Windows 10

[corvus]

Not a BW topic however do any of you use Windows 10 now ? interested in your opinion please

[RonK]

Looks like it's been a bit of a disaster.
Google "reboot loop".
Give it time to bed in before upgrading.

[Gadgetgeek]

All the reviews I've heard so far is fantastic upgrade over 8, worst communication ever. Lots of features that are either miscommunication or poorly understood. Driver issues on quite a few machines that should have been dealt with, but were left to the manufacturers, but whether they will go back and do new drivers for old hardware is unknown. I dropped it onto an old EEEpc, and it runs fine, better functionality over windows 7 starter, but no hotkey driver, and Asus doesn't have any good info on a fix. In fact their help site was a massive joke. I'll be keeping my main laptop on 7 home premium, and don't have any win8 machines. Big service pack scheduled for this fall, when windows 10 was expected (the release was moved up unexpectedly) so I suspect they are using the automatic feedback system to help sort out things. Should be good after that, hopefully they also sort the automatic updates for those who have critical machines, otherwise it should help the average user.

The reboot loop is not new to Win 10, there have been reboot loop problems with upgrades since windows 95.

[corvus]

Many thanks Gg and RK,
It is what I expected so I will leave off downloading till I get some positive feedback.

[J M]

In contrast to the above I've found Windows 10 to be a huge improvement over 8.1. It's still a bit clumsy to use but overall is much better and I haven't had any issues with it as yet (after ~1 week of use).

[Johnnie Walker]

It's the tablet interface from Windows 8 with the start menu from Windows 7. Takes a bit to get used to.

Make sure to check privacy settings and location settings, it likes to share a lot.
You can talk to Windows 10 (like Siri and Google Now), it's called Cortana. To work it logs your voice, location, your writing, your contacts, calendar events etc. See Privacy - Speech.
Windows Update has a new feature: "Updates from more then one place". It shares the updates with the rest of the internet so might cost you your upload quota.

[icefest]

I've been using windows ten ever since the private beta.

U quite like it.

[philm]

Just completed the upgrade from Win 8.1

Went really well but I have a relatively new PC (1 year old).

Overall impressed with the ease of upgrade and the new features - so far so good!

All existing programs work well.

[DanShell]

Someone has to say it, once you go Mac you never go back! Coming on 4 years now, multiple users, not one issue. No anti virus, no slow downs, no worms bugs Trojans or otherwise, no anything. Certainly no reinstalls or restores
Sorry, I'm not contributing corvus, I'm just a very happy Mac owner after years wasting too much time on windows products

EDIT: And just to risk really getting in trouble for being a trouble maker in Corvus' windows post, Ill just mention that with Mac every new operating system is FREE and BETTER

[icefest]

First shot is fired,

Lets not turn this into a flame war guys. Make a OSX thread if you want to discuss that.

[DanShell]

First shot is fired,

Lets not turn this into a flame war guys. Make a OSX thread if you want to discuss that.

Tongue in cheek mate, no harm intended!

[GPSGuided]

What I'm keen to know is, how much more secure is Windows 10. Does it still require the running of antivirus programs or is the default setup offers sufficient protection?

[north-north-west]

Someone has to say it, once you go Mac you never go back! Coming on 4 years now, multiple users, not one issue. No anti virus, no slow downs, no worms bugs Trojans or otherwise, no anything. Certainly no reinstalls or restores
Sorry, I'm not contributing corvus, I'm just a very happy Mac owner after years wasting too much time on windows products

EDIT: And just to risk really getting in trouble for being a trouble maker in Corvus' windows post, Ill just mention that with Mac every new operating system is FREE and BETTER

But just check first whether all your other programs will run with it. When i moved up to Mavericks I had to get a newer version of PSE. Still not happy about that.

[Johnnie Walker]

What I'm keen to know is, how much more secure is Windows 10. Does it still require the running of antivirus programs or is the default setup offers sufficient protection?

Common sense (don't download from dodgy sites, don't open every e-mail, check links before clicking on it etc) and the free included Windows 10 Defender should keep you safe. The new browser "Edge" also has a few new security options.

[GPSGuided]

... the free included Windows 10 Defender should keep you safe. The new browser "Edge" also has a few new security options.

Is this the norm for Windows 10 early adopters, to depend on the default defender?

[whitefang]

Prior to the upgrade I used AVG free. Windows defender is just as good but has more features. Paying for an antivirus has always seemed pointless when the free programs do the same job.

I'm really liking Windows 10 but it would have been wiser to wait until developers start updating programs to fix compatibility issues. But that probably wouldn't effect tge standard user.

[Johnnie Walker]

... the free included Windows 10 Defender should keep you safe. The new browser "Edge" also has a few new security options.

Is this the norm for Windows 10 early adopters, to depend on the default defender?

I've always depended on the free and included "Microsoft Security Essentials" with Windows 7, it does the job for me. Imao extra anti-virus software is not necessary. Most of them are not only anti-virus anymore but also Sandbox, Firewall, SafeZone, Update center, e-mail filter, safe-surf filter etc. Too much stuff I don't need slowing down my computer and using resources.

[Gadgetgeek]

It all depends on what sort of stuff you do, and what sort of machine it is. For me its worth while, as for a long time I did a lot of file transfer from and to my machine via USB, and that is one way to pick up bugs. I also do all of my banking online, and don't want to take any extra risks. I'm a small target, but I'd still rather not get picked up by something. To each their own, but I don't trust my security to any single point of failure.

Win 10 won't be any more secure than 7 all on its own, except that the updates will be mandatory, and that going forward it seems like it will be incremental change, not big version changes anymore.

[GPSGuided]

Win 10 won't be any more secure than 7 all on its own, except that the updates will be mandatory, and that going forward it seems like it will be incremental change, not big version changes anymore.

That's the big question for me. Running CPU sucking (and often poor quality) AV programs amongst other 'security' softwares just doesn't make sense to me. If it's not any more secure than 7, then that's a bit disappointing. Glad they did something to the interface as the old Win 8 interface was just terrible. Still can't believe a major corporation could generate such a poor design in 8. Will see how 10 matures.

[Gadgetgeek]

It would be near impossible for them to "Improve" the security. With a system that complex, and that many attackers, there will be things that will go wrong. Win 7 was one of the best systems they ever released, its only that XP was so good that its not the current leader. the advantage is that that constant updates mean you should get security patches much faster. its a constant arms race. All that matters is the speed of response.
8's problem was that it was designed to be used a certain way, not designed for the way it would be used. without a touchscreen it was useless. The fact that we have had three major OS's and they've all stayed at the same resource level just blows my mind, considering how bad Win ME was as a resource hog, even at release, few machines could run it. Wait until fall to be sure, but it will be worth upgrading.

[corvus]

Wowsers !! thank you for all of that information re W 10 ,like I said I will leave it for a while before I download .

[photohiker]

Someone has to say it, once you go Mac you never go back! Coming on 4 years now, multiple users, not one issue. No anti virus, no slow downs, no worms bugs Trojans or otherwise, no anything. Certainly no reinstalls or restores
Sorry, I'm not contributing corvus, I'm just a very happy Mac owner after years wasting too much time on windows products

EDIT: And just to risk really getting in trouble for being a trouble maker in Corvus' windows post, Ill just mention that with Mac every new operating system is FREE and BETTER

But just check first whether all your other programs will run with it. When i moved up to Mavericks I had to get a newer version of PSE. Still not happy about that.

What version of PSE were you running? It's up to v13 now but I'm having no real problems with v9 on Yosemite (10.10.4)

I think Microsoft jumped over Windows 9 so they could catch up with Apple. Apple runs OSX 10.x and now windows is also 10 !!

I think they missed the point that OSX first commercial release as 'Cheetah' 10.0 was released on March 24, 2001

[GPSGuided]

Yes, MSFT's jump to 10 gave me a laugh. Seriously, would an industry leader do things like this unless they truly felt threatened.

[keithy]

Common sense (don't download from dodgy sites, don't open every e-mail, check links before clicking on it etc) and the free included Windows 10 Defender should keep you safe.

Sadly that's not even necessary these days, as shown from the Adobe flash exploit that was using the Yahoo ad network to propagate last week. http://gizmodo.com/malvertising-attack- ... 1721967056. All it took for malicious software to run was an outdated Flash on your Windows PC, and visiting a safe Yahoo based site. No user interaction required.

But back to Windows 10. Anyone here with Windows 10 and a Garmin GPS device (auto or handheld)? I helped someone last week who upgraded and their Win 10 install wouldn't recognise the Garmin GPS connected, even though it made the sound like it connected. Anyway, a bit of figuring out later, for some reason their Windows 10 install was not assigning a drive letter to the GPS, even though it was connecting. Had to do it manually through the Disk Management tool (diskmgmt.msc). Not sure if the big recent update has fixed this now though.

[Johnnie Walker]

Common sense (don't download from dodgy sites, don't open every e-mail, check links before clicking on it etc) and the free included Windows 10 Defender should keep you safe.

Sadly that's not even necessary these days, as shown from the Adobe flash exploit that was using the Yahoo ad network to propagate last week. http://gizmodo.com/malvertising-attack- ... 1721967056. All it took for malicious software to run was an outdated Flash on your Windows PC, and visiting a safe Yahoo based site. No user interaction required.

Yeah, I missed the part of common sense to DISABLE Flash.... Or update it at least twice a week when they release updates.... This shows again that anti-virus software will not protect you. Think before you click. Check the URL before you click on an image etc. FireFox is blocking Flash by default but I haven't checked the Windows 10 "Edge" browser yet.

[Johnnie Walker]

I think Microsoft jumped over Windows 9 so they could catch up with Apple. Apple runs OSX 10.x and now windows is also 10 !!

Software will check for the Windows version. If the Operating System is "Windows 9x" it can be Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows 9. Hence they couldn't use Windows 9. A new 2015 Operating System is not compatible with Windows 95 or 98. Nothing to do with Apple 10, other competitors are Ubuntu Linux 14 and OpenSuse 13.

[keithy]

Or update it at least twice a week when they release updates..

Disabling is the best option, as the recent zero day exploits in the Flash player browser plugin were discovered in July, and it wasn't patched with an update for a few weeks http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/thir ... day-found/. The update to Flash was only released a few days ago, and fixed something like 30 vulnerabilities. The problem is that some websites still need flash, and prompt you to install flash to view certain content.

And it seems that the some nasties are using those vulnerabilities to launch nasty crypto/ransomware on the unsuspecting machines that visit normal websites with the malware flash advertisement playing.

[GPSGuided]

Software will check for the Windows version. If the Operating System is "Windows 9x" it can be Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows 9. Hence they couldn't use Windows 9. A new 2015 Operating System is not compatible with Windows 95 or 98. Nothing to do with Apple 10, other competitors are Ubuntu Linux 14 and OpenSuse 13.

One would have thought that they had planned it since they started using the Windows 7 naming system. Or maybe they didn't plan it.

[photohiker]

I think Microsoft jumped over Windows 9 so they could catch up with Apple. Apple runs OSX 10.x and now windows is also 10 !!

Software will check for the Windows version. If the Operating System is "Windows 9x" it can be Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows 9. Hence they couldn't use Windows 9. A new 2015 Operating System is not compatible with Windows 95 or 98. Nothing to do with Apple 10, other competitors are Ubuntu Linux 14 and OpenSuse 13.

Lols.

So the supposedly greatest software company on earth writes software that cannot tell the difference between Windows 95, 98, or 9. They decided ahead of the game to only accept the first character of the public windows version on the box or boot screen? Why didn't they have enormous hassles checking between 95 and 98?

No, I don't think this sounds like a legit Microsoft reason. You do know that the internal version of Windows does not actually match the retail name?

Internally, Vista is 6.0, Windows 7 is 6.1, Windows 8 is 6.2, and Windows 8.1 is 6.3

[Johnnie Walker]

Software will check for the Windows version. If the Operating System is "Windows 9x" it can be Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows 9. Hence they couldn't use Windows 9. A new 2015 Operating System is not compatible with Windows 95 or 98. Nothing to do with Apple 10, other competitors are Ubuntu Linux 14 and OpenSuse 13.

Lols.
So the supposedly greatest software company on earth writes software that cannot tell the difference between Windows 95, 98, or 9.

It's third-party software that checks for "Windows 9x". I know internal Win-95 is version 4.0 and Win-98 is 4.10. There are a lot of websites that speculate why it's 10 and not 9. This is one of the many reasons.