I upgraded all but one of our computers, a vintage tank of a Compaq desktop which refused the upgrade. I tried downloading, sideloading, hot swapping drives, upgrade, fresh install, but nothing worked. I guess the 2006 BIOS was just not compatible, it always crashed shortly into the upgrade. Since I wiped that hard drive, I'm doing a "fresh install" of Windows 8.1. It might take a while with 200+ updates... ZZZZzzzzzz....
I started my Windows 10 upgrade just before 10 PM and I was back to Windows 7 in a few hours when at 12:45 AM the Windows 10 icon says the free period has expired.
Going to Windows 10 and back was a breeze but I've been waiting days for the other laptop to update since I reinstalled Windows 7.
An American company once made a hammer in left and right hand versions:
The technology involves slicing a jagged groove, about the width of six hairs, into the head of the hammer. This redirects energy toward the nail and minimizes recoil, Emerson says. The difference between the right-hand and left-hand models is in the handles, Mr. Pringle says, so that users can hold the tool more comfortably and hit the target with greater frequency and force. "We think this is going to be the hottest tool in the market," he says.
Home Depot Takes On Sears In Duel for Tool Market Share
By JAMES R. HAGERTY Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Updated Jan. 10, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET
ATLANTA -- Does the world need a $30 hammer that comes in right-hand and left-hand models?
Home Depot Inc. hopes so. Inside the store chain's headquarters here, Mike Tracy holds up the Ridgid RoboHammer, introduced last month. "This," says the Home Depot senior vice president, "is man's oldest tool, reinvented."
At a construction site on the other side of Atlanta, Tony Wiley, a veteran builder, picks up the RoboHammer and squints at its gaudy orange-and-gray grip. "It looks weird," he says.
RoboHammer is designed to fit snugly in the user's preferred hand, absorb shocks and improve chances of hitting the nail on the head. It also is designed to help Home Depot lure tool buyers away from other retailers, notably Sears, Roebuck & Co.
In many respects, Home Depot has already left Sears in the sawdust. Home Depot is the world's biggest retailer of home-improvement supplies and recently replaced Sears as a constituent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Home Depot's stock market value of $147 billion is about 11 times that of Sears.
But Sears still has the nation's best-known line of hand tools, Craftsman, which are produced for it by a variety of manufacturers. Sears won't disclose annual sales of Craftsman tools but says the 73-year-old brand is far better known than Home Depot's Husky or Ridgid lines, a claim Home Depot executives don't dispute. Nearly nine out of 10 adult men in the U.S. own Craftsman tools, Sears says.
Craftsman is particularly strong in mechanics' tools, such as wrenches and sockets. Even Pat Farrah, Home Depot's merchandising chief, concedes that it will be difficult to beat Sears in that category.
But in other types of tools, he says, "Sears is being routed." For instance, Home Depot says it is the biggest seller of portable power tools, including drills. And Mr. Farrah says Home Depot is making headway against Sears in stationary bench tools, like routers and band saws.
A Sears spokesman declines to comment on how his company is faring against Home Depot. But he notes that Sears is experimenting with a new selling format for its tool departments. Last year, stores in Hartford, Conn., and Virginia Beach, Va., introduced the new format, dubbed Tool Territory, which lets browsers play with the power drills and other tools. The test stores also offer a broader range of tool brands than other Sears stores do. Sears says it hasn't yet decided whether to put the format into more stores.
Both Home Depot and Sears are trying to reach toolheads by sponsoring auto racing. Sears has been a sponsor for decades and bills its Craftsman line as "the official tool" of Nascar racing. In 1999, Home Depot began sponsoring Tony Stewart, one of the hottest young stars in Nascar racing.
A Home Depot poster depicts Mr. Stewart's scowling pit crew surrounding his car with Husky mechanics tools in their hands. "You can't own their car," the ad says. "You can own their tools." Stanley Works, of New Britain, Conn., and other suppliers make the Husky mechanics tools exclusively for Home Depot's 900 stores.
IF I HAD A HAMMER ...
A sampling of hammers designed to reduce shock to the arm
Name/Company Approximate Price
Ridgid RoboHammer
Emerson Tool $30
Steel Eagle
Vaughan & Bushnell $18 to $32
Striker
Spencer Products $28 to $30
AntiVibe
Stanley Works $25
Hi-Viz Pro
Cooper Industries $20 to $28
Source: The companies
One manufacturer eager to cooperate with Home Depot is Emerson Electric Co.'s Emerson Tool unit, a longtime supplier to Sears. Emerson makes the RoboGrip pliers, a huge hit for Sears since their exclusive introduction there in 1993. Home Depot wanted a similar tool. So Emerson came up with a larger version, called RoboGrip II, which Home Depot introduced exclusively in August. Emerson also makes an exclusive line of Ridgid tabletop power tools for Home Depot, using a plant in Paris, Tenn., that used to make Craftsman bench tools for Sears.
About 18 months ago, Emerson Tool's president, Dave Pringle, approached Home Depot with his latest idea: the RoboHammer. Mr. Pringle, who describes himself as a "tinkerer," says he dreamed up the shock-absorbing technology for the RoboHammer one night while lying in bed.
The technology involves slicing a jagged groove, about the width of six hairs, into the head of the hammer. This redirects energy toward the nail and minimizes recoil, Emerson says. The difference between the right-hand and left-hand models is in the handles, Mr. Pringle says, so that users can hold the tool more comfortably and hit the target with greater frequency and force. "We think this is going to be the hottest tool in the market," he says.
A $30 hammer could be a tough sell. After all, people who want to hang a few pictures on the wall can easily make do with hammers costing as little as $4. Those who do lots of nailing typically use nail guns, which start at about $129.
Joe Thomas, who manages a crew that builds house frames in Atlanta, swears by his nail gun. But he always carries a hammer as a backup. Standing inside a newly framed house on a sunny winter afternoon, he takes one look at the RoboHammer and says, "It's too little -- way too little."
The RoboHammer has an 18-ounce head. Mr. Thomas draws his 22-ounce Estwing hammer from a leather tool belt. "I've had good luck with them," he says of the hammers, made by Estwing Manufacturing Co. of Rockford, Ill. "I've had this one for two years."
Still, he agrees to try the RoboHammer, gripping it in a fist the size of a grapefruit. With four expertly aimed whacks, he sinks a 16-penny nail into a slab of Southern pine. The RoboHammer feels good in his hand and reduces the shock to his arm, he says, "so that's good." But he doesn't care for the downward curve of the hammer's claw; the claw on his Estwing juts straight back, and he finds that more useful for extracting nails or pulling apart boards. Home Depot says it eventually may offer a larger RoboHammer designed for framing houses.
Winning over people like Mr. Thomas will be vital for the RoboHammer's success: Serious amateurs love to own what the pros use.
But the RoboHammer isn't the only hammer competing for the pros' affections. Stanley Works promotes its AntiVibe hammers, introduced in 1998, as the ideal way to absorb shocks. Spencer Products Co., Seattle, says its new Striker hammer, with a curved fiberglass handle, virtually eliminates vibration. Spencer's president, Ernst V. Omri, rules out the idea of mimicking the RoboHammer's right-handed and left-handed models. "We don't do gimmicky things," he says.
Cloned my main machine, triggered the upgrade and left it at work for the weekend. One smart peep here recommended doing that to lock in the upgrade before having to pay for it.
I have a few win 10 machines at work since the last time I wrote about this. As an OS, kernel, use of RAM, scheduler, etc.... it's a notable improvement over 7.
GUI is OK, but the overall discoverability has gone down. I get more calls on it. Nobody likes the data streaming out of it, and the R&D guys will only use 7 on machines outside the bat cave. It's a mix inside, but none of them will ever leave.
At least the "don't forget to upgrade" popups have stopped. Until v10.1 hits.
If & when people hate Windows 10, I wonder if they can reinstall Win 7 or 8 manually, long after the month long EZ revert period is gone. Would their Windows 7/8 product key still activate, or will MS have locked it to Win 10 only?
Of course if people are going to blow away their OS and potentially all their files without a means of backup and recovery then they get what they asked for
Luckily when `er-in-doors' Fujitsu laptop went belly up up a while back, the nice people at Fujitsu in Germany sent her a Win 7 installation CD. So we can at least get back to a clean Win 7 machine if need be.
Meanwhile whilst updating an office laptop to Win 10 I noticed some message flash by about removing the Samsung recovery tool. I have no idea what that is exactly but it sounds like something we might have needed !
In both cases I don't worry, if things get too bad there is always Debian and KDE waiting...
I would still recommend everyone download a copy NOW of their fave Win7 and/or Win 8.1 media, burn to DVD and archive for after the Atomic Flame Deluge.
In both cases I don't worry, if things get too bad there is always Debian and KDE waiting...
Indeed yes. RPi and Debian have progressed to the point that my backup plan (for when erco's Atomic Flame Deluge descends from Heaven Redmond) is the new RPI 3 and the 314GB WD drive I got for it.
Well, soon it's hammer time for the Surface Pro 4. See above posts.
There is something very badly up with WIFI on this machine.
When I plug my head phones in the WIFI, that has been working all day, drops out. On trying to connect it asks for the SSID, which I know it knows perfectly well already. Even if I enter the SSID again it cannot connect.
Remove the head phones and boom all is well again. And it magically remembers that SSID it said it forgot before.
This is odd because I have used these same head phones many times before. The only difference being the Surface was not connected to a Surface Dock before.
It get's worse...The Dock connector can be plugged in two ways around. Turns out that one way around WIFI works fine, the other way round we end up in the disconnected "I forgot the SSID state" above.
Now, I thought this was the usual random WIFI failure so I have been playing with all permutations of headphones and Dock connection for half an hour or so. Turns out if you don't connect things "just so" WIFI fails.
Meanwhile....On the Fujitsu laptop the Atheros WIFI adapter no longer works. Seems Windows 10 thinks the driver is installed and up to date. Also "This device is working properly". But there is no way to turn the device on and actually use it.
So....Hammer time...or Linux install?
Grief, they have only been working on this plug'n'play stuff for twenty years!
I bitterly regret that we updated the wife's pc from 8.1 to 10 some time ago. Win 10 is horrible. Even I could find my way around 8.1 after a short time, despite using a Japanese interface. 10, on the other hand, is a nonintuitive ugly mess. Desktop gone, except for a millisecond flash when terminating some apps. No recycle bin to find, none of the methods suggested on the net work, either they refer to a non-existing desktop, or a non-existing invisible tiny (that is, supposed to be invisible and tiny) icon. And so on. Wife is getting desperate because accidentally deleted pictures can't be recovered.
Did I mention how absolutely ugly 10 is, compared to 8.1? Particularly on her PC with both mouse and touch. We should just have unplugged the PC from the net a few weeks until the date had passed, and hopefully be free from nag screens after that.
I'm even considering replacing the SSD with a similar one which I have laying around for essentially the same modl PC, it has never been booted and set up.
Tor, the free ClassicShell app fixes nearly all of that. Win10 is pretty tolerable with it; you can make nearly everything look pretty much like 8, 7, or even XP. But yeah, a native Win10 machine is undiscoverable and unusable.
Thanks, localroger.
It seems like it can't restore the desktop though, after a brief look at features. The wife would copy pictures from an SD card or camera to the desktop on 8.1, and resize and edit them there. Now there's no desktop, except for a millisecond flicker now and then.
For now there's a workaround using the faststone image viewer and hunt around the file tree.
I bitterly regret that we updated the wife's pc from 8.1 to 10 some time ago.
This is the first time I recall hearing anyone pining for Win 8.1. I'm using it now on my 2006 Compaq desktop only because "this old BIOS" wouldn't take the upgrade.
I have the trash can and the desktop on my W10. Cannot remember doing anything special to get this.
However, I agree that everything is buried where you never think to look. Even removing files is a chore to find!
Every version of Wxx since XP has moved all the various settings once found in "system" to places harder to find.
Comments
OTOH, I admire all you progressive folk. You make the world turn round.
Going to Windows 10 and back was a breeze but I've been waiting days for the other laptop to update since I reinstalled Windows 7.
For a small fee and postage I can convert your right handed hammers for you.
I also do Allen key conversions:
An American company once made a hammer in left and right hand versions:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB947455786590538321
They did not sell too well.
Your link does not work.
I did a search for "home depot left hand hammer", and clicked on the WSJ, (Wall Street Journal) link.
http://www.harborfreight.com/4-lb-hickory-engineers-hammer-69240.html
The BSME in me thinks that item belongs in their joke flyer: http://www.commercialsihate.com/harbor-freight-tools-ad-flyer-parody_topic13849.html
I have a few win 10 machines at work since the last time I wrote about this. As an OS, kernel, use of RAM, scheduler, etc.... it's a notable improvement over 7.
GUI is OK, but the overall discoverability has gone down. I get more calls on it. Nobody likes the data streaming out of it, and the R&D guys will only use 7 on machines outside the bat cave. It's a mix inside, but none of them will ever leave.
If & when people hate Windows 10, I wonder if they can reinstall Win 7 or 8 manually, long after the month long EZ revert period is gone. Would their Windows 7/8 product key still activate, or will MS have locked it to Win 10 only?
Of course if people are going to blow away their OS and potentially all their files without a means of backup and recovery then they get what they asked for
Luckily when `er-in-doors' Fujitsu laptop went belly up up a while back, the nice people at Fujitsu in Germany sent her a Win 7 installation CD. So we can at least get back to a clean Win 7 machine if need be.
Meanwhile whilst updating an office laptop to Win 10 I noticed some message flash by about removing the Samsung recovery tool. I have no idea what that is exactly but it sounds like something we might have needed !
In both cases I don't worry, if things get too bad there is always Debian and KDE waiting...
Not that I use the Pi as a desk top much, it's a tad slow.
Luckily new bigger faster ARM boards are popping up all the time. So we are getting more options every day.
No doubt one day I will break down and put Debian on my Surface Pro.
There is something very badly up with WIFI on this machine.
When I plug my head phones in the WIFI, that has been working all day, drops out. On trying to connect it asks for the SSID, which I know it knows perfectly well already. Even if I enter the SSID again it cannot connect.
Remove the head phones and boom all is well again. And it magically remembers that SSID it said it forgot before.
This is odd because I have used these same head phones many times before. The only difference being the Surface was not connected to a Surface Dock before.
It get's worse...The Dock connector can be plugged in two ways around. Turns out that one way around WIFI works fine, the other way round we end up in the disconnected "I forgot the SSID state" above.
Now, I thought this was the usual random WIFI failure so I have been playing with all permutations of headphones and Dock connection for half an hour or so. Turns out if you don't connect things "just so" WIFI fails.
Meanwhile....On the Fujitsu laptop the Atheros WIFI adapter no longer works. Seems Windows 10 thinks the driver is installed and up to date. Also "This device is working properly". But there is no way to turn the device on and actually use it.
So....Hammer time...or Linux install?
Grief, they have only been working on this plug'n'play stuff for twenty years!
For those up us that think well thought out ideas are no joke, file them with this, I love good material.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/01/microsoft-windows-10-upgrade-free-assistive-features
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade?tduid=(47e483323aa2ecbfb8d136be32066108)(266696)(1503186)(skim94149X1548498X83276bb7aa790b52ee7fe0e76db3adb8)()
Did I mention how absolutely ugly 10 is, compared to 8.1? Particularly on her PC with both mouse and touch. We should just have unplugged the PC from the net a few weeks until the date had passed, and hopefully be free from nag screens after that.
I'm even considering replacing the SSD with a similar one which I have laying around for essentially the same modl PC, it has never been booted and set up.
It seems like it can't restore the desktop though, after a brief look at features. The wife would copy pictures from an SD card or camera to the desktop on 8.1, and resize and edit them there. Now there's no desktop, except for a millisecond flicker now and then.
For now there's a workaround using the faststone image viewer and hunt around the file tree.
This is the first time I recall hearing anyone pining for Win 8.1. I'm using it now on my 2006 Compaq desktop only because "this old BIOS" wouldn't take the upgrade.
You could always download the Win8.1 ISO and do a fresh install. That's what I was doing circa July 29. Media creation tools at http://www.howtogeek.com/186775/how-to-download-windows-7-8-and-8.1-installation-media-legally/ Works in the US, anyway. Where are you?
However, I agree that everything is buried where you never think to look. Even removing files is a chore to find!
Every version of Wxx since XP has moved all the various settings once found in "system" to places harder to find.
+1
No flickering desktop either.
Lot's of other stuff to complain about though...