The Death of Windows 10

[Blumlein 88]

Maybe some of these will help Win 11 be more livable.

https://www.xda-developers.com/third-party-apps-you-should-install-on-your-windows-pc/

 

[pseudoid]

We all have our favorite utilities/tools/applications in WindowsOS.
Some of my faves have been with me for a very long time. I especially like FREEware OpenSource;
Then, there are those that are PAYware yet worth every penny, unless subscription-based. <<
Here is my dirty dozen:
Keepass
DUmeter
StartAllBack
IrfanView
WordWeb
SnagIt
EditPad
OneNote
FireFox
FastMail
DualMonitor/WallpaperTools
RevoUninstaller
AIMP

 

[Berwhale]

Free stuff I use...

Microsoft open sourced PowerToys (from the Windows 95 days) a few years ago and it's now grown into a large collection of very useful tools: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/powertoys/

Greenshot for screen captures, although the tools built into Windows 11 are pretty good now: https://getgreenshot.org/

EarTrumpet which gives you direct access to multiple volume controls (saves going to Windows Mixer): https://github.com/File-New-Project/EarTrumpet

FreeFileSync to synchronize my local music library to my NAS: https://freefilesync.org/ (I have the donation edition)

And bunch of other stuff including Notepad++, WinSCP, PuTTY, Balena Etcher, Rufus, Wireshark and Fan Control.

 

[Ron Texas]

Get this, Steve Ballmer who was the Microsoft CEO for 14 years now is richer than Gates. $157.2 Billion to $156.7 Billion. This is the result in part of Gates making large donations to his foundation and diversifying his holdings while 90% of Ballmer's holdings are in Microsoft stock which has been on a tear lately.

I don't have even one measly billion. If I did, I would fly private.

 

[mhardy6647]

I don't have even one measly billion. If I did, I would fly private.

Totally.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I might fly with Mike Tyson on Jet Blue. A billion ain't what it used to be.

 

[Ron Texas]

I might fly with Mike Tyson on Jet Blue. A billion ain't what it used to be.

There is a product called a Jet Pack. The purchaser pays for 20 hours (flying time) in advance which must be used up within 12 months. I don't know the exact cost, but I think it's $150k to $200k for smaller jets. It's a lot less expensive than owning a jet, but probably costs at least 10 times what first class commercial tickets do.

The misery of flying is mitigated by flying first class, about twice the price of coach for domestic, 3 or 4 times for international business class, and joining an airline club. Boarding is the pits and can't be avoided.

 

[Doodski]

The misery of flying is mitigated by flying first class, about twice the price of coach for domestic, 3 or 4 times for international business class, and joining an airline club. Boarding is the pits and can't be avoided.

Whenever I flied I took the low budget option and was a little achy and stuff from sitting in a tight space and I'm not sure I would be as tolerant of that now that I am older.

 

[Ron Texas]

Whenever I flied I took the low budget option and was a little achy and stuff from sitting in a tight space and I'm not sure I would be as tolerant of that now that I am older.

First class is only a little splurge. Business class on international travel winds up costing more than the rest of the trip. Most of the people sitting up there are high level corporate types and are not paying out of pocket. That tends to drive up the prices.

 

[Doodski]

First class is only a little splurge. Business class on international travel winds up costing more than the rest of the trip. Most of the people sitting up there are high level corporate types and are not paying out of pocket. That tends to drive up the prices.

I've flow across Canada to Gander, some flights within Canada for short intercity flights and St Johns, to San Jose, San Francisco and to Las Vegas several times for sales meetings. O' and I flew in a floatplane a few times from downtown Vancouver to Victoria on Vancouver Island just up a north west a bit from Washington State. The float plane I admit was the highlight. It smelled of gas and oil and had the marks to prove it and vibrated until the pilot balanced the mechanical and we where off and ran into a wall of fog half way across the water to the island so we returned to Vancouver and waited for maybe 45 minutes and went again and that time we made it to Victoria. It was all low level flying all the way to downtown Victoria right in front of the Empress Hotel. So never been off the continent. So always with maybe a 5 hour flight at max.

 

[mhardy6647]

The misery of flying is mitigated by flying first class, about twice the price of coach for domestic, 3 or 4 times for international business class, and joining an airline club. Boarding is the pits and can't be avoided.

One of our financial advisors is fond of saying to his clients:

Fly first class. If you don't... your kids will.

At this point in our lives, if we're going somewhere grueling (e.g., to Europe -- or Mrs. H has a birding trip to Africa coming up inthe fall), we go business. It is pricey, but decidedly more civilized than sardine class.

Way back when, I could use business class for international travel for work (and I did). At other times times during my career I would have plenty of frequent flyer miles for upgrades -- those days are long past, though.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Our 15 year old, who has a fairly modern Lenovo Legion gaming tower that she instantly upgraded to Windows 11 when she got it, asked me if she could possibly go back to Windows 10. Enough said -- IMO Windows 11 has very little to recommend it, at least when it comes to anything for which our household uses PeeCees.

 

[Doodski]

Anybody know if the MOD to move the taskbar to the left side is working well after all this time of it being available or has Microsoft cancelled that organization?

 

[pseudoid]

What a contemplation: A desire to fly with Balmer and/or Tyson.
Heck, I even let my passport expire... and not because I don't think TSA cannot keep me 'safe' in the skies but because I refuse to be part of any TSA cavity searches, again. I am so glad I did all my world travels before TSA was invented.

 

[pseudoid]

Anybody know if the MOD to move the taskbar to the left side is working well after all this time of it being available or has Microsoft cancelled that organization?

I don't know what they are doing but:
The allotment Windows11 originally made to "move" -the icons in taskbar to the left or right - still kept the taskbar (itself) in the horizontal domain.
StartAllBack will allow you to employ the empty/dead space in the vertical domain (left/right) for the taskbar (like older WinOS used to). I have used it since Win11 release and it is full-featured, trouble free w/o being a resource hog.

Unfortunately, it is a PAYware (w/continual updates) and open source variations may exist by now.

 

[Doodski]

I don't know what they are doing but:
The allotment Windows11 originally made to "move" -the icons in taskbar to the left or right - still kept the taskbar (itself) in the horizontal domain.
StartAllBack will allow you to employ the empty/dead space in the vertical domain (left/right) for the taskbar (like older WinOS used to). I have used it since Win11 release and it is full-featured, trouble free w/o being a resource hog.

Unfortunately, it is a PAYware (w/continual updates) and open source variations may exist by now.

It has vertical toolbars... That's a major plus for me. It makes no sense to consume horizontal space when vertical is available.

 

[pseudoid]

It has vertical toolbars...

imo: StartAllBack really is full-featured; as if it was an integral part of a WinOS release.... it even does on-the-fly updates w/o restarts or flatulence... or cling-ons.

What I find more deplorable in Windows11 is the Explorer, now with useless tabs with no interplay between the tabs.
For example; If you open an Explorer tab for data in a 2nd drive/folder - for a specific file that you wish to copy/move - and then open a new Explorer tab for the destination drive/folder; good luck, where that file may end up but probably NOT the sub-folder you intended it to be copied/moved to. I've tried many other Explorer alternatives, but gave up. Now, I just use Win+E to open 2 instances of the Explorer for copy/move commands but using right-click; as just dragging files can have unintended consequences at times.

 

[Doodski]

imo: StartAllBack really is full-featured; as if it was an integral part of a WinOS release.... it even does on-the-fly updates w/o restarts or flatulence... or cling-ons.

Sounds deluxe. I guess everything is in the cloud so a reinstall with update to Win11 would be easy'ish. I have a USB version of Win10 and it needs like a very short time to install to my Samsung Pro version of SSD drive.

 

[mhardy6647]

It has vertical toolbars... That's a major plus for me. It makes no sense to consume horizontal space when vertical is available.

But... this is Microsoft we're talkin' about. Windows 12 will probably have a diagonal toolbar, from corner to corner.
The toolbar'll be connected to the cloud, too.

 

[Doodski]

But... this is Microsoft we're talkin' about. Windows 12 will probably have a diagonal toolbar, from corner to corner.
The toolbar'll be connected to the cloud, too.

Too funny. Win12 is coming in the not too distant future and to get that I'll need Win11 to upgrade I guess.