Windows 10 upgrade.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

So who's already taken the plunge and upgraded to Windows 10?

We did it Thursday night and everything seems to be working OK.

Only bugbear we had about it is the amount of Crap Microsoft insist on installing along side.

It automatically installed iTunes and other Apple services, since uninstalled them.

What are your thoughts on the new OS?

[Sabine Klare]

The supermarket "Aldi" has already offered the first notebook directly with Windows 10, while the other supermarket "real" still offers notebooks with Windows 8.1.

I myself never saw a computer in action with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, because many of my less real contacts in Berlin don't have a computer and I have lost many "friends". I don't know, if I can go into a store and stand there for many minutes without buying something.

I have searched now for "windows 10", here You can see some screenshots...
https://www.google.de/search?q=windo...w=1280&bih=858

Yesterday I saw on the latest page in "Winamp News" a screenshot, and the other person in the room said: "This is already Windows 10"...
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....374929&page=27
We had just finished some other searches and visits of a few websites.

But I never want to have a software on a computer or an account on a website, which requires online-banking. Frank and I still have no credit card and no PayPal, so that nobody can hack us with that and we cannot get debts because of such hackers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_Music
I don't need a music-streaming-service by Microsoft.

Also I don't want to have iTunes and especially never again Quicktime, which had made only trouble for me and nothing else...

[Vie]

Well... ..my upgrade experience was fairly awful.

It took fourteen hours from starting the upgrade to getting to a working desktop... ..which is the worst install I think I've ever had. Plus I lost all my programs in the process - apparently when it imported them it also imported a few customisations to Win8.1 I'd done to make it even remotely acceptable. When those customisations tried to run on 10... ..they disabled the start menu.

Plus it installed the wrong graphics driver, so it kept crashing and knocking out Logon.exe... ..making it almost impossible to fix. So had to install it again - without importing my stuff.

It worked then, but to be honest I'm really not impressed with the new stuff. It works, but requires WAY too much access to stuff in order for any of the new stuff to work.

Plus, right now the Windows Store doesn't work - won't even load... ..I'm not likely to bother to fix that since there's nothing on there I need.

Overall?

Eh? It's windows 8.1 with some UI tweaks - boots quick, seems to be reasonably reliable, but unless you don't mind giving MS access to everything you do the new stuff just won't work.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

Well... ..my upgrade experience was fairly awful.

Oh dear!

Ours went smooth as and Windows 10 is running like a charm now we've told certain windows features to shut up.

Plus, right now the Windows Store doesn't work - won't even load... ..I'm not likely to bother to fix that since there's nothing on there I need.

We had problems with the store crashing, You need to set UAC at the lowest level (not off) then it doesn't seem to crash. It will prompt you when you start programs but shouldn't affect the running of the system.

On the whole it certainly seems to be handling better than Windows 7.

[Warrior of the Light]

I've been reading this article. Especially the last paragraph made me reluctant to upgrade since I have a Dutch system:

"Important

That said, according Microsoft, if you’re running Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 and your system language isn’t English, Brazilian Portuguese, or Chinese Simplified, you will not be able to keep your installed applications and Windows settings while upgrading to Windows 10. Only your personal files will be preserved."

Since all my personal files are on a NAS anyway, that 'simple upgrade' would - stated that all works out well - be exactly the same as a clean install. In that case I'd prefer a fresh install.

[oil on the flames] I use both Windows and Linux Mint but when it comes to upgrading your OS, windows just feels like they're 20 years behind. Usually in Linux, (for me) it 'just works'. [/oil]

[DrO]

there's always been issues when trying to do an in-place update of Windows, so some of the issues being seen are not new and tbh, it's always been better to just do a clean OS install - yes it probably can work better for certain cases with what they've done for Win10, but the shear breadth of Windows usage will almost always mean there is some sort of issue.

and I highly doubt that iTunes would have been auto-installed when installing Windows 10. as that is at complete odds with what Microsoft want people to use and I see no other reference to such an event happening - only things from people who have intentionally installed it. unless they've entered into some sort of weird deal with Apple for when they detect an iPod or some other Apple device, then they install it, but I'm very sceptical about that happening and would have seriously expected to see a load of posts, etc about such a thing happening.

[ujay]

Have to say that it was a relatively painless upgrade, took about 2 hours to download and set up. About the same as previous OS upgrades.

A couple of tips may help some people :

Don't use all the MS reserved copy, email notification, marketing nonsense.
Look for 'MediaCreationTool' on the MS KB site.
Run this and you get the option to Install, or produce an ISO you can copy to your preferred boot media. If you have several machines this can save a bit of time.

When it comes to setting up :

The two places you need to know about are

LEFT click Start Button > Settings
RIGHT click Start Button > Control Panel, Device Manager, etc.

Things like Folder and Internet Options remain where they always have been.

The main thing I'm unsure of is what happens about optional updates, the last thing I want is MS installing some rogue driver, I've been burnt by that before.

[Aminifu]

Microsoft has released a tool that will let you block updates and the option to not update drivers is still present, but some say it doesn't work. Thank you guys for being early adopters and helping to spot the first formal release's bugs.

http://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how-...on-windows-10/

If the Windows version you're upgrading has the Windows Media Center, then Microsoft will be providing a free DVD player app in a few weeks. But if you do a clean install of Windows 10 then the DVD player (if you want it) will not be free because Microsoft will not be able to tell if your previous version of Windows had the Windows Media Center installed.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

and I highly doubt that iTunes would have been auto-installed when installing Windows 10.

You can doubt what you like DrO but iTunes, Bonjour and a few other Apple services were downloaded as part of the upgrade .....


We're NOT F*****G Lying!! Took us quite a while to uninstall it along with a load of other crap Microsoft saw fit to install.

[DrO]

then please explain why the multiple Win10 installs I and others have made do not have any trace of iTunes...? as why would they pre-load iTunes when they want people to use Groove ?

and I never said anything about being a liar and was looking for some solid data / reason why you've seen such a thing with the Win10 install process when others are not seeing such behaviour.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

You need to remember we're not some "Novice" using a computer.

We're both computer literate and know exactly what we are doing.

So iTunes may not have installed itself on everyones machine but it definitely installed on our Windows machine.

The amount of crap Microsoft pushed through with this upgrade was silly.

[Aminifu]

Have you noticed a change in your upload bandwidth with Windows 10?

http://www.maximumpc.com/windows-10-...ate-other-pcs/

Windows 10 wants to know all about you, so that it can 'serve' you better.

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...how-to-fix-it/

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/30/win...0-and-privacy/

[gaekwad2]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

so that it can 'serve' you better.

Well, if you didn't already know...

[djpete]

I'm not sure I want Win 10 free or not. Can't see any real benefits besides a whole lot of stuff I will have to turn off or disable.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

I'm not sure I want Win 10 free or not. Can't see any real benefits besides a whole lot of stuff I will have to turn off or disable.

I've 2 VM's with Windows 7 that aren't being upgraded (due to some software compatibility issues) I don't really need to upgrade them.

The one machine we have upgraded to windows 10 is chugging along. It seems OK providing you tell the Microsoft crap to shut up.

It's like everything in this world, If you don't need it then don't upgrade (No ones forcing you)

[djpete]

Is it faster?
Does it perform better?
This is what I want to hear from people..
I'm not interested in Cortana, they all get things wrong and just frustrate and get disabled.

By chugging along I presume you mean flying along or are there issues?

[DJ-Garybaldy]

The PC seems faster and a lot more slick, By chugging along I mean things are working as they should, The programs we need windows for work rather well on Windows 10 even Winamp.

msconfig.exe still works so you can get rid of annoying Microsoft services that aren't needed.

[djpete]

thanks

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by djpete

Is it faster?
Does it perform better?

ARS technica (http://arstechnica.com/series/windows-10-launch/) has the best series of reviews I've read to-date.

Microsoft's new development process should allow Windows 10 to get better faster than any previous versions. I intend to wait 3 or 4 months before upgrading.

http://www.dailytech.com/Windows+10+...ticle37453.htm


@gaekwad2
That is one of my favorite 'Tzone' episodes.

[Sabine Klare]

Yes, we should wait a little bit. Let us hear some further reviews for the next months. The time will tell, if Windows 10 is really better or not...

[djpete]

"Performance
While anecdotally we have heard of PCs running a lot quicker having been upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, actual performance benchmarks on our test PC with 8GB of memory and an Intel Core i5 4690K processor show no difference."



Read more: http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-sys...#ixzz3i20mS1Cz


And also another benchmark test shows almost same performance as 7 or 8.1
http://www.maximumpc.com/windows-10-...t-performance/

[DJ-Garybaldy]

Were only running on a box with 2GB of RAM & Intel Core 2 and ours is a lot faster, we went from Windows 7 to W10 never used Windows 8 as we'd heard so many horror stories from other people.

Windows 8 was as bad as Vista IMHO

This time I think Microsoft may just have cracked it it's going to be interesting to see what does happen in a few years when it's bedded in properly.

As long as an OS runs the software we need it to without any issues then that's all that matters in the end.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by garybaldy72uk

As long as an OS runs the software we need it to without any issues then that's all that matters in the end.

True. It's the hardware it's running on that has the biggest impact on speed.

[djpete]

Yes but tweaking Windows can also have a dramatic effect on speed
eg Performance Options tab right clicking My Computer.
It's the first thing I do on any PC to improve performance.
So things Microsoft do to the OS CAN have a huge effect on performance too.

An ideal version of Windows for me would be one that is easily taken back to a lightning fast Performance Mode without all these bells and whistles.
It wouldn't be hard to do but they seem to be going the other way with some of these features being almost impossible to remove or turn off.

[DrO]

performance is made up of a number of factors and really the main one is perceived performance which is more of what people tend to base things on than actual raw performance (even though that is highly subjective due to the nature of benchmarking and that observing the system changes the conditions of the system).

like all of the work they did between Vista and Windows 7 to try to ensure certain actions would happen within a specific maximum time (<50ms or something like that iirc) which by doing that made things feel a lot faster despite doing the same fundamental action.

then again, if they're focusing things more so on mobile type usage with Windows 10, then with the overall memory reductions that seem to be the case, better utilisation of modern processor architectures and other best practices should give a real perceived as well as raw performance increase (but with the massive variation in hardware, services that can be running, etc, etc, then everyone's experience will likely vary, but should compared to Win8.1 be better which compared to Win8.0 should be better and so on as you look back at older Windows releases).

plus if they're going on a more frequent / rolling update model with Windows 10, then it's more likely that if there are performance improvements to be seen, they'll come along sooner than as part of the next 'big' OS update. though throwing newer hardware will help, but there's generally a much greater focus nowadays to improve software efficiency which is the better way to improve performance than as had been the case for too long just throwing newer, faster hardware at things.

and don't forget, there was lots of complaining that XP was slow and so on when it was released which by the time of it's demise most had forgotten. as OS updates and the massive change in hardware resources had rectified what had cause those complaints at the start. and with things in Win10, with smarter coding styles, it's very likely that things have been tuned to not impact or even better not be used (even if installed) until actually needed which negates to an extent the need to disable everything and anything (despite the issues doing something like that can cause if you don't know what you're doing).

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by djpete

Yes but tweaking Windows can also have a dramatic effect on speed
eg Performance Options tab right clicking My Computer.
It's the first thing I do on any PC to improve performance.
So things Microsoft do to the OS CAN have a huge effect on performance too.

Ah, the performance options. Good point, I had forgot about those. I also do a little tweaking there, as well as changing the default delays Windows has for certain things (mostly reducing them, but sometimes increasing to adapt things to fit my hardware and habits).

However there's no pleasing everyone, I like most of the 'bells and whistles' Windows 7 introduced. I'm sorry to see some of them removed.

As usual, DrO makes some valid points too.

[djpete]

Well upgraded on my wife's laptop.
Don't like it.
Will play some more but will prob revert back to Win 7 after I have gotten familiar with everything.
Looks like bits and pieces put together not complete and matching like Win 7 IMO.
And very boxy and bland, eg File explorer all white, bland and hard to read.

Sorry Bill, I want to like it but no...

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by djpete

Looks like bits and pieces put together not complete and matching like Win 7 IMO.
And very boxy and bland, eg File explorer all white, bland and hard to read.

Yeah, that's what one of the reviews I pointed to said. Reasons for it were given and this lack of overall consistency is expected to be corrected fairly quickly.

I thought I read that color highlights and/or themes could be added, but the rounded corners and other visual 'eye candy' aspects of Windows 7 are gone (left with Windows 8) to better 'serve' mobile platforms.

[DrO]

and most of that stuff can be 'corrected' with 3rd party options (like the things stardock [think that's the right company] have been providing for all sorts of Windows releases).

I actually don't mind the flatter style of things and yes there's some inconsistencies, but based on the things actual programs do (Winamp being a major offender), it's not as bad as people keep making it out to be.

plus this rolling update / dev cycle they're doing should mean things will be sorted out.

[djpete]

I'm not as kind. I don't think you should have to find a 3rd party to make a new OS look pretty.
The Start menu area is also very bland and not as useful for me.
Removed all those Tiles straight away. Yuk.
Dont like the big letters eg A B C D etc whats the benefit in that besides wasting space and looking ugly?
Try and find screensaver options...good luck...had to use search to find it.
It's gone from rightclick desktop Personalise.
A lot of stuff cannot be uninstalled.
Search seems much slower for me.
Still trying to get Cortana to work, says wrong language or something. Will prob switch her off when tested in any case.

Maybe this upgrade is ok for touch screens but as far as PC goes..Fail

[Vie]

You can uninstall a bunch of the uninstallable stuff from a power terminal command - have a search about for it. I used it to shift the bloody XBox app since it kept flashing up "Press Ctrl + G to open the gamebar!" When launching random programs - and didn't actually work while running a game.

[DrO]

pete: that's your view but just basing things on the look is not the best way to evaluate things imho when aspects like Explorer, the window snapping and other aspects are so much handier and better compared to Win7 than something just being 'bland' (which I actually prefer and is more how I've tried to run Windows like anyway). maybe it'll be better to evaluate it for your needs say 6-9months down the road which should be more than enough time for Win10 to be refined and inconsistencies, etc resolved (so I guess matching the older 'wait for SP1 mentality' that had been previously adopted).

i'm not saying that having to use 3rd parties to do things (which is no more different than using Winamp instead of WMP ) is right but it's one possible option and an option that people always call upon with any Windows release.

any new release is going to have issues, not be liked by some, loved by others, have indifference by others, etc and you can never please everyone (which is no different from things like Winamp and the persistence of 2.x even if the later 5.6x were much better - a similar thing with Windows releases in that respect).

[Avandel]

I have.... I've been testing Windows 10 for almost a year now, and i saw within that year some big improvements on the compatibility part of Windows. Many programs and games run on the system fine, but i still experience crashes out of the blue on Winamp. It runs, plays, does everything it must do, but without any apparent reason it keeps crashing whilst listening to the music it regularely played for years on XP and W7. So, that is the issue, is there a more compatible version of Winamp or am i asking the wrong peeps?

[Avandel]

Originally Posted by garybaldy72uk

I've 2 VM's with Windows 7 that aren't being upgraded (due to some software compatibility issues) I don't really need to upgrade them.

The one machine we have upgraded to windows 10 is chugging along. It seems OK providing you tell the Microsoft crap to shut up.

It's like everything in this world, If you don't need it then don't upgrade (No ones forcing you)

My guess is that you run a business or MSDN version of windows 7, there are exceptions on which version will automatically hands the upgrade note to. I had a laptop with MSDN (school version) and that one i could not upgrade, but that didn't stop me either when i installed it from dvd, just as Microsoft says "a copy for another pc" so i used their tool to make one.
As i read your comment on why should i upgrade, i don't see the advantages!, i can be brief and clear: It handles faster it's programs, is in developement and still being upgraded, and Microsoft said that if you won't upgrade, after a year it's gonna cost you quit a bit. I thought even that Microsoft said that this was the final version of Windows.. So save your W7 virtual disk onto a dvd and try at least once and experience the better half of W7 and W8 in all. I really saw a great improvement on Minecraft, whereas the older 1.8.8 version took a long time to start with forge, the Win10 version almost instantly starts, no delay. Maybe my machine is a bit faster than others is, starting from sleepmode till giving my password takes about 12 seconds. Cold start about 17 to 21 seconds. So, i'm pretty sure that you would like those numbers too...
(I use 16 GB mem and a SSD 250GB drive on I7 4790 at 3.6Ghz and aNvidia GTX970)
So my machine is capable to run it smooth, and i understand that not everybody get's such times on startup, but hey, the market is still in movement and new and faster keeps coming to us, all we need to do is to buy and enjoy.

[djpete]

Well the difference from XP to Win 7 was dramatic and lots of improvements all round.
I doubt whether many people use snapping windows. I know I only use the side by side on Win 7 rarely so not a big feature IMO.
But I hear you DrO, I still wont be rushing out to upgrade at the moment.
If I was using a touch screen laptop then maybe I can see benefits but aside from that I'm not impressed.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

My guess is that you run a business

Nope we don't run a business, they aren't from MSDN either

I run a small hobby stream using software that requires .NET

The copies of Windows 7 that are on the VM's are both Home editions one 64 one 32 bit. It's so i can record mixes and stuff on this Linux PC without having to use the main Windows machine.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by djpete

I doubt whether many people use snapping windows. I know I only use the side by side on Win 7 rarely so not a big feature IMO.

Folks that are mainly 'content users' may agree with you. Although, I've read that multi-tasking 'content users' love snapping windows. In any case, have some love for the 'content and/or app' creators. As a former member of that group, I'm sure they love being able to easily view existing code next to work in progress. These folk are a smaller group, but the larger groups of users would not exist without them. Microsoft is trying to reduce the different versions of Windows to make it easier to maintain and less buggy for everybody, without having to keep up with a lot of tailored versions.

I'm still exclusively a desktop user, but I accept that I'm no longer part of the larger segments of users (it was a different dynamic when Windows 7 was being developed). Folks like me must tolerate those OS aspects we've little (or no) use for now, and one day must learn to 'swim' (or we'll 'sink') in the current and coming PC environment, imo.

There is no rush to upgrade, but everyone should plan to do it at some point, imo.

[bronan]

Well lol i did the plunge on the machine which i had to rebuild to an intel box.
Because the 990Fx mobo with 9590 cpu and psu where fried during the summer storm blowing open a window and gushed alot of rain into the machine.
So i tried to see if it would boot at all, well now I am happy that I decided to buy the retail version because got sick of the problems with the cheaper versions.
This i5 4690 while most of the hardware was not even found by win 8.1 put in the self burned install dvd and started the upgrade. After a short while and a few reboots the machine runs like a charm. It found all hardware and it only needed a few small installs to get it working like it did before.
The second machine i tried to upgrade was my wifes asus chi 300 ... which after the first boot seemed te be running ok. But when i started the backup to my nas from the whole system to make sure if the drive fails i could set the whole machine back as it was.
But after the first few 300 MB disaster struck, the machine turned itself off.
No warnings nothing just constant boot in de the initial secure boot where you could choose to start a repair, safe mode and such. But every option i tried ended in the same issue "boot device error" .... Instant remembered why i hate asus .
So told my the lady to call the shop and let them fix it.
The biggest reason for it is that these crappy small semi laptops only have 1 usb 3.1 slot.
No other means to get them connected to any media. And since i never liked laptops at all without a decent mouse , i was not able to get anything done on that thing.
The bootable rescue dvd's i had magically transfered to an usb stick refused to be found as well. So before i killed that darn asus crap i gave up.
The main machine which mainly is used by me is a i3770 which has been installed on raid 0 ssd setup booting up with about 1000 MB/s, but the raid0 means also i can not install win 10 on it unless i start messing with this to get it off the raid setup. Since i had heard many different stories, about the succesfull or failing upgrades.
Decided to wait till there are drivers for the raid system so i can upgrade without the nasty tricks.
I upgraded several other machines with succes, but those machines had all easy hardware which was already present in the win 8.1 setups.
To be honest if it works you get a steady os which in time you are going to like.
Because i have been messing with almost all the beta's which i could get my hands on, i learned that many tools for a admin like me are hidden. So you need to start several of them in the command prompts like in the good ol days .
So yes it can be a challenge but one tip for those who can help you alot install classicshell, with that you can get things a bit more like you was used to.
I am sure many will like the way it has been made, ofcourse its for most of us seeking where they put stuff now, but as usual we will adapt

[DJ-Garybaldy]

Well I'm beginning to think Microsoft have hit a snag somewhere with Windows 10

Windows explorer crashed earlier taking several programs with it....Last time that happened to me it was with XP before service pack 1

It's been reported to them guess it'll be fixed when it's fixed.

[Aminifu]

Currently, it is not possible to disable all of Windows 10's attempts to gather data and 'phone home' (other than turning off internet access, which is not practical), but there are ways to determine most of what is going on in the background. If private personal data is being sent after 'telling' Windows 10 not to send it, I anticipate a class action suit will soon be filed (no matter what the terms of use say).

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/13/use...automatically/