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Win10 Procrastinators: The End is Nigh!

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  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    No such trouble here on two laptops recently upgraded from Windows 7.

    Suspect it's something to do with file search which probably wants to index all your files for "quick access". Of course all that indexing takes forever.

    Strangely some years ago they added such a clever file finder to the K Desk Top on Debian. After installation it would spend forever scanning and indexing all your gigabytes of files. Brought the machine to a halt. Soon learned to disable that first thing after installation.

    Could it be MS has faithfully emulated this behaviour in Windows 10 ? :)

    Then of course those pesky anti-virus programs have to scan the entire machine all the time indexing all the malware they find.

    Oh, not to mention the update downloads going on automatically...

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    I bought my PC for me to use, not all the other freeloaders performing update checks and downloads, uploads to see what I am doing, snooping and the like.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-08-10 07:32
    Cluso,
    I bought my PC for me to use, not all the other freeloaders performing update checks and downloads, uploads to see what I am doing, snooping and the like.
    I think that is what Richard Stallman and his followers, like me, have been harping on about since late last century.

    Nobody would listen, we are just a bunch of filthy, hippie, communists after all.

    So here we are.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,254
    I'm seeing CHEAP Win10 desktops at Fry's. 2-4 GB refurbs are $100 or less. They sell Win10 in a retail package (?) for $125. Lucy, you some 'splaining to do!

    When my current 2006 Win8 2GB Compaq desktop needs replacing, I'll prolly just nab a $100 4GB refurb unit. They have smallish HDDs but I have several 1TB spares I can wipe and slave it.





  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    Two things to do: on the right end of the taskbar by the clock is the Action Center. Click on it and then make sure "Tablet Mode" isn't highlighted.[..]
    That's just it, there's no Action Center on the right end of the taskbar (or anywhere else). It's just the clock, to the right of the icon to switch between character sets (Japanese and Western), and one more icon to configure character sets. No 'invisible icon' either, as was suggested by an earlier post.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,254
    edited 2016-08-10 16:40
    @Tor: Sounds like the Japanese Win10 is very different from the US version.



    @All: I just saw this 7" 16GB Win10 tablet: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vulcan-Journey-VTA0703-16-GB-Net-tablet-PC-7-Wireless-LAN-Intel-Atom-Z3735G-Quad-core-4-Core-1.33-GHz-1-GB-DDR3-SDRAM-RAM-Windows-10-Sl/46664036

    That's the smallest Win10 device with the least memory I can recall. The OS must consume over half the memory. If you hate Win10 on a real computer, try this! Walmart reviews are glowing compared to the truth at https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9B-34-734-022&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC-_-pla-_-Tablet+PC+-+Tablets-_-9B-34-734-022&gclid=CKaCpq2mt84CFUhufgodo5ULqA

    Hurry, there's a limit of 20 per customer!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    My Win 10 on an 8GB Surface Pro uses 1GB of memory just sitting there running nothing.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,254
    It's not doing nothing.

    It's plotting against you.

    Waiting to strike.

    Sleep tight mates, in your quilted chambray night shirts.
  • erco wrote: »
    ...
    @All: I just saw this 7" 16GB Win10 tablet: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vulcan-Journey-VTA0703-16-GB-Net-tablet-PC-7-Wireless-LAN-Intel-Atom-Z3735G-Quad-core-4-Core-1.33-GHz-1-GB-DDR3-SDRAM-RAM-Windows-10-Sl/46664036

    That's the smallest Win10 device with the least memory I can recall. The OS must consume over half the memory. If you hate Win10 on a real computer, try this! Walmart reviews are glowing compared to the truth at https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9B-34-734-022&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC-_-pla-_-Tablet+PC+-+Tablets-_-9B-34-734-022&gclid=CKaCpq2mt84CFUhufgodo5ULqA

    Hurry, there's a limit of 20 per customer!

    Not sure about the smallest, but maybe that's the smallest you've seen. I have a Toshiba Encore Mini, WT7-C16, 7" screen, 1GB RAM and 16GB eMMC 'drive'. I've mentioned it here, on the forums, a few times. It came with Win8, but has gone through the ringer and is now on Win10 AU. Works rather well, all things considered. No appreciable lag when clicking on things... or rather "tapping" on the screen. Asking it to play "The Sims 3" is a whole other story though, but then that game can pull a C2Q to its knees at times, too.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    Heater. wrote: »
    My Win 10 on an 8GB Surface Pro uses 1GB of memory just sitting there running nothing.
    It's just lurking waiting to snoop on whatever you do and inform the master {MS} !
    Keystrokes, programs run, data created/edited, websites visited, forums posts (yes they know you hate ms), etc, etc. All for the purported excuse to help you search for things, but being used to target advertising to you (and collecting $ for doing so no doubt). And amassing an amazing amount of data about you which was never intended (cough)! Maybe they have even accidentally switched on the camera when you logged on and sent your pic home too!

    The probably know more about you than any other database, including the FBI. And you can bet when they want, the FBI can force them (MS) to hand over all they have on anyone they want info on.

    Now, do you really think big brother is watching you? Nah, it is all in your imagination :(

    And Face Scans and Fingerprint logins will provide even more info! I wonder who is working on DNA logins? Perhaps the FBI is bankrolling this???

    Paranoid? No! Just the world we now live in!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-08-12 02:51
    You forgot capturing my hand writing should I ever use the stylus thingy to ever write anything on it. Oh and my voice print when I talk to Cortana. Oh and my location.

    From Microsoft:

    Even when you’ve turned off the Windows location service for your device or user account, some apps and services may use technologies like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scanning to find out your device’s location. In most cases, this occurs only in apps and services that either come with Windows or are available in the Store.

    Of course you can opt out of location services. By visiting their page and giving up your MAC address To prevent Microsoft from using the MAC addresses of your Wi-Fi access points in our location services database, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=223681

    https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-10-location-and-privacy

    From a pop up in setting:

    We use info such as speech and hand writing patterns and typing history to get to know you better...


    It's all just sickening. Even more so that pretty much nobody seems to care.

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    I may as well just rent my PC too! I don't own anything on it anyway... even what I produce is likely ending up on a server somewhere else, in spite of not giving it to anyone!

    Anyway, here is a problem experienced over the past few days...

    My mum (she's 85) has two laptops, one with an extra 20" LCD screen. The older laptop is/was Windows 7 which she used for email (MS Live), internet browsing using IE9?, and a spreadsheet which she updates and saves. The laptop died a week ago.

    The newer laptop has Windows 8 (original OEM with updates disabled and no virus protection), with a second 20" LCD. Fortunately this laptop came with Acer's Power Button in the Task Bar. She has a special program that she uses most week days which is setup to display on the 20" LCD. She also uses IE which only goes to one website, and displays on the laptop screen.

    She has decided she will not buy a replacement laptop, and instead just get me/us (my brothers & me) to put the emails, internet browsing (with saved links), and the spreadsheet, onto the newer laptop. No problems we thought :(:(:(

    The free W10 upgrade has just expired :(
    OK, update to Windows 8.1 (because Windows 8 was a PITA for her as metro gets in the way).
    After numerous W8 updates including a 1.5GB download for one update, we finally got W8 updated. Phew! What a chore and time waster!

    Now to get Windows Defender. Is it there, or do I need to download it??? Oops, cannot find what programs are on this laptop - there is no start button!!! Finally locate it, enable it, and download the latest virus detection files. Run it thru its paces to ensure we don't have a virus. Another millennium goes by! The all good.

    Next, to get Windows Live. Download and run the install. Oh, it demands a MS email account!!! Of course she doesn't have one! I google and discover MS free email programs don't do POP emails under W8/8.1 !!!! What Smile is this! OK download Opera Email. Oops, downloaded Opera Browser by mistake, so remove (after ages finding where the file manager hides under this windows version). Download the correct Opera Email. Set it up to download her emails that have been piling up over the last few days. Excellent, this works fine. Now to open an attached .pdf file to make sure it works. Oh no!!! Where is the "x" button. Cannot find it anywhere even though it is just Adobe Reader. Back to google - oh Windows 8 & 8.1 hides the "minimise/maximise/close" buttons by default. After a long convoluted exercise in forcing them to turn on, I can close Adobe Reader. Heck, this is what Windows is all about, having those minimise/maximise/close buttons in the top corner!!!

    BTW MS website gives instructions of 4 different ways to close down those programs that it manages to hide the title bar from. One is Alt-F4... I now remember this was the way WFW3.1 closed programs before W95 came up with the fantastic "x" title bar - we have just jumped back 20 years into the past!!! The other 3 ways are just plain convoluted and stupid!!!

    Now upgrade to W8.1. Another massive set of downloads! Finally W8.1 upgraded. Another chore and time waster!

    OH NO!!! Now the Acer Power Button on the task bar does not work!!! Off to google again - Aha, there is a free program that hides the Metro Interface, brings back the old Windows 7 classic format, and replaces the Start Button with programs and shutdown. Download and install, then set up the options. Works great :)

    I cannot believe that after 20 years of Windows, MS produced such a crappy version(s) of Windows (8 & 8.1). I rather suspect that because of the angst from users over 8 & 8.1 that probably Windows 9 (which was no doubt under development) was scrapped.

    At least W10 gives us back some of the features that made Windows so useful!!! But in so doing, they are snooping everything we do on our PCs.

    Android is improving by the day, and the faster/bigger ARM chips can likely compete with Intel performance wise now. Let's hope they can provide similar Windows APIs so we can get off the MS band-wagon.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    Did you hear about our Census debacle this week in Australia ???

    They could have just asked MS for the info and saved the government/us heaps!
  • abecedarianabecedarian Posts: 312
    edited 2016-08-15 15:32
    A census taker once tried to test me.

    And with that, I will see myself out.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,254
    edited 2016-08-15 20:58
    Don't rush into the anniversary update, since you can't turn Cortana off. See how the early adopters like that.

    I'm gonna roll a few computers back to v1511 (pre-AU) before their 10 day period ends. It's not clear whether Microsoft "allows" after that, even from a pre-AU ISO. I can return to AU anytime AFAIK.

    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/164886/cortana-the-spy-in-windows-10#latest
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,254
    I got this today to replace the wifey's aging desktop, seems like a steal. Certainly more than she needs for Internet & email:

    On sale: $94 Fry's refurbished HP 6005 Pro. AMD X2 3.0GHz Processor, 4GB RAM, 250GB, Windows 10 home 64-bit. Super clean inside, looks new. Hardly a scratch on the case. Specs at http://www.frys.com/product/8896612?site=204premail081416

    Who knew there was a Special refurb version on Win 10?

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    abecedarian,

    Some how the part about sucking out the census takers liver, or whatever it was, has been censored here.

    Or did you do that yourself?

    Or WTF?
  • Heater. wrote: »
    abecedarian,

    Some how the part about sucking out the census takers liver, or whatever it was, has been censored here.

    Or did you do that yourself?

    Or WTF?

    I am missing that too. Self censoring?

    I wish we had something here like off-topic at Benzworld.org.

    All Benzworld-forums are - like here - perfectly moderated, to stay on the topic of MB cars. No politics and religious stuff allowed. Except the 'off-topic' forum.

    There the moderation is more relaxed and all the other stuff can get mentioned too. Sure there are quite harsh posts and topics, sometimes, but overall even the flame wars are entertaining, somehow.

    Like BenzWorld.org, Parallax has a quite international followership, and if my assumption is right then people who are able to solder, read and understand Datasheets and are able to build complex projects are also able to handle a 'less-managed' forum to discuss things like religion, discrimination, politics or other important things happening out there in the world.

    At Benzworld.org you see opinions of people owning MB cars and are usually DIY orientated. Small spectrum of the worldwide population, but anyways.
    At Parallax.com you see opinions of people interested in Micro Controllers and usually DIY orientated. Small spectrum of the worldwide population, but anyways.

    Sure - you can say politics/religion/economics/discrimination/or even spiritual stuff has nothing to do with Parallax Microcontrollers as it also does not have any correlation to MB ownership (I guess...), but having the ability to exchange thoughts with like minded people from a international community is IMHO very interesting and needed in this World.

    For example it would be nice to muse about the fact that me (@MSrobots) now is very nervous about Microsoft and Windows 10, whereupon @Heater. now seems to even like Windows. I am personally worried about this.

    Did our '@Heater.' got exchanged while visiting the US of A? Is there a government or MS sponsored program to reprogram Finland based British raised people?

    I actually refused to update my current computers to Win 10. The way they are I can reinstall from a recovery partition and am fine.

    And no nag screens anymore - MS gave up.

    Enjoy!

    Mike
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    msrobots,
    @Heater. now seems to even like Windows. I am personally worried about this.
    I appreciate your concern.

    Just now I'm wondering about my sanity as well. For some reason the Surface Pro refuses to connect to either of the two wireless networks in the house. No amount of enabling/disabling, rebooting, power cycling, will get it going. Whilst wasting an hour messing with that I find the wireless network settings page has been updated to something that looks completely different and lacks options it had before. Useless.

    I think it was the TSA that got me. With their mind rays in the scanner at the airport. The nice TSA guy told me I would not be allowed to enter the USA unless I removed my tin foil hat. So I did. Boom they got me. Hopefully the effects will ware of after a while.

    Now don't go bashing on those nice people from Microsoft. They made Visual Studio code. An excellent tool, open source, runs on Linux and all. And they are doing a great job with their Chakra JS engine for node.js.


  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    Well, it's been a little bit since the deadline for the Windows 10 "free" upgrade and I am happy to report no issues I didn't already have before. My machines all run great! Of course, they're still running Windows 7 and 8.1. :tongue:

    Windows 7 seems to still have issues getting updates but at this point I accept that.
  • No new issues here, either. ;)

    Unless MS gets a clue, Win7 will be my last MS OS. How long Win7 will remain viable? I'm hoping many more years.
  • Heater. wrote: »
    abecedarian,

    Some how the part about sucking out the census takers liver, or whatever it was, has been censored here.

    Or did you do that yourself?

    Or WTF?

    As you seem to have realized, it was part of a quote from the movie "Silence of the Lambs". I only included the first part about being tested. So, it was intentional and apologies for the confusion.
  • Well, it's been a little bit since the deadline for the Windows 10 "free" upgrade and I am happy to report no issues I didn't already have before. My machines all run great! Of course, they're still running Windows 7 and 8.1. :tongue:

    Windows 7 seems to still have issues getting updates but at this point I accept that.

    You may be happy MS is changing Windows Update on 7 and 8.1 to use a monthly "cumulative update" model versus releasing a multitude of patches.
  • User Name wrote: »
    No new issues here, either. ;)

    Unless MS gets a clue, Win7 will be my last MS OS. How long Win7 will remain viable? I'm hoping many more years.
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?sort=PN&alpha=windows 7&Filter=FilterNO

    Windows 7 exited mainstream support Jan 13, 2015, extended support continues through Jan 14, 2020. What that means exactly, I'm not sure, but I believe it's on that "important" and "critical" issues will be fixed.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Surface Pro 4 WIFI still busted.

    This has been working for ages. The machine has not been moved for days. Nothing has been connected or disconnected. I'm not aware that any updates happened over night. Today it just won't work. Can't connect to mt one WIFI router. Connects to a second routers but claims "No Internet".

    Which is odd because the other two Win 10 machines in the house connect just fine.

    I noticed a couple of new WIFI networks had popped up from our neighbors so I moved my WIFI channels away from those. Still no go.

    The WIFI diagnostics pages on microsoft.com are no help.

    Grrr...

    And people have been telling me for years that they use Windows instead of Linux because they want stuff to just work without having to fiddle with it for hours. What with my graphics and WIFI issues I spent more time fettling this junk than a quick Debian install.
  • Heater: What model of Surface Pro do you have? What processor and how much flash? Is access to an SD card fast enough to use it for file storage? I'm wondering if buying a 128GB i5 would be sufficient to do Propeller software development.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-08-16 21:13
    Not sure what model exactly but:

    Surface Pro 4
    Intel Core i5-6300U 2.4GHz
    8GB RAM
    256 GB SSD SAMSUNG MZFLV256

    I have this loaded up with all my usual toys which has consumed 96GB leaving 140GB free space. So you might be OK in 128GB.

    I've not really tried any SD cards. The only one I have to hand now is some old 4GB SanDisk that is read at 9.3MB/s and written at about 6MB/s

    toys =

    cygwyn
    git,
    Chrome,
    Firefox,
    LTSpice,
    Virtual Box, gotta have Debian + KDE to hand
    mosquitto
    Propeller IDE
    Propeller Tool
    Simple IDE
    VS Code
    Visual Studio 2015
    Atom
    Qt Creator
    node.js
    chakra core
    gimp
    Cypress PSoC Creator
    Python 2.7

  • Heater. wrote: »
    Not sure what model exactly but:

    Surface Pro 4
    Intel Core i5-6300U 2.4GHz
    8GB RAM
    256 GB SSD SAMSUNG MZFLV256

    I have this loaded up with all my usual toys which has consumed 96GB leaving 140GB free space. So you might be OK in 128GB.

    I've not really tried any SD cards. The only one I have to hand now is some old 4GB SanDisk that is read at 9.3MB/s and written at about 6MB/s

    toys =

    cygwyn
    git,
    Chrome,
    Firefox,
    LTSpice,
    Virtual Box, gotta have Debian + KDE to hand
    mosquitto
    Propeller IDE
    Propeller Tool
    Simple IDE
    VS Code
    Visual Studio 2015
    Atom
    Qt Creator
    node.js
    chakra core
    gimp
    Cypress PSoC Creator
    Python 2.7
    Thanks for the info. I'm actually more concerned about 4GB vs 8GB of system RAM. Maybe I'd better hold out for the larger configuration. Unfortunately, it's $1299. A bit beyond my price range right now.

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Running Chrome, VS Code, Cygwin and VirtualBox (Running Debian + KDE + Chromium) I have eaten 53% of that 4GB RAM. So a 4GB machine might be a bit tight.

    Luckily the boss fell for the idea that I really needed a light weight but full up computer for my trip over the pond so I did not have to pay for it:)

    It's nice to have the dock as well. That really is spendy at 150 dollars in Frys.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    This Windows 10 thing is giving me a lot of grief.

    Or should I say 'er in doors is giving me a lot of grief because since upgrading her Fujitsu laptop to Win 10 it is crashing twice an hour. Totally crashed, stuck, wedged. Happens when she is watching the local TV shows over the net in Chrome. The thing just stops and makes a horrible buzzing noise as the sound card loops a few milli-second of sound over and over.

    Of course, it's all my fault. Which it is I guess. For falling for that upgrade suggestion.

    Meanwhile, my Surface Pro 4 still refuses to connect with out WIFI routers.

    Grrr....


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