Windows 10 is shaping up to be the most unstable release since Millennium Edition (ME)

[Batu69]

Is Windows 10 unstable? That's the question that’s circulating through the blogosphere of late. With even veteran Windows watchers like Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott now documenting their frustrations with the new OS, the perception that Microsoft released Windows 10 before it was ready is beginning to grow.

A quick perusal of peer-to-peer support sites like www.tenforums.com will give you a taste of just how widespread the malaise truly is. From buggy device drivers to "vanishing" modern apps, Windows 10 seems to have arrived with more than its fair share of rough edges.

SEE ALSO: How to fix Windows 10's worst problems

I’ve personally documented my own (as yet still unresolved) issues with Windows 10’s lack of video driver support for first generation Windows tablet PCs. The finger pointing between Intel, Microsoft and the various hardware OEMs who are affected by this bug continues to this day. And in the course of upgrading to Windows 10 on several other, seemingly compatible PCs, I’ve encountered more than my fair share of general weirdness, including:

• Modern apps that simply won’t start. It often takes several taps/clicks on the corresponding Start Menu tile to get Modern apps to load. Tap once and nothing. Tap twice, again nothing. Finally, on the third or fourth try, the apps loads. My developer "spidey-sense" tells me it most likely has to do with a previous incarnation of the app’s process not fully shutting down. But whatever the source, it’s annoying as hell and makes Windows 10 feel less responsive than it should.

• Modern apps that suddenly "vanish" from the screen. I’m sure the app has crashed somehow, but the lack of corresponding visual feedback makes it all the more alarming. A simple error dialog with a hint at what happened (and perhaps a lead on how to fix it) would be nice. Even an Event Log entry would give us a starting point for diagnosis, but nada.

• Random freeze-ups upon resuming from sleep. On my Surface 3, if I leave the PC for a few minutes and it enters sleep mode, then resume it from sleep with a key press on the Touch Keyboard, I find I’m often frozen out for 10-15 seconds. This typically happens right after I’ve swiped away the lock screen. I then wait a bit and the system finally becomes responsive again. It’s almost as if the PC hung for a second (though the trackpad pointer is still active) and then somehow got unstuck. Needless to say, very alarming.

• Random scrolling issues in Modern apps. I’ll be scrolling through a web page in Edge and suddenly it freezes. Not the browser window, or even the tab controls, just the "content" within the tab itself. And even then, I can still interact with the underlying page (e.g. hyperlinks and JavaScript still work) -- just not move it in any direction. Refreshing the page doesn’t fix it, but closing the tab (but not the browser itself), and then reloading the page into a new tab, fixes the issue -- until it happens again.

Interestingly, I’ve also encountered the scrolling issue in other Modern apps, most notably Mail and a Feedly-based RSS Reader app I use called Readiy (great app, BTW). Both exhibit similar behavior: Scrolling just stops dead until you close/reopen the app. I suspect that the problem may be linked to the trackpad on my Surface 3 (it mostly happens when scrolling in "deskto" mode), but it’s still quite disconcerting. More importantly, it’s the kind of random usability bug that makes Windows look bad when compared to iOS.

The sad thing is that I don’t remember encountering nearly as many issues when I first started using Windows 8. Yes, there were some video driver issues when I upgraded my Envy x2 to Windows 8.1. But these were quickly sorted out by a driver update from HP. However, I don’t recall having as many problems with Modern apps running under Windows 8.x (e.g. no sudden "poof" events with the Mail client or Modern IE), and I certainly never experienced the kind of random freezes/lockups I’m seeing with Windows 10.

To be fair, Microsoft is trying something new with Windows 10: A rolling update cycle in which the OS is never truly "finished" but instead keeps evolving over time. However, I can’t help but feel that the Windows team perhaps used this new development mantra as an excuse for cutting corners and releasing a remarkably unpolished (for a full release of Windows) product. Maybe this new approach will provide dividends in the future, but right now it’s leaving a sour initial taste, one that may prove extremely hard for Microsoft to mask down the road.

Source

[SPECTRUM]

for me is stable as 7, I have Windows 10 running 24/7 and everything is ok, only modern apps may fail sometimes, but that can be fixed with the following updates, is not a major issue.

[Holmes]

I remember when my brother brought home windows me from his work (he worked at best buy technical support before they changed to geeksquad) he brought it home the hype was its supposed to be gaming version of windows two thousand. He showed me the disk and we were both excited he said hes going to install it see how good it is and he did and my god he said NEVERMIND wont stop crashing. He told me its better to throw it aside and standby for a better operating system (at the time I shared his computer I didnt have my own yet he would play for sometime then quit and let me play for sometime best brother anyone could ask for). I have used windows ten and its far from windows me.

When I power up my vm I had the blackscreen cant see your cursor bug (I HATED THAT) I fortunately have magic fingers (you know the situations this isnt working troy my real first name is troy I need help I go to help its started working everytime) and I just clicked all over the place and got it to load windows. Microsoft fixxed that and since then I havent had nearly as annoying problems thats the biggest one I had. If the threshold two and redstone updates dont fix the problem then give up they should do the trick just be patient and standby I have fixed computers with worse problems and got through those problems you have to look at it with the glass half full not half empty. I tried installing some of my programs on windows ten and they installed and each time I use them everything works fine. Sounds like there are alot of impatient computer users out there or Im a crazy tech.

[notworthyguy]

for me is stable as 7, I have Windows 10 running 24/7 and everything is ok, only modern apps may fail sometimes, but that can be fixed with the following updates, is not a major issue.

Same here

[jimmyjazz]

Pretty stable here too, some minor problems here and there but nothing serious and after all no OS is perfect or immune from malfunctions.

[straycat19]

for me is stable as 7, I have Windows 10 running 24/7 and everything is ok, only modern apps may fail sometimes, but that can be fixed with the following updates, is not a major issue.

Yeah, me too. I installed it in a VM and haven't run it in three weeks, the VM seems very stable, still there on my hard drive. (ROFLMAOAW10I)

These are probably the same users that touted the stability of WinMe when it was released, which was the internet's first look at Microphiles.

[mkc21]

idk what are you running w10 on but on my pc its working as a charm.

[straycat19]

idk what are you running w10 on but on my pc its working as a charm

I am running a Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming G1, i7-6700k, 32GB DDR4, 2x2TB SSD, 4x6TB Hdd, 2x GTX Titan Z and 4x Dell UltraSharp UP3214Q. This is my non-gaming computer and doesn't have all the bells and whistles the gaming one does. And it is running Windows 7 Enterprise with Windows 10 Enterprise in the VirtualBox VM. It definitely is not what I would consider stable nor would I run it as the primary OS. But then I have been testing it with high end graphics, video and cad programs and it crashes all the time.

[manju]

my only complain are some random crashs of windows explorer (task bar reboots after random freez, killing some of my apps on the sys tray)

[mosaji]

for me is stable as 7, I have Windows 10 running 24/7 and everything is ok, only modern apps may fail sometimes, but that can be fixed with the following updates, is not a major issue.

Same here

For me too, no crashes till date

[steven36]

Only problem I had with windows 10 were early on with drivers and a update glitch once were i had to fix .. witch I got that sorted out , I didn't like the fact it calls home and works in the background all the time but i got that sorted out ..this article is jumping the Gun really Windows 10 is still just a pup . Windows ME was much worse than Windows 10 is already . windows ME crashed every so often . I never have crashes like this on Windows 10. Windows ME never got any improvement updates ether it was quickly replaced with Windows XP . who done this article the Linux foundation ? :lol:

You uninstall all the unneeded crap and install stuff you really use makes for a much better user experience . :rolleyes:

Windows 10 only been out a little over a month and they act it should be as stable as windows 7 already witch came in 2009, and didn't get totally stable tell SP1 came out in 2011 .

That's like compromising apples to grapefruit . :P They should stayed on there old O/S a bit longer .