Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux
-
@mossman said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@JoelYoung
the UI was designed to work the same in both touch screen and desktop environments.The joke in Win10 being that they still haven't finished the UI! It's bizarre... you can get to about 75% of settings in the Win10 settings thing... but just type "control panel" in a console or from the start menu and you get the Win7 control panel which accesses more stuff and goes into much more detail.
Power options for example... your Win10 laptop is actually using a selected option from a list of user-defined power profiles - but you can't see it in a Win10 UI interface! Oh no... to get there, you have to either use the Win7 control panel or right-click the power icon in the system tray and choose "power options"... and get the same old Win7 interface as ten years ago.
It's quite pathetic that instead of "finishing" the new UI, they just keep adding on more and more "skins" on top of the old system which eventually ends up dumping you back in the Win7 interface anyway.
-
To facilitate access to all options you can create a God mode in Windows10.
Simply create a new folder in any directory and call it
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}That's it, clicking on the icon opens a menu with all the possible options in Windows, organized by themes.Instead of God mode, you can also put any other name.
-
@mossman I guess I must've customized my Win10 to not be that way. Don't remember doing it, but it's fine to me. The Start menu is still larger than it used to/needs to be, but it's no big deal because it's only there for a few seconds while I access something from it, and it's gone. No longer in the way.
I dunno... I guess for people who don't want to learn how to make the OS suit their own needs, it's a bother. -
@Catweazle Why didn't I know about this? LOL. I'm geeky and computery and have learned a ton of tips & tricks the past 20 years. How did this escape me??
-
@JoelYoung said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@Catweazle Why didn't I know about this? LOL. I'm geeky and computery and have learned a ton of tips & tricks the past 20 years. How did this escape me??
I have no idea, this trick is so old, already from times of XP, where I applied it.
It is a Control Panel on Steroids -
@linfan Strange. I started on Manjaro (after many months of live sessions) and since then I'm facing only problems that are usual when switching OS (or any other piece of SW).
-
@Catweazle said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@JoelYoung said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@Catweazle Why didn't I know about this? LOL. I'm geeky and computery and have learned a ton of tips & tricks the past 20 years. How did this escape me??
I have no idea, this trick is so old, already from times of XP, where I applied it.
It is a Control Panel on SteroidsYes, I remember someone showing me this literally decades ago.
Can't do much on this company laptop (most of it requires admin) - will have to have a look at home some time to see if there's anything useful in there...
-
@mossman , this may also work on the company's PC, provided you are authorized to create a folder
-
@mossman said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@justinzobel said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@bonetone I just removed them all and slimmed the Start Menu down to one list (the left side).
Funny enough, I had forgotten how to junk all the junk for the start menu on this recently installed laptop and just looked up how to do it five minutes ago - as you describe.
Typical Micrsoft bad UI design that there is no description anywhere why those tiles are there and no option to just get rid of them(*). No, you have to figure out yourself that they are applications which have been "pinned to start" by the system in the first place - and that to get rid of them you have to right-click each one and un-pin it manually....
(*) there are options for including or excluding "most used", "recently added" etc. but clicking all those options affects everything EXCEPT the ones I wanted to get rid of! Why not have another option for "pinned tiles"?!? Then you could not only get rid of them with one click, you could also figure out why that junk is there in the first place...
I've seen a few powershell scripts to remove MOST of the titles, then you just clean up the few that remain.
-
@Catweazle said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
(Curious that Krita, an OpenSource program, which can be downloaded for free from the official website, in the Windows Store is offered for € 9.95)
https://binary-factory.kde.org/job/Krita_Stable_Windows_Build/ Daily Windows builds of stable with bug fixes on top, linked on Krita download page.
-
@Catweazle said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@mossman , this may also work on the company's PC, provided you are authorized to create a folder
I posted after doing that... I see the list, but a lot of them require admin to open the actual settings.
-
@Catweazle said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
To facilitate access to all options you can create a God mode in Windows10.
Simply create a new folder in any directory and call it
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}Warning! This does weird things in Windows Explorer...
I had a bit of a panic this morning because I could not find TotalCommander which I always run instead of Windows Explorer. It was still listed in the start menu and when I opened it I discovered that every folder containing my own software was visible in TotalCommander but missing in Windows Explorer (including Vivaldi). This was the same area I had put the God Mode folder.
When I moved the God Mode folder, all the software folders reappeared in Windows Explorer...
-
I never had this problem, although I have not put this 'God Mode' on the desktop, but in a separate folder and on the taskbar, there I also have access to the programs I use most. I don't like the desktop full of icons, as some have.
PD I use Double Commander (Same as Total Commander, but Open Source, 100% free, cross Platform) -
Linux Mint is very good too, very friendly.
-
Made the jump almost 20 years ago now. Was a bit surprised back when, when I had to switch to the Windows 2000 machine for a bit after a hardware failure - and found I hadn't used it in a year. Sync is nice as portal of backup. Before the last upgrade, I opened all the tabs on another machine and after the upgrade, simply reversed the process.
-
@folgore101:
check these links out:
https://rufus.ie
https://www.tecmint.com/linux-mint-installation-guide/Just make sure that you can boot your PC from a USB drive, this might require some settings in the BIOS settings.
Great christas project!
/Niels -
@folgore101:
For the best result I'd suggest you use the 'Erase disk and install Linux Mint' option.
/Niels -
@nielsrasmus said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@folgore101:
check these links out:
https://rufus.ie
https://www.tecmint.com/linux-mint-installation-guide/Just make sure that you can boot your PC from a USB drive, this might require some settings in the BIOS settings.
Great christas project!
/NielsThanks, i know the first one and i use it. The guide will certainly be useful.
@nielsrasmus said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@folgore101:
For the best result I'd suggest you use the 'Erase disk and install Linux Mint' option.
/NielsI have an SSD that advances me and will be completely dedicated to Linux Mint.
-
For those who want to switch to Linux and don't know which distro to choose, this page can help them find exactly the distro that best suits their needs.
-
@Catweazle I did the test and got this: "We could not calculate a list based on your given answers"