Windows 10

edscdk · 13 Aug 2018 at 06:05

Munky1080 said:
Hey guys - just a quick one. A mate of mine has an Acer Aspire laptop that came with Windows 7 OEM and now the hard drive has packed it in. He doesn't have a Windows 7 disk, as the drive had a recovery partition on it, which clearly doesn't work any more.

He's asked for a bit of help, but I'm unsure if we can still use a Windows 7 key to install Windows 10. Does anyone know, and if so, is it just as simple as downloading the ISO and setting the BIOS to boot from the dvd-rom?

Thanks

No key required just download the iso burn to dvd or use the usb maker it comes with to create a Usb then install once it's on the Internet it will activate... Ms know all about you laptop

arknor · 16 Aug 2018 at 17:08

Munky1080 said:
Hey guys - just a quick one. A mate of mine has an Acer Aspire laptop that came with Windows 7 OEM and now the hard drive has packed it in. He doesn't have a Windows 7 disk, as the drive had a recovery partition on it, which clearly doesn't work any more.

He's asked for a bit of help, but I'm unsure if we can still use a Windows 7 key to install Windows 10. Does anyone know, and if so, is it just as simple as downloading the ISO and setting the BIOS to boot from the dvd-rom?

Thanks

if you can download the iso then your all set https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7

you can probably get a boot menu through some key combo on most laptops google

Captain · 17 Aug 2018 at 18:29

Trying to uninstall Spotify but i'm having no luck, I've tried CCleaner, Spotify uninstaller and through windows loads but it just won't uninstall, any ideas?

Orcvader · 22 Aug 2018 at 20:34

So I started noticing the random Firefox open-in-new-tab freezing again but I finally worked out what's causing it. Seems having the Facebook messenger app open for too long causes the slowdown. Closing it brings everything back up to snappy. Guess I'll uninstall it and use the web browser version. Although ideally I would rather not use it at all but some friends/families refuses to use other alternatives...

LoadsaMoney · 4 Sep 2018 at 18:56

Your next big updates October, so id get backed up, as you just know its gona be another hosing.

AthlonXP1800 · 5 Sep 2018 at 00:44

LoadsaMoney said:
Your next big updates October, so id get backed up, as you just know its gona be another hosing.

Backed up? :eek:

I never backup all my devices since Windows XP.

I will not backup all my devices as it will install October update fine from media creation tool because I just know it wont be hosing.

ChrisD. · 5 Sep 2018 at 12:55

My backup is all my docs being on OneDrive.

darael · 5 Sep 2018 at 23:34

AthlonXP1800 said:
Backed up? I never backup all my devices since Windows XP.

I will not backup all my devices as it will install October update fine from media creation tool because I just know it wont be hosing.

Famous last words, but quoted for posterity.

Vimes · 6 Sep 2018 at 20:11

edit NM

Unsure of how to extend the system tray icons so that all are visible.

Found the toggle switch to do so, in the settings.

PiKe · 6 Sep 2018 at 20:38

Install RollBackRx, then if Windows does decide to **** itself, it's really easy to get back to a working system.

Vimes · 7 Sep 2018 at 08:02

PiKe said:
Install RollBackRx, then if Windows does decide to **** itself, it's really easy to get back to a working system.

Thanks. I'll take a look at that, not heard of it before .

What I usually use is Macrium Reflect.

I can't remember precisely but this installation of Windows 10 had been installed since the Z170 motherboards were available.
There were indications of some minor stability issues and I do know over that time that many applications and utilities had been installed and removed.

A clean start is one that I had been putting off for ages but I have nearly completed the process now.

What I think that I am recognising is that just because there can be much newer drivers it doesn't make them necessarily better.

Swiftz · 7 Sep 2018 at 14:17

I'm currently using Windows 7 with Windows Update disabled (not the best idea) so that the updates/drivers doesn't mess up my laptop but I'm going to clean install Windows 10 and going to enable Windows update and was wondering are the updates more reliable now that won't crash or mess up?

Also, should I let Windows Update find and install all the necessary drivers or should I get the latest from a site like Station Drivers?

Rroff · 7 Sep 2018 at 15:01

Swiftz said:
and was wondering are the updates more reliable now that won't crash or mess up?

Your mileage may vary - there are plenty of people who have little to no problems with it and plenty of people who have significant issues and everything in between. If anything it's a bit less reliable given the increased number of people having problems with 1803 - as seen by the uptick in complaints on the MS discussion forums, YouTube videos and other forums, etc.

For some reason MS are reluctant just to do the right thing and put proper control back in the hands of the end user which would vastly increase the quality of life experience for users as a whole.

Rroff · 9 Sep 2018 at 11:51

Saw what I consider a great post in respect to Windows 10:

Just updated last night by selecting update and shutdown, thinking that the whole thing would be done during the night. And boy was I wrong, the next time I booted up, it was time to reconfigure the update: for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Why? What if a person had something important to do on it just before leaving, like retrieving a file? What if I had a plane to catch within the next hour or two and I wanted just to check something before the flight? I can't turn off the computer during this, now can I? And the computer would be left on for the weekend, or for a week, two weeks, a month if it was a holiday? And no, not all of us have friends or family that they can trust with the keys to your home, some of us don't have friends/family at all. Some of us might even do work, that legally require you not to let anyone to have access to your house, let alone to your computer. What if this was a start of a business day? Do you ask all your customers or clients to wait for 2 hours at your store?

Don't people at Microsoft understand that people turn on the computer to actually DO stuff on it? And when people press the power button, they are pretty much about to do their stuff within the next 5 minutes after turning the machine on. Why wasn't this done when shutting down, you know.. when a person STOPS using the machine, when a person has done using it? That is what I chose.

Then there were a bunch of random questions about sharing my life with the OS. I like to keep my tools separate from my personal identity, just so you know.

After finally getting onto the desktop view, there was a shortcut of Edge on the desktop, which I never asked to be there. Then came the pop-ups asking about more stuff.. Why can't Windows just be silent and keep the settings I previously had?

The computer is there to serve me, it is a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver. If I want additional features and stuff - I'll look for them myself.

I don't want my hammer starting to ask questions and stopping me every second from driving that nail to the wall when I use it. "Would you like to use a saw instead? You can now check your weather with the hammer, do you want to turn that feature on?" No, I don't want to use a saw, that's why I picked up the hammer and no, I don't want that feature: I can check the weather by looking out the window, thank you very much.. AND I DIDN'T ASK FOR THESE INTERRUPTIONS.

A tool is there to convenience me, not to inconvenience me. That is why I choose to use it in the first place.

Also I hope the slowing down of the basic features like copy-pasting a single line of text is temporary.

TL;DR: I want a tool I can rely on, a tool I can trust.

It is a shame this isn't realistically like just choosing a brand of car and we can just walk away and use another OS.

V F · 9 Sep 2018 at 12:41

darael said:
Famous last words, but quoted for posterity.

Even if it was to hose his system, some installs do, some don't. He would never admit it.

Infidelus · 9 Sep 2018 at 18:39

Rroff said:
It is a shame this isn't realistically like just choosing a brand of car and we can just walk away and use another OS.

You can. You just have to decide if you can live without certain specific bits of software if they're not available, or a substitute that may not be quite as good. Not quite as easy for a business though I would imagine.

I had a similar problem as the poster trying to update my mother's PC. It_took_hours! I was not amused.

I'm glad I made the jump away from MS, and it's even better news that Steam are really pushing Steam Play now. I've now got a whole bunch of Windows games I can run on Linux without having to mess around with Wine myself (not that I had much of an issue with that) and I only need one Steam client now.

Rroff · 9 Sep 2018 at 18:49

Infidelus said:
You can. You just have to decide if you can live without certain specific bits of software if they're not available, or a substitute that may not be quite as good. Not quite as easy for a business though I would imagine.

Not really that simple - if you are into PC gaming that massively has an impact, vast amounts of software outside of mainstream applications doesn't have versions for other OSes and/or can't be made to run/emulated successfully whether that is device drivers/control panel for more niche hardware devices, game modding tools or authoring tools for various different purposes and so on. People use PCs for a vast diverse range of purposes outside of just the internet, word processing and a bit of music/pictures - something MS seems to be more and more forgetting.

While related to business if I'm remoting into some work systems there are strict requirements that pretty much mean a recent version of Windows is the only option, etc.

Infidelus · 9 Sep 2018 at 21:00

As I said, you can, but you may have to compromise. I'm a gamer and I run Linux. I have a Windows partition that I only ever log into every few months. I guess it depends on the games you play. WoW runs flawlessly on Linux, and with the aforementioned Steam Play, a whole bunch of my 'Windows Only' games now also work without me having to do any tinkering. You'd also be surprised how much stuff Linux actually does support. It's not for everyone, but it's a darn site better than Windows is these days (IMHO) even if it isn't as polished.

My job doesn't let me work from home, so I don't have that hurdle and can't comment on it.

PiKe · 9 Sep 2018 at 23:36

Hardest thing with Linux is deciding which distro to use.

Rroff · 9 Sep 2018 at 23:42

PiKe said:
Hardest thing with Linux is deciding which distro to use.

I've never found a reason really to stray from Debian/Ubuntu - I find Debian tends to be a bit more intuitive in implementation (when not dealing with a GUI) but Ubuntu tends to be a bit more user friendly out the box.