• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Windows 10

I still havent read any good reason to upgrade to W10. My laptop is a central part of my life, internet banking etc, so I darent consider upgrading.
 
Thanks Maurice, I presume I can carry on beyond that date without support if I wish ? (assuming I'm still around, I'll be 90 in 2020). Regret buying this new PC now, still it may while away winter evenings trying to 'suss' it out. Eric
 
Eric,

They say that "Windows 7 is a usable operating system for the next five years" though exactly what they mean by that is not clear.

Maurice
 
At the moment the upgrade to W10 is free but that will expire. That's the only reason you should do this now rather than later.
Windows will drop support for the older versions over time and once that happens, various other programs will cease to support those versions. If you're using a PC for secure transactions at the moment, you'll probably find that your internet security programs will start to fail sometime in the 2020s. This won't happen until Windows has dropped support for a few years but it will probably happen. Some of the programs that have been replaced by functions internal to Windows 10 may disappear long before that as companies fail to sell new product. This could include various security systems although I doubt it.
Depending on what you use your PC for, there may be other alternatives. Mobile devices are getting better and becoming more secure. You could wind up doing a lot of the internet stuff on one of them.
Windows 7 will remain viable for much longer than Windows says it will but you may not be able to use it for as much.
 
my 'new' Acer PC was upgraded from 8.1 to 10 by PC World when I purchased it last month, set up and running in my spare bed room, my 4 year old and repaired HP PC using Windows 7 is what I understand and prefer using, its so simple and easily understood, so I will keep to that and ignore the constant offers of a free Windows 10 up grade. They are both desk top PC's, don't like lap tops, mainly because of my simulator games. Have attached pic of my desk top, so simple to follow.Desk Top.jpg Eric
 
Last edited:
Nice looking desktop screen Eric. Although I run Win 10 with no problems on my laptops, my old HP computer with Win 7 could not be upgraded as previously mentioned. I got rid of the little white window icon on my Win 7 taskbar by deleting the windows update KB3035583 which Microsoft had put in my Win 7 computer.
 
cookie273uk said:
my 'new' Acer PC was upgraded from 8.1 to 10 by PC World when I purchased it last month, set up and running in my spare bed room, my 4 year old and repaired HP PC using Windows 7 is what I understand and prefer using, its so simple and easily understood, so I will keep to that and ignore the constant offers of a free Windows 10 up grade. They are both desk top PC's, don't like lap tops, mainly because of my simulator games. Have attached pic of my desk top, so simple to follow.View attachment 101200 Eric
Click to expand...

I`m with you Eric, sticking with windows7. As someone on forum said `if it aint broke leave it alone` Love your desktop Eric, how did you get that clock up in the corner?
 
lol smudger thats my saying...if it does the job you require it to do and it aint broke dont fix it...windows 7 for me as well

lyn
 
Despite the fact that I already have W10 on a memory stick, it has downloaded yet again as a background task without informing me. Having had one unsuccessful attempt at installing it - which failed with a blue screen of death - I have decided not to install it now, except possibly on a elderly laptop which currently has W8.0, as drivers for some of my older programs may not be available and the problem relating to Notation Composer 3 (reported earlier in this thread) has still not been fixed 10 months after it was first reported. So I'll happily continue to be a user of W7 on my main machine as will my Other Half.

Maurice
 
cookie273uk said:
my 'new' Acer PC was upgraded from 8.1 to 10 by PC World when I purchased it last month, set up and running in my spare bed room, my 4 year old and repaired HP PC using Windows 7 is what I understand and prefer using, its so simple and easily understood, so I will keep to that and ignore the constant offers of a free Windows 10 up grade. They are both desk top PC's, don't like lap tops, mainly because of my simulator games. Have attached pic of my desk top, so simple to follow.View attachment 101200 Eric
Click to expand...
cookie273uk said:
Regret buying this new PC now, still it may while away winter evenings trying to 'suss' it out. Eric
Click to expand...
Hi Eric - If you do decide to have a go at 'sussing' out your new Acer Windows 10 PC, it is possible to make it look very much like Windows 7.
Shown below is a pic of the 'desktop' screen layout on my 4 year old HP Compaq laptop upgraded to Windows 10 and I installed my (rather old 2002) copy of MS Flight Sim with no problem. I haven't yet been able to get that fancy clock of yours on my desktop but I suppose I could if I really tried.
oldmohawk
s1c.jpg
 
old Mohawk on Windows 7 I merely click on start button, up comes the start panel and I have immediate access to 'music' 'pics' 'docs' 'computer' and 'control panel' cannot do this on Windows 10 (at least I can't), also unable to 'burn' a CD/DVD it tells me to insert disc then click on 'burn to disc' but nothing happens !! tried downloading 'burnaware' but no success. I have paid for a years 'care plan' by KNOWHOW for 'phone help (part of PC World/Curry's set up) will have to give them a few calls, they do give half hour tuition, but they want £35 for that !!! Incidently I have never had FS 2002, but have FS 2004 and FSX, have installed FSX on both my PC's and this is one case were my new PC is superior because of its higher specs, all settings 'ultra high' and 25 frames per second and no problems. That de Havilland Sea Otter on my desk top is 60 years and based in Grand Harbour Malta, was given a flight as an 80 year old birthday present June 1980 by my sister and sister in law, following year treated my sister in law to a trip (that's her bottom right grey hair. Sadly it as stopped running lack of cash, shame. Eric
 
Last edited:
oldMohawk said:
I haven't yet been able to get that fancy clock of yours on my desktop but I suppose I could if I really tried.
oldmohawk
Click to expand...

If you type windows gadget clock into google, you will come up with some answers. Whether it will be the one you want I dont know.

Terry
 
terryb18 said:
If you type windows gadget clock into google, you will come up with some answers. Whether it will be the one you want I dont know.

Terry
Click to expand...

For gadgets, If you right click on your desktop a window will pop up & near the bottom you will see gadgets which will show a list of gadgets already on your pc. Simply click the gadget you want (in my case the clock) & choose add, hey presto you have a clock in the top right corner.
 
Yes for Gadgets you merely right click on desk top and select 'gadgets' from the menu, it also gives you the added option of attaching a 'second' finger. Something else you cannot do on Windows 10 (or can you ??) Eric
 
terryb18 said:
If you type windows gadget clock into google, you will come up with some answers. Whether it will be the one you want I dont know.

Terry
Click to expand...
Thanks Terry - I must admit if I need to know the date and time from my computer, I just look at the right hand corner on the taskbar. I don't know why I've got so many icons on my desktop, I only use two or three of them, the taskbar is my usual launch pad.
oldmohawk
 
cookie273uk said:
Yes for Gadgets you merely right click on desk top and select 'gadgets' from the menu, it also gives you the added option of attaching a 'second' finger. Something else you cannot do on Windows 10 (or can you ??) Eric
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Eric. I`ve now got the `second hand` working on the clock & i can time how long i can hold my breath for!! Simple things for simple minds.

My wife & i have the perfect marriage. We go out to a good restaurant with fine wine, good food & good company. She goes on Tuesday & i go on Thursday :-}
 
Just used iTunes running in Windows 10 to update my iPad to iOS9 which looks very nice. I'm all updated now ...
encouragement.png
 
You need, I believe, to go to the Personalization settings, Bernard.

There you can choose a background picture, theirs or your own. Colours will allow you to choose your preferred colour. Lock screen allows another picture choice - again your or theirs. The Taskbar also has choices - that is also found in Settings.

Put Start into the search box and this will give you choices of how your Start looks. That's enough to get you busy!
 
Hi Bernard - I notice your pic is a png file so I can't enlarge. A quick way of getting a desktop pic is to find any jpg image in your computer, right click on it and choose 'set as desktop background'. Also if you press the 'Windows' key it should bring up the 'Start'.

ps. I can't see a taskbar at the bottom of your pic, is the screen size set correct ?
If you can get the taskbar, a right click on the white window icon will bring up options to get the control panel and other things.
 
Have just been on line to Amazon an ordered the book 'Windows 10 for Seniors for Dummies' have a similar version for Windows 7 which I found useful and still occasionally refer to, it should pass the Winter evenings away if nothing else !! Eric
 
I was playing with the 'Speed Dial' view with the Opera browser which would be good if the 'tiles' can be made smaller.
It can be done in Chrome with an extension so I might try that if the tiles can be made small. It will then look like Safari on an iPad screen.
opera.jpg

Tried it with Chrome - I now might be able to sort my bookmarks out !
Chrome.jpg
Now set it up for all my bookmarks ... something like this is needed for Microsoft's new Edge browser.
There are several Speed Dial browser extensions available, I used the 'Simple Speed Dial' extension.
 
Last edited:
What is the overall verdict on Windows 10? I`m sticking with W7, but my wife is thinking about upgrading from W8.1 to W10. I asked her if she was happy with W8 & she said yes, so why does she want to change? ( Because i`m curious was the reply)

My wife says she is going to dance on my grave. Good says i, i`m getting buried at sea.
 
I upgraded two laptops to Win10 and have used them for nearly two months.

4 year old Laptop1 - Win7 to Win10 (shares the screen of my Win 7 desktop computer)
1 year old Laptop2 - Win8 to Win10

I use two accounts in each laptop, both password protected.

Local Account - Admin.
Microsoft Account - Standard User.

When I switch on I just choose which account I want use.

Both laptops were upgraded keeping all existing programs and files.
They both stayed WiFi connected to my HomeHub5 router.

I hardly notice I'm using Win10. It is as good a Windows OS as I have ever used since I started with Win3.1.

I tend to run everything from the taskbar just like I did on Win7.

Just a comment - if you use Internet Explorer it does not immediately show in Win10, you have to search for it. Also (for me) it did not bring it's favourites. Microsoft would like you to use their new browser Edge but I find it not much use.
I use Chrome which did bring it's bookmarks (favourites) and I imported them into IE from Chrome.
You can export your favourites (before upgrade) to a HTML file and then import them (after upgrade) from the file into IE.
It may have been different for others !
 
Last edited:
I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 shortly after it was released. It installed ok.

Like all technology and I include the simple refrigerator or television in this, it is confusing to begin with. It's like buying a new car. You know that there has to be a heater switch somewhere and it's up to you to find it.

Windows 10 can be as confusing as any new technology but when you have found everything you are looking for, you won't want to go back to the old system.

I'm very happy with Windows 10 at the moment.
 
I'm sticking with Windows 7, I understand it and it does everything I want, I have bought an Acer PC with higher specs for my simulator games which is on Windows 10, at the moment it is set up in the spare bedroom , and that is where it will stay until I have sussed it out - if ever !!!! I cannot even 'burn' CD's from it, it says 'burn to disc', I click on it, and nothing happens, have downloaded 'burnaway' and no joy there either, that's one of the reasons I'm using my 4 YO HP PC, no problems whatsoever. Also I occasionally do a 'full recovery' on my PC to clear any 'bugs', I do not think that can be done on Windows 10 {not without purchasing recovery discs) and if I could it would revert to Windows 8.1 Eric
 
Hi Eric - In Win 10 'Settings' 'Update & Security' there is the following command

Reset this PC


If your PC isn't running well resetting it might help. This lets you choose to keep your files or remove them, then re-installs Windows


Get Started.
No recovery disks needed it can be done with the click of a mouse.

Perhaps with your new computer, if you have your flight sim or other games on disks it might be at least worth installing one in your new computer to see what it looks like on a high performance device.

oldmohawk
 
Last edited:
oldmohawk. I have installed my 'docs', 'pics (1,840 images), printer, camera and all my simulator games, all my Flight Sim X setting are now all on 'ultra high' and running at 25 frames per second, I am more than pleased with that (one of the reasons for changing PC), have also managed to install Internet Explorer, which I prefer to Edge. Apart from unable to burn discs also find it more difficult (or impossible) to access such items as disc clean up (which I like to do on a weekly basic), fragmentise, the odd system restore. control panel to remove unwanted programmes. All these operations are so easy on windows 7. Amazon emailed me to say my book 'Windows 10 for Seniors' for Dummies' will arrive Monday, should provide light reading and maybe solve a few of my problems (?). As Bob Johnson wrote it is bound to be a bit confusing at first.
 
Hi Eric - It looks like you have made good progress with Win 10, and when you get the book you have ordered it should progress more. I think defragging disks is less important with Win 10, it tends to store files more efficiently.

There is a procedure for disk clean in Win 10 in the Windows Ten Forum https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3012-disk-cleanup-open-use-windows-10-a.html

I use CCleaner to clear up various stuff which collects from the internet. I do use Norton Internet Security to remotely protect my young granddaughter's Netbook - she lives 120 miles away, but for myself I would be quite happy with Windows Defender and Malwarebytes.

With ref to burning CD and DVDs I installed an old program 'Roxio' from a disk which I had bought 4 years ago for Win7.

I notice PC World sell 'Nero 2015 Classic' which looks able to do everything with CDs and DVDs.

oldmohawk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top