How are people finding Windows 10?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I use Windows 8.1 and I get along with it just fine aside form a few minor niggles.

It is very good at running old programs, so I'm a bit nervous about changing to Windows 10. I'm sanguine about any 'privacy' issues, the paranoid/cautious can find plenty of guidance on how tor turn this off on the web.

Obviously everyone who uses this forum has access to a computer and many of your will have made or me contemplating the change to W10.

I'd be interested to hear about anyone's experiences regarding program compatibility or any other upgrade issues etc. For the record, my 'oldest' regularly used programs are Corel 10 suite and Photoshop CS2 which both run with very minor issues under w8.1.

Neil

P.S. I'm sanguine about any 'privacy' issues, the paranoid/cautious can find plenty of guidance on how tor turn this off on the web, and I don't really lose sleep over computer company's 'monopolies' so please keep this to practical experience of help to people changing to W10 rather than grumbling about Microsoft.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Please not just a miscrosft bashing session…

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I recently bought a new computer, included was a free update to W10. When it did download I was not pleased, but just left it ,now it is fine. Lots of updates and tweaks and it now seems just like the old windows. Please note I am not running any fancy stuff. Only real little prob. is it keeps loosing passwords and logins.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

My better half upgraded from 8.1 to 10, there is a reversal process in the OS if you don't like 10

She reversed the process back to 8.1 within the hour

It depends on how much time you are willing to put into relearning old tricks…yet again

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

If you are going to upgrade or mess aboot I seriously recommend you get one of those external hard drives first and copy/back up every folder except windows

They usually come in 1 or 2 terrabyte flavours

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

There are still some major issues with Win10 for Solidworks users. I was told by my VAR not to upgrade to 10 until fixes are published. 8.1 will run SW with no problems. Personally I never change OS until I absolutely have to – it always involves lost time learning new user interface gizmos gadgets whotsits and gewgaws or finding out the hard way which of your old software won't run on the new OS. I have not seen ANY measurable or direct benefit improvement with any new OS since Win NT. Programs, yes, OS, no. JD

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Neil,

I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 when it first came out, the down load was quite quick and caused no problems, it ran my six year old HP printers until I replaced them with new Canons, I'm using software that was in my old XP machine with no hiccups, working out where stuff was hidden was a bit of a pain but now I know where to look its no problem.

My wife suddenly decided she wanted to learn how to use a computer so I bought her a Note book this week with W10 installed and found that a doddle for me to set up for her, for instance when I first turn it on it spotted my Router straight away and asked for the password before I'd given it any other info.

I'm quite happy with it.

Martin P

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Neil,

I am pleased to say that, despite Microsoft's aggressive "hacking" of Win7 via Windows Update, I have again suppressed the invitation messages, and am not 'finding it'.

As a matter of principle … I shall not be trying Windows 10.

MichaelG.

.

You may consider this response inppropriate; but please read this link before deleting it.

There are plenty more, in similar vein.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 30/12/2015 12:17:10

[Andy HoldawayParticipant @andyholdaway]

I upgraded to Win10 on my home laptop when it was first available, thinking that I could test-drive it without any real risk (nothing irretrievable other than car club accounts and membership, which I backup weekly anyway).

I was a little 'anti' at first, as I really dislike operating systems that take over and make suggestions/decisions for you, but I have to admit it found all of my devices first time, including my wifi router, and has worked seamlessly ever since.

Emboldened, I upgraded my work laptop a month or so later, after having done a full backup. I was a little nervous as some of the software I use has yet to catch up with later releases of Windows, but with a bit of fiddling everything works as it should, most of the time. I still get occasional crashes and hang-ups, but I put that down to the 3rd party software, as it has happened on previous versions of Windows as well.

Overall I'm happy with Win10, and once you spend a bit of time with it you can stifle the suggestions and Cortana based annoyances.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

I prefer W10 to W8.1 but W7 is the best of the 3 in my opinion. Not surprisingly, the trendies at MSoft have renamed and moved all the stuff you know and need just to spoil the W10 experience.

My suggestion is to stay with W7 if you have it already – and try to get it on new machines even if you have to pay. But for many home PCs and laptops where W7 simply wasn't available (Microsoft policy, agreed with the manufacturers), it's possibly best to go W10 over W8.1.

The bind for many home machines is that W7 was never made available with them, so even if you buy a copy of W7 to replace W8, you may never find the motherboard drivers to make it work. That's particularly true for "home" laptops and less of a problem if you built a PC up from components. Ask me how I know.

[FatgadgiParticipant @fatgadgi]

I personally was quite happy with the simplicity of the good old XP system and Linux, but I updated my Acer tablet from 8 to 10 when it was available because most of the reviews were positive.

It was a pretty easy (but long) process and I have to say it's been almost faultless since; I certainly have no desire to change back.

Of course it is a tablet and I'm not using any old software, but a positive vote from me.

Right, back in the garage to get the Emco 5 spindle sensor singing …………

Cheers – Will

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks,

Seems largely positive so far.

I went straight from Vista to W8, although I had experience of setting up a few W7 machines for network/printers at work and it was very easy.

It's program compatibility and remote access I worry about most, once I have my shortcuts sorted and they work I'm happy.

Posted by Ady1 on 30/12/2015 11:58:34:

If you are going to upgrade or mess aboot I seriously recommend you get one of those external hard drives first and copy/back up every folder except windows

They usually come in 1 or 2 terrabyte flavours

As my livelihood depends on it, I have three external HDDs – one set for file history on all the time abd backups 1 &2 for swapping over.

Neil.

[davidsuffolkParticipant @davidsuffolk]

I like to think I am quite cute with computers and I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 with no issues whatsoever.

Everything I had installed continued to work and the interface is much more logical than 8 to me.

Personally I think it is fine.

[Steven GreenhoughParticipant @stevengreenhough56335]

My only concern is how things will pan out once the free upgrade period is over. Will we be required to subscribe in order to get the most basic of essential maintenance/upgrades/patches? Otherwise I like it. If it goes sour I have no problem rolling back to 7 as a clean install – I do this every 3-6 months anyway…

Edited By Steven Greenhough on 30/12/2015 13:21:53

[Robert DoddsParticipant @robertdodds43397]

FWIW, I quickly uninstalled windows 10 when I found that it seriously limited my control of my printer, an Epson sx415, so that I lost most of the printing quality options. It seems to use a native driver and epson did not have a w10 compatible to substitute

Bob D

[Bodgit Fixit and RunParticipant @bodgitfixitandrun]

I've just updated from Windows 7. i decided to use the update from disk option which means downloading an image file (iso) and burning it to a disk. backed up all the important files to DVDs and then ran the install. I use mainly open source software ie Libre office, Firefox, Thunderbird, FreeCad etc.

All is running with no issues. I've known other have problems with email after upgrading but these tend to resolve. I had no such issues. Mozilla provide Mozilla backup for Firefox and Thunderbird which means you don't lose important settings or emails.

I would recomend it.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Bought a new laptop with W8 on it, hated it and moved it up to 8.1 which was better. Spent / lost about a month trying to get it to do what I wanted and finally gave up.

Wiped it completely and installed W7 on it. Does everything I want.

Interesting to note that all the large companies I deal with are still on W7 and refuse to move up. MS has had to agree to support W7 to 2020 to keep big business happy.

I feel the move to get everyone to use W10 is a back door method. Get the home users used to 10 and they might put pressure on work to change.

Personally I lost a whole night wiping all the update to W10 bumf off my computer as it was annoying and time consuming.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

I updated to win 10 as soon it became available and in the main I found it OK but did have one or two issue's with some software not being compatible despite it being stated that it was ! Shortly after I purchased a new laptop with win 10 already installed and I couldn't believe the difference between win 10 and win 10 upgrade and I am now more than happy with win 10 I did backup my files before the win 10 update but found it wasn't required, however I would always recommend this should be done.

H

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

I installed Win 10 on my HP Envy 23 pc when it first came available. It kept coming up with driver error messages and I did not like it anyway so I started the process of reverting back to 8.1. Half way through the procedure the machine died on me ( I seem to get this a lot lately) and no matter what I did I could not bring the thing back to life.

 

In the end I had to pay HP £175 to come and take it away for repair. After two weeks I called them and they informed me that the motherboard had failed That they had fitted a new board and that had failed as well. At the time they were waiting for another board to be delivered from Holland if I remember correctly.

 

They finally delivered my repaired machine exactly a month after picking it up. Thankfully they had not touched my hard drive and all my stuff was intact. Would I recommend windows 10? ……cue very loud raspberry noise.

 

What caused the failure? Was it 10 or was it coincidence? I'll never know and HP didn't know either.

 

What I would recommend though is a free prog called "Classic Shell". It gives your windows 8/8.1 machine an interface little different from good old XP. I believe it is now also compatible with 10. I love it!

 

Rik

Edited By Rik Shaw on 30/12/2015 14:48:46

[Andrew EntwistleParticipant @andrewentwistle]

I updated from 7 to 10 and found the process quick and seamless, with every driver found and all but one piece of software working; virtual XP no longer worked because my processor hardware virtualisation is not fully supported by Windows 10. This prevented me from using my choice of 2D CAD program, so I reverted back to 7 within the month, again quick and seamless.

Andrew.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Personally I liked Xp which still runs my Desktop, then of course I liked Win 97 a long time ago. Bought a Laptop with Win 7 on it, never did like the Win 8 tile approach so stayed as Win 7, as it is only the laptop which does not have anything of importance on it.

Upgraded to Win 10 when offered, bit slow to update but left it to it and went out!

Win 10 is OK but I have removed a lot of the clutter that comes with it.

 

Neil you have an email which you might find interesting.

Edited By KWIL on 30/12/2015 14:56:37

[modeng2000Participant @modeng2000]

Although I was not sure wether to go to W10 or stay with W7 I had a go at upgrading. Despite Microsoft indicating all would be well each time I tried the upgrade it failed back to W7. Various solutions were tried but to no avail.

I guess something is saying stick with what I already have. In any case it looks like an upgrade to W10 is not an option for me. My laptop is only about 18 months old so is by no means out of date.

John

Edited By modeng2000 on 30/12/2015 15:04:23

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Do win32 and win64 programs run on windows 10 phones??

If they do, some of those sub 100quid phones have like 8 cores and could be amazingly useful mobile computers and could be synched with your windows 10 home computer

Edited By Ady1 on 30/12/2015 15:16:08

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have Windows 7 on my laptop and, now, Windows 10 on the desktop. The latter had Windows 8, a monumental disaster. Windows 10 happily runs everything I have including Office Word 2007 and Office Excel 2007. I have had some problems with TurboCAD 16 but that is now sorted thanks to the onboard checking softwear. I have not checked out Office PowerPoint yet (I do not use it very often). Firefox works well and I am thinking about using Mozilla's email softwear.

I am about to try to use Linux, on Raspberry Pi, having realised it is very closely related to Unix which I used at work.

JA

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Possibly doesn't apply to many on here but it's also an excuse by some software companies to force expensive upgrades onto people because it won't run on W10 and you need to upgrade to XXX 2016

Some programs such as Solidworks are about £1200 per year for upgrades and support whether you use them or not.

I got caught out in the move from XP to W7 then found out after there was a work around to get the old program running on W7. In fact I know some people on this board still running the older program and not paying the yearly upgrade.

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