Moving from Windows 7 to windows 10 - testing 1-2-3

[sorveltaja]

Now that I thought the search issue was solved after adequate/relevant feature was enabled, it produced yet another issue. Explorer's search box doesn't allow copying/pasting anymore, unless that pesky 'clipboard user service' is enabled.

But even then, the search function feels "off", if one is used to use it simply as a tool.

It seems that W10 was deliberately crippled designed to have layers upon layers of totally unnecessary dependencies.

In other words, it will always be a compromise between very limited options, if one wishes to make W10 "lean and mean", instead of the user being "tool for a tool".

In the end, I've worked on W10's colors and look, to have rather bearable (at least for me) and simplified theme for it. As one might expect, it's also very limited, as there are unexplainable/undocumented ways of how certain colors are linked together. "Accent colors", and that kind of jazz.

[sorveltaja]

If W10 has missing shortcut icons, resulting blank white one(s), one way to fix that is to delete 'IconCache.db' (located at C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local), and restarting Windows explorer service in task manager.

I think I'm sort of starting to get used to W10. It is what it is, and apparently it can't be modded to have more customizability without some serious.. well, mods. Not to mention, that such mods may or will have great impact on the overall performance.

There are some questionable things modifications I personally like to use at this point of learning curve, though:

- Edit aerolite.msstyles file to 'fine tune' aspects of my 'user experience'. In other words, colors and bitmaps of certain GUI objects/parts.

- Windhawk mod, that enables 'Win32 Tray Clock Experience'. Basically it replaces W10's clock/calendar with W8's one, which is similar to what W7 has. Yes, it's an additional process to run, but appears to have minor impact to performance (according to PassMark Performance Test v9).

- Plenty of registry hacks. My latest find on the net is about how to change the behavior of taskbar thumbnail windows. By default, all open windows seem to have thumbnail windows extruding from the taskbar, which I find rather confusing. Besides, they obstruct/block, or generally just occupy too much of the working area. The idea is to allow only apps to have such a windows, and to have explorer windows' ones to be stacked, again, like in W7.

[sorveltaja]

I've tested Brave browser in W10 (new versions don't work in W7 anymore), as it works well in blocking youtube ads.

It has an option to block autoplay on sites, but it doesn't seem to work on youtube:

brave://settings/content/autoplay

or by navigating to Settings -> Privacy and security -> Site and Shield settings -> Additional permissions -> Autoplay

One way that appears to work without any extension(s), is to sign in to youtube. That way it remembers users history/settings as long as the browser's history is cleared, I guess.

Even when the browser is closed and opened again, user is signed in. Don't know how long that 'session' lasts, though. Maybe there are other related settings, either on youtube or in the browser for that.