I haven't used Windows regularly for over ten years. Everything is worse than I remember, from the 8 (!!) pages I had to click through where Microsoft asked to spy on me in different ways, to the lousy file manager that doesn't seem to support tabs or columns, to not being able to find an acceptable RSS reader that doesn't look like trash. I would go with a Linux distro if it wasn't for the Adobe suite and AutoCAD. So, how do you make life less miserable in Windows 10?
If you're comfortable with Linux, is that + Wine not an option? I've seen where people have gotten the Adobe Creative Suite working in Wine, but I dunno about AutoCAD. I only use Windows for gaming (literally nothing else), so can't help on the quality of life stuff.
My experience with Wine is that it's great until something breaks, and then it turns into a time sink trying to get software you depend on to work properly. I'm considering doing it the other way around and run Ubuntu or something in Virtualbox to get a proper feed reader, terminal and some other nice things.
The Linux, Linux uber alles crew generally suggest such things because they assume you want to run Linux (and occasionally do stuff in Windows when you absolutely have to). Having taken a long, hard look at things, you can't reasonably do production in a virtualized Windows environment. You can, however, run your email and internet inside a linux environment. It actually protects you better against viruses and malware. The downside is if you look at it funny it will break and all the linux people will look at you like you're a fucking moron who doesn't know how to run a computer before giving you a half-dozen shell commands to try to fix the problem. Creatives, be they architects, sound mixers or machinists, have no choice but a professional, legacy environment. Anything designed to run in a company big enough for an IT department is going to run on Windows first, mmmmmaybe Mac if it's advertising-related and Linux not at all.
That could also make sense. Tangential question: what feed reader do you use?
Thanks ... I've struggled to find something. Honestly, what I really wish is that InstaPaper weren't so useless :/
For some reason mac users seems to be the only ones spoiled with good native RSS readers. If you're fine with using a web browser Feedbin and Inoreader are good, Feedly is decent. I use RSS for discovery, Pinboard for bookmarks and managing my reading list and the built-in reading view in Firefox to read articles.
That's really more effort than I want to put in to setting something like this up. I'm also looking for something that can handle things offline, since otherwise I can just read things in the browser.
It's all good, dawg. You can do this. 1) Windows debloater. Use it well and use it carefully because if you've got a computer running a bunch of bullshit (lookin' at you, Lenovo), the imprudent use of debloater will make it legit not boot. But if you take it easy, you can purge a bunch of useless shit. 2) Clover. Yes, it's in Japanese. Yes, it basically turns your Explorer into sort-of-kind-of-not-quite Chrome. But it gives you tabs like a civilized human being. It can also be oddly crashy. 3) Folder colorizer. Particularly handy if you have a file structure that you copy over and over (like if you have to use Adobe suite and AutoCAD). 4) eM Client. this is a soft recommend especially if you're running AutoCAD 'cuz that means you probably have a space puck like I do and you'll probably be tempted to map the middle button to "delete mail" and I'm here to tell you BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL DOING THAT because sometimes between Logitech and eM Client it forgets you let go of the button and ZIP your inbox is empty. I've talked to them about this. It's not great. But if you don't do that macro thing, eM Client won't empty your entire unified inbox in six seconds. And then give you one level of undo. Aside from that it's pretty f'n dope. And it's cross-platform; you can get used to the same hierarchy and structure on OS X which is nice. By the way the reason you can't do a unified inbox in Outlook is because fuck you, that's why, Satya knows better than you. 5) Rainmeter. No, it's not particularly useful but it gives you information that you can actually use. The best thing to keep in mind is that when you mash the "windows" button and start typing, it basically acts like quicksilver, except shittier, and less useful, but at least it will launch apps in a non-terrible way. I knew a guy who explained XP by saying "yeah once you get rid of the Fisher Price interface it's actually not too bad." 10 is like that. I know the Windows guys are all hot'n'bothered about how everything is worse than 7 and 10 will never be any good and herp derp 7 7 7 but you know what? 7 is fuggly and 10 isn't a decade old and I'm sorry, but it looks exactly you would expect Windows NT to look if it were slowly but surely crawling up its own Galapagos ass for 20 years and that's fine. BTW, Adobe and AutoCAD are both plenty available on OS X. The latter of which blows my mind but there it is. I can virtually guarantee that Adobe writes on OS X and ports to Windows, and I can virtually guaranted that Autodesk writes on Windows and ports to OS X.
AutoCAD being available for OS X is what kept me there for so long, even though Apple has managed to break it with every single OS upgrade. Now if Apple could get back to making great hardware in the(ir) low/mid-end I'd love to come back, but I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future and my 2013 Macbook Pro was is on life support. I ended up building a desktop PC, so the only bloatware is the ones provided by Microsoft themselves, which still is a lot. I'm already loving eM Client, it's the first software I've installed on Windows that I can't think of a better Mac alternative for!
Hear you 5x5. I beta-test professionally and Apple has grown increasingly hostile to all software not made by them. I went PC when the new Mac Pro came out: I discovered that you couldn't really throw more than $3k at the Windows world to get the fastest PC imaginable while a Mac Pro that would beat my 2008 would cost me $12k. Now? Now Mac Pros are in "SGI money" territory and I have a laptop with a quadro card, a xeon chip and a 4k screen for $2800.AutoCAD being available for OS X is what kept me there for so long, even though Apple has managed to break it with every single OS upgrade.
Now if Apple could get back to making great hardware in the(ir) low/mid-end I'd love to come back, but I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future and my 2013 Macbook Pro was is on life support.
If you're stuck using Windows 10, you might find Open Shell nice for giving you a proper start menu back.
Do you have multiple printers? Don't let Windows manage your default printer. (Settings > Devices > Printers and Scanners - uncheck "Let Windows manage your default printer") especially helpful if you have a normal printer and a specialty printer hooked up to the same machine. I can't think of anything else specific that I have done to any Windows 10 computers offhand but if you have a specific thing that's bothering you I may know where the off switch is. So far I am fortunate in that all of my win 10 experience is mostly with "use this for browsing the internets" but we are getting ready to switch over all of our work computers so I am going to be learning how to answer all these questions soon (mostly for myself, as technically, we have an IT department, but honestly I think I know as much as they do in some respects and in others I probably know more.
I can't recall all the quality-of-life changes I did when they upgraded me at work. What I do recall is disabling Snap Assist and disabling notifications. I suppose both could potentially be useful, but neither suits my workflow.