After much trepidation and consternation with my desktop this past week, I'm finally back in "stable" mode.

My Win7 acted very flaky and I moved to do a clean install but then the #$%^ computer went and refused to even boot. Of course the startup repair thingee from MS doesn't ever work (confirmed by local tech guys at the 'puter repair shop).

Both my old mechanical HD and new SSD swapped in acting as boot drives failed so I headed to a local shop for a hardware sanity check. All was good. My OS was beyond corrupted.

Had thought Win10 would cost now that the upgrade period had expired. Didn't know that it was simply a matter of no iso D/Ls but a media builder path to upgrading. Folks mentioning it here never included free in their recommendations.

My temporary life line was an antique Dell Vostro 1000 laptop running XP. (Yes it worked fine, albeit extremely s-l-o-w, after nearly 5 years of storage.) Using it to D/L the media builder didn't pass my sanity check any more than a clean install of Win7 to be followed by an upgrade sometime soon what with Win7's end of life scheduled in 2019. They provided me with media to install Win10, so off I went.

Did so (the process isn't all that intuitive for someone who hasn't done a clean install or upgrade in over a decade) and migrated my apps and data from a Win7 backup image. As expected there were a few hiccups requiring program reinstallations and salvaging appdata from my old drives. But the biggest bug-a-boos were finding that MS had dumbed down their OS a la Apple removing easy tweaking like designating default programs. Groan.

It has taken the last couple days to get things pretty much where I want them. Local tech wizards were of great help gratis with a variety of techniques and work arounds. Win10 is no panacea by any stretch but at least it is a current OS version.

I remain old school using things like Classic Start Menu and eschewing Cortana. I'm just too damn old and stubborn to change!

I don't know anyone who uses Cortana.

Much prefer Win10 over previous MS OS.

Running Win10 on a SS Drive really makes for a much more enjoyable computer experience.

Fast Boots are great.

It's not all that dark.
Good move.

Good move; in a couple of years 7 will be without support from MS, so best sooner than later.

Just make sure to have a time set to auto update, say, in the middle of the night. Updates are frequent, and some can be a bit time consuming, especially if you get behind

I clinged to Win7 until DirectX forced me to go to 10.

10 can be reigned in, most of the stupid shit can be shut off.

I'm finding it as stable as 7, and am pleasantly surprised. I too was skeptical.

Whew! I thought you bought a Mac!

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
10 can be reigned in, most of the stupid shit can be shut off.

I'm finding it as stable as 7, and am pleasantly surprised. I too was skeptical.

Yeah during installation you can opt out of 95% of the privacy intrusions. But as said, doing things like setting default programs that are not on any of the default lists Win10 jams at you (and forget about their monetized store crap) has been removed from what was available in previous OS iterations forcing laborious workarounds. Not a single one of Win10's recommended defaults I used. The individual programs and apps list I deem stupid. Laptop specific stuff has to be addressed too in many cases. Also did a number of other tweaks like eliminating that stupid shortcut arrow. Would like to kill the Admin shield too on icons but the only way I know how at this point is a UAC change which has its own significant drawbacks. I've heard one can replace the shield with a transparency via registry mods but I usually shy away from screwing around there. There's more but I'm sure you get the idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
Whew! I thought you bought a Mac!

Honestly, I'd be trying Linux Mint before succumbing to "i" anything. Not that I'm a MS fan by any stretch.... LOL

I had a PC die a couple of years ago and bought a new one that had Win10 pre-installed. I hated it at first because I loved Win7. Win7 worked, period!

Well now I'm a Win10 fan boy. It takes awhile to get used to it but when you do, you learn to love it. It has become the most stable OS I've ever had.

Jim

I've been a Mac guy since the day Windows 8 was publicly released. I still have some Windows machines - one with Windows 10. I may have remained with PC if MS would have gone from Win 7 to Win 10. Mac has my attention now.

Also, I'd probably like Windows 10 better if I had a newer machine since the operating system needs a little more horsepower to run it.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
Whew! I thought you bought a Mac!

Honestly, I'd be trying Linux Mint before succumbing to "i" anything. Not that I'm a MS fan by any stretch.... LOL

I really don’t understand this attitude. I’ve used Macs exclusively since 1998, but before that I worked for Novell programming mostly on NT4.0 boxes. Two weeks ago I purchased my first new PC since 1995.

Why would you not consider the best tool for the job? You state your willingness to go with a Linux distro. Since Mac OSX is essentially a Unix machine, it certainly can’t be the OS. Is it Apple’s politics? If so, I can assure you that MSFT’s are no different. Apple’s cult-like following? As demonstrated, Microsoft has its own devout followers. Hardware cost? Whenever I’ve looked at comparable laptops, there is essentially no cost difference. So what is it, really, that makes people not even consider the best tool for the job? Makes no sense to me.

sigcrazy7,

Primarily cost and here we're talking desktops and not laptops. As for "best tool for the job," I don't find any fanboy-like comments about any product line compelling in the least.

Secondarily, having grown with the earliest flavors of MS DOS (along with AtariDOS and SpartaDOS), and being an old long retired curmudgeon, I'm inclined to stay with what I've been with. My Linux comment was in jest as a response to Doc H, figuring someone would lecture me on my "attitude" as anytime a subject that involves various computer operating systems come up, some can't resist advocating for their favorites.

Keep in mind the thread was about me moving from Win7 to Win10 which I had been resisting since its introduction. Doc H's comment was a a thread drift.

No offense meant, nor for that matter taken. Trust you feel the same.

I get it. On the surface, Apple’s products can seem expensive. The problem is that they only offer Cadillac, when Chevrolet will often do just fine for some.

As for “best tool for the job,” that was a reference to a philosophy, not a fanboy endorsement of anything. I believe in seeking the best tool for the job, whether I need a hammer, truck, gun, or computer, and I try to avoid letting any emotional irrationality interfere with the evaluation. That is what I was referencing in my post. For the last two decades, Macs have given me the best TCO, especially once down time is factored. But like I said, I just bought a PC, so we’ll see if that remains true.

I hope the Win10 experience works out for you (and me ). I’ll be approaching Windows 10 with a blank slate, since my last serious use of Windows was using NT4.0, with an occasional light dusting of XP. Who knows, maybe it’ll make it easier since I’ve never used Win7, and won’t have the base line to get pissed off at the changes.

Of course no offense is taken. I’m a guest here in your thread.

I enjoyed W10 so much I went out and bought a Mac.

No regrets.

Bob

I actually liked W8, but I was using it on a MS Surface mostly in the tablet mode. W10 has been fine for me, again using it on a MS Surface but most often in the desktop mode. My wife has a W10 HP laptop with a touch screen. She really likes that setup. I'm a little surprised because she is a big time Apple fan.

I run Win10 on my PC desktop at home and Win10 under Parallels on my MacBook Pro when traveling. No complaints at all.
Mike

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I get it. On the surface, Apple’s products can seem expensive. The problem is that they only offer Cadillac, when Chevrolet will often do just fine for some.

A Cadillac with training wheels vs a Chevrolet with a LT4.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I get it. On the surface, Apple’s products can seem expensive. The problem is that they only offer Cadillac, when Chevrolet will often do just fine for some.

A Cadillac with training wheels vs a Chevrolet with a LT4.

A bit of an ironic statement considering how sophomoric the default Win10 interface.

Or was I mistaken and you were referring to the hardware, as I was, in which case I fail to see the training wheels, especially considering that the hardware standards are nearly identical across all platforms.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
A bit of an ironic statement considering how sophomoric the default Win10 interface.

Were you in charge of Netware's UI? I can see where you got your UEX expertise Sorry, Sigcrazy, I couldn't resist. Take care.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I get it. On the surface, Apple’s products can seem expensive. The problem is that they only offer Cadillac, when Chevrolet will often do just fine for some.

A Cadillac with training wheels vs a Chevrolet with a LT4.

A bit of an ironic statement considering how sophomoric the default Win10 interface.

Or was I mistaken and you were referring to the hardware, as I was, in which case I fail to see the training wheels, especially considering that the hardware standards are nearly identical across all platforms.

Maybe look at, say, the Win 10 Kernel and compare it to the other things out there.