June 13, 2019 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Your OS
June 13, 2019 at 7:31 am
I agree that hardware is at the stage now where for routine tasks office, email, web stuff then a machine can easily last until it drops. However I completely disagree with upgrading the OS. It's like vacinations and herd immunity. Just because you personally see no benefit in it to yourself doing it helps others around you. The landscape changes and what was fine before might not be now especially as the world gets smaller through digital connections.
If you are not tech savvy enough then you can take it into your local independant to be upgraded (or data backed up, wipe and reloaded) or to some larger tech retailers that have a repair/support service or a tech savvy relative that knows what they are doing.
The problem is that smartphones and tablets - iOS/Android - have dumbed things down for the average non-tech person that the moment they have to put a smidgen of effort - even if that's just taking the device somewhere - then it's suddenly a major deal. Yet these same people are the ones loudly complaining about evil Win10 and MS spying on you when they try to seamlessly integrate and keep things running smoothly. This is why we can't have Star Trek, well that and evil bigoted power mad politicials and backroom old boys running the world.
It has never been easier to backup your data and thus making OS upgrades a non-deal breaker if they go wrong. Yes it's annoying, but that's why MS wants the telemetry to avoid these things and we can see by their actions they do act on these things. The difference between MS and Apple is that Windows runs an incalculable number of different configurations compared to MacOS which is vastly more limited due to Apple.
With a Office 365 subscription you can backup all your data offsite without thinking (well without next to no thinking) and you get the latest version of Office free at all times. And if you buy the family sub and split the cost of a 1 year sub between upto 6 people it's so cheap that you can probably find the cost down the back of the sofa in loose change.
June 13, 2019 at 10:59 am
Well, I go back all the way to Windows 286 ( or was it 386, so long ago I'm not sure any more ), and the Apple 2+ before that. Those were the days of computer users being serious techies, and the OS was a serious piece to get work done. My disappointment with the latest versions is that they go so overboard with all the glitzy crap that clutters things up. I don't want MSFT loading me up with all the dumb stuff that come by default and thus needs to be supported. Just give me the base I need and let me pick and choose what I want. I guess that's the hazard of becoming an end-user after many years of programming and DBA work.
I'm still running XP on one machine because it's all I NEED for that system. I have migrated through all the versions since then, and we're now using 8.1 on our small-business machines, and only have Win 10 on a single machine that it came pre-installed on.
So my perspective is that I want an OS, pure and simple and effective. Less addon stuff means less to support.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
June 13, 2019 at 12:01 pm
Interesting topic. I ended up getting my Mom a new Win10 PC to replace her Win7 PC just last week. She didn't need it at all, however, the end of life of security patches forces our hands. It is a royal pain in the rear to get everything all configured and moved over just to let her do email and WORD from time to time. Also, getting an 80 year old used to what is new from WIN 7 to WIN 10 can be a challenge.
June 13, 2019 at 1:06 pm
You can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free (legally).
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/upgrade-to-windows-10-free
I just did it about two weeks ago. It works and it shows as a registered and active copy of Windows.
June 13, 2019 at 1:13 pm
I am one of those that is running a Windows 7 machine at home just for the Media Center to act as my DVR. I haven't had time to research and then attempt to upgrade that to Windows 10 and also be able to pull in all my recorded content. But, on the Windows 10 front, I have a laptop that I purchased around the time that Windows 8 was still being sold on new hardware, and Windows 10 was in beta, and when Windows 10 was available and free after the initial release to the public, I upgraded it. Microsoft in its wisdom, has Windows 10 built where that laptop will no longer accept Windows Updates because the newer Windows 10 builds do not have drivers for some of the components on that laptop, so it will not install the builds that are missing drivers. So Microsoft is basically forcing you to upgrade your hardware, because the manufacturer of my laptop did not submit drivers for the new build of Windows 10, so Updates fail. Worked with Microsoft support on this, and they changed some settings so that it doesn't attempt to install updates to the newer Windows 10 versions, and they said if I want to stay up to date with the latest versions of the OS, to buy a new PC. So with Windows 10, it appears you cannot run on older hardware for too long.....
June 13, 2019 at 1:17 pm
So would you rather have a Windows update install and fail to work because of missing drivers?
Or would you rather MS block it?
I'd think most people would opt for the latter. Laptops, depending on manufacturer, are notorious for not support the devices for that long, how is that MS fault? Most of the time these drivers (and app software for that matter) is using undocumented APIs or not playing by the MS guidelines and then wonder when their stuff fails. If these companies followed only documented APIs and followed the guidelines then there would be vastly less cases of things failing when new versions of Windows come out.
June 13, 2019 at 1:21 pm
Interesting topic. I ended up getting my Mom a new Win10 PC to replace her Win7 PC just last week. She didn't need it at all, however, the end of life of security patches forces our hands. It is a royal pain in the rear to get everything all configured and moved over just to let her do email and WORD from time to time. Also, getting an 80 year old used to what is new from WIN 7 to WIN 10 can be a challenge.
Hey, Summer, I resemble that. I'm not far behind her at 76, and it can be a PITA moving everything over. Easiest way I've found is to start with a new machine, and keep the two side by side and move gradually. That removes the risk for me of things that may fail or get lost. I map drives, install on the new machine, copy files as needed, etc.
Best thing I learned years ago from a very smart boss was to install each application in it's own directory at the the root, not under Programs or the like. Then I direct ALL my data files to a directory called DATA, also at the root, with appropriate sub-directories for each application. This makes updates, backups very simple and clean. You never forget to back up certain data as it all goes at once to another drive. When applications must modify historical files, start a new DATA subdirectory and move you data to that one BEFORE the update.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
June 13, 2019 at 1:25 pm
Another simple tip to make sure you don't lose stuff. Get yourself a Office 365 subscription which not only gives you the latest version of Office at all times but 1TB of OneDrive space. Configure your documents, pictures, music etc... system folders to be located inside your local one drive folder.
The benefit of the above is that you don't have to think about backing up or worry about hard drive failure. With a couple of minutes of you saving to the HDD it then goes up into your OneDrive in the MS cloud. When you get a new machine you configure the above system folders to be in your local onedrive folder and you instantly have access to all your files.
June 13, 2019 at 1:46 pm
"So my perspective is that I want an OS, pure and simple and effective. Less addon stuff means less to support." - completely agree with skeleton567. After every OS upgrade I spend too much time to get rid of pre-installed/"mandatory" garbage. And I have to do the same thing for my 85 years old mom.
June 13, 2019 at 1:46 pm
Another simple tip to make sure you don't lose stuff. Get yourself a Office 365 subscription which not only gives you the latest version of Office at all times but 1TB of OneDrive space. Configure your documents, pictures, music etc... system folders to be located inside your local one drive folder. The benefit of the above is that you don't have to think about backing up or worry about hard drive failure. With a couple of minutes of you saving to the HDD it then goes up into your OneDrive in the MS cloud. When you get a new machine you configure the above system folders to be in your local onedrive folder and you instantly have access to all your files.
Well, I like my independence too much to go the subscription route. I never use internet data storage for anything. Never use subscription service. I'm running Office 2010, and it works well, SQL: Server 2012 for my personal databases, and have no problems that I can't handle. I have not used any technical support for maybe a decade. Do it all myself, with the help and advice such as the folks on this forum.
I believe my wife and I have about seven active machines on various versions, XP through Win 10, and all is good. I can upgrade if and when I want to. No pressure.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
June 13, 2019 at 3:06 pm
peter.row wrote:Another simple tip to make sure you don't lose stuff. Get yourself a Office 365 subscription which not only gives you the latest version of Office at all times but 1TB of OneDrive space. Configure your documents, pictures, music etc... system folders to be located inside your local one drive folder. The benefit of the above is that you don't have to think about backing up or worry about hard drive failure. With a couple of minutes of you saving to the HDD it then goes up into your OneDrive in the MS cloud. When you get a new machine you configure the above system folders to be in your local onedrive folder and you instantly have access to all your files.
Well, I like my independence too much to go the subscription route. I never use internet data storage for anything. Never use subscription service. I'm running Office 2010, and it works well, SQL: Server 2012 for my personal databases, and have no problems that I can't handle. I have not used any technical support for maybe a decade. Do it all myself, with the help and advice such as the folks on this forum. I believe my wife and I have about seven active machines on various versions, XP through Win 10, and all is good. I can upgrade if and when I want to. No pressure.
Whatever works for you, it's just a tip. The question is what happens when your HDD fails or your machine is lost to flood damage, or a pet knocks a drink over the tower/laptop - all the docs, pictures etc.. gone. If you don't have an offsite backup you haven't got a backup is the general rule. So really the question is how much are your memories and time worth?
SQL Server is not part of office 365 and is free for non-commerical use (ala developer edition) so not sure what bearing that has on what I said.
If you have 7 machines do they all have Office 2010 on them? If so that was quite the expense. With a family sub you can install Office for 6 people with each allowed to install it on a desktop, laptop, tablet and phone simultenously. Each person has 1TB each.
I was all against a subscription for things like Office, but the convience, backup and being able to have the latest features at a negligable cost compared to buying it outright make it worth it to me. I'm getting almost 4 years of subscription + 1TB backup for the price you'd pay for Office Professional edition.
If you ever upgraded to Office 2016 (or 2019 soon I think) then that works out to almost 9 years of subscription for the price you'd have paid for those 2 liceneses (assuming professional edition). I share the sub cost with my husband 50-50 so at that point for what I'm paying it effectively doubles to 18 years of subscription for the same price you'd have paid for 2 versions of Office (your current 2010 plus any version you subsequently upgrade to).
I'll be 42 this year so it may be an age thing. I'm on that cusp where I don't like the idea of subs but if the price is right for what I'm getting I'll buy into it. Another example, we eventually got Netflix about 1 or 2 years ago and it is totally worth the money, we watch vastly more content on that then on terrestrial TV or Sky TV (which we also have) now.
June 13, 2019 at 6:59 pm
I moved from an old PC with Window 7 to a new one with Windows 10 about two years ago. The new PC came with a 256 GB SSD system disk. I love the boot speed of the new PC, but the 256 GB SSD was limiting; with Office and Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, there was no room left for Microsoft Visual Studio. During the move, I moved my data to an external hard drive so for future moves, the external drive moves to the new PC. December 2018, I swapped out the 256 GB SSD with a 1 TB SSD.
My work PC is currently Windows 7; however, because of 7's End Of Life, every PC will be upgraded to 10. My work PC will be replaced with a new unit with an SSD since the warranty has expired for my current PC. I'm looking forward to the faster boot speed. It's just that moving files to a temporary will be a pain.
June 13, 2019 at 7:40 pm
First, I have two internal drives, with my DATA directory backed up to the second. Then I have a NAS device also with two 1TB internal drives that I also do backups to. I usually run my backups evenings while I watch a movie.
My last employer keeps me on their bulk license for Office and SQL Server, so those aren't a problem. It's a retirement benefit you might want to negotiate also. I buy my own Windows as wanted/needed.
Yes, I do have a honkin' ASUS laptop that did in fact have a drink spilled in it, but not by my 100 # Golden, who stays on the floor. I have a replacement keyboard ready but not installed yet.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
June 13, 2019 at 8:32 pm
I suppose my Windows experience was a little different than Steve's, I actually liked Windows 98 second edition better than Windows 95 as long as I turned off all the web integration crap, and stuck with that for the longest time until it wasn't supported. I moved to Windows XP with the extra services turned off so it actually looked and worked like Windows 2000. I stuck with that until it was no longer supported then went to Windows 7. I have to agree with those that have said there's too much crap installed with Windows by default, and it took many hours to stop and remove crap from Windows 10 once I upgraded from Windows 7. What would be ideal is if they could either come up with a rolling release like some Linux distributions do or greatly simplify how upgrades are performed.
Fortunately I was able to continue using my 3 Linux computers while rebuilding my 1 Windows computer. 🙂
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