It's hard to overstate just how bad the Windows 10 UI is compared to 7. Just look at this example of how Windows 7 visually shows you the differences between the various desktop stretching/fitting options, and Windows 10 leaves you guessing:
I agree with that dropdown part, but the UI in the first screenshot is laughable, especially for the scroll bar and menu bars, you surely agree. The Windows 10 UI is much cleaner and so is the macOS one (unchanged since 2001, however there's no tiling support at all):
W7 was the only MS product I ever paid money for (as a student), and feel like it was a great deal.
Would gladly keep paying for security enhancements for it and don't really see anything that W10 (or W11 for that matter) offers over it for work or gaming.
It's a real shame that taking away controls from power users seem to be more important than providing a great product. But I guess when you're a monopoly you can do whatever you want.
What control is taken away from power users? Most things can be toggled in the registry, and won't go away due to compatibility reasons. And patchguard can be disabled extremely easily. Same with DSE. I can't think of a single thing a power user can't do on Win 10 that they can on Win 7.
Can you make the interface of W10 look like W7? How about easily removing bloatware without being an internet detective?
Customize those ugly flat panels that MS stuck everywhere next to Windows 3.1 legacy selection boxes?
Also, yes. I guess if you are willing to spend an extra 10-20hrs of your time to configure group policies and registry tweaks and removing telemetry to get it into an "acceptable" state...for exactly the same experience, then it's fine. Even then, I keep reading horror stories about settings being reverted after updates and the OS generally not respecting uptime over vague "security" updates.
I don't find that acceptable, unless MS cuts me a check for wasted hours of my time every time I have to fix something that wasn't broken. For comparison, my W7 system has been rock stable since 2016, with most system downtime due to physical hardware changes and updates.
To be fair, some use cases were improved in W10. Mobile (bluetooth) connectivity seems to be working great. So are things like making a wi-fi hotspot and networking in general. (I don't have in-depth knowledge about other improvements because they're outside of my use cases)
