Posey's Tips & Tricks
Windows 10: The First Month
While there's been the occasional minor bug here and there, Brien's first month with Microsoft's new OS has been relatively pain-free.
It's been more than a month since the release of Windows 10 and I have been using Windows 10 almost exclusively for that time. That being the case, I wanted to take the opportunity to let you know what my experiences have been. After all, there are many organizations that are holding off on a Windows 10 migration until the new OS has been proven to be stable.
So with that said, my Windows 10 experiences have been mostly positive. Please don't misunderstand me ... Windows 10 definitely has its share of bugs. Even so, all of the bugs that I have encountered so far could be classified as annoyances. I haven't run into anything that would make me uninstall Windows 10 or recommend to my readers that they avoid Windows 10.
So what kind of bugs have I run into? Like I said, the bugs have all been small things. For example, in some display resolutions the clock stretches beyond the edge of the screen to the point that a portion of the date and time is cut off. Eventually this problem seems to correct itself and the clock displays normally until the next reboot.
I have also run into problems using a DVD drive when connected to a Windows 10 machine remotely. Admittedly, this is a bit of an odd situation to begin with. After all, who established a Remote Desktop session to a Windows 10 desktop and then attempts to burn a DVD? What I have found however, is that my desktop is able to read and write DVDs with no problem when I use the machine normally. However, when I connect to the machine remotely I lose the ability to read or write to the DVD. I checked to make sure that the problem wasn't something as simple as a media redirection setting. And from what I have been able to tell, I have everything configured correctly.
There have been a few other quirky bugs, but there hasn't been anything serious. I have actually been pleasantly surprised by just how well Windows 10 does work. At the very least, I expected to have a few compatibility problems with some of my applications, but so far all of my applications seem to be working fine.
In all honesty, most of the problems that I have been having with Windows 10 so far have been operator error. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this in my column, but I just cannot get used to the Edge browser. Don't get me wrong. I really like the browser. It's just that unlike Internet Explorer, you cannot open multiple instances of Edge. If you want to have multiple Web sites up at once, you have to use browser tabs. My problem is that I use a multi-monitor configuration and have gotten in the habit of displaying a different browser instance on each monitor. Sure, I occasionally used browser tabs, but more often I would use a separate browser instance for each site that I am visiting and would then close a browser instance when I finished with a particular site. I keep catching myself accidentally closing Edge while I still have multiple tabs open. Thankfully, Edge saves me from myself by giving me a warning before I do something stupid.
While I am on the subject of the browser, I have seen a lot of comments on Internet message boards written by people who are upset that Internet Explorer still exists in Windows 10. In my opinion though, Microsoft has absolutely done the right thing by including both browsers.
Edge is obviously Microsoft's preferred browser, and Windows 10 makes it easy to launch Edge. Internet Explorer still exists, but you have to go looking for it if you want to use it (It's listed on the Start menu under Windows Accessories). In other words, Edge is the default choice, but Internet Explorer is there if you need it.
The reason why I like the way that Microsoft has done things is because I like having a clean browser without a bunch of addons. Unfortunately, there are some sites that require addons. With the way that Microsoft has implemented their browsers, I use Edge for the vast majority of my browsing and revert to using Internet Explorer only when I visit a site that requires an addon.
All in all, I have been really happy with Windows 10 so far. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But then again, neither is any other operating system. In my opinion, Windows 10 is every bit as good as any other operating system that Microsoft has ever created (take your pick). Is it the best Microsoft operating system ever? Maybe. The OS is still so new that I really don't think that it is fair to make that call just yet.
About the Author
Brien Posey is a 22-time Microsoft MVP with decades of IT experience. As a freelance writer, Posey has written thousands of articles and contributed to several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Prior to going freelance, Posey was a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the country's largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition to his continued work in IT, Posey has spent the last several years actively training as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate in preparation to fly on a mission to study polar mesospheric clouds from space. You can follow his spaceflight training on his Web site.