Windows 10 debackle


wombat457 said:
Gene,

I fully agree with you and that is exactly what I do when I am stumped and what my wife eventually did do I think.

Anyway, I still don't believe that a person should be charged for technical assistance from the company that made the product.

Chet,

Just while I think of it, what version/model of Linux does your son recommend?
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Gee, TONY, If you buy most anything that I can think of .. you have to pay for technical assistance in some form or another?
 
Sherrel - My wife ended up winning a nice little laptop and it also ended up with Win 8 which was horrible. My son also made it operate like Win 7. I had an older confuser that had Windows XP on it and stuck with it for years until the hard drive crapped out. My computer at home has Windows 7 and I will stick with it as long as I can.

From what I understand, Windows 10 is supposed to be the LAST Windows version. (Yeah, right). Like I mentioned in an earlier, I have a couple of programs that are made for the trucking industry that just don't operate on Win 10 like they did on Win 7. I have been able to work around the problem, but it is a pain.
 
I managed to dodge the windows 10 bullet and retained windows 7 on 3 of my machines. I still have an old desktop on XP, still works great. I was reading on Yahoo that the French and Canadian governments are examining windows 10 for Rights Violations. Apparently too much user information is being gathered by Microsoft with Win10. I'm sure we will hear more about this. Like I said before, if they are offering this program for free, then there is more in it for them than the consumer.

Mel
 
Sirfoldalot said:
... I delayed the upgrade to Win10 for a very long time - then I decided that I would do it no matter what happened. The upgrade was fast and effortless and I have not had, knock on wood, so much as a smidgen of a problem. There are still many things I do not know how to do, and if someone showed me how, I would not retain the knowledge. Anyway, I have really no complaints except I just have not found my way around where everything is the way I knew my XP.
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Sherrell - that pretty much has been my experience since I installed Win10 on my Asus laptop last month. All the apps I was using before - XtrkCAD, DecoderPro, PanelPro and my favorite graphic editing tool - all seem to work as well as they did before the upgrade. However...it was after I installed Win10 that I started seeing all these malware pop-ups when I visited certain pop-culture-oriented web sites, ones with provocative captions such as "See what hot stars of the 1970's look like TODAY!" I always immediately closed the browser when I saw those "warnings", but unfortunately MOH didn't know any better. [I posted about that misadventure a few weeks ago in the Coffee Shop thread.] Bottom line: Be prepared to see more of those pop-ups under Win10, apparently the hackers didn't bother targeting Win8 since not that many people were using it.
 
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wombat457 said:
That turned me off Apple for good even though their systems a far superior to a windows system in terms of their OS at least.
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Apple OS X, was an abandonment of the original apple OS and it is just UNIX under the covers. Shortly there after Apple also abandon the wonderful flat memory model Motorola 68000 CPUs in favorer of the segmented memory model of Intel. sigh - a great loss in my opinion. Apple's apparent superiority is that they don't completely change it every 2 years. With Windows, I never upgrade. I still have a few Windows 95 and 97s lurking about. My "main" machines are windows XP, version 7, and version 8. For the Windows 8, I purchased an overlay for it that makes it look exactly like Windows 7. Fortunately by pure luck I missed the entire "Vista" iteration. The next machine will have whatever Windows is the current at the time and it will stay that way until I retire it.

Way back in the Macintosh days, I had to use an Apple in the office for a couple of years. We were never able to get the software that the windows people had and it was a serious productivity issue. I was never able to figure out Apple's file structure with their suit cases and the like so it was difficult to use it on the network with other systems. All I could really do effectively was Word and Excel. I'm certain they have improved all that greatly since then, but it was such a bad experience I cannot bring myself to trying it again.

I don't know how many Linux machines I have, but they do other work (like file serving, app development, and hosting web applications). I don't use any of them for a work station because the applications are just not there and I am too old to continue to write my own. I tried using the Open Office Suite and it sucks. It is just enough different from the MS Office products to be annoying, and it is really really slow.
 
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Ken I don't know much about other anti-virus/malware software, but Norton is recommending using internet explorer rather then the new Microsoft edge until they are able to better secure the new browser.

If you type internet explorer into your search box on the task bar it will bring up the internet explorer app. Once you open it you can right click on the IE icon on the task bar then pin it to the task bar for future use.

It's also a good idea to make IE the default browser.

I love windows 10, greatest thing since slice bread if you ask me.

For you guys who are having trouble try doing a clean install. I have one lap top that I did not do a clean install and it works good but it does not always shut down properly and that can be enough to cause troubles.

I run diagnostics every time it does not shut down properly to repair any issues. If I were not too busy fooling with my trains I would use some of my free time to reinstall windows 10 after reformatting the hard drive.
 
You can change to IE by clicking "PC Settings", then "System" then "default apps", and change the web browser to IE from Edge. I hate Edge, and use Firefox across both operating systems (Mac/IOS and Windoze), and it is so familiar I forget which computer I am using at times. My "real" computers are Macs, but both of them have Windoze as a secondary system. I do have one somewhat older Windoze gaming computer that I run Train Simulator 2016 on. That just happens to be the one I'm typing this on.

For the Linux question, Mint seems to be the one most people are using.
 
What ever happened to Netscape? I would think somebody has incorporated their code. I've been behind the technology curve since the early 2000s. I have always used Internet explorer, but I am biased as a former Microsoft OEM System Builder.

Many problems with some versions of Windows were caused by Microsoft not being prepared to separate the browser from the operating system as ordered by the courts. Windows would have been a much more stable OS had the government not intervened.

In the days of the System Builder Program Microsoft provided as much service, free product and support to one man operations like mine as they did the big boys (Gateway, Dell, etc.) Bill Gates is a great man.

Intel also had great service and support for System Builders.

Both Microsoft and Intel had dedicated web sites and toll free assistance for System Builders. Best thing was when you called a human answered and you could even speak with engineers, for free! Like Lionel does with its support for customers today.

IBM is another great company that deserves my praise for their willingness to share technology. Do you remember this selling point "100% IBM compatible"?

I have not used Apple since the Apple IIe. Any company with profit/sales ratio like Apple has to be overcharging in my opinion. I am a big fan of Steve Wozniak, he is a true genius, but I never had any respect for Steve Jobs. Jobs had little knowledge of computers, but was a great salesmen. Job was a modern day robber baron in my opinion.
 
Thank you Terry, I should not be surprised. I have very limited exposer to Netscape. I had a free membership from AOL, (only because they wanted me to preinstall it on my PCs) I have to admit it was very stable. The last I heard AOL had abandoned their Netscape based browser in the mid 2000s. I could not tell you why.

How long has Firefox been around? I know of many advanced PC users who swear by Firefox, gamers in particular. Not much pushes a PCs resources like games can.

I fairness Netscape was designed from the ground up to be separate from the Operating system. Microsoft had to start over with Internet Explorer after the anti-trust law suits.
 
Louis - I've been using Firefox for over 15 years now without any problems at all. It actually may be longer as I recall first installing it on a computer with Win98 on it. After this many years, it is all a blur anyway!

Willie
 
Just wanted to let you guys know that my wife has abandoned the windows 10 idea, thank god! The computer she wanted to install it on is a windows 7 Pro system; however, it is 7 years old apparently and was installed pre-service pack 1. As such, it couldn't be upgraded. Here is the ridiculous, but typical microsucks bit; she tried to "update it" but microsucks gave her a message saying "it couldn't be updated because it was no longer supported".

I then tried installing the service pack from one I had downloaded from microsucks service pack download site and it wouldn't install either!

Anyway and personally, I am glad it all failed so she can stay with 7 even though it is only a secondary pc for her.
 
Iron Horseman said:
... I still have a few Windows 95 and 97s lurking about. My "main" machines are windows XP, version 7, and version 8. For the Windows 8, I purchased an overlay for it that makes it look exactly like Windows 7. Fortunately by pure luck I missed the entire "Vista" iteration. The next machine will have whatever Windows is the current at the time and it will stay that way until I retire it.
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Iron Horsemen you are a wise man, Upgrades are and always have been a messy proposition. They can leave behind many issues and incompatibility with so many various manufactures of PC parts and software makes upgrades a tricky business at best.

I have a friend who has abandoned the PC all together for his gaming because of compatibility issues. He now plays exclusively on consoles. Download the game and play!

Almost every upgrade I do, I always do a complete reformatting of the hard drive and do a clean install. I even let the OS handle the formatting because it eliminates the possibility of compatibility with file systems.

What about Windows Millennium Edition? That was not around long. I had a ME PC and it worked fine, but not many fans of that OS either.

Trying to use outdated equipment for new operating systems can be a nightmare. Microsoft has done a great job for the most part, but now even high end PCs are very seldom 100% IBM compatible if there even is such a thing. Worst yet are low cost out of date systems. Trying to make complete backward compatibility for all systems is just not possible. Add to that the software developers unwillingness to invest in upgrades for their products. Like the old saying "you can't please everyone"

How about E machines? Forget upgrading those disposable things.

I wonder how these new Chrome machines are?

My children and I have had good luck with Windows 10 upgrades, thank God.

My current PC was a hand-me-down from my Son-in-Law he has to have the latest and greatest. That's good for me, because I like free! No wonder I think so highly of Windows 10, hard to beat free.
 
Windows ME was a disaster because it had removed DOS, which was an underpinning to the Windows OS. Not surprisingly, without its base programming, it was as unstable as Charles Manson on a drug binge.
 
Now that is unstable!

I had good luck with it because I only ran Microsoft software that was made for it. (free from Microsoft) I did not sell a single ME system because I had heard the nightmares. I never like to buy or sell "the latest thing" let someone else find the bugs.

That was also after the earthquake in Taiwan that drove system Ram prices through the roof. For builders like myself who only bought that parts after taking an order it priced us out of the market. I was soon out of the PC market. Oh well back to industrial mechanical services full time. I missed those "easy money" days of the PC sales. I made a grand, customer saved a grand, everybody was happy, too good to last!
 
Bruette said:
I have a friend who has abandoned the PC all together for his gaming because of compatibility issues. He now plays exclusively on consoles. Download the game and play!
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Yeah, but that seriously limits the "serious" games one can play. The consoles are for more video game type games. Despite having 3 Xbox and various other games, my children were begging for a 'real' computer so they could play League of Legends and the like.

What about Windows Millennium Edition? That was not around long. I had a ME PC and it worked fine, but not many fans of that OS either.
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I wasn't concerned about the OS proper, but that it did not work well on the network. All of our PCs share a common file server (where we store documents and photos and the like) that way one machine coming or going doesn't loose any information.

How about E machines?
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I've had three of those. The first is long since retired, but because if it years later I got one for free as part of a class action suite. One of them we purchased outright and it is what runs the embroidery machine. I have no idea where the other "free" one is right now.
 
Interestingly, my Windoze 10 computer just dumped on me. I got a series of messages telling me I had been assigned a temporary local account, and now it refuses to boot. Since I'm a little under the weather, I think I'll wait until I feel better before I tackle that problem. All it's used for is a handful of games, and watching movies when my wife is watching something on the tv anyway.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Yeah, but that seriously limits the "serious" games one can play. The consoles are for more video game type games. Despite having 3 Xbox and various other games, my children were begging for a 'real' computer so they could play League of Legends and the like.

I wasn't concerned about the OS proper, but that it did not work well on the network. All of our PCs share a common file server (where we store documents and photos and the like) that way one machine coming or going doesn't loose any information.

I've had three of those. The first is long since retired, but because if it years later I got one for free as part of a class action suite. One of them we purchased outright and it is what runs the embroidery machine. I have no idea where the other "free" one is right now.
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I never got involved with networks. Too much time for too little money for me. I heard stories from other vendors about the plethora of problems with networks and like most computer problems they were "operator problems", but many customers insist "I did not do anything"

That is very true about games, the PC is still the platform for hard core gamers or people like me who play grand strategy games. My son just bought the new "Hearts of Iron 4" game for me the first day it was released. I have played the previous version and I am excited to play this one, but that won't happen any time soon. He should have waited, the prices always come down, but he was hoping I could play it now.

Hearts of Iron is the closest PC game I have played to Avalon Hill's board game "Third Reich". After Hasbro bought Avalon Hill they released Avalon Hill's "Panzer Blitz" on the PS2. I never played but I read it was over simplified "dumbed down" for the console.

My grandsons enjoy the consoles. We have PS3, PS4 and Xbox One. They also have the Nintendo whatever they are, but I don't like any of the Nintendo systems. I prefer Play Station, it just seems easy to use for me. I like the consoles for sports games. The Madden Football series is fantastic as is MLB the Show. I just don't have enough time for all of our toys. The realism is amazing especially for me having played my first sports games in the arcades and later on the Atari 2600. I have fond memories of playing M-Network Baseball on the Atari 2600. I can still remember the little jingle it played after a homerun.

I never bought an E-machine because they were so low priced. I could not even build a system cheaper for myself. I would tell people "they are to rudimentary for me", jealousy is all it was. They would have worked fine for my business. I had much less time for games in those days. I did play games with the kids on their PCs.

The trend for this generation is turning to games on cell phones. Like music, game quality is accepted at a much lower level then our generation would accept.
 
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