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Comment by e40 | Hacker News Reader

Here's one huge reason: every single Windows version (well, at least the last 4-5 of them) have changed around the location of things. The control panel is completely different between some versions of Windows.

When I have an administrative task on Windows, it's like Find Waldo. Where did they hide that setting? The number of times I've had to Google to find out how to do something on Windows... significant.

On macOS, there is a single place I need to look and it's been the same since the beginning. Yes, there have been minor tweaks over the versions, but I never feel like I'm lost. The number of times I've had to Google to find out how to do something on macOS... almost never.

And I'm much newer to macOS than I am to Windows.

Here's a funny thing: Microsoft Office's settings are just like the System Preferences of macOS! In look and feel.

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It's not that hard in Windows 10, left click the start button and just start typing the name of the thing you are looking for, or right click the start button and you have direct access to all the major admin tools

I haven't manually looked for a command in Windows since... Vista? XP? Whichever was the last release to not let you search from the start menu.

I had to take the A+ certification for a stupid work requirement (I'm a senior security consultant, how does that make any sense?) and even though I've been a Windows user since Windows 95 came out, it was really hard to answer questions like "what is the name of the Control Panel task that manages users?" They didn't like the answer of "hit the Windows key and type 'users'".

> The control panel is completely different between some versions of Windows.

This is a big issue I have had with recent versions (7 onward) of Windows. I found that earlier versions of Windows incorporated Control Panel changes but the Control Panels were intuitive enough where I very quickly learned how to locate what I needed. The current control panel seems so foreign to me as to be intimidating.

Who even wants to dig around menus and control panel anymore? Give me PERFECT search capabilities, so I need only hit one key, and type in what I'm looking for.

All the old control panels and amin stuff is still present in Win10, isn't it? Also, you can do almost anything these days in powershell.

Near enough everything from the Win7 control panel still exists, yeah - a few things have been completely moved to the Settings app though.

yeah, it's odd that there is a new UWP Settings app, and the old control panel - but it isn't that difficult to find. I mean, since you're surfing YC I'm assuming you're tech savvy - is Windows that hard for you to use?

"tech savvy" people dont like wasting their time on stupid tasks. we like using well-made products that dont play games with the user and dont create vendor lockin by making users memorize bullshit nuances about the UI. Bullshit nuances are antifeatures, they're dark-patterns.

You said it perfectly before I had a chance to answer.

The fact is, Apple did it right and Microsoft did it wrong.

Yes, windows 8's UWP settings (I believe 10 is the same in this respect, correct me if I'm wrong) is hard to use.

Does it happen to you occasionally that you look up instructions on the internet about "how to do X"? It does to me, for example, "how to mark a network private". It used to be that you could open Control Panel along the browser window and work through it. Not anymore! Now, the setting up takes the entire screen. You have to use two screens if you want to do something that the Mac has supported flawlessly since 1987, and Windows only since 1990 (but no later than 2014).

When I point out to Windows users this example (and others) of how horrible and hostile Windows has become since Win8, I get answers that I can only describe as learned helplessness and stockholm syndrome.

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