The 2021 Operating System Thread

[televizora]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Not offended at all. We were just talking about it from two different aspects.

I was thinking of limiting even desktop wallpaper options, but will leave the kittens on half of the screens alone for now.
What I am trying to tell is that it is easy, when you install Classic shell on one computer at a time and when this computer will be used mostly as home computer. It is completely different, when you need to consider many other factors as well.

[Topcat]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

I was thinking of limiting even desktop wallpaper options, but will leave the kittens on half of the screens alone for now.
What I am trying to tell is that it is easy, when you install Classic shell on one computer at a time and when this computer will be used mostly as home computer. It is completely different, when you need to consider many other factors as well.

In a corporate environment (where security is far more critical), you're correct...not that I'd really see classicshell as a major security risk....but I understand not using 3rd party programs like that.

[Uranium-235]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Compared to the older atoms, these actually kick ass. Quite capable chips actually.

I have an atom N270 in a tiny Dell 10". Can't even do youtube with 480p

[televizora]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

not that I'd really see classicshell as a major security risk....but I understand not using 3rd party programs like that.

Well, it has digital signature. But currently, it is hosted on mediafire. Although, it seems like a Bulgarian wrote it.
The author is Ivaylo Beltchev. This is typical Bulgarian or Macedonian name.

[dmill89]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

I have an atom N270 in a tiny Dell 10". Can't even do youtube with 480p

The single core atoms where an absolute joke even when new (I remember selling new N270 powered Netbooks around 2010 when I worked in retail that were still running windows XP because they couldn't handle windows 7), the dual-core atoms were a slight improvement, but could still barely keep up with a 5 year old Celeron when they were new.

[televizora]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

the dual-core atoms were a slight improvement, but could still barely keep up with a 5 year old Celeron when they were new.

1.6Ghz Atoms are not that bad. But I have seen 0.9Ghz, which is the same as Pentium III and their Architecture is somewhat based on PentiumIII.
These were terrific, you cant even play Youtube video at 480p
I had one, for car diagnostics software. It was the only thing it can run properly. Maybe because the software was written for Windows98.
Intel Atom N270 at 1.6Ghz is significantly better than Intel Atom Z620 at 0.9Ghz.
Never liked NetBooks. Most had almost terrific hardware. 1-2GB RAM max and 0.9Ghz CPU. I had IBM x22 with 512MB SDRAM and 900mhz cpu.
15 years back it was not a bad machine for browsing the Internet. Now you need quad core machine with 4GB RAM to do it properly.
I still remember how I opened 50 tabs in Opera 10-12 without any lag with just 512MB RAM.

[Uranium-235]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

The dell has a key for win7 starter edition sticker on it :/

The last piece of hardware on win7 is my Shuttle XH110G (skylake i5-6600t)

My shop box was recently switched to 10 for more filesystem support as well as other things because everything is switching to 10.

Got two new laptops this year and both 10. Ten doesn't bother me much. One of the things that pisses me off is having to login to a microsoft account to disable S mode.

[televizora]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

T
My shop box was recently switched to 10 for more filesystem support as well as other things because everything is switching to 10.Got two new laptops this year and both 10. Ten doesn't bother me much. One of the things that pisses me off is having to login to a microsoft account to disable S mode.

I forgot about the fact that Win10 Home comes with S mode...
Which FS Win10 supports, that Win7 doe not?

[Per Hansson]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

The support for Windows 8.1 is almost at it's end. And no matter what you do, most of the time if you try to do something more complex, you end up in the full screen Metro start menu. Even the fact that putting the cursor on the right edge of your screen opens again Metro menu is annoying.
Also, classic shell is third party software. You wouldn't use it in production environment, neither big company will use it on it's office computers.
Is there quiet installer? Is there MSI installer? How you will configure default options for every user?
Group policy integration? Deployment? No?

I don't disagree with you per se, but Start8 does have group policy integration.
And no, I am not supporting that either, I think it went the way of Win10 with crap integrated shit.
How I actually feel about Windows 8.1 you can read in this old post here: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...977#post362977
But the Internet usable Windows choices are getting fewer, and as for Windows 10 I must say it disappoints me more as time passes, a first for a Windows release!

[Topcat]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

One of the things that pisses me off is having to login to a microsoft account to disable S mode.

Someone gave me a new HP laptop because of that. At the time I didn't know how to disable it beyond reloading it. She said not to worry about, she bought a new dell precision with Pro on it, and asked if I'd toss an older version of Office on it so she didn't have to get raped for the subscription.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

For web browsers, Pale Moon 28.17.0, FTW!

[lti]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Someone gave me a new HP laptop because of that. At the time I didn't know how to disable it beyond reloading it. She said not to worry about, she bought a new dell precision with Pro on it, and asked if I'd toss an older version of Office on it so she didn't have to get raped for the subscription.

Going from a cheap HP to a Dell Precision is a hell of an upgrade.

You can still buy Office. I did it a few months ago (when I bought the ThinkPad).

[Topcat]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Going from a cheap HP to a Dell Precision is a hell of an upgrade.

You can still buy Office. I did it a few months ago (when I bought the ThinkPad).

She asked what laptop I'd buy if it were me. She listened.

[TechGeek]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

She asked what laptop I'd buy if it were me. She listened.

I've got a Precision 3541. I have it, but don't own it. Won't until mid-2022 (school-owned). It's getting a copy of Debian 10/11 thrown on it as soon as it becomes mine.

[ratdude747]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Who modded it>? The manufacturer of the tablet or M$; perhaps an 'unofficial' embedded edition of 8.1? The 8.1 UI with a few tweaks is actually very nice.

I did. I showed you on a prior visit. For those playing at home:

• Classic Shell (windows 7 mode)
• A handful of taskbar settings changed (such as starting on the desktop), which were added in 8.1.
• All unneded Metro apps removed (I keep mail and camera at a minimum, though)
• Install Modernmix (not quite free ) to make metro apps run in actual windows (not just full screen)

Windows 10 does (or can easily do) most of these, but the third item is where windows 10 standard breaks (or at least it did a couple years ago), and when one only has a 32GB boot drive, the space saved by such does matter. The only way to de-bloat the metro apps was to use poweshell, and even then, OS security updates re-installed every single bleeping app. 10 pro hasn't had that issue (can natively delete apps like all versions of 8.1, and isn't reinstalled upon OS update), although I didn't start using 10 pro until a couple years later, so perhaps M$ added it to all windows 10 versions in an update?

I have an atom N270 in a tiny Dell 10". Can't even do youtube with 480p

You're off by about six years (2008 vs 2014). N2xx Netbook Atoms (Bonnel) are indeed gutless (I used to daily one years and years ago, before upgrading to an old Latitude D400 with a pentium M!).

But Bay trail was a quantum leap from that... For one, they're x64, although many early models used a 32 bit uefi, which like some early C2D macbooks, precludes x64 windows. Four cores too. I have novabench data somewhere of such, but I will say that when they behave, they can do 1080p youtube (30fps, 60fps gets sketchy). Sometimes mine would get laggy though; I chalk this up to windows update or some other background service sometimes tying things up.

[Topcat]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

I did. I showed you on a prior visit. For those playing at home:

• Classic Shell (windows 7 mode)
• A handful of taskbar settings changed (such as starting on the desktop), which were added in 8.1.
• All unneded Metro apps removed (I keep mail and camera at a minimum, though)
• Install Modernmix (not quite free ) to make metro apps run in actual windows (not just full screen)

Yea, I do remember you walking me through that now.... Good work!

FWIW, I was given a HP laptop in mint/new condition with W10 in S-mode as mentioned earlier. I reloaded it (didn't know how to disable s-mode at the time). It's a HP 14CB164WM, N4000 Celeron @ 1.1GHz dual-core. It's not dazzling, but it's not bad at all either. Great basic use....but I wouldn't want a heavy load on it either.

[momaka]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Coming late to the game here, as always.

The legacy Windows option now has a single vote... and you know by who.

Yup, I'm still beating on ol' XP here. Well, OK, I'm not doing everything solely on XP, that's for sure. If anything, I have a hard time saying whether I have more hours logged on Windows 7 or XP this year. Thanks to PC games (at least modern or semi-modern online ones) and YouTube, I've had to resort to Win7 for that. But for everything else, like office-type work, organizing/storing my music, pictures, and documents, browsing eBay and badcaps.net, looking up datasheets, and downloading drivers... it was still all done on my Dell Optiplex 170L with Windows XP Pro PC, which I still consider my "mainstream" PC.

That said, if I do add the hours on Windows 7/10 from my last workplace, then no, I can't say I used XP more than 7/10 this year. But I think that goes for just about any workplace really, since almost all places have now switched to Win 10. So IMO it's kind of irrelevant to consider an organization's / workplace's computer as your "mainstream" OS as far as this thread goes.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

you have 2 options - cope with buggy 8.1 Metro without any third party apps or use Windows10.

That's incorrect. 8.1 was what 8.0 should have been! 8.1 allows you to boot directly to desktop with a Start menu. You're not forced to use the "Start screen".

[televizora]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

That's incorrect. 8.1 was what 8.0 should have been! 8.1 allows you to boot directly to desktop with a Start menu. You're not forced to use the "Start screen".

You are right. 8.1 is better than 8.0, but still much worse than Windows7. Windows10 fixed some of Metro nonsense, but on the other hand forces updates and tracks you. The 2 Control panels are absolute nonsense in both 8.0, 8.1 and 10. 8.1 will soon be no longer supported. But programs will continue to support 7 for quite some time, because it is popular.

[Uranium-235]

Re: The 2021 Operating System Thread

Do you know what annoys me most in Win10? Lack of personalization options.
You cant even pin programs to start menu, unless you manually create folder in the dirs of the start menu, put icons there and then pin them. So, if you have a program that is exe only, like WinBox you cant pin it there. Neither you can pin shortcut to URL like page or SMB path. You cant put shortcuts to bat files either. Nor you can pin them to quicklaunch. The new control panel is almost useless and terrible. I don't understand why you need 2 control panels. And I made shortcut to it, put it in folder, after I found where start menu items are held and then pinned it to the start menu.
If they just remove the bug with 50% CPU, 100% HDD by Software protection, remove forced updates, privacy violations and the new control panel and leave alone the old one, Win10 can become decent OS. And Microsoft account crap. I want local account, I neither need, nor want Microsoft.

You can pin stuff to the icons on the right of the start menu but yeah, not as main folders

you can get to the old control panel by start -> run -> type "control" but yeah, with 2004 20H2 they've gotten rid of the system information item and turned it into a settings

I haven't encountered said bug. Maybe it's related to older systems?

100% HDD is normal for a new install of 10 on older systems. It will go down after updates are taken. Personally, I would never install 10 on anything other than an SSD. Hell I would not install win7 on anything other than an SSD either. XP is probably ok