I had to reinstall my Insider Preview VM from scratch this past week. I have it on an external drive, and that drive failed, and my last backup of the VDI file was older than the latest build ISO, so I decided to experience the new Windows smell again.
The first thing was Cortana during the install process. The speaker button in the bottom-right corner didn’t work, but I was installing into a VM, so I could mute the host OS (or, had I thought of it, not given the VM a virtual sound system).
Next, and this goes way back, though not as far back as Windows NT 4, the first account Windows creates has Administrator privileges. Not unreasonable, but there’s no warning that the account created has Administrator privileges. I’d love to see MSFT’s telemetry on how many Windows PCs are running logged in accounts with Administrator privileges. I figure it’s way too high. [In contrast, NT4 activates the old built-in Administrator account, prompts the user/owner to enter a password, then suggests the user/owner create another account for actual use. Why was that sensible approach deprecated?]
Then there’s the lock screen and login screen. There’s no way to set a specific image for the login screen. It’s only possible to set a specific image for the lock screen, then choose to use the same image for the login screen. However, if you use the registry tweak to disable the lock screen, you can’t change the lock screen image in Settings > Personalization. MSFT REALLY wants Windows 10 users to use the lock screen so users can see lock screen ads?
Minor: the latest build doesn’t seem to respect the setting to disable app suggestions in the Start menu. If you go into Settings, enable then disable it, suggestions won’t appear in the Start menu for the rest of the session, but log out and log in and suggestions reappear. Yes, I’ve submitted this as feedback.
Of all of these, first account with Administrator privilege without suggesting the user/owner create another account for typical use is not good at all. That approach may explain why Windows UAC has to be so much more intrusive than sudo under Linux.
slartybartmark
<p>There is a tool called "LogonSC.exe" that was given to me by an MS employee (indirectly). It allows you to change the login screen on Win7. It allows you to pick from the Bing Daily Image in numerous countries or use your own pic, change periodically, etc.. If you run it on anything post Win7 you get "WARNING! This application is supported only on Windows 7 Client. It has been detected that you are running on some other OS. You're on your own…" It had a 'send feedback' link that points to an @microsoft.com email address I won't post here, but perhaps a Win10 version is floating around. I haven't found much luck finding any updated version. Maybe another good idea that got squashed. I'll send an email to the MS address and see if I get a response.</p>