I haven’t used a Windows PC in years but think I’m about to switch back because of Apple’s draconian control over hard disk and RAM upgrades on computers with Retina displays. I love the Mac’s interface and I hate to go back to Windows, but sometimes you’ve got to make difficult choices. Besides, Windows 10 looks like a pretty decent OS
I do have three questions about Windows 10, however:
- Is there a mouse for Windows that allows customizable gestures, both swiping and clicking, that you find in Mac computers? One that will allow you to change virtual desktops simply by swiping the back of the mouse in the direction you want to go?
- Is there a third-party add-on that will allow you to have different background images on different virtual desktops? On the Mac all your virtual desktops can have their own background images, which helps distinguish the one you’re looking at from others. And on the Mac getting from one virtual desktop to another, after configuration, is simply a matter of swiping left or right with two fingers.
- Years ago--in the days of Windows XP--you could count on a PC getting slower and slower and slower as time went by because apps loaded things to start up you didn't know were loaded and Internet sites did the same. The registry would get out of whack and before you knew it you had a computer that could hard function. Maintenance could require quite a lot of time. Has this problem improved since ten years ago or so?
These may seem like insignificant quibbles but for me they are important components of the Mac’s user interface. That and an SSD drive produce a computer I love like no other before it, so I’d like to replicate that interaction as closely as possible on a PC.
Hi,
1. Sorry, don't know..
2. Not as far as I've seen. Comments on this area is that 3rd part solutions for virtual desktops such as DEXPOT offer more.
See towards the end:
Windows 10: Different Backgrounds for virtual desktops - ServerQuestions.com
3. This isn't an issue I've significantly experienced- and
a. I have a lot of programs installed.
b. I don't clean the registry
c. I've used Windows from '98 on.
Some things you will find frustrating are:
- the relative fragility of newer Win 10 features a number experience.
- the way MS takes months to fix some issues they introduce
- the appearance (which offers less flexibility than Win 7 and older).
- a Win 10 start menu which I regard as inherently broken as it can't properly represent a 'normal' folder-based hierarchical start menu structure on the LHS (Classic Shell recommended - or other replacement).
Well, thanks for that. It doesn't sound like there will be a very good solution for those issues, but I'll check out DEXPOT to see what it offers. In past years you could tweak the hardware in a Mac and Macbook Pros a little bit. Now, however, you have to buy everything you want up front preinstalled by the factory. That means that the computer(s) I would want--a laptop and desktop--would cost about $6k, but I can get a Dell Precision laptop with a docking station and a 27" monitor and retrofit the laptop with a 1 TB SSD for just a little less than $2500, less than half the cost of the Macs. I grew to love the Mac's user interface and still do but I'm only willing to pay so much for it. Plus, when I used PCs I grew to be fairly knowledgeable by necessity about how to manage them. On a Mac I have lost all knowledge because most of the time the thing just works and I don't need to know how to fix it. Mostof the time. :-)
I just checked out DEXPOT. Doesn't seem to be a very elegant solution, so I'll probably just live with Windows the way it is. I'd rather do that than spend an extra $3500 so I can have two Macs. This is, after all, a secondary computer, not my primary one. When my 2011 iMac finally goes kaput, I'll figure out my next move at that point.
There are several other virtual desktop offerings around- you may find one to suit.
When you start using Windows, make sure you also start using disk imaging routinely...! May save your PC, your time your data and your sanity. Many here recommend Macrium Reflect (free/commercial) + its boot medium + external storage. 3rd party is better than Windows' System Image.
Will do that. I do it with my Mac sometimes, but mostly on my Mac I rely on Time Machine for interval backups.
