Merv (and anybody else who is interested),
Thanks for your thoughts and experiences regarding Windows 10. After
using it for just a few days I'll provide my own feedback to you to see
if it meshes at all with your own experiences and opinions.
You mentioned your dislike of the new system sounds. For me, I think
they sound quite pleasant except that many of them are so similar that,
when I hear a sound, I can't immediately tell whether it means I have a
notification, new mail or a prompt from the user account control. It's
for that reason that I will soon go into sound settings and will also
begin changing a few of them. I really want the UAC alert to sound more
like the UAC alerts I'm used to with Windows 7.
Next, the startup time is amazingly fast. I knew this was promised but I
didn't expect to see this on this older system. With Windows 7, it took
about 50 to 60 seconds before I heard my screen reader begin talking at
the logon screen. The same system with Windows 10 takes 25 seconds or less.
I find it to be incredibly stable, as much as, perhaps more so than
Windows 7 and Win7 was stable for me. I know I haven't even used it for
a week but I don't think I needed to restart the system due to flaky or
otherwise erratic behavior.
I love the new Settings app. To provide a bit of context for JAWS users,
it is similar to the Settings Center found in newer versions of JAWS.
The Settings app has not yet replaced the control panel and I am
assuming that this is a long-term goal for Microsoft for this to happen.
I like the layout.
On an early demo of the Win10 start menu, pressing the Windows key said
something like "search box, edit", almost like Windows 7. On my machine,
it says "cortana window, search box edit."
I have not yet used Cortana but am planning to order a headset mic for
this purpose.
I was honestly flabbergasted that common subfolders in the user folder,
such as documents, music and pictures did not seem to be present, by
default, in the start menu. Yes, File Explorer is there and I was
eventually able to get to the folders I wanted to add via one of the
items in the Settings app but I really don't think this should have been
necessary.
Also, it seems to be much harder to take something in the start menu and
use the right-click menu to send that item to the desktop as I so easily
did with earlier versions of Windows. As an example, I'd like to be able
to use the context menu for "documents" and choose "Send To" and copy
that folder to the desktop. There are ways to do this but it seems
difficult, even impossible, from the first screen of the start menu. If
I'm missing something, would someone please fill in the missing pieces
for me?
While I don't recommend this for new or casual users, I love the fact
that Microsoft makes it very easy for users to be a part of the insider
program to receive early updates, either slowly or more frequently via
the "fast ring."
Again, I overall am really liking Windows 10. Between the new OS, the 8
GB of RAM and my larger hard drive I honestly feel like I have a brand
new computer. The whole thing is just so stable and responsive that I am
very pleased with what I see so far.
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
On 11/23/2015 11:23 AM, Merv Keck wrote:
David,
If you have not used Windows 10 before you will enjoy it once you become
accustomed to the differences from your last OS. I am currently tweaking all
my system sounds now just because I can. I have pretty much all my favorite
system sounds back the way they were before the upgrade to Windows 10 and
eventually I am going to make a few new wav files just for fun. The Windows
10 sound scheme is annoying to me, laughs! and they only give you default or
none.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2015 1:55 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Update on My Computer/Good News
I just received a call from one of the folks in the shop regarding the
status of my computer and he informed me that my computer is ready to come
home. It has a new and larger hard drive, along with Windows 10. I was
informed that its speed is quite fast, which really pleases me. My wife and
I will be heading to the shop tomorrow to pick it up. Consequently, I
expect, a bit ironically, to be offline for much of the day as I slowly
build everything back up by reinstalling all of the software I regularly
use. My first tas, after physically setting it back up, is to install the
new 2015.4 of NVDA. Sadly, I tried installing it on my iPhone but it didn't
seem to work. <grin> Next, I need to replace its preinstalled Windows
Defender with Kaspersky for my malware protection. After that, I'll install
Thunderbird and set up my email accounts, followed by Firefox, which is my
preferred Web browser. If I can do all of that in one day that will be a
nice start although there's still Microsoft Office, Libreoffice, iTunes,
WinBT for my occasional Braille translation tasks, setting up hotkeys for my
various files and folders, Tapin Radio, etc.
I will likely not be posting all that much during the next week but I'll be
monitoring this list as time allows.
Take care.
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.infoYou are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info for additional resources and information about
assistive technology training services.
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