Windows 10

teddy

Duckmeister
Having moved up to Windows 7 due to the lack of support for XP I have now upgraded to 10 (free of course) . 8 was rubbish as far as I was concerned but now I am getting the hang of 10 I must admit it has a lot of good points, especially as it seems to run faster. Updates fly in and it has some good features. Has anyone found any bad points to it yet?

teddy
 

Dorsetmike

Member
I've not taken advantage of it after some of the reports I've seen on different forums, the replacement for IE, Edge, seems a bit iffy, there is too much info being sent back to microsloth, (unless you know how to turn it off), some have had difficulty with running some of their software, some have had difficulty downloading it especially those on slow connections.

I'm using 7, it ain't broke so why fix it. Maybe if/when any bugs get sorted out and how to disable some of the more obtrusive things is clarified I might be tempted when 7 finally goes out of support, if I'm still around that is!
 

teddy

Duckmeister
I still use IE Mike. Haven't come across any problems yet, apart from me. No MY COMPUTER any more, they have changed the name of it which gave me some problems. Otherwise I believe it is an improvement on 7, and definitely better than 8

teddy
 

Dorsetmike

Member
10 sounds like the curates egg - good in parts, I've seen some praising it, and some damning it, I think it depends on if you accept whatever MS throw at you it's fine but if you are a bit more particular it's useless. I don't intend to touch it Win 7 is doing me fine, so why change to something as yet unproven.
 

Dorsetmike

Member
I read one report today where the man wanted to revert to Win 7 believing what MS said that you could do it within one month, but when he tried to go back it wouldn't go back because it had screwed up the files needed to revert, so now if he's not got his original 7 disc he's got to buy a new one. A lot of people have complained of Edge and think they have avoided it by using IE, however Edge runs all the time in the background, probably sending your every key stroke back to MS. It's said to be a step towards doing everything in the cloud That could make me go to Linux despite the learning curve and incompatibility with a lot of the software I rely on.
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Bill that is what I find with Vista the problems that I thought were caused by vista have vanished now I am with Opera, a coincidence?? I think Vista has been sorted :pray:
 

teddy

Duckmeister
I haven't found any problems with 10 yet. I still use IE rather than edge (old dog...) It seems faster and smoother than 7 and once I got used to the menu system quite easy to navigate round it. No complaints up to now ( unusual for me ;);) )

teddy
 

Dorsetmike

Member
What are the problems with Windows 10?

Invasions of privacy, quotes from a review:-

"we will access, disclose and preserve personal data", including the contents of emails or files in private folders.

[h=2]Turn off Cortana[/h]Again, this could be a problem, as the Cortana search function, which is similar to Apple's Siri, has been highly praised as one of the best functions of Windows 10.
However, one of the reasons it works so well is because it logs your past searches and can provide suggestions and more personalised search results.
Users will have to decide whether they're willing to disable Cortana in exchange for increasing privacy.
[h=2]Turn off personalised ads[/h]
Obviously, ads that are tailored to what you want depend on storing some of your data, otherwise you'd be bombarded with adverts for things you have no intention of buying.
Windows 10 ads work by delivering you targeted adverts wherever you're logged in to your Microsoft account, whether you're on desktop, mobile or tablet.
It's clear that Microsoft doesn't want users to do this, because it's not as easy to disable as the other privacy features.
However, it's still pretty straightforward. You need to go to an external website, and simply turn both personalised ad options to 'off'.

Other things, some report Win 10 freezes after about 40 minutes and needs a hard restart to get back; quite a few problems with installation, particularly it seems on slow connections, (e.g. download hanging after 4 hours) many reports of driver problems and older programmes not working, however quite a few reports of the "best thing since sliced bread" type so who do you believe?

My view is that I'm happy with Win 7, it does all I want, some of the things that worry me are the privacy issues, targeted ads etc, the leaning towards cloud based things, and possible driver and programme compatibility problems.
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
What are the problems with Windows 10?

The new browser, Edge, for one thing. There are no extensions yet, so no ad blocker ... and "it shows every stupid add on every stupid page" (Forbes Tech)

Also Win 10 can render hardware/software that worked fine with Win 7 or Win 8 inoperable. I've known several people who had to seriously upgrade their modem/router, thus creating additional unwanted expenses for the user. In other cases it might require upgrading drivers for hardware, that is, assuming that the drivers are available.

Windows Media Center will go to la-la-land when upgrading to Win 10 - the software will just evaporate (during the install). The replacement, as of earlier this month, is not yet available from Microsoft, and will cost about $15 (usd) to boot. If one decides to "roll back" to Win 7 or Win 8, Windows Media Center will NOT be one of those programs that will return. Once Win 10 wipes it, it's gone ... forever ... no matter what. Poof!

A new app, called Cortana, will be able to look inside your email and calendar. It can be disabled, of course, but the default is "on" and one has to opt out manually.

Too many things in the present world require us to constantly "opt out" for crap that we never "opted in" for in the first place. I find that to be a privacy issue.

Some of the key apps, like Mail and Edge, are still in their rough infancy. One would think that with a newly released OS all would be operational like it was in Win 7 or Win 8. Why release a new version to the public when everything isn't working?

And finally, forced updates. Some of the recent "forced" updates stop mid installation, then "flashes an error message, rolls back, and reboots. Then -- you guessed it -- the forced installer kicks in and crashes Windows again. Rinse, lather, repeat. Getting out of the mess involves editing the registry." (Forbes Tech)

Nope ... not interested at all. I'm quite happy with Win 7 ... I was even happier with Win XP, and would have kept that version had MS kept supporting it. For me, Win 7 isn't broke ... it works ... it does everything I need it to do. I can do gaming, surf the internet, download and upload massive music files, use my MS Office 2010 suite, I can print, scan, and even use Skype.

Why fix/replace something that isn't broke? Just to have the very latest? I drive a 11 year old VW Jetta GLS. I bought it new in 2004 (before I retired) and feed it, keep up with the normal maintenance, it sits in the garage at home when not being used next to the wife's Honda CRV, which is a 2006 model.
 

teddy

Duckmeister
I don't think an OS has been issued yet that worked perfectly from day one. Everyone wants to rush their software/phone/television onto the market before anyone else does. At least 10 is a lot better than 8 or Vista (what could be worse?).
As Colin said, stay off the web if you want privacy or use TOR which bounces your signal all over the world so it can not be tracked. I have used it myself and it is as private as you can possible get

teddy
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
@Teddy... I have not heard of TOR does it make it impossible for governments to determine your ISP number? if it is that good why don't the bad guys use it. I am intrigued. tell more
 

teddy

Duckmeister
That's correct Colin and yes it is used by the bad guys. Have you heard of the Silk Road? A notorious network for drugs, guns etc. Sometimes known as the dark web. Tor was invented by two guys from Cambridge University, purely for privacy and is still used for that reason by most people. It has its own browser which makes it even safer. Its symbol is an onion, layer after layer after layer. Any one can use it and for that matter sign up as a relay. Its probably as private and secure as is possible to get When you see these spy films where it is impossible to track a message because its being bounced all over the world they are using Tor, or something similar

teddy
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Amazing that the politicians don't use it for their emails teddy :D
 

teddy

Duckmeister
Just come across an important point while upgrading my daughters laptop to 10. You must do all the updates first otherwise it takes forever. Just a small point but important

teddy
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Seems that is the norm for anything like this ... the core program (original release) has to install then all the updates that have occurred along the way.

Had to do all these when I had to completely restore my Win 7 OS. The original release was from 2010. Fortunately it was all covered under my Dell warranty.
Seemed like the updates took like forever to get done.
 

Dorsetmike

Member
I read on another forum that you can't turn off automatic updates in Win 10 home edition, but you can in Win 10 Pro. So in some respects it's as though Microsloth has control of your computer; and you wonder why some of us are apprehensive?
 
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