Seriously, Microsoft?

Windows 10 still has some problems that makes one wonder if this free roll-out is just a really big beta test.

For example, this fun little error:

Yes, the start menu, that which differentiates Windows 10 from the absolute dreck that was Windows 8, that which makes it nice and usable as an operating system has a critical error and is unusable.

You can't make this error message go away either - you can either hit the restart prompt, but if after restart you click the start menu again, then nine times out of ten you get the critical error message again. It does occasionally fix itself only to have the critical error later. There are workarounds where you can still get to your applications by right-clicking but that's ridiculous. It's also very hard for 9-yeay-olds to use without assistance when there is no start menu. Thanks for that Microsoft.

If you don't hit restart, you can at least move the box out of the middle of the screen but you can't minimize it or make it go away without restarting the machine.

In addition, the Toshiba laptop still will not take Windows 10 even after refreshing the 8.1 that is native to it - it hangs the install right after it downloads - Every. Damn. Time.

Sheesh. Clearly there are still quite a few significant bugs and Windows 10 is far and away from being a perfect "10".

Even the dog is not happy with Microsoft 10:

Windows 10 Upgrade - A Flashing Error Experience

So last night I decided to do the Windows 10 upgrade on the home computer.

All seemed to be going well, so I let it chug along upgrading overnight.

This morning it was ready and I logged in, turned off the reporting features that sends Microsoft all your activity data during the setup, hit continue, and drat.

The screen started flashing the desktop then black and continued to repeat the pattern and nothing would work nor could anything be done except ctrl-alt-delete.

I tried a reset and the same thing happened - once past the login screen the desktop would start and then continue flashing.

I tried a full power off and the same thing happened - once past the login screen the desktop would start and then continue flashing.

So with that computer out of action I searched for answers online using another machine.

It turns out the cure is to disable the Windows Error Reporting Service.

Yes, the irony is to be appreciated here - the Windows Error Reporting Service is itself the cause of a fatal error.

I followed the helpful instructions on that site, disabled the service and lo and behold, the computer now works 100%.

Overall, Windows 10 is very similar to Windows 7 so far, with some improvements, and it appears to be a bit faster booting up than Windows 7 which is a surprise.

Now that I'm past the error it seems to have been a worthy upgrade. We'll see as we test it more over the next while.