MS Windows 10 - anybody?

[CathyC]

well, I bit the bullet and have updated the laptop (W7) to windows 10 - so far so good it took several hours to go through the whole process. I selected custom install and told it I would decide which apps would use for pics, videos etc. the first thing I tried when it was finished was to get on the net, visit here, kick up photoshop/indesign/bridge etc, do some web mail - all of those programs work just fine. So, hoping there are no issues in the next few days, then I can decide whether I want to upgrade the main PC (W8.1)

[ameerat42]

By all means, do

You've got until the 29th of July before you have to pay for it (unless they've extended the deadline).
I'm about to do my 10th machine (well, not all mine by any means).
My main laptop was 8.1 before the upgrade. Thought I'd miss it - NOPE! Never looked back.

Any problems, post here.

[thegrump]

Well it's the next day and everything seems alright so far. Except it keeps telling me that Firefox is not my my my um um um something ( COME ON BRAIN WORK ). So I click on to set it and it gives me this great list of thing, and I do not know what half of them are, and it does not tell me what to do with them if I did. I will get my son ( who has every IT certificate known to man and a few more ) to look at it. If I can get him around here any time soon. One thing that did happen, was as it was installing it asked me to click on something and the laser mouse was not working. So I turned on the wireless mouse and that was working. I unplugged the laser mouse while it was installing. When it was finished I plugged the laser back in and it worked. I AM NOT COMPUTER SAVVY.

[ameerat42]

TG. It's telling you that FFox is not your default browser (and that it is probably Edge, instead).
I do remember having a spot of BOVVer telling Win 10 to make FFox my default browser, and then it did.

It just means that for the present, it will choose (likely) Edge to open any HTML files.

[thegrump]

am.. That's it... Senior moment. Thanks

[ameerat42]

BTW, DN'T expect Cortana to work properly for you.
I tried to activate the speech part... and went around and
around in SQUARES till I gave up. (And did a bit of SQUARing)
It's OK for typing, though.

[ameerat42]

Pretty close to LAST CALL! for Free Win 10 Upgrade...

Just started my 10th and LAST free upgrade - a little Dell desktop running Win 7

Hope it goes

At this moment we had 3 days; 4hrs; 49mins left to get it for free.

[ameerat42]

WOW! SUCCESS!!
Considering this little old machine had never had a Win 7 update as it was never on-line...

So that took a bit over an hour

- - - Updated - - -

Specs:

Core2Duo E7500, 2.93GHz
4GB RAM
32-bit OS
150GB HDD

[benwheeler]

For anyone who feels confident reinstalling all their stuff, I'd always recommend doing a clean install. It basically makes your computer brand new again, assuming you don't have any hardware problems.

When doing a clean install, you can enter your Win 7/8 product key and your hardware will be used to uniquely identify you by Microsoft. If you perform a subsequent clean install, you can tell the installer that you don't have the product key with you, and it will work out later that you're already registered.

Cortana can be completely removed by right-clicking the start bar, and under "Cortana" selecting "Hidden".

[ameerat42]

What do you mean by "brand new again"? Only that it makes you re-install all your other programs?

Does this not mean that you must have some knowledge of what you're doing, and a lot of time on your
hands to go to all that effort? What is the benefit? Your 2nd paragraph needs more explaining.

The upgrade is an automated process. In 10 upgrades I have done, only once did I have to reinstall
a touchpad driver. That was also easy enough.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't do a clean install if they want to, but it's a more involved process
given that you have to reinstall EVERY other program as well.

[benwheeler]

Yes, I have some knowledge of what I'm doing. I don't consider it to be a lot of effort to reformat, and it has gotten much easier over the years due to many factors:

- I think it's best to minimise the programs installed on a computer for best performance, and the proliferation of cloud services facilitates this

- Faster internet services mean downloading large updates and driver packages isn't a big deal

- Windows does most of the configuration work for you now

- Thanks to Google, all my bookmarks, passwords etc are still in place

So it really only takes a couple of hours to completely start again.

As for why to do it in the first place - Windows excels (ha ha) at collecting endless thousand of files and registry entries, all of which conspire to slow down your system. Maybe there are better ways these days of keeping things cleaned up, but in my experience there's no better way of getting your computer running like a sparkling new one than a good reformat.

[ameerat42]

OK, thanks for explaining. It's for the sake of giving people some info about the choices they have.
Am.

[martycon]

It is possible to banish Cortana from sight. Did it somehow. Right click its shortcut for options, I think.

[ameerat42]

It is possible to banish Cortana from sight. Did it somehow. Right click its shortcut for options, I think.

Search me - I mean "Search Windows". That's all Cortana tells me

[JDuding]

I rarely use my Win10 box, so far.
But all this Cortana talk got me interested.

So I found this article on what it is, why it is and how to minimise it as much as possible, seeing as it now "Can Not" be turned off.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/31003...ry-update.html

I'll continue to avoid the Win 10 box as much as possible.
That might sound easy, but it is the unit that I use to PP my snaps.
So it is getting plenty of use of late. but, at least I only need it for a few tasks, then back to the comfort of my Lappy.

Edit: can't find the 'Linus van Pelt' emote

[Lance B]

Did my main computer a number of months ago. No major issues and I don't mind the new version, still liked W7 better though.

Just did my laptop and it seems ok.... so far!

[ameerat42]

Don't forget: after (about) 1 month you CAN'T go back to earlier version with the same product key.

- - - Updated - - -

JD: You don't really have to disable it. It doesn't really work anyway

[ameerat42]

TIME'S UP! --- for the FREE version (give or take some hours for US time).

[Filter]

Hey, it's this posts 1st birthday, well done MS.

[ameerat42]

In Win 10, when I open the Downloads Folder for the first time or after a long time, I get the
progress bar and "Working on it" message as shown below.

It lasts up to 10 sec. Subsequent opens of the folder display it immediately. The computer is a
laptop with two SSDs. I can't remember seeing it on the other machines running Win 10 with
spindle HDDs. Does anybody know why/what's happening?

Ta.

What I get...
DwnlFold.jpg