New desktop

[frayne]

Jump to Apple and never look back, you will not be disappointed. They are worth every dime if you want a no hassle, intuitive operating system and interface.

[easysurfer]

One of the benefits of moving to a new computer is finding new software to use when trying to set up. I'm in the middle of that now, moving from one computer to a newer one.

I have probably close to 60-70 programs to reinstall, but found a few good alternatives to older programs.

[easysurfer]

I'm pretty much all converted over from Win 7 to Win 10 as my main computer .


A couple programs didn't install. One is an old office labels program. I think because my newer machine is a 64 bit OS. Installed fine on the 32 bit system on my laptop.


The smaller task bar icons of Win 10 was making my eyes squint but I found a taskbar tweaker program and now all is good .

[Another Reader]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Hope you are as happy with it as I have been with mine.

So far, so good. The box came yesterday. I set it up and turned it on, worked fine. Had to bypass a lot of Microsoft junk to get it set up. Took a few tries to get the Chrome to replace Edge as the default browser.

Overall, the machine seems to be faster with a lot less junk weighing it down. I'm sure that will change with time.

Thanks again for the recommendation!

[easysurfer]

For the most part, my main Win 10 desktop is all set up.

Only glitch the power management has a mind of it's own. I have that set for 10 mins before monitor turns off and 20 minutes before computer goes to sleep. But I've noticed things like at times, I'd walk away only for about 3 minutes and the monitor is off. Or more than 20 minutes and no sleeping. Past few days, on and off, been trying to get a work around by tinkering withsome shutdown software that actually works .

Other than this glitch, I'm good (knock on wood) .

[googily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer For the most part, my main Win 10 desktop is all set up. Only glitch the power management has a mind of it's own. I have that set for 10 mins before monitor turns off and 20 minutes before computer goes to sleep. But I've noticed things like at times, I'd walk away only for about 3 minutes and the monitor is off. Or more than 20 minutes and no sleeping. Past few days, on and off, been trying to get a work around by tinkering withsome shutdown software that actually works . Other than this glitch, I'm good (knock on wood) .

Do you have it attached to a UPS? I had this problem, and noticed that there was a battery icon in the system tray even though it was a desktop, and Googled to find other people reporting it.

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by googily Do you have it attached to a UPS? I had this problem, and noticed that there was a battery icon in the system tray even though it was a desktop, and Googled to find other people reporting it.

I do have a UPS attached. So, that's where the battery icon comes from. I thought that as a bit odd but now makes sense.

Is the attached UPS a reason why the power management of the system isn't too accurate?

[googily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer I do have a UPS attached. So, that's where the battery icon comes from. I thought that as a bit odd but now makes sense. Is the attached UPS a reason why the power management of the system isn't too accurate?

Apparently it thinks that desktops attached to UPSs are laptops.

I removed the USB connection from the UPS to the desktop, and the battery icon went away. One of these days I'll get around to installing the software for it, and can reattach the USB.

[grasshopper]

I have really been happy with our 2 Chromebooks especially because I am no long the network administrator for Ms G's 8 YO W7 laptop. Except I still need a W10 machine to run Quicken. So I spent a whooping $87 for a refurbished Dell desktop that I do remote casting from my Chromebook. Life is good.

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by googily Apparently it thinks that desktops attached to UPSs are laptops. I removed the USB connection from the UPS to the desktop, and the battery icon went away. One of these days I'll get around to installing the software for it, and can reattach the USB.

There is a way to hide what icons show on the system tray.

I have the battery not showing. On the power management, I gave up on trying to use a screen saver (guess they aren't really needed anyhow with LCD/LED monitors).

Presently, looking at shutdown software that monitors the system. Say if the average cpu usage is below 5% for a consecutive 2 minutes and not keyboard/mouse activity for 20 minutes, then sleep. Found a shutdown program that does just the thing for most situations. That way, 20 minutes is 20 minutes instead of the current hit or miss.

[jim584672]

The first thing I do with Win 10 is turn off power management in settings. I hate when things time out or hibernate.

[Another Reader]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 The first thing I do with Win 10 is turn off power management in settings. I hate when things time out or hibernate.

I have been cussing out the new Windows 10 computer for signing me out when I leave for an hour. Thanks for explaining how to stop that annoying behavior!

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 The first thing I do with Win 10 is turn off power management in settings. I hate when things time out or hibernate.

For me, I still have a need for power management. For example, if I decide to do a MalwareBytes scan just before leaving to buy groceries and don't want sit by the computer to wait for the scan to finish and don't want the computer to sit idle, powered on as I'm squeezing the peaches on the fruit isle, I'd want to computer to be smart enough to automatically go to power down after the scan is done.

Since, Win 10 power management seems to have a mind of it's own (sometimes sleeps too early, sometimes doesn't sleep when should, or not at all, though the setting is to sleep), over the past week I've been looking for separate program, which can do something like "If the CPU usage is less than 10% and no keyboard/mouse movements, then sleep".

I've tried several programs that some should do what I want, but I've found out that the ones I tried, they can't handle "phantom activity". By, that I mean, for some reason (maybe Windows 10 thing? ), the programs think there is a mouse or keyboard movement, when there is none. Some the computer activity would go along, almost triggering the CPU low usage and idle, when I'd see the idle clock start over again .

I've looked high and low, near and far, east, west, north and south. Okay, I exaggerated, after having tried about 8 programs. I've only found 1 which can accurately monitor an idle of mouse and keyboard.

Unfortunately with this program, there is no additional cpu usage monitoring. Yet, think what I will do is run this as the backup so when Win 10 forgets to sleep, this program will kick in I won't have my computer on more that it should be on.

[ejman]

On the one computer I have with windows 10 I've noticed that when I'm away from the computer for a while the hard drive access light comes on with a flurry of activity for a long time and it stops if I touch keyboard/mouse. The activity logs show nothing and malwarebytes/virus scans show nothing. I have no idea what windows is doing with all that hard drive activity.

[googily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejman On the one computer I have with windows 10 I've noticed that when I'm away from the computer for a while the hard drive access light comes on with a flurry of activity for a long time and it stops if I touch keyboard/mouse. The activity logs show nothing and malwarebytes/virus scans show nothing. I have no idea what windows is doing with all that hard drive activity.

Might be defragging the hard drive, or indexing, or downloading future updates, or one of the other kajillion Microsoft processes that run only when the machine is idle.

[target2019]

I always assume it is indexing files. There is probably a log of activity somewhere that identifies what processes are accessing disk. Try "performance monitor" in Windows 10.

[easysurfer]

After playing around with various programs (none which worked out completely), I finally came up with a method I can live with.

The "solution" (if can call it that) uses a sleep timer program which does a good job of putting my computer on hibernate after a set amount of time and computer inactivity.

A simple program (one that actually accurately measures when a computer is idle, unlike many others I tried), but in a way too simple as every time I open, the setting is defaulted to "When inactive for 30 minutes, shut down". But I want 1) when active for 30 minutes, hibernate (for my daytime use) and 2) when inactive for 120 minutes hibernate (when I run automated backup at night).

So, I went poked around with autohotkeys to using scripting code around the sleep timer program, so now to automatically make the setting for my day use, launch the quick launch with the sunrise icon. For night time setting, I launch the night time tent icon.

With the use of autohotkeys scripting, I don't have to navigate a drop down and dial between 30 - 120 minute settings twice day .

My patched up Win 10 system is starting to work functional at least .

[ejman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 I always assume it is indexing files. There is probably a log of activity somewhere that identifies what processes are accessing disk. Try "performance monitor" in Windows 10.

Thank you. A lot of menus and sub menus in that tool. I'll Google it to learn how to use it.