Last days for win 10

[Slasher]

Hi

as the closing date to update free to windows 10 looms (27th) i am still in two minds.

I do not want to have things messed up.

Well, shall I or shall I not? Is it worth it? Has is helped or hindered you?

I'd like to know.

cheers

[Cassiebsg]

Oh, I hadn't realised that it was an hostage situation. ... "upgrade now for free or else!"

Have no plans to upgrade at this time, free or not, I don' care.

[Danvzare]

The message never popped up for me, or in the corner of my taskbar, or anything really.
Which is odd, but satisfying. It's nice not to have all the hassle that everyone else has apprently been having.
By the way, I'm using Windows 7. I still don't know why it never popped up.

As for whether or not you should upgrade, that all comes down to the age old question. Is it broke? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[AGA]

Windows 10 is great if you have a newer PC.  Don't try to run it on a machine more than a few years old, or you'll just end up with added slowness...

[NickyNyce]

I ended up with a problem when I did it. Our security certificate gave us a problem and my wife and I could not pay bills or purchase anything online. I had to call for assistance and have someone take over my computer to fix the issue. After an hour or two, it was fixed, but I wasn't happy. I'm not a fan of the changes. I'm not very computer savvy, so many of the changes I didn't like were cosmetic, or menu changes and stuff like that. I actually wish I never did it.

[Darth Mandarb]

I really cannot understand all the bitching that's going on (not in this thread, in the "wild") about Windows10.

I have some news, might be a hard pill to swallow but... if Windows downloaded without your permission or was nagging you to upgrade that's 'cause your settings allowed it.

It's not Microsoft being intrusive.

Set up your computer/permissions properly and there are none of these reported issues. Instead of whining, complaining, and accusing Microsoft of being "evil" how about you learn to use your computer? I know I know... it's never your fault. Always somebody else!!1!

On top of all that it's 100% FREE.

I am quite fond of Windows10.

I have upgraded 5 of 6 computers in my house (two laptops, two desktops and my Surface Pro3).

Not a single one of them downloaded without my permission.

Not a single one of them nagged me to upgrade (just a single notification to let me know the upgrade was available).

Not a single one tricked me into anything.

Windows 10 is great if you have a newer PC.  Don't try to run it on a machine more than a few years old, or you'll just end up with added slowness...

I have a 6 year old laptop. Aside from taking a tad longer to install (took over an hour) it runs really good! I will admit though it's only used to power the HTPC in my family room so I haven't really put it through its paces to test.

The only other "problem" I had was when the upgrades were first available I wanted to update my Surface (was never a fan of Win8) and it took them over 3 days to make the update available! Quite the opposite of what everybody is bitching about!

My thoughts/prediction?

I think people just love to bitch about stuff and M$ has always been a favorite target. I'm FAR from a M$ fanboy but I think they are making great moves lately (the Surface line is amazing, blows anything [cr]Apple has out of the water), Windows10 is great, the Hololense (aside from having a ridiculous price tag for the developer's kit) is a game-changer that all others will be playing catch-up on. I think it's rather amazing they are giving Windows 10 away for free. I'm predicting that the very people bitching about the free Win10 upgrade will refuse to update and then, when it's no longer free, they'll start bitching about having to pay to upgrade.

I will giggle when it happens.

[dbuske]

Win 10 is the last upgrade before MS goes to a monthly fee to use MS operating systems.
I suggest looking for alternate Operating systems, or pay through the nose.
Can you say Linux.

[Jack]

I'm FAR from a M$ fanboy but I think they are making great moves lately (the Surface line is amazing, blows anything [cr]Apple has out of the water), Windows10 is great, the Hololense (aside from having a ridiculous price tag for the developer's kit) is a game-changer that all others will be playing catch-up on.

In the last few years M$ have earned the evil image they were always accused of, and they have made some of the worst decisions in the company's history. Though everything I've heard about surface is indeed good, most people who know more than the surface details have had their opinions of microsoft changed for the worse.

France orders Microsoft to stop collecting excessive user data

Windows 10 adoption is slowing, despite Microsoft's best efforts

Microsoft's heavy-handed Windows 10 tactics may be its undoing

[Danvzare]

Win 10 is the last upgrade before MS goes to a monthly fee to use MS operating systems.
I suggest looking for alternate Operating systems, or pay through the nose.
Can you say Linux.

That's the first time I've heard that. Are you sure that's true? Surely you're missing something?
If you aren't, then why isn't the whole internet aflame over that?

Of course if Microsoft did do that (which is possible considering it seems to be a standard business practice nowadays, what with Adobe having done that exact same thing), I would just move to Linux... or stick with Windows 7.

[AGA]

Subscriptions will be for corporate users only, not home.

[Scavenger]

I have some news, might be a hard pill to swallow but... if Windows downloaded without your permission or was nagging you to upgrade that's 'cause your settings allowed it.

I've had no end of problems with stopping the upgrade, to the point of having to set the registry myself three times in three different ways as Microsoft changed the settings to make windows 10 be downloaded. Which it did, taking up 4gb each time and redownloading itself every time. And it tried to upgrade in the middle of a stream.

I don't know what fantasy operating system you're using, but my experience was windows 10 kept changing the rules in order to be installed.

And if Microsoft were so generous and nice, they'd offer the free upgrade when the user is ready, not effectively in the beta period where nothing works and old software won't run.

Oh, and they wouldnt clutter up the ui with advertising.

[Radiant]

Well, shall I or shall I not? Is it worth it? Has is helped or hindered you?

Well the main question is, are you in any way dissatisfied with your current operating system? Because if the only reason to switch is that "it's new", then you don't really have a reason to switch.

Speaking for myself, I'm still avoiding the ribbon GUI as much as possible, which means not upgrading my Word and Excel. And since the older Word and Excel I have already do everything I need, I have no reason to upgrade.

If you have concerns about security, the straightforward response is to update your security software, not your entire OS.

[Darth Mandarb]

I've had no end of problems with stopping the upgrade, to the point of having to set the registry myself three times in three different ways as Microsoft changed the settings to make windows 10 be downloaded. Which it did, taking up 4gb each time and redownloading itself every time. And it tried to upgrade in the middle of a stream.

I don't know what fantasy operating system you're using, but my experience was windows 10 kept changing the rules in order to be installed.

Well like I said, I had zero issues/problems with it. It never nagged, downloaded, etc. anything until I told it to because of how I configured Windows.

Not sure what the difference would be with your machine, but I had no problems. Worked as it should.

And if Microsoft were so generous and nice, they'd offer the free upgrade when the user is ready, not effectively in the beta period where nothing works and old software won't run.

Yeah, how dare they offer something for free?!!?

Oh, and they wouldnt clutter up the ui with advertising.

Not sure about this... I have ZERO advertising and I find the new UI to be far superior to Win8's UI.

To each their own. If you don't like it, don't upgrade I guess!

Win 10 is the last upgrade before MS goes to a monthly fee to use MS operating systems.
I suggest looking for alternate Operating systems, or pay through the nose.
Can you say Linux.

Like AGA stated, as far as I know, it's an option for corporations (not required). I actually think it's a decent idea (for corporations) and, depending on the new pricing model, could work out to be cheaper for companies than the current model. Time will tell!

Well the main question is, are you in any way dissatisfied with your current operating system? Because if the only reason to switch is that "it's new", then you don't really have a reason to switch.

This was the main reason I updated my Win8 machine (was never really happy with Win8). Once I started using 10 I updated all my other boxes with it. (Except one Win7 box which is a cracked version and I didn't want to risk updating it though I've been told it'll work just fine, there's no real need as I don't really use the box that much anyway).

[nihilyst]

I upgraded last year from Windows 7. It takes around 12 GB less disc space than 7, which I liked because of my small SSD on which it runs. The upgrade took about 3 hours total (including downloading), and then it just ran. And it still does. I've never had any problems with it, and I like the new GUI. I fucked up one time by accidentally installing some malware shit that I couldn't get rid of, and so I had to format my SSD and re-install Win 10 with a USB image, and it ran fine again. No problems with the authentication either.

[Peder 🚀]

I tried, at least twice, but it always failed so I just gave up.. I ended up clearing my Win drive clean anyway in the end so..

[Radiant]

This was the main reason I updated my Win8 machine (was never really happy with Win8).

This is precisely why I never migrated to Win8, and of course this makes me hesitant to migrate to any other windows version.

[SinSin]

I've never had any issues either.

[Cassiebsg]

Darth, you do now that the upgrade is disguised as "important security update", right? Instead of being in the optional downloads, with a clear tag "Get Win10" or something. The only nags I got was when I decided to update my work computer with only "security updates" and all of a sudden a screen was poping up on the corner telling me to upgrade to Win10, and closing it just made it return a little later. I then deleted that update, and again short after Windows sent a new "security update" that was just a new pop-up to "download win10" And before I knew it a "install" button was also present! . If that's not being pushing and intrusive I don't know what is. I do not run automatic upgrades on my computers, I selectively select those I want. But if I can't trust that "security upgrade" means security upgrade and not an installer for Win10... then... I stop installing them.

[Radiant]

Darth, you do now that the upgrade is disguised as "important security update", right? Instead of being in the optional downloads, with a clear tag "Get Win10" or something. The only nags I got was when I decided to update my work computer with only "security updates" and all of a sudden a screen was poping up on the corner telling me to upgrade to Win10, and closing it just made it return a little later. I then deleted that update, and again short after Windows sent a new "security update" that was just a new pop-up to "download win10" And before I knew it a "install" button was also present! . If that's not being pushing and intrusive I don't know what is. I do not run automatic upgrades on my computers, I selectively select those I want. But if I can't trust that "security upgrade" means security upgrade and not an installer for Win10... then... I stop installing them.

Oh, it's worse. On computers with a slightly different set up, it would hog up your internet connection for gigabytes as it would automatically download W10, then finally asking if you wanted to install it. Yes, even if you're on slow wifi or have a monthly bandwidth limit.

[Danvzare]

I've had no end of problems with stopping the upgrade, to the point of having to set the registry myself three times in three different ways as Microsoft changed the settings to make windows 10 be downloaded. Which it did, taking up 4gb each time and redownloading itself every time. And it tried to upgrade in the middle of a stream.

And here I am, with a computer that's never once had a single nag about it. And I know it's unusual, because I've had another computer that's been set up exactly the same as this one, that did get the nag. Although that computer is now dead (for completely unrelated reasons) but I'm still left baffled. Why wasn't this computer affected? Ah well, I'm not complaining, just curious.

Speaking for myself, I'm still avoiding the ribbon GUI as much as possible, which means not upgrading my Word and Excel. And since the older Word and Excel I have already do everything I need, I have no reason to upgrade.

Heh, same here. I'm still using Microsoft Office 2003, and boy, the incompatibilities I've encountered. Still, it still works.
Funnily enough though, I've used the ribbon GUI, and I'd argue that it's actually easier to use than the good old-fashioned GUI. Yet here I am, refusing to upgrade.

I find the new UI to be far superior to Win8's UI.

I think almost everyone agrees that the Win10 UI is better than the Win8 UI.
It's more of a question of whether the Win10 UI is better than the Win7 UI.
Just like how it was the question of whether the Win7 UI was better than the WinXP UI. The verdict on that one though, is that they're exactly the same, but you need to modify a few easy to find settings on Win7 to get it to the WinXP standard.

[Radiant]

Funnily enough though, I've used the ribbon GUI, and I'd argue that it's actually easier to use than the good old-fashioned GUI. Yet here I am, refusing to upgrade.

I find it lacking in keyboard shortcuts.

[Jack]

I find it lacking in keyboard shortcuts.

It's stuff like this, microsoft.

I think almost everyone agrees that the Win10 UI is better than the Win8 UI.

This is the one good thing I've heard said about it many times. I'm sure that whatever microsoft have been trying to do in terms of UI make sense for a touch interface, but a desktop is so far beyond that in terms of capability.

Come to think of it, the only time microsoft really shined is when they dared to step out of apple's shadow, by making an OS that was more capable/open than apple's. Whether this was by intention or by accident is unclear. The fact that they weren't trying to sell hardware as well led to the ubiquity that their whole business is founded on. They dwarfed apple. But then jobs revolutionised the drool-compatible interface, and the smell of their profits drove M$ insane.

I never switched from 7. The only major feature I really need from anything after 7 is queued copying in explorer. But luckily this can be done with TeraCopy.

[Darth Mandarb]

Sounds like some people have had some pretty bad experiences.

Shame.

Like I said [twice], I was never nagged by it nor did it download without permission (on any of my systems), based on how I setup my Windows. I can't speak to why some computers behaved differently but I suspect it's a settings issue.

As far as it being "disguised" as a security update... well that surely wasn't the case with any of my systems. Not to sound antagonistic (really, just curious) but do you not read what you're agreeing to when installing security updates or do you just click on them? Or if you have "auto update" on for security updates well... then we're back to square one!

As I said I'm not a fanboy of M$. I'm just anti-bandwagons and I think 99% of the complaining about M$ lately has been exactly that.

Just my opinion.

[m0ds]

Thanks for the reminder slasher! I bought this refurbished Win 8 pc about 2 months ago, and it very much wanted me to download Windows 10. It downloaded it once and I allowed it to go ahead but it failed to install, so I gave up trying after that. In the last month, the pop up box reminder hasn't shown up so I guess I found a way to finally stop it (it was popping up at least once every 2 days).

It's taken me a month or two to get used to the way Win 8 works compared to XP, haha... I am interested in Windows 10, and I do want it... but keeping an eye on comments here and elsewhere, well... I guess Radiant's point rings true, for me right now Windows 10 only pull factor is "its new" because I'm finding Win 8 to be ok (and also new). So that isn't really enough... That said, I think when I want Windows 10... I'll just buy a refurbished PC with windows 10 on it. A lot easier. It'll be time for a new pc at that point I'm sure! And "new pc" is IMO a better point to accept some software may not work rather than now whilst I'm halfway thru using it and making projects on an already new machine and OS etc.

And with only 1 day left til the deadline... yeah I guess this is my decision now. Stick with Win 8 for now, it's not like Win 10 won't be available everywhere in a couple years and by that point we'll probably all be being asked for upgrade to win 11 I think win 8 has the potential to remain supported for 1-3 more years? thats fine with me. I used an unsupported XP for 1-2 years without any issue other than the hardware of the machine itself was a bit pants.

[Cassiebsg]

LOL Mods, I had a friend still using Win98 when we all were already in WinXP (and some were already in Win7). Think he only updated when MS stopped supporting and releasing updates for it.

@Darth, no, I clearly said I selected all the ones marked as "security update", so no auto-update here. I hate auto-update software, so I always make sure they are set to warm me when a new update is available, but no permission to download or install it self. I always de-select the ones I don't want. If you mean "do you read all the extra info about each update", then the answer is no, I don't. I read that little info MS puts in the side. That doesn't actually inform more than "a security issue has been identified...blah blah blah" That is ALWAYS the same for every security update (making that text virtually useless). I normally go with "this is a patch for a backhole or something like that" and install it. MS could have chosen to put there "This will install Windows 10 on your system... blah blah blah". And this is not the first time I need to find a security update and remove it, cause it broke my PC (like not letting me play a legal copy of a game on CD!) And since this seems to have become the practice of MS, then I'll rather not install any updates, unless I know I need it.

And in case you don't know, they did not released only one "security update" to nag and install Win10, they put at least 2, once the news was out which of the KB####### updates is was... they just made a new one, and ppl were again "arh" it's back!"! I know of at least 2, but not sure if there are more (since I stopped updating my win7 at that point).

[m0ds]

Hehe. As someone else said, if it ain't broke...

Just to add there were total sly tactics in getting Win 10 onto people's machines, no 2 ways about it, fact - it was even headline news. First time I ever saw the popup I clicked the X in normal fashion, and an hour later my computer restarted saying it had downloaded windows 10 and was ready to install. X normally means close (and IGNORE). My only option after that was to "re-schedule" for the max of 14 days I think it was before this popup came back, I don't think the X even existed at that point but I may be mistaken. Anyway, the article above shows, they used backhanded methods.

[Cassiebsg]

Well... I just used my "restore to previous system point" thingy... has saved me of a lot of jams and unwanted "self installed" crap.
If something looks fishy I just restore the system.

[NickyNyce]

Oh yeah, I did forget to mention that I never actually wanted to download windows 10. I remembering getting a pop up of some sort asking me to download it and I believe I X'd out. Seconds later it started downloading. Everything works fine now after I had my security certificate fixed, but maybe that's why I was so mad. I never did choose to download it, and then the security certificate error. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with my Kaspersky anti-virus.

[Darth Mandarb]

It's surprising to me how many of you had these bad experiences.

It's odd how some of you can have such events when I experienced nothing close to any of that.

Why was evil Microsoft targeting you over me?

Did you curse them on some forums somewhere?

Did you anger the M$ Gods?

[Cassiebsg]

Maybe you promptly moved to win10 as soon as you got it offered?

[Darth Mandarb]

See that's the thing; I didn't!

My Surface Pro 3 came with Windows 8 (which I just never took a shining to). I had it for a few months before the update to 10 became available. I upgraded as soon as I could (to ditch 8). After my Surface was updated I used Windows 10 for a long time before updating the rest of my boxes. Wanted to make sure it was enough of an improvement from 7 (which I'm still a big fan of). In that time each machine had the "notification" in the sys-tray but never once did anything popup (nag) or download the update secretly (I monitor all incoming/outgoing bandwidth so I'd have been alerted if something that large was DLing!). When I made the decision to upgrade I had to DL the files and proceed from there. It was fast, easy and painless for all my systems (the laptop, as I mentioned previously, took over an hour to do the upgrade but it wasn't a big deal).

It really is weird to me to read all these horror stories.

I just don't get why it happened to some, and not to me.

I might write it off as coincidence if I was only updating 1 computer but I have several so it seems I just got lucky.

Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket...

[AnasAbdin]

...aaand I'm still using windows 7 and avoiding one update that my animation software won't work when installed.

[Crimson Wizard]

...aaand I'm still using windows 7 and avoiding one update that my animation software won't work when installed.

I was using Windows XP for 10 years, I wonder if I will use Windows 7 for same amount of time .

[Gurok]

I was a holdout on Windows XP till I got > 2GB of RAM in 2013. I switched to Windows 8, then upgraded to 8.1, then 10. I don't understand the affection everybody has for Windows 7 AT ALL. For me, 90% of how I judge a Windows operating system is based on the Windows Explorer experience and Explorer in Windows 7 was terrible. The status bar was broken, the folder pane lost sync with the main view and those extra panels were useless. I don't know whose bright idea it was to replace the IE coolbars with static toolbars and that clunky command bar. I am assuming it was because the old toolbars used unsafe code, but the new implementation was LAZY. Windows 10's Explorer isn't as good as Windows XP's, but it's a lot better than Windows 7's.

I think it's weird that we accept regressions in Microsoft operating systems. I can remember a time when Microsoft strongly avoided introducing regressions with each subsequent version. Windows XP was the turning point -- a few regressions, but mostly feature-complete when compared with prior versions. Certainly prior to XP, they seemed to have a better policy for managing this (even across 9x/NT). Nowadays, it's just accepted that they'll make a few design mistakes we'll have to live with.

Anyway, Windows 10 is mostly alright. The start menu is back, and hot corners and the charms are gone, which is great. I think the charms almost warrant an amendment to Fitts' law -- edges aren't infinite in size if you have to wiggle the mouse around to get the damned thing to work.

One thing I can't abide in Windows 10 is the jump list menus that appear when you right-click on a taskbar entry. Why are jump lists more important than the window management (restore, minimise, maximise) that's hidden behind a shift right-click? I use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to circumvent this. It has a variety of other tweaks that can be applied to the taskbar too. It makes Windows 10 just that much more usable for me.

[Crimson Wizard]

For me, 90% of how I judge a Windows operating system is based on the Windows Explorer experience and Explorer in Windows 7 was terrible.

I almost never use native explorer in Windows since I started to use Total Commander and FAR years ago, except when searching for an image in a big folder. Personal habit maybe.
Also, since Vista, explorer annoyed me by switching view type by (incorrectly) judging on folder contents.
As for sticking to it, for me that's lazy conservatism, nothing else.

[tzachs]

Darth, I think that maybe, even though you didn't upgrade straight away, you upgraded before Microsoft decided to get aggressive (I know I did). If you remember the dates you installed Win10, you can compare with the headlines on the backwards X.

Anyway, I installed Win10 on a relatively new laptop and had no issues. I still have Win7 in my workplace, our IT refused to upgrade even though I asked. I honestly don't see any difference in day-to-day between the two versions, the UI feels the same for me (except I have Cortana on Win10). The reason I wanted to upgrade my office machine is to get the tasks debug window in visual studio, which doesn't work in Win7 and makes it really hard for me to debug my running tasks.
Another small reason to upgrade, at least when the anniversary update will be released, they'll be adding settings for developers which groups some useful items (like showing file extensions and show the full path in the explorer's title bar by default), so woo-hoo for that!
Here's some info on that: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows10DeveloperMode.aspx, hopefully they'll enhance this with more options in the future.

[Cassiebsg]

Now Gurok, you complaining about stuff I barely ever use... like CW I also use Total Commander for ages! In fact, if I have to use someone else's computer to fix something, I'll often install it (ie copy the files), since Windows Explorer sucks and always has! Besides I like software I can just run from a usb stick... Still, there are stuff that were much better in XP. The one that annoys me is the Start Menu, that insists in hiding my programs list and doesn't like me organizing it in th order I want them (I remember doing that easy before).

[Darth Mandarb]

Darth, I think that maybe, even though you didn't upgrade straight away, you upgraded before Microsoft decided to get aggressive

I don't remember the exact dates but the laptop (the old one that took longer than the others) was about 3 weeks ago and the one in my bedroom was last week end.

[Danvzare]

I just don't get why it happened to some, and not to me.

Well just so you know, you're not alone. I've not once seen that nag screen. Ever!
I don't even have the Windows 10 logo in the corner of my screen. I don't think I even have the option to install Windows 10. And I've never taken any precautions against it.
But unlike you though, I've heard about these underhanded tactics.

[Darth Mandarb]

But unlike you though, I've heard about these underhanded tactics.

I had heard about them (just hadn't experienced them).

I figured it was just more of the bandwagon hopping (and I still think a LOT of it is) that is so popular these days.

[AGA]

Deadline is 00:00 on Saturday 30th btw.  So a little over two days left.

[selmiak]

ZOMG teh panix