Windows 10 Free Upgrade.....

windows-10-we-finally-fixed-everything.jpg
 
All right.

I installed (I refuse to use the term upgraded) it on my home PC, and it's the most confusing, godawful OS I've ever seen. And by the way MS Money will not work, and if there was one single program that I have that must work, that is the one.

This may drive me to the Mac side.
 
Installed it a couple days ago - took forever.

Been stable, smooth and overall I like it although I did have to go seek out every little bit of Google-esque spying and turn off those you can - never even tried Cortana since she is the heart of the data gathering background.

Has taken a minute or two to get used to but seems to have addressed the things about 8.1 I didn't care for.

'Gimp
 
I have upgraded a couple of machines; my home desktop and my work desktop. It seems stable. The only downside so far is that they got rid of the inbox VPN clients and I had to install a third party client (it was available and easy enough to do, though). I'll probably do my laptop over the weekend. The user experience isn't dramatically different than 8.1, but I do like the start menu better. I have not used Cortana, yet or the facial recognition.
 
Sac Arrow said:
All right.

I installed (I refuse to use the term upgraded) it on my home PC, and it's the most confusing, godawful OS I've ever seen. And by the way MS Money will not work, and if there was one single program that I have that must work, that is the one.

This may drive me to the Mac side.
Click to expand...

Geez, what OS were you on? Does MS Money work on Mac? MS Money was sunset in 2009. They ditched it because most people use online banking apps now. It didn't work on my Win 7 install either. I can do anything Money did in Excel so that's what I use.

I upgraded a laptop yesterday which took a couple of hours. Not much different than Win 8.1 as far as I'm concerned.
 
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I installed it on my laptop. No issues with anything not working after the upgrade. Start menu is OK, probably won't install classicshell on it. Haven't really messed with it too much configuration wise - other than turning off file explorer when I boot up.
 
The nagging has begun.

Sorry, MS, I don't make major system changes (and an OS change is a major change) without a full backup. Oh, and that means purchasing a new backup program as Acronis 2011 won't work on Win10 and has become flaky on 7. Bad reports on the new version of Acronis, so I went with Macrium which is impressive so far (sped up the computer, faster backup, no nagging me about "upgrading" to Acronis subscription and cloud backup). There are probably some other old programs that I use occasionally (Full Photoshop is one....) that aren't worth the cost of upgrading, but may not run under Win 10, including a couple of specialized applications for external device control.

MS is pushing this because they want to push you to use their online services and so they can collect data from you. Lots of data. Just try to get the new version of MS Office in any fashion other than a subscription. I've had enough folks tell me about lost work in Office 365 when there was a burp in the internet connection that I won't move to it. MS is aiming to become a cross between Google and Apple.... and may be adopting some of the worst of both.

Win 10 may be "free", but as the MS sales reps used to say: "There is a real cost to free software".

It's all about subscription services these days - so you can buy the same software over and over & increase company profits. Not just MS, most of the vendors (Linux is an exception). I use Dropbox to share with a couple of folks, but the only real cloud storage I use/want to use is SpiderOak.
 
I installed it inside Parallels on an iMac. It seems to work OK. I only need Windows for three programs and only one of those is important. I could have stuck to Windows 7 but I'm always drawn to updating when possible. You get to opt out of some of the "following" during installation, but the default is for it to send information to Microsoft.
 
MadseasoN said:
Geez, what OS were you on? Does MS Money work on Mac? MS Money was sunset in 2009. They ditched it because most people use online banking apps now. It didn't work on my Win 7 install either. I can do anything Money did in Excel so that's what I use.

I upgraded a laptop yesterday which took a couple of hours. Not much different than Win 8.1 as far as I'm concerned.
Click to expand...

I doubt it will work on a Mac but it's still available for free on MS' website (called a "Sunset" version.) My bank doesn't have any suitable online app as far as I know.

Regardless I think I may have found a workaround to the problem through a registry change.
 
wsuffa said:
The nagging has begun.

Sorry, MS, I don't make major system changes (and an OS change is a major change) without a full backup. Oh, and that means purchasing a new backup program as Acronis 2011 won't work on Win10 and has become flaky on 7. Bad reports on the new version of Acronis, so I went with Macrium which is impressive so far (sped up the computer, faster backup, no nagging me about "upgrading" to Acronis subscription and cloud backup). There are probably some other old programs that I use occasionally (Full Photoshop is one....) that aren't worth the cost of upgrading, but may not run under Win 10, including a couple of specialized applications for external device control.

MS is pushing this because they want to push you to use their online services and so they can collect data from you. Lots of data. Just try to get the new version of MS Office in any fashion other than a subscription. I've had enough folks tell me about lost work in Office 365 when there was a burp in the internet connection that I won't move to it. MS is aiming to become a cross between Google and Apple.... and may be adopting some of the worst of both.

Win 10 may be "free", but as the MS sales reps used to say: "There is a real cost to free software".

It's all about subscription services these days - so you can buy the same software over and over & increase company profits. Not just MS, most of the vendors (Linux is an exception). I use Dropbox to share with a couple of folks, but the only real cloud storage I use/want to use is SpiderOak.
Click to expand...

FYI, there is a System Image Backup option built in to Windows 7 and above. They hide it pretty well, but it is there and will provide a recoverable system image without having to buy a third party solution.
 
wsuffa said:
The nagging has begun.

Sorry, MS, I don't make major system changes (and an OS change is a major change) without a full backup. Oh, and that means purchasing a new backup program as Acronis 2011 won't work on Win10 and has become flaky on 7. Bad reports on the new version of Acronis, so I went with Macrium which is impressive so far (sped up the computer, faster backup, no nagging me about "upgrading" to Acronis subscription and cloud backup). There are probably some other old programs that I use occasionally (Full Photoshop is one....) that aren't worth the cost of upgrading, but may not run under Win 10, including a couple of specialized applications for external device control.

MS is pushing this because they want to push you to use their online services and so they can collect data from you. Lots of data. Just try to get the new version of MS Office in any fashion other than a subscription. I've had enough folks tell me about lost work in Office 365 when there was a burp in the internet connection that I won't move to it. MS is aiming to become a cross between Google and Apple.... and may be adopting some of the worst of both.

Win 10 may be "free", but as the MS sales reps used to say: "There is a real cost to free software".

It's all about subscription services these days - so you can buy the same software over and over & increase company profits. Not just MS, most of the vendors (Linux is an exception). I use Dropbox to share with a couple of folks, but the only real cloud storage I use/want to use is SpiderOak.
Click to expand...

Yep.

Rich
 
John221us said:
FYI, there is a System Image Backup option built in to Windows 7 and above. They hide it pretty well, but it is there and will provide a recoverable system image without having to buy a third party solution.
Click to expand...

I've never been able to get it to work. Windows Backup always gives up with a failure message when I include that option.
 
The ridiculous amount of spying they've baked into Windows 10 is troubling to me, but I'm a Linux guy, so it's probably must my socialist ways shining through. “We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to.”
 
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Palmpilot said:
I've never been able to get it to work. Windows Backup always gives up with a failure message when I include that option.
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This.

Something in the recent Windows compatibility updates made my WD USB drives stop working. The Seagates work fine.

A pox on Redmond.
 
Palmpilot said:
I've never been able to get it to work. Windows Backup always gives up with a failure message when I include that option.
Click to expand...


Works for me. It isn't Windows Backup, it is System Recovery Image. You can't recover individual files. They have a separate File History backup tool for that that will capture files and profile stuff. The System Recovery Image is for a complete hard drive failure.
 
wsuffa said:
The saying still applies. In the past, the upgrade was for $$.
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You didn't pay for the upgrade so it is a free upgrade, regardless of what happened in the past. Consider it an extension of your current license.

Any new release of Windows will result in loads of people whining about how things were moved around and don't make sense to them. 'Is-Ought' is a terrible way to live.

MS does with Windows what I would like to do on many software projects - let the software designers determine the most efficient ways to use the product and force the business (the users) to evolve.
 
John221us said:
Works for me. It isn't Windows Backup, it is System Recovery Image.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about reinstalling the original operating system from the recovery partition, or restoring from one of the automatically saved system restore points, or restoring from a system image that you recorded?

You can't recover individual files.
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The failure is not occurring during the recovery process, it's occurring during the backup process. It simply will not save a system image.
 
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MadseasoN said:
MS does with Windows what I would like to do on many software projects - let the software designers determine the most efficient ways to use the product and force the business (the users) to evolve.
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Apple already does that.

The problem with doing that is "efficient way to use a product" <> "efficient way to run a business" or "conduct overall workflow". Unless software designers are business process experts, they can muck up a business faster than a bullet through a sheet of paper. I can't count the number of *specialized* business software products that have substantially increased costs at companies and lowered productivity.... because the software designers thought they knew best.

Software is useless if it doesn't make a process faster, better, or easier.
 
wsuffa said:
Apple already does that.

The problem with doing that is "efficient way to use a product" <> "efficient way to run a business" or "conduct overall workflow". Unless software designers are business process experts, they can muck up a business faster than a bullet through a sheet of paper. I can't count the number of *specialized* business software products that have substantially increased costs at companies and lowered productivity.... because the software designers thought they knew best.

Software is useless if it doesn't make a process faster, better, or easier.
Click to expand...

Some of the industry-specific proprietary stuff is the worst. You'd think that developers coding software for a particular industry would make at least some effort to learn about that industry, but many times they don't. Most times this revealed itself in missing database fields. I remember a program for landscapers that didn't have a field for the users to store the EPA registration numbers for the pesticides they used (which was a state reporting requirement), software for sheetrocking companies that didn't have a field for which type of joint compound was used on a job (which made a difference price-wise), software for car repair shops that lacked a field for the VIN... All sorts of things like that.

To add insult to industry, a lot of these programs are always a version or two behind the current OS. There were three proprietary programs that a lot of my clients used that were forever so behind that when my clients needed to add workstations, I'd either have to run around trying to find new computers with the older OS so they could run the software, which in many cases was the only thing they cared about, or else virtualize the old OS.

Rich
 
So my computer still is trying to install Windows 10 Home by itself every time I boot my computer up to no success. Still not interested in Windows 10.

However, I am curious if Windows 10 is more safe and secure from getting computer viruses and malware. Is it safe and secure as a Mac OS? Or is it just as unsecure as other Windows OS?
 
MadseasoN said:
You didn't pay for the upgrade so it is a free upgrade, regardless of what happened in the past. Consider it an extension of your current license.

Any new release of Windows will result in loads of people whining about how things were moved around and don't make sense to them. 'Is-Ought' is a terrible way to live.

MS does with Windows what I would like to do on many software projects - let the software designers determine the most efficient ways to use the product and force the business (the users) to evolve.
Click to expand...

Trying to "force" users to do things is an arrogant, brain-dead concept. It's the kind of thinking that monopolies or near-monopolies like to engage in. It attempts to negate the advantages of the free market system, leading to sales disasters like Windows 8.
 
Henning said:
What are the major differences between 8 & 10? (don't say "2":D)
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Runs a bit slower, uses more resources, and the UI is a bit different. Same as every upgrade since 3.1. Otherwise, basically the same bugs and code since 95.
 
Sticking with Win7 home premium for now ... it's the least glitchy OS so far ..

Used Win8 on a friends computer and absolutely hated it.
 
Still can't figure out what the draw to this thing is. What does it do that's more useful than the last OS?
 
So I gave it a couple days but was seeing cascading failures of previously working Apps, Mail and Office elements, plus half of Facebook functionality specifically.

Uninstalled the Win10 upgrade tonight and am back to a fully functional Win 8.1 install on my Acer Aspire R7 convertible.

Disappointed, Win10 looked gorgeous and the stuff that worked seemed to work real well but I need the basics like Mail and Office to function correctly and something between Win10 and the Acer was slowly degrading after the upgrade.

'Gimp
 
denverpilot said:
Still can't figure out what the draw to this thing is. What does it do that's more useful than the last OS?
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I'm still running XP on two of my old machines at home and all apps run fine. XP Office Pro does everything I need, and all my aviation apps work fine. But some applications are starting to tell me that an update/upgrade can't be performed without a newer OS. So eventually I'll be forced to move away from XP on these two.

But to answer your question... We upgrade Windows in the hopes that old, original bugs and quirks will have finally been fixed. And 99% of the time we realize we bought nothing more than a slower OS that requires a learning curve, and to boot, we find that it is more and more tailored to the 90%, leaving the 10% that like to tweak or have non-standard peripherals or uses out in the cold. Linus and Lucy and a football. Like Linus, Lucy, and the football, we will eventually wise up and move to other products and Microsoft will have had their day.
 
denverpilot said:
Still can't figure out what the draw to this thing is. What does it do that's more useful than the last OS?
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Creates a recurring revenue stream for MS.

Data collection is deeply imbedded in the OS. Plans to create an App Store.

Think of it as being like a cross between Google and Apple.
 
wsuffa said:
Creates a recurring revenue stream for MS.

Data collection is deeply imbedded in the OS. Plans to create an App Store.

Think of it as being like a cross between Google and Apple.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
 
RJM62 said:
Gathers user data for sale to the highest bidder would be my guess.
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Here's an article that mentions some of what's in it for Microsoft:

Want to remove the ads from Solitaire in Windows 10? That'll be $1.49 a month

Excerpt:

With Windows 10 being offered to so many people as a freebie, it's natural that Microsoft will want to explore other revenue streams. Ads, and paying for their removal, is an obvious revenue stream, but from what I can tell this ad-ladened bundle will also ship with OEM and paid-for copies of Windows 10. So not only do you get to experience the joy of paying for the operating system, you also get the adware version of Solitaire.

The other advantage for Microsoft is that the more people it can get signed up to the app store with a payment method, the more likely they are to spend.​
 
If everything you're doing now works fine, the *best* you can hope for is that everything will continue to work fine...
 
NoHeat said:
If you gather together all the shares of Microsoft, they have a combined market value of $380 billion dollars. The company needs to sell a lot of stuff to justify that.

If they're hoping to keep alive with stuff like a one-time fee of $1.49 to play a card game, then they are just a house of cards, ready to fall.
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It's $1.49 per month, not a one time fee. Still chump change, though.
 
I think Apple may wind up making more money from Windows 10 than Microsoft does.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I think Apple may wind up making more money from Windows 10 than Microsoft does.

Rich
Click to expand...

That's probably accurate. If I have to re-buy my software, no reason I shouldn't move.
 
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