Windows 10

[Alex]

Updated a few PC's around the house over the past few days, the main PC is upgrading right now. Upgrade is free if you are running a licensed version of 7, 8, or 8.1 on the machine.

But - if you want a clean install rather than an upgrade, you appear to need a license key for 10. So it turns into a two-step process. Run the upgrade, make sure all is well, and retrieve the license key it creates for your Win 10 install. Then, if you want to blow everything away and start with blank media, you can do a clean install, and use that license key. Here is a link to a free script that retrieves the installed license keys on a Win7, Win8, or Win10 machine:

http://www.tenforums.com/software-ap...7-showkey.html

Here is where you can download the Win 10 install itself:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softw...d/windows10ISO

You can just get an ISO, but it will walk you through a media creation tool to create a self-booting USB stick with the install media on it.

I had no issues on 2 of the 3 installs I've done so far. On the third, I was unable to get a clean install of a boot camp partitioned MacbookAir from a few years ago. It worked fine on a newer Air, there is some weird partitioning thing that stumped me.

[alex.s]

what do you think of 10 so far?

[Alex]

Much more intuitive than 8 or 8.1. Seems more like a traditional desktop interface without forcing it to be phone-like. Boots quickly, and it appears that pretty much every gadget, peripheral, and piece of software that I had running in 7 works completely fine in 10.

I do wish that they hadn't removed Windows Media Center, so I will need to keep my media center box on 7 for the next few years unless I move to something like MediaPortal. WMC has worked so well for us over the past 10 years that I'm not looking forward to having to swap that out at some point.

[allanoue]

and in and out of sleep very fast

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by Alex

I do wish that they hadn't removed Windows Media Center, so I will need to keep my media center box on 7 for the next few years unless I move to something like MediaPortal. WMC has worked so well for us over the past 10 years that I'm not looking forward to having to swap that out at some point.

Upnp mang... do it and don't look back. Do this and you will not be dependant on a platform.

[MrAtom]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[choneofakind]

Well... My computer took a poop a week (or was it two?) ago. Bummer :/

[Alex]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Upnp mang... do it and don't look back. Do this and you will not be dependant on a platform.

I don't follow? "UPNP"? The problem is the guide data. I happily use Media Center as a DVR for OTA HD - and it works fantastically. It's how we record a good chunk of the TV we end up watching. We aren't into movie collections, the main use case is acting like a Tivo on steroids (mongo storage), for free.

MediaPortal is supposed to be the best open source replacement for WMC, yet it still is bare-bones basic for scheduling tv recording. Any DVR, and Windows Media Center, both allow you to say: record "Elementary", but only first-run episode, no repeats. Without good parsing of the guide data, that's not possible. Here's what MediaPortal has about Advanced recording schedules, and it's not that advanced:

http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_M...ing_Recordings

More info here:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing...t-alternatives

[Somchai]

- congrats, you know what you need?
This: http://rghost.net/7NwL94859

[InvisiBill]

I'll play with it in a VM, but at the moment I see no reason to go to Win10. My understanding is that the performance is improved from Win8, but comparable to Win7. The UI un-screws-up the stuff they did in 8, halfway back to the 7 UI. There are some improvements compared to 7, but there seems to be a lot more that I don't care about or specifically don't want.

Wi-Fi Sense (FAQ) is something that everyone should be concerned about. A lot of it is done behind the scenes where you can't see exactly what's going on, so it's hard to say for sure exactly how it operates. Unfortunately, all the security/config is inherently done client-side, so your network is at risk if you let any Win10 device on your Wi-Fi (even if you've already disabled it on all your own devices). Getting them on via Sense is supposed to protect it more, but again, you're relying on that device (which you don't necessarily have full control over) to maintain the integrity of your network. The only thing a network owner can do to stop this is change their SSID to include a specific string, and even that is ambiguous about whether it stops the collection of the network details or just the sharing of that info.

It was indeed previously possible for people to share your Wi-Fi details if you let them on your network, but it took manual effort for them to get the info and pass it on to others. Now, if they check a single box (because they misunderstand what it does, someone else told them they should, etc.) your network details are shared out to all their random Outlook.com, Skype, and Facebook "friends". I'm actually looking into switching to 802.1X just to avoid all this.

[reggae5]

I upgraded my wife's desktop from 7 to 10 no problems. My desktop is Linux.
My laptop is windows 8.1. Tried about 20 times to do the upgrade. Upgrade over the full new install because I want to keep my files and pictures. But after 20 tries still no luck. It gets to the last down load section and the it get's up to 20 or so percent in the large top circle and close to 50% in the circle on the lower left, the coping files one then it turns the pc off. When I turn the pc back on it says restoring to previouse version. Oh well
I like Edge as a browser it seems to work alot faster on my wife's pc.

[Somchai]

Tester now found out the running time of the batteries in Notebooks is 28% shorter.
By far too many wrong with W10, so give them the right answer - go with LINUX

[Panda]

Originally Posted by Alex

. I happily use Media Center as a DVR for OTA HD - and it works fantastically. It's how we record a good chunk of the TV we end up watching. We aren't into movie collections, the main use case is acting like a Tivo on steroids (mongo storage), for free.

I had no idea you could do this. So you only have standard cable boxes and then you use media center as your dvr?

[Alex]

No cable boxes or cable service needed for that. Just 2 cheap TV tuner cards in the PC, for 4 total tuners. Antenna on the roof picks up all local HD channels, for free. We also have DirecTV for paid TV, but all of the network recording is done via the antenna, as it is tied to a 8TB NAS rather than limited to the size of the drives in the DVR.

[choneofakind]

^^^^ was there any English in that????

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

^^^^ was there any English in that????

He records free TV via a computer and antenna instead of DVR's provided by a big company. Available space (recording time) is better on this Network Attached Storage (NAS) vs. the little drives on most DVR devices.

[choneofakind]

Ah. Werd.

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

^^^^ was there any English in that????

Junior Engineer (for another 10 months) Chris is an ME. Not an EE or S/W engr.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by dcj13

Junior Engineer (for another 10 months) Chris is an ME. Not an EE or S/W engr.

Lol, computer nerd from Bay Area speak is all black magic! Haha

[snot]

so, is it easy to upgrade 7 to 10 and is it worth it?
what are the benefits?
I have a lap top and desk top with 7 and a lap top with vista

[allanoue]

if you have MSoffice do not do it or you will loose it; otherwise, I would do it again.

I use google docs

[snot]

Originally Posted by allanoue

if you have MSoffice do not do it or you will loose it; otherwise, I would do it again.

I use google docs

both, desk with laptop without. I also have a key for 365 from school on the laptop.

I use them both for school.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by snot

both, desk with laptop without. I also have a key for 365 from school on the laptop.

I use them both for school.

It is free and will get updates much longer then vista
Not much different. I which I could upgrade my xp netbook

[snot]

is it easy for a normal human?

[allanoue]

super easy

[snot]

Originally Posted by allanoue

super easy

thank you.

[ninjamunky85]

I liked Windows 8 better. Anyone know and easy way to "downgrade"?

[Brother Michigan]

There's an option to downgrade in the settings somewhere.

I updated my PCs and all of my parents' machines and everyone seems to like it pretty well. My parents' connection has a data cap, though, and I didn't know about the whole peer-to-peer update setting and it blew through 90% of their 300GB data cap in about a week. Other than that slight problem, everything has been great.

[Ninjinsky]

You need to know this.

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/...ing-it?ref=yfp

[Alex]

Eh. EULAs for a general consumer are pretty pointless. Manufactured outrage about EULAs is equally pointless. The assumption being made is that there is a viable choice.

Apple's are equally annoying in different ways. Moving to Google's OS because you're concerned about forced upgrades is a non-starter, as it is also heavily reliant on frequent (free) updates. Anything other than those 3 (MS/Apple/Google) points to a miniscule fraction of end users looking forward even many years from now.

[reggae5]

Originally Posted by reggae5

I upgraded my wife's desktop from 7 to 10 no problems. My desktop is Linux.
My laptop is windows 8.1. Tried about 20 times to do the upgrade. Upgrade over the full new install because I want to keep my files and pictures. But after 20 tries still no luck. It gets to the last down load section and the it get's up to 20 or so percent in the large top circle and close to 50% in the circle on the lower left, the coping files one then it turns the pc off. When I turn the pc back on it says restoring to previouse version. Oh well
I like Edge as a browser it seems to work alot faster on my wife's pc.

Finally got it to install the update from Windows 8.1 on my laptop to 10. I turned it on one day a little while ago and there was a error message from microsoft about three problems on my laptop that were preventing me from upgrading and did I want to fix them? Heck yea so I clicked the button it fixed what ever the problems were then I started a long 4.5 hour install and it is now up and running and I like it. ( just waiting for Roboform to make it work on Edge now )

[Ninjinsky]

Windows 10.
Free so you won't be.

[Somchai]

As a reminder for all updating to W10
MS is telling everybody: "we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary"
It's very important to read the Microsoft Privacy Statement: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/priv...t/default.aspx

Maybe the following link may also help a lil bit http://www.howtogeek.com/224352/what...Speed=noscript

Take good care about your data - it's your privacy!

[jkv45]

I used Custom Settings in order to be able to disable all of the "sharing" and "gathering" that goes on with Express Settings.

They basically have access to everything unless you restrict it.

W10 operates a bit different than W7, but everything seems to run quicker and smoother without some of the odd issues I was experiencing with W7.

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by Somchai

Tester now found out the running time of the batteries in Notebooks is 28% shorter.
By far too many wrong with W10, so give them the right answer - go with LINUX

^^^^^ This

[Brother Michigan]

Even with 28% less battery life, Windows probably still does better than Linux in that respect. (Not that those 28% claims are anywhere close to accurate on average.)

[crazymadbastard]

Originally Posted by Brother Michigan

Even with 28% less battery life, Windows probably still does better than Linux in that respect. (Not that those 28% claims are anywhere close to accurate on average.)

76.8% of all statistics are made up.

[adouglas]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[alex.s]

did the upgrade yesterday. only broke a few things but im told newer versions of the things it broke work better and they'll be fixed soon (vbox, ros). looks nice. better than 8. but i had 7 on my home pc before. do definitely like the new color scheme. it seems like its almost completely visual compared to 8

[MrAtom]

I've made the leap to Windows 10 and I like the OS but I also did a great deal of removing the spying BS. Here's a pretty good series of guides by an ex-Microsoft engineer:

Link to original page on YouTube.

Link to original page on YouTube.

Also, regarding the Creators update:

Link to original page on YouTube.

I personally dual-boot and use PCLinuxOS 99% of the time and have been for years with minimal problems. Great operating system, and it's free. Only issue is it's not debian-based like all the popular distros so there's some annoying crap when building tarballs, but it's still my favorite. Plus, you'll probably find what you need in the package manager, anyway. I'm far from well-rehearsed in Linux and figure if I can do it, so can anyone else.