Windows 10

[bjorn2bwild]

Did you try putting
127.0.0.1 ssw.live.com
in your hosts file. If so, did it stop it?

I have decided to wait until next year if at all on the free Win 10 'upgrade'. In the meantime I do follow along learning what I can.
With Win 8/8.1, I decided against using the cloud based services, installing as a local account instead.
P.S. thanks for the tip.

 

[harley]

Truly, if MS is going to insist on being a spyware OS going forward (maybe we should call them the MSA), I may have to switch back to Linux. It's been awhile, but I doubt there's that much of a learning curve. As long as some form of Open/Libre Office works on it, I should be OK. But I'm never switching to Win10.

 

[Redbugdave]

Was it relatively painless (easy) to revert back? I'm thinking of doing the same from W10 to W8.1, because, as someone else said here today, I'm not seeing anything in W10 I just can't live without, and W8.1 worked just fine for my PC uses.

Birdie...It is easy to revert back. I was relieved to be back where I began. It took maybe less than 20 minutes. If you have reservations after using Win 10 for awhile, just go back. You can always upgrade in the year it's not locked in. Win 7 is good for another five years. Don't feel pressured to have to deal with something you really don't care for. If I wanted my computers to be like a smart phone, I would just use smart phones all the time. A program is a program...not an app.

 

[zinger1457]

I installed Windows 10 over the weekend and hated it. Plus it won't run my VPN Client which I need for my consulting work. Rolled it back to Windows 7 the next day. Very painless, but must be done within 30 days of installing Windows 10.

I wasn't aware there was a 30 day limit before doing a rollback. I did create a disk image of my laptop using Windows 7 backup before doing the upgrade to Windows 10. Not as fast as doing a rollback but I can restore the image at any time if the need arises although right now I don't see any reason to.

 

[Theseus]

Truly, if MS is going to insist on being a spyware OS going forward (maybe we should call them the MSA), I may have to switch back to Linux. It's been awhile, but I doubt there's that much of a learning curve. As long as some form of Open/Libre Office works on it, I should be OK. But I'm never switching to Win10.

Seems that MS isn't the only "big brother" type out there... Ubuntu Spyware: What to do? — Free Software Foundation — working together for free software

I've had a system running on Ubuntu 14.03, found it relatively easy to navigate but what bothered me about it (long before I saw the linked info) was the impression I had of how it so reminded me of MS-DOS back in the 80's. At that time I had the MS manuals guiding me regarding command line particulars but now one needs to rely on the intraweb for guidance, just doesn't feel as confident with that lack of verifiable documentation. Instead of operating parallel systems and needing to stay current on all of them, I standardized on MS, but I do realize YMMV.

 

[Nodak]

Been using Windows 10 for 6 days now. Everything is working well and I am adjusting to it's idiosyncracies.

 

[ls99]

I been saved. An old Lenovo laptop had the offer for win 10. It is a playtoy so out of curiosity let it try th upgrade. After an overnight whatever the message said: this laptop can not be upgraded due to processor incompatibility. Halleluyah!. Stay with win 7.

I have a Sony All in one with windoze 7 it has not offered the upgrade, I'll let it be. Two other desktops run Linux.

 

[kcowan]

Nice tutorial on methodically eliminating the encroachment by the Borg

I think it has been covered but just make sure that when you buy a new computer, you still have to do this.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Birdie...It is easy to revert back. I was relieved to be back where I began. It took maybe less than 20 minutes. If you have reservations after using Win 10 for awhile, just go back. You can always upgrade in the year it's not locked in. Win 7 is good for another five years. Don't feel pressured to have to deal with something you really don't care for. If I wanted my computers to be like a smart phone, I would just use smart phones all the time. A program is a program...not an app.

Reverted back to 8.1 this morning, for a variety of reasons. It was easy. I started the process of reversion, then took a shower, and by the time I had dried off and dressed my PC was back to my earlier comfort level.

 

[wmc1000]

Now with a couple of weeks under my belt Windows 10 seems just as comfortable to me as my previous experiences when I had a mix of computers some with windows 7 and some with windows 8.1 - The only one I haven't upgraded is my HTPC since Windows Media Center is necessary on that. If someone come out with a DVR program or "App" that is as easy to use I would upgrade that one too!

 

[W2R]

OK, brave or foolish, I just ordered a new computer with Windows 10 pre-installed.

I was going to order a new computer anyway, even though my present computer is still working.

 

[Bestwifeever]

OK, brave or foolish, I just ordered a new computer with Windows 10 pre-installed.

I was going to order a new computer anyway, even though my present computer is still working.

I am sure it will be just fine, W2R! You'll have to report here.

 

[W2R]

I am sure it will be just fine, W2R! You'll have to report here.

I definitely will! It is supposed to arrive Monday night, but I really won't have time to even fire it up until after the real estate closing I have later in the week (selling my old house). Maybe I can post something about it next weekend.

How's your new Macbook Pro working out so far? That is a good option too.

 

[Animorph]

I've had W10 on my laptop for a few days now, upgraded from W7. Not a whole lot of difference, though I'm happy to skip W8. It did fix a problem with the window "focus", where it would rapidly cycle through two or more windows as the active window before it would settle on one of them. And also a memory leak problem (at least hopefully that is fixed) with one or two system processes that would grow in size until I restarted. It seems a little faster than 7.

The only real problem I've had was no sound. When I opened the volume mixer it started working, so not much of an issue.

 

[growerVon]

Upgraded my custom gaming rig to w10 from w8.1. It went OK once I cleared space on my operating system drive (a smaller SSD for performance). I actually miss the 8.1 start screen experience, with the larger space for the active tiles, so I have made the setting for the menu to be full screen. Seems ok. I'll be helping my neighbors with their upgrades in Sept.

 

[Nodak]

The biggest performance difference I have noticed so far is a nice speed up in both startup and shutdown.

 

[Gotadimple]

The biggest performance difference I have noticed so far is a nice speed up in both startup and shutdown.

There is a setting in Windows 10 "Fast Start Up" that accomplishes this. So you can start working before all the background programs are working. Some have had problems with a good shutdown because of this setting (the computer never shuts down). This was a problem I had with my older HP laptop. Once I turned off Fast Shutdown, everything works perfectly.

Just watch your PC over the next few days as updates are applied. If you find a problem, google it for a solution.

 

[Theseus]

Just watch your PC over the next few days as updates are applied. If you find a problem, google it for a solution.

Had something else catch me by surprise this morning. With Win 10 running on 4 different PCs now, I've been finalizing a few more settings here and there. This morning I found one PC had rebooted for updates, and when logging onto it my password wasn't working. WTF? Noticed the login user name was now my email addy/MS Account username; tried that password and yup it worked. Lucky thing I made that password one of the few that I can actually remember. Googled it and found what happened; when setting up a printer I was prompted to download an app from the MS windows store and following further prompts for MS Account login I did so, and that was my mistake. MS seems to think using their app store with a login (which according to the article cited below is unnecessary) means you'd like to turn your PC into a borg drone.

See You don't need to use a Microsoft Account to download apps from Window 10's Store

Setting -> Accounts -> Your Account -> and selecting 'sign on with local account' got me disconnected from the hive, and it is back to a local login and password again. Didn't care for the fact I couldn't find a way to bypass from the login screen, not sure if being disconnected from the net would have defaulted back to local account login or not.

 

[NW-Bound]

... Just watch your PC over the next few days as updates are applied. If you find a problem, google it for a solution.

Windows users have known for years that they should have multiple PCs, hoping to have a good working one to look for help or to make rescue disks.

Imagine if we all need a backup for our car, AC, fridge, TV, phone, stove, etc... Redundancy, redundancy...

And people want to bring more computer gadgets into their life. I already have way too many as it is, speaking as one who has worked with computers his entire career before the word PC was ever coined.

 

[karen1972]

I upgraded and it all seems to have gone fine. I like the new browse and have used the edit feature a few times already. Having Windows 8.1 I already had a Microsoft account they had you set up so not a surprise.

I did see some people talk about having to pay for solitaire, etc. not sure why that is, on windows 8.1, you got them from Microsoft store, you have an xbox account for free and I still have access to all the same games I had prior to upgrade.

I like the tablet option and so much prefer the new multiscreen task option...the old 8.1 was very clunky and often I was on the desktop trying to get a calculator and wanting to pull my hair out so I'm certainly happier.

There is a driver issue I haven't figured out yet, I know there is still one showing windows 8 that I had an error on but it disappeared before I took notice and could write it down.

 

[aja8888]

I upgraded and it all seems to have gone fine. I like the new browse and have used the edit feature a few times already. Having Windows 8.1 I already had a Microsoft account they had you set up so not a surprise.

I did see some people talk about having to pay for solitaire, etc. not sure why that is, on windows 8.1, you got them from Microsoft store, you have an xbox account for free and I still have access to all the same games I had prior to upgrade.

I like the tablet option and so much prefer the new multiscreen task option...the old 8.1 was very clunky and often I was on the desktop trying to get a calculator and wanting to pull my hair out so I'm certainly happier.

There is a driver issue I haven't figured out yet, I know there is still one showing windows 8 that I had an error on but it disappeared before I took notice and could write it down.

Hey Karen, don't forget to turn off all the "invasion of privacy" selectors mentioned early in this thread. Also, there is a way to relieve yourself of a barrage of third party ads as MS will sell your personal info and read your e-mails.

 

[Nodak]

I have not set any "fast start up" option. But it is till much faster on both starup and shutdown. So far the only problem I had was with Norton Internet Security which had to be uninstalled and then reinstalled for some reason. I could not uninstall it so called Norton support. They were great and had me back up and running in a very short time. Years ago I had loaded Norton Utilities 15 and when I uninstalled it it left some data behind that the new Internet security didn't like.

 

[clifp]

Well I spent most of the week trying to upgrade. I tried migrating my applications (I really didn't want to install my games and other apps again). So finally on my 4th shot I gave up migrating the applications and just did a data migration each one taking several hour, I got Windows 10.

Woot I thought. Only to discover that I can't connect to internet due to driver problem with my network adapter.

So tomorrow I'm looking forward to a fun with tech support day.

 

[Gotadimple]

I have not set any "fast start up" option. But it is till much faster on both starup and shutdown. /QUOTE]

Fast startup is set by default. If your PC is shutting down normally, I wouldn't change anything. I had a problem with the pc never shutting down, and disabling fast startup was one solution from Microsoft community. It solved the problem.

Boot up is reasonably fast, but I do need to wait about 30 seconds from the point where I enter my password until I can use the machine. Not a big give from my perspective. Shut down is fast.

- Rita

 

[target2019]

They say that a backup is not proven until it is restored and working...

Think of a run-away wagon in a classic Western movie. Once the wagon loses a wheel, other wheels become vulnerable, the carriage weakens, and the hero comes along just in the nick of time.

There is a high degree of reliability in spinning disks and SSD's. However, all things must fail. There's usually a cascade of oversights (operator) and exceptions (computer software). A very small weakness in the logical layout is caught when we pump a gazillion bits of data onto the drive. Wait. Stop. I didn't mean it. Go back!

Each time you try one of these grand installation experiments, be sure to acknowledge to yourself that you could lose it all.