I used my laptop yesterday. I haven't used it much in a couple years. But I had taken the free upgrade to Win 10 on it. Since I don't use it much there always seems to be an update for something or another when I turn it on. Not a real big deal but sometimes it seems like hours before I get to use my computer for what I want instead of it using all its resources doing updates and stuff. Well anyway there was a major Win 10 update and when it was done I was informed it was a new version of Win 10 and I could benefit from a fresh install. WTF?? Sure enough, the new install had really screwed up the resource allocations in the computer and half the hardware was non-functional. All complaining of no resources. So a new install it is, just not Win 10. Thanks Micros**t
Microsoft takes back Win 10
- Thread starter Magic Static
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 69
- Views 5K
I run High Sierra 10.13.4 with parallels running Windows 8.1 using Start 8, does the trick for me.
Well it's an old machine and I know someone who wants it. So a fresh load of Win 7 Pro and it's outa here. Leaves me just my tiny HP mini 10" screen laptop. I use it for adjusting the security cams. But the screen resolution isn't good enough for my upgraded security DVR remote viewing system 
That isn't an option on affordable laptops with reasonably-sized (>15") displays.
The fact that the end of Windows 8.1 retail sales was 19 months ago doesn't help either. 8.1 was the shortest-lived version of Windows in modern history at 23 months from GA to end of retail.
That said, Windows 10 is not anyone's friend and whomever agreed that the new Control Panel metaphor was a good idea should be neutered with a butter knife.
My point is that if you're looking for options today, Windows 8.x isn't one of them (unless you happen to have an unused full-retail version laying around).
Windows 10 is being billed as the last version of Windows ever.
Every year Microsoft is coming out with two significant updates to the Windows 10 OS. While the naming scheme is beyond retarded, the numbering scheme is simple. First two digits are the release year, second two are the completed (not release) month.
1507 - Original release of Windows 10 - July 2015
1511 - November Update - Nov 2015
1607 - Anniversary Update - Aug 2016
1703 - Creators Update - April 2017
1709 - Fall Creators Update - Oct 2017
1803 - Spring Creators Update - April 2018
1809 - ???? - Oct 2018
Everyone of these significant updates is basically an in-place OS upgrade. Like going from Windows 95 to 98 or from 2000 to XP, using an Upgrade disc.
For large Enterprise Microsoft has Windows 10 LTSC, which can only be obtained via volume licence. LTSC does not get the big updates and new releases are slated for every 2 or 3 years. I believe the current edition is 1607, and a new version isn't slated unit 2019. It makes sense for organizations that lease. If you are on a three year lease and opt for Enterprise LTSC, and time it out just right, you will hardly ever be without the latest version of Windows for that sku.
I am a big proponent of fresh installs and never have done a upgrade. At least once a year, every year since 1997 or so, I made it a point to reformat and reinstall Windows. So with 10, I continue that tradition, knowing that every April and October will be my reformat and rebuilt months. All but one of my four Windows 10 machines has an SSD, so it really doesn't take that long. I download the latest ISO from Microsoft using the Media Creation Tool, copy my Docs, Pics, Videos folders to my NAS, run a format c: over night, when I wake up I have 4 blank computers and and go down the chain one by one and run the Window installer and reinstall the software. By noon I'm mostly all set, and I have absolutely none of the problems you read about online from people who let Windows Update update and install the latest release.
Every year Microsoft is coming out with two significant updates to the Windows 10 OS. While the naming scheme is beyond retarded, the numbering scheme is simple. First two digits are the release year, second two are the completed (not release) month.
1507 - Original release of Windows 10 - July 2015
1511 - November Update - Nov 2015
1607 - Anniversary Update - Aug 2016
1703 - Creators Update - April 2017
1709 - Fall Creators Update - Oct 2017
1803 - Spring Creators Update - April 2018
1809 - ???? - Oct 2018
Everyone of these significant updates is basically an in-place OS upgrade. Like going from Windows 95 to 98 or from 2000 to XP, using an Upgrade disc.
For large Enterprise Microsoft has Windows 10 LTSC, which can only be obtained via volume licence. LTSC does not get the big updates and new releases are slated for every 2 or 3 years. I believe the current edition is 1607, and a new version isn't slated unit 2019. It makes sense for organizations that lease. If you are on a three year lease and opt for Enterprise LTSC, and time it out just right, you will hardly ever be without the latest version of Windows for that sku.
I am a big proponent of fresh installs and never have done a upgrade. At least once a year, every year since 1997 or so, I made it a point to reformat and reinstall Windows. So with 10, I continue that tradition, knowing that every April and October will be my reformat and rebuilt months. All but one of my four Windows 10 machines has an SSD, so it really doesn't take that long. I download the latest ISO from Microsoft using the Media Creation Tool, copy my Docs, Pics, Videos folders to my NAS, run a format c: over night, when I wake up I have 4 blank computers and and go down the chain one by one and run the Window installer and reinstall the software. By noon I'm mostly all set, and I have absolutely none of the problems you read about online from people who let Windows Update update and install the latest release.
While this may be their official position, I hardly think that these semi-annual updates are decimal release worthy. The extras that they're throwing in are mostly window dressing for enterprises although the two-part "Creators Update" thing is lost on most everyone.
You may not have been around then, but both Windows 95 and Windows 98 had midterm updates (Windows 95 OSr2 and Windows 98se) that fleshed them out to fully functional from their original half-baked form.
The last time I had any significant problem with Windows was 1996 and that was the fault of RealPlayer which corrupted my install. MS tech support spent 4 hours on the phone helping me fix it. They probably wouldn't do that now but it hasn't been necessary.
Well my second old laptop has succomed to this update. No more computers with Win 10. Just might be a good thing.
I started my computer life with Windows 3.1 and OS/2.
I had an IBM with a later version of 95 on it that I later reformatted its 2 GB hard drive and installed 98SE. I don't think I ever used the first release of 98. My 95 fun came when I helped my younger cousin upgrade from his original 95, to 95 B or C for the USB support so he could use that USB microscope that Intel teamed up with Mattel to make in the late 90s/early 2000s. Never got the stupid thing to work.
Windows 95 support for USB wasn't all there even with OSr2 B (although I think the microscope worked if all of the planets were aligned). It wasn't until 98se that Microsoft started getting their act together with respect to USB.
Fast forward 10 years and we're suffering with whatever Microsoft can seem to get running from a long, long laundry list of questionable features while removing some of the most popular (i.e. Windows Media Center) and adding stuff that we'd kill to remove like Cortana. Who knows, maybe they'll bring Bob back as the face of Cortana!
Bob is still the punch line to many jokes, especially MicroSoft ones!
Cortana is totally inappropriate for a Corporate environment. What's worse, when I'm doing Admin things on a desktop that was built with the "Standard" image, every time I move the mouse toward the Start button Cortana gets activated. Problem is, our Admin accounts are blocked from Internet Access, which Cortana needs for some reason, so up pops the Proxy Credentials box.
O/S 2, huh? I had a copy of that running on my home PC in the late 1990s. Could never find drivers for it, though. Eventually yielded to Win98, had Windows ME for most of the early 2000s, then my job function changed and I found myself supporting Windows at work. At that point I got a refurbed Mac Pro and got rid of all the PCs in the house, except for Folding. After XP went end-of-life I installed Ubuntu and moved the Folding boxes over to Linux.
O/S 2, huh? I had a copy of that running on my home PC in the late 1990s. Could never find drivers for it, though. Eventually yielded to Win98, had Windows ME for most of the early 2000s, then my job function changed and I found myself supporting Windows at work. At that point I got a refurbed Mac Pro and got rid of all the PCs in the house, except for Folding. After XP went end-of-life I installed Ubuntu and moved the Folding boxes over to Linux.
Or you could go to "Services.msc" and turn windows updates OFF, ie, Disable them completely until you have time to do them. I've got 3 systems with Win 10 on'em two of which are desktops that have had 10 on'em since the release of the first Beta version and one of the first things I learned was how to STOP the automatic updates because I'm on a metered Cellular data service. I also went looking for a conventional start menu, ie, Windows 7 type and found "The Classic Shell Desktop" which I still run today. I've used a friends Verizon Unlimited DSL connection to download those full version changes that are around 4GB then burn that to DVD for the upgrades on each system.
Ennywho, I got in on the Windows Insider program with the two desktops in 2014 so that I could get a FREE copy of Windows 10 Pro after 10 went RTM in July of 2015 and I'm still running 10 on those today. The laptop was done on the Free Upgrade after the RTM version came out in July 2015 but even it has another drive loaded with Linux Mint.
FYI, Windows 10 IS NOT my everyday OS as I'm a dedicated Linux Mint user and every system I own has Mint on it. Wife's laptop still has Windows 7 on it and will have until she replaces it some time down the road. She can't run Linux on that because she uses Dreamweaver on it to work with her websites she has.
And BTW, my desktop computers are all "multi-boot" and one of them has 6 hard drives in it, each with it's own OS starting with Windows XPee x32 all the way up to 10 but WITHOUT 8 or 8.1, which sucked really bad!! And even my laptop has Mint on it's own drive and I just switch the drives depending on what system I want to use.
And a final note on 10, it's an OK system after you disable all the crapware and sypware BS in it but like I noted above, it's NOT my primary means of accessing the internet and likely never will be.
I'm still running Windows 7 Pro 64bit on my pc's, and will continue to do so until they pry it out of my cold dead hands... I see NO reason to upgrade, or submit to Microsoft Windows 10 shenanigans...
Black Viper has an easy to use guide for windows service configurations. It made a night and day difference with my win 7 machine, went with the "safe" option.
Home | Black Viper | www.blackviper.com
Home | Black Viper | www.blackviper.com
I was starting to feel a little less nausea about using Windows 10 until I fired up the Solitaire app and saw the true colors of Windows 10. What a scam!
Thus far the only thing I like about Windows 10 is that it makes everything else I use look so much more appealing in its simplicity.
The real downside of Windows 10 is that they've hidden all the stuff that gave me the control that I need. It is hell trying to dig up the familiar control panel elements in that boar's nest of a menu system.
I will forever be looking for ways to remove Cortana permanently.
Fortunately, I've managed to ween my users from using Microsoft Office in favor of LibreOffice so the next steps should be much easier. I was surprised that only one person pushed back and when I showed her how inserting common text blocks was easier in LibreOffice, I haven't heard a complaint since. Death to the ribbon!
Thus far the only thing I like about Windows 10 is that it makes everything else I use look so much more appealing in its simplicity.
The real downside of Windows 10 is that they've hidden all the stuff that gave me the control that I need. It is hell trying to dig up the familiar control panel elements in that boar's nest of a menu system.
I will forever be looking for ways to remove Cortana permanently.
Fortunately, I've managed to ween my users from using Microsoft Office in favor of LibreOffice so the next steps should be much easier. I was surprised that only one person pushed back and when I showed her how inserting common text blocks was easier in LibreOffice, I haven't heard a complaint since. Death to the ribbon!
I have a similar problem with my Surface Pro as I only use it when I travel, more often than your frequency but I still had those lengthy updates. When I bought the Surface Pro, I recall it was on windows 8. I got the free upgrade to win 10 and did that.
Since when I turn on the Surface Pro having to do an update on the road is not just time consuming but also costly as it would need to access the internet via my Hot spot iphone. Often I just used the SP for spreadsheet tracking of my expenses on the trips. No need for the internet.
The solution was to turn off auto updates in windows. Then when I can get a secure wifi ( almost non existent when traveling ) I do my updates then. Now, I know better and at least do an update at home just before I leave on a trip. My last trip I was away for a month and saw updates a half dozen times, mostly for security. But I use a strong AVG antivirus as well as Malwarebytes for adware. Those I do spend the time and money for the updates while traveling as they are usually low size and not too long.
Similar threads
