Do you seriously think that I run the beta and alpha versions? Nope, I'm not that stupid. When I talk about "Between Second Tuesday Updates" I refer to updates like this...
July 21, 2022—KB5015882 (OS Build 22000.832) Preview (microsoft.com)
Even with those "Preview Updates" I've yet to run into anything that was a show stopping bug. Yet, if you go over to BetaNews.com and you peruse their site, the whole damn site is full of people complaining about how the update sent their systems into BSODs, constant program crashing, etc. while I sit back and wonder what the fuck these people are doing to their systems to cause such absolute instability while I generally have no issues whatsoever.
Seriously. What the fuck are these people doing that are causing so many issues for them? Is it hardware? Are they using the cheapest hardware they can get their hands on? Do they have an unstable overclock that they just won't admit to? I'd love to know the damn answer because holy shit do these people complain.
For instance...
Microsoft rolls back KB5014668 update for Windows 11 because it broke the Start menu (betanews.com)
Where? I have no issues yet, here we are, an article that states that people are having issues. WTF! I'd love to know what the hell people are doing to their systems to cause these kinds of issues.
Oh but in that sense you have an ally in me, I also strongly believe users make Windows usage way too complicated for their own good, a lot of antivax-level wisdom in those circles
The difference is though, I also believe any kind of 'StartBetter.exe' category app is in a way, part of that crowd. You're band-aiding things that will eventually be just fine. Windows 10 start menu as it is now, is fine. Because of user feedback. Not because of StartBetter
11's is an absolute atrocity. No 11 for me, simple, and that IS user feedback.
Certainly, it is true MS knows better than its userbase in terms of OS stability and overall performance. But it is also true we are unpaid beta testers. The two aren't mutually exclusive
And let's be real here, there is
no way in hell you are going to hit every use case in your own usage of the OS.
For my own situation, I ran into Windows update breaking games once, and it was the
one time I figured I'd stay up to date and see what would happen. Total War Warhammer 2 got broken by update and it took dev patching to fix it. Sucks if that's what you were going to fire up that night, which I was. That only confirmed everything my gut always told me: maximum delay, or only update if things break. Prior to it, every tiny share of early adopting I experienced in my life, be it a PS3, Windows Vista, domotica devices, or any other thing in software anywhere you go... was a disaster, and never really paid off in my mind in any way shape or form. Even in games, 'being first' is really not more fun than 'being later', but 'being later' certainly guarantees you're not on the leash of a developer pushing out his post-release bug fixing. Heck, even my EV, a VW ID3 Pro, got delivered in Jan 2021 with a 'we're not finished' version of the 'OS' on it, go figure... car's been out a full year back then, and I wasn't early adopting a Tesla for damn sure... And even there, I met quite a few computer errors in its time before the 'good version' was rolled out. Nothing game breaking, but it certainly creates a frown or two when half the detection systems in the car suddenly just crash.
My gaming literally got ten times better when I started sticking rigorously to a 'I'll buy this when its feature complete' principle. I bought Pathfinder Kingmaker when it got into the def. editions and it was a blast. Steam however is full of first experiences that 'do not recommend'. The same happened with the sequel. Looking forward to playing that when they're actually done with it
EDIT: OK done ninja editing sorry