Windows 10

[BostonTim]

We had the thread a while back, but was wondering who has made the switch and can talk about the experience with a bit of transition time under their belts. It looks difficult and intimidating to me simply because it looks so different and very busy on it's face (and we all know I'm no technology surgeon). BuI think I'd like to seriously consider it.

Thoughts, comments etc.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Boston Tim

 

[SCC]

Personally I like it very much. I didn't get on well with 8.1 and when I had 8.1 at home and 7 at work I didn't like switching between the two. Everything felt out of place with 8.1's layout. Now going between 7 and 10 on a daily basis doesn't feel so bad, 10 feels like a better version of 7 to me.

What are you currently using?

 

[bideau]

I'm tired of the constant pop ups trying to get me to upgrade. All my computers are running Windows 7. I'm always reluctant to do a major upgrade because something is bound to go wrong, especially with installed programs. Last fall, I upgraded my Aunt's laptop from 8 to 10 and I spent an entire afternoon fixing things, especially the anti-virus she uses.

I'll be curious to hear how upgrades have gone for others.

 

[SCC]

I'm tired of the constant pop ups trying to get me to upgrade. All my computers are running Windows 7. I'm always reluctant to do a major upgrade because something is bound to go wrong, especially with installed programs. Last fall, I upgraded my Aunt's laptop from 8 to 10 and I spent an entire afternoon fixing things, especially the anti-virus she uses.

I'll be curious to hear how upgrades have gone for others.

I've done 2 x fresh installs and 1 x upgrade so far. Mostly plain sailing, there was an issue with Office losing it's product key when upgrading from 7 but easy enough to fix.

 

[fusion99]

I'm tired of the constant pop ups trying to get me to upgrade. All my computers are running Windows 7. I'm always reluctant to do a major upgrade because something is bound to go wrong, especially with installed programs. Last fall, I upgraded my Aunt's laptop from 8 to 10 and I spent an entire afternoon fixing things, especially the anti-virus she uses.

I'll be curious to hear how upgrades have gone for others.

I get those pop ups too. 110 Million have upgraded to Windows 10, but 109 Million hate it!!!

With that said, I need to upgrade to Windows 10 on my laptop running Win 8. I need the start button back!

 

[mooseontheloose]

I get those pop ups too. 110 Million have upgraded to Windows 10, but 109 Million hate it!!!

With that said, I need to upgrade to Windows 10 on my laptop running Win 8. I need the start button back!

http://www.classicshell.net/

This is a fantastic mod for both Windows 8 and 10 that can help emulate the Start Menu of Windows 7.

Upgraded to Windows 10 a while back and mostly it's been a good experience. I still prefer 7 overall but 10 is fine. I dislike the automated driver setup though. I have a WiFi USB adapter that I use sometimes and it has issues with Win 10 (the drivers). A new version was released but Windows won't find it. Trying to install it through an installer doesn't work because Windows tells it it will find drivers when they are needed. I found a workaround to manually install the drivers, but it was annoyed as hell and I much prefer managing drivers myself.

 

[bideau]

I've done 2 x fresh installs and 1 x upgrade so far. Mostly plain sailing, there was an issue with Office losing it's product key when upgrading from 7 but easy enough to fix.

Losing the product key for any installed program is not always easy to fix, especially if the program was pre-installed years ago.

 

[BostonTim]

Losing the product key for any installed program is not always easy to fix, especially if the program was pre-installed years ago.

Or if you're a pirate.

Cheers, BostonTim

 

[SCC]

Or if you're a pirate.

Cheers, BostonTim

Or you have the Volume licensing login for work...

 

[SCC]

Losing the product key for any installed program is not always easy to fix, especially if the program was pre-installed years ago.

Sorry, I was assuming that they key was recorded somewhere to hand still.

 

[Hawg73]

I've been reluctant to download 10 because a college kid I know studying computer science knows how I am and told me I'd hate it because of all the spam ads/pop-ups, but I know it's just a matter of time before they make me.

Microsoft can force the issue by allowing the hackers into the older stuff any time they want and I see this as just another example of the digital world we live in getting closer to separating us from whatever control we still have.

All that stuff reminds me of the creepy opening to an ancient TV show named the Outer Limits, which, in retrospect, was quite prescient.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits.

I feel certain that some fine day I'm going to be off the grid, on the run and hiding from the drones under cover of night because I refuse to give up my retinal scans and pin numbers.

Like they don't already have them.

 

[PumpDee]

I'll be curious to hear how upgrades have gone for others.

Windows 10 pretty much turned my lap top into a piece of $hit. Slow as hell, freezes, can't use Skype anymore, Youtube videos take forever and I have to let it "warm up" for at least 5 minutes if I want to get anything done.

Like most people, I just got sick of the damn pop-up asking me to upgrade, so I did. Big mistake.

 

[patswin]

Some news on the topic.


The Price of Free Windows 10: Microsoft Adds Lockscreen Ads to New OS

https://thevarguy.com/business-technology-solution...
by The VAR Guy

Microsoft Windows 10 has now become the first desktop operating system to be supported by full-screen ads. That's following news that some Windows 10 users are seeing advertisements on their PC lock screens for the first time.

Microsoft indicated a while ago that these types of ads would appear in Windows 10. But it didn't unveil them until a few days ago, when, as ExtremeTech reports, the company started displaying full-screen ads for a video game on the lock screen of some Windows 10 systems.

The feature is easy to turn off in Windows 10 settings if you don't want to see the ads. It's also not an especially novel type of strategy.

Other types of ads have already appeared in Windows 10, notably in the Start menu. And other devices, like Amazon's Kindles, have been making hearty use of lockscreen ads for years.

Still, the latest Microsoft move is notable because it's the first time that full-screen ads are being enabled by default for a desktop operating system. It's a reminder that, even though Windows 10 is (more or less) free of cost, the tradeoff is that users will see a lot of ads.

In many ways, the change suggests that the desktop OS is now going the way of the Web: Content is being provided for free in exchange for prolific ads. We're guessing most users won't much care, because they have become so used to this model.

But given the privacy controversy that already surrounds Windows 10, more ads won't help Microsoft to assuage users who complain that the OS collects too much information about them (since that information is presumably used to help serve ads, among other things). And they certainly won't please people who yearn for the good old days, when the economics of operating systems were simple: You paid for software, and that was that.

 

[Big/Sky/Fly]

Isn't corporatism (big companies that rule the world/ads everywhere imaginable) such a lovely concept?

“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations that've long since bought and paid for, the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and the information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.”
― George Carlin

 

[Undertaker #59*]

Still happy with 7. Have no motivation to upgrade something that works for everything I need it to. Shut off updates.

Sent from my Enigma Device

 

[Mr NFLfan]

Still happy with 7. Have no motivation to upgrade something that works for everything I need it to. Shut off updates.

Sent from my Enigma Device

Same here! I upgraded to windows 10 for 2 days and shit canned it. Thought it
sucked and I thought it was an even bigger dog than 8.1. I liked windows 7 and will continue to use 7 until Microsoft no longer supports it. Its funny but windows 10 is more like apple than ever before.
If I have to learn a new OS that looks like apple then it might as well be apple or android and to hell with Microsoft. The windows update for windows 10 can be hidden as can the task bar icon. End of annoyances.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Couldn't stand Windows 8 so never bothered with it. Preferred Vista over it even.

 

[NFL-Know]

I've been using Windows 10 (W10) on my new Laptop and Desktop since Sept 15, 2015 when I bought them. There are many new things with W10 but the major ones are :

1. New Browser Edge
2. Easier access to Settings, Updates, Apps, etc.
3. Programmability of user interface

Just some experiential brevity:

1. The new W10 Edge browser takes a little getting use to and you must program some of its setup / user facilities to meet your needs. Its user interface is much less sophisticated than Windows Explorer and much more similar to Google. W10 Edge is still in development and is coming along nicely to migrate it user abilities to be more easily configurable and application oriented.

2. Direct access to settings control is done by clicking on ... icon or clicking on the 4-panel start icon, then typing in settings, select settings. There is an Updates/Security category within W10 Control Settings where you can program your updates, security features and much more. Also there are many other categories such as your standard System, Devices, Network/Internet, Personalization, Accounts, etc.

3. Every time you click on the 4 blue panel start icon it provides you the ability to access / invoke your applications, Power(restart, shutdown, sleep), Control Settings, File Explorer, and customize you use interface. By customize your user interface I mean that you can setup the customization of what browsers, applications, are readily available to you when you click the start icon.

 

[O_P_T]

I upgraded a few weekends ago.

I found a PDF about how to adjust the settings to control privacy. Don't recall where I found it, but the basic thing during install is to not go with the "express" but do the custom option where you can disable most of the "send your data to Microsoft" settings.

Here's another page that explains the things you can adjust once it's installed.

I had a few issues when I installed.

It eliminated my third party anti-malware software and used Windows defender.

I had saved an install package from 2014 so I could reinstall and update it.

It also "forgot" I had rear speakers for my 5.1 sound setup.

I Googled this issue and I did the two things they suggested. Reinstall driver (didn't work), unplug and reinsert the speakers one by one and make sure it recognizes them. When I plugged the rear speakers back in, nothing was selected so I chose "rear speaker" and it's good to go.

I didn't like the new browser, since I couldn't figure out how to customize the menu and options. Internet explorer 11 is still there, and you right click on a page and tell it to open it that way.

For some reason, they decided that the library feature in Windows Explorer shouldn't be on by default, you've got to go into the settings to turn it on. It also doesn't seem to as good a job with the "recent files" folder which it now calls "Quick Access".

I had to set iTunes to run as administrator to authorize the PC. Just right click on the icon and choose properties, it's in there somewhere.

Oh and if you haven't upgraded, then you haven't gotten any patches to W7.

You need to go into control panel and launch windows upgrade. Disable the W10 upgrade in the optional stuff and then you can get the security fixes for W7.

 

[king of kings]

It took hours to download & install on my laptop . So far it'd a lot easier to use then windows 8.