Mailbag “Clearly the first year of ‘free’ is really beta testing – what should a sensible IT manager do?” asks one Reg reader Down Under. I’ve heard this from a few of you and collected your thoughts.

You’ve no doubt already read Tim Anderson’s review and Trevor Pott's sysadmin’s view. There are plenty of other concerns and questions from readers, so here they are in your own words.

WARNING: Contains cussing.

1. Domains. Remember them?

"Its zero surprise that organisations are sinking utterly into the security abyss. Creating devices and adding them to the layers now is worse than it’s ever been.

“I eat, breathe and sleep in what some would call old-school, on-premise domains. Every time I go near something new from Microsoft now, its three, four or more stupid logins, with access credential demands and licence-trudging misery. I now load up versions of Office knowing that having to dig through EULAs won’t be enough. Nope. I’ll have to use a Microsoft account and then go through some form of Store, and then even more licensing questions. And then the fucking software will collapse on multi-user systems with more logins and licence checks.

“The defaults are still to point all kinds of crap at Azure/Office365. On my stuff, where I am still working old skool domains, there is now endless, pointless knobbing around and setting accounts that have zero relevance.”

2. What are you updating exactly?

Microsoft has promised mandatory updates for Windows 10. You can’t turn them off. But what does this mean? Readers seem baffled:

“Fundamentally are we talking about UI updates, but with the same drivers and run time? I’m fairly sure that some of our CAD plotters still don’t have proper Windows 7 drivers, let alone 8, 8.1 or now 10 drivers.”

“Will Windows 10 still try and install updates randomly, like when you want to power off getting into a plane?”

3. The UI is all over the place. But you knew that already…

“Take all the Control Panel people in a room and don't let them out alive until one working, clean, viable Control Panel emerges. It’s now going to be three full releases. Either bin and kill old control panel and functionally fix the new panels, or kill the new panels and do control through control panel. I prefer the old Control Panel over the new junk, but really don't care so long as they work. Either go back or move forward, but break the limbo.”

“Start is back, but its got near zero customisation. It doesn't function or work like the old start button. I’m going back to Classic Shell yet again.”

[Ed: So is Trevor Pott.]

“In the super new Win32, killer API’s are nowhere to be seen. In fact, recent months have seen devs and Microsoft evacuating modern apps.”

“The move to ARM and RT versions and the God of Power-Saving took us back to 2D Windows: square corners, no shading. Windows RT is now just about dead now, but we're still stuck with doing penance. It makes no sense: Aero and 3D simply look and feel far better. The flat, dead UI is worthy of complete hate and contempt.”

The same reader laments:

“I’m aware that under the bonnet, some core tech will have made large moves forward – HyperV, Power Shell and so on. But...”

Cheer up though. Gabe Aul has promised that both “Windows 10 is the last version of Windows” and “Windows as a Service” means continual updates.

Which is another way of saying: “This work will never be finished.” ®