I've been a Windows user since Windows 98,
and even though I work eight hours a day on a Mac,
my favorite OS is still Windows.
It has the broadest app support.
It's the best option for gamers,
and if you wanna build your own computer,
it's basically your only option. Sorry, Linux.
Windows 10 has improved a lot since its 2015 release,
and in January, it overtook
Windows 7 as the most-used desktop operating system
in the world. But it isn't perfect,
and Windows 10 still has a long way to go.
The most obvious issues in Windows 10 are with the design.
Windows 8 was a huge design change,
but Microsoft went too far towards touch,
which made traditional desktop work cumbersome.
With Windows 10, Microsoft combined the looks
of Windows 7 and 8.
The Start menu and notifications got a refresher,
we lost the Charms menu from Windows 8,
and Windows apps stuck around.
But this combination of styles
and functions caused a slew
of design inconsistencies across the UI.
There's a big difference
in appearance between modern Windows apps
and classic Windows.
The new Windows Settings page may be the first thing you see
if you want to adjust your display or sound settings.
But if you want to dig a little deeper,
you're taken to a Control Panel window
that has barely changed since the '90s,
and the older design language
of Windows often looks better than the new UI.
With Windows 10, Microsoft
is slowly replacing the Metro Design used
in Windows 8 with what it calls Fluent Design.
But a lot of these apps just look
like they couldn't decide between touch and mouse input.
These two designs are way too different to
try to combine together.
There are huge gaps, and
buttons often don't do what you expect them to do.
The design of Windows apps like Mail,
Calendar, and Photos feels incomplete
years after being released.
This problem also extends to context menus.
Windows can show you four different context menus.
These menus are often redundant,
and it can be confusing to figure out
where to find each setting.
Now, to be fair, these are all surface-level issues.
Besides a little confusion,
the design inconsistencies do not prevent you
from getting work done,
but because of these issues,
Windows doesn't feel like a cohesive operating system.
Apple's OS X hasn't had a major redesign
in almost two decades, but everything feels
like one complete operating system.
Besides design, everyone's favorite gripe
about Windows 10 is the updates.
Windows updates are notoriously aggressive.
They can even reboot a PC
without the user ever acknowledging or accepting the update,
and unless you want to pay 100 bucks
to upgrade to the Pro version,
there is no easy way to turn off
or avoid updates completely,
and, yes, updates are important for security
and can often bring cool new features,
but in recent years, the quality control
of Windows updates seems to be declining.
There were multiple reports
of the October update deleting user files,
and after being pulled, it's now several months late.
Windows 10 normally has big updates in October and April,
and with each update, Microsoft puts a lot
of focus on new features,
but it feels like Microsoft keeps moving
in the wrong direction.
Cortana, Windows 10 S, and Edge all failed
at their intended uses and are being reimagined and remade.
They have also put a lot of focus on the Microsoft Store,
but most of the apps found there
are just slimmed-down versions
of programs you can already run on Windows.
In the three years I've been using Windows 10,
I have never once needed
to download an app from the Windows Store.
Another big concern people have with Windows 10 is privacy.
Since its release, Windows 10 has gotten a lot
of criticism for aggressive data collection and telemetry.
Although Microsoft has become
a lot more transparent over the last few years,
there are still a lot of tracking settings
turned on by default.
Even with all these issues,
Windows 10 is still an amazing operating system.
Microsoft introduced great new features
like improved app snapping,
virtual desktops, and improved touch support,
and the company's plan for Windows 10 as a service
where users receive free
regular updates, like Mac OS, gives it the potential
to be the best version of Windows yet.
But Microsoft needs to focus
on fixing the features they currently have
instead of adding dozens of new ones.
Oh, and hurry up with the October update
so we can get a better screenshot tool.