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Topic: Windows 10 ?

Steve Matz
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 672
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 06-03-2015 01:39 PM

I'm sure this has happen to probably every one's PC,at least if your using Windows 7. Looked at my Taskbar the other day and an Icon that I hadn't seen before was there. Put my pointer on it and it reads Get Windows 10 Free Update...Go to Windows Update...Get to know Windows 10. I'm pretty satisfied with W7 as it does all the things I need it to do, but I heard its a tremendous improvement over W8 which seems to be disliked by a lot of Users. Would like some Feedback from the Computer whizzes as to what a Guy should do... [Confused]

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 06-03-2015 01:54 PM

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 06-03-2015 01:58 PM

At some point you installed MS Update KB3035583. Microsoft activated this nagware on Monday.

From Computerworld:

Users can kill the task bar icon by selecting "Customize" from the task bar's notification area -- the option is under the small up-arrow at the left of the section -- then choosing "GWX" and setting it to "Hide icon and notifications."

Alternately, users can remove the Get Windows 10 app and its marketing push by uninstalling KB3035583 from the Windows Update pane. (On Computerworld's Windows 7 PCs, Get Windows 10 did not appear in the Control Panel section devoted to uninstalling programs.)

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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 06-03-2015 03:51 PM

1. Wait for Windows 10 to be released.

2. Wait for all the bitching about what a clusterfuck it is, and which existing programs don't work with it.

3. If it's not a clusterfuck and none of said programs are yours, go for it.

You don't have to get it in advance to get it for free. It'll be free for at least a year after release, according to Microsoft.

As for me, I'll be getting it immediately because I'm a fucking idiot.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-03-2015 04:15 PM

LOL, Sam!

Hopefully Microsoft will at least have some kind of "compatibility assistant" for Windows 10 like it did for Windows 8 users upgrading to Win 8.1. At least someone looking to upgrade might get some kind of advance warning of any compatibility problems.

BTW, I only upgraded my office PC from Win 8 to 8.1 a few months after 8.1 was released. For Win 10 to skip "9" altogether Microsoft must believe this is a really huge upgrade. I take it as meaning the new OS is likely to break a lot of existing software and device drivers.

I don't have any plans to upgrade my personal notebook from Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit to Windows 10. New software and new operating systems almost always require more computing horsepower. My notebook is 3 years old, going on 4. I might be asking for trouble installing a new OS on a computer that old.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-03-2015 06:34 PM

Microsoft are clearly anxious to retire earlier versions of Windows ASAP and rid themselves of the ongoing cost of supporting them. If they weren't, they wouldn't be offering 10 as a free upgrade and undertaking to support it for the lifetime of any device it's (legally) installed on.

If they really wanted to earn some kudos, they'd extend the offer back to Vista and XP as well. Very few people would be likely to want to take that offer up, because there aren't many PCs out there that are of a good enough hardware spec to run 10, have owners who know how to install an OS update and are motivated to do so, but currently have XP or Vista on them. So that gesture wouldn't cost them much, it would be very good PR and it would enable them to retire (as in, cease supporting) every pre-10 version of Windows within a year or two of release, assuming that 10 is another XP or 7, and not another Vista or 8.0.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-03-2015 09:42 PM

Microsoft would get more computer users to upgrade out of older operating systems if the new OS actually ran better and faster on the existing hardware. IMHO, Microsoft hasn't released an OS like that since Windows 95.

Unfortunately Microsoft has to make computer manufacturers happy and that typically means making the OS so it honestly requires a brand new PC or almost new computer to run well. If I could I'd ask Microsoft's engineers "what am I going to get out of upgrading a Win 7 notebook to Win 10 besides a slower PC likely needing a number of software upgrades and device driver updates?"

I sympathize with Microsoft's problem, but if they want to solve that problem they need to make it easier & better for users to upgrade to the latest OS. They have to consider their own interests and not care quite so much about keeping hardware vendors happy.

Both Microsoft and computer hardware vendors need to realize if they can make personal computing fun again and make it to where people actually want to buy the latest hardware then their business might improve.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 06-03-2015 10:28 PM

I was reading up on Windows 10 today, and one thing I will give Microsoft credit for is doing a true Beta test with some 4 million users before launching the OS.

Having completely skipped Windows 8 and 8.1, some parts of the review didn't mean anything to me. But it does sound like they are reverting back to more of a Windows 7 look rather than the Windows 8 look.

One thing that sounds intriguing to me is being able to split the desktop into 4 apps/programs, and then save that particular desktop so you don't have to redo it every time you go back to that task.

The main negative from the review is that Windows 10 Home users will not be able to disable automatic updates. But this will still be an option with Pro and Enterprise(?).

I'll still wait a while to upgrade, but I am intrigued. I am very happy with Windows 7, and I am in no hurry to lose it for something unknown.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-03-2015 10:39 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Both Microsoft and computer hardware vendors need to realize if they can make personal computing fun again and make it to where people actually want to buy the latest hardware then their business might improve.

I think the problem is more that computers and software are so capable now that it's impossible for them to put in new features that mean anything because the software already does everything imaginable. So they do things like automate tasks (which takes away the ability to tweak things) or load it down with features nobody needs.

I'm a Quickbooks user and I would probably still be happy with about four or five versions ago, if it would work on my machine and be supported -- but it won't, so I have to upgrade. So now the current version crashes every few days on both machines I have it installed on.

I remember when Pagemaker went from 5.0 to 7.0 sometime in the 90s. They added things like the ability to rotate text, floating palettes and other real new features. I'm still using that program today if I want to create a simple sign or something.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 06-03-2015 11:30 PM

You might want to look at Scribus, which is also available for Windows. I've been using it for years to create ads and whatnot, and friends of mine lay out a weekly newspaper with it.

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 06-04-2015 08:44 AM

Why all the negativity towards Windows 8? A close frien recently bought a Windows 8 tablet. I used it extensively for a little while to check it out, and I absolutely love it. Granted, touch-screen devices are pretty much the intended use for the tile screen. There is no need to install this OS on a desktop or a laptop without a touch-screen, and I wouldn't.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-04-2015 09:38 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
I think the problem is more that computers and software are so capable now that it's impossible for them to put in new features that mean anything because the software already does everything imaginable.

When you dig into particular applications there are always new improvements that can be made. I have a list of things I'd like to see incorporated into Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes the development team will listen to feature requests.

If there isn't anything that can be improved or added in terms of features the development team can always go back and make the application run better and faster. Unfortunately few companies bother with that even though "better & faster" is a pretty easy thing to sell.

quote: Mike Blakesley
I remember when Pagemaker went from 5.0 to 7.0 sometime in the 90s. They added things like the ability to rotate text, floating palettes and other real new features. I'm still using that program today if I want to create a simple sign or something.

At one point Adobe was selling full versions of PageMaker 7.0 for only $99 to registered Illustrator & Photoshop users as a competitive side-grade. It did little to chip away at the market share of Quark Xpress at that time. Adobe may have already been at work on InDesign anyway.

BTW, are you running PageMaker 7.0 on a Win XP PC? I'd be surprised if you were able to get it to run on a newer version of Windows. Even older versions of InDesign have problems running under Vista, Win 7 or 8.

quote:
You might want to look at Scribus, which is also available for Windows. I've been using it for years to create ads and whatnot, and friends of mine lay out a weekly newspaper with it.

Scribus, like most open source graphics programs, is good for casual use, but lacks a number of features to make it productive in a professional graphics production environment.

From what I can tell Scribus still isn't a fully OpenType-aware application. Neither is Inkscape for that matter. Most new OpenType fonts, especially ones that are commercially sold, offer at least some OTF-specific features, like ligatures, context sensitive alternate characters, swashes, etc. I have a few fonts that are staggering in their OTF prowess, such as Bookmania, Mark Simonson's revamping of the classic Bookman type family. Each weight in this type family has over 3000 glyphs.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-04-2015 11:02 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Unfortunately Microsoft has to make computer manufacturers happy...

Therein lies the issue. Windows is designed to be an operating system that will run on a huge array of hardware setups. If you add up all the possible motherboard/card/peripheral combinations, it probably goes into millions of individual configurations. Windows has got to work reasonably reliably with all of them for it to be a credible platform.

Apple took the easy route, by only allowing their OS to be used with their own hardware, and most Linux distributions don't have the reputation issue that Microsoft does, because they are given away to end users (hence you can't really complain if it's glitchy on your specific hardware setup). Microsoft, however, is sold and proprietary, and so the end customer (even if they bought Windows involuntarily, bundled with hardware and pre-installed) has a contractual right to expect it to work. Furthermore, it's got to be viable for a "non-geek" user to work with.

So, given the software engineering challenge Microsoft set themselves, I sometimes think they get a bit of a bad press. There are negative side effects of their business model, the ever increasing hardware spec of new versions (as Bobby points out, probably to appease the hardware giants) and the crapware that typically comes on bundled Windows images being probably the two biggest. But Microsoft is trying to avoid going down the "You want my software? You have to buy my hardware as well, pal!" route, which I appreciate.

In response to Ken, Windows 8.0 was a total disaster, but 8.1 was a vast improvement that went out with a reputational millstone around its neck. I've got 8.1 on my 2007-build home PC, and although I have a slight preference for the 7 desktop, there are good things about 8.1, e.g. its software RAID function, which on my machine (running a RAID of five 4TB drives) is just as fast and reliable as the 3Com hardware RAID card I was using previously. And furthermore, there's no risk of data loss if your RAID card goes south and you can't find a replacement of the same model.

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Peter Castle
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 220
From: Wollongong University, NSW ,Australia
Registered: Oct 2003

posted 06-04-2015 06:56 PM

I detest the tile look and full-screen apps in 8 and 8.1.
So I just add StartIsBack and ModernMix, and for under $10 you've got 7 back - with the improvements made in 8.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-04-2015 10:27 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
BTW, are you running PageMaker 7.0 on a Win XP PC? I'd be surprised if you were able to get it to run on a newer version of Windows. Even older versions of InDesign have problems running under Vista, Win 7 or 8.

I have it running on two different Win 7 computers. The only issues I have are, the shortcut function keys (like F6 to 'bold' a selection) don't work - you have to click the onscreen buttons. And, printing is kind of flaky, but I get around that by printing to a PDF and then printing the PDF.

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