The Windows OS Thread - Formerly THE OS for gamers and normies, now sadly ruined by Pajeets

[DavidS877]

I have never understood why explorer is so goddamned slow compared to ls -l and du -sh in Linux.

98% of the time the first program I install on Windows is WinDirStat, these days I'll just use WSL about half the time with du and sort though.

 

[Slav Power]

WinDirStat

WizTree, even though closed source, is way better since it uses NTFS indexing. In other words, it's instant.

 

[Sooty Soot]

WizTree, even though closed source, is way better since it uses NTFS indexing. In other words, it's instant.

Explorer shits the bed when trying to display that generic music preset. Whenever I start a folder for the first time, it slowly starts displaying each filename one by one alongside the track name, contributing artists, before it reaches the last displayed file and loads normally in an instant even if there a dozen more sound files if I scroll down. Mind you, I have an SSD and this doesn't happen to any other folder, only ones with predominantely music.

 

[Slav Power]

Explorer shits the bed when trying to display that generic music preset. Whenever I start a folder for the first time, it slowly starts displaying each filename one by one alongside the track name, contributing artists, before it reaches the last displayed file and loads normally in an instant even if there a dozen more sound files if I scroll down. Mind you, I have an SSD and this doesn't happen to any other folder, only ones with predominantely music.

I have no experience with how shit Win10/11's Explorer is since I exclusively use Total Commander and it deals with media metadata well. Ideally I'd like a Windows that's just a plain NT base with no extra fluff to run all of my software off of, all the MS defaults are hot shit but at the same time I'm not moving to Linux, I'm tied to the NT ecosystem.

 

[ZMOT]

I have never understood why explorer is so goddamned slow compared to ls -l and du -sh in Linux.

wait till you use everything compared to windows search the first time.

 

[The Ugly One]

wait till you use everything compared to windows search the first time.

I can't even figure out how to make Windows Search work. "find" does exactly what you'd think it would do. Search does everything except find files.

 

[Elysian]

Mint was faster in every way except games even with Proton. For example: I had Project Zomboid running at 13 FPS on Linux while running normally on Win10.

Instead of running the Steam version with Proton, try installing the GOG .exe version in a vanilla wine prefix, and then use winetricks to install a relatively recent version of DXVK into that wine prefix (I use 1.10). Some games are fussy like that. (This is how I got Sims 2 to function at a good framerate on Linux).

 

[Slav Power]

There was a discussion about S0 sleep states and battery drain on Windows in the Windows hate thread, so I did a small test. Left my laptop running in S0 sleep since ~15:40 and opened it up now ~21:20 after explicitly disabling networking when in sleep mode on battery power in gpedit.

The battery state the moment I closed the lid was 41%, and after I opened it it was 39%. So after almost 6 hours of sleep it went down only by two percent, and I verified that it was offline all this time by checking my router, it didn't bind to the static DHCP lease again until I opened the lid so it respected the setting.

So it's possible this is the main source of the high battery drain on sleep mode in Windows. It constantly keeping the networking online. I'll have to do the same test later, but with the defaults to see if it keeps rebinding the DHCP lease and if the battery on sleep goes down more than it did here.

 

[Jace on ice]

Is there a way to limit searches from the start menu to system files and exclude web results?

I hate that shit.

 

[Slav Power]

Is there a way to limit searches from the start menu to system files and exclude web results?

I hate that shit.

You see that bar on top of your screen that says something like "https://kiwifarms.st" with a little padlock to the left? Click that, type in "windows 11 disable online search", then hit Enter.

What you've just did is called a web search. It's something that you can use to look up questions you want to know answers to, and it will show you links to possible answers. The more common your issue is the more likely the first link will answer your question. I do this all the time and it's been working for me well. I'd highly recommend you start doing the same as well.

 

[Jace on ice]

You see that bar on top of your screen that says something like "https://kiwifarms.st" with a little padlock to the left? Click that, type in "windows 11 disable online search", then hit Enter.

What you've just did is called a web search. It's something that you can use to look up questions you want to know answers to, and it will show you links to possible answers. The more common your issue is the more likely the first link will answer your question. I do this all the time and it's been working for me well. I'd highly recommend you start doing the same as well.

Why are you such an ass? I don't think I've ever seen a post of yours that wasn't some needlessly hostile and antagonistic bullshit.

 

[Slav Power]

Why are you such an ass?

Because it'd take you less time to look it up yourself and find that it's either two switches in the Settings panel, a registry tweak or a Group Policy tweak to disable Bing in Windows Search than it would to make a post here and wait for a reply.

 

[Betonhaus]

You see that bar on top of your screen that says something like "https://kiwifarms.st" with a little padlock to the left? Click that, type in "windows 11 disable online search", then hit Enter.

What you've just did is called a web search. It's something that you can use to look up questions you want to know answers to, and it will show you links to possible answers. The more common your issue is the more likely the first link will answer your question. I do this all the time and it's been working for me well. I'd highly recommend you start doing the same as well.

I gotta be honest I think it was a woman question not a man question and the poster wasn't really looking for a solution.

 

[Free4Ever]

I thought Cygwin had broken Windows 7 support, but while packages are indeed not updated anymore the Cygwin Time Machine actually does work doesn't work for shit either. Ded porject.

I've been using Git bash as a partial replacement for a while, but it's also out of support for Windows 7.

 

[Betonhaus]

I thought Cygwin had broken Windows 7 support, but while packages are indeed not updated anymore the Cygwin Time Machine actually does work doesn't work for shit either. Ded porject.

I've been using Git bash as a partial replacement for a while, but it's also out of support for Windows 7.

It's almost as if Windows 7 is obsolete or something.

 

[The Ugly One]

Why are you such an ass? I don't think I've ever seen a post of yours that wasn't some needlessly hostile and antagonistic bullshit.

You have to edit the registry:

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/disable-windows-web-search

I hate this "feature" because half the time I'm searching for a game I know I have installed, the top thing Windows comes up with is the website for the game, and I don't realize that's what it is when I click it. How do people even figure out how to do this regedit bullshit?

 

[Baraka Obama]

I thought Cygwin had broken Windows 7 support, but while packages are indeed not updated anymore the Cygwin Time Machine actually does work doesn't work for shit either. Ded porject.

I've been using Git bash as a partial replacement for a while, but it's also out of support for Windows 7.

I got a slightly outdated version of minsys2 installed a few months ago if that's helpful. I could double check the version number.

 

[Free4Ever]

I got a slightly outdated version of minsys2 installed a few months ago if that's helpful. I could double check the version number.

MSYS2, right? Thanks but I'm good, I'm figuring out how to work Visual Studio and compile MicroSharty C dialect at the moment, I'm going to be self-compiling even if I do end up deciding to use MSYS2, minGW64 or the new MINC (OpenBSD-flavored).

 

[YoRHa No. 2 Type B]

So it's possible this is the main source of the high battery drain on sleep mode in Windows. It constantly keeping the networking online. I'll have to do the same test later, but with the defaults to see if it keeps rebinding the DHCP lease and if the battery on sleep goes down more than it did here.

My experience with this is that Windows will often update in S0 sleep mode, overheating the laptop and draining the battery fast.
S0 without network is in all practical terms the same as older sleep mode (S3) which just works.
A workaround I often used was to unplug my laptop from the docking station before closing the lid, which was reliable in getting it to sleep properly. If I closed the lid first, it must have gotten confused with the docking station plugged in, and would often overheat and drain the battery.
Otherwise, I never figured out why S0 sleep states would cause these issues. It was a semi regular issue at my old work doing IT helpdesk (up there with Outlook breaking). That docking station workaround seemed to help a lot.

 

[HahaYes]

I have a question for the general audience here. How do you feel about anti-virus software in the current day and age? In the past I wouldn't have dreamed of using a Windows computer without a solid anti-virus package (not Norton, obviously). These days with Windows Defender built-in, so much better anti-malware efforts happening by ISPs, Microsoft, etc. I'm wondering if it's still something people consider critical? For a start, nearly everything I install these days I'm installing with Winget!

Late tbh but the more traditional anti virus is now outpaced by EDRs (endpoint detection and response) for enterprise environments. Anti virus in its traditional sense works off IOCs, or "indicators of compromise", usually file hashes, IP addresses and domains for the majority, EDRs work off those in tandem with machine learning and certain security frameworks (MITRE ATT&CK is a key one) for automated behavioural analysis to generate detections for potentially unwanted and malicious activity on endpoints within the environment. Microsoft are trying to move Defender for Endpoint to work more like an EDR, particularly for enterprise with 365 XDR, but at its core Defender is still an anti virus, and always will be. For enterprise running Defender in tandem with an EDR like Crowdstrike is pretty feasible, they both pick up things the other doesn't, and Defender is built to force itself into passive mode when another EDR is present on the host, so it will detect activity, but won't mitigate, as the other EDR becomes the primary protection of that endpoint

The most commonly exploited attack vector by far these days, is through the front door by compromising credentials then hijacking the account. For your average end user on a personal laptop running Windows, stick with Windows Defender for Home and exercise basic common sense and you'll be just fine. Aka yeah that iPad you've won is totally real bro definitely click it, you won't get 50 browser hijackers for sure, also don't mind that your laptop is trying to take off like a military jet going mach 10 it's perfectly safe