Windows 10 . Anybody downloaded it yet?

[Butler Henderson]

To make it look even more like Win 7 there is Classic Start, now Open Shell which replaces the start menu with a W7 like one. W10 squeals Open Shell is from an unreliable source etc when installing but I have been running it for some time without issue. Classic Start incidentally  still works on W10 but Windows squeals about  it on every start, says it will not run and then it runs anyway

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/classic_start.html

Usefully has a W7 like Recent Items list whereas if you follow MSs instructions on how to add a Recent Items tile icon to W10 the list it comes up with is not always 100% accurate IME.

[Reorte]

21 hours ago, melmerby said:

I would go for Windows 95 as the worst. Blue Screens were more common than working pages. MS took Win 3.1 and made it worse.

Win 98 was a vast improvement on 95 and XP carried on the improvements.

When they got to Win XP SP3 it was pretty well sorted.

 

95 was the start of the current look of Windows though, and although it wasn't great (and as you say was very blue screen prone) it was an improvement on the user interface from 3.1

 

Windows peaked with XP, so I agree with the "pretty well sorted" comment. What improvements there have been since then have all been under the bonnet (e.g. getting better use out of more modern hardware) rather than directly user-facing. Most of the UI changes since then I've found either irritating or pointless. Classic Shell / Open Shell is something I've not wanted to be without since Windows 7, and if I used it more often I'd certainly install a better search than Windows 10 has (it's good under the surface but the interface to it is dreadful, a real step down since XP).

[antrobuscp]

I must admit I think Millennium Edition was the worst incarnation of Windows. 98 was much better than 95, and XP was the most versatile in regard to the wide variety of programs it could, or be made to, run. I never used Vista. I still have to retain access to DOS programs for a year or two, so unless I run a virtual machine, Win 10 would be a non-starter for that purpose. Win 7 has been my primary operating system since 2015, and it would run natively at least one of the old programs although I still have 2 XP machines for their specific purpose.

 

I have today upgraded what was my second Win 7 machine to Win 10(1909). The upgrade went very smoothly with just a little preparation and so far all seems to be working. This on a 6 year old Dell not formally tested for Win 10. Classic Shell installed and seems happy enough. I may now try it on my wife's even older Dell, but will check the specs and the web for problems before doing so.

 

Win 10's updating problems seem to be slowly easing and it will be interesting to see how easily my other two upgraded machines deal with the upgrade to v1909 from 1903. Up to now I've had to remove and re-install two encryption programs for any feature upgrade to complete.

[RFS]

The upgrade from 1903 to 1909 is trivial. All the new code for 1909 has already been installed on 1903 systems over last few months cumulative updates, but is disabled. The upgrade to 1909 is then just a small enabling patch, not a full rebuild. Systems on builds prior to 1903 will still encounter the normal full build.

[antrobuscp]

I've only just done the upgrades to 1903, as I'd read there had been a hardware issue. I was therefore interested that the newly converted Win7 system went straight to 1909. I'd also read that 1903 to 1909 was minor, but I'm nevertheless interested to see if the encryption software still causes issues. 

[raymw]

some products meeting end of life in 2020.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-products-reaching-end-of-life-in-2020/

[zarniwhoop]

Mostly, I am lucky enough to be able to avoid windows10, but for one task every January (self-assessment) I need to use software which only runs on windows or mac. So, my windows laptop has been powered off for a bit over 11 months.  Powered it on at about 23:00, knowing I would need to update - fast cable network connection, speeds should be good. Windows update failed, so I updated firefox to 72.0.1 without difficulty, gurgled about windows update, and eventually got it to retry.

 

A bit over two and a half hours later it is still "installing" 1903 - inverted commas because I doubt it actually installs until I've rebooted a few times.

 

Meanwhile, the pains of an upside-down trackpad to scroll through what it has "prepared", and the pain of only having one desktop. I really don't understand how you guys are able to tolerate this system! On my other desktops/laptop I usually have a term and firefox on one desktop, falkon browser on another, then other things on the next two desktops - and even when I have four or more overlapping windows on one desktop it is really easy to get to the one I want.

 

Oh well, please wish me luck and my congratulations to those of you who are calm enough to get on with windows 10.

 

ĸen

[kevinlms]

4 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

Mostly, I am lucky enough to be able to avoid windows10, but for one task every January (self-assessment) I need to use software which only runs on windows or mac. So, my windows laptop has been powered off for a bit over 11 months.  Powered it on at about 23:00, knowing I would need to update - fast cable network connection, speeds should be good. Windows update failed, so I updated firefox to 72.0.1 without difficulty, gurgled about windows update, and eventually got it to retry.

 

A bit over two and a half hours later it is still "installing" 1903 - inverted commas because I doubt it actually installs until I've rebooted a few times.

 

Meanwhile, the pains of an upside-down trackpad to scroll through what it has "prepared", and the pain of only having one desktop. I really don't understand how you guys are able to tolerate this system! On my other desktops/laptop I usually have a term and firefox on one desktop, falkon browser on another, then other things on the next two desktops - and even when I have four or more overlapping windows on one desktop it is really easy to get to the one I want.

 

Oh well, please wish me luck and my congratulations to those of you who are calm enough to get on with windows 10.

 

ĸen

Bad news! You have another update to go as current version is 1909.

 

The best thing to do is to update it on a more regular basis - perhaps monthly, if you can't be bothered doing it more often.

 

 

[melmerby]

9 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

  I really don't understand how you guys are able to tolerate this system!

 

ĸen

Because it's easy to use?

 

[stewartingram]

And it works! I really can't understand the problems many people seem to have, seriously. I use the desktop an awful lot, it auto updates, and I don't have anything special added to clean it or anything. I just use Microsoft firewall and antivirus (always have since upgrading to W10), and have not suffered anything untoward (unlike previous versions and add on software). Only extra I use - occasionally - is CCleaner free version.

 

Stewart

[Butler Henderson]

A warning for everyone using IE 11 (and presumably earlier versions) - ordered a bike part from the US that is only available in the form required from that supplier and obviously, and knowingly, got hit by customs plus the Post Offices £8 fixed handling fee. I thought reading the web page it came with the necessary extras but it did not. Turned out that IE11 had not fully loaded the web page and failed to show the list of extras to select from. So another £8 to the Post Office to pay. 

[brossard]

With Win7 about to lose it's support I decided to retire my very old desktop and get a new laptop with W10.  I've had it about a week now and have to say it has worked brilliantly. 

 

The only issue is there are only 3 USB ports.  I got myself two USB hubs with 4 ports each so that should ensure I can connect anything.  On that subject I unified my wireless mouse and keyboard (they now work off the same receiver) which frees up a port.

 

John

[Jonboy]

I finally updated my work pc to  from 7 to 10 over Xmas, having been ignoring the IT Managers requests for at least 18 months due to the poor experience on my home laptops and actually am quite impressed with it for the work experience. The free upgrade from 7 to 10 still worked as well.

 

Sticking with Linux mint on the home pc mind you....

[D9020 Nimbus]

Just to mention that Windows 10 does allow you to create multiple desktops as standard. No additional software required.

[zarniwhoop]

12 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Bad news! You have another update to go as current version is 1909.

 

The best thing to do is to update it on a more regular basis - perhaps monthly, if you can't be bothered doing it more often.

 

 

Pointless. Once I've finished the job, the machine will be powered off until next year (since windows does not play nicely with other operating systems).

 

Anyway, the update was better behaved than in the past - completed in about 4½ hours (so maybe 2 hours of actual updates and reboots), it asked me before the initial reboot, then did not need further attention until I was able to login.

[melmerby]

56 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

 (since windows does not play nicely with other operating systems).

 

What exactly do you mean by that?

Sounds like "I don't want Windows because............" comment.

 

BTW if you PC is taking 4 or more hours to do an update or two I suggest a better PC

 

Apart from SWMBOs cheap laptop, my three PCs have done all the last 12 months worth of updates in less than 4 hours total between them. 1903 to 1909 took about 5 mins each.

Edited January 11, 2020 by melmerby

[zarniwhoop]

3 hours ago, melmerby said:

What exactly do you mean by that?

Sounds like "I don't want Windows because............" comment.

Specifically: it requires UEFI and wants signed bootloaders, the fast-start settings cause problems when switching to a different OS, and it has been known (in the past) to trash filesystems it doesn't understand.

 

On the laptop I'm currently using, the fast-start settings are disabled. When I next use windows on this machine (there is reputed to be a newer "bios" for this laptop which fixes the ACPI problems in linux) I'll need to read my notes about how to reinstate that, and then undo it afterwards.

[melmerby]

10 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

Specifically: it requires UEFI and wants signed bootloaders, the fast-start settings cause problems when switching to a different OS, and it has been known (in the past) to trash filesystems it doesn't understand.

 

On the laptop I'm currently using, the fast-start settings are disabled. When I next use windows on this machine (there is reputed to be a newer "bios" for this laptop which fixes the ACPI problems in linux) I'll need to read my notes about how to reinstate that, and then undo it afterwards.

Doesn't need UEFI, you can use MBR if you wish and if you install something such as Ext2 will quite happily read and write to Linux format disks.

[kevinlms]

Windows 10 updated yesterday, now I'm getting notifications asking 'How difficult is it to customise Windows, to the way you want it'?

 

Anyone else?

[melmerby]

28 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Windows 10 updated yesterday, now I'm getting notifications asking 'How difficult is it to customise Windows, to the way you want it'?

 

Anyone else?

No.

 

My three PCs updated wednesday and thursday (must have be minor as it only took a few minutes.)

One had some AMD updates at the same time (Ryzen processor)

No change in operation as far as I can see.

 

[RFS]

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Windows 10 updated yesterday, now I'm getting notifications asking 'How difficult is it to customise Windows, to the way you want it'?

 

Anyone else?

 

Sounds like you have notifications for these messages turned on. If you don't want them, go to start -> settings -> notifications and turn them off. 

[Jonboy]

So 8 working days into using my work pc, upgraded to 10 over Xmas I suffered BSOD crash on startup and had to reset windows.....which having suffered similar antics on a laptop was why I had held out for so long....

[RFS]

2 hours ago, Jonboy said:

So 8 working days into using my work pc, upgraded to 10 over Xmas I suffered BSOD crash on startup and had to reset windows.....which having suffered similar antics on a laptop was why I had held out for so long....

 

Why do you assume that it must be Windows 10 at fault? It could be an intermittent hardware fault, or a 3rd-party device driver/software that's the culprit.

 

You could try running the utility called "bluescreenview" (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html) and this will give you a detailed listing of what caused the problem.  

Edited January 17, 2020 by RFS

[Vistisen]

On 12/01/2020 at 00:39, zarniwhoop said:

Specifically: it requires UEFI and wants signed bootloaders, the fast-start settings cause problems when switching to a different OS, and it has been known (in the past) to trash filesystems it doesn't understand.

 

On the laptop I'm currently using, the fast-start settings are disabled. When I next use windows on this machine (there is reputed to be a newer "bios" for this laptop which fixes the ACPI problems in linux) I'll need to read my notes about how to reinstate that, and then undo it afterwards.

UEFI can be turned off. It is not a requirement, Not even om Microsoft Surface hardware. https://windowsreport.com/install-linux-ubuntu-surface-pro-devices/

 

[kevinlms]

6 hours ago, RFS said:

 

Sounds like you have notifications for these messages turned on. If you don't want them, go to start -> settings -> notifications and turn them off. 

So you're suggesting that Windows changed the settings and now asking ME  if Windows found this customisation easy?