Today I installed Windows 10 on the household's newest laptop. Said laptop has to run Windows so we can run Pyware, but I refuse to live with the billionaire-spyware that Windows 11 has become. I wanted to install Windows 7, but too many things are no longer compatible with it, so 10 it is.
Rolling back to Windows 10 was surprisingly easy. Metering the connection, deleting bloatware, etc. is never terribly difficult after a new install. As I worked, I started to look for ways to make other changes: tweaking the fonts, organizing the Start menu folders (not the pinned ones), and so on.
Reader, it is AMAZING what Windows won't let you do with your own machine anymore.
My parents wouldn't buy me video games when I was a kid, so I turned Windows 3.11 into a video game instead. I knew my way around that OS inside and out. I changed the color scheme. I changed the fonts. I turned all the system sounds into Simpsons quotes I recorded from episodes I'd taped. (My dad was amused when the system's "error" noise changed from the customary beep to "Stupid babies need the most attention!" My mom, not so much.)
Today, while messing around, I decided to try changing the system colors again. In Windows 3.11, one could also tweak all the colors. When I say all the colors, I mean ALL the colors. My windows used to have one color for the border, a second for the border highlight, a third for the title bar, a fourth for the font inside the title bar, a fifth for the control buttons, and a sixth for the backgrounds.
Windows 10 lets you pick one "highlight color" (the default is blue). ONE. ONE COLOR. YOU GET ONE. I haven't been this insulted since Instagram limited us all to ONE link (in bio).
Windows 10 provides no option to let you change your system's font. If you don't like (or can't read) what they offer, sucks to be you, I guess. The Web informed me that it IS possible to change the stock font...but it requires one to edit the registry.
...WHY? Windows 3.11 just included "change your system fonts" as a stock option in the Control Panel. I changed ours so many times my parents deleted Wingdings. THIS SHOULD BE AN OPTION, WINDOWS 10. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU.
I'm not saying I won't edit the registry. I absolutely will. I'm saying I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO.
At least changing the backgrounds was a little easier - but still pointlessly difficult. Windows 10 allows you to set your desktop background to a "solid color" (as always, I chose black). It does not, however, let you change the lock screen to "solid color." For the lock and login screens, the system forces you to choose a photo. If you don't choose, Windows 10 will pelt you with a rotating array of stock images.
I don't understand this. Why not just let me choose "solid color" for my lock screen? What is wrong/hard about that? Why do my eyeballs *need* assaulting with whatever images Microsoft considers aesthetic?
I got around this by opening Paint, making a giant black canvas, saving it as "bkgd.jpg", and setting that as my lock screen "photo." Which works, but it's ridiculous that I have to do that, when previous versions of Windows just...let you change the screen.
I gave up trying to organize the Start menu. Sure, you can pin "groups" to it and organize your icons/shortcuts that way, but that's not what I want. I want to organize THE ACTUAL A to Z LIST. If there's a way to do this, drop me a line and let me know. I got frustrated before I found an answer.
Lately, I have been thinking that the entire tech problem of our time boils down to one question: "Does the computer work for you, or does it work for billionaires?" As evidenced by how much it limits silly aesthetic choices like fonts or the use of multiple "accent colors," Windows 10 doesn't even *want* to work for us.
I'm typing this on my Linux laptop. After wrestling with the Windows machine, opening this one was like coming home after a frustrating day at work. Ahhh.
Also, the first person who gives me a Linux-compatible program with even 70 percent of Pyware's functionality will be a Big Damn Hero.
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