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Windows 10

Spargone said:
Removing 'unnecessary' files from hard drives has always been a stock suggestion from computer magazine writers to 'improve performance'. As long as there is enough spare space on the drive that shouldn't be a problem but it is easy copy to keep writing and it 'sounds right', a bit like 'de-junking' ones house.

The real problem is that increasingly Windows comes with software that runs 'in the background' that we aren't aware of and if we do go looking for it some of it might well be essential, part of Windows 'housekeeping'.

Things get even more complicated when we consider Microsoft and Google 'services'. Is it a plus or a minus when picking up a different computer, tablet, phone etc. we find that we are 'recognised'? I wonder if we all need our own 'firewalled' machine, different room, different user name and wired, disconnectable, internet access? (Only to find that 'Alexa' has been listening to us all the time!).
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And add to that Apple if you have an iPhone!

We recently purchased a new car which required Siri to be turned on to activate the hands free phone. We had about 60 miles on our car we went to a church service. When we got in the car the navigation system came on and showed the route/ directions to the church. After the service we started the car and the navigation system showed us the way home. At first I did not think too much but the following week were at the dealer for “technology “ training and I spoke to the tech who is very good. He advised that the phone learns and remembers our habits and puts it into the car.
I think big brother is upon us! And whoever else.
 
To be honest I don't care about the anonymous data the likes of MS and Google collect because it generally helps develop the technology more and its not like they are actually tracking the real you, that said I'm also in favour of a national DNA data base, and bio/medical/DNA I.D. cards.

I love technology, I'm a silver haired geek and proud LOL I was talking to my oldest true friend not back about music and he wanted all his CD collection on a NAS drive. Thinking about it I have literally thousands of music tracks I've ripped to my home network but for a tenner a month I have access to millions of tracks just by saying 'Alexa play bla bla bla' ain'nt technology great :)
 
AnnS said:
Please excuse my ignorance but what is a NAS drive?
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If you have data that you want to protect, for example a collection of pictures, music, or videos, then a NAS device I ideal.

I use mine to back up both of our computers. We have a lot of pictures going back many years.

You can also use one as a media server for your video or music collection and play them on your smart TV ect.
 
A basic NAS is a hard drive in a box you plug into your internet router. You computer (and most smart TV's) will find it in explorer and you can back up your files to it.

Next step up is one with two hard drives and as you move data to one drive its also copied to the second drive 'mirroring' the first so if one fails your data is on the second drive and of course you can have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or more drives depending on your budget. You don't have to 'mirror' drives but if one fails your data has gone unless you have a back up elsewhere.

Your TV should (these days) spot it when you click on the 'source' button and you can then play your films/TV shows/music with no need to mess about with DVDs/CDs etc that you have stored in folders on the NAS.

Beauty of this is you still have your films/music/photos when the internet fails and it will fail at a national level sooner or later IMO so when the streets are full of youngsters starring at the blank screens on their phones you'll be sitting back with your tipple of choice and snacks watching your favourite films :)
 
I have a cheap and cheerful NAS which is the pink 32GB usb plugged into the BT Hub 6 router seen in the pic below. Used it for years and it is visible to anything that logs into wifi on my router. It is fast and if necessary I can remove it and plug it into anything to see the files stored on it. It shows as a mapped shared drive Z:
IMG_1194 (Large).JPG
 
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richardinwales said:
Next step up is one with two hard drives and as you move data to one drive its also copied to the second drive 'mirroring' the first so if one fails your data is on the second drive and of course you can have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or more drives depending on your budget. You don't have to 'mirror' drives but if one fails your data has gone unless you have a back up elsewhere.
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My NAS is a bit long in the tooth now, but still has manufacturers updates. It has 4 hard disks in it, each 4TB (1 TB is 1000 GB, an average computer hard disk size). The disks are set up in a specific mirror arrangement (RAID, redundant array of independent disks) that guarantees that if any single one fails, I will not lose any data, I would just replace it with a new disk, and it would automatically be incorporated into the NAS to restore the level of protection. I could possibly lose 2 disks at once, but recovery would not be guaranteed, it would depend on which 2 failed. The NAS is plugged into the router, and using different magic it cannot connect to the internet, (and importantly the internet cannot connect to it), and all, but only 'my' computers can use it.
All this simply because my photo library, documents etc are far more valuable than the kit that holds them. If my computer goes pooof, it is unlikely to take the NAS with it, because they do not share a power supply. If the NAS gives off brown smoke, then that is covered outside the scope of this note.

oldMohawk said:
it is visible to anything that logs into wifi on my router.
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Sorry, honestly no offence meant, but you could poke me several times with a sharp stick and it would cause me less pain.;).

Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
Sorry, honestly no offence meant, but you could poke me several times with a sharp stick and it would cause me less pain.;).

Andrew.
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No offence taken ...
The important stuff I really need to back up amounts to less than 500mb. Three USB sticks kept separately do it easily to my complete satisfaction. They are basically 'when I'm gone' drives and the files on them are protected by strong passwords.

I have about 8Gb of family photos on the data drives in my two Win 11 computers and also backed up as simple file copies on two external HDDs and one usb stick. The chances of all of these failing at the same time are remote. USB sticks and DVDs containing the photos have been given to younger family members ... they are not as interested in them as I was/am!

I have TrueNas in my Win 11 devices controlling an old computer with a 256Gb SSD as mentioned in the Hobbies thread - not critical but an interesting exercise for me.

The usb in the back of my BT router (post#1627) is mainly there for files which I want see from any of my computers. The only 'pain' that it might cause is to the router when very occasional 'memory leaks' occur but which are easily cured with the good old 'switch off/switch on' procedure.
:)
 
oldMohawk said:
No offence taken ...
The important stuff I really need to back up amounts to less than 500mb. Three USB sticks kept separately do it easily to my complete satisfaction. They are basically 'when I'm gone' drives and the files on them are protected by strong passwords.

I have about 8Gb of family photos on the data drives in my two Win 11 computers and also backed up as simple file copies on two external HDDs and one usb stick. The chances of all of these failing at the same time are remote. USB sticks and DVDs containing the photos have been given to younger family members ... they are not as interested in them as I was/am!

I have TrueNas in my Win 11 devices controlling an old computer with a 256Gb SSD as mentioned in the Hobbies thread - not critical but an interesting exercise for me.

The usb in the back of my BT router (post#1627) is mainly there for files which I want see from any of my computers. The only 'pain' that it might cause is to the router when very occasional 'memory leaks' occur but which are easily cured with the good old 'switch off/switch on' proced,
Click to expand...

oldMohawk said:
oldMohawk, I ambasically following your approach. Using USB sticks and duplicating when I’m gone info. The US Bs are cheaper than dirt and reliable. If you are concerned make another copy. We use colors as the subject discriminator. We too have found few are interested in our history. Also use a 1 & 2 TB separate HDs for other files. Also use CDs (but less and less) Also have floppy capability if needed. We try to follow the KISS principle to satisfy the customer who is mostly us!
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Western Digital are stopping remote access support for some of the WD My Cloud drives this year. You can still use them as normal on your home network but won't be able access away from home so maybe worth looking out for as people will panic and start flogging them off on ebay.

If you have a spare PC base unit you could fit 2-4 drives in it and plug into the network to use as a cheap NAS and tuck the base unit away out of sight.
 
I realised I was still in the Windows Insider Beta channel when Microsoft dropped a very big update (22H2) into my laptop yesterday. It is an 'Evaluation copy' of what Win 11 will be like later this year as
shown by a watermark on my screen ... which I'm not too happy about.
evaluation.jpg
I've now set the computer to automatically unenroll when 22H2 is generally released.
I could click the 'Go Back' button but everything working well so will continue evaluating ... ;)
 
oldMohawk said:
I realised I was still in the Windows Insider Beta channel when Microsoft dropped a very big update (22H2) into my laptop yesterday. It is an 'Evaluation copy' of what Win 11 will be like later this year as
shown by a watermark on my screen ... which I'm not too happy about.
View attachment 168694
I've now set the computer to automatically unenroll when 22H2 is generally released.
I could click the 'Go Back' button but everything working well so will continue evaluating ... ;)
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oldMohawk, is it because you are in Windows Insider Beta that you are not happy? I am very close on a new notebook, Lenovo or Dell, both with Windows 11. I am not changing to go to W11 but because my current Lenovo Yoga is from 2016 and slowing down.
Would appreciate your thoughts!
 
Richard Dye said:
oldMohawk, is it because you are in Windows Insider Beta that you are not happy? I am very close on a new notebook, Lenovo or Dell, both with Windows 11. I am not changing to go to W11 but because my current Lenovo Yoga is from 2016 and slowing down.
Would appreciate your thoughts!
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Richard, I'm very happy with Windows Insider Beta on my Dell laptop it runs perfectly for me. It was the watermark I did not like but there is a 'disable watermark app' I could run but it apparently Microsoft remove it after a few days. My Acer desktop computer has the normal Windows 11 running and it's all good.
:)
 
oldMohawk said:
Richard, I'm very happy with Windows Insider Beta on my Dell laptop it runs perfectly for me. It was the watermark I did not like but there is a 'disable watermark app' I could run but it apparently Microsoft remove it after a few days. My Acer desktop computer has the normal Windows 11 running and it's all good.
:)
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Whew! Appreciate your input!
 
Talking of Windows, I was having a clear out over the weekend and came across an old laptop running XP. The battery is shot but the machine works fine and because all the software on it is simple by W10/11 standards it runs very fast. I've loaded ham radio software on it (much written for XP) and I'll play around with it in the shack for digital ham radio. Nothing else installed so I'm not concerned about getting hacked.

The only problem I have now is that I've no excuse to get rid of it ;)
 
richardinwales said:
Talking of Windows, I was having a clear out over the weekend and came across an old laptop running XP. The battery is shot but the machine works fine and because all the software on it is simple by W10/11 standards it runs very fast. I've loaded ham radio software on it (much written for XP) and I'll play around with it in the shack for digital ham radio. Nothing else installed so I'm not concerned about getting hacked.

The only problem I have now is that I've no excuse to get rid of it ;)
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If you can get rid of any anti-virus software installed it might run even faster! I am convinced that all PCs run faster when new and that Bill Gates and his pals bog them down as time goes by.
(A few years ago I had a problem with my Win 10 laptop and I rushed out and bought a desktop Win 10 PC as a fall-back if I couldn't get the laptop sorted. In the event I got the laptop going and the new PC stayed in its box. A year or so later I thought I had better get the desktop going before it got too far behind on updates. Wow! It went like greased lightning, far faster than the laptop. I was sorely tempted to switch but as another relative had an urgent need I let them have it. 'Lock-down' kept me away from it but recently I have been able to make fresh comparisons and now the old laptop beats the 'new' PC hands down. I can only wonder what software gems my relative has allowed onto it).
 
richardinwales said:
Talking of Windows, I was having a clear out over the weekend and came across an old laptop running XP. The battery is shot but the machine works fine and because all the software on it is simple by W10/11 standards it runs very fast. I've loaded ham radio software on it (much written for XP) and I'll play around with it in the shack for digital ham radio. Nothing else installed so I'm not concerned about getting hacked.

The only problem I have now is that I've no excuse to get rid of it ;)
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i too have a xp laptop too with all my ham software on it. wish there was some way it could be made to run on win10.
best of luck OM with your mission:)
 
Windows Recovery (in Settings) can be used which will remove everything and install a fresh copy of Windows making the computer run just like it was when first used.

Important personal files and photos must be backed-up/copied to another drive preferably external, and the user must know where to obtain and re-install apps/programs which they normally use.

Looking back 5 years in the thread #298 I notice I did a recovery when we were all trying out Windows 10.
 
Anyone using Microsoft OneDrive?
It's available on Windows 10/11 and has 5Gb free storage. I use it most days as 'attached storage'. A OneDrive app can be installed on iPads/iPhones and a photo on my phone can upload to OneDrive to become visible on my Win11 screen. Moving files between my laptop, desktop, and iPad is a breeze. I currently have 2.12Gb on OneDrive.

It needs a Microsoft account (free) which is the best way to use Win 10/11 and a reasonably fast internet connection - but it does work with slow connections. I don't put private data on it but there is a Personal Vault which can store sensitive data accessed via two factor authentication. MS allow one file free in the vault but more have to be paid for.

On a Windows PC it looks just like a normal folder ... drag and drop ... see mine below ...
1_Drive (Medium).jpg
 
I have been using OneDrive for a few years now and back up my iPhone photos to it. Saves paying apple for iCloud storage space.
 
I use Gmail so get 15Gb free on Google's Drive. It works but one small thing stops me using it. I have to double click files to open them when my mouse is set to open files with single click ... can't stand having to double click ... :)
 
oldMohawk said:
I use Gmail so get 15Gb free on Google's Drive. It works but one small thing stops me using it. I have to double click files to open them when my mouse is set to open files with single click ... can't stand having to double click ... :)
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oldMohawk, I use gmail. Regarding the double click, a majority of my computer work from 1979 in business has been double click. All of this is NOT Apple based.
 
In post #1372 last July I joined the Windows Insider program and let Microsoft install Windows 11 and experiment with my laptop. It's been interesting but with 22H2 big updates coming in weekly I'm now looking to leave and Microsoft have me queued for unenrolement sometime later this year ... :grinning:
Untitled.jpg
 
Some recent Windows 11 security features updates decided my Canon TS5051 printer was a security risk and removed it. I hadn't noticed until I needed a quick print yesterday. I looked at 'Device Manager' and the printer had definitely gone. I keep the printer in a cupboard and looked inside ... the printer was still there ... :grinning:

My 'quick print' turned into an half-hour session of reinstalling the printer and persuading W11 that it was safe.
 
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