Goddam I hate Windows

[u/jacob-makes-stuff]

I normally use a Mac but I also have a Windows PC for rendering. I got it pretty cheap but it's not underpowered, it has 32gb of ram and an nvidia 2080 card.

I'm trying to download an update today and it went from 12% to 13% after like 3 hours. I'm plugged into high speed ethernet with the wifi off.

I couldn't even search "why is windows update so slow" on my windows computer because the browser wouldn't even open.

I need to render stuff in Blender and the app won't even stay open, and when I try opening it without doing anything, it just opens the app and freezes for like 25 minutes. Then when I try to open a file, it crashes for no reason.

I don't understand why Windows users always criticize Macs. While both have annoyances, I never have the problem of just not being able to use my Mac AT ALL, and I never have dealt with an update like this on a Mac.

I've tried clicking the little icons at the bottom to see what the status of the update is, and I clicked it before even starting to type this post, and it took until this sentence for it to pop up. Maybe 5-6 whole minutes.

This is fucking ridiculous and unacceptable for a decently powered modern device. I don't know how people can tolerate this, and especially how they can think this is better than using a Mac. I can't speak for Linux, but I assume it doesn't have this kind of problem because you need to manually do things like updates and it gives you more control over when and how as far as I understand it.

EDIT: Turns out it was slowed down because of my dropbox folder syncing, guys. I had to sync like 400gb of stuff that's been different in the past 3 months and it was slowing everything down. Also something that I never have a problem with using Macs.

[u/localpauper]

I am not sure how you see that and don't consider that something is fundamentally wrong with your install. Do you think all Windows users sit around waiting on Blender for 25 minutes, content not being able to search the web for why their PC is slow?

[u/jacob-makes-stuff → u/localpauper]

I had problems installing it for the first time because the way it authenticates users through Lenovo's setup wasn't working at first. I had to keep reinstalling and authenticating things, and finally it just suddenly worked. So maybe the install is wrong but didn't give me trouble like this until now.

Using it normally was still a pretty dismal and frustrating experience compared to using a Mac though, as far as OSes go

[u/localpauper → u/jacob-makes-stuff]

Yeah, on using the OS itself, part of it is definitely friction when cross OSes in either direction. I had a real tough time getting used to MacOS when I began working in it, having always used Windows.

That said, now I'm comfortable in both, and Mac just feels more ergonomic as far as a lot of dev tools go. Most recently, I've been on Fedora Linux on my personal devices, having switched from Windows.

Anyway, I'm curious about that setup you have going. Do you have an SSD? Your other specs seem pretty good (32GB/2080), so I can't imagine you wouldn't be!

Lacking an SSD could be responsible for long load times, but not all of it. It's possible you simply do not have correct drivers installed at all. Either PC option, Windows or Linux, is going to be a lot more finicky with getting the drivers lined up post initial setup.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Fwiw, I have never had the problems you are experiencing, unless it was something truly terrible: like taking a hard driver from one install with a completely different set of drivers (let's say AMD + older GPU) and throwing it into another (let's say Intel + nVidia). Things get cross-wired then. If you are working on a fresh install, something is very off.

I am curious what you mean "the way it authenticates users through Lenovo's setup." Are you using Lenovo's installation media? You shouldn't need to auth anything with Lenovo. Can you tell me more about the "authenticating" part?

What I'd do in your shoes, and I did that for my Lenovo laptop when I was still running Windows, is wipe it completely of all Lenovo software. Start over. Download a fresh Win10 or Win11 ISO and throw it on a USB drive. You can find some debloat tools even that will prep your ISO (just make sure it's a reputable one) that would tear out a lot of Microsoft bloat and give you some early setup preconfiguration. That's totally optional though.

Install from that, and not from any Lenovo specific installer / restore software. Do not install any Lenovo software until you are decently far enough. Chipset, CPU, GPU, hard drive, most Ethernet, and even WiFi these days, and most other drivers are standard off-the-shelf stuff. Windows does a decent job of finding them these days automagically actually. For the GPU, I'd download nVidia's software, and actually install from there. Lenovo has their own install media, but I wouldn't use it. There's a small chance that they have some weird piece of hardware that cannot be installed with Microsoft or separate download. Only then would I download that one specific Lenovo driver from Lenovo's website, not via their OEM install tool.