TECH QUESTION WINDOWS 10

[ezpz]

After getting a huge slew of upgrades to  my trusty old Windows 7 which I am perfectly happy with, I just got notice - maybe you have. too - that Windows 7 will not be serviced after Jan. 2020 and that everyone needs to buy Windows 10 PLUS a new computer to run it on.  That program was installed on my computer without my permission a few years ago.  I hated it and had it removed.  I'm not interested in going through yet another learning curve to just keep doing what I am already doing.  Plus, the sales pressure... now I understand why all the techies at my job (I retired 12 years ago) hated MS.  Other thing is I live here full time and never go back up north, so I would have to buy a new laptop here.  I'm aware that Benno's keeps a few in stock, but still...

Techies out there, please comment.  

 

[RickS]

Anything you do is going to require some kind of learning curve. See the Posts here about Win10 and Linux and Mac.

I opted to load Win10 on my Win7 Laptop. It was then 5-6 years old. Win10 ran just fine. But what gave my old laptop PLENTY of pep was to change my hard drive to a SSD... Solid State Drive. It, with Win10, is now blazing fast and it is 7-8 years old now. SSD drive was less than $100. 

If you don't think that you can master Win10's look-and-feel, you can have someone...Mike?..... load Win10 and opt to have it 'look like' Win7.   read this:   https://www.howtogeek.com/277448/how-to-make-windows-10-look-and-act-more-like-windows-7/

[Ferret]

8 minutes ago, RickS said:

If you don't think that you can master Win10's look-and-feel, you can have someone...Mike?..... load Win10 and opt to have it 'look like' Win7.   read this:   https://www.howtogeek.com/277448/how-to-make-windows-10-look-and-act-more-like-windows-7/

Yes, Mike (ComputerGuy) can put a "Classic Shell" on Windows 10 to make it look and feel exactly like Windows 7. The one thing he won't do is upgrade your Windows 7 TO Windows 10 because there can be problems that are not worth the aggravation. I'm wondering if a NEW SSD in your OLD computer with a NEW install of Windows 10 (and transfer of your old files to the new) and made to look like the OLD Windows 7 might do the trick for you. Worth it? Dunno.

[ComputerGuy]

Here's the good news: you don't need updates for Windows 7. In fact, I've turned off updates for all versions of Windows (except 10, but I'm working on that, too) for all my customers, and no one has suffered a jot. It works fine just the way it is, at some level of 7.1. The truth is, active support stopped a long time ago. More importantly for some, is that updates to the Windows Defender AntiVirus will keep going anyway. And if they ever stop, there are lots of free AV tools out there.

The one major difference in Windows 10 for the majority of users is that Start Menu interface with all the added icons. Other than that, almost everything about it is the same as Windows 7, with a different colour. As RickS points out, there are tools to fix even that for you, so it looks like Windows 7, which helps a lot of people. Better news is that the upcoming update to W10 is supposed to make that Start Menu look more like W7 anyway. It only took them four years, but Microsoft finally got the message: people don't like it.

Here's the bad news: under this construct of never having a higher number than 10, MS is regularly pushing out huge updates, and every single one of them has added massive bugs and problems. With their "you cannot turn off updates" policy, this means we are all guinea pigs for their experiments. Imagine being in a corporation with a hundred, 500, or 2,000 W10 computers all screwing up at the same time.

I now have a way to permanently stop updates. It's not the "meter your connection" method, which only works about 1/3. And disabling the Windows Update service doesn't work, because Update Assistant turns it back on with every reboot. It's not very tricky. In previous versions, you'd avoid the updates until you heard that the bugs were all fixed. You have to do that here, too, but the blurry line is only people who follow tech news usually find out about this kind of stuff, so how are you to know when it's safe to go back in the water? That I can't answer.

[ComputerGuy]

2 minutes ago, Ferret said:

Yes, Mike (ComputerGuy) can put a "Classic Shell" on Windows 10 to make it look and feel exactly like Windows 7. The one thing he won't do is upgrade your Windows 7 TO Windows 10 because there can be problems that are not worth the aggravation. I'm wondering if a NEW SSD in your OLD computer with a NEW install of Windows 10 (and transfer of your old files to the new) and made to look like the OLD Windows 7 might do the trick for you. Worth it? Dunno.

I recommend to those who are satisfied with Window 7 that they don't need Windows 10. Seriously, I have yet to see a single thing on W10 that makes it worth it. Technicians may feel differently, but the average (even power) user won't. I will certainly upgrade anyone who wants, but I will always have "a little talk" with them first. I keep copies of the next-to-latest versions of W10, which most often have the latest bug fixes.

[Ferret]

A breath of fresh air who doesn't just "Do" things because the customer thinks he/she needs it. For the record, I had a Win 10 laptop with a classic shell that Mike installed. Couldn't tell the difference. That computer died and I am using a "new to me" laptop with Windows 7 again. I plan on buying a new laptop in the fall and I know it will have Win 10 on it. I also know that I don't have to worry about the operating system because I will again have Mike put the classic shell on it.

 

[Youngtimer]

I suspect many of the patches for windows and resulting slowdowns is because of the security flaws built into Intel chips.

Been fallowing the issue for over two years, it's all over the net.

I have a six month old dell without Intel inside with Win 10 and it is the best computer I have had.

[RickS]

I must be doing something wrong.... actually right but.....  As mentioned I upgraded to Win10 on an old Toshiba laptop running an AMD A8 processor. Went smoothly and I got used to the new look-and-feel in just a week or so of use. Fast forward a couple of years and it was bogging down at startup..... taking maybe 3-4 minutes before I could start using it. Had a techie switch to a SSD drive. He did 'clean up some stuff' he said, including my startup file. That's now been 1.5 years and I'm still running great.... I turn it on and before I can get settled in my chair it ready to go. I've had absolutely NO problems with Win10, but all I do on it anymore is surf, email and occasionally a word processor or Tax program or ?   Nothing special. But it's like the Duracell Bunny. 

[Youngtimer]

Yes I love the SSD 256 Gig with a 1 Tera spinner for storage all built into my laptop.

I have the Ryzen 5 2500 U 4 core 8 thread.

It would be nice to upgrade to a 7 nanometer AMD chip in the future but I probably won't need all that speed.

[ezpz]

Thank you, these suggestions were more relevant than the posts on the other Windows 10 thread.  I just resent having to go through yet another learning curve - and spending more $$$ , to keep doing the same things I always do!  I want a system that can handle at least 20,000 fotos or videos.  I don't need or want all the new bells and whistles!  It's like having to learn to drive all over again every time you buy a new car every few years.  It's highway robbery!!  Same thing with smart phones, just a lot of gimmicks that kids like.

I've been using computers on the job since the mid 80s, and have been through all the changes since then.  It used to be that new versions of software were like the old, just with more options that you could easily navigate, although they often just cluttered up your screen. 

[Arroyos]

5 hours ago, ComputerGuy said:

Here's the good news: you don't need updates for Windows 7. In fact, I've turned off updates for all versions of Windows (except 10, but I'm working on that, too) for all my customers, and no one has suffered a jot. It works fine just the way it is, at some level of 7.1. The truth is, active support stopped a long time ago. More importantly for some, is that updates to the Windows Defender AntiVirus will keep going anyway. And if they ever stop, there are lots of free AV tools out there.

The one major difference in Windows 10 for the majority of users is that Start Menu interface with all the added icons. Other than that, almost everything about it is the same as Windows 7, with a different colour. As RickS points out, there are tools to fix even that for you, so it looks like Windows 7, which helps a lot of people. Better news is that the upcoming update to W10 is supposed to make that Start Menu look more like W7 anyway. It only took them four years, but Microsoft finally got the message: people don't like it.

Here's the bad news: under this construct of never having a higher number than 10, MS is regularly pushing out huge updates, and every single one of them has added massive bugs and problems. With their "you cannot turn off updates" policy, this means we are all guinea pigs for their experiments. Imagine being in a corporation with a hundred, 500, or 2,000 W10 computers all screwing up at the same time.

I now have a way to permanently stop updates. It's not the "meter your connection" method, which only works about 1/3. And disabling the Windows Update service doesn't work, because Update Assistant turns it back on with every reboot. It's not very tricky. In previous versions, you'd avoid the updates until you heard that the bugs were all fixed. You have to do that here, too, but the blurry line is only people who follow tech news usually find out about this kind of stuff, so how are you to know when it's safe to go back in the water? That I can't answer.

I updated to Windows 10 about a year ago, +/-.  I have never had any problems with it, and I don't seem to get notices of updates.  Does Windows 10 do updates automatically when it re-loads when I close and restart my computer, which is about once a week.  I don't get any messages saying "wait" it is updating?  When my computer became really slow, I reset it and was very happy with the results.  Windows gave me a list of the applications I should re-load and it has been working very well since.  My computer is 5 or 6 years old, and is a Toshiba.

[ComputerGuy]

Normally, yes, Windows will tell you in advance. A window pops out on the right-hand side. However, it's staying time is minimal, and notifications go away altogether after a while. Still, Windows always continues to tell me about updates. You may have all notifications turned off. An update notification usually means it has already downloaded, and Windows will perform the update at next boot.

[RickS]

1 hour ago, ezpz said:

Thank you, these suggestions were more relevant than the posts on the other Windows 10 thread.  I just resent having to go through yet another learning curve - and spending more $$$ ....

 

Sounds like Computer Guy has given you just what you want.....the option to do absolutely nothing and learn nothing by keeping Win7.  I would still recommend installing a SSD.

[spacedebris]

I finally updated to Win10 from Win7 on 3 different computers after using it on a new computer for several months. There are some things to like about it and a few regrets but all-in-all I now prefer it to Win7. It is also easier having all the computers on the same OS. But here is the trick, the free update program is still in effect. Read this article and follow the instructions. If you have a licensed copy of Windows 7 or greater it will update to the equivalent Win10 package for free. I made one thumb drive and used it on each of the computers. Here is the article: https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

I didn't boot into the thumb drive, I just started the setup app on the drive. One tip I learned on the first install is to copy the entire drive to a folder on the desktop because I got an error the first try, I don't know if it would have happened again but it went flawlessly installing from the desktop.

[mudgirl]

A few years ago I had to buy a new laptop and the new one came with Windows 10. I was used to Windows 7. I'm far from any kind of techie, and there was a bit of a learning curve, but it really wasn't that onerous. My computer tech showed me the basic Windows 10 stuff and then I just surfed through all of it on my own until I was familiar with it. (You can always comfort yourself with the fact that new learning curves work to prevent dementia)

And I have never downloaded one Windows update on this newer laptop. I do have it set to metered connection (which, in fact it is- I have to use cell-based internet) and so far (3 years) it seems to work to prevent any updates from loading automatically.