Posted on 02/08/2020 7:59:18 AM PST by dayglored
Windows 10 may now be essential but users new and old have had a rough ride in recent weeks. And it has just gotten a lot worse after a new, high-profile Windows 10 failure has left more questions than answers and some seriously angry users.
The drama began yesterday [2/5] as Windows 10 users suddenly found that Search was broken with a black bar showing where search results should be, even for those who tried to perform a local search of their files. Breaking with tradition (1,2,3,4,5), Microsoft was fast to act blaming “a temporary server-side issue”. But the explanation instead kicked a hornet’s nest. First, the fix doesn’t work for everyone. Second, and more worryingly, Microsoft’s explanation doesn’t add up and it has prompted serious questions to be asked about how the operating system works and what personal data it is sharing.
Popular Microsoft pundit Woody Leonard led the charge, writing: “If you believe that yesterday’s worldwide crash of Windows 10 Search was caused by a bad third-party fiber provider, I have a bridge to sell you.”
In an open letter to new Windows head Panos Panay, Susan ‘Patch Lady’ Bradley was similarly sceptical, noting that today “we all found out that our local search boxes are somehow dependent on some service working at Microsoft.” She attacked the company for a lack of transparency and gave it a maximum ‘Pinocchio score’ for a lack of trust.
“Microsoft has been working to unify search experience across Windows, Bing, and Office 365 products...Microsoft’s efforts to supercharge the search box has many advantages, but such problems are ruining the company’s reputation,” said Windows Latest, in a stark warning.
[Note: Embedded links and more text at the source]
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
If you want simple, just go with Linux. I run Debian and Ubuntu on my Rasberry Pi’s and file server. I use Windows 10 on my main machine. My home machine hasn’t had the Search problem (I turned off all the Cortana stuff a long time ago) but the work laptop did.
“My old cell phone , with only an LCD display, had full duplex conversation ability. New phones (at least mine) don’t. It sucks.”
Most cellphones operate duplex using towers with two frequencies.
Future towers will be full-duplex using one frequency.
“It costs them money to make the interface between websites and PC’s AND the interface between websites and SMART MOBILE DEVICES (phones) reformat themselves to match the device.”
Very little difference at all because it is handled with a small additional script on the site server side for mobile devices, and on the PC your browser handles it not the OS or machine hardware. Other than the separate database storage which would be the same for either device, a whole fully loaded webscript is still only 35 megs. And file sharing is the same, the size of files do not get any smaller for one than the other. And bandwidth is the same.
“MSFT and APPLE are converting all desk/lap top PC’s to the ANDROID/IOS format”
Source, please.
A used Mac can be very affordable. I’m using one. Upgrading to a solid state drive vastly improved the speed. Doing that when you first get it would pretty much eliminate any concerns about bad things lingering on the old hard drive.
Lol... :)
I haven’t seen Windows in use in 20 years. Does it actually still exist? It’s kind of like defrosting a freezer or playing marbles.
Get a Mac.
Doesn’t seem to be a problem with Win7. Windows 10 users should probably upgrade to 7 or XP, both of which were tested before release.
“...what folks know about an Apple Mac? I know they’re expensive, but I’m ok with that as long as it’s a simple platform. Thoughts?”
Go to Linux. You can try it out without having to load it first. Aside from not being able to play certain complex games, or play movies from Amazon Prime (Amazon’s fault),
it will do everything else, and use far less RAM to do it.
Thanks for the ping dayglored!
I remember importing “Fileman.exe” from a WFW 3.11 box because I didn’t like the layout of the search function in Win-95. Search functionality in Windows products has been up & down but IMO is the worst in Win-10. I routinely have to open new windows after a search because the OS won’t respond to a fresh search command.
Fortunately I exploit “Metered Connection” throttling to avoid updates so I haven’t been treated to MS’s latest “It’s not a bug - it’s a feature!”
“so to search your own local drives it has to call home???”
Been doing that for years. The only difference has been that now it calls home first to make a real time connection, when before it called in with an updated record just before it shutdown or when it checked for updates.
Office 365?
Both of my Windows 10 boxes were impacted by it and since I don't use Office365 nor Bing, why my local desktop search wasn't working had me yelling "BULLSHIT!" at Microsoft's excuses.
The "fix" worked for me the other day, I'll say this though: I have WireShark running on my network now and I'm taking another look at what my two Win10 boxes are sending back to MS again. I have all the privacy settings enabled, they should be getting NOTHING, we'll see.
On another note, I finally finished my Hackintosh this morning and that's what I'm using to post this. :-)
Linux Mint. The ULTIMATE Windows upgrade.
My Windows 10 has been running fine. Better than Windows 7.
Did you mean this for me condor? Or someone else? Because if it’s for me you are preaching to the Mint choir here.
And the game thing is actually not that bad, they have tons of cheap competitive top notch rival 3d games over at Steam you can play online or download to your machine for offline play. They are just not available over the counter on a disk.
and people wonder why i still run XP
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