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Ed Win 10 upgrade beat me in the end ...

GlennB

Loggerheaded, earth-vexing fustilarian
GlennB
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
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Location
Wales
For quite a while the reminders were just statements of fact, with an invitation to upgrade. Then they became more frequent and gradually more persistent.

Last week it was "Upgrade now/later tonight/choose time", but dismissing the dialogue box stopped anything happening.

Last night it became "Win 10 upgrade will start in 14:25 ... :24 ... :23" and I foolishly just dismissed the box. Sure enough, it sodding installed itself a bit later.

I haven't spent much time on it but it seems OK so far, though the Start button gives me a load of messy Win8 metro-style tiles. But what the hell is Cortana? ;)

That was on a Win7 desktop. The 8.1 laptop is much quieter on the subject. Be warned.
 
GlennB said:
I haven't spent much time on it but it seems OK so far, though the Start button gives me a load of messy Win8 metro-style tiles. But what the hell is Cortana? ;)
Click to expand...
I didn't like the full-screenb tile display (if that's what you're referring to). You can change it to a more normal pop-up menu in the Settings/Personalization section.
The tiles can also be moved/removed.
I'm not sure what Cortana is either but I think I turned it off.
 
GlennB said:
For quite a while the reminders were just statements of fact, with an invitation to upgrade. Then they became more frequent and gradually more persistent.

Last week it was "Upgrade now/later tonight/choose time", but dismissing the dialogue box stopped anything happening.

Last night it became "Win 10 upgrade will start in 14:25 ... :24 ... :23" and I foolishly just dismissed the box. Sure enough, it sodding installed itself a bit later.

I haven't spent much time on it but it seems OK so far, though the Start button gives me a load of messy Win8 metro-style tiles. But what the hell is Cortana? ;)

That was on a Win7 desktop. The 8.1 laptop is much quieter on the subject. Be warned.
Click to expand...

Cortana is the sword of the crusader with Charlemagne: Ogier le dansk/Holger the Dane!!!!!
 
Some things to do right away would be clean up that damn Start menu by right-clicking on the items and either choosing "Unpin from Start" or "Uninstall" if it is one of the apps Microsoft specifically installed to annoy you. Next, type in "Default Programs" into the Cortana search box and click on it. Click on the "Set your default programs" link, then pick out your favorite programs, click on those, and click on "Set the program as default". An example would be FireFox or Chrome. Find that, click it, and set it as default. the new Microsoft Edge browser is set as your default after the upgrade and was probably my number 1 annoyance as it sucks pretty badly. I suggest also setting/resetting your music player and photo viewer away from the new Windows 10 apps.

If you use Acrobat, it won't show up here for whatever reason. You'll need to go back up and click on "Associate a file type or protocol with a program" instead of the "Set your default programs" link. Scroll down to the .PDF extension, click on the "Change program" button in the upper right, then click on "More apps" if Acrobat doesn't appear. Click on Acrobat from the drop down and click "OK". Alternatively you can find a .PDF file on the hard drive, right click on it, and click on "Choose another program". From there you can click the box at the bottom that says "Always use this program", then click on Acrobat.
 
foophil said:
Some things to do right away would be clean up that damn Start menu by right-clicking on the items and either choosing "Unpin from Start" or "Uninstall" if it is one of the apps Microsoft specifically installed to annoy you. Next, type in "Default Programs" into the Cortana search box and click on it. Click on the "Set your default programs" link, then pick out your favorite programs, click on those, and click on "Set the program as default". An example would be FireFox or Chrome. Find that, click it, and set it as default. the new Microsoft Edge browser is set as your default after the upgrade and was probably my number 1 annoyance as it sucks pretty badly. I suggest also setting/resetting your music player and photo viewer away from the new Windows 10 apps.

If you use Acrobat, it won't show up here for whatever reason. You'll need to go back up and click on "Associate a file type or protocol with a program" instead of the "Set your default programs" link. Scroll down to the .PDF extension, click on the "Change program" button in the upper right, then click on "More apps" if Acrobat doesn't appear. Click on Acrobat from the drop down and click "OK". Alternatively you can find a .PDF file on the hard drive, right click on it, and click on "Choose another program". From there you can click the box at the bottom that says "Always use this program", then click on Acrobat.
Click to expand...

I unpinned the junk from the start menu, but many thanks for the rest of this advice! Bloody hell, they have some nerve eh?
 
I went up to visit Daddy Don this weekend. He bought a Windows 10 desktop to replace the XP desktop which is gradually giving up the ghost (it will only start in safe mode - he will not let me take a look at it so I have no idea why). His assessment over the last 3 months is "This PC is **** and Windows 10 is a disaster".

I finally got 10 minutes to look at the thing this weekend and.....

  • His "incurable problems" with Thunderbird were due to the fact that every single email he's ever read was still open in a tab - I showed him how to close tabs
  • His issues of "Windows 10 continually running scans and having outdated drivers" is due to a host of malware that had found its way onto the PC. He swears blind he didn't put it there - I'm pretty sure he did. The malware has been uninstalled and so far so good
  • His inability to find anything on the C: drive was solved by showing him the icon for Windows Explorer and setting up some shortcuts to documents and photos
  • The problem that the new PC cannot do screenshots was solved by showing him the PrtSc button (the same as on his old PC)

He's now a happy bunny and says that Windows 10 is great :)
 
The upgrade hit my tablet this weekend when I wasn't looking. Scared to find out the hard way what works and what doesn't. I have lots of oddball software upon which I rely but don't have much time to screw around with if its broken: Tableau and R Studio. Some websites also better work or I'm screwed, such as ArbiterSports.

CT
 
Now this Win 8.1 laptop is getting the same "Upgrade offers with attitude" as the desktop was getting. Oh well - I use no special software and do nothing vital so I might just go for it. I wonder if the Start8 we have might confuse it?
 
I hit my wife's PC about a week ago without asking, tweaked a few visual thing for her (Classic shell) and she was ok with it. So to be fair I let it on my PC this weekend, cant say its better than Win7 but so far no problems either.
 
Hmm, I clicked that just a day or two ago. Nothing has happened.

We'll probably be buying a new Win10 laptop in the next week or so. I'll see how I like it before voluntarily upgrading this one.
 
Trebuchet said:
Hmm, I clicked that just a day or two ago. Nothing has happened.
Click to expand...

It depends on the context. I got away with clicking the X several times, but then the wording/default meaning subtly changed. This laptop is heading the same way, afaics. I fully expect to get the unexpected upgrade within a week or two.
 
GlennB said:
And the comments are savage but justified. MS are playing the same game as malware installers - you think that dismissing the window is good enough, but it ain't. That "X" means "You accept the default that you're unaware of ... the one that *we* prefer".
Click to expand...

It's important to realize that you're using Microsoft's computer, and you're not allowed to interfere with their agenda of monetizing your data.

The user is a virus which must be circumvented.
 
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