Our local ABC radio afternoon presenter had her regular tech guru on for half an hour the other day.  Almost every caller wanted help with problems with Windows 10.

I'm sticking with 7.  ;-)

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

The Millennium Edition was a disaster, Windows 8 was a disaster and now they expect people to jump into their next offering without so much as the blink of an eye………………:roll::roll::roll::roll:

Once bitten, twice shy …………….  What's the phrase when you've been bitten twice ?

95 was good, XP was good - why do they have to replace things that work with things that don't ?  :twisted::twisted::twisted::twisted::twisted:

It's called progress Peter


Ed

I've upgraded our 3 Windows 7 PCs to Windows 10 and there were no problems at all.  Took about 45 minutes on each PC. Wife's PC now boots in 8 seconds, mine a few seconds longer.  I thought 10 would never match the ease of use that 7 achieved (yes 8 was awful) but I've been pleasantly surprised about how good 10 is.  It's fast, slick and reliable, and better than 7.
 
For protection I used the Backup and Restore function on 7 (also available on 10) to take a system image of the C: drive to an external drive, so that if there's a major failure I have the easy option of restoring. Fortunately I didn't need to do that.

[user=1238]RFS[/user] wrote:

 
For protection I used the Backup and Restore function on 7 (also available on 10) to take a system image of the C: drive to an external drive, so that if there's a major failure I have the easy option of restoring. Fortunately I didn't need to do that.

Robert, what folders on the "C" drive do you backup to an external drive?

Because they are greedy. They don't want us hanging on to the old stuff no matter how good it was. Not good for the bottom line. Nowadays as most people want the latest in everything it's a good spinner for them.

why do they have to replace things that work with things that don't ?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

With possibly a touch of megalomania?

Or then again "because they can".

It's a full disk image. In W7 backup and restore, click on the "create system image" on the LH side. On 2 of my PCs I've used a 64 Gb SSD as the C: drive, and all the data is on the original hard drive defined as the D: drive. On the other, the hard drive is simply partitioned into a 60 Gb C: and the rest allocated to D: for data.  Makes it very easy to take a full dump of the C: drive before any major changes.
 
At the end of the process it will ask if you want to create a repair disc. If you do, it will write a CD/DVD which you can boot from to effect the restore. You only need to do this once.
 
The only restriction is that you can't do a backup to the same physical drive - eg on my 3rd PC I must use an external drive, whereas the SSD can be backed up to the 2nd internal drive if I wish.

I have updated 4 computers at home with no trouble, 2 windows 7 computers and 2 windows 8.1 computers, I always try and keep up with the latest operating systems when I can, I quite enjoyed Windows 8 when I installed a third party start Button.


As for Windows 10 I think its a breath of fresh air but I do have one problem on one of my laptops and it will not run Windows Edge it keeps freezing but otherwise everything is working fine and no problems with windows edge on other machines.


There are some settings you need to untick especially in the Privacy settings also I found another check box to untick in the advanced for windows updates to stop windows from updating all of the machines on your network at the same time, useful for some people but not for me.

The world is moving on to APP based systems Peter, large and small Tablets and smart phones where you have a small core system and then add in any features you want via Apps. I think Microsoft were afraid of being left behind, didn't want to develope and run two different systems and some bright spark decided they would change Windows and force everyone down the APP route, pi@@ing off a large part of thier core users in the process.  Then I think they realised going up against Apple and Android in the the Tablet and phone market with a poor alternative AND pi@@ing off your core business by forcing them to move to a poor laptop/ desktop system they don't like, wasn't really a good idea. It seems hopefully Windows 10 gives us what we want, A fast loading and closing, stable, light weight system ( not so much of the cr@p that they forced to load at startup using up resources). I think they will still be pushing Apps for any new or upgraded programs you want like office etc, but I for one can live with that if the actual operating system just does what it's meant to !   I think that the information gathering that has been mentioned in previous posts is to gather information about what we DO on our machines, They want to develope and sell us Apps, and licence others to develope and sell us Apps. To do that well they need to know WHAT apps we want and need hence gathering info on everything we do on our machines, (plus selling the info to advertising firms so we can be bombarded with useless targeted Adds)

Can I just add that this information couldn't possibly come from a long phone call with a friend who works for a certain Company :cool:

Managed to roll back to Windows 7 and noticed whilst searching the web Dell laptops like mine seem to be the ones with display issues (black screens).

It's decided to download the Windows update again without me asking (currently 40%) so I'll see what happens.

I'm now using the garage laptop set up for JMRI running Lubuntu. Slow, but it works



Ed

I have updated 5 of our work computers so far with no problems, Windows 10 is far better than 7 or 8.1, it boots quicker and runs smoother, we don't really use any of the modern apps but all our old desktop programs run nicely.

Finally got Windows 10 loaded late yesterday but I had to download an update from Dell and flash the BIOS.

Sounds techie I know but basically, even if the Windows update check says your PC will run Windows 10, it may not without some alterations to the system.

First impression is it's a bit like your PC has become a giant smart phone.

I think someone has already mentioned you need to select custom install as well, or information about     everything you do goes to Microsoft.

The reason for the fast start up compared with Windows 7 is that it doesn't actually shut down. When you select shutdown it actually puts the PC into suspend/hibernate. Sneaky!

It would appear mainstream support for Windows 7 has already ended and extended support ends in January 2020, so you basically have a year from now to get a free update to a newer operating system supported until 2025, if your PC can handle it.

Maybe I'll stick to Linux


Ed

It would appear mainstream support for Windows 7 has already ended

So why does my Win7 pro 64 desktop install 8 upgrades every time I shut down (except when it installs more than 8)

It would appear mainstream support for Windows 7 has already ended and extended support ends in January 2020.

At a guess Mike.

The pro version probably gets more updates than the bog standard version anyway, as there is more to it.


Ed

Although mainstream support for W7 has ended, you will still get security updates during the extended support period through Windows Update. That lasts till 2020.

The pro version probably gets more updates than the bog standard version anyway

I could understand that if it wasn't for the fact that a laptop also running 7 pro 64 only updates occasionally, when it does the desktop updates its usual 8 plus however many the laptop gets, go figure!

They are both on the same network.

Could be due to different hardware, different software or some updates not getting applied correctly first time, Mike.

I used to find my laptop appeared to get more updates than my desktop, when I used Windows regularly.


Ed

Is there any way to check which updates are downloaded? 

It's been doing it for about 15 months, since new, every shut down 8 updates except when the laptop downloads 1 up date the PC downloads 9, if the laptop downloads 2 the PC downloads 10, then reverts to 8 when the laptop doesn't download any.

I had the same performance when I was running 2 identical PCs on XP, the PC which was "number 1" on the network downloaded the same number of updates every shut down except when the other had updates.

If you go to control panel, then to programs and features, you can then select to view updates.

It may be that an update is not installing causing the machine to try to re-install them every time you are closing down.

I have had this in the past and had to tell it to ignore that update.

I would first go into control panel -> windows updates and try and install them manually - even 1 by 1.  You should then be able to see which one fails, and you will get a reason code for that. If there's one that won't install then you can simply mark it as hidden so it won't try and install it again.
 
Sometimes problems occur when two related updates are installed together, and doing one at a time fixes this.