Heck, it makes the Xbox One a more useful machine. Ars Technica panned the new Tablet mode interface for removing the charms and app switching, making the Start button harder to use by requiring users to reach for the button on the bottom-left rather than at the center of the screen when swiping with a thumb, and for making application switching less instantaneous through the use of Task View.
Microsoft Edge was praised for being "tremendously promising", and "a much better browser than Internet Explorer ever was", but criticized it for its lack of functionality on-launch. In conclusion, contrasting Windows 8 as being a "reliable" platform albeit consisting of unfinished concepts, Windows 10 was considered "the best Windows yet", and was praised for having a better overall concept in its ability to be "comfortable and effective" across a wide array of form factors, but that it was buggier than previous versions of Windows were on-launch.
Critics have noted that Windows 10 heavily emphasizes freemium services, and contains various advertising facilities. Some outlets have considered these to be a hidden "cost" of the free upgrade offer.
Up to August , Windows 10 usage was increasing, with it then plateauing , [] while eventually in , it became more popular than Windows 7 [] [] though Windows 7 was still more used in some countries in Asia and Africa in As of March [update] , the operating system is running on over million devices.
Twenty-four hours after it was released, Microsoft announced that over 14 million devices were running Windows According to StatCounter, Windows 10 overtook Windows 8.
For one week in late November , Windows 10 overtook first rank from Windows 7 in the United States, before losing it again. In mid-January , Windows 10 had a slightly higher global market share than Windows 7, [] with it noticeably more popular on weekends, [] while popularity varies widely by region, e. Windows 10 was then still behind in Africa [] and far ahead in some other regions e.
Windows 10 Home is permanently set to download all updates automatically, including cumulative updates, security patches, and drivers, and users cannot individually select updates to install or not. Concerns were raised that because of these changes, users would be unable to skip the automatic installation of updates that are faulty or cause issues with certain system configurations—although build upgrades will also be subject to public beta testing via Windows Insider program.
An example of such a situation occurred prior to the general release of the operating system, when an Nvidia graphics card driver that was automatically pushed to Windows 10 users via Windows Update caused issues that prevented the use of certain functions, or prevented their system from booting at all.
Criticism was also directed towards Microsoft's decision to no longer provide specific details on the contents of cumulative updates for Windows Some users reported that during the installation of the November upgrade, some applications particularly utility programs such as CPU-Z and Speccy were automatically uninstalled during the upgrade process, and some default programs were reset to Microsoft-specified defaults such as Photos app, and Microsoft Edge for PDF viewing , both without warning.
Further issues were discovered upon the launch of the Anniversary Update "Redstone" , including a bug that caused some devices to freeze but addressed by cumulative update KB, released on August 31, , [] [] and that fundamental changes to how Windows handles webcams had caused many to stop working. A Gartner analyst felt that Windows 10 Pro was becoming increasingly inappropriate for use in enterprise environments because of support policy changes by Microsoft, including consumer-oriented upgrade lifecycle length, and only offering extended support for individual builds to Enterprise and Education editions of Windows Critics have acknowledged that Microsoft's update and testing practices had been affecting the overall quality of Windows In particular, it was pointed out that Microsoft's internal testing departments had been prominently affected by a major round of layoffs undertaken by the company in Microsoft relies primarily on user testing and bug reports via the Windows Insider program which may not always be of sufficient quality to identify a bug , as well as correspondence with OEMs and other stakeholders.
In the wake of the known folder redirection data loss bug in the version , it was pointed out that bug reports describing the issue had been present on the Feedback Hub app for several months prior to the public release. Following the incident, Microsoft updated Feedback Hub so that users may specify the severity of a particular bug report. When announcing the resumption of 's rollout, Microsoft stated that it planned to be more transparent in its handling of update quality in the future, through a series of blog posts that will detail its testing process and the planned development of a "dashboard" that will indicate the rollout progress of future updates.
Microsoft was criticized for the tactics that it used to promote its free upgrade campaign for Windows 10, including adware -like behaviors, [] using deceptive user interfaces to coax users into installing the operating system, [] [] [] [] downloading installation files without user consent, [] [] and making it difficult for users to suppress the advertising and notifications if they did not wish to upgrade to In September , it was reported that Microsoft was triggering automatic downloads of Windows 10 installation files on all compatible Windows 7 or 8.
Microsoft officially confirmed the change, claiming it was "an industry practice that reduces the time for installation and ensures device readiness. Other critics argued that Microsoft should not have triggered any downloading of Windows 10 installation files without user consent.
In October , Windows 10 began to appear as an "Optional" update on the Windows Update interface, but pre-selected for installation on some systems. A Microsoft spokesperson said that this was a mistake, and that the download would no longer be pre-selected by default. In March , some users also alleged that their Windows 7 and 8. It was concluded that these users may have unknowingly clicked the "Accept" prompt without full knowledge that this would begin the upgrade.
On January 21, , Microsoft was sued in small claims court by a user whose computer had attempted to upgrade to Windows 10 without her consent shortly after the release of the operating system.
The upgrade failed, and her computer was left in a broken state thereafter, which disrupted the ability to run her travel agency. However, in May , Microsoft dropped the appeal and chose to pay the damages. Shortly after the suit was reported on by the Seattle Times , Microsoft confirmed it was updating the GWX software once again to add more explicit options for opting out of a free Windows 10 upgrade; [] [] [] the final notification was a full-screen pop-up window notifying users of the impending end of the free upgrade offer, and contained "Remind me later", "Do not notify me again" and "Notify me three more times" as options.
In March , Microsoft announced that it would display notifications informing users on Windows 7 devices of the upcoming end of extended support for the platform, and direct users to a website urging them to upgrade to Windows 10 or purchase new hardware.
This dialog will be similar to the previous Windows 10 upgrade prompts, but will not explicitly mention Windows Privacy advocates and other critics have expressed concern regarding Windows 10's privacy policies and its collection and use of customer data. Users can opt out from most of this data collection, [] [] but telemetry data for error reporting and usage is also sent to Microsoft, and this cannot be disabled on non-Enterprise editions of Windows Rock Paper Shotgun writer Alec Meer argued that Microsoft's intent for this data collection lacked transparency, stating that "there is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different settings screens and an external website constitutes 'real transparency'.
The Russian government had passed a federal law requiring all online services to store the data of Russian users on servers within the country by September or be blocked. But Microsoft is held to a different standard than other companies". The Microsoft Services agreement reads that the company's online services may automatically "download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.
In September , Microsoft hid the option to create a local account during a fresh installation if a PC is connected to the internet. This move was criticized by users who did not want to use an online Microsoft account.
In late-July , Windows Defender began to classify modifications of the hosts file that block Microsoft telemetry servers as being a severe security risk. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 9 July This article is about the operating system for personal computers. For the related now discontinued operating system for mobile devices, see Windows 10 Mobile.
Not to be confused with Windows 1. This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. The readable prose size is 79 kilobytes. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.
October Personal computer operating system by Microsoft released in Closed-source Source-available through Shared Source Initiative Some components open source [1] [2] [3] [4]. List of languages. Semi-annual channel support until October 14, A device may not be able to receive updates if the device hardware is incompatible, lacks current drivers or otherwise outside of the OEM period. Not all features in an update will work on the devices. A device also needs to have the latest update to remain supported.
Mainstream support ended on October 13, Extended support until October 14, [18]. Mainstream support until October 12, Extended support until October 13, [19]. For the Windows versions produced from to , see Windows 9x. Main article: Features new to Windows See also: List of features removed in Windows Main article: List of typefaces included with Microsoft Windows. Default fonts.
Optional fonts. Main article: Windows 10 editions. See also: Windows Insider. Main article: Windows 10 version history. Main article: Criticism of Windows This section duplicates the scope of other sections , specifically, Criticism of Windows Please discuss this issue on the talk page and edit it to conform with Wikipedia's Manual of Style by replacing the section with a link and a summary of the repeated material, or by spinning off the repeated text into an article in its own right.
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