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Windows 10

I have decided to let the W8.1 desktop keep the reserve on W10. However, as Sony advise against a W10 update I have cancelled the update on my W7 laptop. I will review it again at a later date when my laptop is pronounced compatible and I have seen how W10 plays out. There seems to be some very mixed reviews of W10.
 
All quiet on the Windows 10 front .... I've been using it for just over a week ... it's running very smoothly for me.
Win10 indirectly brought my old laptop with it's broken dead screen back into use, I am very pleased about that.
 
Good news about that laptop, Phil. For the time being I have decided not to try to install Win10 on this machine as the reinstalled Win 7 is now behaving itself. But it has enabled me to work out what the original problem was - a fault in the rear connections for the audio - and for the time being I have the audio working off the front connections. Intel have now got out of the ATX motherboard market, but I have located a compatible GigaByte board and will get a friend to bring one back from the UK in September. The suppliers want 45 quid to ship it out here and the board is only 69 quid! I can wait. W10 is sitting on a memory stick and I may attempt to install it on the older of our two laptops (currently running W8) after the gkids have returned to the UK next week.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice,
I have to admit that apart a different 'look' and being able to say 'I'm running Windows 10' I have not noticed any great differences in using W7 or W10. All the icon shortcuts I had on screen with W7 reappeared on W10. Only the task bar at the bottom has a different look but most of the items in it were there with W7. Even my W7 background pic reappeared.
oldlaptopwin10.JPG
Perhaps I am not using W10 as Microsoft intended.
I don't use the new 'Start' screen much, I mostly use the desktop shortcut icons and the task bar at the bottom
I did not open a Microsoft account, I already have accounts with Apple and Google.
I don't use the new Edge browser, I still use Chrome or Internet Explorer 11.
I don't use Cortana, I use Apple's Siri for reminders.

I now use my old laptop by keeping it out of the way behind a sofa and connecting it to my dual input 24" screen. I set it to respond to my wireless keyboard and mouse. To use the laptop I only have switch it on and it takes over the screen, keyboard, and mouse, and I see W10 on a big screen and it also connects to stereo speakers.

My attempted upgrade to W10 on my W7 desktop computer went badly (see post#172) and I had to to downgrade back to W7 so I now use it connected to the other input on the screen and when switched on it takes over the screen, keyboard, and mouse, and I see W7 on screen.

I just have to make sure I never switch them both on at the same time ...
friendly_wink.png


Phil
 
Hi Phil,

It looks neat and tidy and gives you what you want. I always opt to use the Windows Classic look and hate those supposedly helpful default groupings where you can never find anything. Can't beat icons with the important ones on the task bar! Since I did the Win7 reinstall I only have about ten icons on the desktop - previously it was over 80 and badly in need of pruning! I could never bring myself to actually do it, despite the fact that a lot of them were for photographic bits & dabs that I don't often use. All music, videos and backup software is on a 2Tb external drive (still only one third full) and they are so cheap that I plan to get another to backup the backup just in case this one develops a fault, though so far it's been as good as gold and fast running on USB 3.

Like you, I think I shall have to consider opting for the larger icons as my eyesight is starting to struggle sometimes.
 
Carol,

I also downloaded it using the Media Creation Tool, mainly because I wanted to do it when the rest of our network was quiet.

Maurice
 
Now upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. Not a total disaster, but,,, All my document file attributes have been changed to 'Read Only' and refuses to let me change them. Followed all the recommendations from Microsoft, still no joy. Some apps refuse to open. Oh and I constantly have a message appearing telling me that access to my C: drive has been 'denied, contact Administrator. Good job I have a second Laptop running Vista.
 
About par for the course, I think, Degsy. I wouldn't like to do it if I didn't have other machines available.

Maurice
 
Hi Degsy .. It seems like the upgrade took away your admin rights and it is probably something to do with accounts maybe W10 is assuming you are only a guest and not the owner. I saw the following quote from https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/windows-10-changed-all-my-documents-to-read-only/


This Worked For My Read Only Problem in Windows 10
by rdfrith / August 9, 2015 10:38 AM PDT

In reply to: Windows-10 changed all my documents to "Read-Only"

I’ve been having this same problem after upgrading 3 computers to Windows 10. I have tried every solution I could find online but none were a permanent fix. I had almost given up on Windows 10 and was going to go back to Windows 7. In a last ditch shot I decided to try to sign off my Microsoft account.

Under Settings in Windows 10 I went to Accounts. There I found a choice to sign in on my old ID. I selected that and was asked to give the password I was signed in on (that was my Microsoft Account password) and then I put in my old sign in and confirmed it. I was told that I would have to change the name of the computer which I did.

All my 'Read Only' problems immediately went away. I was signed in under my old identity and all the Windows 10 goodies were still there.
Click to expand...

I had to recover my desktop computer back to W7 (see post#172) because it's graphic card was incompatible, and I am leaving it on W7.
oldmohawk
 
I like Windows 7, it is both simple and logical, much superior to 8, 8.1 and 10 to an old fuddy duddy like me (I realise all you more knowledgeable PC users will disagree) My 3 year old HP 1070 PC (windows 7) recently went faulty so last week bought a new PC, an Acer 'Predator', (windows 8.1), leaning towards a gaming PC with high specs for my simulator games, managed to download Windows 10 with ease (surprise surprise !) but still finding it confusing, so much so have had my Windows 7 PC repaired (turned out to be a faulty DVD player and some other minor software fault). Hope it will last me a few more years. The new one is set up in a spare bedroom and I have loaded my sim games on to it, have to admit there are slight improvements in that respect. I will 'practise' on it a couple of hours a week and try to 'suss' it out. Problem 1, cannot burn files to CD/DVD when I click on the blue writing 'burn to disc' nothing happens, I do have a 12 months maintainence plan with PC world so will have a word with them. Eric
 
I don't disagree you at all, Eric, and neither does my ex-bass player friend, who is an expert video editor and slow motion king (way beyond me). If it ain't broke......

This morning I found that it had started to download W10 in background and there was seemingly no way to stop it, despite the fact that I already had it on a stick downloaded with Media Creation Tool. Around about 11:00am we managed to trip the same fuse that the computer room is on (typical Greek wiring, they've never heard of ring mains) and the machines went down for two minutes. Since then the background download has failed to restart and so does "View progress of the download" also fail. I don't mind, but I can imagine that giving non-techies a bit of a problem. I'm glad it has stopped, but it is not a very elegant way of stopping it.

Maurice
 
cookie273uk said:
I like Windows 7, it is both simple and logical, much superior to 8, 8.1 and 10 to an old fuddy duddy like me (I realise all you more knowledgeable PC users will disagree) My 3 year old HP 1070 PC (windows 7) recently went faulty so last week bought a new PC, an Acer 'Predator', (windows 8.1), leaning towards a gaming PC with high specs for my simulator games, managed to download Windows 10 with ease (surprise surprise !) but still finding it confusing, so much so have had my Windows 7 PC repaired (turned out to be a faulty DVD player and some other minor software fault). Hope it will last me a few more years. The new one is set up in a spare bedroom and I have loaded my sim games on to it, have to admit there are slight improvements in that respect. I will 'practise' on it a couple of hours a week and try to 'suss' it out. Problem 1, cannot burn files to CD/DVD when I click on the blue writing 'burn to disc' nothing happens, I do have a 12 months maintainence plan with PC world so will have a word with them. Eric
Click to expand...
Hi Eric - Microsoft have not supplied CD/DVD burning software in Windows 10. They have decided that users can buy the software on a disk and install it themselves.

I am leaving my desktop computer on Windows 7 because the graphics card in it is not compatible with Windows 10.
Phil
 
oldMohawk, an old friend asked me if I could burn a cd of my paintings (I have 140 on a 'my picture' file) to put on his pc, that's when I found I could not on my new windows 10 PC, so burnt him a disc on my now repaired windows 7 PC. Does this mean if you have only windows 10 you cannot burn any of your pic or doc files to disc ????? Eric
 
Hi Eric,
You should certainly be able to burn CD/DVDs on a disk with Windows 10

About 4 years ago I bought some software on a disk for burning CDs and DVDs and it was called Roxio. I installed it in this laptop when it was running Windows 7. When I upgraded this laptop to Windows 10 I noticed that the Roxio program was still there and I just started it and it runs with Windows 10.

They used to give out CD/DVD burning programs on disks attached to computer magazines.

Looking at the pcworld website I notice they have some software called Nero Burn Express at £19 which if you bought from there you could verify that it runs under Windows 10, but I expect that it would. You could then install it in your new computer.

Phil
 
Eric,

There is plenty of good FREE CD/DVD burning software on the web. One of my favourites is BurnAware (the free version) and I rarely use anything else.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice - I have to say I'm running W10 on this old laptop with no major problems but I have set Updates to ask before they are installed. By default, Windows 10 enables peer-to-peer downloads over the Internet as well, and users PCs will use some of their upload bandwidth sending Windows updates to other PCs. I've disabled this by selecting only “PCs on my local network”.

I'm using the new 'Edge' browser to post this but still trying to stop Microsoft taking it over when I'm not looking.

Phil
 
Never mind, Phil, you know it's all for your own good! I read that it takes access to 13 different screens to stop Microsoft from snooping into your security and I don't like that. As for thieving my bandwidth, the best we can generally get here in the inland villages if 1.6 or 1.8 mps and on a wet Sunday afternoon it drops to little more than dial-up speeds as the local kids are playing online games. If they've all converted to W10 and not turned off the sharing, we could be even worse off!

Maurice
 
As I could not update my W7 laptop - as advised by Sony - I went ahead and upgraded the W8.1 desktop. It took a while to download and install but apart from two minor glitches all went well. It was a struggle initially as it downloaded in German (it is a German pc) and I was not able to change to English straight away. However, I must have read the instructions correctly - luckily hit the correct tabs -and started to look at the new W10.

Principally this web site: https://forums.techguy.org/

and also this one: https://www.tenforums.com/

gave good advice regarding security and privacy. Accordingly I spent a little while looking through the settings and apps switching off those recommended in the articles I read. There was an awful lot to switch off but I am sure it is well worth the effort getting to understand W10. I have deleted some apps that I did not need and added one or two that I did.

I encountered three anomalies/annoyances.

The annoying one is that I have an Product Key error showing - as do many other folks I gather - which means I cannot personalize i.e have my chosen pics on the screen and the colours for taskbar and other things. That is something M/S are working on - along with far more serious issues - so I can live with it I guess.

I have a Radio Ham VOIP programme that works with both ethernet and WiFi on W8.1 but only seems to work with WiFi on W10! Again no real issue.

The strangest event was the Windows Firewall. It said that Private network was OFF and Public ON. That should have been the other way around, although the custom notification settings state that they are both ON. However as my laptop is synced to the desktop when I switched on the laptop these settings went into the correct display.

One thing I am pleased to see disappear is the annoying side bar on W8.1. That is a welcome omission.

Earlier today I went to M/Soft (via their Chat Line) to ask if there was any information when the Product Key error would be sorted. As seems to be the common thing today with ANY call centre is the reply to your single question being met with about four or five of theirs before an answer is even considered. I realized after five minutes that the guy had no more idea than I did - especially when confronted with a load of time consuming suggestions. Eventually I said (tongue in cheek - but that does not show in Chat ) if there is no resolution soon I will revert to W8.1. To my amazement his reply was "that's a good idea".

So, in the light of problems some poor folks have encountered I guess I am lucky.
 
Nice write-up, Alan, and in comparison with many people it seems you had a relatively easy ride. When I tried it on my desktop, it wouldn't even recognise the Product Key, though I had the disk in my hand. Not long after that it hit a serious error and I decided that reverting to W7 was my safest path. I'll have another go with the old W8.0 laptop as if that fails I can format and reinstall XP - upgrading to W8 was the biggest mistake I ever made!

I hope you get all your programs working OK (I refuse to call them "äpps" - those are things you stick on expensive phones!)

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice - I noticed that my laptop (which I upgraded from W8.1) did not have CD/DVD making software so I downloaded and installed the free Burnaware you recommended in post#197. Looks ok and and they say it works with W10 so I will give it go tomorrow.

Phil

I have since found that the 'Burnaware' download carries malware - don't use it see this post https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=45268&p=555218#post555218
 
Last edited:
Phil,

It's a no-frills job, but works well and is not so complicated as Nero. I think underneath they all use the same bit of burning code, rather like a codec on audio & video.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
When I tried it on my desktop, it wouldn't even recognise the Product Key, though I had the disk in my hand.
Click to expand...

What were you trying to do here, were you trying to do a "clean install" of Windows using a Windows 10 DVD?

And if so were you trying to put in the Windows 7 or 8 product Key?

If so Windows 10 will NOT accept a Windows 7 or Windows 8 Product Key.

To do a "clean install" of Windows 10 using the downloaded Windows 10 image on DVD or USB memory stick you do as follows:

1) Lets assume the PC is already running Windows 7 or Windows 8 or 8.1.

2) You MUST first go through upgrade process to upgrade the PC to Windows 10.

3) When this happens the product key for Windows 10 AND the hardware specs for your PC are sent to Microsoft and held on their servers. You don't actually have the product key for Windows 10, but Microsoft know that your PC is entitled to use Windows 10 based on your hardware.

4) You can then do a "clean install" of Windows 10 using the Windows 10 DVD or USB memory stick, and because Microsoft have details of your PC on their servers you don't need to enter the product key.

5) Windows 10 should install AND activate automatically.

6) Note this ONLY happens because you did the Windows 10 upgrade FIRST. If you try to do the clean install of Windows 10 BEFORE doing the upgrade it will not work.

7) If that is the case you have to go out an buy a new Windows 10 license to get a Windows 10 product key.

p.s. I should say I have not done any of this yet, I am basing this on what I read on the internet.
.
 
Hi Guilbert,

As I recollect it just asked me for my current Product Key, which would be W7, but when I typed it in, umpteen times, each time it rejected it, so I decided to proceed without activating first, which it lets you do, but then it hit some sort of serious error and I decided it was best to get back to W7. I had previously made a W7 backup, but I didn't need it, so it couldn't have written anything of significance to the disk. That's the way it is staying now - I value my data too much! And yes, I did boot from the USB stick holding W10.

Maurice
 
For the techies to play with .... My W10 started 30/07 ... bad day on 04/08.
mywin10.JPG

ps. I did not notice anything unusual when the failures were happening
 
terryb18 said:
I now have the option of reserving Windows 10. Its a free download for the next 12 months to win 7/win 8 users. Has anyone tried it out yet? Whilst I am happy with win 7, I am one of those people who like to try things out, plus eventually we will all probably have to upgrade anyway.
Click to expand...

My machine has Windows 8.1.

I upgraded to Windows 10 via the link that appeared on my machine. It took about an hour to download and install. Everything went ok. It has been on for three days now and so far no problems.
 
Hi Not a techie by ANY means and here I am a week into Wins10 (from Wins8.1). Just took a picture on digital camera and wanted to download to laptop. Usual jingle, felt reassured, but then no wizard to my aid! Had to go to "Photos" and lots of unfamiliar actions. Finally did my download.
Now I am idle and there are some 850 photos on the camera and I wanted to download just one shot. I usually select and delete on the wizard, but couldn't find how to do this, I wondering if I have just redownloaded all the contents of the camera. And why was it necessary to rearrange all my pictures in "Photos" in date order, I quite happily kept them there in subject folders. If it ain't broke down mess.
 
I've just connected my camera to my laptop which detected something had been connected and a small box showed on screen with some choices asking what I wanted to do. I chose 'look at folders and files' and a file explorer screen appeared in which I could see all the photos in my camera just as if they were image files in my laptop.

I dragged just one out to my desktop screen from which I could drag it and drop it to a folder anywhere in the laptop. If I want to pull a day's worth of photos out of the camera I usually create a folder and name it with a date and subject and drag photos from the camera into that folder. My laptop saw the memory in the camera as a USB drive which had been plugged in.

I have always used this method to get photos out of cameras into Windows computers.
 
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