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Philadelphia, PA
A year ago during the Windows 10 Preview program I was highly optimistic about Windows 10 and ready to recommend the upgrade to my circle of friends and acquaintances who ask me to help them with their technology issues.
That was a year ago … and during that time my opinion on upgrading has changed.
I joined the Insider Preview Program a year ago and ran 10 on 2 systems I used daily (one at the office and a notebook at home). Both systems were about 2-3 years old and overall the preview ran fairly well. There were issues (the apps and store, some hardware drivers) and a couple of times where the systems needed to be reset and re-installed but I expected this.
Fast forward to the end of July when Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be released and based on my experiences I felt very comfortable in making the upgrade from my other systems running 8.1 and 7. I currently have 6 systems running Windows 10 throughout my house and family members. Here is a breakdown of the systems:
1) HP Desktop i5 Skylake – Purchased 2/16 Windows 10 Installed
2) Lenovo Edge 15 i7 Skylake – Purchased 12/15 Windows 10 Installed
3) Surface Book i5 Base Model – Purchased 11/15 Windows 10 Pro Installed
4) Asus Q8300 Quad Core – Older System Windows 8.1 upgraded to Windows 10
5) Lenovo 11” 2-in-1 i3 – Purchased 12/15 Windows 10 Installed
6) Asus CM6330 i7-3770 – Older System Windows 8.1 upgraded to Windows 10
Overall as an OS – 10 has been fine. It feels as fast or faster than 7 or 8 on the pc’s that ran the older versions. The newer systems have performed well too. The main programs I use on a daily basis: Office, Adobe CS, and a handful of code editors and IDE’s haven’t had an issue. I utilize Cortana frequently as well to track news items, create reminders and more. So why wouldn’t I recommend the OS at this point?
There are two main reasons for my disappointment. One is the core Windows Apps (Mail, Calendar, Photos, etc.) and the other is related to some core features that feel unfinished (most notably Action Center).
The Apps issue is the most troubling as I have become accustomed to using the Mail, Calendar and Photos apps on a daily basis. So what is the issue? Intermittently on over half of the systems above the apps have stopped working, unable to launch or be updated. The issues are common enough that a quick search at Microsoft’s site reveals a number of people experiencing the same problems; error codes 0x80070003, 0x8024402c, 0x80073cfa and more are commonly listed. There are numerous fixes recommended including running wsreset.exe, sfc /scannow, uninstalling the apps using get-appxpackage ** | remove-appxpackage … and a list of other possible solutions.
The solutions however are unreliable and they are too technical for me to picture the average user implementing. These issues have cropped up more than once and previously I have been able to fix using a combination of the solutions above. In the past week I was affected by Mail and Calendar not working on one system, then within 2 days a combination of the Photos app, One Note app, Get Started and Maps not working on 2 other systems. This time the solutions proved fruitless and after several hours troubleshooting I decided to create a Local account as Administrator and migrate my existing account documents and re-activate the necessary programs on the new user. This worked and the only app today not functioning fully is Maps on one system.
The process however took hours between the two systems and isn’t a realistic solution to expect the consumer to undertake when/if their apps become corrupted. The solutions Microsoft currently provides become far too technical requiring launching Powershell as admin and inputting several commands.
The other issues albeit not as major and would not be a deal breaker if it was the only problem is the Action Center. The idea of the notifications is effective but too many notifications appear that link to nothing leaving the message useless.
As of today I would only recommend Windows 10 to users who don’t mind troubleshooting app issues or migrating accounts if necessary. If you have no intention of using any of the apps then the OS does run well from my day to day experience.
I implore Microsoft however to develop a more comprehensive and simpler solution to:
1) Fix apps using a simpler point and click method that actually will fix corrupted apps (the troubleshooter included in 10 has been all but useless in my attempts to fix apps)
2) The ability to uninstall and reinstall any App similar to the add/remove programs. (Too many times the app uninstall button is greyed out and inaccessible on Microsoft’s core apps leaving the user to resort to Powershell and use the get-appx remove-appx commands)
3) Apps should install or not – the archaic error codes generated have proven almost useless to this point in determining an actual fix.
I cannot imagine the average user having an issue and calling for help with the Photos app, for example, and that they can no longer access their digital pictures. It would be painful walking them through the process if wsreset.exe or the built-in troubleshooters didn’t fix the issue.
Microsoft, the Store and apps was your grand vision, if your own apps written for the store are not functioning well and require command line level coding to attempt to fix… I have little hope for the future of the platform. I am hoping this is a temporary glitch and will be rectified but the launch is 6 months out and the problems keep reappearing.
Recently a friend asked me what to buy as they were replacing their older system. I don’t do it often but I recommended currently they buy an Apple as the platform appears much more stable at this point and time.
Anybody else out there have any feedback on the current state of the Windows 10 core apps?
