WINDOWS 10

[benwm]

So is the new money-making strategy to scan cloud files, target ads, and let programs force you to watch ads before receiving content a user actually wants? A kind of internet TV? Let's make the OS free and get you to sign that they can use your personal information in any way they want to prevent future lawsuits?

That sounds about right.

 

[lawrence-lugar]

I randomly decided to install Windows 10 last week on a whim...and i Love it. -- i thought it would be weird/bad, but it's not.

i don't miss Windows 7 that much, except a few of my older games don't work under W10...but that's not that big of a deal.

 

[benwm]

I randomly decided to install Windows 10 last week on a whim...and i Love it.

That's what I thought at first, it was relatively "smooth" for a couple of days until problems started to emerge..

 

[lawrence-lugar]

That's what I thought at first, it was relatively "smooth" for a couple of days until problems started to emerge..

Actually, it's been more like two weeks since i installed Win10...and I haven't encountered anything weird.

 

[benwm]

Actually, it's been more like two weeks since i installed Win10...and I haven't encountered anything weird.

How dare you contradict me! My experience with W10 is the one and only gospel truth.

 

[None Business]

Here is a list of the updates I have uninstalled and hidden:-
KB2876229 KB2882822 KB2923545 KB2952664 KB2970228 KB2977728 KB2978092 KB2990214 KB2994023 KB3021917 KB3022345 KB3035583 KB3068708 KB3075249 KB3080149

Since hiding these, W7 has been great...you wouldn't know W10 even existed. Whilst these updates don't all relate to W10 notifications, or the unauthorized 3GB W10 download into the hidden $WINDOWS.~BT folder, my understanding is that some of these KB's are essentially malware. It would be useful if this thread was used to inform of updates that we need to avoid in future to keep W10 and Windows malware off our machines, especially once W10 becomes a "recommended" update in 2016. It goes without saying that you need to check that your not installing the recommended updates automatically...some will have a big surprise in 2016...

Maybe you could consider W10 if you were buying a new PC with the Skylake processor (supposedly W10 is optimized for Skylake), but at the moment, I would probably still downgrade to W7. A small performance gain via W10 is pointless as soon as soon as you start experiencing lockups.

Any in any case, for those of you that have made the switch to W10 and have turned off Cortana and disabled the Search bar via Settings, why is the SearchUI.exe process still running when you open up task manager? There is a fix for this, but it's quite messy, and why have to deal with this sort of crap in the first place? A good operating system should stay out of your way, and by default run only the essentials unless you specifically turn a feature on.

I liked XP, Windows 7, and despite the bad press, even Vista worked for me after the major service pack update, but IMHO the direction taken by 8, 8.1 and 10 will prove in the long run to have been a flawed strategy by Microsoft. There will never be a time in my life when I want the entire contents of my desktop running "in the cloud", just like I will never want a microchip inserted into my arm for the greater good or the fight against terrorism.

Win7 is essentially Vista, and Win7 is an excellent operating system. C++ code compiled using VS is very powerful. IIS works well. Unneeded services can be stopped. And the local network can be configured. I'm an old Unix/Solaris guy, and I find Win7 to be tolerable, which is saying something.

I've stopped applying "Updates for Windows 7" since so many of those are back-door spyware mimicking Win10. My Win7 is stable and MS doesn't care about it anymore so there is no reason to believe they are "improving" it with new updates.

By the way, if you set the Performance Settings to "Best Performance" (System->Advanced Settings-.Performance) your Excel will be twice as snappy, as all of the animations really bog it down. If your desktop is geared for performance, this is highly recommended.

 

[wartrace]

I tried it again on 12/01/2015 and it went perfectly. Everything works as it did with windows 7 although I am still trying to figure out where they hid all the functions. I think it is "safe" to upgrade at this point.

 

[justrading]

I've just spent three wasted days "upgrading" to Windows 10, and then "downgrading" back again to Windows 7. As a result of my experience, I'll be sticking with Windows 7 until 2020 when the security updates end. Thanks to others for explaining how to uninstall and hide the Windows 10 updates and prevent further annoying update notifications.

My experience:
- On my desktop, the graphics card (Nvidia Quadro NVS 440) I use for multiple monitors is incompatible with Windows 10. So I need to spend a $500+ on a new graphics card such as NVS 510 to get my multiple monitor setup working? A relatively minor issue for a trader you might think, but it hardly makes the "upgrade" to Windows 10 free any more. The NVS 440 works fine on Windows 7, why change it?
- On my notebook, I trialed Windows 10 for a few days. The first thing you need to do is to change a LOT of the default privacy settings, turn off location tracking, advertising, etc. After undertaking this long and painstaking task (with the assistance of howto guides from three recently purchased computer magazines), the machine appeared to be relatively "smooth" for a couple of days. "What's all the fuss about?", I thought...

But then I updated my version of CCleaner, ran the cleaner, and all hell broke loose, with the machine going into spinning top mode for 30 minutes until I pulled the plug. Reboot. Pull plug. Reboot. Pull plug. Reboot....still unable to kill the spinning top, Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work, mouse and keys unresponsive. This has never happened before over several years of running CCleaner on a Windows 7 system.

Eventually managed to uninstall CCleaner (in safe mode, I think)...and got the machine working again, but the next day the discs were whizzing like crazy at startup. Why?!! And this is even before I've opened a browser, with hardly any programs loaded. Before anyone asks, this is a high spec machine with SSD, and I take security very seriously so it's not a virus because there are no problems running Windows 7. Windows Update says there are no updates required. So what's going on in the background?! I could go into more detail here but you get the picture.

Some have commented that returning to Windows 7 was straightforward, just a couple of mouse clicks. It was only a couple of clicks, that's true. But it was also problematic. First there was an issue with the task scheduler and 80+ pop ups appearing. If anyone has this problem after downgrading from Windows 10 to 7 (and it's pretty common), following the instructions on this site does fix the issue:-
https://repairtasks.codeplex.com

But there were other problems... Executing sfc /scannow in cmd window revealed corrupted files that could not be repaired. And I could no longer make a system image of my (now corrupted) C drive. Tried many repairs, many hours wasted, before I finally came to my senses and ended up doing a repair (upgrade) install of the operating system using the original Windows 7 disc. Now the machine is working like a dream, quiet as a mouse, just like it was before. It should really be libelous for Microsoft to use the term "Personal Computer" when it comes to the Windows 10 operating system. I've put the "P" back into my PC

Thanks for the heads up on monitor issues. I'm running an AMD FirePro V4900 with 3 monitors and a search tells me there are issues with it and Win 10. It's purely a trading rig, just need charting, brokers software and Excel on it; I'm perfectly happy with Win 7 Pro and see no reason to problem solve just to get 10.

 

[tango29]

Well, all was well for me until the new year update. Now my HP Pavilion 27xi monitor keeps going into and out of sleep mode. Tried uninstalling the update, but still have the flashing. Also not sure it actually uninstalled as it shows installed on one menu, but not in the list of updates. F***, I hate computers.

 

[benwm]

Well, all was well for me until the new year update. Now my HP Pavilion 27xi monitor keeps going into and out of sleep mode. Tried uninstalling the update, but still have the flashing. Also not sure it actually uninstalled as it shows installed on one menu, but not in the list of updates. F***, I hate computers.

Windows 10 is arguably the most unstable Windows version in a decade. On the surface it seems rather smooth due to slightly faster boot up times. Then those automatic updates start up in the background...

I couldn't believe MS let that piece of junk loose on the public. But then it's free, right? That kinda tells you that either (a) you are the guinea pig test bed until they rename it Windows365 and charge an annual fee, or (b) they make you pay from advertising that you can't turn off.

My advice - back up your essential files to a couple of hard drives, buy Windows 7 Pro whilst it's still available and do a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro. Then turn off the Windows 10 updates and lock the thing down until 2020 when the Windows 7 security updates end. You could try the Windows 10 option to revert back to Windows 7 but that didn't work so well for me so I ended up doing a clean Windows 7 install anyway.

Maybe in a couple of years it might make sense to upgrade to Windows 10 if they turn off all the unnecessary crap such as Windows Store, Edge, Cortana, etc. by default. Or for someone with Windows 8. Maybe there are some other benefits that I'm unaware of.