Comment by w4rh4wk5 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by w4rh4wk5 | Hacker News Reader

> How do you deal with Microsoft's crap on a daily basis?

I've been exclusively using Windows 10 since 2016 on my main rig as well as my laptop. While there are a lot of small annoyances, for me, it's been far from _on a daily basis_. I'd say, from 360 days in the year, I spend maybe 10 days dealing with some Windows bullshittery.

These are the things I changed on my system:

- Disable Windows Defender real-time scanning and related scheduled tasks.

- Use classic shell to replace the Windows start menu.

- Tweak privacy settings in the Windows Settings panel.

Everything else is pretty much default. Yes, I do update Windows on a regular basis.

There have been occasions where default applications associated with file-types break after an update, but for me this never occurred with the default browser setting. Not while I've been using Chrome, neither now while using Firefox.

I live in central Europe, maybe that makes a difference.

For my background, I mainly work on video game stuff, which is the main reason for running Windows. Still, it's development work (mostly C++), not just things that can be done in a browser where no actual interaction with the OS is needed.

Edit: I've not reinstalled the OS on my main rig since 2018-12-22.

Edit 2: My most recent hard-crash that forced me to power-cycle the machine was in March 2021. According to my notes it appeared to be related to the GPU driver (NVIDIA) and occurred while developing an application that utilizes Vulkan.

Same here. I use Windows since ever on the desktop, and Linux on the servers (ever is ca. 1994)

I like Windows very much on the client side - everything pretty much works without any problems. I used to use Classic Shell but I got rid of it when I realized that I actually always start programs though a search (pressing the Win key and starting to type).

As I said somewhere else, once every year or so I install Linux desktop on a laptop to see how it goes. It does not go very well on my Thinkpad with two monitors attached.

It may be very well that with some tinkering it will work - the difference is that with Windows it works off the shelf.

I would not install Windows on a server because i) I do not know Windows enough, ii) there is too much clicking and iii) there is too much magic going on.

The magic on the laptop does not bother me - worst case I will reinstall (though I was forced to do that only once, when moving from the Insider ring)

There's a lot in here I can relate to.

I specifically use Classic Shell _because_ I always start programs through search, i.e. pressing the Windows key and start typing. It's just that the Windows start menu search doesn't work well for me. Linus from LTT ranted about this on multiple occasions.

I ran Linux (tried Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, and Mint) on my Lenovo T460s and the experience was quite bad. Battery life was down to 2.5 hours; even in sleep state, battery drain was significant. Often the laptop would wake up from sleep without apparent reason. The log showed that the lid switch was actuated while the laptop was, in fact, just sitting on my desk without anyone operating it. This never happened on Windows.

About every second Arch system update spawned new issues related to either ACPI, using the docking station or HDMI output. Things were better on Debian based distros but still a pain. I remember trying to get a bluetooth speaker to work, giving up after 5 hours of debugging.

Recently, while visiting a friend, I connected my laptop to a bluetooth speaker, now running Windows, and was surprised that it just worked as one would expect.

Yeah, so far, my experience with Linux on the desktop hasn't been great.

It takes you 10 days per year to disable defender and tweak some settings?

> Disable Windows Defender real-time scanning and related scheduled tasks.

Why do this?

Personally, I am not a fan of Windows Defender in general, but disabling it completely renders other services (e.g. Windows Store) unusable. That's why I only disable the real-time scanning component.

There are two reasons for doing this:

Firstly, it has been shown that the real-time scanning features causes issues with file access latency. It's apparently quite noticeable when using WSL. On a laptop there might also be a noticeable improvement in battery life, but I don't have any data to back that up.

Secondly, every now and then the real-time scanning triggers on some file, removing/quarantining it without asking me first. This often happens, for instance, for video game cracks that I'd like to analyze / revers-engineer [^1]. So, for me, it's a lot of false positives and so far I haven't encountered a single case where Windows Defender actually protected me from something. At least that I know of.

^1: It's a hobby, I don't build DRM, don't worry. The games I work on typically release DRM-free.

Because real-time malware scanning causes way more trouble than it is worth. It adds latency to every file open on the off chance that it might contain some kind of identifiably malicious code. That might be mildly useful if I had any faith it could actually detect the majority of malware, but I don't. In fact, the only things I've ever seen it identify reliably are any kind of piracy or forensics tools.

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