Windows 10 and Me

I consider myself to be a pretty “with it” person when it comes to technology. For my entire life, I’ve been able to sit down with a computer or anything that plugs into a wall and figure out how it works. PCs, Macs, VCRs. Whatever. I’m the sort of person who usually doesn’t even bother with the instruction manual, because why.

A few years ago, I made the jump from PC to Apple, and I’ve been very happy with that jump. I like my Apple products, and I like how easily they all communicate with each other. It’s a sweet little ecosystem they have going, and I’ve got no complaints.

But in the time since I switched, Microsoft has made some . . . interesting decisions. Updates to its operating system such that any time I try to sit down in front of a PC these days, I feel like somebody stuffed my hands into oven mitts. I have no idea how to do what I want to do, and I resort to just clicking random things in hopes that something will at some point take me to a screen I recognize. It’s the feeling you get when you’re in the same town, but you’re coming at it from a different direction. One you’ve never used before, and you just keep cruising around hoping you find a landmark, because why in the world would you need a map?

So I’m faced with a quandary: is this it? Have I reached the point at which technology outpaces me, and the next thing I know I’ll be complaining about not understanding how to set the clock on the microwave?

I’m hopeful that it’s not me, it’s Microsoft. I talk to other technologically fluent people, and they struggle with Windows 10 as well. It does random things in random ways. (And why does it do them? WHY?) I also believe that if I sat down with a Windows machine now and actually used it for an hour or two, I’d be good to go. The main problem is that I keep getting asked to troubleshoot something on a PC because people know I know my way around a keyboard, and then when I try to help, I’m in uncharted territory.

No real solution here. Just a general complaint that Windows should stop screwing around with its OS just for kicks.

Which makes me really sound like I’m heading toward a blinking 12:00 on my microwave any day now . . .