MagistarNL ....the specs in the OP are the old computer that dates back 6 or 7 years.

The current one has the OS [and main games] on a M.2x4 drive.... considerably faster than any 7200rpm platter...or almost all SSDs currently...

See comment #4 ...

True re the platters spinning up.... but they're mostly backup drives without frequent accessing.  Between the 3 SSDs there's no need to be diving into the platters  in the midst of 'doing stuff'...

And its last full-boot time was 53 seconds.

See!  I told you Win 10 is a problematic pig.

And still you went ahead and installed it on Terry's machine... not to mention a couple of your own. 

Shame on you... giving your poor wife a broken OS like that.   In this day and age that's grounds for sleeping on the couch... and only then because the kennel is full.

Then there have been those wives who have invited the dog inside.... so the hubby can take his rightful place in the doghouse... and installing 'piggy' Win 10 on a wife's PC probably is a 'doghouse crime' in the eyes of many wives... given its shite UI and built in spy features which doom users to be presented with all that 'wonderful' advertising on the multi-coloured Start Menu that looks like a reject from a Fisher Price factory.

Seriously, my sister has Win 10 on her laptop and she hasn't had any reacl technical issues with it thus far.  However, having said that, she just doesn't like it and wants to revert back to Win 8.1.  I told her that she should be able to do that via the 'recovery drive' that's still got 8.1 on it, but being scared to meddle with things she's waiting until we next meet so that I can do it.

One of her pet hates is the "coat of many colours" start menu... AND the placement of ads within.  I fully understand that!  I wouldn't tolerate them, either.  Yes, yes, Start10 gets rid of all that, but there is too much else wrong with Win 10 in its current form for me to install it on any of my rigs  MS would have to perform a major rewrite to completely remove those core components that send personal data back to Redmond.  Failing that, I'll stick with 8.1 until no longer viable, and/or move over to Ubuntu, Mint or Robolinux, which natively installs Windows based proggies, so I read somewhere.

Or..... I could wait for Win 12.

starkers...the 'one' issue is with the NVidia driver for 10.  It'll get fixed, and isn't a deal breaker.  Now, Vista's [for me] was also one driver...the dsl modem's ...and without that the OS couldn't get online to fix itself...so it was as useless as tits on a bull.

By 7 the lack of drivers was resolved.

ALL new OS's have issues, and 8 was a bigger dog than 10, but you won't agree...because you've never used 10 and are thus somewhere between gullible and biased.

Terry's machine now on 10 is THE guinea pig for mine...they are OS system/program-wise identical other than the new one having newer hardware.  Heck, even the OS keys are identical.

Far more than I imagined works just fine.... and it's very much NOT a virgin install.

The cause of the issue is the 'mandatory' Win updates that I'll set to defer so as to avoid repeats of the 'argument' as to who is updating the drivers... MS or ME.

Then I'll tweak the boot time and see how quick is actual and possible, but whatever it is is immaterial as my machine gets booted a handful of times in a year...whilst Terry's spends more time off than on.... maybe 1 day in a year.

Aside from the mandatory updating bullshit, my only problem with Win10 so far(aside from that ass browser it shipped with) is that I had to use third party software to unfuck it's start menu.

It's nice for SD that they get a guaranteed sale of Start10 any time someone marginally intelligent switches to 10, but it's not so nice for those of us having to use the OS...

The security nonsense, I configured on install because I bought a copy of the OS instead of upgrading or running a pre-installed OS filled with bloatware.  It's mostly nonsense though, I may not be remotely interested in anything it brings, but if you want cloud functions, you have to actually connect to a cloud, there's nothing particularly malevolent in having an OS do such things.  It may be pointless and retarded for anyone serious, but Microsoft isn't just spying on you and using Cortana as a pretense.  The advertisements, I would never have tolerated, but disabling them is really, really easy.

Edge is truly broken though, freezes and crashes galore in that POS browser, but the OS isn't nearly as bad as 8.  If they'd just shipped it with a working browser, it would be close to 7's release quality.  Of course, it also lacks any real reason to upgrade outside of DX12.  8 was actually significantly faster than 7, resulting in noticeable real world performance gains in application responsiveness, of course, you had to modify it to get rid of that stupid metro before you could enjoy them, but they were there.  10 is not.

The free Windows 10 complicates things. In the Windows XP/Vista x64 time I just ran a dualboot and only started Vista for a few DX10 titles (World in Conflict and Crysis). Now you need to upgrade first which basically means you need to create an image and restore it if you want a chance at a dual boot. Takes a lot of time... Even then I heard that upgrading to Win10 will consume your Windows 7 key.

Hmm no you can. First upgrade. Then your hardware GUID will be stored on the microsoft servers.  Then download the Windows Media Creation tool and create an USB installer (or DVD). https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/software-download/windows10 . Run that and skip the serial when asked. As soon as you go online your Windows 10 will be activated based on the hardware GUID.

Vista worked for me right out of the box.  Most drivers were updated automatically, and those that weren't were easily done via the device websites.  I know that a lot of people hated Vista, but for me it was better than XP and so much more stable.  I had quite a few BSODs in XP, but rarely, if ever, in Vista.

Again, Win 8/8.1 has been trouble free for me from day one.  At first I did find the Metro start panel useful to access apps and other stuff on my PC, but I very rarely see it these days... meaning I use the OS exactly as I did Win 7.  In using it that way there is no "dog" about it, just fast and reliable usage that beats 7 for speed and stability, etc.

As for being "somewhere between gullible and biased" regarding Win 10, I'd say I'm exercising caution and using common sense in not trusting a 'free' OS that's essentially MS' version of a walled garden and comes with snooping abilities that send bucketloads of personal data and usage back to Redmond.  Nope, that is not for me.  My sister used the program I linked to in another thread and still she gets ads in the start menu.  Like WTF? 

With all those 'transparent' spy items disabled, ads are not supposed to appear, yet there they are.  Like I said, those things were intended to be 'transparent', but MS has not really transparent and hasn't given users real control because there are data mining elements within the OS core that cannot be turned off.... and that I can not, will not trust.  But if you like Win 10, go ahead and use it.

Cortana is actually useful to those users who avail themselves of its services, so it isn't exactly 'spying', well not in the true sense.  Users input whatever queries and Cortana searches for relevant answers, meaning that Cortana is not data mining.... unlike the core elements that cannot be turned off.  Now those DO collect personal information and hone home.

Anyway, it's not a bother for me, and those 'telemetry' updates for Win 8.1, well they were uninstalled and hidden from future downloads... though I do expect MS to try push them through in other ways, like piggyback them with important patches, etc.

You should totally ban me again, having things so certain is disturbing, it takes all the mystery out of living!

I've been avoiding it like the plague because it's on a laptop(I'm going to have to travel shortly so I bit the bullet and bought one of the infernal things...) but it shouldn't take much more work for me to neuter their stupid security nonsense, and aside from Edge, that's the only thing giving me grief since I can get around those stupid mandatory updates now...

Edge is pretty hilariously bad, haven't had a browser that glitchy since an IE update bricked around 4 or 5.  Lockups that prevent you from interacting with it are downright frequent.

Quoting Jafo,

reply 170

You never know....they might even work out Edge one day...

harpo, the ghost NON-subscriber

Yes, except for Win ME.

That should have been drowned at birth...

And I'll keep it, too!   As I said, Win 8.1 works exactly like Win 7 with Start8 installed... no Metro, no glitches, no pain.  It just works... faster and better than 7 ever did.  Oh, and I'm not the only one who like Win 8.1. RND is one who comes to mind, but I recall Phoon and the-Monk as being others.

As for Win 10, it wouldn't exist without Win 8 being created first.... 10 is just a 'dressed up' version of 8.1, but with a fugly UI and nasty looking icons, that are nauseating at best.  Given than my other issues with 10 were fixed, which is most unlikely,  Stardock would have to remedy both the UI and icon replacement issue before I'd consider installing it on any machine of mine.

As for MS "Not" mining personal usage and data?????  Can you categorically 100% say that its not?   Put it this way, I wouldn't be betting my 'lefty' on it. 

When several tech writers/experts say they've discovered data mining elements deep within the core, and that they're not able to be turned off without rendering the whole OS useless, I tend to 'prick my ears up'... and without a denial from Microsoft, I tend to believe it to be so.  What does MS do with all that data [same question could be asked about Google], feched if I know, but it is being gathered and I'm not comfortable with that. 

Then there's the 'walled garden' aspect of Win 10.  Apple has been making bucket loads from that very concept, and with MS constantly losing market share to Apple, a similar business model was enabled to compete in today's market.  The Win 10 'service' is MS' answer to the 'walled garden, and while it may not be so obvious yet, eventually it will become more and more a closed system... where some of our favourite software titles could disappear because certain developers lost favour with MS and other 'more pleasing' ones who 'toed the MS line' were found.

Sorry, no offense is intended here, but this is purely business for Microsoft, and anyone who thinks Win 10 is customer/user driven is either naive or deluded.  Given it is a 'free' OS, MS has to recoup the capital invested in 10's development, so it built in features beneficial to itself.... ie, data mining; OS based advertising; core components that cannot be deactivated.

And the 'Cloud' [storage and etc], they can shove it!  I don't care who or what created the concept, I neither want or need it, so why would I want an OS [I neither like or trust] that'll largely depend on it as time goes on.... after all, it has become a 'service', right?

There, I've said all I'm going to about 'piggy' Win 10 here.  It started off as a hardware based thread and I hope to see it continue more along those lines.