Comment by tpxl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tpxl | Hacker News Reader

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Hello,

I'm one of the dudes running Windows 7 on unsupported hardware (Ryzen 3900x, some mobo that isn't supported by W7 and modified drivers from some random Chinese dude on the internet so it actually works). I'm using it mostly to play games that don't support Linux (anti-cheat spyware, as someone nicely put it), while daily driving linux on the same machine on another HDD (can't be hit by cryptolockers because windows doesn't detect it ;) ).

Windows 10 is garbage. It's a mobile OS - the "File" menu in Microsoft Word opens across the whole screen with most of it being empty space, the start menu fucking shows ads and search can't help itself but do random internet searches. Always on "Cortana" for god knows what reason that you can't turn off without editing registry (can you even do that anymore). On top of that, it's basically spyware. How can you protect yourself from malware by installing more malware?

I agree that W10 is garbage, at least oob. I have found that there are tweaks you can do to make it better.

> the "File" menu in Microsoft Word opens across the whole screen with most of it being empty space,

Is this not to do with the version of word? My schools win 7 computers had this as well.

> the start menu fucking shows ads

I don't remember how I turned it off, but none of the win 10 computers I use show adds in the start menu. (They still do in solitaire though).

> search can't help itself but do random internet searches.

Yup, that's annoying as all get out.

> Always on "Cortana"

I think there's a way to turn off Cortana being used constantly, I don't know if it actually stops it in the background though.

> On top of that, it's basically spyware.

Yup. I only use it for games for this very reason.

...

What it comes down to is what you're willing to deal with. I'd rather risk M$ spying on my games then some (slightly) less ethical attacker getting a foothold onto my network.

Oh, also if you do ever wind up needing to move to 10, you may like this [1].

[1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

>Is this not to do with the version of word? My schools win 7 computers had this as well.

It probably is to do with word and was an unnecessary dig at W10.

Unnecessary dig at W10 perhaps, but not an unnecessary dig.

It is still quite a frustrating "feature".

You can't protect your privacy by shooting holes in your security.

You can't protect your privacy by giving it away either.

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