Good old Win 10

[Harold Dye]

Well just got an important update for win 7 this morning. I do a manual update so I can check what is being installed. It listed a win 7 update but it had the number KB 3035583, with no other explanation. I could have opened it to see what it was, but the KB number was enough. Is this sneaky or what?

[Jack Stoner]

Microsoft keeps pushing that update. Hide it, if you don't want to upgrade.

[Charlie McDonald]

This article discusses hiding the Get and getting rid of it.
http://www.howtogeek.com/218856/how-do- ... tion-tray/

[Harold Dye]

I have hidden this thing several times and today was one more.

[Wiz Feinberg]

I have hidden this thing several times and today was one more.

Have you heard about GWX Control Panel? It hides these upgrades for you.

[Ken Lang]

I upgraded my computer to Win 10 about 3 weeks ago. For what I do it worked except there were a couple things it no longer does. I went back to Win 7. Why, I can't give a big reason. More comfortable perhaps. I think I'll try linex
on an old xp as well. Just to see how it works.
At least when I have to load Win 10 in July, I'll know how it works.

[Charlie McDonald]

Does this mean that 10 will be inevitable come July?

[Dave Potter]

Does this mean that 10 will be inevitable come July?

It won't become "inevitable" then - 29 July 2016 is the cut-off for installing Win10 free. After that, you'll have to buy it. But there's a new "key date" that's surfaced - 17 July 2017. MS has announced they're upping the ante on penalizing users of OSes prior to Win10.

The previously announced lifecycle support cut-off dates for Win7 and Win8 used to be Jan 2020 and Jan 2023, respectively. Articles here and here explain that MS has reneged on that pledge, and decided that after 17 July 2017, only computers running "older" processors will get continued support. If users upgrade to new processors and continue using Win7 or 8, forget the previously announced lifecycles for those OSes, MS support for them will now end 17 Jul 2017. So effectively, Win7 and Win8 users with upgraded hardware will lose support on that date.

Quoting one of the articles above:

"Yes, you read this right: Microsoft is breaking from 31 years of Windows history by refusing to honour its promised Windows lifecycles unless users stick to old hardware. Upgrade your existing Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer to these chipsets or buy new hardware and install Windows 7 or Windows 8 on it and the official Windows Lifecycle dates don’t mean a thing."

All Our Love,
Microsoft

[J W Alexander]

"Yes, you read this right: Microsoft is breaking from 31 years of Windows history by refusing to honour its promised Windows lifecycles unless users stick to old hardware. Upgrade your existing Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer to these chipsets or buy new hardware and install Windows 7 or Windows 8 on it and the official Windows Lifecycle dates don’t mean a thing."

Sorry to drag this back to life but the above comment really intrigues me.

I'm about to have another computer built up from scratch and want to stick with Win 7 or 8 at most. What sort of parts (CPU, MB etc etc can I use that will allow either of those OS's and still function on the internet?

I do download from an .nzb site for missed TV episodes etc so want to maintain that function. Otherwise I'm probably a light weight user, not a lot of heavy downloading, mostly surfing the 'net on sites like SGF.

TIA

[Dave Potter]

What sort of parts (CPU, MB etc etc can I use that will allow either of those OS's and still function on the internet?

As I understand things, internet functionality is not in question - it's just that MS plans to stop supporting Win7/8 systems with specific newer processors.

This article provides some information on it, and includes the statement as follows:

Quote:
"Machines that require Windows 10 to ensure continued support will be those running on processors based on Intel's Skylake design, released late last year, Intel's Kabylake family, due before 2017, AMD's Bristol Ridge, due this year, and Qualcomm's 8996/Snapdragon 820 architecture."

So no matter what hardware you choose for your new system, you'll supposedly be able to continue accessing the web with it, but at Microsoft's discretion, you may find that at some point, MS will stop supporting your Win7/8 OS with updates.

As an aside, just yesterday, I decided to give Windows 10 another try, my second attempt. I made the decision based on the realities we all accept - OS upgrades just have to be made eventually, for lots of reasons.

I downloaded and installed Windows 10, and it was running as of around 2PM yesterday afternoon. I loaded my flight simulation software (Prepar3D) to make sure it would work in Win10. I also loaded the related add-on module which accesses the web and communicates actual weather data to my simulation software. Weather conditions in the simulator mimic real weather outside.

I immediately found that the weather software was unable to retrieve web-based weather data. It also could not communicate with my simuulator software. I spent the rest of the day, and into the night time hours, searching for solutions. Nothing worked, and that alone was a Win10 show-stopper - this stuff worked perfectly prior to the Win10 upgrade. I then discovered that the Windows 10 "Start" memu would not open - left mouse clicks on the "Windows icon" (screen, bottom left side) had no effect. Searching the web, I quickly found that to be a common issue many Windows 10 users have had to stuggle with. I tried several "fixes" suggested, and none worked. So at that point, Windows 10 had not only broken my software, it itself was broken.

That was it for me - the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. It was a no-brainer to use the built-in utility to revert to my prior OS, Windows 7, now done. And, wonders of wonders, the flight sim software and weather add-on are happily communicating again, and it's all just swell.

I don't know where the saga of Windows 10 will end up, but what I do know is that even after being "in the wild" a year now, it's still not ready for prime time, and I call that pretty pathetic, especially in light of the fact that it can't even do the things its predecessor does easily.

[J W Alexander]

Dave thanks for that explanation, kinda Fred Flintstone here withe some of this 'puter related stuff.

I'm certain my trusted computer genius who'll be building my new machine will have work arounds or some way to accommodate my needs. I'm also certain he'll try gently forcing me into Win10, that seems to be way those guys roll: "gotta have the latest, fastest otherwise its too old......"---he and I have been thorough this before! We both shake our heads and hope for the best!

J W

[Dave Potter]

that seems to be way those guys roll: "gotta have the latest, fastest otherwise its too old....

Yeah, I know, and I've always been an early adopter with computer stuff myself - USUALLY, it works out - USUALLY, updated things work better, have more features, yada, yada.

But this Win10 thing is still pretty "iffy", it seems, and it's no wonder so many are holding off, despite Microsoft's beneficient "free" offer. If all people need it for is some light generic word processing, or web browsing, it can do it, but anything the least bit demanding, and it can be problematic. I think a big part of it is Microsoft's attempts to tighten up security more, and in the process, preventing even legitimate applications to work together.

It's always possible that it's the applications themselves that aren't compatible with Win10 - who knows? But until things catch up, wherever the issues lie, I can't use it.