Watch out for Windows 10

[Tieval]

My windows 10 laptop carried out a major update a couple of weeks ago.

It took an hour and when it had finished I no longer had any printer drivers but had been given Candy Crush

 

[AccessBlaster]

Win 7 is my new favorite, it used to be XP. Who knows maybe Win 10 is my new fav, and just don't know it yet............

 

[Steve R.]

Win 7 is my new favorite, it used to be XP. Who knows maybe Win 10 is my new fav, and just don't know it yet............

Be adventurous. Toss M$ for a while. Try Linux. That may become your "new fav". All you have got to loose is your hair.

One nice advantage with Linux is you can use a "Live CD". What that means is that you can boot your computer from a CD and give Linux a trial run. Your MS Windows install remains, untouched on your hard drive.

Try Ubuntu before you install it

Wikipedia List of live CDs

PS: The availability of a "Live CD" is very helpful if you can't boot into MS Windows. The most obvious benefit, you can make a back-up of all your user files to another storage device before trying to fix your MS Windows OS.

 

[Rx_]

Going to bite the bullet and convert if I can get the Microsoft Partner renewed and get the Enterprise version. The VM looks really interesting.

 

[Insane_ai]

Other than some minor issues with DVD playback, I haven't had a problem with Win10. The first order of business was to follow the tutorials on how to stop Win10 from spying on you, then Cortana went away.

I have heard more complaints from users with the home version instead of the professional, that may be the advantage in my case.

 

[Libre]

Yeah, well.
Upgraded both my PCs to 10. Did not like it right off the bat. Slow as all hell (and I have an I7 machine with plenty of horsepower). Edge - bah. When I want to watch an avi or a wmv, I don't want to hear any popular new tunes or get any other streaming content other than what I am ordering up. Then there's the PDF viewer, which seemed to become the default program for PDFs. So what's wrong with Adobe (even though it sucks sometimes)? Don't go forcing me to you YOUR versions of programs I've had for years and I'm already used to, just to reproduce their functionality except not as well.

Start menu freezes. Simple commands freeze. Create New Folder freezes. Everything f^^king freezes.
Oh, but the smooth new desktop, changing pictures (I don't want to see) from my own My Pictures folder, it's sooooo coooooool!
Can't stand it.

With an operating system, I don't need a whole new "experience". I want my programs to work and to know where to find them.
And why can't I change the default programs to the one's I want?
Why won't Windows Media Player play my video files easily like it used to?
And where's MS Picture Manager (far better than the stupid picture viewer that now insists on opening when I click an image file).

I tried to change the default program for common file types - there used to be a very precise utility to do exactly that. Now, everything's been dumbed down - everything is supposed to welcome you to the new Windows 10 experience, without troubling you with the so so difficult and tedious task of actually configuring your machine the way you want it yourself. Instead, it wants to do it all for you because it knows what's really good for you.

Absolutely hated it.
Within 30 days of upgrading, you can restore your system back to Win7. Which I did on both those PCs and now I'm back to where I was, pretty much, despite all the warnings - like...OH MY GOD ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO GIVE UP ON THIS WONDERFUL OS AND LOSE ALL OF THE GREAT FEATURES and new SECURITY (and by the way you may have to REINSTALL some of your software).
I just clicked through all that propaganda and threatening warnings and restored Windows 7 and I'm pretty happy about it.
Windows 10 sucks.

 

[GinaWhipp]

Libre... so tell us, how you really feel! (Thanks for making my day!)

 

[Frothingslosh]

Very interesting. I had none of the major issues you encountered, Libre. I mean, yes, Microsoft defaulted everything to its own products, but it has ALWAYS done that with OS upgrades and new installs. It took just a few minutes to get Chrome and Adobe downloaded and set up as defaults, and the new media program they introduced (I forget its name - Edge is the new browser) actually appears to be better than MP. Hell, Dreamscape was even adapted for Windows 10 before I got the OS, so I even had my animated desktop back up and running within ten minutes. You can reach any option you need pretty much instantly through the new search tool, which is actually really nice.

I will admit to being annoyed that the recent OS update reset the default browser back to Edge, but I also notice the M$ got BURIED in complaints about that, so perhaps they'll listen. And besides, it was a 2 second fix.

But all the performance issues? I'm not seeing them.

My only real grief right now is that I can't schedule updates to just run once a week or something, but I understand why they did that.

 

[Brianwarnock]

The real question is should a dumb 74 year old past his sell by date who only uses email, browses the Internet and does a bit of Excel move from win 8.1 to win 10.

All opinions appreciated.

Brian

PS I do some online shopping and banking to but I know that the difficulties with win 10 and RBS. Are now sorted

 

[Frothingslosh]

Honestly, if your current system is working fine, there's no need to upgrade.

 

[Steve R.]

The real question is should a dumb 74 year old past his sell by date who only uses email, browses the Internet and does a bit of Excel move from win 8.1 to win 10. ... All opinions appreciated

If that is all you do, there is no need to upgrade. Nevertheless, try Linux as a replacement to MS Windows. See my prior posts in this thread.

 

[Mike375]

The real question is should a dumb 74 year old past his sell by date who only uses email, browses the Internet and does a bit of Excel move from win 8.1 to win 10.

All opinions appreciated.

Brian

PS I do some online shopping and banking to but I know that the difficulties with win 10 and RBS. Are now sorted

I have 4 Toshibas I took from 8.1 and 2 Toshibas that came with W10, obviously very new computers.

In my case I like the Windows Mail much better than 8.1's version and especially with the major upgrade of W10 that was about mid November.

I prefer IE11 to Edge and only use Edge to play around with etc.

I prefer the general layout and look and feel of W10 and especially "Settings" which is in addition to Control Panel.

I have been involved with several other laptop conversions of W7 and 8.1 (but no W8s) and if converting the best bug free way is to first reformat/reinstall back to factory 7 or 8.1.

Then use the following link (scroll down) and create the flash drive and I then use that.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

Lastly, on my computers I went backwards and forwards between 8.1 and 10 and several times and now they have all been W10 since start of last December.

I have Office 365 2016 but also have Office 2003 on one machine and that runs everything without problems on W10. With 2016 I have Access still done as .mdb files and Excel and Word as 97-2003 format and all is fine.

One other thing I like is the calculator with W10.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Converted to Windows 10 and Access 2016 back to back without a hitch so far. Windows 10 feels like a hybrid between 8-7. Gone are the confusing dual desktops of Win 8, replaced with a Windows 7 style desktop. The tiles from Win 8 are now on the start button. Gone is Internet Explorer replaced with edge.

Access 2016 so far feels like 2013.

The experience so far has been positive.

 

[AccessBlaster]

I went one step further and did a clean install of Windows 10 using the instructions here. I downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool here. Its a two step procedure that's pretty painless (if your geeky). You have to burn an ISO or use a flash drive, and back your data up duh. After the clean install I reinstalled Office 16.

After I configure everything just right and before I did much internet surfing, I took a Disk Image and tucked it away.

It feels lighter and faster then the upgrade, gone are the annoying installation keys. I'm glad I took the time.

HTH
Richard

 

[Rx_]

The HP portable wouldn't update. Looking at the iSO route.
Thought, what the hey, tried the MS help line.
A chap got on the speaker phone, we set uo a remote session.
He took time, 2.5 hours, to install ISO software, download up grade, and totally install.
Granted, he woud go off for 20 minutes and check back on progress.
So, I cleaned kitchen, living room, hallway, and yes...
did all my big Windows.
Opened A Merlot, made a gourmet lunch and let him finish.
RATING: Best Windows upgrade Ever

What a huge improvement on this 3rd generation penium.

 

[Alc]

I wasted a lot of time last weekend trying to upgrade to 10. The process got to 84% complete then informed me that it was unable to continue and rolled back to 7.1. When I have another few hours I want to waste (because I always have too much free time) I'll try to track down what the error number meant and what I can do to get past it.

Pain in the proverbial. :banghead:

 

[AccessBlaster]

The reason Microsoft is giving away windows 10

http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/04/e...softs-commitment-to-an-open-windows-platform/

It's a trap!

Whether they give it away or they make you pay for it, its still a trap right? I mean as soon as they stop supporting version's 7 or 8 the trap snaps shut.

What is the alternative? Linux?

Can you run apps like Office 2016 or games like Call to Duty effectively?

I know Steve R uses it but, I haven't herd anyone else chime in. If Linux (redhat) were to become mainstream like windows or apple os they would be snatched up and you would be facing the same issues we face now.

 

[Steve R.]

Whether they give it away or they make you pay for it, its still a trap right? I mean as soon as they stop supporting version's 7 or 8 the trap snaps shut.

With Linux there are many distributions with different philosophical approaches when it comes to upgrading. The effect is that the "trap" has many "leaks" and does not fully "shut". Of course, to my knowledge, each distribution does have an end-of-life event where that release eventually becomes "unsupported".

Can you run apps like Office 2016 or games like Call to Duty effectively?

I am not a gamer, so I can't really comment on it. Based on cursory knowledge, I can say is that Linux games are not as good as MS Windows games.

Linux has an office application (LibreOffice) that is just as good as MS Windows Office, except for MS Access. MS Access still comes out as the "winner". I have been able to side-step the lack of MS Access by using my browser.

If Linux (redhat) were to become mainstream like windows or apple os they would be snatched up and you would be facing the same issues we face now.

I would hope not. Linux is open-source, so there is no specific owner. Redhat would be an example of a private company that has apparently embraced using free open-source software and making its money through customer service. A much better bushiness model than propriety business models.

Proprietary business models, such as that used by Microsoft and Apple are a hindrance to technological innovation. (As an aside, Apple should be supported in its encryption dispute with the FBI. Unbreakable encryption is a necessary security measure for legitimate business/personal purposes.)

 

[AccessBlaster]

Microsoft is the heroin of our generation. Until I retire or my work stop using it (HA), I have to stay up to date regarding office and windows version...xxxx.

At work we use the enterprise versions, with most of the staff set to a lower admin user. We have little control how these images are configured.

At home I try not to give away all my personal info by going into the settings and turning off everything that is outbound. Camera, mic, locations etc. There are services you can disable, some of which are controversial would be key logger type services. Be vigilant.

When you upgrade don't be lazy and select the express settings. This is where most of your privacy goes out the Window(s) pardon the pun.

like Gizmo said nothing free, except the cheese in the TRAP.

 

[Steve R.]

At work we use the enterprise versions, with most of the staff set to a lower admin user. We have little control how these images are configured.

For me, (before I retired) that was the unbreakable monolith of waste and fraud in government. Very few of the office staff had any real need for the full capabilities found in "enterprise" suites. Essentially, Microsoft has been raking in a lot of excessive licensing fees for underutilized software.

Where I worked, very few of the office staff had any real need for the full capabilities found in "enterprise" versions. Most of the staff only needed the word processor with limited occasional need for a spreadsheet. Even the more "advanced" staff attempting to use additional features, such as MS Access where frustrated (by the IT department in my case) in attempting to use the capabilities that they theoretically were licensed to use.

Consequently, it would make a lot of $$ sense for government agencies and even private business to use selective free open source software such as "Writer" and "Calc" since that would satisfy the office productivity needs of many office workers. It is unfortunate that Microsoft has been successful in locking people into using their expensive products.