Should I upgrade both PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 10?

[jim hardy]

It's stupid and annoying.

I feel she insults my intelligence, meager as it is.

 

[mathman]

I don't use Cortana - I am not sure what to do with it. I never turned it off or got rid of it because it seems to be ignorable.

 

[Bystander]

Now what? It seems to be doing more "up-chucking" right in the middle of the election.

 

[rbelli1]

Is «Win 10 sucks» considered a «mainstream theory»

I have not seen any published peer reviewed articles supporting or refuting that so it my be off limits to discuss it in any capacity.

BoB

 

[harborsparrow]

I've just briefly scanned this entire thread again. A couple of things bear repeating:

1) You can completely restore the Windows 7 interface (while running Win10) by buying the $3 StartIsBack utility. It just works. From time to time, you will be prompted to update StartIsBack, and if you do so, you're interface will remain stable.

2) You need to run Windows 10 Professional (and not Home Edition) so that you have control over WHEN (but no IF) Windows will update itself.

3) Newly acquired Windows 10 PC's appear to run slow because they are downloading a lot of updates in the background. After about 3 days, it gets all the updates, and the PC runs fast again. This is unavoidable, annoying but necessary. By this obnoxious means, Microsoft has defeated those people who refused to get their updates in the past.

4) You won't need to run anti-virus on Win10, but instead you can just use Windows Defender, and once in a while, you'll need to let AntiMalWareBytes run (modest cost) to clean the crud out of your browsers.

5) Windows 10 is stable, does not crash, and fairly secure. Privacy issues can be overcome with reasonable diligence concerning use of a local account and turning off tracking per advice on various websites.

6) Most older software can be persuaded to run on Windows 10. Private message me if you want a list of tips on how to make this happen.

I've been running Win10 on many machines from its advent, some with the StartIsBack utility, and some without. I've only had one older laptop refuse to upgrade, and I never found out why--my theory is, some old hardware inside it. I've had very few problems with it, compared with all previous versions of Windows.

 

[rcgldr]

One disadvantage of Windows 10 affects older cd protected based games that use Safedisc or Securom via a special driver called secdrv.sys. Windows 10 deleted this driver, considering it a security risk. Windows 7/8 by default disables secdrv.sys, but it can be enabled on those systems. Some people are dual booting between Win 7 / Win 10 to deal with issues like this, but this requires purchasing Win 10 ( as opposed to upgrading from Win 7/8) and installing on a separate partition, on perhaps a second hard drive.

 

[mathman]

Windows explorer:

Windows 7 - user can modify details
Windows 10 - user cannot modify details? (if modify possible - how?)

 

[rbelli1]

(if modify possible - how?)

Right click on any of the column headers. Select the columns you want. Press More... for well more.

BoB

 

[OCR]

Right click on any of the column headers. Select the columns you want. Press More... for well more.

BoB

Should look something like these two grabs... or is this what you mean, BoB ?

 

[symbolipoint]

Should look something like these two grabs... or is this what you mean, BoB ?

View attachment 109229​

View attachment 109230​

OCR, thanks for that.

 

[OCR]

OCR, thanks for that.

You're welcome...

 

[mathman]

Right click on any of the column headers. Select the columns you want. Press More... for well more.

BoB

It works. Why did they make it so obscure in Windows 10? How did you know what to do?

 

[rbelli1]

It is also in View->Add Columns.

It is common to right click on something when you want more stuff related to what you are right clicking on. Try it all over all of your apps. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

BoB

 

[symbolipoint]

Right click on any of the column headers. Select the columns you want. Press More... for well more.

BoB

It works. Why did they make it so obscure in Windows 10? How did you know what to do?

That ribbon appearance throws some heads around. Open File Explorer; Open the View tab; go to the Current View section of this tab; click on Add Columns...; a menu opens; click on Choose Columns. There you have what to make the selections what categories you want to display.

 

[john101]

I tend to stick with old windows (when I use it, eg iphone support in linux is problematic.) I don't play games so that's not an issue,Linux: plenty of good printer support, seldom videos are a problem. Great graphics, office etc programs in Linux. Never had a problem with viruses. I think I got nuked once or twice but as I don't use root or accept any changes, all problems are simply solved with a reboot. (I use Zorin atm, a ubuntu derivative). I hung on to win3.1 till w95 got to win95c then waited and switched to win98se, then xp, xp pro and there for many years till win7 where I stay till win10 is old and maybe later iterations are worth thinking about.

Apparently this website describes how to successfully disable win10 auto updates. https://4sysops.com/archives/disable-windows-10-update-in-the-registry-and-with-powershell/ personally I think the best way to stop it is not to use it.

edit add: to protect win7 or win8.1 systems use "Never10" ( https://www.grc.com/never10.htm ) from grc.com

 

[symbolipoint]

I would be happy to understand and know how to use the EUFI & BIOS menu and to be able to get the Boot Device Manager, without needing to first enter Windows and do all those crazy button combination clicks and restarts.

 

[Borg]

My work computer got hit by the Windows 10 virus yesterday. First impression - It really sucks. So many unnecessarily changed applications and settings. Now I have a desktop version of a tablet.

 

[phinds]

My work computer got hit by the Windows 10 virus yesterday. First impression - It really sucks. So many unnecessarily changed applications and settings

Oh, wait for it ... it gets worse once you start to realize how badly you've really been screwed.

 

[Borg]

Oh, wait for it ... it gets worse once you start to realize how badly you've really been screwed.

It's nice to have something to look forward to.

 

[jim hardy]

Wow it's been over two years already?

Win10 is misnamed , it should be called "Peeping Tom" .

i bought a new hard drive
took it and my Win7 disk to local shop, instructed them
"Fix this drive so it's Win7 and Win10 can NEVER even peer in let alone get a toehold , then put it into this laptop."

About six months ago a Win7 update undid my Synaptics Touchpad Driver but i was able to reinstall it. So now i disallow updates.

been pretty happy with it., otherwise .

 

[Planobilly]

I changed over to win 10 around that time.
I works ok but it is the most irritating operating system I have ever used.

Cheers,

Billy

 

[symbolipoint]

Actually I like Windows Vista and Windows XP. For a common simple-thinking user, Windows 10 is fine if you do not want to know how to do anything complicated; when I do, I usually look for advice or information through sources on the internet first.

 

[jack action]

I recently upgraded my computer and I took the opportunity to switch to Linux Lite OS. It is supposed to be aimed at Windows users switching to Linux. No complaints until now, except for the lack of drivers for my scanner and the occasional freeze. But I'm not sure if the freezing is due to the OS, mismatched parts on my new build (did not try other OS) or a mix of both. For now, the imperfections of Linux are better than the imperfections of Windows 10.

But I recently learn that my free income tax program I've been using for years can only run on Windows (doesn't work with Wine either). So I'll have to plug in the old PC for tax purposes. That will be the first time I'll have to do that.

 

[symbolipoint]

Ref. to jack action #143;

In changing or starting into Windows 10 from Vista&7, I only found a few externals and maybe 1 software that needed any new/ or upgrades. For some external stuff, manufacturers websites had findable and effective "drivers". A publisher-type software application package which did work in Windows 7&Vista will not work in Windows 10, but that company does make a version which will work in Windows 10 - FOR THE UPGRADE PRICE, but not an essential application so not really an important problem any longer.

 

[fluidistic]

I recently upgraded my computer and I took the opportunity to switch to Linux Lite OS. It is supposed to be aimed at Windows users switching to Linux. No complaints until now, except for the lack of drivers for my scanner and the occasional freeze. But I'm not sure if the freezing is due to the OS, mismatched parts on my new build (did not try other OS) or a mix of both. For now, the imperfections of Linux are better than the imperfections of Windows 10.

But I recently learn that my free income tax program I've been using for years can only run on Windows (doesn't work with Wine either). So I'll have to plug in the old PC for tax purposes. That will be the first time I'll have to do that.

You have a pretty powerful beast of a machine. There is no reason not to install a VM program like VirtualBox, grab the free version of Windows 10 from the official website (you will not be able to modify the wallpaper and other aesthetic settings but who cares?) and run your Windows-only program in it. That's what you should do, IMO. No need to use a different machine for that.
I'm surprised it doesn't work with Wine though. Could you please provide the name of the program?

 

[jack action]

That's what you should do, IMO. No need to use a different machine for that.

Lots of things should work. But spending days trying to figure out how programs work, if they can fulfilled your needs, repair what you already installed because the new program screwed it up, etc., can really test your patience. Now I have something that works pretty good and I'm going to used it that way for a while. The old machine is beside the new one, it is just a matter of switching wires to bring it up to life. Sadly, it takes less time to do that than trying to make a program that I used once a year work.

I'm surprised it doesn't work with Wine though. Could you please provide the name of the program?

I'm not really used to Wine yet (I prefer getting the full 'Linux experience'), but the program is a Windows installer .exe and the message 'This program cannot be installed on OsNotIdentified' appears. The program would probably work, it's just the nice people who built the installer - thinking for me - that refuse to do the job. That reminds me of the time I used the Opera browser and some sites would refuse to serve me their content with the excuse that their websites were designed for IE, Chrome or Firefox. Just serve the freaking HTML, let me deal with the reading.

 

[fluidistic]

Just in case you change your mind, here's a rather short video on how to install Windows 10 from within Linux, with Virtualbox. If the link dies, there are thousands, if not billions, tutorials in google about it.

 

[sysprog]

Lots of things should work. But spending days trying to figure out how programs work, if they can fulfilled your needs, repair what you already installed because the new program screwed it up, etc., can really test your patience. Now I have something that works pretty good and I'm going to used it that way for a while. The old machine is beside the new one, it is just a matter of switching wires to bring it up to life. Sadly, it takes less time to do that than trying to make a program that I used once a year work.

I'm not really used to Wine yet (I prefer getting the full 'Linux experience'), but the program is a Windows installer .exe and the message 'This program cannot be installed on OsNotIdentified' appears. The program would probably work, it's just the nice people who built the installer - thinking for me - that refuse to do the job.

You might be able to boot from a live Windows CD, DVD, or USB drive, run the install, then reboot from the internal HDD and run the installed program via Wine. Some programs won't install this way because they attempt to update the Windows registry, which they can't do on a non-writeable system. If your tax program is like that, you might still be able to clone it (copy the program and its DLLs and its directory) and drop it in that way.

That reminds me of the time I used the Opera browser and some sites would refuse to serve me their content with the excuse that their websites were designed for IE, Chrome or Firefox. Just serve the freaking HTML, let me deal with the reading.

You can change your User Agent string to tell sites that Opera is whatever browser they tell you they prefer. If you need to do it frequently, you can use this addon: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/user-agent-switcher/
On an ad hoc basis, you can use: $O$ Menu > Developer > Developer tools > $\vdots$ > More tools > Network conditions > [uncheck] Select automatically > Custom > $\nabla$ [choose browser]

 

[jack action]

Just a follow up on the use of a Windows program on a Linus OS:

I finally was able to install Windows 7 on VirtualBox and have it running correctly. Only problem was that I couldn't connect to the folders on my SSD or USB ports. And it seemed to be another complex problem to solve when quickly going through the web (creating 'guest' or have to load another version of VirtualBox). So I quit that avenue for now and just went with the old computer to be done with the taxes for this year.

Will probably look at the problem when I have more time for that.

 

[klazoniac]

Better UI with improved performance. The only thing I dislike is the auto-update feature