Admittedly, our diverse and “integrated: home network involves devices using (at least, by last count) six different OSes, though most are just different versions of Windows, Linux (and another ‘nix OS), and Android, but of the Windows boxes, only one was still using my fav, to date, Windows version, Win7Pro. Oh, well, no more. One hour into the upgrade, and the installation process notes 12% installed (though it lies; it’ll take quite some time to get it really installed, locked down, and configured). Amusing thing is that although I really only needed a valid license key, the least expensive license key from a genuine M$-authorized retailer was only available by purchasing a USB drive with the installation files. It was a little over $1 cheaper than purchasing a license key “with download.” Didn’t need the flash drive (have the latest installation files; I download them monthly just in case someone needs repairs that Win10 borks on–it’s happened more than once), but bought the flash drive/license key combo, ‘cos, well a lil over $1 cheaper and included a flash drive I could repurpose.
I only, finally, caved, because recent iterations of Win10 work pretty well with a music transcription software I consider an essential program (and no, it does NOT work well on a Linux box, no matter how much I have tweaked WINE–THE reason I kept that particular Windows box at Win7: poor Linux execution of Windows calls on that software and slightly hinky operation in earlier Win10 operation). Oh, and Me$$y$oft is making their noises about end of support for Win7. Still not real happy with some parts of Win10 (and utterly despise some others *cough* Cortana among those *cough*), but it’s good enough for some uses.
After that computer is set up right, time for monthly checks on the ‘nix boxes.
Just maintenance stuff.
2.75 hours JUST to get to the point where Win10 loads. Not really fully configured (still stuck with the crappy “modern” interface and Me$$y$oft’s lousy re-implementation of the start button). LOADS of stuff to DISable, and even more (3rd party capabilities) to ENable, but it is–so far–stable. That’s more “bles” than I really care to deal with right now, but I will do it anyway, because the sooner one eats the live toad, the sonner one can move past the experience. *heh*
I don’t think I want to know what live toad tastes like.
It tastes a lot like configuring a new installation of Win10 does, I think. *heh*
One thing I have yet to really conquer is somehow nuking Cortana from orbit. *sigh* I have it neutered in the Registry, but given the way Me$$y$oft has a tendency to “restore” Win10 to its defaults when updated, that feels like a weak reed to depend on. *shrugs* Besides, neutering it in the Registry STILL does not keep it from loading (also “disabled” it in gpedit, and it still shows up in Processes in Task Manager, and cannot be stopped.) Castrating all the other “phone home” and tracker functions is pretty much done, if I can trust Spybot Anti-beacon. (I used to track all those things down and neuter them separately, but that’s like eating a live “horny toad.” :-)) Oh, I generally do loads of other stuff to make using Win10 more palatable, but mostly it’s just making it work closer to the way I want it to.
After a couple of days, the tweaking starts to taper off, though. Never quite stops. I was quite pleased that the version of Dexpot I had installed on the Win7 machine wasn’t peremptorily uninstalled by Win10. It handles multiple virtual desktops MUCH better than Win10’s execrable, built in virtual desktop “capabilities.”
BTW, the nifty lil tool from WinAero for killing (completely removing) Cortana does not work, at least not on versions 1803 and 1909. I prefer getting rid of such things via the command line or Powershell, but some of the built-in things (like Cortana and Edge) are resistant to that method. Turning off Cortana via registry entries or the Policy Editor only sort of work, as it still loads. . . and it still loads after running the WinAero tool, as well. 🙁
OK, *sigh-heh*, glad I appreciate learning something new (to me) every day. Learned the File Explorer/Task Manager “Quick Click” trick and have finally nuked Cortana from orbit. . . not that it’ll stay that way, given M$’s tendency to screw things up with every update. . . but for now: it is dead.