Windows 10

[JLM]

Anyone familiar with Windows 10? Dummy old me just down loaded it recently and it appears I just down loaded a sh*t load of confusion. I can't even access things like "Programs" or "Microsoft Word" so I can formulate a letter. Is there any help for me? Would very kindly appreciate any that is available. Thank you.

 

[MHz]

Start/all aps when you find the one you want right click on it and pick 'pin to start. Now when you click on start that icon will be right there. Delete all the ones that you do not need that are there.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I presume this is the free "upgrade" from an older version of Windows, like 7, 8, or 8.1? It should have come up looking almost exactly like whatever you had before, same icons on the screen, in the same places, same wallpaper image if you had one, etc. Everything you had before will still be there unless something's gone horribly wrong, always a possibility with Windows. If you click up the Start button in the lower left corner you should see a scaled down version of the tiled interface introduced with version 8, all installed software should be in there somewhere, just poke around in it a bit and see what you can find. And if you don't see that tiled interface, something HAS gone horribly wrong.

Personally I recommend giving up on Windows now, Windows 10 is a major invasion of privacy, monitors everything you do and reports back to Microsoft, I'm convinced at the behest of U.S. security agencies. Stick with whatever previous version you were using, and when support for that ends, switch to Linux. Or Apple. The Linux distribution called Mint is the most Windows-like of them, and if you really MUST have Windows, run it as a virtual machine in Oracle's Virtual Box product. That's what I've done, I've got Mint v17.3 with Virtual Box installed, and virtual machines inside it for XP, Win7, 8.1, and 10, all tightly wrapped up so they can't report to Microsoft. Only caveat there is you must have at least 8 Gb of RAM to get usable performance out of the virtual machines.

 

[Ludlow]

I'm satisfied with 8. I like 7 better but have gotten use to 8 now. Since I don't really do that much on the computer I see no need to switch from something I'm use to. When it prompts me to download 10 I just hit the x and decline it.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

You can stop it from asking, and block the monitoring and telemetry "updates" Microsoft pushed out for versions 7, 8, and 8.1 too. Just install and run this handy little bit of freeware: https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

If I had 8, I would upgrade to 10. Since I have 7, I am sticking with it.

 

[MHz]

All internet connections are cloud based and that is where the snooping is most active. What we have at home can be looked at through the 'updates', especially when it is called 'a patch for an existing hole'. Encryption seems to be the main issue so that could be slowing them down and it will be eliminated under the though of why encrypt something if is not secure. Simple typeing mistrakes in the werds mite be all that is neeeded to defeet it.

Win 10 is alright for people who do not want to know how it works or how to fix it when it breaks. Using braille type in a photo that has an ocr program examine it would be all that is needed to send a 'secret message'

Linux also updates all by itself so it can be manipulated as easily as windows can and it is also cloud based. That might even be nothing more than an extension of the 'SETI' screen saver from a decade ago where you donated your cpu to run in the background when you weren't using it. Today that would ne a new version and it might also run on torrents being used as a means of making it look like things are progressing when all that is happening is cpu's are much faster but a good percent of that power is reserved for people like the NSA and the other elites where they get all the speed without paying for the horsepower.

There used to be a few free neighborhood network cd's available in the event the net went down. As long as your net had a big archive you could pretty much carry on as long as local chat was the goal.
https://nextdoor.com/

 

[talloola]

Anyone familiar with Windows 10? Dummy old me just down loaded it recently and it appears I just down loaded a sh*t load of confusion. I can't even access things like "Programs" or "Microsoft Word" so I can formulate a letter. Is there any help for me? Would very kindly appreciate any that is available. Thank you.

my son in law always upgrades my computer for me, and he said he wouldn't be so mean as to install

windows 10, so all of the urging I get on the computer, to upgrade 'now', I ignore.

the next time he upgrades for me, he will bypass 10 and move onto something else.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Linux also updates all by itself ... it is also cloud based.

No it doesn't, and no it isn't, unless you set it up that way, but that's not the configuration any version of it I've used defaults to. Unlike Microsoft and Apple operating systems, Linux is completely controllable.

 

[DaSleeper]

First download Classic Shell Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements
You can configure your start menu to look like your old system...Even my wife has no trouble once I configured it
Even easier to find stuff than 7 or XP
Screen shot..

As you can see....It's very easy to find stuff

 

[MHz]

Unlike Microsoft and Apple operating systems, Linux is completely controllable.

That's true but you have to choose that option or all updates take 1 click and entering the root password. That works for system upgrades that are equal to the latest version of windows.

That it works like windows is why it is gaining popularity and only a few new users want to do the compiling required if you choose a version like DamnSmallLinux where you get to choose just about every program on your system. I used to install them all and then erase the ones I didn't use.

Virtual box is okay but it still needs and OS to run on. A desktop with a hard drive for each OS is the safest route to go and you still need to store a backup off site that is hardware based and not cloud based as that is lost as soon as you internet connection is down.

 

[gopher]

I had 8.1 installed recently and it worked well. Then all of a sudden, my PC automatically uploaded 10. It does not work any better.

 

[JLM]

I had 8.1 installed recently and it worked well. Then all of a sudden, my PC automatically uploaded 10. It does not work any better.

Got this in my email today- maybe you can get it to work for you- https://wdgcdn.azureedge.net/2016-0...app=1&topic=microsoftedge-category&fwd=619398

 

[Bar Sinister]

I presume this is the free "upgrade" from an older version of Windows, like 7, 8, or 8.1? It should have come up looking almost exactly like whatever you had before, same icons on the screen, in the same places, same wallpaper image if you had one, etc. Everything you had before will still be there unless something's gone horribly wrong, always a possibility with Windows. If you click up the Start button in the lower left corner you should see a scaled down version of the tiled interface introduced with version 8, all installed software should be in there somewhere, just poke around in it a bit and see what you can find. And if you don't see that tiled interface, something HAS gone horribly wrong.

Personally I recommend giving up on Windows now, Windows 10 is a major invasion of privacy, monitors everything you do and reports back to Microsoft, I'm convinced at the behest of U.S. security agencies. Stick with whatever previous version you were using, and when support for that ends, switch to Linux. Or Apple. The Linux distribution called Mint is the most Windows-like of them, and if you really MUST have Windows, run it as a virtual machine in Oracle's Virtual Box product. That's what I've done, I've got Mint v17.3 with Virtual Box installed, and virtual machines inside it for XP, Win7, 8.1, and 10, all tightly wrapped up so they can't report to Microsoft. Only caveat there is you must have at least 8 Gb of RAM to get usable performance out of the virtual machines.

You can turn off the reporting of your activity. Just follow this guide. Windows 10 doesn’t offer much privacy by default: Here’s how to fix it | Ars Technica

 

[DaSleeper]

You can turn off the reporting of your activity. Just follow this guide. Windows 10 doesn’t offer much privacy by default: Here’s how to fix it | Ars Technica

Thanks for the link....I did most of that when I installed it just from instinct but I missed a few things...

 

[bill barilko]

You can turn off the reporting of your activity. Just follow this guide. Windows 10 doesn’t offer much privacy by default: Here’s how to fix it | Ars Technica

OK that's done-Thanks.

I found simply installing more RAM was the Best way to make Win 10 smoother/faster and it was child's play really.

 

[MHz]

If ram is the issue you can right click on 'This PC/ properties/performance/visual effects/ choose best performance. Under advanced you can make the virtual memory one size.
I have 4gb ram and I don't see any stalling. For the net I installed 'tcpoptimizer' and it streams vid fine without stalling out.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

You can turn off the reporting of your activity. Just follow this guide. Windows 10 doesn’t offer much privacy by default: Here’s how to fix it | Ars Technica

I note the last paragraph of that piece says, "Finally, it's worth pointing out that these are just the visible config flags; without some packet-level analysis, it's hard to say exactly what data is being sent back to Microsoft, and by which service. As one commenter pointed out, even after they disabled Cortana and turned off a bunch of privacy-related settings, the search box still seemed to be sending keystroke data back to Microsoft."

I do not trust fiddling with Win10's privacy settings alone to really give me secure control of the machine. You also need to block the IP addresses Microsoft uses for telemetry, disable certain processes, block certain updates, and kill off a number of scheduled tasks. That's what that little Spybot thing I linked to earlier does. Actually I don't trust even that, Microsoft is quite capable of hiding monitoring and telemetry functions in some other essential system process like svchost.exe, and that paragraph cited above suggests that's what they've done. Paranoia seems to me the only rational attitude, particularly in light of Edward Snowdon's revelations that security services are engaged in widespread, suspicionless, warrantless wiretapping of everyone they can. That's why I use Windows only as a virtual machine and only for things I can't do readily with Linux, like updating my GPS device. The vendor's management software runs only on Windows, so I'll activate Windows for as long as that takes then shut it down.

 

[MHz]

I doubt running it in a virtual box is the solution for 'everyone'. If you want to know which services can be disabled this lik=nk is a good place to start.
Black Viper’s Windows 10 Service Configurations – Black Viper | www.blackviper.com

 

[Dexter Sinister]

No, Virtual Box isn't for everyone, it requires a fair degree of technical knowledge to make it work well, the user manual is over 300 pages long and pretty heavy going. It's part of the solution I've chosen for self-protection from the spying eyes out there. Black Viper's pretty good, I've been using his tweaking and tuning tips for years, but again, a fair degree of technical knowledge is required to make sense of his stuff. I also note that his recommendations do not disable the monitoring and telemetry services, and in fact leave the key one, the diagnostics tracking service, running on automatic.