What really grinds my gears!

[ThePumisher]

Using W10 on a couple of machines and i'm happy with it. On the Office-PC i'm feeling no diverence between the old W7 and W10 now. On the Gaming-PC me thinks it runs much better than the OS before (ok, Vista was no opponent ). On the Lumia 535 that my father owns it works also fine (no reason to switch back to WP8.1). The only one and a half place i'm not 100% happy with W10 is on my Surface - the usability of Windows 8.1 was a lot better for Tablets than the tablet mode of Windows 10 is (i'm missing the charms bar), but even there i wouldn't switch back. And then there's the dashboard of the Xbox One - how could Microsoft think the Dashboard of the One is any better than the 360-Dashboard? On my Lumia 1020 i'm not switching to W10 because first Microsoft decided to not support the phone for W10, and second when using the preview builds you'll noticed that Microsoft is not able to handle the superb 41MP camera of that phone (and recording audio only happen in mono).

[Ben_j]

Would you look at that... Amon Tobin and LCD Soundsystem at the same time. Bollocks

[Wolkenkrabber]

Wouldn't switch back. HP finaly release some proper drivers and now everything is fine. Drunk right now.

I just build a new computer... and I put Windows 7 on it.

I have it from day one and had zero problems with it, no crashes&stuff, providing you have fairly good configuration and not hardware from 90's.
As Pumisher, I wouldn't switch back. Also, older windows are not nice to us gamers, I remember bentchmarking same game on win7 and 10, and win10 gave me around 7fps more than win7.
I never looked back from there

I've been using Win10 only since yesterday.

Thanks for your thoughts and (in depth) responses. I'm still on Win 7, and not unhappy with it (gaming not an issue for me). I don't know as much as you folks about these things though. I wonder if there's a danger that Win 7 could become outdated and cause me problems in the future...

[sandelic]

Well, Win7 will have support until 2020, so you're safe, for at least four more years, if that's your concern, but I would upgrade to win10 just because it's free, until 29.06.2016, if I remember correctly
you can always go back to win7, afterwards, but you will have some backup, at least, in form of win10

[WhiteNoise]

And to be fair, you can still use Win7 past 2020. It simply means Microsoft won't be releasing updates or doing customer support for it, so if a security flaw is found, it's not goimg to be patched. Antivirus and smarts when visiting shadier websites will more than cover this. Also, eventually, the newest software may no longer work on Win7, but this will be a while longer as Win7 still has a majority market share.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Whilst we're on the subject of I.T. type stuff, there's been a Myspace security breach.  Now, before you all laugh your asses off, keep in mind that if you had a Myspace account and still use a similar password for other things, you could be compromised.

As for the Hotmail/Outlook spam issue, hopefully it's fixed now.

[sandelic]

Btw, Csar, did you ever used shutup10?

[Born In Planet Dust]

The fact that this is necessary.  "If someone doesn't want to have sex with you, don't have sex with them."

Also, the fact that the Daily Show REALLY should have gone with Oliver or Bee!  Sorry, Noah. 

[ThePumisher]

Donald Trump

USA, you can't be serious about that guy. Not even does he think Paris is in Germany, he also thinks Belgium is a beautiful city...

[WhiteNoise]

The adage "50% of the world has a below average intelligence" has never had more relevancy than in this election cycle.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Well, Win7 will have support until 2020, so you're safe, for at least four more years, if that's your concern, but I would upgrade to win10 just because it's free, until 29.06.2016, if I remember correctly
you can always go back to win7, afterwards, but you will have some backup, at least, in form of win10

So in late May, Microsoft did a cheeky thing where even when you clicked X on their Windows 10 pop-up, it still initiated the WIN 10 installation..
When it got to the end of the process it asked you to confirm or reject. Rejecting meant it would then re-install WIN 7. Which is what I chose to do.

However since then, I have not been able to run the usual windows backup procedure (to my external hard drive). Somewhere on Google I found a chat board that suggested that not everything is re-installing/running correctly for those who had WIN 7 "re-installed" after the little WIN 10 stunt.
I hope if I now upgrade to WIN 10 it will resolve the backup problem.

As there's only about 6 days left to get WIN 10 for free, I'm thinking OK, maybe I'll do it now.

BUT... a couple of years ago I had an issue where I had to replace my hard drive (it's a laptop, apparently they don't last as long), and re-load a system image of the old hard drive.
I don't remember all the details (I was talked through it by a guy on the HP help forums) but by the end of the process, I had created a "Windows 7 Reboot Disc" on a CDR, and I had purchased a windows 7 System recovery DVD (2 discs) which also came with an "Application and Driver recovery DVD" (don't remember if I needed that).
If I upgrade to WIN 10, will I potentially need to do this again (if I replace my Hard Drive again)?

Also If I go ahead with WIN 10, can anyone advise me of all the stuff I have to do to stop Microsoft doing a "1984" on me? The "Anonymous" group on twitter say that MS are very nosey on WIN 10.

Any comments gratefully received.

[Csar]

So in late May, Microsoft did a cheeky thing where even when you clicked X on their Windows 10 pop-up, it still initiated the WIN 10 installation..
When it got to the end of the process it asked you to confirm or reject. Rejecting meant it would then re-install WIN 7. Which is what I chose to do.

However since then, I have not been able to run the usual windows backup procedure (to my external hard drive). Somewhere on Google I found a chat board that suggested that not everything is re-installing/running correctly for those who had WIN 7 "re-installed" after the little WIN 10 stunt.
I hope if I now upgrade to WIN 10 it will resolve the backup problem.

As there's only about 6 days left to get WIN 10 for free, I'm thinking OK, maybe I'll do it now.

BUT... a couple of years ago I had an issue where I had to replace my hard drive (it's a laptop, apparently they don't last as long), and re-load a system image of the old hard drive.
I don't remember all the details (I was talked through it by a guy on the HP help forums) but by the end of the process, I had created a "Windows 7 Reboot Disc" on a CDR, and I had purchased a windows 7 System recovery DVD (2 discs) which also came with an "Application and Driver recovery DVD" (don't remember if I needed that).
If I upgrade to WIN 10, will I potentially need to do this again (if I replace my Hard Drive again)?

Also If I go ahead with WIN 10, can anyone advise me of all the stuff I have to do to stop Microsoft doing a "1984" on me? The "Anonymous" group on twitter say that MS are very nosey on WIN 10.

Any comments gratefully received.

Hey Skyscraper,

First of all, I would recommend that you backup all your important data on a mobile hdd (doing so in a regular manner). I never relied on MS' internal backups and always did it manually. It is also advisable to generally store important data that isn't used by your OS, like music, pictures and the like, on a seperate partition. With that, you could re-install your OS anytime you want without having to bother with potential data loss in the process. What you need to do then is just installing windows and your desired apps. It might be a bit time consuming when you have lots of programs installed, though (plus all the Win updates that go along with it). But I think it's much more reliable than letting windows do all the things and it doesn't cram your HDD with old OS-data.
That said, if your win7 isn't running the way it's supposed to be after you accidental "upgrade", I'd suggest to make a new and clean win7 install. It's the best way to ensure everything will work fine.

Regarding Win10 installtion, I'd advise you to first download win10 from MS in form of an .ISO which you can then burn to DVD and use for installation (or use the USB feature if that's handier for you).
https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/software-download/windows10ISO

That way you can make a clean install of Win10 without having the issue of possible conflicts that may occur when installing over an existing OS. You only need to get your Win7 product key ready which you can find on the sticker on your laptop or read with a key viewer (http://www.chip.de/downloads/c1_downloads_hs_getfile_v1_58663754.html?t=1469444032&v=3600&s=a0a1ead0559c7c146740c980446fd508). Win10 will ask you for that product key during installation and accept your current win7 key.

As for the 1984 part, it is recommended to NOT use an MS (cloud) account which MS is trying to "sell" to you during the process and instead using a local (regular) account. It is also recommended that you disable all features that are offered during installation (including smart screen) since almost all settings try to use your personal information or related data (surf habits etc.). When your installation is complete I'd would suggest to go to "privacy" or "security" settings (not sure what the exact labels are in English) and disable features there like "camera access", geo tagging, voice features and all that. Go through all the tabs and look for things you believe might be critical in your eyes.
Also, I would switch off Cortana, if you don't want that Siri-type of feature, as it uses all data available to process your search request (e.g. voice, internet data etc.) even if you only want to search your local hdd for folders and stuff.
There are some informative videos on YT like this that might be helpful:

You can do everything suggested in there but I would refrain from more intricate measures like uninstalling service features as done in this video at around min. 22:00 as it can cause issues.

In terms of hardware changes, the way I understand it is that win10 no longer uses product keys but hardware id's instead. That means if you make major changes to your hardware configuration (like changing your motherboard), win10 might ask you to activate your OS again. They might ask you to verify your OS by either calling an MS activation service or simply use the usual activation window. An HDD change (or RAM), however, won't probably cause any issues, I guess as it is not "big enough" of a hardware change. But of course, if you replace your HDD where your OS is located on, you need to re-install windows again and all programs you had.
I had no issues using my broken laptop's HDD in my tower pc, I only needed to activate win 10 again so they could generate a new hardware id to recognize where my legit win10 was now implemented in.

But since you always have your old win version and its product key, you can always re-use it for a new win10 installation (because you've already activated it) if needed or even go back to your previous OS version (as long as you don't intend to use both OS at the same time).
Since I own more than one win OS, I used one of them to be my "upgrade host". I upgraded it to win10 and then used a virtual machine to upgrade all the other licenses. That way I could easily keep my win7 I currently use without having to go through all the back and forth of un- and re-installation.

Apart from that, what you will also have to look for is your laptop's win10 drivers on your manufacturer's website if available. Windows does come with generic drivers but sometimes they don't work as smoothly as proprietary ones.

[Explud]

https://www.discogs.com/release/4444665-Do-It-Again-Raise-The-Roof/history#latest

This guy really annoys me the last three years.

[Enjoyed]

https://www.discogs.com/release/4444665-Do-It-Again-Raise-The-Roof/history#latest

This guy really annoys me the last three years.

Good gosh. What a complete joke. Who wants to send this to someone at Virgin / EMI and have them categorically deny it is an album? I knew the folks at Discogs were overly pedantic sometimes but fucking hell... This takes the cake.

[Csar]

I get a login-prompt when I click the link. What's it about?

[Explud]

About this in albums section:

[Enjoyed]

I tweeted to Virgin/EMI asking them to confirm that it's an EP. Maybe if enough people do the same we'll get the 'external proof' that the idiots at Discogs require?

[Bendy1001]

That's the strangest thing I've seen in a while (saying something given the last few months). To be honest, I kinda hope it never ends. Chem's Discogs page will wear that incorrect album listing forever as a badge of honor. People will see that and know that a battle of epic proportions has taken place.

[Explud]

No! We shall win the battle!

[Wolkenkrabber]

I tweeted to Virgin/EMI asking them to confirm that it's an EP.

I bet they neither know nor care about that CDr now.

No! We shall win the battle!