Thoughts on Win10 and Microsoft

[imoldernu]

Pour moi... I can't keep up.



Am I the only one?

 

[mamadogmamacat]

I'm hanging on to Windows XP for as long as possible.
Almost like a contest at this point as to how long I can go until an update to something else is required.

 

[frayne]

I went over to the dark side (Apple/Mac) about five years ago and never looked back and have no regrets whatsoever.

 

[Aerides]

10 is far better than Vista at least.

 

[calmloki]

No. Tried Win10; Win7 and I get along better. Makes me feel like an alien when I can't figure out what an icon symbolizes. Use words not pictographs. The gal is a sharp and doggedly persistent computer person and she fought and hated Win8 with a glowing passion.

 

[easysurfer]

Getting nostalgic here, but my favorite OS was Mac OS 9. When they went to OS X, I couldn't get used to the switch. So, I went ahead and tried Win XP. Was hesitant at first as previous Win system I had was Win 98 which crashed almost daily. Plus, as a Mac person going to Win was blasphemy. But must admit, I really liked Win XP and say that was my second favorite OS of all time (though I know many say Win 7 is the best).

As for now, Microsoft and Windows is like the person that you knew one time that was a friend but changed. So, my next main system is going to be Linux. At least with that I have more control of what I want and not feel like someone with looking over my shoulder.

 

[ejman]

My wife was having constant problems with Win 10 on her HP Laptop and the updates that would take hours and multiple reboots to complete were an ongoing aggravation. She finally ran into a problem where the HP printer stopped communicating and we could not find a way to solve it (reinstalled win 10 and that didn't resolve the issue) gave up and installed Linux mint a couple of months ago. Problems disappeared, printer works and I haven't heard any complains or questions from wife. Happy camper.

 

[donheff]

I volunteer with an outfit in my neighborhood that helps the elderly age in place in their homes. I help the members with computer and other tech problems. Most of them have Windows PCs or laptops. I have noticed the problems drop to a trickle as they moved to Windows 10. I'm actually getting out of practice now. I like the interface in Mac products like the iPhone and the iPad but I hate how they hide the file system from you and make it difficult to copy, move, and delete stuff. I know, that's a feature not a problem...

 

[Richard4444]

I am holding onto Win 7 until January, 2020 when MS will no longer offer security updates. My DGF has Win 10 (because her Win 7 machine had to be replaced) and she very much prefers good old Win 7. I have an iPhone and iPad but still Windows out of habit and familiarity.
BTW, ImOlder.... when did you move to Peru? Permanent?

Rich

 

[cbo111]

I went over to the dark side (Apple/Mac) about five years ago and never looked back and have no regrets whatsoever.

+1 on switching to Apple (iMac) last year. Wish I had made the switch many years earlier.

 

[easysurfer]

I am holding onto Win 7 until January, 2020 when MS will no longer offer security updates. My DGF has Win 10 (because her Win 7 machine had to be replaced) and she very much prefers good old Win 7. I have an iPhone and iPad but still Windows out of habit and familiarity.
BTW, ImOlder.... when did you move to Peru? Permanent?

Rich

My plan also. Once when Jan 2020 rolls around, I plan on not have Win as my primary system. I'll only use Win when I really have to for a few programs.

 

[imoldernu]

Lemme explain a little more about the original post...

I had written my son about the problems I was having with multiple updates, the addition of something called "sync" and how I had accidentally signed on to ICloud. My system crashed, I lost my network "homegroup" and ended up restoring windows three times... to try to get back to what I understood.

Anyway, my son sent me an article that explained the multiple Windows 10 updates. It's worth reading, but while the link below goes to the article, I changed the main article to go down to the 175 comments that had been added, which outlined my frustrations. (really worth reading if you haven't upgraded yet).

We'll have to learn to live with the changes, but this could be a heads up to explain some of the things that can happen and maybe help ya feel a little bit less lost.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/13-tiny-surprises-latest-windows-update-165539372.html?bcmt=1

Just to add one more grumpy gripe. How is it that every website automatically assumes that EVERYONE has a smartphone, and no longer gives general instructions for those who only use desktops or laptops.

 

[ncbill]

Last kid off this fall - their college requires Windows 10 - so I just picked up a license so they can run it in a virtual machine on their current MacBook Pro.

 

[Lsbcal]

....
Just to add one more grumpy gripe. How is it that every website automatically assumes that EVERYONE has a smartphone, and no longer gives general instructions for those who only use desktops or laptops.

Is your desktop really old? I bought an HP all-in-one recently and really like it. No realy problems with Win 10.


Have you considered getting a smartphone? They are really nice to have, especially in doctor's waiting rooms and at the pharmacy while in line or for emergency use. I've seen many older folks with smartphones. As a young un (only 70) I really like mine.

 

[Hermit]

I run Win 10 on my old 64 bit desktop and Win 7 on my very old 32 bit laptop. They both look and handle very close to the same as configured with the laptop being quite a bit slower. No major problems other than the laptop speed. I am not too crazy about the constant adds for Microsoft Edge every time I sign in the the Win 10 desktop.

 

[kite_rider]

So, my next main system is going to be Linux. At least with that I have more control of what I want and not feel like someone with looking over my shoulder.

I've been meaning to do the same thing for a while now. Which distro are you thinking about? I had been leaning towards Ubuntu...

Re Win 10. Guess I'm in the minority, but it seems to be working better than the Win 8 that came with my laptop (which I bought 5 years ago when I was FIRE'd). I don't use Edge, just Chrome and have been moving more and more to the Google world with less and less Windows traditional applications in my life. The Google system was the best compromise with my mobile transition (Android phone and tablet).

 

[dvalley]

I work in IT (though not in the helpdesk or the desktops area directly) so I'll just mention a couple of things. I find on older laptops or desktops with low memory Win 8.1 was probably the most stable yet modern OS from Microsoft.
If you have a decent CPU and a decent amount of memory (8G+) Win 10 works just as well and IMHO even better. In speaking with Microsoft not long ago during a contract renegotiation they mentioned that just like the IOS etc Win 10 updates will be pretty much mandatory. You'll be nagged to apply the patches and the system will slow down if you ignore the updates. While at first this sounds ridiculous but as we move to the IoT with so many devices and computers connected to the Internet security is no longer optional. I like this move as it will keep the hackers from doing harm not only to us directly but to others using our PCs/laptops/devices. I think it's a good move. However, a few updates have had negative impact, most recently was an automatic update that broke our RDP because it now requires more strict security. The work around is a manual registry change but again in the end it improves security for all (despite the teething pains).

Having said all that, Win 10 is not the only game in town for home users as more and more things are now cloud based (Google apps, Office 365 etc) you can get by with a Chromebook, Linux etc if all you do is web surf, email and basic doc editing spreadsheets etc.

 

[easysurfer]

I've been meaning to do the same thing for a while now. Which distro are you thinking about? I had been leaning towards Ubuntu...

Re Win 10. Guess I'm in the minority, but it seems to be working better than the Win 8 that came with my laptop (which I bought 5 years ago when I was FIRE'd). I don't use Edge, just Chrome and have been moving more and more to the Google world with less and less Windows traditional applications in my life. The Google system was the best compromise with my mobile transition (Android phone and tablet).

The distro I'm thinking about is Linux Lite. It's a distro that are geared towards those switching over from the Win world. A new release just came out. I have the previous version (3.8) on a laptop and that reminds me of Win 7.

Another distro I looked at briefly is Peppermint which I like too (the software manager uses the same one as Linux Mint), but found lite more intuitive.

It's fun to go to distro watch and see what flavors are out there as seems like a new one pops up each day.

https://distrowatch.com/

 

[Sunset]

I've been meaning to do the same thing for a while now. Which distro are you thinking about? I had been leaning towards Ubuntu...

Re Win 10. Guess I'm in the minority, but it seems to be working better than the Win 8 that came with my laptop (which I bought 5 years ago when I was FIRE'd). I don't use Edge, just Chrome and have been moving more and more to the Google world with less and less Windows traditional applications in my life. The Google system was the best compromise with my mobile transition (Android phone and tablet).

I switched to Ubuntu about 3 years ago when I built a new computer. I do have a Win 10 laptop, which the only thing it's needed for is running local income tax software.

Everything else I do on linux.

I picked 64 bit, as I have over 4 Gig of memory, so wanted to make use of it.
I picked the LTS version as I figured it is more stable than the newest weekly build.

I do updates when I want on it, and even upgraded from version 12 to 16 without any issues. Backups are easy and only take me about 10 minutes.

 

[zinger1457]

I am not too crazy about the constant adds for Microsoft Edge every time I sign in the the Win 10 desktop.

Type in 'notifications' in the search bar, select system settings, in the Notifications section turn off 'Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows'.

I've been pleased with Windows 10, as stated above some of the issues may be with older hardware although it still works fine on my 6 year old laptop.

 

[big-papa]

Moved from XP to 7 to 10 pretty seamlessly. The way I use windows, I really haven't noticed a huge difference in anything I do (including look and feel), with the exception of Edge. Works fine normally, but there are some web pages that are awfully darned slow to load (like Morningstar)...

 

[Lsbcal]

Moved from XP to 7 to 10 pretty seamlessly. The way I use windows, I really haven't noticed a huge difference in anything I do (including look and feel), with the exception of Edge. Works fine normally, but there are some web pages that are awfully darned slow to load (like Morningstar)...

I recently saw this with Morningstar on my iPad running Safari. The fix was to clear the cache. Unfortunately I don't recall the exact clicks to do this. But maybe there is a similar way to do this on the Edge browser.

 

[big-papa]

I recently saw this with Morningstar on my iPad running Safari. The fix was to clear the cache. Unfortunately I don't recall the exact clicks to do this. But maybe there is a similar way to do this on the Edge browser.

yeah, I used to do that all the time with Explorer - not sure I ever did it on Edge or if it's even possible. But will take a look - thanks for the reminder!

 

[imoldernu]

Latest update

As far as I know my system is up to date as of today. Here are the numbers for Windows 10 Pro. If you don't see this as your current version, you should know that more will be coming.
I think that #1806 was uploaded to 50% of the users about 2 weeks ago.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134
Latest update version 1806

Best of luck if you haven't received it yet, and congratulations if you've already uploaded and it's working well.

 

[dadu007]

Win XP is no longer supported/updated/secure, so if you're using it, you should stay off the web on that PC. Windows 10 is faster than Windows 8 and WAY faster than Win 7 on the same PC. Win 10 is very close to problem-free and is much more user-friendly than Windows 8 (they brought back what is essentially the start button). I work with computers all day. I don't understand you hangers-on....Also, if you didn't update for free before, you have now missed the boat and have to pay.