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Windows 10 Fear and Loathing

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spec

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No doubt, like many of you, I hate all the touchy feely lets be friends interfaces like on Android phones, and I feared that Widows 10 would follow that trend. It would not have been practical to stay with the sensible and reliable Windows 7 much longer because of possible lack of support by Microsoft and applications. So it was with great foreboding that my laptop was upgraded to Windows 10 on Xmas day 2015.

What a shock it turned out to be- in spite of all the scare stories going around, Win10 is solid, slick, and non-intrusive, rather like a more modern Windows 7. The little helper touches are a help and no more.

My favorite bit is when it is doing something for you instead of saying ‘downloading’, ‘saving’, etc it says, ‘working on it’.

My laptop was a completely clean install with all new applications, but a friend has just upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10 without hitch.

So if you are to and frowning about upgrading don’t hesitate: Win10 is a nice OS.
 
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I was the sufferer of SLOOOW windows.... They knew that most upgrades were too slow but they still haven't fixed it!

Hello Ian,
Just to clarify, I wasn't aware of any scare stories about Win 10 on ETO and was referring to my colleges here in Somerset UK, and also my Son- who did the upgrade- and has been winding me up it turns out.

I don't fully understand what you mean about slow windows (I know what it literally means). Can you elaborate. Are you running some hellish processor intensive application. Also how is the security configured on your machine. Any antivirus applications. Firewalls?
 
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My upgrade (win 7 to win 10) failed and I tried many tricks and tips I found all over the internet.. nothing worked. But, I bought a new computer (custom build) and actually paid for Windows 10. I like it. It really is an upgrade to Windows 7 rather than to Windows 8. I would not recommend buying a new computer with Win 7 or 8.. there are still many laptops and desktop computers on the market that come with win 7 or 8. Go for Windows 10.

I love all the new content in the Win 10 "Task Manager".
 
My upgrade (win 7 to win 10) failed and I tried many tricks and tips I found all over the internet.. nothing worked. But, I bought a new computer (custom build) and actually paid for Windows 10. I like it. It really is an upgrade to Windows 7 rather than to Windows 8. I would not recommend buying a new computer with Win 7 or 8.. there are still many laptops and desktop computers on the market that come with win 7 or 8. Go for Windows 10.

I love all the new content in the Win 10 "Task Manager".


Hi T,

I can't understand why your Win 10 installation should have failed unless you had a really old machine, but it could not have been that old if it was running Win 7. As you have a new computer have you tried clearing the old computer right down: remove all power, pull the backup battery for at least 30 secs. Format the disk, and then try installing Win 10. One important thing with Win 10 is to ensure that your BIOS is up to date and then all your drivers. If you are talking about a board level computer build, I have used Gigabyte boards and have had a lot of trouble with the BIOS, just running Win 7 which was well established at the time.

Like you, I am very pleased with both the man-machine interface and speed of Win 10- it is just as fast as Win 7 I am advised.
 
Here is a bit of cracker barrel advice that I dish out to Win users, especially new Win 10 users. I submit it gratis for info only- don't ask me to defend it:

Running https://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/disk-cleanup-in-windows-10 from time to time often helps good health

Also **broken link removed**

You may want Firefox as your main browser, and Chrome & Edge as your secondary browsers.

Download the latest version of Firefox to your laptop. Close all applications you can. Uninstall existing Firefox on your machine (you wont lose your bookmarks). Power down. Wait at least 30 secs. Power up. Close all programs you can. Run Firefox exe previously downloaded.

When Firefox is running satisfactorily repeat same procedure for Chrome.

Do the same for EAGLE if you are using it. Version 7.5.4 is the latest version and works OK with Win 10.

Run System Protection and allocate a nice hunk of disk space for restore points. Make sure all relevant drives are included in restore. Create a manual restore point named name_01_yyyy_mm_dd. Next one on same date would be name_02 … and so on.

Once a week, or before any upheavals, create a manual restore point. Microsoft automatically creates a restore point before all Win updates.

Keep your keyboard spotlessly clean and dry (not a joke) I don’t know why, but you can get all sorts of weird symptoms if your keyboard is not right. This was also the case with Win 7

Don’t sign up to any Microsoft accounts whatsoever.

Also use:

Media Jukebox (J River) for audio

VLC player for video (not sure about full length films)

I use SnipIt for screen capture but have not investigated this area fully: any recommendations would be appreciated.
 
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During the Windows 10 install , at some point you will have clicked " I accept " to the EULA , which hardly
anyone ever reads ( 50-odd pages of legalese )

In doing so , you gave Microsoft the right to copy , share , sell every single thing on your computer.
Every email , document , photo , video .... the lot !

They have control over your webcam and microphone , in fact your entire system now belongs to them ,
they are merely allowing you the use of it .
You have also given them the right to install updates anytime they like , without any obligation to explain
what said updates do .

There is no opting out , or choosing which updates to install , or when.

Now , tell me about all the shiny things , the great new features .... Cortana , Edge browser etc etc.
 
During the Windows 10 install , at some point you will have clicked " I accept " to the EULA , which hardly
anyone ever reads ( 50-odd pages of legalese )

Just to clarify for those who are baffled, EULA = End User License Agreement

Now , tell me about all the shiny things , the great new features .... Cortana , Edge browser etc etc.

I haven't told you about any shiny things. From what I have seen so far, there is nothing significantly new in Win 10, Cortina and Edge certainly not.

I accept your concern about privacy but it is not peculiar to Microsoft and Win 10. I don't know what it is like in Spain or other countries, but in Britain your every move is recorded, tabulated and stored. You can't even walk down the road without being on camera. And on computers Google are the worst. They get into every part of your system, smart phones and all. Afraid it is just a fact of life and always has been so.

By the way have you upgraded to Win 10 and speak from experience or are you just repeating scare stories that you have heard?
 
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About privacy,

I was on jury service for a week at the Crown Court in Bristol. One defendant had been watching a particular house and when the owner went away on business the defendant cleared the place out. Of course, he pleaded innocence. I was flabbergasted by the amount of electronic data the police had on this chap. All his locations around the time of the crime. Every phone conversation made by him and his accomplices. All this was typed up by the police and read out to the court crystal clear by a lady copper trained in the field. The defendant didn't stand a chance. They do the same thing with computer data too.

I am afraid the only privacy you have is the hope that you will not become the focus of attention by the authorities.

This privacy thing is not just concerned with the authorities/good guys either. It seems that most computers are infected with some form of malware/ spyware. I always worries me that if ever I look for a product on the net, from then on, wherever I go I get adverts targeted at exactly the area that I have been investigating.

So far, I have had around £4.5K illegally taken from my credit cards. This is also an area where you are only safe if the crooks don't happen to focus on you. If they do, you are done for.
 
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My favorite bit is when it is doing something for you instead of saying ‘downloading’, ‘saving’, etc it says, ‘working on it’.

If this is a new feature, they also implemented it on the Windows 8.1 updates. After doing an update and my PC reboots, I get the same message. They should just add something like ...
"Go drink coffee, your PC is not available now, Because ... Were' working on it";)
 
If this is a new feature, they also implemented it on the Windows 8.1 updates. After doing an update and my PC reboots, I get the same message. They should just add something like ...
"Go drink coffee, your PC is not available now, Because ... Were' working on it";)
:joyful:
 
I suspect that Microsoft is spying on where I go on the web with Windows 10. I sometimes get an alert from my anti-virus program that they notice odd activity and recommend blocking it.
After my free upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 some things did not work until a few updates occurred.
The new Bing browser has a good news page that I like but on Bing I cannot download a movie. Instead I must switch to Internet Explorer.
 
Ancient me here running XP with Firefox on my 9 Year old lappie.

Looking forward to a new lappie with Windows 10 installed.

:):):):):):):):)
 
Steve Gibson and myself both agree, no one can convince me to use Win10.
 
Ancient me here running XP with Firefox on my 9 Year old lappie.

Looking forward to a new lappie with Windows 10 installed.

:):):):):):):):)

Ah yes XP loved it

You are in for a shock with a new PC
 
I suspect that Microsoft is spying on where I go on the web with Windows 10. I sometimes get an alert from my anti-virus program that they notice odd activity and recommend blocking it.
After my free upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 some things did not work until a few updates occurred.
The new Bing browser has a good news page that I like but on Bing I cannot download a movie. Instead I must switch to Internet Explorer.

Not just Microsoft- everybody.

Antivirus software is almost a joke these days. I use Kespersky Internet Security which is one of the best, but it has caused more problems than all other programs put together. False positives are always a hazard with any detection system.
 
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UPDATE ON WIN10 INSTALLATION.

I have just been talking to a friend who has done a Win 10 OS update rather than a clean installation from new. He has quite a few programs installed and he said that the update from Win 7 to Win 10 took eight hours. His machine is now working fine. I thought I would post this bit of information in case anyone thought that the update process had gone wrong and hung.

Another bit of info: because the modern trend is for apps and the OS to have a very light uncluttered appearance you can easily lose the old white mouse pointer. I have now changed to a black pointer and it is much better to use.

My machine has now been running Win 10 since Xmas day 2015 and I am pleased to say everything is fine.
 
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