Windows 10

[Garden Manager]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried it yet? I was a bit reluctant but yeaterday i decided to upgrade my laptop (my 'second' PC after my main desktop PC) in order to try it out. Have to say i am quite impressed. Not sure about the new browser replacing IE (Edge) but like the idea of Apps like on a tablet or smartphone. My laptop is quite old but sees to run much quicker with 10 so far.

Of course my desktop has much more software, data and i run all my peripherals from it so remains to be seen how that will perform with 10, but so far so good.

[Garden Manager]

[Jayb]

I've been thinking about upgrading mine and have got half way, just not had the nerve to press the final button yet!
Glad it is working well so far for your laptop. Does it take long to do?

[rokerman1973]

Upgraded mine on a desktop this morning. Needs to be got used to. Frustratingly screwed up my e-mail. Now waiting for MS to verify my e-mail account after filling in a fairly lengthy form. Can't understand why it wouldn't let me use my e-mail and it had to be verified especially as I entered my password. Bloody annoying if I have to change my e-mail address .

[Paulines7]

I now have Windows 10 and am very pleased with it as I never really got on with Windows 8.  I don't have a tablet or smart phone so don't know anything about Apps.    I went out to buy a tablet last year but ended up buying a small touch screen laptop instead.  Now it is upgraded to Windows 10, it seems much faster and much easier to use. 

I've been thinking about upgrading mine and have got half way, just not had the nerve to press the final button yet!
Glad it is working well so far for your laptop. Does it take long to do?

We have snail broadband in our village and my laptop took about 24 hours to download.

Upgraded mine on a desktop this morning. Needs to be got used to. Frustratingly screwed up my e-mail. Now waiting for MS to verify my e-mail account after filling in a fairly lengthy form. Can't understand why it wouldn't let me use my e-mail and it had to be verified especially as I entered my password. Bloody annoying if I have to change my e-mail address .

I had problems with my email to begin with and my OH sorted it all out for me and I didn't have to change my email address.  Please don't ask me what he did!! 

[Melbourne12]

My brother-in-law upgraded his desktop (a standard Dell machine a couple of years old).  The Dell was running Windows 7, although I don't know which flavour of 7.

It was a disaster.  Windows 10 handles touchscreens, whereas his old operating system of course did not.  It looks as though he ended up with the Windows 10 system expecting touchscreen input (which may indeed have been his own fault for not understanding what he was doing).  At some point he persuaded it to revert to Windows 7, but the mouse wouldn't work, or rather the mouse worked but the cursor didn't move.

It took Microsoft level 2 support over 3 hours to fix it, and of course he had to go through around 9 hours of level 1 support before they agreed to escalate it.

I must say that Microsoft Windows is becoming less and less attractive.  Only a very few years ago we had exclusively MS Windows machines - desktops, laptops, and a netbook.  Now the netbook is being retired, and we have moved to Android and Apple iOS.  We keep just one Windows desktop. 

[rokerman1973]

Just had an e-mail to say they can't verify my account. Was working perfectly until I installed Windows 10. Looks like a new e-mail address for me. Think I'll give Microsoft a miss and go elsewhere. So p*ss*d of as now have to inform loads of people my new e-mail address.

[Tee Gee]

I hope this thread goes on for a while yet so that OUR experiences can be aired, I trust these somewhat more than the online previewing companies.

These companies are manned by experts, some of whom may be sponsored by software companies so I feel sometimes that their findings are not always to be trusted.

By contrast when the general public reply they tend to give a more down to earth reasons, based on their experiences.


I have been reading up on W10 and I am still undecided.

In fact only last week I decided I am going to wait until after Christmas before I go one way or the other.

I am getting the impression that Microsoft are building W10 as they go along and modifying it as they get 'feedback' hence the reason they are giving it free for the next 12 months.

I am also led to believe that W8 was not much of a success ( I have W7) and they do not want this with W10.

Then after the 12 months are up they will sell their " tried and tested" system at there usual astronomical prices, or will they?


One thing that does concern me is the "Apps" not for the apps sake but I feel that in future users will have to buy Apps to improve their system, not like now where MS gives you regular updates as a matter of course.

This reminds me of the car trade where mass produced cars are produced relatively cheap but the parts can cost a fortune, will these apps follow the same course???

OK the user can be selective in what apps to buy (or not as the case might be)


OK I might be over reacting and I hope I am, but I am basing these thoughts on the the current TV ads where they are showing small children as the eventual users not old non-IT literate people like me, hence my hesitancy in hitting the button.

So as I said....lets have all your good,bad and indifferent opinions guys, I for one would like to hear/read them...Tg

[ancellsfarmer]

Updated 6month old laptop from 8.1 to 10.  Just pressed the button and waited as it asked. And waited, and waited. Got fed up and went to bed. Next am, all sorted. Has been good for the last 6days. Seems quicker and lost a lot of annoying features from 8.1. Much easier than w 8 Pro at work. No need of a microsoft account for any use I need so not done that. I use Firefox from Mozilla and Open Office suite for most things. Email free from UK2.net so no major costs. Sometimes wonder what we could do without it. How things have changed since a £1000 Commodore Pet!(8 kilobyte memory if my losing memory holds good)

[ACE]

Done it a week or so ago. A few niggles but I started on a safe start one morning with f8 and all rectified itself. As for new email addresses and such just go up to the right hand corner with the row of dots, drop down the menu and run internet explorer and transfer all your old stuff over to edge. One thing that was a nuisance is that streaming videos gave me a green screen, so I run them in explorer, but I will have to sort it some day soon. Cortana is good for searching, but only typed questions. Enough womens wittering going on here without another tart joining in.

[Obelixx]

Windows 8 had been driving me crackers ever since I bought a new PC about 3 years ago.   When I bought this new one in Feb I hummed and ha'd over an Apple Mac but I have lots of software and documents in Windows that I need for running the dance club and I was advised that migrating them to Apple would not be straight forward.   Carried on with Windows 8 which I loathed so I upgraded to Windows 10 nearly 2 weeks ago.  Had to leave it to download for several hours and then discovered it has a major feature.  It stops Microsoft's own Outlook programme for managing emails from sending emails.  What a spectacular bug.   

Found a forum with other people having the same problem and did the fix someone advised on there and I am now OK but I doubt very much if I will ever buy a Windows PC again.  I just do not understand how they can let such a thing loose on their customers, especially as I used to work for one of the British software houses that supplied programmers to Microsoft in Seattle to develop the original Windows and I know about developing software and thorough testing protocols.   There has been no apology and Microsoft do not seem to be fixing the bug themselves.

Here's the forum thread in case it can help anyone else -
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/oemail-osend/windows-10-upgrade-outlook-send-error/f4972f09-5961-40a8-a2aa-a5faaf982746

[BarriedaleNick]

My issue is this.

I never upgrade an existing operating system and nor would most of my fellow techies.  We always start from scratch - wipe the disk or partition and start again.  Of course this is a hassle and not easy for the average user, plus you need to back up your files, restore them and then reinstall your programs.  However you get a nice clean install and generally it is easier to identify issues.

I have 10 running on a virtual machine here but I must confess to not having looked at it much.  I will update my real pc in few months but I have access to full install CDs so a fresh install it will be for me.  I will do my wife's soon as her PC needs a reinstall anyway.
One chap at work (long term IT bod) updated - total disaster with sound not working and other issues.  Went back to 7 and natch it was fecked.  So he is backing up and starting again.  Others have reported that is great for low end PCs and starts really quickly. One guy in the office is running it now as his main PC and it seems fine.

I am not sure what Tee Gee means about having to buy apps to improve the system.  If think there may be some confusion over different version but that wont affect home users.  Windows enterprise comes in two flavours - Long Term Servicing Branch and Current Branch.  The LTSB is similar to how versions are delivered today with a new one delivered every couple of years and in between each new version Microsoft will provide security updates, bug fixes and so on. Alternatively, customers can choose to use the CB method which provides security updates, bug fixes, and new features every few months.  It just gives us techies different degrees of control over the update process.

IMHO Windows 10 is a solid product but in the end it is just an OS and wont change your life and it is essentially free if you update now (the free offer only last for a year then you have to buy but you don't have to pay if you have already updated) - MS have never charged for service packs and updates and that is not going to change with Windows 10. 

[PAULW]

OBBELIX  Thanks for the tip was having problems with outlook sending mail all sorted now

[Obelixx]

Glad it helped Paul.   

[Garden Manager]

Getting mixed feed back on it so far. After working fine the first day I had a few problems the next time I used it. Apps and the store wouldn't work and th Internet connection was hit and miss (some things connected others didn't,  mostly new 10 based  itens). Got an error code for the problems which told me to install an update patch which seemed to cure the problem. Most thing I have tried so far, both software and hardware seem to work fine.

Has anyone found though that in 10 your Microsoft account is distinct from Hotmail accounts? I got in a bit of a muddle with my logins for these.

I never had windows 8 so did not experience the problems users had with it. I have tried the 'tablet'view  on my copy, which I assume is similar to win 8 desktop and I quite like it. I use a tablet a lot (android) so I am as used to the tablet system of tapping apps and tiles as using the traditional window desktop and start menus.

[pumkinlover]

This computer sort of did it itself, we were dithering about getting the download and then next thing it was downloading.
Everything works fine and I like it -no problems with outlook.
Only problem is my screen looks like a stupid stretched limo!! it's a sort of widescreen and we can't yet get the aspect right a bit like watching an old program on telly and everyone looks very odd

[Garden Manager]

This computer sort of did it itself, we were dithering about getting the download and then next thing it was downloading.
Everything works fine and I like it -no problems with outlook.
Only problem is my screen looks like a stupid stretched limo!! it's a sort of widescreen and we can't yet get the aspect right a bit like watching an old program on telly and everyone looks very odd

I havent looked into personalising the desktop much yet but will do as there are aspects of the default desktop that i dont like. BTW there must be a way of getting the aspect ratio right for your screen. have another play around with the settings as it can take a few goes to get it to suit. Have found this with previous windows as well.

yes it is easy to install without intending to. Once downloaded it will keep trying to install unless you keep postponing it. While i have installed 10 on one machine i am sticking to 7 on my main PC until i have tried 10 out properly. As I have already downloaded 10 to thia PC it keeps wanting to install it, and i have to keep saying NO! (not yet anyway).

[Tee Gee]

B Nick quoted

but I have access to full install CDs so a fresh install it will be

How do you go about getting CD's?

As I understand it the free software is only available as a 'download' and CD's have not been released because MS has not finalised the system yet.

Could you explain Nick

[BarriedaleNick]

B Nick quoted

but I have access to full install CDs so a fresh install it will be

How do you go about getting CD's?

As I understand it the free software is only available as a 'download' and CD's have not been released because MS has not finalised the system yet.

Could you explain Nick

Windows 10 is a finalised product, in as far as any OS is finalised, and you can download the disk image yourself.  I have a Volume License through work which gives me the ability to download disk images.  To go with that I have two types of license key.  One is KMS which is a server based license for networked PCs and then I have loads of "normal" keys for stand alone installs so I can pinch some of them of home use.  Admittedly and unusually the Volume customers were last in the queue. We normally get releases ahead of general release but not with Windows 10.

That aside you can download an image - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
which you can use to install 10 but it will only function as a free update unless you have a key.  I am reliably informed that you can get key generators illegally through torrent sites etc but I couldn't recommend that..  As I have access to keys I wouldn't need it anyway!

You can also buy Windows 10 pro either as a download or USB install - http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msuk/en_GB/list/Windows-10/categoryID.70175000?icid=home_spotlight_4_windows-10-buy-w10_25082015 - that way you can do a new clean install.

Some were saying you can use your Windows 7 or 8 keys to use with the update disk but I haven't looked into that.

[Garden Manager]

Has anyone found the screensavers not working? Havent been able to get a working screensaver on my machine since upgradine despite altering settings several times. Nothing seems to work, so the screen stays on all the time. I think power management may have the same problem, sleep/standby functions not working or not working properly under 10.

Otherwise the system works fine, quite happy with it but this is a concern.

[BarriedaleNick]

Screensavers working fine on my virtual box..