Windows 10 . Anybody downloaded it yet?

[Butler Henderson]

Not sure whether it was down to the latest update (2004 version) but my laptop had a crazy time last evening failing to auto connect to wi-fi, had to manually do it, and then getting DNS server errors on some web sites (including rmweb) but okay on others; cleared the DNS cache but that did not resolve it.  The good old switch it off and switch it back on again resolved the matter.

[melmerby]

I've noticed that a lot of what is claimed to be new in Windows 2004 isn't.

Templates for Powerpoint, Word & Excel are not Windows updates!

[kevinlms]

I managed to update an elderly PC from Win 7 for a totally no clue friend.

 

I discovered that the automatic updates had been turned off and so nothing since March 2017! Apparently the computer shop had done this when it got upgraded, presumably from some other Windows version. P***ks! Unsurprisingly lots of dodgy stuff found by Malwarebytes and removed.

 

Took a while to get all the Win 7 updates, with a problem with a particular KB. Eventually worked out how to manually install it. Then to Win 10.

 

The PC is rather slow, only 3G of RAM, but it's running 2004!

[John Tomlinson]

On 06/07/2020 at 08:47, stewartingram said:

My C drive only contains the programs. All my data, photos, videos, music etc go on separate hdd** within the desktop; when I've "processed" them (ie whatever needs doing such as photo editing etc) they go to an external personal cloud on the shelf. I have another of those for regular backup.

hdd** - I have 3 within the case, but each one is partitioned to give more drives.

 

Makes life much easier if ever I have to re-install, or get a failure.

 

Stewart

 

 

 

I had a scary experience a couple of weeks back.

 

My photo organising software is the old Canon Zoom Browser, this includes all my captions and classifications, and can be used to do searches and so on. It's great software, sadly however dates from 2007 and is long discontinued by Canon. When I got a new machine with Windows 10 it loaded up without problem, and had worked happily for the 3 years since.

 

Suddenly it wouldn't load, or rather did so for a couple of seconds then vanished. Around 8000 captions up the creek! My initial thought was some incompatibility with my McAfee,  so I uninstalled that, but no help. Uninstalled Zoom Browser and re-installed, no help, fiddled with Windows security settings, no help. I then remembered an IT specialist once telling me that "C" drives that were SSD (maybe all are?) sometimes worked too quickly for old software, and the photos in question were on this drive. I tranferred the photos out to the "D" drive, which allowed me to load an empty photos section of "C" drive on Zoom Browser which then allowed me to go to the "D" drive, and thankfully that worked.

 

I mention this in case anyone else has a problem with old software on a "C" drive, whether it's quite the speed that's the problem, or something more complex, someone else might know.

 

John.

[PhilJ W]

I seem to have lost Google Translate. Not sure if its just gone though as I recently had my lap top revamped and a few other things were lost.

[melmerby]

On 18/07/2020 at 12:13, PhilJ W said:

I seem to have lost Google Translate. Not sure if its just gone though as I recently had my lap top revamped and a few other things were lost.

Google translate is nothing to do with Windows, AFAIK it only opens in a browser.

[melmerby]

I've just had a couple of updates dated 21 July, even though I check for updates every day.

They are:

KB4562900 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10

KB4559004 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10

 

I notice they are classed as "Preview", I wonder what that means?

 

[raymw]

You've been signed up to the windows insider program. XD

 

[mezzoman253]

On 01/08/2020 at 23:51, melmerby said:

I've just had a couple of updates dated 21 July, even though I check for updates every day.

They are:

KB4562900 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10

KB4559004 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10

 

I notice they are classed as "Preview", I wonder what that means?

 

Just checked and I've got KB4562900 as well. It didn't flag it up though.

 

Not got the other one, yet?

 

I think raymw may be correct.

 

Rob

[melmerby]

I've just had the equivalent updates for a PC on ver 2004, again said they were previews.

This time they were marked as "optional updates"

[JohnR]

I recently had a hard drive failure on my laptop - the first one really for a great many years, so I was surprised at how things had changed with regard to windows.

 

Of course, nowadays, computers dont come with recovery media (I am old enough to remember when it was a small box of floppy disks to reinstall windows 3.1!). My computer did have a recovery partition, and of course there was always the reminder that I should have created a recovery disk of my own from that. However, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

The new procedure is much more user friendly! Your windows licence is logged with Microsoft, even if you had upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 (as I had). So now, (assuming you have access to another PC, which I did), you can download an .iso of a bootable windows partition onto either DVD or a usb flash drive. 

 

I borrowed my wifes laptop, downloaded the file onto a usb memory stick, replaced my hard drive, logged back into windows, One Drive then downloads all my files and I am back working within a very short time.  

 

Marvellous!

[melmerby]

45 minutes ago, JohnR said:

I recently had a hard drive failure on my laptop - the first one really for a great many years, so I was surprised at how things had changed with regard to windows.

 

Of course, nowadays, computers dont come with recovery media (I am old enough to remember when it was a small box of floppy disks to reinstall windows 3.1!). My computer did have a recovery partition, and of course there was always the reminder that I should have created a recovery disk of my own from that. However, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

The new procedure is much more user friendly! Your windows licence is logged with Microsoft, even if you had upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 (as I had). So now, (assuming you have access to another PC, which I did), you can download an .iso of a bootable windows partition onto either DVD or a usb flash drive. 

 

I borrowed my wifes laptop, downloaded the file onto a usb memory stick, replaced my hard drive, logged back into windows, One Drive then downloads all my files and I am back working within a very short time.  

 

Marvellous!

I've actually done fresh installs a few times since the advent of Win10. Replacing dud hard drives is all part of the routine!

The only time you will have a hiccup is if you wish to transfer the license to another PC (say your old one was damaged beyond repair)

I had a motherboard failure so had to replace most of the computer as several previous peripherals were not compatible.

Then the automatic registration of the license will fail and a call to MS help desk will be needed.

[RFS]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

I've just had the equivalent updates for a PC on ver 2004, again said they were previews.

This time they were marked as "optional updates"

 

You must be signed up to the Windows Insider program with the option "release preview". This means when new updates are available, you will be given the option to install them early. The update you have been offered is the standard monthly update that occurs on the second Tuesday of each month, so it will be generally available on 11th August. Sometimes after running "check for updates" the update will not show directly, but will be visible if you click on "optional updates". Here you may also see driver updates. 

 

I use the free edition of Macrium Reflect to create backups of my C drive on a regular basis. I use an SSD as a dedicated C drive for Windows only on my PC, the wife's and the Railway room (Traincontroller) PC. Each of these PCs then does an image of the C drive to the 2Tb hard drive on the main PC - all PCs are connected via a Gigabit switch. Any problems and I can use Macrium to restore individual files or a complete re-image (using Macrium's rescue disk/flash drive). Have restored my C drive a couple of times when software updates went seriously wrong. 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, RFS said:

 

You must be signed up to the Windows Insider program with the option "release preview".

But how has that happened?

I haven't signed on to the MS site for ages, it just happened between the last updates which weren't "preview" and the new ones

[RFS]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

But how has that happened?

I haven't signed on to the MS site for ages, it just happened between the last updates which weren't "preview" and the new ones

 

As an admin user, go to settings and update/security, and click on Windows Insider Program. It should then tell you what you are signed up for. I suspect yours is set to "release preview".

[melmerby]

12 minutes ago, RFS said:

 

As an admin user, go to settings and update/security, and click on Windows Insider Program. It should then tell you what you are signed up for. I suspect yours is set to "release preview".

This is my insider page:

[RFS]

9 minutes ago, melmerby said:

This is my insider page:

 

OK - looks like Microsoft have changed things somewhere!

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, RFS said:

 

OK - looks like Microsoft have changed things somewhere!

SWMBO's laptop also picked up the two updates, the .Net Framework one was downloaded automatically, the Windows cumulative update was an option.

She has a different MS account and a different e-mail address to me, so the updates must be a broadcast and not just to insiders.

Both were classed as Previews

Edited August 3, 2020 by melmerby

[RFS]

17 hours ago, melmerby said:

SWMBO's laptop also picked up the two updates, the .Net Framework one was downloaded automatically, the Windows cumulative update was an option.

She has a different MS account and a different e-mail address to me, so the updates must be a broadcast and not just to insiders.

Both were classed as Previews

 

Found the explanation of what has changed for optional updates - 

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/resuming-optional-windows-10-and-windows-server-non-security/ba-p/1471429

[melmerby]

Just had the update to the "new " Edge (KB4559309) which was a bit of a bully boy as you can't stop it running and placing itself on the task bar when it installs.

Went into task manager and stopped it then unpinned it from task bar

Note MS: I choose what goes where, not you.

If i want Chromedge I'll choose how I use it.

 

Also an update to .Net framework (KB4562899) & a Cumulative update to Windows 10 2004 (KB 4568831)

Strangely these two are shown as "Other updates" on my PC

No obvious problems.

Edited August 8, 2020 by melmerby

[Hroth]

Yep, the "Edge" update Bulleid its way onto my screen this afternoon.

 

After dismissing it using the Task Manager, I unpinned it from the taskbar, deleted the shortcut from the desktop and checked to make sure it hadn't usurped the default browser role.

[antrobuscp]

I updated my last Win10 laptop to version 2004(64 bit) a couple of days ago -  the update had been held back by MS. As usual for feature updates I uninstalled Diskcryptor, and an old free version of PGP desktop.

 

After the otherwise successfull update, I re-installed Diskcryptor, but the reinstall of PGP Desktop(Version 10.1.1) stops early in the process. I gather it will still work if it installs and it has done on my other updates to Win10 2004. All I

use is the file encryption/decryption facility.

 

On running the installation (exe) file the install starts, asks to confirm the language, and then stops at a "Windows installer" screen displaying command line options for msiexec.exe. I'm guessing that the install cannot find the msiexec file or a parameter is missing. I did a search on the laptop and there are multiple copies of versions of that file, but those in the "Old Windows" folders are in differently named folders even though from a cursory check the files themselves seem the same.

 

This is not a critical matter as I've already sorted out an alternative, but it would be nice to continue with PGP Desktop across all machines.

 

Thoughts to get around this anyone?

[melmerby]

8 minutes ago, antrobuscp said:

I updated my last Win10 laptop to version 2004(64 bit) a couple of days ago -  the update had been held back by MS.

One of my PCs still won't install 2004 and AFAIK there is nothing on it that should stop it.

I have looked for the culprits listed by MS and I can't find any trace of such programs, so I'm a bit baffled.

It's a well specced machine with a Core i7, a new 500Gb SSD*, 16GB memory and nVidia graphics.

 

*First one failed!

[antrobuscp]

3 minutes ago, melmerby said:

One of my PCs still won't install 2004 and AFAIK there is nothing on it that should stop it.

I have looked for the culprits listed by MS and I can't find any trace of such programs, so I'm a bit baffled.

It's a well specced machine with a Core i7, a new 500Gb SSD*, 16GB memory and nVidia graphics.

 

*First one failed!

I think the update on my machine might have been held up by an issue with Nvidia drivers, but I'm not certain. Bizarrely, this is the youngest machine of all, but they are all old machines now. The update appeared within the normal Windows update screen so I just let it run. There was one false start when a restart screen appeared when I think it probably shouldn't have - I restarted the machine and subsequently so did the update, from the beginning! Win10 update is much better than it was but it still seems to have issues from time to time.

 

Colin

[melmerby]

4 hours ago, antrobuscp said:

I think the update on my machine might have been held up by an issue with Nvidia drivers, but I'm not certain.

 

Colin

There was a problem with early drivers, my drivers have been updated but aren't the most recent.

 

However there is a Catch 22 situation. If the drivers are stopping ver 2004 from installing, the drivers need updating.

nVidia has already offered me a driver update but it wont install because Windows needs updating to the latest version first

 

Edit

Just tried newer drivers from before 2004 was released and it still says "not compatible with this version of windows"!

Edited September 30, 2020 by melmerby