• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Windows 10

Dancing David said:
I still use AVAST free
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Windows Defender, (plus all the horrible security updates that folks are paranoid about), is quite robust. It's been there for a heck of a long time. Well before 10.

I haven't used a third party AV solution for a few years.
My preferences changed between AVG and Kaspersky.
Kaspersky was always the winner out of my two horse race.
I found it to be very efficient and not a resource hog.
The pricing plan changed, I no longer need it and I'm happy in the knowledge that it takes a bit of a moron these days to get infected.

Check out Kaspersky. I'm sure they still do a freebie thing.

It is never a good thing to have more than one AV working at the same time.
But Windows will remind of you of this.
 
Dessi said:
Just updated to Win10. Contrary to expectations, I did not experience any issues during the upgrade process.

Currently trying to use and actually like Win10, rather than criticize it without context.
Click to expand...
It's been about 3 weeks.

  • I uninstalled or disabled virtually all of the crapware that comes with Windows 10. It's a bit depressing that many of these apps cannot be uninstalled through the Programs and Features dialog, but require the user to run Powershell. I have no issue using Powershell, but I suspect that anyone who isn't a developer or power user would be intimidated by this.
  • I did not find Cortana useful, although this might be because I don't use Bing nor any Microsoft cloud services (such as email, contacts, OneDrive). I was unable to uninstall Cortana by any means, not even through Powershell. I followed the suggestion here to disable Cortana, but the service still runs and uselessly takes up memory.
  • Microsoft still has issues with the schizophrenic user experience. For example, to uninstall a program:
    • Right click Windows Menu > Programs and Features. This pulls up the familiar Programs and Features screen.
    • Alternatively, click Windows Menu > Settings > System > Apps and Features. I can also uninstall programs from here.
    Seems a bit redundant having two different screens with their own distinct look and feel to uninstall applications.
  • I did not use Edge very often and don't have much of an opinion, but it's worth noting:
    • I like that Edge has a Dark View. I nearly always prefer light text on a dark background, it's much easier on the eyes. Anything brighter feels like staring into a lightbulb.
    • The Reading View is an interesting feature. It seems to extract news and blog content well enough from the handful of sites that I tested it with, but it super laggy, and buggy to the point of uselessness for reading this forum. Reading mode supports a dark theme, which is a perk for me.
  • I like that Metro apps display in a host container.
  • I like that I can disable tablet mode. I have never used my laptop as a touchscreen device and have no plans to do so in the future.
  • Windows 10 fixed some issues I had with my network adapter. In Windows 8.1, I constantly had to reset my network adapter for reasons that I was unable to debug. I've not had to restart my adapter at all for any reason.
  • Task View button is useful, although I am inclined to use Alt-Tab to switch between tabs.
  • I've had no technical issues to speak of. No crashes or glitchy behavior on my system at all.
  • Task manager displays more useful diagnostic information.
  • No more Charms Bar or magic corners. I approve of this.

After a fair bit of customization, I find this version of Windows highly usable for my purposes. However, if it weren't for the fact that I use Visual Studio daily, I would probably prefer Ubuntu instead.
 
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The main benefit of the Task View button is making it easy to set up and organise virtual desktops - try the + button in the lower right when you're in the task view.

Unfortunately the virtual desktop feature is pretty bare-bones, so it's not super-useful. But it beats MS reinventing Alt-Tab again.
 
ComfySlippers said:
Windows Defender, (plus all the horrible security updates that folks are paranoid about), is quite robust. It's been there for a heck of a long time. Well before 10.

I haven't used a third party AV solution for a few years.
My preferences changed between AVG and Kaspersky.
Kaspersky was always the winner out of my two horse race.
I found it to be very efficient and not a resource hog.
The pricing plan changed, I no longer need it and I'm happy in the knowledge that it takes a bit of a moron these days to get infected.

Check out Kaspersky. I'm sure they still do a freebie thing.

It is never a good thing to have more than one AV working at the same time.
But Windows will remind of you of this.
Click to expand...
AVG was a resource hog and I didn't want to pay Kaspersky.
:)
 
Upgraded yesterday. So far, unimpressed, except for the fact that I can now run Futuremark DirectX12 tests. DX12 is the only reason I'm interested, other than generally staying current.

Changes/Comments
  • Logon: I had a personally created certificate attached to the virtual smart card based on my TPM add-on chip for logging into 8.1. Fast and easy, though it took a week's googling to get the setup right. Windows 10 borked that, although now I don't think I want to use my MS account anymore; too exposed. Win10 Device Manager showed the virtual card as disabled until I verified my account again; I suppose that is a good thing.
  • Start menu: I got used to 8.1 and liked it. Had the program list set to come up first, and was now used to finding my programs quickly. Once habituated, it was as fast as the old Win95-style Programs folder list. On Win10, the mish-mash on offer is unreadable and unuseable; a borking of 8.1 and no fix. Back to Classic Shell, which I'd dropped under 8.1. Sigh; just give us the Win95 menu back and leave us alone, MS.
  • User info: Spies a lot; so had to shut off all the auto sharing. Logging in as a normal user instead of on my MS account isn't a fix, since apps all log me in anyway.
  • Updates: First NVidia driver, via Windows updates, was awful. Turned off driver updates using the old Control Panel method, and manually installed latest from vendor.
  • Networking: (1) Harder to set MTU and optimize Internet settings with TCPOptimizer, still beta for Win10. Had to set MTU by hand and use TCPOpt only for its "optimal" settings. (2) Set connection to "metered" so Windows update has to be initiated manually. Nobody downloads around here without my knowledge! P2P update sharing also off, except on local network.
  • Media: Hate the new default player which does not react to the mouse wheel for volume; spent all yesterday with the hardware remote in hand to adjust the sound. Promised myself to set 3rd party software as the default for this (MP Classic), which I'll do soon enough.
General reaction: Haven't been paying much attention to what is new under the hood, and maybe there are some improvements there. Overall, though, I see nothing looking better or performing more spiffily. Haven't used Cortana, and Edge not much; maybe those have some good things.

Grade: Meh. Entirely unimpressed.
 
John Jones said:
There is a problem with Windows Updates/Metered connections, and it's not just paranoia or MS-bashing.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-10/da623e9f-2e63-4246-a5c5-920516988f59


Basically, until a fix comes out, I'm going to disable the Windows Update service, then re-enable it once a week or so on a tablet I don't care about to see if there are any updates.
Click to expand...

Thx for the heads-up. I switched to the group policy option available for the Pro version, and am now happily auto-downloading but not installing updates, the option I prefer.
 
This is nice. I was a bit torn about my general dislike of Microsoft after my dad managed to update his operating system without any input from me. I thought this was pretty cool.

But as others have noted MS is still the devil. MS unbeknownst to me, uploaded a copy of the Windows 10 install package onto my Windows 7 computer that is the one we use for our home entertainment system. This is really rubbing salt in the wounds. MS has decided to remove support for Windows Media Center which is the program that lies at the heart of our home entertainment center. MS doesn't seem to have offered to sell the program to any other entity. They're just not going to offer it anymore. Could it be that MS has decided that making cable companies happy that rake in hundreds of millions a dollars a year in vastly inflated device rental fees is a more important goal than allowing people to continue to use the software that they purchased from MS? I guess so. Now MS secretly takes up our bandwidth and our hard disk storage space to upload an OS that we can't use. And they made the directory that contains the OS install package hidden. Too bad I spent years rooting for MS. I realize now this is a scumbag organization and changing the CEO didn't change that.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...ading-windows-10-to-your-machine-just-in-case
 
davefoc said:
This is nice. I was a bit torn about my general dislike of Microsoft after my dad managed to update his operating system without any input from me. I thought this was pretty cool.

But as others have noted MS is still the devil. MS unbeknownst to me, uploaded a copy of the Windows 10 install package onto my Windows 7 computer that is the one we use for our home entertainment system. This is really rubbing salt in the wounds. MS has decided to remove support for Windows Media Center which is the program that lies at the heart of our home entertainment center. MS doesn't seem to have offered to sell the program to any other entity. They're just not going to offer it anymore. Could it be that MS has decided that making cable companies happy that rake in hundreds of millions a dollars a year in vastly inflated device rental fees is a more important goal than allowing people to continue to use the software that they purchased from MS? I guess so. Now MS secretly takes up our bandwidth and our hard disk storage space to upload an OS that we can't use. And they made the directory that contains the OS install package hidden. Too bad I spent years rooting for MS. I realize now this is a scumbag organization and changing the CEO didn't change that.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...ading-windows-10-to-your-machine-just-in-case
Click to expand...
And on that note, Lifehacker has a list of updates that you should uninstall and hide if you don't want Windows 10 downloading itself. http://lifehacker.com/how-to-block-windows-10-upgrade-downloads-if-youre-not-1730024570

It's unclear whether this is just a file download (still evil because: data caps and limited hard drive space) or whether Windows 10 will install itself at some point. Given some of the comments below the Lifehacker article about Microsoft's past behavior, e.g. Windows 8.1 installing itself without user permission and bricking the machine, I'll be getting rid of those updates ASAP.

I'll be glad when I've got a new Windows 10 machine and I don't have to worry anymore about keeping my Windows 7 machine working. I'm currently waiting for Woody Leonhard's Windows 10 for Dummies to hit the bookstores -- should be any day now. Once I've perused that, I can start shopping for a new machine.
 
John Jones said:
I'm having annoyances with Teamviewer on Windows 10 that make me have to reboot the remote hosts regularly. One is a Win10 laptop, and the other is a Win10 tablet remoted into from another win10 laptop.

It flashes something about being unable to do a screen capture. I can't read it before the screen goes blank and flashes this message again about every two seconds.

It requires me to go to the remote hosts and restart them, which is most annoying
Click to expand...


Update: I can reduce (but not eliminate) this problem by setting screen resolution in TeamViewer to the lowest common denominator amongst the different remote machines.

It's not surprising, but it is disappointing.
 
Do you have the TeamViewer monitor driver installed? If not, have you tried installing it?
 
It's in Extras/Options/Advanced. I only mention it because I always enable it on work machines (not least because it means I can black out the user's screen so they can't see what I'm doing, which amuses me), but it hasn't played nice with a couple of bits of hardware that we have.
 
CelticRose said:
And on that note, Lifehacker has a list of updates that you should uninstall and hide if you don't want Windows 10 downloading itself. http://lifehacker.com/how-to-block-windows-10-upgrade-downloads-if-youre-not-1730024570
Click to expand...
That article doesn't tell you about removing the WIN10 install files that are going to be on your machine because you previously installed update KB3035583. There can be about 6GB of files just sitting in a folder waiting for you to say "go". That folder should be located at C:. It's called $Windows.~BT.

You can delete that whole folder but you might have to uninstall update KB3035583 first before it lets you delete. That folder can be an issue for machines with not much disc space available because again it might be about 6GB.
 
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Also be sure to uninstall and hide the other updates from the Life Hacker article before trying to remove the download. I hadn't done the KB2976978 and the files downloaded again plus Windows Update wanted to install Win10 again even though I'd already tried it, rolled back and uninstalled/hid KB3035583 back on the first day of release.

I've also now ended up with two Upgrade to Windows 10 Home items as important Windows updates that I've hidden.

Last quirk from my tryout & roll back of Win10, whenever I install Win8.1 updates instead of saying downloading updates and installing updates like it used to, it shows Downloading Windows 10 while downloading & installing the Win8.1 updates.
 
I got a phone call from my daughter's father-in-law on Saturday asking me if I knew someone who could fix his computer. He had been upgraded to Win 10 his wifi was not working. Win 10 offered to fix it and then went away and never came back. I made some generic suggestions -- start in protected mode, restore to a previous checkpoint, try a cabled connection but was just about to leave to go to see a play at Niagara-on-the-Lake so could not help any further.

I checked back with him today and he had found someone to restore Win 8.

YMMV & etc. ;)
 
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