Steve Smith talks about his experiences as a power user in Windows 10, and how various features and circumstances have made using Windows more and more of a pain.
Episode #6-26 released on March 14, 2016
Whether you are just trying to work, access the Internet, play a game, or even talk on a live show, chances are something has annoyed you to no end. This episode is about annoying Windows features that piss me off to no end, and probably you, too.
This ever happen to you, you turn on your computer to access something quickly, and load and behold, Windows is installing updates, and restarting your computer, doing other tasks, and you have yet to access the desktop. Worst, chances are, with Windows 10, you weren't informed this was going to happen when you shut down your computer. Further issues with Windows update is the fact that many people who do long duration tasks may find themselves having to stop the task just to allow Windows 10 to complete an update, which may or may not actually crash your computer.
The Action Center, Facebook, Twitter, and other notifications. I am a podcaster, I use twitter, post to YouTube, iTunes, my web-site, etc. Needless to say, I use social networking, a lot, and whether I am talking to a person, or talking with a group of people, even doing a favor for someone, chances are I will get a lot of notifications. The issue is the repeated rapid fire sequence that it comes in, and I consider myself to have a smaller audience, I can just imagine content producers with bigger audiences.
The Windows 10 Start Menu, it has to be the most-buggy start menu available, and it actually makes me miss my Windows 8.1 operating system. While, many of you will bitch and complain about Windows 8 and the tiles interface, we all know that there is nothing worse than a menu that won't even load when requested. This is apparently a common issue for many.
Graphics Drivers Updates. NVidia bothers me, and I am sure others to no end with the constant SLi resetting of our SLi configurations whenever they put out a new update. And, they do not even warn you this is going to happen. This means you have to memorize your settings, and remember to put it back in after.
Do you stream with programs like XSplit? Do you use a microphone; do you ever have issues with no microphone sound? There are two options in Windows that allow programs to take control of hardware, these options include the possibility to allow a program to take exclusive control of your device, and the other is to give exclusive control to the application running in exclusive mode. Turn off Give exclusive mode applications priority, and check the sound meter. There is no cure to this, and I doubt Microsoft will ever fix this. You will have to periodically confirm Windows has not reset this, and if you plug your device in other USB ports then the options may not be the same. Just a note, whenever Windows has an alert window, if the exclusive mode priority is enabled, the alert window gains priority over your microphone. Really Microsoft, how is this a good feature?
Cortana. I turned this so-called feature off, and for good reason. I stream game play using XSplit, to Twitch. It has happened several times that while I was gaming, and talking, Cortana decided to search the Internet for things I just said, without my exclusive voice authorization. You are supposed to call Cortana by name before it activates, something that doesn't happen while I play games because I do not play Halo anyway. This kind of event has forced me to turn off this feature and I frankly prefer Siri over Cortana, just because it only turns on when I initiate it, period.
I want to know what your most annoying experiences are in Windows 10, Mac, and Linux, write it down below, or email me them, and I may include them in a future episode.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions