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Windows 10

If you want to watch a YouTube video or chat to family abroad on Skype you need the speed or you get constant break up of the picture, (Buffering) while the system tries to catch up.
 
I think FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) is becoming the norm in most urban areas and also some rural areas. I've had FTTC for about 4 years and it has been very reliable compared to when I had copper wire all the way to the exchange. The 45mbps with fibre is useful because I often download BBC iPlayer programs, which stay in my computer for 30 days, allowing me to watch them when I want to.

I'm impressed with Win 10 'finger print' login (very fast) but did wonder what would happen if for some reason it did not recognise my finger print.

It's ok ... after 4 trys logging in with the wrong finger Win 10 asked for my PIN.

I'm presently thinking about ditching my 'paid for' anti-virus and relying on Windows Defender.
 
I've not had a paid for anti virus now for at least five years, Microsoft's Defender and its predecessor have worked fine.

I have free Malwarebytes that I run periodically but it never finds any intruders.
 
Thanks Eric, I do watch a lot of you tube videos so speed does have its use to me after all. Re antivirus I get McFee free as part of my BT package (use to be Norton). Eric
 
And this is broadband in a rural Cretan village. On a good day we reach 1.76 download speed! On a wet winter Sunday afternoon, when the village kids are playing their online games and downloading dubious files, it is more like pre-broadband days! We actually pay for 2 Mbps, but that is the highest speed available. But it still doesn't stop all the cold canvassing calls trying to sell us packages with free phone calls & TV, until we answer, "yes, can you install it tomorrow" and they check the location of the number their silly auto-dialling system has called!

Maurice :)
 

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Hi Maurice,
1.7 is the speed I had when I was on 'dial-up' and can remember downloading a program which took 3 hours. The fast speeds are not always needed for general web browsing but nice to have for downloads and films etc. I suppose in your location there probably isn't much competion between internet providers.
Phil
 
Hi Phil,

I rarely download films these days, but often used to leave the machine on overnight just to cope with the slow speed. Sometime since I last burned a CD or a DVD too. There's a an article in this month's Jazz Times about the future of CDs & DVDs and whilst the sale of jazz CDs has crept up against the trend for other genres, the biggest problem is the lack of quality players. Musicians who sell their wares at the end of jazz concerts say their biggest problem is the buyers who come up and say "Great music, but what the Hell do I play it on?", most laptops no longer having built in players. :-(

Maurice
 
Even where built in facilities for playing DVD/CD's etc exist due to the small speaker/earphone sizes decent audio reproduction is impossible I believe. Sadly we are slowly becoming used to poor quality sound reproduction.
 
I'm sure you are correct there, Alan. Personally I can't stand laptops, though forced to use them occasionally. Because I suffer from hereditary deafness, any music I listen to these days is through a pair of high quality AKG headphones, though they do tend to become unconfortable after an hour or so. Hearing aids have got way past the point of being any assistance, and I rely on my other half in conversation or otherwise retreat quietly into the background! :-)

Maurice
 
If anyone is giving away or selling an old laptop, a useful feature in Win 10 is the 'Reset' button in 'Settings'. There is an option to clear out everything and install a new clean copy of Win 10.

Having recently bought a new laptop and giving away my old one I clicked the button and it did a good job of clearing out all my apps and data. About 2/3Gb of Win 10 must have come down the line and this takes time depending on the speed of the broadband connection.

The laptop now looks like below ... just a Recycle Bin and Edge on the desktop. It won't download all the Microsoft apps etc until the next user connects to their broadband ...;)
Screenshot (1).jpg
 
oldMohawk said:
If anyone is giving away or selling an old laptop, a useful feature in Win 10 is the 'Reset' button in 'Settings'. There is an option to clear out everything and install a new clean copy of Win 10.
Click to expand...

I just wonder if Reset just re-installs back to original and deletes what is left, in which case some of the existing data may not have been overwritten. As an extra precaution I would wipe the free space (can be done using Ccleaner - Tools - Drive Wiper and select Free Space Only). This would ensure any of your data which has not been completely removed would not be recoverable.
 
Hi Jukebox,
The reset gives two options
1. Remove apps and settings but keep personal files
2. Remove everything .. personal files, settings etc.

BUT if you have a data partition on the drive (as I had) it won't remove anything on that and before the reset I actually did a FULL format on that partition which removed everything.

After the reset I checked the C: drive and there was nothing of mine there.

My old device is going to a family member so I pretty satisfied with the reset, but if I was selling it to a stranger I would also use CCleaner as you suggest.

oldmohawk
 
oldMohawk said:
did a FULL format on that partition which removed everything.
Click to expand...
It is, however, often possible to recover files from a drive even after it has been formatted - Google 'recover files from formatted drive'. It would be interesting to run a deep scan with Recuva and see if anything shows up.
 
I was pretty happy with a format on my F: data partition but just in case I've now used a Windows built-in tool called Cipher and run it in Powershell. It overwrites and deletes.
Here is a pic of it about to run in Powershell to securely wipe my F: drive ... :)
Screenshot (3).jpg
 
The 'joys' of Windows 10 ...:eek:
My computer was working perfectly before I went away for the weekend but on return a windows update installed itself and the computer suddenly had very slow graphics problems. My Flight Sim was unusable and a test gave a stuttering blocky graphics.

Decided to re-install the graphics drivers but continually get the following
Windows found drivers for your graphics device but encountered an error while attempting to install them.
AMD Radeon R5 Graphics.
Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems (Code 43)

Some Googling about error 43 showed I was not alone and tried lots of things to no avail and even re-installed Windows 10 but it will not install the necessary drivers.

I started to think that my AMD graphics chip was damaged but I can dual boot the computer into Linux Mint which ran the John Lewis Panoramic to give a lovely smooth scan with no problems ... the graphics were perfect. The computer was happily using the Linux drivers.
 
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Glad you have at least partially solved your problem. As a matter of interest, since a recent update, at, apparently random moments,I get a box saying something like "this function does not have a program associated with it". It disappears when I click on the ex in the corner or ignore it. Hasn't happened this morning ...yet.
 
I installed Linux Mint almost a year ago on my desktop - dual boot with Windows 10. Recently a newer version of Linux Mint (19) was released. As II never used Windows on the desktop, just updated it weekly, I saw not purpose in keeping it. Consequently a couple of weeks or so ago I installed the new Mint 19 version and totally erased Windows 10 on both desktop and laptop.
No regrets. ;)
 
Thanks for replies. Although I have Linux it cannot run Flight Simulator FSX with which I live in the imaginary world of airline pilots running to flight plans, air traffic control etc ... I don't always use my computer to look at the internet.

I do find it annoying that Windows Updates are 'compulsory' for Win 10 home edition and I would like to block some which affect drivers. I can install the old drivers which came with the computer then watch Windows remove them and try to install the latest which it can't do because it detects error 43 and leaves me with basic Windows graphics which are ok for everyday use but not for FSX etc.

Settings allows the drivers to be 'hidden' from updates but this has not worked for me so I will have to poke around in the Windows Registry to try and solve it.
 
I am not techie at all but I know that for my printer (an HP one) I have told it never to look for updates - can't remember why. I have also disabled updates for Java (needed for a programme I use). When I go to the start menu and find HP there is an update option, when clicked this allows me to schedule when the programme is updated - one choice is never. Is this the same as the "drivers"??
 
Yes, Phil, I have the same problem with a couple of Windows only progs that I use and won't satisfactorily run under Wine - a damned nuisance, otherwise Microsoft would have seen the last of me a long time ago. One day...........

Maurice
 
jukebox said:
Have you tried downloading the driver from the AMD website?
https://support.amd.com/en-us/download
Click to expand...
I get the drivers from the AMD site and watch them as they install and then Win 10 picks up the device manager code 43 and promptly stops installation. I even went back to a previous restore point, disconnected from the internet, installed the drivers that came with the computer, restarted but Win 10 eventually spotted them and removed them. There is some discussion on the AMD forum about it but it seems to only happen to some computers. I am about to delve into the registry to try and block device manager codes ... I will not let a computer beat me !
 
pjmburns said:
I am not techie at all but I know that for my printer (an HP one) I have told it never to look for updates - can't remember why. I have also disabled updates for Java (needed for a programme I use). When I go to the start menu and find HP there is an update option, when clicked this allows me to schedule when the programme is updated - one choice is never. Is this the same as the "drivers"??
Click to expand...
My printer is an Epson who often try to update it but as it is working ok so I block them. They keep an eye on the ink levels and offer to supply new cartridges ... I always refuse ... :)
 
sospiri said:
Yes, Phil, I have the same problem with a couple of Windows only progs that I use and won't satisfactorily run under Wine - a damned nuisance, otherwise Microsoft would have seen the last of me a long time ago. One day...........

Maurice
Click to expand...
Hi Maurice,
When I run Linux for normal daily computer use it is not immediately obvious that it is running something different to Windows. The Chrome browser looks just the same and syncs bookmarks from my other devices. Gmail and all the other Google apps work, as do many other apps I use. The only problems I have are with printer drivers etc because the manufacturers are not really interested in supporting Linux.

Phil
 
Phil,

I must have another try, but on previous occasions, Linux failed when trying to save to the database of one of the genealogy progs I use. As I am forever adding bits to the database, it must be reliable. When I can find a bit of spare time, I'll update to version 19 and check again. Unfortunately, the other half seems to have a neverending list of woodworking & other chores to keep me busy! :-)

Maurice
 
oldMohawk said:
My printer is an Epson who often try to update it but as it is working ok so I block them. They keep an eye on the ink levels and offer to supply new cartridges ... I always refuse ... :)
Click to expand...
I`ve just bought my wife an Epsom ecotank. Supposedly enough ink to last two years & print 7,500 pages in b&w & 5,00 pages in colour.
 
Funnily enough I just let Windows and HP updates happen automatically, never seem to have a problem.

The only computer problem I've had in the last several years is a couple of months of slow fibre broadband which turned out to be a faulty port at the Openreach roadside green box.
 
I usually have no problems with Windows updates but something seems to have caused the error 43 problem. I would have suspected that my graphics chip had failed if I could not see it working when used with Linux ... very strange.

My Flight Sim is a 'Steam' account which allows me to run it in any single computer so I've moved it to my new laptop which has an i5 processor, 17" screen, and is very fast. I just need to move the scenery files over.
 
Smudger said:
I`ve just bought my wife an Epsom ecotank. Supposedly enough ink to last two years & print 7,500 pages in b&w & 5,00 pages in colour.
Click to expand...
The problem with HP and Epson updates is they have in the past used updates to prevent the use of third party cartridges, J.
 
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