Windows Experience

In article , Chris
wrote:

Except an OS with the install base as Windows does. By definition is has to
suit all of its 1-2 billion installed users. Problem is it can't, as the
win XP and 7 hold-outs attest.

some people hate change. the xp holdouts are a bizarre group since most
software now requires at least win7, sometimes later.

It's huge dominance is a huge strength, but also a massive problem as it
limits MS's options between versions. Hence why 8 was such a disaster, too
many changes in one go.

the problem with win8 was microsoft tried to combine desktop & mobile
into one system, a novel idea in theory, but unfortunately, it brings
far too many compromises, making it not great for either one.

microsoft learned a lot from that, one reason why win10 is so much
better.

Also Windows improvements are mostly artificial now. There is no reason
other than lack of support to move from Windows 7. In many places 10 is
just a skin on top of 7 tools. Especially the control panel or settings as
it's called now. That's why they've said 10 is going to be their last OS;
there's little to justify paid updates and it causes fragmentation. Apple
solved this a long time ago by making macOS and iOS free upgrades.

not true. win10 has a lot of under the hood changes, nearly all of them
good. the new settings is *much* better than that mess of control
panels (a few of which still remain).

the win10 upgrade was free for a year, at which point you could then
backtrack it and stay on 7 while retaining the ability to upgrade to 10
for free at some point in the future.

win10 is the last version of windows because it's continually upgraded
and also because mobile and the cloud is the future, *not* desktop
oses. microsoft blew it with mobile, leaving the cloud.

at ms build last month, they barely mentioned windows. it was about
azure.

Hi, Neil,

Sorry for the late reply. I've been out of town for 6 days, and decided
to just disco from the internet entirely! Even my cell phone had no
signal. 4 out of 5 of us had no cell signal. LOL

On 5/23/19 2:10 PM, Neil wrote:
On 5/23/2019 9:51 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 5/22/19 12:41 PM, Big Al wrote:
On 5/22/19 2:01 PM, Knightly wrote:
New to windows 10 and do not like it.

What can I do to make it more like previous windows version so I do not
have a big learning curve.

Tanks in advance.

My personal opinion is to learn how to use the system rather than trying
to add 3rd party tools to change it.Â*Â* Microsoft is making constant
changes and there is no love lost if any of these things break.Â* To
them, it's there system to do what they want.

Those constant changes, I find, simply keep you having to relearn
different areas of the system, which is a waste of your time if you are
trying to be efficient in your use of the system as part of a business
situation.

I haven't seen *any* changes to the Win10 UI over the last 2 years. Then
again, I don't use 3rd party apps to modify the UI, I don't belong to
the "insiders" group, and I have been able to work with the only
interruptions being the very rare forced reboots at inconvenient times.

Not the UI specifically, but they keep changing things in Settings.
Plus moving things from the Control Panel to Settings.

I find that deleting all the unwanted items from the menu by just right
clicking and unpin them works to simplify the menu.

Some of those items are "live tiles",, that are constantly updating.Â* I
don't know if simply removing them from the menu shuts them down, so I
turn the live tiles off before unpinning.

Unpinning them from the Start menu does not remove them from the system.
They still appear in the list of apps and can be launched from there.
So, you could safely unpin all of the tiles without consequences. I
prefer to resize, rearrange, and leave those that I use active.

I don't remove them, too much effort to reinstall! LOL

But I need to research and find out if the tiles are always running,
even when unpinned. Most of them I have no use for, so I want them
turned off.

I add the tiles I want, but that's usually done to fit someone else's
system, with their permission.

Then you can find
your most used programs on the alphabetical menu and right click them
and pin to start each.

Not necessarily.Â* Not all programs will show up in the alphabetical
list, but you can get them pinned to the area where the tiles are.

For instance, my portable HD Sentinel is not in the alphabetical list.

Is your portable HD a program or a file? That may explain why you don't
see it in your file list.

It's the portable version of the full program. Million and millions of
associated files. ROFL. The portable version lets me carry it around
on a thumb drive to someone's house, and I can run it if I have a
question about the condition of their hard drive.


--
Ken
Macos 10.14.5
Firefox 67.0
Thunderbird 60.7
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 5/24/19 4:35 AM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Thu, 23 May 2019 07:51:03 -0600, Ken Springer
wrote:

On 5/22/19 12:41 PM, Big Al wrote:
On 5/22/19 2:01 PM, Knightly wrote:
New to windows 10 and do not like it.

What can I do to make it more like previous windows version so I do not
have a big learning curve.

Tanks in advance.
My personal opinion is to learn how to use the system rather than trying
to add 3rd party tools to change it. Microsoft is making constant
changes and there is no love lost if any of these things break. To
them, it's there system to do what they want.
Those constant changes, I find, simply keep you having to relearn
different areas of the system, which is a waste of your time if you are
trying to be efficient in your use of the system as part of a business
situation.
Yet a surprising number of cries for help on this newsgroup come from
people who have installed 3rd party software or made nonstandard mods
to Windows to make it look and feel like some earlie version of
Windows to which they have got used. It has always puzzled me as I
would have thought that it is no harder to learn how to use whatever
MS has offered than it it is to work out how to make it behave like
something else.

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version. But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled everything.
It's like going to the showroom and buying a new car, only to find the
accelerator pedal on the left, and the starter switch has regressed to
being foot operated on the floor. LOL

I think it would be a better situation if MS and/or the manufacturers
were to provide a manual that covered the basics of using the new OS.
That's the one consistent complaint I always hear.

Myself, I have Open Shell (formerly Classic Sheel) installed and
activated for the admin account, but not activated for the standard
account. Fits the way I use that particular W10 system. I hope to be
adding a 2nd W10 system.

--
Ken
Macos 10.14.5
Firefox 67.0
Thunderbird 60.7
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

nospam wrote:
In article , Chris
wrote:

Except an OS with the install base as Windows does. By definition is has to
suit all of its 1-2 billion installed users. Problem is it can't, as the
win XP and 7 hold-outs attest.

some people hate change. the xp holdouts are a bizarre group since most
software now requires at least win7, sometimes later.

New software, sure. Existing software will just keep on working.

It's huge dominance is a huge strength, but also a massive problem as it
limits MS's options between versions. Hence why 8 was such a disaster, too
many changes in one go.

the problem with win8 was microsoft tried to combine desktop & mobile
into one system, a novel idea in theory, but unfortunately, it brings
far too many compromises, making it not great for either one.

microsoft learned a lot from that, one reason why win10 is so much
better.

Better than 8, yes. 7 not so much.

Also Windows improvements are mostly artificial now. There is no reason
other than lack of support to move from Windows 7. In many places 10 is
just a skin on top of 7 tools. Especially the control panel or settings as
it's called now. That's why they've said 10 is going to be their last OS;
there's little to justify paid updates and it causes fragmentation. Apple
solved this a long time ago by making macOS and iOS free upgrades.

not true. win10 has a lot of under the hood changes, nearly all of them
good.

Name three.

the new settings is *much* better than that mess of control
panels (a few of which still remain).

Settings is *awful*. Even on a 24" 2560x1440 screen I need to scroll up to
find all the settings. Previously everything was viewable on std monitors.
There's so much wasted space and nothing seems to "fit" properly. you need
a 4k screen to be comfortable.

at ms build last month, they barely mentioned windows. it was about
azure.

Yep. There's no growth in the desktop, the money is in cloud. Admittedly
Azure is good. �

On 5/29/2019 11:39 AM, Ken Springer wrote:

(big snip)

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version.Â* But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled everything.


One heard the same rhetoric when the Windows UI changed from 3.x to 95.
The fact is that the underlying OS has changed, and it's not going back.
Those who think layering a 3rd party app on top of the UI is a good idea
will eventually discover otherwise, just as they did with Win95. ;-)

--
best regards,

Neil

In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version.

some people want to remain stuck in the past and force the industry to
cater to their needs.

the world moves forward, with or without those people.

But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled everything.

it did not.

It's like going to the showroom and buying a new car, only to find the
accelerator pedal on the left, and the starter switch has regressed to
being foot operated on the floor. LOL

no. it's more like going to the showroom and seeing that the vehicle
will unlock as you approach it (via an electronic key in your pocket)
rather than fumbling with a mechanical key in the dark or in the cold.

I think it would be a better situation if MS and/or the manufacturers
were to provide a manual that covered the basics of using the new OS.
That's the one consistent complaint I always hear.

it's *far* better to design things such that they don't need a manual.

In article , Chris
wrote:

Except an OS with the install base as Windows does. By definition is has to
suit all of its 1-2 billion installed users. Problem is it can't, as the
win XP and 7 hold-outs attest.

some people hate change. the xp holdouts are a bizarre group since most
software now requires at least win7, sometimes later.

New software, sure. Existing software will just keep on working.

true, but old software won't do the things that people need to do, or
nowhere near as well.

browsers that run on xp are too old to work with most sites these days
(and that's ignoring that connecting xp to the internet at all is a
*really* bad idea).

firefox requires win7 or later:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/67.0/system-requirements/
dropbox requires win7 or later:
https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/system-requirements

It's huge dominance is a huge strength, but also a massive problem as it
limits MS's options between versions. Hence why 8 was such a disaster, too
many changes in one go.

the problem with win8 was microsoft tried to combine desktop & mobile
into one system, a novel idea in theory, but unfortunately, it brings
far too many compromises, making it not great for either one.

microsoft learned a lot from that, one reason why win10 is so much
better.

Better than 8, yes. 7 not so much.

win10 is worlds better than 7.

win8 was a mistake and microsoft learned a lot.

Also Windows improvements are mostly artificial now. There is no reason
other than lack of support to move from Windows 7. In many places 10 is
just a skin on top of 7 tools. Especially the control panel or settings as
it's called now. That's why they've said 10 is going to be their last OS;
there's little to justify paid updates and it causes fragmentation. Apple
solved this a long time ago by making macOS and iOS free upgrades.

not true. win10 has a lot of under the hood changes, nearly all of them
good.

Name three.

no, because no matter what i name you'll say they're not important.

the new settings is *much* better than that mess of control
panels (a few of which still remain).

Settings is *awful*. Even on a 24" 2560x1440 screen I need to scroll up to
find all the settings. Previously everything was viewable on std monitors.
There's so much wasted space and nothing seems to "fit" properly. you need
a 4k screen to be comfortable.

it's a *lot* more organized and easier to use.

at ms build last month, they barely mentioned windows. it was about
azure.

Yep. There's no growth in the desktop, the money is in cloud.

cloud and mobile.

Admittedly
Azure is good. ?

yes it is.

On 5/29/19 10:26 AM, Chris wrote:
Settings is*awful*. Even on a 24" 2560x1440 screen I need to scroll up to
find all the settings. Previously everything was viewable on std monitors.
There's so much wasted space and nothing seems to "fit" properly. you need
a 4k screen to be comfortable.

+10!!!

--
Ken
Macos 10.14.5
Firefox 67.0
Thunderbird 60.7
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On Wed, 29 May 2019 13:23:48 -0400, Neil wrote:

On 5/29/2019 11:39 AM, Ken Springer wrote:

(big snip)

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version.* But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled everything.


One heard the same rhetoric when the Windows UI changed from 3.x to 95.
The fact is that the underlying OS has changed, and it's not going back.
Those who think layering a 3rd party app on top of the UI is a good idea
will eventually discover otherwise, just as they did with Win95. ;-)

"will eventually discover otherwise" sounds a lot like what we heard
back in 2015, when Windows 10 was becoming available and people,
including yourself if I'm not mistaken, suggested that folks should
adopt Windows 10 because that's the direction MS is going and eventually
you'll have to make the switch. Well, here we are, nearly 4 years later,
and there's still no need to make that switch. Someday, perhaps, but not
yet.

Saying people should do something because they'll eventually have to do
it is like suggesting that everyone should wear diapers their entire
adult lives, because eventually they'll have to. I don't know about you,
but I'll wait until I have to. It's the same with the native GUI of
Windows 10. Until then, there are multiple solutions available to
address the awful GUI. They're easy to find and easy to use.

On 5/29/2019 3:13 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 29 May 2019 13:23:48 -0400, Neil wrote:

On 5/29/2019 11:39 AM, Ken Springer wrote:

(big snip)

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version.Â* But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled everything.


One heard the same rhetoric when the Windows UI changed from 3.x to 95.
The fact is that the underlying OS has changed, and it's not going back.
Those who think layering a 3rd party app on top of the UI is a good idea
will eventually discover otherwise, just as they did with Win95. ;-)

"will eventually discover otherwise" sounds a lot like what we heard
back in 2015, when Windows 10 was becoming available and people,
including yourself if I'm not mistaken, suggested that folks should
adopt Windows 10 because that's the direction MS is going and eventually
you'll have to make the switch. Well, here we are, nearly 4 years later,
and there's still no need to make that switch. Someday, perhaps, but not
yet.

Saying people should do something because they'll eventually have to do
it is like suggesting that everyone should wear diapers their entire
adult lives, because eventually they'll have to. I don't know about you,
but I'll wait until I have to. It's the same with the native GUI of
Windows 10. Until then, there are multiple solutions available to
address the awful GUI. They're easy to find and easy to use.


Eventually is an indefinite time period. It was said when we went from
the DOS based Windows, to the OS/2 based Window to XP, it was said when
we went from XP to Windows 7, ..... You get the picture. How many
people using computers today are still running SuperCal, Lotus, dBase or
some of the old DOS standby software. (I still miss the flexibility of
dBase, but I don't use it.)

Once an OS changes, at some point (eventually), you will have to run
the new OS, or give up using your computer in the current world.




--
2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre

nospam wrote:
In article , Chris
wrote:

Except an OS with the install base as Windows does. By definition is has to
suit all of its 1-2 billion installed users. Problem is it can't, as the
win XP and 7 hold-outs attest.

some people hate change. the xp holdouts are a bizarre group since most
software now requires at least win7, sometimes later.

New software, sure. Existing software will just keep on working.

true, but old software won't do the things that people need to do, or
nowhere near as well.

browsers that run on xp are too old to work with most sites these days
(and that's ignoring that connecting xp to the internet at all is a
*really* bad idea).

firefox requires win7 or later:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/67.0/system-requirements/
dropbox requires win7 or later:
https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/system-requirements

It's huge dominance is a huge strength, but also a massive problem as it
limits MS's options between versions. Hence why 8 was such a disaster, too
many changes in one go.

the problem with win8 was microsoft tried to combine desktop & mobile
into one system, a novel idea in theory, but unfortunately, it brings
far too many compromises, making it not great for either one.

microsoft learned a lot from that, one reason why win10 is so much
better.

Better than 8, yes. 7 not so much.

win10 is worlds better than 7.

win8 was a mistake and microsoft learned a lot.

Also Windows improvements are mostly artificial now. There is no reason
other than lack of support to move from Windows 7. In many places 10 is
just a skin on top of 7 tools. Especially the control panel or settings as
it's called now. That's why they've said 10 is going to be their last OS;
there's little to justify paid updates and it causes fragmentation. Apple
solved this a long time ago by making macOS and iOS free upgrades.

not true. win10 has a lot of under the hood changes, nearly all of them
good.

Name three.

no, because no matter what i name you'll say they're not important.

Don't judge me by your own standards!

the new settings is *much* better than that mess of control
panels (a few of which still remain).

Settings is *awful*. Even on a 24" 2560x1440 screen I need to scroll up to
find all the settings. Previously everything was viewable on std monitors.
There's so much wasted space and nothing seems to "fit" properly. you need
a 4k screen to be comfortable.

it's a *lot* more organized and easier to use.

Nope. I don't know who's in charge of their HCI but they need a new job.

Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 5/29/2019 3:13 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 29 May 2019 13:23:48 -0400, Neil wrote:

On 5/29/2019 11:39 AM, Ken Springer wrote:

(big snip)

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version. But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled
everything.

One heard the same rhetoric when the Windows UI changed from 3.x to 95.
The fact is that the underlying OS has changed, and it's not going back.
Those who think layering a 3rd party app on top of the UI is a good idea
will eventually discover otherwise, just as they did with Win95. ;-)

"will eventually discover otherwise" sounds a lot like what we heard
back in 2015, when Windows 10 was becoming available and people,
including yourself if I'm not mistaken, suggested that folks should
adopt Windows 10 because that's the direction MS is going and eventually
you'll have to make the switch. Well, here we are, nearly 4 years later,
and there's still no need to make that switch. Someday, perhaps, but not
yet.

Saying people should do something because they'll eventually have to do
it is like suggesting that everyone should wear diapers their entire
adult lives, because eventually they'll have to. I don't know about you,
but I'll wait until I have to. It's the same with the native GUI of
Windows 10. Until then, there are multiple solutions available to
address the awful GUI. They're easy to find and easy to use.


Eventually is an indefinite time period. It was said when we went from
the DOS based Windows, to the OS/2 based Window to XP, it was said when
we went from XP to Windows 7, ..... You get the picture. How many
people using computers today are still running SuperCal, Lotus, dBase or
some of the old DOS standby software. (I still miss the flexibility of
dBase, but I don't use it.)

Once an OS changes, at some point (eventually), you will have to run
the new OS, or give up using your computer in the current world.

There hasn't been any real advancements since Win2K and
preemptive multitasking. And the System Read cache back then,
really worked.

What we got was "twenty years worth of Emojis" in terms
of technical advancement. Deck chair movement. And Walled Gardens.
Or attempts at Walled Gardens.

For example, is it really true that a modern browser
could not be made to run on WinXP ? Of course not.
That's utter ********. But if you go out of your
way to break things... they get broken. All the
"technical advancements" seem to bring, is ever-increasing
CPU requirements while unnecessary crap gets done
under the hood. Like reading the same 10,000 registry
entries each second. Or having Windows Defender railed
on a core for a couple hours while you try to work.
What a difference disabling Windows Defender on my
two core VM! You can actually do stuff in there now.

I sometimes blame myself "oh, if you'd buy a new
processor that runs at 5GHz, this would be buttery
smooth". But then I splash a little cold water in
my face, remembering that my opponents have gone
out of their way to diminish what I own.

Paul

On Wed, 29 May 2019 16:40:24 -0400, Keith Nuttle
wrote:

On 5/29/2019 3:13 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 29 May 2019 13:23:48 -0400, Neil wrote:

On 5/29/2019 11:39 AM, Ken Springer wrote:

(big snip)

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version.* But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled everything.


One heard the same rhetoric when the Windows UI changed from 3.x to 95.
The fact is that the underlying OS has changed, and it's not going back.
Those who think layering a 3rd party app on top of the UI is a good idea
will eventually discover otherwise, just as they did with Win95. ;-)

"will eventually discover otherwise" sounds a lot like what we heard
back in 2015, when Windows 10 was becoming available and people,
including yourself if I'm not mistaken, suggested that folks should
adopt Windows 10 because that's the direction MS is going and eventually
you'll have to make the switch. Well, here we are, nearly 4 years later,
and there's still no need to make that switch. Someday, perhaps, but not
yet.

Saying people should do something because they'll eventually have to do
it is like suggesting that everyone should wear diapers their entire
adult lives, because eventually they'll have to. I don't know about you,
but I'll wait until I have to. It's the same with the native GUI of
Windows 10. Until then, there are multiple solutions available to
address the awful GUI. They're easy to find and easy to use.


Eventually is an indefinite time period. It was said when we went from
the DOS based Windows, to the OS/2 based Window to XP, it was said when
we went from XP to Windows 7, ..... You get the picture. How many
people using computers today are still running SuperCal, Lotus, dBase or
some of the old DOS standby software. (I still miss the flexibility of
dBase, but I don't use it.)

Once an OS changes, at some point (eventually), you will have to run
the new OS, or give up using your computer in the current world.

Or use an entirely different OS, for example. I use Linux for much of my
work and it wouldn't be a huge stretch to just use it exclusively.

But my main point remains. Just because something appears to be
inevitable doesn't mean people need to embrace it right away or embrace
it willingly. We're all going to die, but we don't need to hurry it up
in any way. It'll come when it comes. I refer back to my adult diapers
analogy.

From the POV of MS, Win10 is clearly better than what came before, but
from my POV, it's clearly *much* worse than what came before. So please
forgive me, but I shan't be embracing Win10 with its native UI anytime
soon, if ever. It's really that bad, but it can very quickly and easily
be fixed, or at least the cosmetic bits can. Some of the underlying
issues are just there and can't be tweaked away.

MS correctly figured out that most people just don't know any better or
just don't care what their OS is like. I've even heard the argument that
you don't run an OS, you run applications. Obviously, I disagree with
that. No matter which application you run, or how many applications you
run, you always run the OS. You can't get away from it.

In article , Chris
wrote:

the new settings is *much* better than that mess of control
panels (a few of which still remain).

Settings is *awful*. Even on a 24" 2560x1440 screen I need to scroll up to
find all the settings. Previously everything was viewable on std monitors.
There's so much wasted space and nothing seems to "fit" properly. you need
a 4k screen to be comfortable.

it's a *lot* more organized and easier to use.

Nope. I don't know who's in charge of their HCI but they need a new job.

it's a lot easier to simply scroll one page versus clicking a bunch of
tiny tabs, which sometimes move around, trying to find which ones hold
the relevant settings (and it's often more than one tab), only to find
what's needed is actually hidden behind an advanced button.

On Wed, 29 May 2019 18:13:40 -0400, Paul wrote:

Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 5/29/2019 3:13 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 29 May 2019 13:23:48 -0400, Neil wrote:

On 5/29/2019 11:39 AM, Ken Springer wrote:

(big snip)

A lot of people are tired of the constant changes, they just want to
pick up where they left off with whatever their learning level is/was.
Windows 7 and earlier had a familiar UI so it wasn't difficlult to
change to the current version. But with 8 & 10 MS scrambled
everything.

One heard the same rhetoric when the Windows UI changed from 3.x to 95.
The fact is that the underlying OS has changed, and it's not going back.
Those who think layering a 3rd party app on top of the UI is a good idea
will eventually discover otherwise, just as they did with Win95. ;-)

"will eventually discover otherwise" sounds a lot like what we heard
back in 2015, when Windows 10 was becoming available and people,
including yourself if I'm not mistaken, suggested that folks should
adopt Windows 10 because that's the direction MS is going and eventually
you'll have to make the switch. Well, here we are, nearly 4 years later,
and there's still no need to make that switch. Someday, perhaps, but not
yet.

Saying people should do something because they'll eventually have to do
it is like suggesting that everyone should wear diapers their entire
adult lives, because eventually they'll have to. I don't know about you,
but I'll wait until I have to. It's the same with the native GUI of
Windows 10. Until then, there are multiple solutions available to
address the awful GUI. They're easy to find and easy to use.


Eventually is an indefinite time period. It was said when we went from
the DOS based Windows, to the OS/2 based Window to XP, it was said when
we went from XP to Windows 7, ..... You get the picture. How many
people using computers today are still running SuperCal, Lotus, dBase or
some of the old DOS standby software. (I still miss the flexibility of
dBase, but I don't use it.)

Once an OS changes, at some point (eventually), you will have to run
the new OS, or give up using your computer in the current world.

There hasn't been any real advancements since Win2K and
preemptive multitasking. And the System Read cache back then,
really worked.

What we got was "twenty years worth of Emojis" in terms
of technical advancement. Deck chair movement. And Walled Gardens.
Or attempts at Walled Gardens.

For example, is it really true that a modern browser
could not be made to run on WinXP ? Of course not.
That's utter ********. But if you go out of your
way to break things... they get broken. All the
"technical advancements" seem to bring, is ever-increasing
CPU requirements while unnecessary crap gets done
under the hood. Like reading the same 10,000 registry
entries each second. Or having Windows Defender railed
on a core for a couple hours while you try to work.
What a difference disabling Windows Defender on my
two core VM! You can actually do stuff in there now.

I sometimes blame myself "oh, if you'd buy a new
processor that runs at 5GHz, this would be buttery
smooth". But then I splash a little cold water in
my face, remembering that my opponents have gone
out of their way to diminish what I own.

I gave in to that last part by building a new system with an Intel Core
i7-8700 CPU, 64GB RAM, and multiple NVMe drives, in addition to the
existing 40TB drive pool that I brought over from the previous system.
Now I can run (at least) 20 VMs at a time and not have to worry about
running out of CPU or RAM. You're exactly right, though, if the *******s
weren't so wasteful with *my* resources I could have saved a ton of
money.

I use that system for work, so thankfully my boss, who happens to be the
company CEO, agreed to reimburse me for most of the cost, over the
objections of the company accountant. The only condition is that I can't
tell my coworkers for fear that they'll follow in my footsteps. (None of
them read here, I'm sure.)