Thread:Vorknkx/@comment-3547390-20161116194210/@comment-3547390-20170122170614

Oh no, Ranger isn't protected in his crotch area? How can he ever face off against the horrors of the world now? Well, I can't play Quake 1 now, Ranger is too exposed and too likely to injure his own crotch.

Engrish is something I generally try to tolerate since I am good at botching the language myself. I try to type things correctly, but I always end up using the wrong spelling or grammar tense.

Already officially migrated a few weeks back. DominusMortem really loathes 8.1, but I find it to work quite well as long as you are willing to modify a few things. I do lose safe mode, which isn't exactly comforting, but the good news is that I should be fine as long as I have the installation CD to get to the cmd prompt. Not as simple, but a workaround, and everything else is working about the same as 7. Honestly the only real benefit over 7 is just compatibility with recent technology. If you have 2 monitors for example, I would recommend 8.1 simply because you could get to the taskbar on either monitor. This has been a lifesaver with certain applications that like to steal the focus, thus preventing me from accessing the taskbar on that display. Even if it is a fullscreen application, it will flicker a lot less and be easier to get out of the application in 8.1. Ignore all the praise of faster boots/shutdown, it really is a minor change that you won't really notice. For all the praise of the Task Manager, I really don't see any real practical improvements. The ribbon is more of a "take it or leave it thing", I really don't see much difference between the two besides look and generally have the ribbon minimized. You just need Classic Shell and to uninstall as many Apps as you can. In the weeks I have used 8.1, it has been a bit since I have touched an app, the only reason for doing such was to change my account icon. Most of the time you really won't have to worry about any of that Metro garbage, you just have to be willing to know that part of your OS isn't the best but doesn't have to be generally touched and that the other half has some improvements. The other good thing about 8.1 is that while the base OS is very unstable, modified it can actually be more stable than 7 apparently according to uptime records.

I definitely recommend Classic Shell, even for Windows 10, since I hear the start menu doesn't open sometimes and that it is very limited in functionality compared to 7. Just go through the various settings and you can find yourself with a lot less of a headache. I believe this also fixes the whole "Windows 10 searches horribly" thing as well as tying the search to Cortana. You can make it look like Windows XP or 7 very quickly, plus there are options in there if you want it to be like Windows 10 instead, but with a lot more functionality. The program emulates everything quite well, though I will advise about being too quick. I have sometimes assumed I was in focus of the start menu and instead was focused on something else. Like me sending a message on the Wikia, hitting enter after hitting the Windows key, and turning off my OS. Don't do this.

I am not averse to customizing my OS. The problem with Windows 10 really comes down to an issue of trust and paranoia. Up to Windows 10, you could opt in or out of the telemetry, now it is done in such a way that it is impossible to fully turn off the telemetry and updates may potentially modify said telemetry values. There are plenty of switches to turn all of this stuff off, but nobody knows what is a placebo and what isn't, so two years later and we still have zero factual information either way. However, Microsoft insists on putting telemetry on older OS systems if you install the latest updates to the point that you have to chose between getting your data stolen by Microsoft or potentially stolen by a hacker, since now they give clustered updates that don't allow for much user control and don't detail any info about them. Microsoft also has been especially forceful with getting people on 10, which I just find suspicious. I get it is the latest and the greatest, but why were they offering an OS for free? Why are there still backdoors that allow you to get it for free? Why is there more telemetry getting added to 7 and 8.1 unless you disable updates? If there are no ads in 7 or 8.1, why do we need telemetry? Microsoft has admitted you can't turn off all the telemetry, with the highest sending still sending some info, which makes you question what info is being sent. It is all encrypted, so nobody knows, and any attempt to track it comes back with assumptions about it being too much or logical reasons why it would be sending this many packets. There is just no info on anything that is going on and Microsoft is becoming a lot more forceful. Nobody can even guarantee that the hardcore versions of 10 designed for hospitals and other data sensitive areas is indeed free of telemetry, nevertheless consumer versions! If some truth comes to light, I may eventually look at 10, but until then I am a Windows 8.1 holdout. I am fine with ads, what I am not fine with is being watched, for I feel it is violating a freedom of mine.

We were. You have been off and on here, so I figured it was a busy week. As for me, I am not currently busy with OS stuff, at least not until February when I make my big jump to a more powerful computer.