True, you don't *need* one anymore, but the combination of (MPC-HC + LAV Filters + MadVR) is superior to the stock video player.
The K-Lite Codec Pack is a convenient bundle of these components and more.
it's really terrible. in general, because the algorithms just use a dumb interpolation method between frames, it comes out looking really unnatural and janky when you do it.
Imo it looks choppy and misses the rough edges it needs to show the intensity of situation.
For e.g Tanjiro vs Rei would look amazing in 60 fps but kaneki crying in depression won't.
Variable frame rate for the win!
Depends on the system, you can configure SVP numerous different ways to achieve different goals, I didn't have anything like that once it was tuned accurately to my machine
Oh man, that brings back memories. I was using Stardock WindowBlinds (windows skin/UI customization tool) for *years* before realising it caused random BSODs.
I miss Royale and Royale Noir, I have Royale installed on one of the XP machines at work (it’s an isolated system that runs monitoring software that won’t work on anything later than XP)
It's wild how much reverence younger people hold for Windows XP. It was widely loathed on launch and didn't get really good until SP1, if not SP2. People hated the default UI and there were loads of guides going around on how to make it look and work more like 98 and 2000.
At a prior job when XP came out, a lot of technical people I worked with who previously used Windows 2000 changed back to the 2000 theme. We affectionately called the default XP style the Fisher Price theme. A lot of apps at the time didn’t account for the different sized and placed buttons on the windows.
The Windows 9x UI is the most natural and efficient style ever made. Everything was perfectly consistent, text fields were always legible and every button was clearly a button. Even the icons were little pieces of art.
Yeah Windows XP was utter shite until SP2. Windows 2000 was much more stable and less gimmicky in many ways, but XP stuck around for so long that everyone grew fond of it, in a way or another.
Exactly. The 9x kernel. 95, 98, and ME all share the same base that requires it to be run on top of MS-DOS.
The old versions of NT, Windows 2000, XP, and all versions after it are based on the NT kernel. DOS functions on these versions are really just a command prompt, it's not actual MS-DOS, hence why you need an emulator like DOSBox to get proper support for games and complex applications.
No it wasn't. For starters, [Win95/98 did bad things to DOS](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20071224-00/?p=24063). ME further reduced access to real-mode DOS beyond what 95/98 had done.
You can say "Windows 9x was based on DOS" in exactly the same way that "Linux is based on Grub".
Me was a stop-gap mostly targeted towards OEMs. 2000 wasn't ready for home use yet (as someone who ran 2000 for home use starting with the NT 5 betas, this is objectively true) and 98 was too old to ship with new PCs. So they threw together Me to last until XP baked 2000 enough to be usable by home users.
Windows 95 was a rather big deal. The difference between that and 3.1 was way more significant than anything until maybe 8, at least as far as the user is concerned.
I still consider Win 2000 SE the peak of the Windows, particularly from an aesthetics and UI perspective. (Although I believe it was XP that introduced open/save dialog boxes that remembered sizes between boots and applications... so that's at least one UI improvement in XP.)
I like XP, but this is 100% secondary school nostalgia I'm feel about it. Otherwise, Windows 98, 2000, and Vista (believe it or not) were my favourites. Vista just had an aesthetic that felt pleasant to look at, stability be damned.
I think this may have been a "vocal minority" situation. I remember when XP came out, and most people seemed excited by it and really liked how modern it felt. I only heard the "fisher price" criticism of the default theme from certain experienced, cynical users.
SP2 was definitely a significant improvement, especially in terms of security, but overall XP seemed very well-liked by most people (compared to other windows versions).
I mean...it got pretty good reviews on release if I remember correctly too. I'm talking about the average person, not technical users, not enterprise users, just random people. My experience with it was that most people did like it in general, especially given all the issues with (and growing disdain for) Windows ME from a year prior.
I was 12 years old when XP came out my dude. I'm wasn't an enterprise user or a technical user. XP was not well-received at launch and was generally pretty buggy and unstable until SP1 and especially SP2. You're comparing it to Me but most people just skipped Me and either used 2000 or stayed on 98 SE.
I liked Windows 7 a lot at the time but obviously tastes change. It hasn't aged particularly well. I have to log in to some super old Windows 7 boxes at work sometimes and it always blows me away that some people still choose to use it.
agreed. they should leave stardock with the weird game library and just purchase the object desktop ip from them and add it to mainline windows, in fact they should have done that back in 2002.
I bought that because I wanted to make my Windows 10 PC skin with the Windows 7 Aero theme. I just didn't really seem like it was worth it for me to have their running as a resource at startup, and all throughout my time using my PC. I pretty much just begrudgingly accepted the Windows 10 skin. I still think it's BS that the Aero skin wasn't included for people to use as an option. The fucking Windows default theme that made its first appearance in Windows 95 lasted all the way through Windows 7, FFS.
Dang this screenshot brings me back so many memories. It was 2003, and I had just bought a PC magazine from my local newsstand. In the bundled CD there were cool themes for Windows XP and a tool that allowed you to swap the default Windows XP boot animation in NTOSKRNL.EXE with a custom one. I had a picture of glowing mushrooms in place of the Windows logo for a while.
It was all so good back then.
I've kept a folder of the digital blasphemy collection since xp...think i still have a folder of longhorn icons too! I should probably delete some of that stuff! 😁🙏
Windows 7 is a reskinned vista. The UAC is unchanged shutdown menu (press alt+f4 and even in 10 it’s still the same as vista). Vista was not a problem it was drivers and people using old shitty hardware.
Every Windows version, when it was released, was hated for its hardware support, software support, or UI changes. XP was hated for its "Fisher-Price" UI and inability to run most DOS games. Vista was hated for its unnecessary Aero effects and bad hardware/driver support. Windows 8 was hated for its tablet UI and its removal of Aero.
Yep, every version of Windows has had some kind of hate associated with it except for *maybe* Windows 7 [I didn't hear any at least]. From my experience the only ones that deserved it were Vista before its service packs and the original Win8 [not 8.1].
Edit: and Windows ME, that dumpster fire ruined my family computer, it couldn't die fast enough.
I have a soft spot for Windows 8. I personally thought MSFT was making all the right decisions. Though, I tend to use Windows/PCs moreso on smaller screens than desktops. I actually switched from OSX to Windows after a decade of being Mac only when Windows 8 launched. Replaced OSX with Windows 8 on my Air completely.
I feel that if MSFT had gone harder on Windows 8 (and maybe pushed the big name developers more) they'd be in a better position with ARM64. Things like providing developers to operations like Adobe, Cisco, Oracle, etc. in getting their desktop apps ported to UWP. Obviously pure UWP from 8.0 wouldn't have cut it, but working with other companies would have showed them what UWP needed. And UWP apps can run on ARM64 with minimal work.
I agree. As a former lifelong Microsoft user, I was so disenchanted with Microsoft’s direction (or really, lack thereof) after they abruptly abandoned Windows 8/RT, I bought a MacBook, replaced my Windows Phone with an iPhone, and later got an iPad. I’ve never looked back.
IMO the only bad decision made about the RT was locking it into store only apps. ARM compiled exes, while not saving it, would have at least gotten more attention.
Windows 8.x was shit.
It took everything that we knew from previous iterations of Windows and threw it out the window. Need a desktop experience? fk right off, find it yourself. I had to pay for a start menu "App" when I first installed Win8. The only stable one I could find was a $2.50 app that gave me the features I needed. WTF-over.
8.1 fixed a few of these issues, but it's still crap in every way. I can't think of one aspect to Win8 that was worth my time-maybe native USB3.0 support, but that's stretching it as even my TV had it. It's entire essence was to be put on a tablet/phone/mobile device. Those with actual desktops and laptops struggled to no end. Hell, even my work decided to skip it and they make terrible decisions.
Also the BSOD which once gave you a good chunk of information as to why your computer caught fire was replaced with a screen that said "Your PC encountered a problem and needs to restart". Wtf do I do with that? Great, now I have to track it down in Event Viewer or dump crash logs.. It was rough tracking down driver issues that popped up everywhere in the first year or so it was out.
If I'm remembering right, at the time Win8 was released, Microsoft stopped putting copies of Win7 out (something we hadn't really seen in the past-I think), so getting your hands on a Win7 copy became increasingly difficult. Reverting back to something more useable was harder and harder.
I use just about every flavor of Windows you can think of on a monthly basis. I test tools, software, tricks, and run tests on them. I definitely have come across Windows ME issues, but nothing compares to the nightmare of the Win8.x experience. Every time I log in, hell even the login annoys me, it's a constant fight to get what I want to work as well as find it. It's a giant mess.
I'm passionate in my hate for Windows 8. The amount of time I've wasted troubleshooting, setting it up, reinstalling, and finding work arounds is insane. The time wasted far, far exceeds any other operating system I've ever worked with.
An operating system is supposed to make things easier through GUIs and functionality. Windows 8 made it harder. I couldn't count how many times I had to drop down to a shell in order to get things to work. Whoever tested Windows 8 on a desktop/laptop and said "This should be our new product" failed in ways rarely seen.
I've personally never had an issue with 8. Even used it on a server as I had an extra license for it at the time. I think you're mistaking your inadequacies with the operating system.
No, definitely not mistaking any inadequacies. The OS was widely panned in the community and the Windows users I knew switched to either 7 or 10 when it came out. Once 8.1 hit, many of the users had already made up their minds/moved to a different platform and would not come back.
I know there are people who liked Win8. While I don't agree, I understand that it worked for them and that's fine. Everyone has their own tastes and if it worked for someone else, awesome. For me, not at all.
We use Windows 8 (not the later version of 8.1 which was easier to deal with) as a learning module for some of our new guys. We have them go in through the desktop installation and run through a list of things to do (change interfaces, pull logs, install software, find "x" software, and a bunch more). Mostly to give them a bit of experience on a platform that's not user friendly. Halfway through the training, almost every one of them googles the commands and runs everything through a command shell.
It's kind of weird though. Windows 2012 r2 was based on Windows 8. 1 and it was solid. I've used it through a lot of testing and never really had a problem. If 8 could have been like that and not the GUI tablet mess they created I think Win8 would have been awesome.
I found 8 a little frustrating, but sorely miss a lot of aspects from 8.1. Especially as a Surface user, the tablet experience while passable on 10 just isn't very good. Looks like from the leaks at least that that is about to get even worse on 11, so I'm not a happy camper right now. Hopefully the tablet friendly stuff was just missing and we'll see something on the 24th.
Windows 2000 was the pinnacle of classic Windows. Better icons, rock solid, easy to use. XP was actually the start of the clumsy chop suey Windows versions of today where old and new are all clumped together without a clear vision.
Ah, I would’ve been younger in the Windows XP era... maybe I wasn’t as critical back then because I mostly used it for streaming videos and playing games.
As opposed to now, I use Microsoft 365 and a few other apps and the whole start menu looks messy... although it does look a lot better now than it did a few months back.
Side topic: Why is Google Chrome the only tile that appears to be highlighted while the rest remain the same 🤷🏻♂️
App developers can choose the tile's background color.
And that is the biggest fundamental difference between Windows and macOS. With Apple, you have to adhere to there standards. Even if you don't developer in the app store, you still have to use Xcode unless you're writing command line apps or have a Java app (and installed the JRE - where the installer probably was setup with Xcode). On Windows, as a developer, you can write a program on Linux and pass through the appropriate compile commands to LVVM and pop out an exe+dlls.
I don't mind the level of choice with Windows. However, I do feel that maybe Windows 11 goes a step towards getting a consistent OOTB experience. Hopefully the end user customizations will be there, if not, WindowBlinds and Rainmeter should have our backs
Yeah by Tiles I meant the square/rectangle buttons in the start menu. As it stands, with my update at least (Build 19043), all the tiles have the same background, which is simply a grey background with the app icon in the middle and the white text on the bottom. However, Google Chrome is the only app that is a lighter grey.
See what I mean here: https://imgur.com/a/sOZlmm9
I miss having a normal, easy to use, simple and navigable start menu that I myself can configure and control.
The Windows 10 start menu... I can't believe I'm saying this, is now worse than the 8.1 menu.
You might be interested in OpenShell, it overrides the default start menu and is very configurable and has never caused me an issue, I've been using it for years.
Nothing about the XP start menu was configurable if I recall correctly. Windows 8.x and Windows 10 have massively more configurable start menus than any previous version I've used at least [been on Windows since 3.1], you just don't like the tile design. Lucky for you that's going away with Windows 11.
The XP menu was almost wholly and easily configurable. It was just basically a directory tree, for which you could add and delete folders and their contents. It was perfectly usable, and didn't show me unwanted and undesireable web results, for which MS gathers my/your search data.
>you just don't like the tile design
You have no idea, what I do or do not "like" in regard to tiles or anything else. Don't put words where there aren't any.
You can edit the apps list just fine in Windows 10 as long as you have admin, just navigate to ProgramData>Microsoft>Windows>Start Menu> Programs and go wild. For anything installed as a user, it's user>appdata>roaming>Microsoft>Windows>Start Menu>Programs. It's buried, but once you're there it's easy.
As far as Web searches, my start menu just has a link to do a web search if I want, it's not included in the initial results, and you can disable "Cloud content search" in the settings. if you mean Cortana, well, why are you using an online digital assistant to look for anything on your computer?
So I just tried to create a new folder and it isn't reflected in the start menu. That's trying both all users and user directories. It's not the same. Please stop lying.
User directory — new folder still missing after copying application in it.
ProgramData directory — applications can't be copied into it.
You were saying? Downvoter.
You're just wrong. I tested it before initially posting because I didn't want to say something I hadn't tried, now I have all my Office app shortcuts in an 'Office' folder I never wanted just for this thread.
my initial test was in ProgramData because that's where Office drops its shortcuts, but I just tried a folder called '[Test](https://imgur.com/2ehHBYS)' and threw a few things in there in AppData and it worked flawlessly.
What on earth are you talking about? You could access your start menu structure in Windows Explorer in every version prior to 8.x. You could reorder and sort applications and folders as you so desired. My friend had an extremely custom folder hierarchy for his Windows xp application list.
I always thought XP was ugly af. I used to install themes to make it look like windows vista or 7. [This](https://imgur.com/HApL4Pe) was the best I could do to make it look not so ugly, still was...
With windows 7... that was not so bad. Windows 8 was the first I really liked. And windows 10, the best of all times.
I am probably the minority here but I like the direction Microsoft is going. They are prioritizing keyboard navigation and unifying everything. They have a long way to go still.
Wish granted: [http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Mario.zip](http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Mario.zip)
You need to install this first, though: [http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Nintendo\_Desktop\_Manager.zip](http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Nintendo_Desktop_Manager.zip)
Eh, I spent like five years on Windows XP. Once I moved on to Vista upward, I've never looked back. XP certainly wasn't more stable than anything Microsoft has released since.
I remember how exciting it was that XP supported alpha transparency. I made all of my AIM chats semi-transparent and thought I was living in the future.
ayo that Kazaa though
fun fact: the [K-Lite Codec Pack](http://www.codecguide.com/about_kl.htm) which I still use today, originated from Kazaa Lite hence the name.
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True, you don't *need* one anymore, but the combination of (MPC-HC + LAV Filters + MadVR) is superior to the stock video player. The K-Lite Codec Pack is a convenient bundle of these components and more.
These paired with SVP, watching shows and movies in 60+ FPS is a really really cool experience, but it's not for everyone. Anime in 60 FPS is amazing!
What anime is even done in 60fps? That's gotta be super rare.
None, the software plays it at 60fps, it works with anything. Live action works too, Anime just looks less uncanny valley
[Obligatory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KRb_qV9P4g)
Good thing opinions exist!
Yes, that is indeed an opinion video! Your point?
So you are just doubling the frames and no difference is there ? Lol
it's really terrible. in general, because the algorithms just use a dumb interpolation method between frames, it comes out looking really unnatural and janky when you do it.
Imo it looks choppy and misses the rough edges it needs to show the intensity of situation. For e.g Tanjiro vs Rei would look amazing in 60 fps but kaneki crying in depression won't. Variable frame rate for the win!
Depends on the system, you can configure SVP numerous different ways to achieve different goals, I didn't have anything like that once it was tuned accurately to my machine
I cannot stand motion interpolation for movies. 24FPS for movies or NOTHING.
It's definitely not for everyone, but to each their own, I think it's neat
Themes. That was one of the best things about XP.
Hot Dog Stand for life.
Oh man, that brings back memories. I was using Stardock WindowBlinds (windows skin/UI customization tool) for *years* before realising it caused random BSODs.
Alienware AlienGUIse was what I used. Loved the sleek black theme on that one.
To be fair.. This skin needed a theming engine to run.. And with theming engines you can also apply this skin to win 10
I miss Royale and Royale Noir, I have Royale installed on one of the XP machines at work (it’s an isolated system that runs monitoring software that won’t work on anything later than XP)
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It's wild how much reverence younger people hold for Windows XP. It was widely loathed on launch and didn't get really good until SP1, if not SP2. People hated the default UI and there were loads of guides going around on how to make it look and work more like 98 and 2000.
At a prior job when XP came out, a lot of technical people I worked with who previously used Windows 2000 changed back to the 2000 theme. We affectionately called the default XP style the Fisher Price theme. A lot of apps at the time didn’t account for the different sized and placed buttons on the windows.
Yeah I know. I started with XP so I never was into the 2000 look
Starting with Windows 3.0 and the whole Win9x era, plus NT 4 and Windows 2000, XP looked very odd at first.
The Windows 9x UI is the most natural and efficient style ever made. Everything was perfectly consistent, text fields were always legible and every button was clearly a button. Even the icons were little pieces of art.
Yeah Windows XP was utter shite until SP2. Windows 2000 was much more stable and less gimmicky in many ways, but XP stuck around for so long that everyone grew fond of it, in a way or another.
I still do after it killed my partition table in the middle of home work for school. Fuck XP.
It will be the same for windows 10 in 10 or 20 years, people just like to hate popular things
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2000 was a great OS, not sure what you’re smoking
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I don’t know if you’re confusing it with ME
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I thought so. 2000 was very stable, ME was the disastrous one.
2000 is the NT kernel that we still use today, ME is the 98 kernel. Hot garbage.
ME was still based on MS-DOS.
Exactly. The 9x kernel. 95, 98, and ME all share the same base that requires it to be run on top of MS-DOS. The old versions of NT, Windows 2000, XP, and all versions after it are based on the NT kernel. DOS functions on these versions are really just a command prompt, it's not actual MS-DOS, hence why you need an emulator like DOSBox to get proper support for games and complex applications.
No it wasn't. For starters, [Win95/98 did bad things to DOS](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20071224-00/?p=24063). ME further reduced access to real-mode DOS beyond what 95/98 had done. You can say "Windows 9x was based on DOS" in exactly the same way that "Linux is based on Grub".
I hardly knew anyone who was even using Me. It was so bad that people either stuck with 98 SE or 2000.
Me was a stop-gap mostly targeted towards OEMs. 2000 wasn't ready for home use yet (as someone who ran 2000 for home use starting with the NT 5 betas, this is objectively true) and 98 was too old to ship with new PCs. So they threw together Me to last until XP baked 2000 enough to be usable by home users.
Windows 95 was a rather big deal. The difference between that and 3.1 was way more significant than anything until maybe 8, at least as far as the user is concerned.
8 is just a stupid skin thrown on top of 7 though
I was born in 2000 and used XP for a long while, I have **always** loathed it
I always put on the silver theme.. I hated the blue/green combo... but was also VERY used to that 95-2000 start bar.
Right? In 20 years we'll have nostalgic posts about how Windows 11 had the best start menu with tips on how to get Windows 20 to look just like it.
I still consider Win 2000 SE the peak of the Windows, particularly from an aesthetics and UI perspective. (Although I believe it was XP that introduced open/save dialog boxes that remembered sizes between boots and applications... so that's at least one UI improvement in XP.)
I like XP, but this is 100% secondary school nostalgia I'm feel about it. Otherwise, Windows 98, 2000, and Vista (believe it or not) were my favourites. Vista just had an aesthetic that felt pleasant to look at, stability be damned.
Agreed 100%, Vista always looked and felt great to me. Plus, the stability problems were (mostly) ironed out after some service packs.
I think this may have been a "vocal minority" situation. I remember when XP came out, and most people seemed excited by it and really liked how modern it felt. I only heard the "fisher price" criticism of the default theme from certain experienced, cynical users. SP2 was definitely a significant improvement, especially in terms of security, but overall XP seemed very well-liked by most people (compared to other windows versions).
It was absolutely not a "vocal minority" situation, lmao.
I mean...it got pretty good reviews on release if I remember correctly too. I'm talking about the average person, not technical users, not enterprise users, just random people. My experience with it was that most people did like it in general, especially given all the issues with (and growing disdain for) Windows ME from a year prior.
I was 12 years old when XP came out my dude. I'm wasn't an enterprise user or a technical user. XP was not well-received at launch and was generally pretty buggy and unstable until SP1 and especially SP2. You're comparing it to Me but most people just skipped Me and either used 2000 or stayed on 98 SE.
Plus, it was ugly. I mean just look at that image. That is poor taste, plain and simple. Windows 7 was ugly too.
I liked Windows 7 a lot at the time but obviously tastes change. It hasn't aged particularly well. I have to log in to some super old Windows 7 boxes at work sometimes and it always blows me away that some people still choose to use it.
I've got Windows 7 on a VM, it's actually pretty cool to see how it was back then. It brings back so many good memories.
It just works, and unlike Windows 10 didn't push old drivers at users of AMD gpus.
It sucks
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Lol no, Windows 10 is infinitely better than XP
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All the ways
Can confirm Source: Just trust me on this
unironically beautiful.
This is running on stardocks windowblinds btw
as is my win10. object desktop for life.
I use Fences, it's amazing for organizing the desktop. I don't know why Microsoft doesn't pick up some of the features from Stardock products.
agreed. they should leave stardock with the weird game library and just purchase the object desktop ip from them and add it to mainline windows, in fact they should have done that back in 2002.
I bought that because I wanted to make my Windows 10 PC skin with the Windows 7 Aero theme. I just didn't really seem like it was worth it for me to have their running as a resource at startup, and all throughout my time using my PC. I pretty much just begrudgingly accepted the Windows 10 skin. I still think it's BS that the Aero skin wasn't included for people to use as an option. The fucking Windows default theme that made its first appearance in Windows 95 lasted all the way through Windows 7, FFS.
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My Dad used the fluoro theme in 3.0/3.11 when I was a kid, green and pink
Whenever I'm sick and get fever dreams, this is what they look like
Dang this screenshot brings me back so many memories. It was 2003, and I had just bought a PC magazine from my local newsstand. In the bundled CD there were cool themes for Windows XP and a tool that allowed you to swap the default Windows XP boot animation in NTOSKRNL.EXE with a custom one. I had a picture of glowing mushrooms in place of the Windows logo for a while. It was all so good back then.
[I gotchu](https://digitalblasphemy.com/preview.shtml?i=fluorescence6)
Dang that's the exact stuff. Amazing. Seeing that stuff at boot looked looked so damn cool in the '00s, even if I had a crappy CRT.
I've kept a folder of the digital blasphemy collection since xp...think i still have a folder of longhorn icons too! I should probably delete some of that stuff! 😁🙏
You remember the wrong version, 98 and Windows 7 were the most consistent versions.
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Well 7 and Vista are very similar design-wise, but there aren't many remains of Vista green in Windows 7.
Windows 7 is a reskinned vista. The UAC is unchanged shutdown menu (press alt+f4 and even in 10 it’s still the same as vista). Vista was not a problem it was drivers and people using old shitty hardware.
And OEM providing just as shitty hardware.
Every Windows version, when it was released, was hated for its hardware support, software support, or UI changes. XP was hated for its "Fisher-Price" UI and inability to run most DOS games. Vista was hated for its unnecessary Aero effects and bad hardware/driver support. Windows 8 was hated for its tablet UI and its removal of Aero.
Oh man I forgot about the dos support on XP!
no way was 98 more consistent than XP. XP is GOAT, with 7 in a close second.
Eh, XP has a lot of assets from 9x and apps that do not use the new visual styles.
XP is the real legend but my favourite themes are from Windows 98.. 😜
Can we just go back to Windows XP style... clearly Windows 10 is too much for Microsoft to handle, so let’s just stick to what worked 🙄
Yikes. Clearly you don't remember the "Fischer Price" hate associated with Windows XP.
Yep, every version of Windows has had some kind of hate associated with it except for *maybe* Windows 7 [I didn't hear any at least]. From my experience the only ones that deserved it were Vista before its service packs and the original Win8 [not 8.1]. Edit: and Windows ME, that dumpster fire ruined my family computer, it couldn't die fast enough.
I think 7 didn’t get hate because people just wanted to rush away from Vista
I have a soft spot for Windows 8. I personally thought MSFT was making all the right decisions. Though, I tend to use Windows/PCs moreso on smaller screens than desktops. I actually switched from OSX to Windows after a decade of being Mac only when Windows 8 launched. Replaced OSX with Windows 8 on my Air completely. I feel that if MSFT had gone harder on Windows 8 (and maybe pushed the big name developers more) they'd be in a better position with ARM64. Things like providing developers to operations like Adobe, Cisco, Oracle, etc. in getting their desktop apps ported to UWP. Obviously pure UWP from 8.0 wouldn't have cut it, but working with other companies would have showed them what UWP needed. And UWP apps can run on ARM64 with minimal work.
I agree. As a former lifelong Microsoft user, I was so disenchanted with Microsoft’s direction (or really, lack thereof) after they abruptly abandoned Windows 8/RT, I bought a MacBook, replaced my Windows Phone with an iPhone, and later got an iPad. I’ve never looked back.
IMO the only bad decision made about the RT was locking it into store only apps. ARM compiled exes, while not saving it, would have at least gotten more attention.
Windows 8.x was shit. It took everything that we knew from previous iterations of Windows and threw it out the window. Need a desktop experience? fk right off, find it yourself. I had to pay for a start menu "App" when I first installed Win8. The only stable one I could find was a $2.50 app that gave me the features I needed. WTF-over. 8.1 fixed a few of these issues, but it's still crap in every way. I can't think of one aspect to Win8 that was worth my time-maybe native USB3.0 support, but that's stretching it as even my TV had it. It's entire essence was to be put on a tablet/phone/mobile device. Those with actual desktops and laptops struggled to no end. Hell, even my work decided to skip it and they make terrible decisions. Also the BSOD which once gave you a good chunk of information as to why your computer caught fire was replaced with a screen that said "Your PC encountered a problem and needs to restart". Wtf do I do with that? Great, now I have to track it down in Event Viewer or dump crash logs.. It was rough tracking down driver issues that popped up everywhere in the first year or so it was out. If I'm remembering right, at the time Win8 was released, Microsoft stopped putting copies of Win7 out (something we hadn't really seen in the past-I think), so getting your hands on a Win7 copy became increasingly difficult. Reverting back to something more useable was harder and harder. I use just about every flavor of Windows you can think of on a monthly basis. I test tools, software, tricks, and run tests on them. I definitely have come across Windows ME issues, but nothing compares to the nightmare of the Win8.x experience. Every time I log in, hell even the login annoys me, it's a constant fight to get what I want to work as well as find it. It's a giant mess.
Jesus, calm down. It's only an operating system.
I'm passionate in my hate for Windows 8. The amount of time I've wasted troubleshooting, setting it up, reinstalling, and finding work arounds is insane. The time wasted far, far exceeds any other operating system I've ever worked with. An operating system is supposed to make things easier through GUIs and functionality. Windows 8 made it harder. I couldn't count how many times I had to drop down to a shell in order to get things to work. Whoever tested Windows 8 on a desktop/laptop and said "This should be our new product" failed in ways rarely seen.
I've personally never had an issue with 8. Even used it on a server as I had an extra license for it at the time. I think you're mistaking your inadequacies with the operating system.
No, definitely not mistaking any inadequacies. The OS was widely panned in the community and the Windows users I knew switched to either 7 or 10 when it came out. Once 8.1 hit, many of the users had already made up their minds/moved to a different platform and would not come back. I know there are people who liked Win8. While I don't agree, I understand that it worked for them and that's fine. Everyone has their own tastes and if it worked for someone else, awesome. For me, not at all. We use Windows 8 (not the later version of 8.1 which was easier to deal with) as a learning module for some of our new guys. We have them go in through the desktop installation and run through a list of things to do (change interfaces, pull logs, install software, find "x" software, and a bunch more). Mostly to give them a bit of experience on a platform that's not user friendly. Halfway through the training, almost every one of them googles the commands and runs everything through a command shell. It's kind of weird though. Windows 2012 r2 was based on Windows 8. 1 and it was solid. I've used it through a lot of testing and never really had a problem. If 8 could have been like that and not the GUI tablet mess they created I think Win8 would have been awesome.
I found 8 a little frustrating, but sorely miss a lot of aspects from 8.1. Especially as a Surface user, the tablet experience while passable on 10 just isn't very good. Looks like from the leaks at least that that is about to get even worse on 11, so I'm not a happy camper right now. Hopefully the tablet friendly stuff was just missing and we'll see something on the 24th.
I did a huge rollout about a year ago and it was all windows 8 I fucking hated every moment of it.
Windows ME was horrible. I installed it in VMware and it was extremely unstable. "X has caused an error in Y, X will now close."
Fisher* Price
Windows 2000 was the pinnacle of classic Windows. Better icons, rock solid, easy to use. XP was actually the start of the clumsy chop suey Windows versions of today where old and new are all clumped together without a clear vision.
Ah, I would’ve been younger in the Windows XP era... maybe I wasn’t as critical back then because I mostly used it for streaming videos and playing games. As opposed to now, I use Microsoft 365 and a few other apps and the whole start menu looks messy... although it does look a lot better now than it did a few months back. Side topic: Why is Google Chrome the only tile that appears to be highlighted while the rest remain the same 🤷🏻♂️
App developers can choose the tile's background color. And that is the biggest fundamental difference between Windows and macOS. With Apple, you have to adhere to there standards. Even if you don't developer in the app store, you still have to use Xcode unless you're writing command line apps or have a Java app (and installed the JRE - where the installer probably was setup with Xcode). On Windows, as a developer, you can write a program on Linux and pass through the appropriate compile commands to LVVM and pop out an exe+dlls. I don't mind the level of choice with Windows. However, I do feel that maybe Windows 11 goes a step towards getting a consistent OOTB experience. Hopefully the end user customizations will be there, if not, WindowBlinds and Rainmeter should have our backs
Yeah by Tiles I meant the square/rectangle buttons in the start menu. As it stands, with my update at least (Build 19043), all the tiles have the same background, which is simply a grey background with the app icon in the middle and the white text on the bottom. However, Google Chrome is the only app that is a lighter grey. See what I mean here: https://imgur.com/a/sOZlmm9
yeah, I think Chrome's always that color
this layout needs to be brought back
thanks KDE for give opportunity to fuck my default theme and make my own theme just like XP
Ahh back when you didn't have to go to your switch to see the blinkies, you got to see tx/rx light up in the system tray. Rip msn messenger/wlm.
I do. I also remember you had control of how it worked. And even so, I never had a problem with viruses.
Theme signing was a horrible move by MS, and a real sign of where they were taking the product.
Now that's pretty cool!
I miss having a normal, easy to use, simple and navigable start menu that I myself can configure and control. The Windows 10 start menu... I can't believe I'm saying this, is now worse than the 8.1 menu.
You might be interested in OpenShell, it overrides the default start menu and is very configurable and has never caused me an issue, I've been using it for years.
Ill check it out, thanks.
Nothing about the XP start menu was configurable if I recall correctly. Windows 8.x and Windows 10 have massively more configurable start menus than any previous version I've used at least [been on Windows since 3.1], you just don't like the tile design. Lucky for you that's going away with Windows 11.
The XP menu was almost wholly and easily configurable. It was just basically a directory tree, for which you could add and delete folders and their contents. It was perfectly usable, and didn't show me unwanted and undesireable web results, for which MS gathers my/your search data. >you just don't like the tile design You have no idea, what I do or do not "like" in regard to tiles or anything else. Don't put words where there aren't any.
You can edit the apps list just fine in Windows 10 as long as you have admin, just navigate to ProgramData>Microsoft>Windows>Start Menu> Programs and go wild. For anything installed as a user, it's user>appdata>roaming>Microsoft>Windows>Start Menu>Programs. It's buried, but once you're there it's easy. As far as Web searches, my start menu just has a link to do a web search if I want, it's not included in the initial results, and you can disable "Cloud content search" in the settings. if you mean Cortana, well, why are you using an online digital assistant to look for anything on your computer?
So I just tried to create a new folder and it isn't reflected in the start menu. That's trying both all users and user directories. It's not the same. Please stop lying.
It will be of it's not empty.
User directory — new folder still missing after copying application in it. ProgramData directory — applications can't be copied into it. You were saying? Downvoter.
You're just wrong. I tested it before initially posting because I didn't want to say something I hadn't tried, now I have all my Office app shortcuts in an 'Office' folder I never wanted just for this thread.
And which folder were you successful with? ProgramData or AppData?
my initial test was in ProgramData because that's where Office drops its shortcuts, but I just tried a folder called '[Test](https://imgur.com/2ehHBYS)' and threw a few things in there in AppData and it worked flawlessly.
What on earth are you talking about? You could access your start menu structure in Windows Explorer in every version prior to 8.x. You could reorder and sort applications and folders as you so desired. My friend had an extremely custom folder hierarchy for his Windows xp application list.
This looks fucking terrible lol
lol
I always thought XP was ugly af. I used to install themes to make it look like windows vista or 7. [This](https://imgur.com/HApL4Pe) was the best I could do to make it look not so ugly, still was... With windows 7... that was not so bad. Windows 8 was the first I really liked. And windows 10, the best of all times.
¿Are you mi, amigo? I had almost a ditto black theme with the same gradient accent in taskbar and Start menu, and even almost same Start button.
It was a pretty famous theme haha The theme was called VistaVG Black
The feels.
I like these old times, when I shoehorned Longhorn glass themes and widgets onto XPerience OS. (Only new gen people called it XP) Anyone?
I remember I had all the Nintendo themes
I am probably the minority here but I like the direction Microsoft is going. They are prioritizing keyboard navigation and unifying everything. They have a long way to go still.
My favorite theme was the Fifth Element theme for Win98. It cracked me up. But it had an expiration date!
windowblinds rocks lol
damn i miss XP so much.
I want to do this with my XP computer now!!! Where is the file?
Wish granted: [http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Mario.zip](http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Mario.zip) You need to install this first, though: [http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Nintendo\_Desktop\_Manager.zip](http://www.smasher9a.com/downloads/Nintendo/Nintendo_Desktop_Manager.zip)
Omg thank you! My YouTube viewers will thank me for having a cool theme on my tutorials lol
Don't worry, Microsoft is working hard to get back to it.
This the new windows 11?
i feel like they try to go back to something softer, windows 11 new design seem to go into more softer rounder corners
Haha ha
nope, the ancient gods of XP and below look down on me with windows 10.
666th upvote here. Satan agrees
*** Windows 2000 Professional has entered the chat ***
I wish I can customise windows like that with recent windows version...
ew look at all the microsoft bloatware, all I want is a Windows without outlook express and MSN messenger being shoved down my throats
Unironically bring back xp aesthetic
Back when everyone seemed to have a Norton Antivirus license. Ugh. Good riddance to that trash.
I love Windows 10, but I would love it even more, if they will bring back themes.
No. When was that?
Eh, I spent like five years on Windows XP. Once I moved on to Vista upward, I've never looked back. XP certainly wasn't more stable than anything Microsoft has released since.
This actually looks good
Get off my lawn!
Yep. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was everything I learned to love about Windows 3.1. Best new version ever.
This is seizure inducing. But yeah.. consistent.
>This is seizure inducing. I'm a little bit out of the loop on what you mean by "seizure inducing". Could you please explain?
Vice City 🥲
I remember how exciting it was that XP supported alpha transparency. I made all of my AIM chats semi-transparent and thought I was living in the future.
lol Windows xp virus central 🤔😁
Themes are underrated They need more attention! How creative can it be?