Windows 10.

[colinb]

Well, if it wasn't for a couple of programs that I need for non-image work, I'd go completely Mac. I might investigate whether there are Mac alternatives for those and then replace the Windows laptop.

I love my Mac

Forgive me if you are already aware but you do know you can run windows on a mac? I use Parallels software (I think Chris does too). If you have a local branch it is worth keeping on eye on the 'sales bin' in PC World, I found a full edition for £25 in ours.

http://www.parallels.com/uk/landingpage/pd/general/?src=r&gclid=CI-IofPfjscCFQQUwwodf3kOCA

[jpgr]

i don't know if you've seen this article about the spyware in windows 10

http://bgr.com/2015/07/31/windows-10-upgrade-spying-how-to-opt-out/

[JohnP]

i don't know if you've seen this article about the spyware in windows 10

http://bgr.com/2015/07/31/windows-10-upgrade-spying-how-to-opt-out/

I have read this, I'm back on Windows 7 again.

[JohnP]

Read this.   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/windows/11782807/windows-10-privacy.html

I'm only keeping Windows 10 in the background on another internal hard drive so I won't have to pay for it in 12 months time, I'll just boot up on it now and again to keep it updated. I've already switched everything off in privacy settings. Windows 7 will do for me and I'll use it as long as possible.

[JohnP]

Looking on the Microsoft Community site I've seen other people have lost the use of the FN keys following the upgrade on other makes of laptops not just Samsung like mine... be warned!!!

[JohnP]

Mine are both Dell - any mention of probs with those?

 

 

 

I'll have another look later... up to now I've seen some Lenovo, Toshiba and Samsung laptops are being affected by the problem.

Update: Some mention of Asus & HP models.

Edited August 5, 2015 by JohnP

[JohnP]

Since I started this thread it has nearly 70 comments (a lot are mine) I still get the impression that hardly any of you are using Windows 10... am I correct? I have both W7 & W10 on my PC but at the moment I'm happy to use W7 as my first choice, however I am using W10 at this moment. As you know from an earlier comment I made the upgrade to my Samsung laptop caused promlems with the FN keys , some of them didn't work. I couldn't find a cure so I reverted back to W7. If you type 'FN key problems Windows 10' into Google you will see there are plenty of reports of similar problems with other makes of laptop. If Microsoft don't address this problem there are going to be millions of laptops with FN keys that no longer work, so until something is done I will have to leave W7 on my laptop. It's great to have both systems on my PC until the bugs are ironed out of W10.

[JohnP]

Microsoft want £11.59 to play DVD's with Windows 10... so what did I do... download VLC Player for free... it works great..

[Phil]

I still get the impression that hardly any of you are using Windows 10... am I correct?

Nope. Installed seamlessly on my 4 year old Sony Vaio with no issues at all. Had to wait for the official notification though, the jumping the queue method you linked didn't work for me.
Loving it so far. The collecting of private data isn't something that bothers me too much, the majority of operating systems have been doing it for years.

[JohnP]

Nope. Installed seamlessly on my 4 year old Sony Vaio with no issues at all. Had to wait for the official notification though, the jumping the queue method you linked didn't work for me.
Loving it so far. The collecting of private data isn't something that bothers me too much, the majority of operating systems have been doing it for years.

I've been using W10 a lot today on my PC, I'm scared to re-instal it on my Samsung laptop after all the trouble I had. It seems there are problems with Fn keys on quite a few makes of laptop.

[NannyFerret]

Microsoft want £11.59 to play DVD's with Windows 10... so what did I do... download VLC Player for free... it works great..

I've used this program on other PCs and I found it very good.
You have just jogged my memory, so will go and put it on this desktop PC.

 

[colinb]

Since I started this thread it has nearly 70 comments (a lot are mine) I still get the impression that hardly any of you are using Windows 10... 

Not as yet John, but once I get the official notice I will upgrade my win8.1 laptop.

[JohnP]

Not as yet John, but once I get the official notice I will upgrade my win8.1 laptop.

You can force the upgrade early. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

I hope you don't have similar troubles to me with your laptop. I'm using W10 on my PC now but I went back to W7 on my laptop for the time being.

[NannyFerret]

I have a copy of Power DVD somewhere, so If I can't play DVDs, I shall try to install it.
I ran it on my netbook with some updates needed, so hopefully it may work on 10.
I did download one in the beginning from download.com, but it had so many nasty's included in the download, that I took it off again and tried my own older copy on my Windows 7 netbook. 

[JohnP]

I have a copy of Power DVD somewhere, so If I can't play DVDs, I shall try to install it.
I ran it on my netbook with some updates needed, so hopefully it may work on 10.
I did download one in the beginning from download.com, but it had so many nasty's included in the download, that I took it off again and tried my own older copy on my Windows 7 netbook. 

VLC Player works great!

[ChrisLumix]

 

 

i also put another 4gb of ram (£25 approx) and that sped the machine up quite a bit.

Yes, whatever your OS that's the #1 tip for speeding things up, especially as RAM from companies like Crucial and Kingston is so cheap.

Forgive me if you are already aware but you do know you can run windows on a mac? I use Parallels software (I think Chris does too). If you have a local branch it is worth keeping on eye on the 'sales bin' in PC World, I found a full edition for £25 in ours.

http://www.parallels.com/uk/landingpage/pd/general/?src=r&gclid=CI-IofPfjscCFQQUwwodf3kOCA

Yes, I picked up Parallels from PC World for about £27, and it was too good to refuse. In my case it's to run OS X Snow Leopard within a later OS X e.g. Mavericks. As long as you already have a paid-for copy of Windows (e.g. install disks for your PC) you can install in Parallels, which will walk you through the process.

Read this.   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/windows/11782807/windows-10-privacy.html

I'm only keeping Windows 10 in the background on another internal hard drive so I won't have to pay for it in 12 months time, I'll just boot up on it now and again to keep it updated. I've already switched everything off in privacy settings. Windows 7 will do for me and I'll use it as long as possible.

I did use Windows 7 a few years back on an HP netbook while my Mac was in for repair, and I have to say it was quite enjoyable to use and relatively painless coming from OS X.  The only frustration was that various things I take for granted were only available in a more expensive version of W7.

Microsoft want £11.59 to play DVD's with Windows 10... so what did I do... download VLC Player for free... it works great..

VLC is a fantastic little app - DVD Player is free with OS X but I'd still  rather use VLC. And its 'traffic cone' icon is instantly recognisable in my Dock.  

[NannyFerret]

VLC Player works great!

I installed VLC and it kept popping up all of the links at once so I uninstalled it, only to find that I must have accidentally uninstalled something else at the same time and some of my apps stop working, so in the end I reverted back to Windows 8.1 and then re-installed Windows 10.
There was a work around to get the apps to work again but it was too fiddly and would have taken ages.
To re-install 10 was a lt less hassle for me.
The only thing is that you can only revert to windows 8.1 for one month after installing 10, so not sure what happens after this time limit.

[Barbara]

Just installed on my desktop....ONE PROBLEM....windows too big for the screen...it's driving me mad!!!!!!!!!

[JohnP]

Windows 10 is working fine on my PC, I wish I could say the same about my laptop,  Last week I put W10 on it and then the Fn keys wouldn't work after trying all the obvious things I gave up and reverted back to W7, I don't know why I bothered to try and put W10 on my laptop for the second time today as I've the same problem again... Grrrrrrr.

[ChrisLumix]

Don't worry. SP1 will be along before you know it - literally 

[Clicker]

I can't bring myself to  put Windows 10 on any of my machines John ... I'm concerned that  genealogy programmes (that encompass  25 years of  research)  might not work properly ..I have the data backed up on a QNAP Box  but I couldn't bear the hassle if it all stopped working ... I can see how frustrating you are finding it .... ....

 

[NannyFerret]

I can't bring myself to  put Windows 10 on any of my machines John ... I'm concerned that  genealogy programmes (that encompass  25 years of  research)  might not work properly ..I have the data backed up on a QNAP Box  but I couldn't bear the hassle if it all stopped working ... I can see how frustrating you are finding it .... ....

 

So far all of my programs that are installed on my desktop are working fine.
VLC was the only program that I had problems with, and I don't think that had anything to do with Windows 10.

There is an option to revert back to your original OS. if your programs don't work.
Nothing is wiped off when you do that, so your programs  should still work OK.
Just to be on the safe side, I moved my photo's to the spare (D partition ) on my drive and nothing was affected.
I am going to attempt to put 10 on my old netbook and if I have problems then I will just roll it back to 7. 

Edited August 14, 2015 by NannyFerret

[Phil]

I can't bring myself to put Windows 10 on any of my machines...

 

Go on, be a devil

Installed on my Sony, daughter's Toshiba and son's Dell, without any issues, All machines now start and run faster, any quirky freezes that occurred before have all disappeared.

[JohnP]

You may find this of interest.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2015/aug/15/windows-10-microsoft-should-privacy-problems-worry-me

[JohnP]

Windows 10 is working fine on my PC, I wish I could say the same about my laptop,  Last week I put W10 on it and then the Fn keys wouldn't work after trying all the obvious things I gave up and reverted back to W7, I don't know why I bothered to try and put W10 on my laptop for the second time today as I've the same problem again... Grrrrrrr.

At last!!! I have my laptop working 100%   It was a matter of finding the correct drivers for Windows 10, I've been waiting for some help from the Microsoft Community and that help was posted on the site today.