - so they have probably built in to the OS the "TRIM" and/or "RETRIM" command which effectively optimises a SSD.

On Windows 8 and 10, the “Optimize Drives” application will attempt to optimize your SSDs even further. Windows will send the “retrim” command on the schedule you configure. This forces the SSD to actually delete data that should have been deleted when TRIM commands were originally sent. Windows 8 and 10 will also perform an SSD-optimized type of defragmentation about once a month.

http://www.howtogeek.com/256859/dont-wa ... its-doing/ and well worth a read: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAn ... urSSD.aspx fromm this:

Windows does sometimes defragment SSDs, yes, it's important to intelligently and appropriately defrag SSDs, and yes, Windows is smart about how it treats your SSD.

.

I have used the optimisation feature in Win 8.1 and it worked fine - its also part of 3rd party defrag software and SSD's can become fragmented and will lose performance.
pH

Just a thought this is for Win 10 Pro - it may be different for Win 10 Home!

[trev123]

My Anniversary Update installed Nvidia driver 358.91. It works well but is dead dog slow to open up to the menus.

I still have the 368.81 drivers after the update. I don't know why you have all these issues though.

[Ericmopar]

That was interesting reading Peter. I knew they turned off Defrag and enabled Trim support since Win 7, but I didn't know they came up with a SSD specific Defrag program.
I re-enabled that and set a schedule.
I have Samsung Magician, but it's behind the times. I let windows do it's own thing and only use the Magician software to test the write and read speeds occasionally.

I should note, the first version (of 10) that was the update was more crude in the menus etc. With the updates I'm seeing things I didn't see before.

I'm still not partial to MS tampering with my drivers though...

[Ericmopar]

My Anniversary Update installed Nvidia driver 358.91. It works well but is dead dog slow to open up to the menus.

I still have the 368.81 drivers after the update. I don't know why you have all these issues though.

That's because your driver version is newer than the one that MS has on stock.

I prefer the older ones like the 353.xxx series. It opens quicker to the menus and TS2016 runs great on it.

BTW I don't use adaptive V-Sync anymore, I use the standard V-Sync setting now. With Windows 10 and these newer drivers, Train Simulator is running pretty smoothly when below 60FPS. IE no low FPS screen tearing anymore.
If I enable Adaptive V-Sync the low FPS tearing comes back and other strangeness like more stuttering.
This sim also doesn't seem to like more than 1 pre-rendered frames at a time, although the books say it should have more.

[Haystack]

I do have a great aftermarket AV. However since the Windows 10 update, my kaspersky can't use it's own firewall.

I ran into this problem as well unfortunately. Kaspersky has been the best AV I've ever had, it's just a shame Windows 10 isn't playing nice with the firewall

[AmericanSteam]

I do have a great aftermarket AV. However since the Windows 10 update, my kaspersky can't use it's own firewall.

I ran into this problem as well unfortunately. Kaspersky has been the best AV I've ever had, it's just a shame Windows 10 isn't playing nice with the firewall

I just dumped Windows Defender. Great discount on Webroot. I noticed Windows firewall was still on and upon reading a few things on the Webroot forum it still must be enabled. Go figure. At least the AV has a better rating than Defender does.

[Ericmopar]

I do have a great aftermarket AV. However since the Windows 10 update, my kaspersky can't use it's own firewall.

I ran into this problem as well unfortunately. Kaspersky has been the best AV I've ever had, it's just a shame Windows 10 isn't playing nice with the firewall

They'll figure it out. Unlike other AV companies, Kaspersky is very quick to fix and patch when new OS and updates change things.
Kaspersky is one of only one or two security software companies that has a consistent 99 and 100% detection rate over the years. Even their basic antivirus is feature packed with things like "Gaming Mode" and other handy things.

BTW if anyone did the update rather than a clean install of Win 10, I highly recommend reinstalling all programs with new versions from the company websites.
While my Firefox and Kaspersky AV immediately detected the new install of Windows 10 and patched them, they were noticeably slower until I uninstalled them and reinstalled Win 10x64 versions.
That's actually true of virtually all the drivers and programs. My PC wasn't fast and snappy until the patched stuff was removed and replaced by Windows 10 specific versions from Mozilla, Intel, MSI Afterburner etc.

[peterhayes]

Windows defender can now be left running in conjunction with other 3rd party AV/Malware programs.
It can be set as "limited Periodic Scanning" and it supplements any 3rd party AV app.
It uses very few resources and shouldn't affect gaming, etc.
How to switch on: http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/how- ... ary-update

Limited Periodic Scanning uses the same resources to perform periodic scans of your system as an extra layer of protection against harmful programs.

"When enabled, Windows 10 will use the Windows Defender scanning engine to periodically scan your PC for threats and remediate them. These periodic scans will utilize Automatic Maintenance—to ensure the system chooses optimal times based on minimal impact to the user, PC performance, and energy efficiency—or customers can schedule these scans. Limited Periodic Scanning is intended to offer an additional line of defense to your existing antivirus program’s real-time protection."

You will be notified through the Windows 10 Action Center if a threat was found and be able to immediately deal with that infection on your system.

Since it is low impact on your system is there any reason to not activate this extra level of security?

pH

[OldProf]

Of course you're entitled to your opinion, Eric, but I'm quite satisfied with Windows 10, except for its necessary learning curve. I still use Firefox rather than Edge most of the time and I prefer the older version of Windows Solitaire, but those are long-standing personal preferences. Okay, now that I think about it, I've not yet adjusted to the awkward access to the Start menu, but I'll adjust to it eventually.

Ultimately, to poorly paraphrase an old saying, "Man proposes, but Microsoft disposes".

[Ericmopar]

I'm actually pretty happy with Windows 10.
My huge beefs are the huge number of things let through the firewall, and of course the drivers getting updated without my say.
I don't mind MS putting in a few generic drivers when installing the new OS, to get things up and running, but they have no business changing my quick, stable, custom setup after that.