Windows 10 forced upgrade this month

[Curt Harms]

Microsoft is trying to reduce itself as a source for virus infections in the world, as well as reduce the amount of infections that affect its users. And that is one reason why they are pushing so hard to get folks to upgrade, AND gave you a years free opportunity to upgrade as well. And it is also why for the home versions of this OS upgrades will come in and deploy without giving you a choice about it.

If Microsoft had divided their updates into real security updates and non-security related updates giving an option on the non-security updates there might be fewer hard feelings. Though I don't know that 95% of home users know or care about the difference.

[Lee DeRaud]

But, one thing they are doing [is] to blend the experience of a phone/tablet/desktop so that if you know one you pretty much know the others.

Am I the only one who thinks making a car work just like a bicycle is a dumb idea?

[David Somers]

Lee!

Being a bicycle rider myself I think that is a GREAT idea!!!! Though the idea of peddling a car up some of the hills in Seattle is a bit intimidating. My thighs and calves are big enough as it is. <grin> I do like the idea of replacing the horn on a car with a bell mounted on the steering wheel though!

[Bill George]

What a novel idea? Make an OS the same on say a phone, tablet and then a laptop computer... maybe even a desktop? I sure wish Apple could come up with something like that instead of being in the dark ages like they are.

PS I own all off the above except for the desktop one.

[Lee DeRaud]

Lee!

Being a bicycle rider myself I think that is a GREAT idea!!!! Though the idea of peddling a car up some of the hills in Seattle is a bit intimidating. My thighs and calves are big enough as it is. <grin> I do like the idea of replacing the horn on a car with a bell mounted on the steering wheel though!

Works (or not) both ways: $1K/year for insurance to ride your bike. And that's after you install seatbelts and airbags...plus a catalytic converter to handle the methane emissions from the "engine".

[David Somers]

Lee!

Very true! Guess I have to cut back on beans in my diet and re-budget for the new insurance costs. Sigh.

[Dave Stevens-Vegas]

If you really want to speed up your system install a solid state hard drive. I have the Samsung SSD 250 Gb in both my older Lenovo laptops and they have amazing speed.

I haven't used magnetic disk drives for a few years now. An SSD is considered standard fare. The issue some with very old machines will have is the drive controller won't interface though you can get SSDs now with a parallel interface.

AKA "changes I don't care about"...and that's speaking as someone who used to develop software for a living. Note that a lot (most?) of those developer-oriented changes aren't so devs can make better software, it's so they can port desktop/laptop software to tablets and phones. The problem is, the resulting "universal" app is biased toward the least-common-denominator platform.

There haven't been attempts common code bases for mobile and desktop for several years. It hasn't been that way for the better part of 10 years now. For the last 5 or 6 years it's not even been possible to use much, if any of a common code base. Mobile and desktop are two entirely different animals these days. In the case of Win 10 it is APIs that add more functionality to the OS where devs don't have to roll their own solutions. The decline in desktop use isn't a meme. It's a reality of the business.

"...management of my technology style", now that's funny right there. I don't have a technology style. I still use a Motorola flip-phone. Same reason I use old machines, it does what I need it to do.
.

Do try and keep up Kev. I said technology cycle, not style. Just because you want to use 15 year old software it doesn't mean the man is out to get you.

[Kev Williams]

Cycle, style, pretty much the same thing at my age
...and I know the man's not out to GET me.
But he's not doing me any favors either.

[Bill Cunningham]

My wife turned on her laptop one morning, and behold it had been upgraded to win10 with the option of going back to win7 . Now it would make no difference to her, she only uses Facebook and the games. But the fact that they just installed 10 without permission 'p'd me off, so I selected the reinstall 7 option and it took over an hour to return the computer to its original state. If this had happened to my business machine, I would have billed them for the time involved.

[Michael Hunter]

For those that *have* updated to Windows 10, the "Anniversary Update" is due to start rolling out tomorrow - and everything will look different again!

[Bill George]

For those that *have* updated to Windows 10, the "Anniversary Update" is due to start rolling out tomorrow - and everything will look different again!

My wife against my advice upgraded to Windows 10, it took a slow computer on Windows 7 to one just about impossible to use. I was going to upgrade her laptop memory fro 4 to 8 Gb. In spite of using the Crucial downloaded scanner that memory would not work on her computer with Windows 10, same with taking the OEM part number off the installed memory and crossing over... did not work with 10, but it passed the boot up Bios check just fine. OEM memory back, boots great.

Upgrading to a SSD drive. It took me two days of screwing around to finally get the Samsung drive clone software to work right in Windows 10 and to stop Norton's.
All works fine now, except its still at 4 Gb but the SSD doubled the speed. I can hardly wait for the Anniversary Upgrade

[David Somers]

Well,

Happy Anniversary Microsoft! The upgrade went smooth as silk!!! This laptop was made for Windows 10 and came with it installed originally so one would expect that it would accept a mere feature upgrade in the existing OS quite well. (my experience with lengthy multiple reboots and diagnosing problems on each and every other upgrade of Windows 10 to date being no indication of future problems of course.)

It started at about midnight last night, forcing me off the computer while I was working of course. Hung 3 times. By 6am it had actually started prepping for the install for real. 8 reboots later, during which it let me know that it was continuing to prep the machine for the installation and warning me this might take some time, it was ready to begin the install at 10am. By noon it had finished with only 3 reboots and that helpful message about some time being needed for completion.

After it came up it had....
Killed my external monitor and HDMI port.
Killed all my USB 2 and 3 ports, which included my mouse, keyboard, and backupdrive.
Killed my internal wifi NIC. And of course on a modern laptop there is no need for an RJ-45 connection.
Started telling me my original power supply was not OEM and was underpowered so it was reducing the processor speeds in compensation.
Recognized 4 of my 16GB of RAM.
Disabled my AV and Firewall and anti malware software requiring that they all be re-registered and re-activated.
Killed Aspire. It appears it will need a reinstallation.
Corel 7 no longer holds its SN so I have to work with them to get it active again, or reinstall.
And that is as far as I have tried to look so far. Am working slowly to get everything back up. A bit awkward since I have no connectivity and am walking upstairs and downstairs to my wife's Imac in order to get drivers and software from the web.
Oooooh! I just got it to see my wifi!! Saints be praised! There goes my exercise program for the day however.

I am glad this was an anniversary edition feature update and not something serious. I might have encountered problems then.

When done I am gonna see if I can run my laser off a 1974 TI Programmable Calculator. If I can it will be a pleasant walk down to the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal where I can enjoy the ferry ride over to Vashon Island, dropping my Windows Laptop into the deepest part of the Sound on the way, and then enjoying a quadruple Margarita at the far dock before coming back home.

Otherwise I will continue trouble shooting this PoS Operating System. (lest you be offended. PoS stands for "Piece of Superbness" Operating System.)

And people wonder why I dont miss working in IT on Windows systems anymore?

Hope the update went better for everyone else. BTW. Be sure to check out the way this update is changing how Cortana works with your system and the privacy implications. Be sure you are OK with it, not that you have a choice if you keep your windows 10 machine on the web. I wont go into details since this is largely a matter of preference, and I am running high on unexploded invective right now. <grin>

Cheers All!

[Bill George]

OMG I just got the computer that my wife uses ALL the time working. Does it ask to do the upgrade or is it just an automatic thing!!!

[Bert Kemp]

Congratulations Dave I'm so happy things went well for you Since it was so easy for you I think I'll forgo any upgrades at all ever. I did do an upgrade to 10 when the free upgrade first came out. I could no longer watch netflix or listen to music . I immediately switched back to win 7.Good luck.

Well,

Happy Anniversary Microsoft! The upgrade went smooth as silk!!! This laptop was made for Windows 10 and came with it installed originally so one would expect that it would accept a mere feature upgrade in the existing OS quite well. (my experience with lengthy multiple reboots and diagnosing problems on each and every other upgrade of Windows 10 to date being no indication of future problems of course.)

It started at about midnight last night, forcing me off the computer while I was working of course. Hung 3 times. By 6am it had actually started prepping for the install for real. 8 reboots later, during which it let me know that it was continuing to prep the machine for the installation and warning me this might take some time, it was ready to begin the install at 10am. By noon it had finished with only 3 reboots and that helpful message about some time being needed for completion.

After it came up it had....
Killed my external monitor and HDMI port.
Killed all my USB 2 and 3 ports, which included my mouse, keyboard, and backupdrive.
Killed my internal wifi NIC. And of course on a modern laptop there is no need for an RJ-45 connection.
Started telling me my original power supply was not OEM and was underpowered so it was reducing the processor speeds in compensation.
Recognized 4 of my 16GB of RAM.
Disabled my AV and Firewall and anti malware software requiring that they all be re-registered and re-activated.
Killed Aspire. It appears it will need a reinstallation.
Corel 7 no longer holds its SN so I have to work with them to get it active again, or reinstall.
And that is as far as I have tried to look so far. Am working slowly to get everything back up. A bit awkward since I have no connectivity and am walking upstairs and downstairs to my wife's Imac in order to get drivers and software from the web.
Oooooh! I just got it to see my wifi!! Saints be praised! There goes my exercise program for the day however.

I am glad this was an anniversary edition feature update and not something serious. I might have encountered problems then.

When done I am gonna see if I can run my laser off a 1974 TI Programmable Calculator. If I can it will be a pleasant walk down to the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal where I can enjoy the ferry ride over to Vashon Island, dropping my Windows Laptop into the deepest part of the Sound on the way, and then enjoying a quadruple Margarita at the far dock before coming back home.

Otherwise I will continue trouble shooting this PoS Operating System. (lest you be offended. PoS stands for "Piece of Superbness" Operating System.)

And people wonder why I dont miss working in IT on Windows systems anymore?

Hope the update went better for everyone else. BTW. Be sure to check out the way this update is changing how Cortana works with your system and the privacy implications. Be sure you are OK with it, not that you have a choice if you keep your windows 10 machine on the web. I wont go into details since this is largely a matter of preference, and I am running high on unexploded invective right now. <grin>

Cheers All!

[Keith Winter]

Windows 10 upgrade went smoother for me than expected, out of multiples pcs only 2 gave me trouble. Seems to work fine with Trotec Job Control 10.4.2 as well. It's actually very much like windows 7.