Been a while, but unfortunately, the world has caught up to me. I had a working Windows 7 laptop for work that caused me 0 issues whatsoever. I was able to "fly under the radar" so to speak with a combination of exceptions and approved ADA requests, but last week I was told that Windows 7 is no longer allowed due to "security reasons" (which no one can ever explain when asked why) and I had to move to Windows 10. I had them build a desktop for me that I could install a custom video card and give me admin access on the machine, but I knew the truth: Windows 10 triggers my migraines and there is no solution other than not use Windows 10. And unfortunately that is no longer an option. Since I can't work with a migraine, and I can't work without a computer, I expect to be fired relatively shortly
The worse thing is that it's inescapable. If I go get a new job, they will undoubtedly be using Windows 10 there, and I'm back in the same predicament. So here I am a middle aged guy with a family and freaking Windows is forceably ending my career. I tried reaching out to Microsoft and of course they don't give a crap, just a generic "we'll pass this along" which means it gets deleted since who cares about one guy in a sea of billions.
I've been trying to get the desktop working for me but it's the same old story every time I try: Identical monitor, identical video card, identical drivers, Identical ICC profiles, Identical everything to the Windows 7 build, and nothing makes a difference. I do believe I found the main culprit at least in my case, it seems to be the desktop compositor, DWM.exe. In Windows 7 and earlier, you could disable DWM but enabling "Classic Mode" (which I always did) and that solved the issue. Starting in Windows 8 Microsoft removed the option to disable DWM, so you are stuck with it. There are some hackarounds to delete DWM but they all result in an unusable Windows environment.
I'm not sure why I am posting this story, I guess I always hope that maybe there is the one "answer" we are all looking for to solve our issue, but I know it doesn't exist. I have a little bit of money stashed away to keep me going for a bit, but after that, I don't know what I am going to do. It's a real tough spot to be in. I feel silly saying "Windows ended my career" but it really did, and it's a serious issue, and the fact no one cares or takes it seriously is the toughest part.
I'm going to be trying a new assault of things to try and make Win10 usable for me, and I will share them here, but honestly I have less than zero expectations they will work. I guess I just wanted to share how bad it can get for folks like us.