Has Windows 10 re-intrroduced Crash Tuesday ??

[John King]

Gidday Am

We have virtual PDF printers installed on all our computers. That doesn't actually help when the web pages involved produce hieroglyphics when the file is printed on that virtual PDF printer ...

Flaming useless.

One of the great strengths of MS has always been that it has preserved some kind of compatibility of files and file structures over more than three decades. It is not sensible to ditch a commitment to that. EVEN MS Publisher, one of the worst offenders in the MS/Windows world, has the ability to write files in the Publisher98 format, which is readable, editable and writable in all versions of MS Publisher.

WinXP and Win7 do not have a MS virtual PDF printer. However, Adobe Acrobat is designed for EXACTLY this purpose, and now no longer works on some web sites ...
I suspect that it has to do with file headers and font substitution, possibly along with the use of prohibited control characters in same ... .

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@John King

My first build was with ME, AKA 'Many Errors', and after my Amiga I thought it was OK 'cos I could get on the internet. I didn't know any better.

Changed to XP Pro and thought this was what an OS should be. Still do.

Then I went to Vista Home Premium 64bit, mainly to get access to more than 4GB of RAM. I'd call it a dog, but that would be unfair to our canine friends.

Couldn't wait to get W7 Pro 64bit after the horrors of Vista. Quite liked it, and probably should have stayed with it instead of upgrading to Bloatware Central.

With W10 the jury is still out, and possibly will be for a bloody long time, but my gut feeling is that I should have stayed with W7, at least till MS get it sorted.

Yeah, Kev.

I started with MS before MSDOS v.2.01. Used Word and Multiplan (nearly a decade before it was renamed to Excel ... ).

A friend has Vista Enterprise installed on his PC since before I knew him. It's ugly, plain f'ugly ... XP Pro is almost infinitely better. I support that to this day.

I am in the process of upgrading both our h/w and OS from XP Pro to Win7 Pro (32 bit). I inherited a bunch of Win7 Pro PCs from a client. They are good gear (I originally provisioned them some years ago). Just need an update to SSD and 4GB RAM each. Then install CS5/6 Office and the myriad other programs on each of them. I have one operational - it flies .

[arthurking83]

.....

Prior to yesterdays update I'd hit the power button and go straight to my desktop. ..... (

Is your user account an Admin account?

if so, that could be why.

People always complain that Windows is prone to viruses and malware and surreptitious software and so forth and suchlike, and that Mac and Linux is so much more secure .. etc, etc, blah blah.

Then M$ deals with such security issues .... that most folks create for themselves anyhow(ie. as in don't password protect Admin rights and log in as an unprotected Admin) and then all you read about is complaints about it!

Linux and Mac is no more secure than Windows as long as the correct rights have been set .. Oh! and that you don't install the malware in the first place.

Me thinks M$ detected that you don't use a password, have set your account to Admin rights and this constitutes is a security issue!
If this is correct then THEY have done the right thing by you.
If you want to enter the desktop without a login prompt then use a regular User account.

If you do in fact login under your account and it's a regular User account .. well then they probably stuffed up!

I just remembered too that I actually set up Win10 to login via my hotmail account, so that's why I've had my email account as my login prompt from day one.

I just can't see what the fuss is about Win10 at the moment.
Win8 yes! .. a bit of a dog on the one and only laptop I had to use once very briefly.
But Win10 is basically Win7 again .. have had no problems in reality with four machines(2 laptops, my tablet and my desktop)
I think the major issue is the change! And that's really it. Many folks probably did an upgrade which is a great recipe for everything to go wrong in terms of devices drivers and conflicts, which are almost 99.9% certain to be a result of a problem with the old OS's setup.

[Cage]

Is your user account an Admin account?

if so, that could be why.


Then M$ deals with such security issues .... that most folks create for themselves anyhow(ie. as in don't password protect Admin rights and log in as an unprotected Admin) and then all you read about is complaints about it!

Me thinks M$ detected that you don't use a password, have set your account to Admin rights and this constitutes is a security issue!
If this is correct then THEY have done the right thing by you.
If you want to enter the desktop without a login prompt then use a regular User account.

All very interesting Arthur, and I may be missing the obvious here, however I live alone, have a Staffy minding the place when I'm not around, so I don't feel the need to have access to my computer protected by a password.

FWIW, I found the changeover to W10 pretty painless.

One other thing that p!sses me off is that Solitaire is now played online, and to access it MS get the chance to offer you some more unwanted apps.

[ameerat42]

Have you checked if Staffy has admin access?

[Cage]

Have you checked if Staffy has admin access?

She doesn't, but I'm not going to argue with her.

[ricktas]

For me, Win10 has been the most stable. fastest loading and using OS from M$ I have experienced. I have not had a single issue with it on any of my computers. It has never frozen, crashed or blue screen of death'd me once.

Whilst I often read about 'these people' who are many who hate it and have all sorts of issues with it, as far as I and my friends go, we love it. reliable, fast, and IMO the best Win version ever.

[arthurking83]

All very interesting Arthur, and I may be missing the obvious here, however I live alone, have a Staffy minding the place when I'm not around, so I don't feel the need to have access to my computer protected by a password.

FWIW, I found the changeover to W10 pretty painless.

One other thing that p!sses me off is that Solitaire is now played online, and to access it MS get the chance to offer you some more unwanted apps.

Password protection is not just for physical access to the PC. It also protects the PC from downloaded malware too.
That is, in the 'ye olde days' of Windows where Admin rights were given to everyone by default it was easier for some infected program to simply install itself on the side whilst the user having admin rights without a password, had no idea it was being installed.

If a leet haxor wanted to get into your system, it was actually quite easy to reset the password anyhow.
I had to do this for my sister's Win Vista! PC(the only Vista slug I've ever dealt with .. uughhh!)
Her user account got corrupted and she couldn't log in of course.
At least it made a backup of the user account, all I had to do was reset the user's password status using a haxor program of some kind, and then reset the backed up user account data to her user name and the PC was good to go again.

So whilst passwords aren't the be all and end all in security, M$ does force us to use them more regularly .. same with when you install all software and when you run certain types of software .. note that you may(or should) get a prompt to allow some stuff to run.

Moved on from the last job that allowed me the opp to play Solitare .. can't do that now at my current work! So haven't touched Solitare since just before Win10(about July last year).

[Lance B]

If you had a CD installed Windows, then you may have to log in using the product key rather than go through an email account. I had to do this with mine recently, but with W7 not W10.

[ameerat42]

Lance. The W7 > W 10 upgrade uses the valid earlier Win key, eg, from & 7 or 8.
I don't remember having to enter it.

[Mark L]

Oh dear, I'm still using Vista. It's what I've got used to and think it works fine.
Of cause I don't know what's happened since and I'm bloody scared of change.

[ameerat42]

Oh dear, I'm still using Vista. It's what I've got used to and think it works fine.

If properly set up it should

Of cause I don't know what's happened since and I'm bloody scared of change.

That's OK. I'll keep the change

[Lance B]

Lance. The W7 > W 10 upgrade uses the valid earlier Win key, eg, from & 7 or 8.
I don't remember having to enter it.

If it is pre-installed on your computer when you purchased it, then it may have been done for you, like mine was. However, I was given the original product key when I purchased the computer. When I recently did something which upset the system (can't remember exactly what I did), MS asked for my log-in details or my prodcut key, which I re-entered and everything was sweet.

[ameerat42]

Yep. That's right. All 4 upgrades were on laptops that already had W7 or W8 installed.

[Cage]

Password protection is not just for physical access to the PC. It also protects the PC from downloaded malware too.
That is, in the 'ye olde days' of Windows where Admin rights were given to everyone by default it was easier for some infected program to simply install itself on the side whilst the user having admin rights without a password, had no idea it was being installed.

If a leet haxor wanted to get into your system, it was actually quite easy to reset the password anyhow.

"leet haxor" ??? , gees Arthur, I had to google that.

I'm obviously still missing the point you are making. Other than someone hacking into my system, I can't see how malware is going to be downloaded if I don't click on a suss link, or download a suss program, whether I'm logged in or not, and I'm excessively pedantic about doing either.

[Kym]

Windows 10 forced updates are a PITA. We have lost control and if an update has a side effect we can't delay it until WE THE CUSTOMER are ready

[ameerat42]

Onlly on HOme edition and the next one up. The toppest lets you switch off I think/seem to recall/might have dreamed...

[Cage]

Onlly on HOme edition and the next one up. The toppest lets you switch off I think/seem to recall/might have dreamed...

I can switch auto updates off in my W10 64bit Pro but seemingly not in the Home edition on the lappy, which I've fixed by switching the WiFi off.

[John King]

Kev, the pro versions only allow you to delay "updates", not prevent them. Eventually they will install ... UGLY ...

[ameerat42]

And then there were NONE...
Havva good read.

[John King]

And then there were NONE...
Havva good read.

Thanks, Am. Read and bookmarked .

Of particular interest is the ability to block specific updates using the method/s they describe.

Since Win10 no longer supports the concept of service packs, one cannot simply delay installing a service pack until it is proven to be stable by the early adopters (aka 'gamma testers' ... ).