General Chat

Thanks Elizabeth.

You might like to read the latest edition of Computeractive which lists 19 new things you can do with Windows 10!

Thanks IGP But the last comment is more than a month ago has anybody anything to add to this to make me think I should click on the 'get windows 10 button'?

Nudged up

Thanks for the link Rollo.
Since his device is very quiet at the moment I think it has already been turned off. Fortunately OH is computer savvy but he does like to play with computers. :-D

Cortana is going to be a real heap of trouble.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-enable-and-disable-cortana-in-windows-10/

There are two disadvantages that I have discovered so far

1 My OH keeps talking to the computer and it's not doing as he asks :-0 :-0

2 It wouldn't let me in until I told it that I liked the picture / disliked the picture it had chosen and it keeps asking me silly questions. Anyone know where you can find the "go away" button ;-) ;-) ;-) :-D

Selling software is no longer a viable business model. Apple sussed that out yonks ago while ago while failure to do so brought about the corporate demise of Steve Ballmer.

The new game in town is selling services based upon software. Ancestry is pretty good at it, DC Thomson seems not to have a clue.

Windows 10 will be the last classic version of Windows and quite possibly the best. Microsoft are moving on selling data services under the Azure banner, MS Office as a subscription and next Windows. Google does not make you pay for its Android platform. Neither will you pay a fee for future versions of Windows. You will get an incremental UG with no opt out.

Which brings us back to one of the major downsides of Windows 10. It is setup, just like Android ir Apple phone/tablet OS, to spy on you at every turn and even better takes over ownership of your data with the right to "mine" it for commercial purposes and even denounce you for anything it deems unacceptable. No judge, no jury. With a bit of effort and poking around it is possible to disable most of this but few will bother. Those that can will mostly be running Linux anyway.

The second major downside is as Errol points out that the OS is a new and fragile butterfly in the brutal world of desktop OS running on heterogenous hardware. There is a great deal of evidence that it cannot be done with closed source code - one reason such not-at-all-short-of-money organisations as the German Fed Govt have opted for Linux in all public service contracts. Quite how that will go down with TTIP I don't know and UKGovt has already embedded Microsoft/Fujitsu into its DNA with so far absymal reslts. Ask the NHS, postmasters or the DWP.

So yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice.
Or not.
Use linux.

As a postscript Errol has been busy trying out the possibility of running Windows 10 and Linux on the same machine. He has found that this is ok.Up to a point.

The old type BIOS is being replaced by something called EUFI. Motherboards with EUFI can be configured so as to prevent the installation of 3rd party OS such as Linux. Control of this can be with the end user, a company or ISP and most importantly the OEM such as DELL. It is quite possible that systems sold to end users will deny the possibility of installing other OS or make doing so extremely difficult. Once users are locked into Windows xx along with Microsoft's new security protocols and links to NSA, GCHQ etc we shall be in murky waters. Just what Brave Dave and She May Well She May Not are looking for.

enjoy

Precisely - roughly what I said and Rollo said.

Guinea pigs of the world untie!

I have just had a quick chat with OH's nephew who has a computer business in our town.

He was with a customer when I poked my head round the door.
I said that I wanted to bend his ear about Windows 10 and he said not to do it!
Well, not yet anyway!

So I shall hold off from pressing that button for now!!!! :-D :-D :-D :-D

Did Desktop and wife's Laptop yesterday and all was straightforward.

The only thing I needed to do was to change the date format which defaulted to the US version.

My wife's hotmail failed to sync using WLM but adding her account to the W10 mail client kicked it back to life. On the otherhand, my email using Thunderbird worked ok.

Interesting that the third party mail client was ok whereas Microsoft's wasn't.

FTM 2014 works fine too. There was an FTM patch issued a few days ago and whilst there was no mention of W10 I wonder if it did include fixes as I gather a number had said they were having problems.

fruity loops or as Erroll says the joys of being an early adopter.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2970853/microsoft-windows/windows-10-patch-kb-3081436-triggers-endless-reboots-just-like-its-predecessor-kb-3081424.html

Errol believes that a better option is Linux desktop which has had all the best features of Windows 10 for years with none of the downside. I agree with him and have few problems using Linux as my default desktop. Free. Any machine. No time limit. No spying.

Moreover Linux has a massive friendly cloud of helpful support. Unless you have a corporate account Windows offers a choice between their online robot and that man from Bangalore.

You don't have to reserve a copy.
Skip this and you can still install it, if you really want to risk it at this early stage.

My blue box has just appeared, in the middle of reading this thread, and I have clicked reserve - on OH's instructions!!

lol....errolsheep

so far so good... i guess time will tell if its a wise move or not ;-) x

FOR you can boast about having the latest version of Windows.

AGAINST you are being used as a guinea pig - MS is using home users as a test bed to iron out any problems before unleashing its power on business users.
You cannot roll back to your previous version of windows if, after a month, you decide you do not like it.
Updates are automatic - even unwanted or potentially damaging ones. MS will dictate what it puts on your machine and when. This will also affect users who are on a capped internet connection or use mobile broadband (this is also important to bear in mind if dowloading in the background prior to innstallation).
It is always advisable to wait before installing a new operating system to allow time for serious flaws and bugs to become apparent.

If you are eligible for the upgrade, you can wait a year before downloading/installing so give other mugs, I mean guinea pigs, I mean "experts" the task of installing and discovering the numerous problems, crashes, incompatibilities etc on your behalf.

yes click the blue box and reserve, it will download in the background then when its ready to upgrade the blue box will appear and tell you to upgrade.... it could take a few days that's what happened with me....

only thing my printer wouldn't work so i had to re-install the driver for that....

good luck :-) x

It's my turn now to have the POP UP BLUE BOX!

Question is.... do I press the reserve button?!!
The Windows 10 box says "I'm good to go!" and it's "APPS: 0 Incompatible"


I have Windows 7 on a Dell Studio Laptop.
Apart from a dodgy external mouse, it's simple and easy to use.
I have all my Family History documents and photos, including photos and videos from my Nikon Camera Uploads, stored in it.

Can some of you tell a technological ignoramus come technophobe ..... in SIMPLE ENGLISH the fores and againsts of downloading Windows 10?

I nearly pressed the button!

BUT I SHALL WAIT A WHILE LONGER! :-D :-D :-D

I've got two desktops still running XP which I've found easy to use and reliable.
My laptop has been upgraded to Widows 8.1 which is less intuative, slow and seems unstable, loses the wireless connection.
The idea was to get used to 8.1 on the laptop before upgrading the desktops. So far I haven't for the reasons above.
My daughter's laptop is running Vista which, whilst it seems reliable, once again doesn't sttike as being particularly user-friendly.
I really don't know where to go next!

Try running programmes in compatibility mode.