A special section for Windows 10

If you're puzzled why you can't get a video DVD to run under Windows 10, it's because Microsoft removed Windows Media Player and expects you to pay $15 extra for this feature that was standard in XP:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/microsoft-wants-you-to-pay-12-for-dvd-playback-in-windows-10/

If that isn't bad enough, the OS is unfinished and full of bugs, still all there in 2024. Remember when shortly after launch MS asked you for feedback? That was BS because they never fixed anything.

MS launched Windows 10 announcing it as the last version to be released. Unsurprisingly Windows 11 appeared, but this only works with dedicated hardware memory that wards off the countless viruses Windows 10 kept encountering to due to its sloppy coding.

How I hate this bug-riddled time-wasting POS

EXAMPLES

EXTERNAL SD/CF etc MEMORY CARDS
First of all, only Microsoft could create a right click menu with 'FORMAT CARD' next to 'EJECT CARD'.
Should I be grateful there is an intermediate 'Are you sure?' ?
 

THE TWO THINGS THAT PISS ME OFF THE MOST:
You just formatted a memory card in file Explorer. You click OK to close the formatting window and it closes the File Explorer as well. Of course you never intended to use the memory card once you formatted it.

You are working with files in a C: drive folder and you plug in a memory card to copy them over. Windows 10 File Explorer immediately closes the C: folder and opens the root folder of the memory card.

Sometimes if you have only the drive letter in view without being expanded to show the files on it, it won't close Explorer. I say sometimes, because this action seems to be random.


THE BUG  LIST IS ENDLESS
You want to eject a memory card that you have finished using. Windows 10 won't let you do this if any subfolders are displayed in File Explorer (the only place where you can click on 'Eject'), claiming the card is currently in use, which of course it isn't. It does this by default, but if you click CONTINUE on the objecting text box, it ejects the card anyway. Pointless.

Watch as the bottom right taskbar icon for USB drives swaps position when you remove the drive, so if you want to do something else you have to move your mouse to its new position.

Furthermore the drive formatter in Windows 10 (32GB 120MBs 4 minutes) is considerably slower than the one in XP (32GB 120MBs SD: 35 seconds) and far less friendly. 

You have a memory card with a file problem. Windows 10 is still perfectly happy writing new files to it, further amplifying FAT issues.

You plug in a memory card and Windows 10 says there is a problem with it. You run full chkdsk diagnostics and it says it can't find anything wrong with it. This happens pretty much EVERY time I plug in a memory card, irrespective of PC.


EVEN APP INSTALLATION IS FLAWED:
I copied a certified virus checker installation exe to a temporary folder on the C: drive and attempted to run it, only for Windows to say 'Windows has helpfully stopped you installing a dangerous program'. You can get it to run it anyway, but it isn't obvious. I assumed as Windows 10 forces the PC owner to not be an administrator by default, that I should go into Accounts, Family & Members, select a new account and then change that to Administrator although from what I've read, this isn't actually a full administrator account. Anyway, either as a result of this or because I hadn't noticed, you CAN install executable exe files if you click on the totally illogical CANCEL.

I then tried to move the temporary installation folder to a backups folder, only for Windows 10 to refuse, saying a file in it was still open and in use. No, it wasn't in use. All that was in use was the program I'd installed from it, that no longer required its installation exe file. I had to close the program before Windows would let me move the temporary folder, and then restart the program which surprise surprise had no problem running with its installation exe located elsewhere, or when deleted. 


TIPS
Uninstall all the useless apps Windows 10 installs by default on your PC.

Keep a copy of the original HDD/SSD you first installed Windows on (especially Windows 10) because in no time at all it will have installed thousands of MBs of junk that will slow down your PC. For this you will require a drive cloner (I use an Integral SATA cloner, which I believe is safely Linux-based), but this is also the way I save my backups and I wouldn't be without one. When it was first launched, my boot-up virus quick scan took seconds on the quad core SCAN Computers PC I bought to run movies.
 
A decade later the same quick scan took 15 minutes despite no more apps being installed. I didn't try Windows 10 RESET because I bet it would restore all the crappy MS apps I deleted. Instead I replaced the PC with a refurbished Dell SFF. In the past I'd steered clear of SFFs as they had a reputation of failing due to overheating but having bought a refurbished one on eBay UK for ~£250 in 2021 and found it to be almost silent and barely warm, I bought another to run Win 10 in parallel with my existing XP PC, see above. Maybe it runs cooler because now I only use SSDs.

Something to bear in mind: the recommended disk space for Windows 95 was 128MB. The recommended space for Windows 10 is 32GB; a minimum of 16GB is required for a fresh install of the 32-bit version, and 20GB for the 64-bit version.

16GB is HUGE: 16,000,000,000 bytes. Exactly why does Windows 10 need 125 times more space than Win 95?


WARNINGS
If W10 screen goes blank during an update, even for an hour or more, DO NOT TURN THE PC OFF or it will brick itself (which is another good reason to keep a copy of the original installation, see above).

 
FIXES (AKA how to stop Windows 10 fighting your productivity)
Rather like the Red Dwarf [G19] episode where hologram Rimmer is rebooted and all of his neuroses take up most of the huge download time:

To enable Administrator mode in Windows 10, enter cmd into Windows 10 search box at the bottom left of the task bar and select 'Run as administrator'. Other variants here:
https://www.technipages.com/windows-administrator-account-login-screen
 
To enter 'God Mode' and other useful hidden settings:
https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-3765-windows-10/134418/hidden-tricks-inside-windows-10

To disable all of Windows 10's built-in advertising:
https://www.howtogeek.com/269331/how-to-disable-all-of-windows-10s-built-in-advertising/

To disable Microsoft's marketing feedback and tracking of your every activity, go to Settings / Privacy
and one by one, select each group in the left permissions menu and deselect all unwanted features.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/general-privacy-settings-in-windows-7c7f6a09-cebd-5589-c376-7f505e5bf65a

A really useful collection of fixes:
https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-3765-windows-10/87674/how-to-fix-the-most-annoying-things-in-windows-10
 
To remove the large icons in the black boxes called 'Life at a glance' & 'Play and explore' to the right of the vertical Start Program list, right-click each icon and select 'Unpin from Start'. Once they've all been removed and Start Program is re-invoked, the large boxes will also be gone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC5K6aC3TqQ

To reduce the size of the Cortana search box on the task bar to just a magnifier icon, right-click on the search bar itself (or on any blank space on the taskbar) and select Search/Show search icon:
https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2019/08/10/windows-10-reduce-size-of-search-box-on-taskbar/

Windows 10 duplicates every external drive letter, even if it's just a card reader with no card in it.
The only way to stop this is to edit the registry. I thought Windows 10 was all about dumbing down and avoiding users modifying the registry, which can cause catastrophic damage in the wrong hands:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-can-i-remove-a-duplicate-drives-in-navigation/2f552156-ce5b-49e9-b205-7723fff80f74#:~:text=Deleting%20the%20key%20should%20remove,also%20need%20to%20restart%20Explorer.
 
This site provides freely downloadable file RegistryShortcutsW1064bit.zip:
'For quick and painless removal of the "3D Objects" shortcut and several others, we have put together this downloadable .zip file containing many .reg files (Windows Registry files), so you can simply download, open and double-click to apply these small changes without opening the registry yourself':
https://www.techspot.com/guides/1703-remove-3d-objects-shortcut-windows-file-explorer/

Windows 10 is by default set for touch tablet/Smart phone use so everything is hugely spaced out, wasting valuable screen space** and significantly reducing productivity if you are one of the rare individuals with an actual PC. This will still be set even if Windows 10 knows you aren't using a tablet and it simultaneously greys out the setting that allows you to disable tablet mode. To restore File Explorer normal line spacing, in Settings [Change] 'Additional tablet settings' and turn off 'Make buttons in File Explorer easier to touch':
https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/163604-line-spacing-file-explorer-list-view.html
 
**If this happens in the Chrome or CrapCleaner browsers, clear the cache (see bottom of this page).
 
​To minimize File Explorer's huge space wasting ribbon options top menu, press Ctrl+F1 (on-off toggle).

To make File Explorer display file details by default click Options/change folder/View/Apply to folders
 
Alternative methods to create a new folder in Windows 10 File Explorer: 
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/create-new-folder-windows-10

You want to change the name of a folder.
Windows 10 won't let you do this if any subfolders are visible.

You want to capitalise a letter in the middle of a filename but Windows File Explorer insists on reducing it to lower case once you've finished. You have to add a second upper case letter behind the original letter and exit, then edit the filename a second time and remove the first letter, leaving you with the capital letter you wanted.

To Enable Case Sensitive File and Folder Names in Windows 10:
https://www.howtogeek.com/354220/how-to-enable-case-sensitive-folders-on-windows-10/
 
To turn off MS photos, in the Cortana search box on the bottom taskbar, type Privacy Settings and press Enter, select Background apps/Photos and flip the switch to Off and then re-boot the PC:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-we-stop-the-photos-app-from-running-as-a/1a35f5a1-7b54-46e6-82cf-d3e401a9efbf

To turn off too many background tasks in Windows 10:
https://windowsreport.com/too-many-background-processes-windows-10/

To reduce Windows 10 tooltip delay time to less than the default 1 second:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/win32/controls/ttm-setdelaytime?redirectedfrom=MSDN

To remove the functionless 'Desktop' word on the Windows 10 taskbar, right-click the taskbar, select Toolbars and then untick Desktop.
 
To stop Windows 10 from hiding an 'overflow' of taskbar icons in a pop-up that is opened by clicking on the '^' symbol at the far right of the taskbar just before its small icons, right-click the taskbar and select Settings, then scroll down and click on 'Notification area' and then 'click on 'Select which icons appear on the taskbar' and set 'Always show all icons in the taskbar' to ON. Note - if you don't do this and instead just enable the ones you want, it doesn't stop others you haven't enabled being hidden on the overflow taskbar you're trying to remove.  

If the bookmarks bar at the top of Windows 10 disappears, press Ctrl-Shift-B to restore it. This is a toggle; repeating it will again remove it. Alternatively right-click on the bar, scroll down and untick 'Show bookmarks bar'. In typical Windows 10 fashion, once you've unticked this it disappears from the menu. Note: the bookmark bar WILL disappear from time to time without you doing anything.
 
If you find the Debug window randomly appears for no apparent reason you might like to know it's invoked by the F12 key which is located immediately above the Backspace key. It's far too easy to inadvertently touch F12 with or instead of Backspace. F12 is also a toggle key and if you press it again the Debug window closes (or you can just click on its top right corner X symbol).

To open a second window of certain open apps, hold Shift and click on the icon in your taskbar.
For Word, Notepad, File Explorer, and Chrome, this will open a second window with a blank document:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-run-multiple-versions-of-the-same-program-on-your-pc/
 
If Windows 10 stops recognising multiple monitors (it will), press WIN+P select DUPLICATE then EXPAND:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start-winpc/win-10-wont-recognize-multiple-monitors/fb5c5f33-b9e7-4158-ab82-833a9595e466

You want to add a printer to Windows 10. Good luck! It doesn't like OKI B401DN printers. This is a workplace oriented duplex networkable mono laser printer. Manual USB driver setup for OKI printers:
https://okiprinting-en-gb.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2904/~/when-setting-up-from-the-installer-with-a-usb-connection%2C-i-was-unable-to-go

It can't even install the drivers in local USB mode. If you try to do it manually you find USB is treated completely different to LPT or COM ports and whilst you can select those, it won't let you select a USB port as they are completely missing from the list.

Even when I finally managed to get the driver re-installed under Hardware Manager/Properties, nothing came out of the printer. Running Windows 10 diagnostics produced the helpful message 'No problems found'. I've never experienced any version of Windows printer diagnostics finding any problem at all and I honestly believe all it does is display lines of text claiming to have tested various features without actually doing it. This also applies to Windows network diagnostics.

I got fed up with my wired mouse lead tangling on my desk so I installed a genuine Logitech RF mouse with a USB dongle. At first it worked fine, then in 2022 Windows 10 did an upgrade and the wheel started rolling the screen randomly and the buttons started double clicking. I checked the hardware on another PC and it was fine. I Googled and found a suggestion it was down to not having the latest drivers. I found the latest drivers at Logitech but Windows 10 refused to recognise them. I had to go back to using a wired mouse instead.