[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

THE BAD (continued)


Numerous background Processes and Programs and Software Updaters and Apps can slow down your system, and they often use significant system and bandwidth resources ::

As installed, Win 10 can slow down your system, or slow down your web browsing, at least in some circumstances, and it can sometimes use up significant portions of the data allowance that is provided to you by your ISP, due to many unnecessary things going on in the background. Dozens of unnecessary things are turned “on” by default after a fresh OS install, causing major frustration, so you really have to spend a very long time reconfiguring Windows 10 in order to restrain these bad tendencies of this O.S.

For instance:
- even shortly after installation, Windows 10 tried to download several Operating System updates.
- there were several apps and system modules using my internet connection without me knowing about them, shortly after I installed Win 10.
- apps were running in the background, quite unnecessarily.
- Windows even tried to do a disk defrag (!!) within a few days of me installing it (bizarre!).
- The bundled Antivirus software, which is on by default and which is very difficult to turn off permanently, noticeably slowed down some of the tasks that I was trying to undertake with my computer.
- there are dozens of Services & Applications & Programs & Apps & Modules that are often trying to update or reconfigure themselves by accessing the internet , and they often do these bandwidth-hogging updates without the user's knowledge! (most of these “program updaters” are unnecessary, and should be turned off.....)
- There are very many Background programs & services & processes, running without you being aware of them, the names of which can be revealed by running utilities such as msconfig & gpedit.msc & Task Manager. Some of these are critically important system processes, but good numbers of them run secretly in the background without you having any need for them whatsoever. (a good firewall is essential for finding “hidden” apps & programs & services that are using your internet connection......many firewalls can block access to the internet by specific programs and services.)

Because of large numbers of hidden “background” processes & softwares in Win 10, the Programs that I was working with, and the Operating System itself, slowed down drastically on several occasions (from time to time) ; the many background programs/processes sometimes used up too much of the Ram Memory & CPU resources, and they also frequently helped themselves to my internet connection.

So if you want Win 10 to run efficiently, you have to get rid of bucketloads of this unnecessary “stuff”, as Win 10 and Win 10 Programs can use up a lot of RAM and internet bandwidth.(the “Resource Monitor” utility can help to isolate resource hogs)


THE UGLY


Win 10 compromises your privacy ::

Windows 10, and many of its components, and many apps, radically compromise your privacy by “reporting” back lots of information to various organizations & people & computer programs on the internet. Partial solutions to this problem can be found on the World Wide Web.

Incompatibility with a lot of Windows XP and “early 2000s” software ::

Win 10 is not compatible with a lot of early-2000s software, especially software that was designed for Windows XP (a good example is MS Word 1997-2003). One solution is to have another computer running Windows 7 or Windows XP, which are more compatible with old software. But perhaps there is an “uber-nerd” out there who can think of a better solution to this significant problem! (Yeah, I know, you can actually run a virtual version of XP)

Microsoft has made the removal of the vast quantity of unnecessary pre-installed Software & Operating System Features very difficult, and sometimes these features are nearly impossible to remove or turn off ::

It is a very-time-consuming task in Win 10 (too often requiring you to read lots of technical information) to reconfigure this OS by removing or turning off the many annoying and unwanted programs/processes/apps that hog system resources or use your data allowance. Microsoft often makes it incredibly difficult (or impossible) to remove programs or services!!

For instance, this O.S. comes with the newly-created browser “Edge” which is still pretty rough at the edges and not-very-fast compared with the competition; yet Edge is nearly impossible to get rid of.

As another example, many would like to remove the useless system-resource-hogging application known as Cortana, and again this is a Very difficult task to accomplish. There is no moderately easy way to Exterminate or turn off Cortana in some versions of Windows 10, though I note that thousands of pages tech-speak have been written about to “how to Kill off Cortana”.

Many of us would also like to remove the bundled Antivirus Software (Windows Defender) because other antivirus software is more powerful & configurable, but all the obvious commands which were supposed to “turn it off” didn't actually turn off Windows Defender completely, leaving plenty of residual activity going on in the background.

It should not be necessary for the user to do significant amounts of research, and to play around with the operating system for an extended period, in order to turn off Windows Defender and other unwanted features. But the infernal Windows 10 had this experienced user scratching his head......

To remove or inactivate software & features & apps & services, I frequently needed to look up “how to” on the ‘Net, and I often had to use nerdy tools such as gpedit.msc and msconfig and Task Manager and the Registry Editor (regedit). (and don’t you forget to log on as The Administrator)
On one occasion, I even had to get really technical and modify/add/remove Windows System files in the Operating System Folder by using software in Linux, running outside of Windows!

Microsoft has thus made it a very difficult task for the average user to do simple customization and simple removal/deactivation of features and programs.