Windows OS Shouldn’t Be Regressing

While the tech world was abuzz recently over the news of a Windows 10 update coming this fall, I can’t profess to feel much excitement.

Not when I’m longing for the ease and intuitive features of Windows 7.

I got a reminder of how much I loved the older operating system when a friend who had been out of town for a while stopped by recently for a visit.

A gamer, he wanted to access our wireless network to download some older games that he can play offline.

Longing for the Past

After giving him the network key, I noticed his computer had a familiar appearance. When he confirmed it was Windows 7, I said with a sigh, “I’d give anything to be able to go back to that.”

That touched off a long conversation in which he recounted the headaches he experienced after downloading Windows 10.

He couldn’t get anything to work—literally. Finally, he called Microsoft. The computer techs installed a copy of Windows 7 on a thumb drive to boot up his system.

To his delight, it worked. The techs wiped 10 off his computer and he lived to see a brighter day.

Hesitating to a Mistake

The key to his success: acting quickly.

That’s something I desperately wish I had done last year, after seeing Windows 10 downloading itself onto my laptop.

Not sure how to stop it, I watched helplessly as it went through its paces. Then I decided that trying to revert to 7 would be as big a headache as learning how to maneuver my way through 10. Big mistake.

After more than a year of working in Windows 10, I still only have a cursory idea of what in the heck is going on. I find regularly myself escaping into nostalgia: if I could only go back to 7.  

Airing Complaints

Having rarely availed myself of Cortana, I’m not even sure how the message showed up a month or two ago. But there it was: someone with Microsoft asking if I would recommend Windows 10.

“No,” I quickly typed. “I hate it.”

That’s it. No one ever got back to me or ever asked for further feedback on why I felt this way.

But that’s the way of the modern world. Finding someone who would listen even listen to a complaint, let alone actually process it, is so futile and time-consuming you learn to just adjust and move on.

Were someone at Microsoft to listen, I would tell them the following:

• Whose bright idea was Groove? I went into my settings and changed the way I listen to recordings back to Windows Media Player. At least I can figure out how it works.
• By this many incarnations of one’s web browser, I would think you could up with something better than Edge. It reminds me of Internet Explorer, which is why I never use it.
• The opening menus for files are also worse. Can’t we go back to the way they were in Windows 7?

Now, to be fair, I must say the photos that appear when my computer goes into screen saver mode are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. But not enough to compensate for the drawbacks.

Costly Conversions

Several friends and my brother, who have all converted to Macs, tell me that’s the only way to go. I always reply: “Two problems: cost and learning curve.”

I simply don’t have money or time to change to something else. But to me, trumpeting new developments in Windows 10 is like bragging about your Lamborghini when you can’t get your sedan started.