Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[zebradude]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Let's hope! I had about all of Windows 8.1 I can take. I have my laptop set up to boot directly to desktop so I never use the start screen at all. I have a start menu replacement installed so its look alot like Windows 7.

My main problems have been Jump lists are useless and they get corrupted every few weeks. Computer slowing to crawl after being idle really bad with web browsers crashing or just freezing after being idle. The need to reboot every day. Vista spoiled me where I had only to reboot like once a week. The memory manager in Windows 8.1 is a nightmare. It holds onto programs think you may want then later this is good when playing games with long loading times but not so good with other programs. If a program takes long time to do anything Windows 8.1 thinks the program is frozen and tries to fix it causing crashing.

When I had Vista I never had anything crash but Windows 8.1 likes to crash alot programs, it worse than XP and almost right up there with ME.

There is so much running in a background on Windows 8.1 I can't do much power tasks without it thinking I am idle and then slows to a crawl.

I don't use Metro apps at all. Windows app are too buggy and not very good compare to Android.

Well Windows Vista and Windows 7 have already passed their "End of Mainstream support" dates.

The only desktop left that is FULLY supported by Microsoft is Win 8/8.1.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

crapple? I don't own an IOS device, but I have a hard time giving any credence to someone using such a term with out substantial stated reasons. Have you had years of hands on experience with Apples?

I understand someone not liking it, but with millions of seemingly happy users I doubt it is quite that bad.

Helen

Liking it doesn't mean that the product is good; not even windows which started as all glitz & no substance.

Let's see, my 1st encounter with apple was trying to decide whether to get an Atari or Apple II. On the Apple side: I want to use the TV as a monitor with Color? That's an extra $100; I want to be able to use both upper case & lower case? That's another $100.

Sometime later the Mac 512 came out & my coworker said that the Mac had a "very good" project management software. So brought my either Atari ST or Dos formatted 3 1/2 diskette. Put it in the Mac & expecting that it didn't like it but will format the diskette to suit, like normal computers. However, the Mac not only won't recognize it but won't format the diskette & won't eject it; my last resort was to just unplug the power whereby the diskette ejected; someone later that there is a pin-hole to use for ejecting the diskette!!?? We later got a loan of a LISA to checkout but it became just a printer server for the laserjet.

Went to buy a used 4mm tape drive for backup Dos/windows; was given a new Mac 4 mm tape drive & was told that it will work with the PC; but the PC version won't work with the Mac.

Found later that crapple used roms/chips in their hardware & that the OS won't work if the roms were not present. Was verified when the sysadmin swapped the hard disk between an IBM & a Mac, both drivers were made by Seagate. Naturally, the Mac drive worked on the PC but not the reverse, not even reformatting the drive. An apple user all the way from the the apple ii thought that something in the ram chips were done to stop users from not paying for apple ram.

It was noted that apple products are mostly bought by the boomer generation with much money; but the "me" gen mirrors them.

Of course, I used to use "microsh*t" term as well, but the censorship are being picky more now. I don't use win7 now only because I've had to do a fresh win7 install several times which looks like being messed up by the "security"/virus programs since each time the win7 got installed the ownership of the hard disks & partitions got changed & I had to change each back for permissible access. Win8 "fixed" the ownership problem as every ownership got changed instead of having various ownerships; but then win8 removed the normal user access to change ownership. The ownership forced a very long delay even when doing a "dir" to see the directory; & every time i tried to run a program or access a file, it goes thru the security, virus & other malware check......

I've decided to stop eating so many apples because of diabetes & will shortly saying "crapple".

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

For those that have the preview - are you able to change the background color of windows? Like in Windows Explorer? That was one reason I could never get Win8. In Win7 I use the Windows Classic theme because it is the only way to change to a colored background. My eyes are so sensitive to light that my vision goes double with a white background even with brightness way down.
I also use a high contrast theme sometimes, but that messes up a lot of stuff. In an Excel spreadsheet you can't see if someone set a special color font, and in IE a lot of things go missing on most web pages.
As far as I know Win8 could only use high contrast themes to change background colors - is that still true for Win10?

What do you mean by 'window background'? the color of the titlebars can be changed.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by zebradude

Well Windows Vista and Windows 7 have already passed their "End of Mainstream support" dates.
The only desktop left that is FULLY supported by Microsoft is Win 8/8.1.

End of mainstream support=No more new features. 7 is still getting security patches until 2018.

[QuantumIguana]

Not having a Start Menu was a major blunder. Sure, you can type the name of commands, but that's a bit 1980's. And you can put all your icons on the desktop if you want, but that makes things messy. If you prefer to type things in or to have icons on your desktop, no one is stopping you. I prefer the Start Menu, as do an awful lot of people.

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Not having a Start Menu was a major blunder. Sure, you can type the name of commands, but that's a bit 1980's. And you can put all your icons on the desktop if you want, but that makes things messy. If you prefer to type things in or to have icons on your desktop, no one is stopping you. I prefer the Start Menu, as do an awful lot of people.

Ways to launch programs in (stock) Windows 8.x:

Start Screen, which is the replacement of the Start Menu. It accommodates both desktop and modern applications.

Pin to Taskbar, which is intended for desktop applications (though it can present the iconified form of modern applications).

Search, which accommodates desktop and modern applications as well as control panels and documents.

Windows Explorer (a.k.a. the Desktop), which is useful for desktop and modern applications as well as documents. It also allows for hierarchical organization, which is similar to the Start Menu.

Now I'm not going to claim that any of these are a substitute for the Start Menu, but Windows 8.x does support a lot of different ways to launch your software. Choose what you like, or install a Start Menu replacement if you are attached to that interface.

I also realize that each of these options has its drawbacks. Then again, so does the Start Menu. Just as the Start Menu has advantages, these other approaches have advantages too. For example: the Start Screen supports live tiles, search makes it easy to find infrequently used software, and pinning to the taskbar is a quick way to access frequently used desktop applications.

Incidentally, I would not equate search with typing in commands or suggest that it harks back to the 1980s. It has far more in common with the search command introduced in Windows 7 or Spotlight in OS X than it does with command entry.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by zebradude

Well Windows Vista and Windows 7 have already passed their "End of Mainstream support" dates.

The only desktop left that is FULLY supported by Microsoft is Win 8/8.1.

That is why I am hoping Windows 10 is more backward compatible than Windows 8 is. The compatibility wizard in 8 drives me crazy and then there is this known bug where to change those options sometimes disappear, Microsoft has yet to fix it. Last time I had to do it through the registry to change options.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Ways to launch programs in (stock) Windows 8.x:

Start Screen, which is the replacement of the Start Menu. It accommodates both desktop and modern applications.

Pin to Taskbar, which is intended for desktop applications (though it can present the iconified form of modern applications).

Search, which accommodates desktop and modern applications as well as control panels and documents.

Windows Explorer (a.k.a. the Desktop), which is useful for desktop and modern applications as well as documents. It also allows for hierarchical organization, which is similar to the Start Menu.

Now I'm not going to claim that any of these are a substitute for the Start Menu, but Windows 8.x does support a lot of different ways to launch your software. Choose what you like, or install a Start Menu replacement if you are attached to that interface.

I also realize that each of these options has its drawbacks. Then again, so does the Start Menu. Just as the Start Menu has advantages, these other approaches have advantages too. For example: the Start Screen supports live tiles, search makes it easy to find infrequently used software, and pinning to the taskbar is a quick way to access frequently used desktop applications.

Incidentally, I would not equate search with typing in commands or suggest that it harks back to the 1980s. It has far more in common with the search command introduced in Windows 7 or Spotlight in OS X than it does with command entry.

I use Classic Shell which gives you back your start menu well it's an add on but works great but also use Pin to Taskbar alot. I think this was intro in Windows 7 though? I like the jump lists on the pinned apps when they don't get corrupted and I have to restore them. Truthfully I forget about the start screen because I just don't need it after the 8.1 update.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

What do you mean by 'window background'? the color of the titlebars can be changed.

What I need is to get rid of the bright white backgrounds everywhere. Here's a few screen prints to explain more easily.

Windows explorer with a classic theme and lavender background and aero theme with bright white background.



The control panel display personalization screens - both look like you can change the window background color(where you see "Window Text"), but only classic theme actually does.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Sorry, I did not realise that you are such a power user that your experience puts you beyond the experience of most others, nor that the complexity of your processing requirements cripples Windows 8.x; a crippling which other users will not face because of their more mundane needs.

I am led by your comments regarding your high power and memory requirements to assume that you must be running very complex projects such as big business or economic modelling projects, or maybe complex scientific analysis or modelling, or maybe critical industrial control systems such as SCADA where stability is paramount.

In which case I am drawn to wonder why you are using a laptop for such work rather than a machine not limited by the constraints on installed memory and processor power that laptops suffer from. You also seem to think that as your needs are more demanding than others because yours exceed those that a tablet can provide; again I wonder if you are connected to the reality that many, many others find the same with respect to their usage demands and that such is rather mundane; not a sign that one has extraordinary power demands.

I am also drawn to wonder why you are not getting support from the professional technical support that always available in such important environments that you work in and who would describe the exact fault in accurate and precise technical terms, whether it be hardware, user, application or O/S based, and provide the remedy whether that be software or hardware maintenance, user training, or a workaround.

But I cannot escape the feeling that, in fact, your requirements are rather mundane compared to those that many others are exposed to, and that in reality you just don't want to know. You seem to be more attached emotionally to your notebook, your application and yourself than you are to Windows 8.x and seem to comfort yourself by shallow assumptions such as because your application works ok with Windows 7 but not with Windows 8.x that it must be Windows 8.x's fault.

And so, in the face of that and while there are well trodden paths to determining the actual cause of issues such as yours, the only advice you will get from me now is that you should take note of what others are also saying; fault can lie with the hardware, the applications, the user, or the operating system. Until you can describe the exact cause of the issue in accurate and precise technical terms you cannot claim to know in which of those your issue lies.

That is all from me.

Someone likes to make alot of assumptions I see without knowing any of the information. Did I even ask for your advice? Nope I just gave my opinion of Windows 8 and you went off on me at least others here asked productive questions than calling me a liar. Me think someone needs to lay off the caffeine or go do some reading and relax.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by dwig

Ah, now you have it right.

Windows 8.1 is stable, very stable, and it shouldn't be blamed for the trangressions of the applications running on it. You are running applications that are either newer less stable versions or older versions that while stable on Vista don't play well on 8.1.

It's also possible that you have some slightly faulty hardware that fails after extended use (heat buildup, ...). Again, this is not Windows fault and your Vista uses different hardware making is useless for comparison.

No My Temps are good and hardware is all good. Samsung has given the laptop there is nothing wrong with it. Stamp of approval. I am obsessed with keeping my computers cold though so I monitor my temps at all time.

Don't you think that Windows should be backwards compatible for older programs though? I mean why include a compatibility mode if it doesn't truly work? However my most crashes are with Firefox and Chrome which are up to date. If that could just be fixed I would seriously happy. I may never like Windows 8 besides the search engine being better than Vista and I like Jump list when they do work but I would like a stable system. I know plenty others who are in the same boat so I know I am not alone in hoping Windows 10 fixes some of these issues. Although the Jump list problem seems to have been around since Windows 7. I realize that 8 is a beta operating system Microsoft's big jump into the tablet world and trying to create a hybrid. Just like when Amazon jump into Android and their first Kindle Fire has alot of issues that got better by the Third Generation when Mojito came along. I still don't have to like it though but I am hopeful for it to get better.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Not having a Start Menu was a major blunder. Sure, you can type the name of commands, but that's a bit 1980's. And you can put all your icons on the desktop if you want, but that makes things messy. If you prefer to type things in or to have icons on your desktop, no one is stopping you. I prefer the Start Menu, as do an awful lot of people.

You can still scroll through a list of programs in the start screen in Windows 8/8.1. It's the same as the start menu, the only difference being that it occupies the whole screen instead of a part of it.

[danwdoo]

Many, (not all), but a good majority of Windows problems can be traced to the poor job computer makers do installing Windows. They load it up with junk, put little to no effort into drivers, and the results is a sub par experience. One of the best ways to avoid this is to buy computers that are Microsoft Signature Editions. These have been tuned by Microsoft and really do run better. You can buy them directly from Microsoft, from Amazon, or some computer makers. Sometimes they cost a little more, but the results are worth it. You can find more info here:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store?...emeID=33363200

Another problem is AV suites. Can't tell you how many computers have seemingly unrelated issues such as crashes and hangs and performance problems that magically go away after uninstalling some of the monster AV suits out there. Having unexpected, hard to track down issues? Uninstall your security suite, make sure Windows Security Essentials (Windows Defender in Win 8.X) is active and test it for a week or so. The difference might amaze you.

Just some thoughts on my experiences after having worked on hundreds of PC's.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by danwdoo

Another problem is AV suites. Can't tell you how many computers have seemingly unrelated issues such as crashes and hangs and performance problems that magically go away after uninstalling some of the monster AV suits out there. Having unexpected, hard to track down issues? Uninstall your security suite, make sure Windows Security Essentials (Windows Defender in Win 8.X) is active and test it for a week or so. The difference might amaze you.

Just some thoughts on my experiences after having worked on hundreds of PC's.

I totally agree with you which is why I stay away from the big AV names and from PCs that come with alot of Bloatware. My FIL's PC with Vista has become a headache for him due to all the bloatware it came with. I keep having to fix it because he wont let me get rid of the junk it's full with.

My laptop came with very little bloatware I was pleasantly surprise about that after dealing with Gateway and Acer's junk they load onto their PCs. First thing I did was get rid of all the unnecessary programs which made a huge difference in performance.

[danwdoo]

It's amazing what people grow attached to. Can't even count how many times I had a conversation like this:

user: Help my computer is slow or crashes or has other weird issues
Me: What AV?
user: <insert bloated security suite name>
Me: uninstalls suite and installs light, free AV such as Security Essentials. Gives computer back. Asks if problem persists.
user: The computer runs great, but I'd rather have my old AV
me: Why? Isn't the computer running so much better?
user: Yes, but I paid for my old AV. I even just renewed it
me: But this new one is free and your computer is running so much better
user: But I paid for my old AV. I don't want to waste the money.
me: But the new one is free. You aren't paying extra. The old software caused all these problems on your computer. Don't you want a reliable computer?
user: Yea, but I paid for the old software. Can't I use it instead?
me: *facepalm*

Even machines light on bloat ware can suffer problems from manufacturers who put little to no effort into drivers and tuning. It's why so many trackpads are so terrible on PC's. That's why I strongly recommend signature pc's. Not only are they missing bloat ware, they've had the drivers tuned to work well with the device. It really makes a difference.