Windows 10 Benefits: 2 PCs, Upgrading from Win 7

[phinds]

Just letting you know this is mostly wrong. Try again from another approach, or come again at this topic with a new angle. :)

I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[Chronos]

I fail to see the benefit to MS in offering a 'free' upgrade to W10. Call me suspicious, but, I suspect a hidden agenda. Hopefully, it's merely a ploy to generate an income stream from advertisers.

 

[phinds]

I fail to see the benefit to MS in offering a 'free' upgrade to W10. Call me suspicious, but, I suspect a hidden agenda. Hopefully, it's merely a ploy to generate an income stream from advertisers.

I think it's the two combined. The "privacy policy" of Windows 10 seems to be "you have no privacy". MS gets a lot of info to sell to advertisers and that is the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

To be fair to Windows 10, it DOES provide an experience that is more in line with what modern non-computer types probably prefer, having learned to love it on their cell phones. Had MS not given in on Windows and made it possible to revert to much more of a Windows 7 experience, I never would have considered it.

 

[mathman]

I think it's the two combined. The "privacy policy" of Windows 10 seems to be "you have no privacy". MS gets a lot of info to sell to advertisers and that is the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

To be fair to Windows 10, it DOES provide an experience that is more in line with what modern non-computer types probably prefer, having learned to love it on their cell phones. Had MS not given in on Windows and made it possible to revert to much more of a Windows 7 experience, I never would have considered it.

I have the opposite reaction. I prefer the Windows 7 experience, and, to the extent that Windows 10 deviates, I find annoying These include minor changes in Windows explorer that are a nuisance.

 

[jim hardy]

I have 2 pc's (desktop and notebook), both on Windows 7. What would I gain (or lose) by switching to Windows 10?

What i LOST is useability of my laptop.

It took me weeks to figure out how to unininstall Cortana. That busybody slut is the proverbial midget in a nudist colony sticking its supposedly gender neutral nose in everybody's business.

And weeks more to figure out how to get my Synaptics touchpad driver back so i can disable "tap to click" . Tap to click makes this machine unusable because keyboard is right above touchpad and static electricity makes it jump all over the place activating unknown things whilst typing.

Well, i was learning to tolerate what of Win10's silly yuppie toys i couldn't switch off ...
This morning i got a message at startup "Do not turn off your PC these updates keep you safe"
after about 15 minutes it started up
i found my password changed to microsoft account password , Cortana back in my face, all Win10's spyware settings back to default, and something called "onedrive" suggesting that all my disk contents belong on the cloud with no hint whether it's already put them there
and the other Windows programs i'd uninstalled reinstalled.

and who knows what else it did

most outrageous thing was my touchpad driver is back to microsoft mouse and it now refuses to accept the Synaptics driver
so this laptop is essentialy unuseable again because of hair trigger on touchpad

HOW DARE THOSE RODENTS SNEAK IN AT NIGHT AND DESTROY MY STUFF . Gentlemen do not write stuff on other people's computers without permission.
I was on chat with microsoft support for 3 hours as he tried to fix my driver. He gave up.
If i get an invoice it will go straight to Bill Gates via registered mail.

My advice - avoid Windows 10 like the toxic spyware virus it is.

/Rant/
If you want Apple features buy an Apple. Bill Gates is the 'Prince of Mediocrity' and he has created abject chaos. His chaos has undermined society's expectation of order . Two generations now have rewarded his half-assedness .I blame him (and Hugh Heffner) for the imminent fall of Western civilization. He's the "man of ambition" Lincoln warned us about in 1838..

Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.--It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm
Windows10 is a sadistic Big Brother out to own you.
/endRant/

I posted similar comments on Microsoft's feedback hub.

I lack the vocabulary to express how i really feel.old jim himself

 

[jim hardy]

And they fixed Windows home so you can't uninstall Cortana.

 

[Borg]

And they fixed Windows home so you can't uninstall Cortana.

Have you seen this article?
How to Enable and Disable Cortana in Windows 10.
While you may not be able to remove it, you should be able to turn it off and stop it from storing information about you on the cloud.

 

[phinds]

And they fixed Windows home so you can't uninstall Cortana.

Jim, what is the problem you are having w/ Cortana. I just got a new laptop with Windows 10, a decision I now deeply regret, but Cortana isn't one of the problems. As far as I recall, I didn't do anything to it and all it does to me is sit there with a big "ask me anything" bar taking up unneeded realestate in the task bar along the bottom of the screen. It does use up som 40+ megs of memory, but w/ 16gigs, that's trivial, and its CPU usage is zero. I do remember it asking me stuff early on but it doesn't do that any more so maybe I DID do something to it. Anyway, it doesn't get in the way at all, near as I can tell.

Hmm ... I do see that all of my Cortana settings are at "off" so maybe I did do something. In any case, if you turn off all the settings, it's pretty innocuous.

 

[jim hardy]

Thanks Borg i did switch it off . Doubtless it'll be back next update.

Jim, what is the problem you are having w/ Cortana.

Anything i do Cortana butts in trying to " help " and i have to interrupt my train of thought to tell it to butt out.'
When i click on a picture something butts in saying "Well lets' organize your pictures in one place " and i have to tell it ' go to hell i have my pictures where i want them ' i don't know if that's cortana or one of her concubines

so i told her to quit getting to know me and switched to OFF everything i could find related to windows 10 including all those silly apps like sports money and celebrity news
will advise if she raises her head again
start menu is totally clobbered nothing familiar remains

i'm not kidding this is outrageous how dare microsoft take over a computer that i bought
it's symptomatic of a growing disregard for the concept of private property, ie undermining western values as i said

Were i lunatic fringe i'd blame it on what this guy says


but they're not that smart.

guess I'm still mad over the wasted day.
Sorry for the tone of this it's not you guys I'm mad at , it's the microsoft rodents that chewed up my computer last night.
Who moved my cheese ? Why did they think it necessary ?

Thanks guys for the helping hands you've extended.
When i become emperor you are assured good positions in my court.

old jim

 

[phinds]

Have you gone to the settings specifically for Cortana? That's where I'm showing all "off" settings. This has nothing to do with that new panoply of obnoxious extras.

 

[jim hardy]

Yes i turned everything off
havent heard from Cortana in last couple hours maybe she's muzzled for now

it's not just cortana
start button gives a drastically unfamiliar presentation with strange stuff i never saw before or asked for
dont know where to find anything i normally use like device manager, uninstall programs, hibernate, search
why did everything change overnight without being asked to , or even granted permission ?

worst of all is my constant rage over hair trigger touchpad that randomly shoots you off to unpredictable places. It worked fine with synaptics touchpad driver but is an unguided missile under microsoft mouse driver because of that damnable tap-to-click
and it refuses to allow replace microsoft driver with synaptics
last time it asked me where to look for the driver and i was able to finagle OS into using it but this time it just says "unable to connect to synaptics driver"

Ten is not worth the aggravation. It's coming off this machine by hook or crook.

Sorry for the tantrum . I have no tolerance for vandalism and that's what this automatic update amounts to.

I understand why Hillary used her own software.

old jim

 

[Borg]

I stand by my post in another thread that I will never let Windows 10 install itself on my home computer. When I learned that they were sneaking it in through automatic updates along with actual, needed software patches, I figured that they were up to no good. I would be just as angry if I was going through this. I am so glad that I stopped it before it got into my computer - even though it continues to try. It has gotten to the point where I have turned off automatic updates completely because it keeps burning up my processor trying to find a way around my blocks (firewall, disabled services, etc.).

 

[phinds]

@jim hardy, if 10 is causing you that much grief, why not spring for the $100 and install 7? Yeah, I realize that it sucks that MicroSh** causes you to have to do that, but still ...

 

[jim hardy]

Where can i buy a 7 CD ?

I'll ask my local shop if he can do it for that.

I just fixed the touchpad driver. Downloaded it from synaptics site and ran synaptics installer program. For some reason it worked this time. This morning it wouldn't.

Synaptics understands touchpads. Their driver has controls for tapping, pressure sensitivity, "palm touch" which desensitizes the hair trigger, momentum, and edge functionality. Here's a snip of settings. Machine is not useable with tapping enabled, and it came from factory not enabled. Microsoft driver does not have a setting to disable tapping .

again. sorry for the rant , touchpad is functional now...
i'm sure i'll feel better in the morning

and thanks for the suggestions.
Go back to 7 - why didnt i think of that ?

 

[Bystander]

hair trigger touchpad that randomly shoots you off to unpredictable places.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

It's coming off this machine by hook or crook.

Which number was "Kansas?" Eight?

 

[jim hardy]

Which number was "Kansas?" Eight?

7 . After years of ME crashes I grew to like 7's reliability.

 

[Routaran]

7 . After years of ME crashes I grew to like 7's reliability.

Years or Win ME!? wow you must be a glutton for punishment lol.
That thing lasted on my system for maybe a few days before I went back to Win98SE.

 

[jim hardy]

Years or Win ME!? wow you must be a glutton for punishment lol.

Never in those years did a single ME update complete successfully. Probably why it lasted as long as it did.

We ran a Data General MRDOS system for somewhat more than 20 years on our plant computer. Software shouldn't break IMO.

 

[patmurris]

I learned on Commodore PET and Apple II in the early 80's and previously working in IT and software i went through all versions of MS os since then. Never heard anybody happy with them except Win NT. Maybe i mostly met a one particular kind of techs people, but it seems everybody hates MS stuff. Lots of sad stories... It seems they consistently manage to get it wrong or poorly implemented whatever idea they have borrowed.

Vista was a turning point. It was installed on a new desktop PC i bought height years ago. What a mess! If MS had been accountable for the time lost worldwide switching to Vista it would have been astronomical!

Windows 8 was yet another nightmare... It came preinstalled on an HP laptop i bought three years ago. I still had no idea where my applications where... wasn't sure what my cpu was doing either... and why does this drive blinks in the middle of the night... After Vista what could be worst? Touch screen interface on a non touch screen device! Who in his right mind would release an OS that defaults to a tablet interface regardless of the computer? After some getting used to you manage to avoid it most of the time except when it kicks in unexpectedly and you struggle to close those apps...

So what about Windows 10? My computer decided it was time to upgrade and i got stuck one day in front of the "Updating" progress screen for a couple hours... and there it was. The switch wasn't too painful. More crappy apps that get in the way though - like the tablet style picture viewer that kicks in now... and other touch screen annoyance I'm still discovering. Big improvement: the tablet style apps can now be closed by clicking on a X up right! To me it is still poorly implemented and uninspired software, only it seems it gets in my face more often than ever? There was a major update not long ago and I'm still trying to figure what got affected. My computers restarts whenever it feels like it now...

What's the advantage of Windows 10? First you get rid of the annoying popup offering to update to W10 for free. And at that point being as far away from Vista is by itself a good point although I'm not sure where we're headed. At least some sort of Start menu is back.

I know i should have switched to Linux long ago but i don't feel like tweaking and tuning my computer beyond a few settings, and i like to have access to newer applications whatever they may be that I'm interested in... So i keep enduring Windows.

 

[mathman]

The recent Windows versions seem to alternate good and bad. XP was good, followed by Vista - bad, followed by Windows 7 - good, followed by 8 - bad, followed by 10 -?

 

[jim hardy]

like the tablet style picture viewer that kicks in now...

if we're talking about the same user interface

Used to be i click start menu and it offers me among other things a pictures library
which when i click shows me a list of the files therein.
I've made nice subfolders in pictures library, one for pf related stuff in which i make my pf pictures with paint, i have scores of pdfs and text files there too

SINCE THE INVOLUNTARY 22 SEPT update
start menu now has no library but an entry called Photos which shows not a list but a mosaic of pictures from the old pictures library
which sounds good on the surface
but the MORONIC INTERFACE won't show anything but picture files -- no pdfs no text so how in the heck am i supposed to find my stuff ?
I have probably two hundred saved documents i cannot find anymore because they're in a library that's been assigned to a new librarian who's illiterate..

Just one of the many aggravations . The imbeciles took away search, too.
Thanks to some helpful PF'ers i was able to turn off Cortana. Cortana is so "in your face" she must be Kendra Lust's day job.and i tried to give microsoft feedback via feedback hub but it won't take it, just wags the submit bar back and forth

whatever reality microsoft lives in must be a caste system where programmers are the "Brahmins" and we users are the "Untouchables".
i lack vocabulary to describe my disgust with them .

What can one do ?
i bought a windows7 disk and will attempt to go back to it
It is my intent to bite the bullet and try Ubuntu. I fear the frustration of that learning curve.

Some entrepreneur should package a painless Linux . The time is right...

old jim

 

[Bystander]

Some entrepreneur should package a painless Linux . The time is right...

Hear! Hear!

 

[phinds]

Some entrepreneur should package a painless Linux . The time is right...

I think Red Hat tried for years and years to do that, totally unsuccessfully, and finally gave up and switched to servicing businesses that had big IT departments.

 

[symbolipoint]

I have 2 pc's (desktop and notebook), both on Windows 7. What would I gain (or lose) by switching to Windows 10?

I haven't heard much good about Windows 10. It cuts you off from being able to configure certain aspects of Windows Update and I have had several people tell me about issues after they have let it install (printers not being recognized, software no longer working, etc.). I personally won't go near it.

In case of trouble with Windows Updates (more likely if still on Vista), you again gain regular Windows Updates - but for how long, no know.

Windows 10 may allow to let you plug in some usb device and it work immediately, without your needing to install drivers, as I found for an "old" graphical pen & tablet.

 

[symbolipoint]

How?

(question was about "local account")

Most easily done during Windows 10 Setup. Just do not create a microsoft account, and give no information about any microsoft account, like leave those fields empty.

 

[symbolipoint]

And they fixed Windows home so you can't uninstall Cortana.

You might try looking in the Cortana settings to change it to be less of a nuisance. As example, when I like to search for something ON THE COMPUTER, I want to find things which are ONLY ON the computer. If I want to search for anything else, I will use Chrome or Firefox and look through a search engine online.

Open the search box (to the right of the Start button), and click the gear icon. This will show you some settings that you can change. A choice I made was to turn OFF the one that says, Search online and include web results.

 

[symbolipoint]

The recent Windows versions seem to alternate good and bad. XP was good, followed by Vista - bad, followed by Windows 7 - good, followed by 8 - bad, followed by 10 -?

Some advice I have heard is to wait a while before "getting" the new Windows operating system. I too liked XP, and I also liked Windows Vista. I really find very little difficulty using it. There are a few things I do not like, but mostly Vista feels almost the same as XP. Windows 8 was supposed to force you to use a Microsoft account and 8 did not give a Start menu. Windows 10 put back Start menu and does not force you to have MS account.

The "wait a while before getting" is so that the new operating system's development is corrected with enough important Windows Updates for it, so that it be not so problematic to use.

 

[Evo]

Some advice I have heard is to wait a while before "getting" the new Windows operating system. I too liked XP, and I also liked Windows Vista. I really find very little difficulty using it. There are a few things I do not like, but mostly Vista feels almost the same as XP. Windows 8 was supposed to force you to use a Microsoft account and 8 did not give a Start menu. Windows 10 put back Start menu and does not force you to have MS account.

The "wait a while before getting" is so that the new operating system's development is corrected with enough important Windows Updates for it, so that it be not so problematic to use.

I was lied to by tech support then, because they told me that you needed to have a microsoft account to get apps, and everything is an app now Seems Microsoft saw how much kids were paying for apps, so decided to cash in on the app craze and make everything you need an app now.

Right now I HATE WINDOWS 10.

 

[symbolipoint]

I was lied to by tech support then, because they told me that you needed to have a microsoft account to get apps, and everything is an app now Seems Microsoft saw how much kids were paying for apps, so decided to cash in on the app craze and make everything you need an app now.

Right now I HATE WINDOWS 10.

Evo, I gave a somewhat narrow-minded comment there. You can setup Windows 10 without any MS account, and have just a local account and password. About any "APPS" from Microsoft is where my understanding is not too good. I believe that if you want MS Office for Windows 10, this requires Microsoft account - not sure myself. For sure other members here know more about this and can say for sure one way or the other. Meanwhile, my plan on Windows 10 is to try some alternative to MS Office.

 

[symbolipoint]

Something I don't like is that you cannot easily or quickly go to the boot option menu on startup. You instead need to use a long complicated process to simply choose boot to HDD, CD/DVD, or USB devices. Vista and XP were easy. Just had to hit F12 when you see the brand name during startup. No longer so simple.

 

[Bystander]

Meanwhile, my plan on Windows 10 is to try some alternative to MS Office.

Bought Office while under Windows 8; since then it updated itself to "10" and has not, so far, refused to run that version of Office, just nags incessantly about "that old thing." It does not like non-MS "Apps," and does ''disable" them to varying degrees ranging from outright non-function to whatever it's done to Dragon, I've not tried starting that lately --- since "the involuntary update."

 

[jim hardy]

Meanwhile, my plan on Windows 10 is to try some alternative to MS Office.

open office seems to still work on 10

 

[Svein]

Something I don't like is that you cannot easily or quickly go to the boot option menu on startup. You instead need to use a long complicated process to simply choose boot to HDD, CD/DVD, or USB devices. Vista and XP were easy. Just had to hit F12 when you see the brand name during startup. No longer so simple.

The boot options are set in the BIOS (or UEFI as they have started to call it). Of course, you can have several versions of Windows on your hard disk, then you may have to choose between them at startup.

Tip: You can edit the start menu options (on which windows to start up) using a program called EasyBCD. It allows you to set the default version of Windows to start, the timeout and various other things.

 

[symbolipoint]

The boot options are set in the BIOS (or UEFI as they have started to call it). Of course, you can have several versions of Windows on your hard disk, then you may have to choose between them at startup.

Tip: You can edit the start menu options (on which windows to start up) using a program called EasyBCD. It allows you to set the default version of Windows to start, the timeout and various other things.

Starting into the boot menu is/was easy when the Windows operating systems were XP and Vista. Just F12 on startup when the computer name brand was displaying and right away, the boot menu would appear. Not so easy now in Windows 10.

 

[jim hardy]

Has anybody sat down and hand written Bill Gates a letter apprising him of just how awful is ten ?
Yes-men tend to "Fawn Up Dump Down" and i think he must have surrounded himself with them. Doing that opens the management control loop allowing wild swings in output like mathman described in post #70.

Their "feedback hub" refuses me, just shakes its 'submit' button back and forth in obvious rejection. Somebody censors feedback, fawning up to whoever uses the feedback and dumping down on dissatisfied users.

I think i'll give it a try.

 

[Svein]

Starting into the boot menu is/was easy when the Windows operating systems were XP and Vista. Just F12 on startup when the computer name brand was displaying and right away, the boot menu would appear. Not so easy now in Windows 10.

Going into BIOS is totally independent of Windows - the BIOS is the same whether you run Windows or Linux. Usually you get a message on the screen before the boot loader start - typically "Push DEL to enter the UEFI BIOS". I usually push DEL 5 or 6 times, since the keyboard may not be quite awake when the message is displayed for the first time.

Caveat: If you are using a laptop, going into BIOS may be dependent on another keystroke. Check out your user's manual.

 

[symbolipoint]

Svein wrote that:

Caveat

: If you are using a laptop, going into BIOS may be dependent on another keystroke. Check out your user's manual.

Unfortunately, my laptop, although having a user manual, has NO INFORMATION about which F button to push to enter BIOS or UEFI menus; and NO INFORMATION appears on screen anywhere anytime saying which button to push for these menus or for boot menu. The manufacturer also has given very poor information about this, even after several email questions and discussions.

 

[Svein]

Unfortunately, my laptop, although having a user manual, has NO INFORMATION about which F button to push to enter BIOS or UEFI menus; and NO INFORMATION appears on screen anywhere anytime saying which button to push for these menus or for boot menu. The manufacturer also has given very poor information about this, even after several email questions and discussions.

So, experiment! Start with F1 and go all the way to F12. Cold boot the laptop and repeatedly press the chosen function key until either Windows boots or you end up in the BIOS.

One thing to remember: For all versions of Windows I have tried, pushing F8 just before Windows boots, takes you to a more detailed boot menu where you can select various non-standard boot options.

 

[Chronos]

Safe mode, F8 at boot, will not spare you from the wrath of W10. I personally consider W10 the most invasive version of windows ever invented. Even the rollback option is not your friend. The dangling tentacles remain embedded. If you did a rollback to W7 check your process bar and compare that to what was running before the rollback. Just my .02c worth.

 

[OCR]

So, experiment! Start with F1 and go all the way to F12.

If this is what you want to see... pres or tap F2, Delete key might work, also.

The picture isn't really that good... I had to use a camera.

 

[symbolipoint]

OCR

Posting #90 --- No. That's not it. I guess I just need to do as Svein said, and experiment with the F keys and see if any of them will give the Boot Menu at startup.

 

[1oldman2]

After over a year of Win10 I have to say the title of this thread may be an oxymoron.

 

[Evo]

Windows 10 is AWFUL. You can no longer tell it when you wish to download or install updates like in previous versions. It takes complete control over your computer, I mean TAKES COMPLETE CONTROL, you cannot use your computer while it is updating. And you cannot choose what files to allow to update or when, it just TAKES OVER your computer. I mean you can delay it to do the update to when you want to close down, but it's scary. I HATE WINDOWS 10!

 

[S.G. Janssens]

I HATE WINDOWS 10!

I think the skunk that woke you up this night made you a bit angry.

 

[Evo]

I think the skunk that woke you up this night made you a bit angry.

It did. But I hated Windows 10 before that. I don't want to go to an app store to get my basic needs and even then they are not very good. For example, they changed the calculator, you have no choice, the new one is dreadful, they could at least give you a choice, stay with the old user friendly one or change to the new one, which some people like.

 

[S.G. Janssens]

It did. But I hated Windows 10 before that. I don't want to go to an app store to get my basic needs and even then they are not very good.

I don't want to be evangelical about it, but I think there are at least two (groups of) good user friendly alternatives nowadays that people here can also help you with. There is no need to keep walking with a pebble in your shoe.

 

[Evo]

I don't want to be evangelical about it, but I think there are at least two (groups of) good user friendly alternatives nowadays that people here can also help you with. There is no need to keep walking with a pebble in your shoe.

That would be nice. It seems everytime I "upgrade" I lose good products and functionality. I seem to take 5 steps back for every step forward.

I finally have the smell of skunk gone and the sun will be up soon, so i should try to go to sleep.

I shall complain more later.

 

[phinds]

Bought Office while under Windows 8; since then it updated itself to "10" and has not, so far, refused to run that version of Office, just nags incessantly about "that old thing."

This seems very odd to me. I have a copy of Office 2007 that I bought in about 2008 and I've been using it successfully on several computers since then, both with Windows 7 and Windows 10 and I've never gotten any complaints at all. All of the old Office stuff runs just fine. I run VISIO 2007 and all of the nomal office products (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Access) from 2007 and never get any complaints. I think you must have a configuration problem.

 

[OCR]

It takes complete control over your computer, I mean TAKES COMPLETE CONTROL, you cannot use your computer while it is updating. And you cannot choose what files to allow to update or when, it just TAKES OVER your computer.

You should have, at least, put your post in the correct thread .....

"...but it's scary." ...

Carry on...

 

[Evo]

You should have, at least, put your post in the correct thread .....

"...but it's scary." ...

Carry on...

LOLOL! IT'S...ALIVE!