DirectX 10 or above support? Missing. An absolute requirement for games development. DirectX 9 just sucks in so many ways.
Of course I agree. And of course there was more than just DirectX not advancing past 9. (In vista 64 they could have gone to DX12 support if they wanted.) That lack of advancement is part of why I am only usiing Windows 10 (mainly Pro) now (and Mac and Linux), but the philosophy / interface / etc, the overall feel and flow in Vista was very good, and while it was their most advanced system it was also surprisingly good. So much sucks in 10.
One little example. Annoyance. The Windows task bar no longer lets you pin shortcuts that you can right click and get a menu just like you would on any shortcut, including “open file location” etc. Instead you get “open” and “remove” and maybe some useless pinned functions (”Jump Lists”) for that program that are hidden. If you want a separate shortcut with another commend line on the same program, you cannot do it any more, it will end up in the jumps list. Nothing was wrong with the old system, and they could have kept BOTH the old shortcut system PLUS add the new behavior, but just because many people never understood how to use their first system (whch they mnever bothers to realoy teach) they got rid of it entirely even though it is superior to the new system.
This same dumbing down is occurring all over in software, Windows, Mac, Linux even (though less), and both major phone OSs. There is less and less professional behavior left in these things, they just tear out the great stuff and have a new dumbed down less capable environment. And the old stuff that does need updated and fixed in some manner never even gets looked at.
Instead of users getting more computer literate, they have gotten WORSE in many ways.