Trains.com

Windows 10

3777 views
31 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Windows 10
Posted by Deggesty on Sunday, October 11, 2015 1:50 PM

Has anyone changed to Windows 10? I keep getting invitations to change on my laptop, at no cost. I accidentally changed from Windows 8 to Windows 9 on my desktop, and I have been fully satisfied with the result and do not want to learn something new (I had ewnough trouble when I bought my desktop with Windows 8 on it).

Johnny

  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: US
  • 13,488 posts
Posted by Mookie on Sunday, October 11, 2015 1:59 PM

Johnny - the young man that works on my puter said not to go to Windows 10.  I was happy w/what I have and he said I wouldn't like it!  

One opinion.  

Jen

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Sunday, October 11, 2015 2:45 PM

Deggesty

Has anyone changed to Windows 10? I keep getting invitations to change on my laptop, at no cost. I accidentally changed from Windows 8 to Windows 9 on my desktop, and I have been fully satisfied with the result and do not want to learn something new (I had ewnough trouble when I bought my desktop with Windows 8 on it).

There was no Windows 9.  Windows 8 was a disaster for Microsoft, they issued 8.1 in an attempt to salvage it.  So many people hated it that it was actually hurting computer hardware sales.  They Jumped right to Windows 10.  If you currently have 7 or 8 the upgrade really is easy and free.  If you have older versions the upgrade costs money.  I upgraded 3 computers to 10.  I like it and have no complaints.  Of course I took a short class on it at the Microsoft store, so that may color my opinion.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Southeast Michigan
  • 2,983 posts
Posted by Norm48327 on Sunday, October 11, 2015 3:15 PM

I'm running Windows 7 and intend to stay with it. Just on the chance Microsoft becomes sneaky, I've blocked that update.

Norm


  • Member since
    July 2008
  • 2,325 posts
Posted by rdamon on Sunday, October 11, 2015 4:27 PM

Running fine since the release date. Still using chrome for this website and using AdBlocker Plus. Edge seems to work well until you need Java, but IE11 is in there too.

I have noticed a marked improvement from Windows 8. Still get occasional weird issue, but it seems to be at the same rate I have had with W8, W7 etc..

Of course this may be due to running this on a Surface Pro 3 I7.

 

They may have tested a little better with this platform. :)

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, October 11, 2015 4:42 PM

Phoebe Vet
Deggesty

Has anyone changed to Windows 10? I keep getting invitations to change on my laptop, at no cost. I accidentally changed from Windows 8 to Windows 9 on my desktop, and I have been fully satisfied with the result and do not want to learn something new (I had ewnough trouble when I bought my desktop with Windows 8 on it).

There was no Windows 9.  Windows 8 was a disaster for Microsoft, they issued 8.1 in an attempt to salvage it.  So many people hated it that it was actually hurting computer hardware sales.  They Jumped right to Windows 10.  If you currently have 7 or 8 the upgrade really is easy and free.  If you have older versions the upgrade costs money.  I upgraded 3 computers to 10.  I like it and have no complaints.  Of course I took a short class on it at the Microsoft store, so that may color my opinion.

I have a 8.1 desktop machine, when I attempt the 10 upgrade - it tells me I will be notified when it is ready....I have been ready ever since the production version of W10 was announced.  I detest the 'desktop' and 'start' modes of operation.  Give me the desktop!  W7 is installed at work and I have no problems with it.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Sunday, October 11, 2015 6:08 PM

BaltACD:

I bought a new computer that had 8.1 factory installed.  There are no words that can adequately describe how much I hated it.  I brought the laptop that had Vista on it in from the train room and put the new one out there.  I continued to use two Windows 7 machines.  When Windows 10 became available for free, I upgraded the hated windows 8 computer.  After test driving it for a few days , I upgraded the two Windows 7 computers.  The install is easy.  It takes quite a while, but it does it all by itself.  It reboots several times during the install, but you don't even have to be in the room.  If the install files are on your computer there will be an Icon in the system tray in the lower right corner of your computer.  Just click on it, accept the license agreement, and go find something to do until it is finished.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, October 11, 2015 7:17 PM

Phoebe Vet

BaltACD:

I bought a new computer that had 8.1 factory installed.  There are no words that can adequately describe how much I hated it.  I brought the laptop that had Vista on it in from the train room and put the new one out there.  I continued to use two Windows 7 machines.  When Windows 10 became available for free, I upgraded the hated windows 8 computer.  After test driving it for a few days , I upgraded the two Windows 7 computers.  The install is easy.  It takes quite a while, but it does it all by itself.  It reboots several times during the install, but you don't even have to be in the room.  If the install files are on your computer there will be an Icon in the system tray in the lower right corner of your computer.  Just click on it, accept the license agreement, and go find something to do until it is finished.

I have clicked the icon....I am told I will be notified when W10 is available for ME.  I have been getting that for the past two months.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, October 12, 2015 8:03 AM

ARE ALL  THESE XP OR VISTA?

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Monday, October 12, 2015 8:16 AM

XP and Vista are no longer supported by Microsoft.  If you want to upgrade one of those you have to buy the retail product.  7 & 8 are still supported so they have offered it like a normal update.  Installation is optional.

Many companies that are large enough to have their own IT people and thus provide their own support, are still running XP.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, October 12, 2015 10:13 AM

daveklepper

ARE ALL  THESE XP OR VISTA?

XP & Vista are separate Operating Systems.

I have a desktop machine that runs XP, and despite Microsoft stopping support of that product it is stable.

I have a laptop machine that runs Vista and has had Blue Screen crashes weekly or more frequently.

I have a Windows 8.1 machine that I bought to replace the XP machine - I dislike the Desktop/Start Menu forms of operation with the 8.1 OS.

All these are separate Microsoft Operating Systems.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, October 12, 2015 12:54 PM

Present wisdom is to stick with Windows 7 (or XP) if it is doing what you want.

The only problem with sticking with XP or Vista is that since it is no longer supported there is the possibility that some dork will find a flaw in the ointment and hack into your computer to steal your identity info or somehow damage your data.  Microsoft will not be providing a fix for such possible security holes because they are no longer supported.  Also, you cannot take advantage of the Free upgrade to Windows 10.  You will have to buy 7, or 8.1 to get the "free" upgrade or just buy 10 outright... but you might want to consider just buying a new PC to get 10 and the better hardware it will run on, rather than shoehorn it into an obviously older machine that your XP or Vista is running on.

Those that are using 8.x will likely want to upgrade soon.  You do have until next July to do so, but after that you will no longer qualify for the "Free" upgrade.  May as well take the freebie while it is offered.

Windows 10 is settling down and seems to be pretty stable for me right now.  I was not going to upgrade until later this Fall or early Winter, but my PC went belly up and I had to buy new (not worth repairing it again).  The new one came with Windows 8.1 and not even 3 hours later I was so fed up with the "Metro" (or whatever it was called) interface that I went for the free upgrade.

I like Windows 10 so far.  I was concerned about it wanting to put all my data in the Cloud, but found a way to change the default from "Cloud" to "Local".  I have also found some other settings that make the display more to my liking, though it is not nearly as nice as XP was or even as good as 7.

I dislike that it has forced me to have the same password for logging on to the computer itself and my MSN (e-mail) account... I would prefer that they remain separate and let me decide when I want to access my MSN account and provide a separate password at that time (I do understand that in normal circumstances, for people that accept using the Cloud for storage, that they would want to have the PC log into the Cloud account right away and not be bothered by having to enter another password as part of starting their day at the computer).

The "Cloud" is not a bad thing for those that have multiple computers and will want to access their data from any of those computers, but I have only one PC and I want to keep my data where I can smash it with a hammer if I am so inclined.  "I" just don't trust the security of the internet and the "Cloud". So I often use my computer with the network cable unplugged (and I have disabled WiFi on it) so anything I do is kept local.  I also clear the disk of logs and report files that Windows 10 keeps so they cannot upload them the next time I do have the computer connected to the internet.

I also would like to be able to decline updates and fixes when they come available like I used to do with Windows 7.  As time wore on I found that some updates broke things and I had to undo the updates and from then on, when they were offered again, I could just skip that one... now I cannot do that and I fear the old routine of undoing updates will become a regular thing.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, October 12, 2015 1:31 PM

i have zero problem transferring data via USB devices and would not wish to even think about using a cloud approach until data becomes unmanageable without it.   As long as all the data I have that is worth saving even from 6.20 DOS days can fit on one USAB device and has been downloaded on two or three, I would not wish to use the cloud.

Also, as stated earlier, I have an occasional problem with Microsoft, that may be peculiar to Israel, where they have a local operation.   All the computers I own are second hand.  Two were gifts.   One of those is still Windows 98, with a floppy disk input, and is valuable for use of Norton Disk Doctor to repair others' floppy disks to extract old data.  The other three are all XP.  If I ask for help or upgrade from Microsoft there is a possbility that they will say I have piroted Windos XP and start destroying the operation of my computer, because certain liscenses don't match as some home reparis and upgrades have transfered programs from one computer to another.  Fortunately, I have been able to catch this process at the start, shut the computer down, and take it to the authorized Microsoft dealer in Jerusalem (Microsoft is in Ramat Gan, major operation.) who sold me two of the second-hand computers.  He then straightens out the liscenses and arranges whatever repair I was atempting. (Of course this involves money and time, even though the charges are very fair, with any of the four computers.)   I also find that certain companies continually bother me to install upgrades.  Witih AVG anti-Virus, I have no problem, except that sometimes they bother me at inconvenient times.   With Adobe Flash, there is a real problem in that the existing 10 version in my computer is compatible with use of Heberw (and I believe Arabic) whereas the 11 version once installed only works with the English setup.  English setup is of course left-to-right, and Hebrew the reverse.

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Southeast Michigan
  • 2,983 posts
Posted by Norm48327 on Monday, October 12, 2015 1:34 PM

Phoebe Vet
Many companies that are large enough to have their own IT people and thus provide their own support, are still running XP.

And for good reason. It's a stable platform.

Norm


  • Member since
    June 2015
  • 43 posts
Posted by phkmn2000 on Monday, October 12, 2015 1:42 PM
I did the Win7 to Win10 upgrade on my desktop several weeks ago and found it pretty much transparent. The only annoyance is that Win10 is configured for laptop use and doesn't turn on the NumLock key at startup. I've tried all of the Internet suggestions for fixing this but with no success. Not a huge deal; just an extra keystroke at startup. As usual with new software if comes with a bunch of crap that I will never use so I'm gradually removing what I have no use for.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, October 12, 2015 3:03 PM

Over the years I have found the Windows Secrets Forum as a big aid in solving problems I have enountered.

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, October 12, 2015 4:19 PM

BaltACD

Over the years I have found the Windows Secrets Forum as a big aid in solving problems I have enountered.

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/

A BIG plus 1 for Windows Secrets.  Been happy with them since the first book came out and have bought every sequel that has come out with each new Windows version.  Their free newsletter is great, and the paid version is really worth the minor cost.

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Vicksburg, Michigan
  • 2,303 posts
Posted by Andrew Falconer on Monday, October 12, 2015 9:40 PM

I upgraded to Windows 10.

To finally get it working right required me to sign out and sign in several times.

Windows 10 does not like the windows screen saver program and keeps switching it off.

I had to upgrade to CyberLink PowerDVD 15 to get a DVD player that is compatible with Windows 10.

Andrew

Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: NW Wisconsin
  • 3,857 posts
Posted by beaulieu on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:44 PM

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 without any problems. I did however have to upgrade several programs to the newer compatible version. I upgraded my Drivers, for example Nvidia video. I also upgraded my VLC DVD and BluRay player software, and Adobe Acrobat Reader to Reader DC version. I find Windows 10 satisfactory and for me stable.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,008 posts
Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:57 PM

Andrew Falconer
Windows 10 does not like the windows screen saver program and keeps switching it off.

I generally find that when I upgrade to the latest and greatest that some feature I used on a regular basis has disappeared, or at least gone into hiding.  I'll stick with Vista for now.

I'd still be running 95 if I could...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 3:59 PM

Vista has to be the worst OS that Microsoft has foisted on computer users.  Mine has Blue Screen crashes with disturbing regularity and a few years ago caused the machine to get into a 'update loop' from which the only solution was to have the disk formatted and having the OS reloaded.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,008 posts
Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 4:29 PM

BaltACD

Vista has to be the worst OS that Microsoft has foisted on computer users.  Mine has Blue Screen crashes with disturbing regularity and a few years ago caused the machine to get into a 'update loop' from which the only solution was to have the disk formatted and having the OS reloaded.

You obviously never had to deal with NT.  Even though several following iterations of Windows used NT as their base, it probably had to be the very worst from an admin standpoint.

I was lucky - the folks who were installing NT on everyone's computer overlooked mine...

Then, again, I had to deal at one time with Windows 3.1 and 3.1.1...

As an aside, my advisor for data processing at the local community college had a family member working for MS.  I saw an early "Lisa," and marvelled at the mouse and it's partner on the screen, the cursor.  Never got to play with it, though.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 4:40 PM

Andrew Falconer
Windows 10 does not like the windows screen saver program and keeps switching it off.

 

Are you using a CRT monitor, or a flat screen?

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 4:41 PM

tree68
BaltACD

Vista has to be the worst OS that Microsoft has foisted on computer users.  Mine has Blue Screen crashes with disturbing regularity and a few years ago caused the machine to get into a 'update loop' from which the only solution was to have the disk formatted and having the OS reloaded.

You obviously never had to deal with NT.  Even though several following iterations of Windows used NT as their base, it probably had to be the very worst from an admin standpoint.

I was lucky - the folks who were installing NT on everyone's computer overlooked mine...

Then, again, I had to deal at one time with Windows 3.1 and 3.1.1...

As an aside, my advisor for data processing at the local community college had a family member working for MS.  I saw an early "Lisa," and marvelled at the mouse and it's partner on the screen, the cursor.  Never got to play with it, though.

Computers at work had NT - no problems.  My XP machine, no problems for the past 12 years.  Vista problems in spades from the time it was new in 2008.  8.1 no signifigant problems, just don't like the way it enforces a separation between desktop and start menu applications.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Vicksburg, Michigan
  • 2,303 posts
Posted by Andrew Falconer on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 6:00 PM

I am using an HP LCD monitor, so I like the screen saver to show random photos of mine while I am out of reach of the keyboard.

Andrew

Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Thursday, October 15, 2015 8:44 AM

I had no particular problems with Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP or 8.1.   But I finally did the free upgrade recently to Windows 10.  I have the vague impression it runs a little better than 8.1 did.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Vicksburg, Michigan
  • 2,303 posts
Posted by Andrew Falconer on Sunday, October 18, 2015 11:47 PM

I found a new annoying feature. If I do not touch the keyboard or the trackball every 20 seconds the screen goes black then shows a Windows 10 image.

Andrew

Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,008 posts
Posted by tree68 on Monday, October 19, 2015 6:45 AM

Andrew Falconer
I found a new annoying feature. If I do not touch the keyboard or the trackball every 20 seconds the screen goes black then shows a Windows 10 image.

That may be adjustable.  Check the screen personalization settings.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Monday, October 19, 2015 9:05 AM

Start Menu / settings  /  system  / power and sleep.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,275 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, October 19, 2015 9:34 AM

Right click the blank desktop screen and select 'Display Settings' from the drop down box that appears.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy