Decided to go back to windows for a bit after not using it for about 6 months (on physical hardware) and literally forgot there was a start menu, minimise button, taskbar and that the window controls are on the right...

I have done the impossible and almost forgotten how to use windows, not sure if this is a good or bad sign

Good, definitely good.

this is in fact one of my concerns (beside technical difficulties) to switching. i am the unofficial it guy in our company using windows and do not want to forget how to do something.

How long were you using it in a past? And what were you using as everyday OS/DE instead?

@myss Was a secondary OS that was shared equally with other Linux distro's

If you've never used it as your primary OS then it makes sense and it's not so impossible. Would be a bad sign if you've forgotten how to use it like in my case, after ~15 years as primary OS for mostly gaming and couple of other casual uses - its just impossible to forget..

Also must admit that even I sometimes get lost on Windows 10, they're adding to much of bullshit and badly mixing new designs / systems with old ones (Windows 7 were the last good ones imo)

@myss Agreed. I've used Win10 since it came out and I still get lost in the new control panel, which means I will end up using the legacy one instead. Its one of the big cons of Win10 that nobody seems to talk too much about.

@myss even though i am fine with win10, 7 was the most consistent for sure!

@erroronline1 Windows 10 is a legitmate mess of 4 different design languages, windows 7 for legacy apps, windows 8 for ui popuops like right clicks and the sort and the rest is just a mess of origional win10 release and half assed fluent design...

How can xbox keep the OS consistent, fluid and up to date yet the larger part of Microsoft can't do it for their most dominant and used product?

@lxmcf I think it's the problem of having to support a wide audience.
For example why is there Edge and Internet Explorer? Because out there in the crazy abyss some old ass company still uses legacy shit.
*cough* my company.
Literally designed a product that will not work with any other browser.
Obviously, this is probably just one reason out of a laundry list of other reasons, but I'd like to think this is one of the bigger reasons for continuing to support old shit.

But to get back to what you are saying, Xbox is a single use case situation. It's for gaming. They can trash the entire console and build a new one, and then create a new look. And no one is going to argue with it because it's tied to the system. Moreover a next gen console's UI is not the most used function. It's the gaming.