I upgraded to Windows 10, and...

[Vince53]

Two laptops using Windows 8.1, and my desktop, using Windows 7. Each upgrade took about five hours. No problems at all. While it is a big improvement over Win 7 (much faster boot-up time), I liked 8.1 better.

Windows 7 users will be pleased with the Microsoft Store. It is one of the tiles, and it gives you thousands of free and priced applications that have been approved by Microsoft. This is one of the big advantages of 8 over 7, and you get it free when you upgrade to 10.

The biggest change is the Start Button. The left column is your traditional Start Menu. The right column shows the Metro Interface (tiles) from Windows 8. The tiles page itself, however, is gone; the Charms Bar is also gone, but the charms are easily found elsewhere.

Everything you need to learn about the new system is found in the Start Menu. It includes a shutdown button (difficult to find in Windows 8) and a new "Settings" button, which simplifies any changes you want to make.

I am unimpressed with "Edge," the new browser, as it works no better than Firefox. On a technical forum, posters had no problems installing Firefox, Chrome, and other browsers.

Essentially, it works the same as Windows 7. If you were using Windows 8 desktop, it works the same way.

 

[elytron]

I ordered a new computer for myself recently. It's going to come with Windows 10, so I will be giving Windows another try. Have been a long time Linux user, the last Windows version I used seriously was XP. At the moment I am trying to learn as much as possible about 10, focusing on the privacy settings. Want to have at least a little privacy. Or as much as possible. Hopefully mine doesn't come with much bloat software.

 

[Murby]

You might want to consider turning off all the anti-privacy settings. Windows 10 is notorious for any lack of privacy.. it basically hands out your information to everyone.

 

[elytron]

Does it come with free anti-virus by default? Think I read that somewhere, but not sure.

 

[mnorian]

Does it come with free anti-virus by default? Think I read that somewhere, but not sure.

I had an HP Win7 PC that I upgraded to Win10 and it had MSE(Microsoft Security Essentials) and now I have a new HP laptop with Win10 which has Windows Defender which I believe is the same thing or at least uses the same AV software and they both worked well the last 4+ years finding and getting rid of malware a couple of times.

As for bloat ware I have 50 gigabytes in my HD after D/Ling Slimjet (a chrome derivative) with Windows taking up some 22GB of that for about 25GB of extra stuff which most of that is advertizing promo apps; when you open them up they take you to the sellers site to up-grade to a full version of the program; most of this you could get rid of, but with 394GBs free in my HD I haven't bothered. Over-all I like Win10; but I would get another browser.

 

[elytron]

Firefox will probably be my main browser on Windows. Have been using it on Linux for years without major issue. If my new computer does comes with bloatware, I may do a fresh Windows install right from the start. Have already downloaded the windows 10 .iso from Microsoft.

 

[Vince53]

Windows Defender comes free with Windows 10. If you install another anti-virus, 10 will automatically turn off Defender. Defender is great, as long as you do not keep account numbers, Social Security numbers, financial passwords, etc., on your computer. No free anti-virus can protect those well enough, and you will need to use a paid anti-virus pro0gram.

 

[elytron]

So I received my new Dell Windows 10 Laptop earlier today. For a super budget computer it's actually pretty nice. Setup was easy, did the updates. No bloat, so no fresh install was required. I really like it so far, boots fast, and there is a lot of new software to play around with out there. I installed Firefox, and made it default.

 

[freezerman2000]

I upgraded and my desk top started freezing up big time.I reverted back to 7 ultimate and no more problems.Hardware incompatabilities is all I can think of..
Before I reverted back it was like this..

almost all of the time.

 

[pgp_protector]

Haven't had those problems.
I'm running Win 10 on 3 systems at home , my Primary work/Gaming Desktop, the Wife's System & a Laptop I use at church.
All 3 have been quite stable, the only problem I had was after I upgraded to Win 10, I started using Synergy. And it turns out a lot of full screen games Don't like Synergy running in the background (Causes a extreme mouse sensitivity issue)

I'm able to do my Dev work, gaming, Videos, Remote Desktop, VMs ect all without problems on Win 10.

 

[freezerman2000]

Luckily I have my laptop running on SuperX Grace..very stable.
It was my primary machine while I was having so much trouble.

 

[pgp_protector]

Luckily I have my laptop running on SuperX Grace..very stable.
It was my primary machine while I was having so much trouble.

Might have to throw it on a VM & look at it.
http://superxos.com/blog/2015/03/superx-3-0-grace-is-now-available/

 

[freezerman2000]

well worth your time in my opinion.

 

[mnorian]

I upgraded and my desk top started freezing up big time.I reverted back to 7 ultimate and no more problems.Hardware incompatabilities is all I can think of..
Before I reverted back it was like this..

almost all of the time.

Did you up-grade your drivers before you installed 10? Win10 doesn't seem to tolerate old drivers as well as Win7; especially video card drivers.

 

[freezerman2000]

Sure did..My stepson who is a computer guru thinks it is the video driver..the message said that it wasn't compatible..
The hard drive is old too..we plan to put in a new one..Sea Gate 1 terabyte.

 

[freezerman2000]

As long as 7 is running well,I don't plan on 10...When I do decide to switch back Ive,I've got the disk.

 

[Vince53]

Solve Problems with PowerShell


Folks, I recently solved a problem with my Start Button by using PowerShell. It is a free utility built into Windows 10, that is primarily designed to help developers. However, it has a few problem-solving tools that you can use. To enter PowerShell, right-click your task bar and select Task Manager--File--Run New Task. Then type powershell into the box and check the box giving you Administrator privileges.

Surfing the web, I found these useful problem-solvers:


When the Start Button won’t work--- Run the System File Checker

Type sfc /scannow into the window and press the [Return] key. The scan may take some time and will end with one of three results. Windows did not find any integrity violations and Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and repaired them mean there are now no corrupt files, but Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some (or all) of them indicates a problem.

In this latter case, type (or copy and paste) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth into the PowerShell window and press the [Return] key. This will download files from Windows Update to replace the corrupt ones and, again, this may take some time.

If your Start Button still won't work---Re-install the aps that came loaded into your Start Button:

Reinstall Windows apps

Launch the Task manager and open a new PowerShell window with administrative privileges, as explained above.

When the Windows PowerShell window opens copy the line below and paste it into the PowerShell window by simply right-clicking at the blinking PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> prompt, or by pressing [Ctrl] + [V] on the keyboard:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Wait until the app download and installation process completes — ignore any red text that appears — and restart Windows.




Remove Pre-Installed Apps

You can use PowerShell to remove pre-installed apps. Use the following code to remove Zune Player from Windows 10 operating system.

Get-AppxPackage -Name *ZuneMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage



If you have any other app that you wish to uninstall then simply change the name between the asterix symbols.



Can't get rid of malware because it starts automatically and it can't be deleted while running?
Stop Running Process (Application)

Let's assume that we have Notepad app running in the background. If you wish to disable or close the app then use the following command.

Stop-Process -Name notepad




Malware has blocked you from running Windows Defender?

Run Windows Defender

Run the Start-MpScan command. The base command will start a scan using default parameters. You can signify which drive or directory to scan using a parameter like -ScanPath “C:”. You can also indicate a scan type using -ScanType [QuickScan/FullScan/CustomScan].

Update threat signatures. Malware scans with Windows Defender are only as good as the threat definitions that Windows has.