Windows 10

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Anyone using Windows 10 yet? What do you think about it so far? I've been meaning to take the jump and upgrade my windows 8.1 pc, but I haven't done it yet.

[Myk JL 1,731]

I upgraded this PC to windows 10 just in case I wanted Hololens. Still it makes me miss the desktop customization I had with 7 & XP. Having my photos as an "app" feels like I'm invading my own privacy.

I was able to save enough money for a Steam Machine preorder this month! Still it probably doesn't help that its made by Alienware. But at least I don't have to worry about Gabe's fear of Windows 8. Just everyone else's fears that Gabe will charge for Mods.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

When they give me a compelling reason to upgrade I will but until then I will stick with 7. I honestly don't see a reason to drop a great OS for something that hasn't, imo, proven itself to be better.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Microsoft is going to stop forcing the windows 10 upgrade on everyone. Finally. But now they're only giving people until the end of July to upgrade for free. I've been using Windows 10 for quite a while now and its just as good as Windows 7 imo. It just takes a while to disable default apps and customize the new start menu by removing all the crap apps off of it. I'm going to upgrade my laptop from windows 7 before the end of this month. Maybe its just my opinion but win 10 does seem to run as smooth as win 7 and I haven't had any issues with programs not working on it. I know my brother got screwed by a couple programs that didn't offer upgrades to be compatible with win 10, but that was backup software that clones hard drives and some other program. I did have to upgrade my graphics driver to a win 10 version, but aside from that win 10 has been out long enough now that alot of bugs have been resolved. I haven't had an issue with anything crashing for about 3 months now. 4 months ago I had random crashes and shut down issues where the PC would never actually shut down and I had to hard shut it off.

These are some of the references I used after having Windows 10 forced installed on my PC. I didn't do all these changes, but I definitely recommend disabling almost all the default apps that will run in the background. I'm using a PC not a cellphone so theres no reason to have any phone apps running all the time:

http://www.howtogeek.com/241752/how-to-stop-windows-10-apps-from-running-in-the-background/

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/windows-10-settings-to-change

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/make-windows-10-like-windows-7

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-configure-windows-10-to-protect-your-privacy-1716204024

 

Quote

The new prompt includes the ability to "decline free offer," and the "Red X" at the top corner of the dialogue box will no longer initiate the upgrade. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users have around a month left until Microsoft's free Windows 10 upgrade offer comes to an end. Microsoft is expected to charge $119 for an upgrade to Windows 10 from July 30th.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/28/12049876/microsoft-windows-10-upgrade-notification-change

[Myk JL 1,731]

My experience with Windows 10 has gotten worse. Every time I try to fix something I just create a new problem.

1. I logged into Xbox Live via the app & now I have to use my email password everyday in order to use my PC.
2. I logged out of Xbox Live & now I can't easily access my previous old documents in WordPad like I did before.
3. I uninstalled an adult game from my PC because the photos wouldn't stop showing up in the photo app that I originally liked & they still show up despite being removed.
4. Microsoft Edge guarantees that once I can't use Internet Explorer that I'll probably switch to Firefox & other web browsers.

I'm starting to really hate Windows 10.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=377

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

They can take their upgrade and shove it (I bypassed the forced upgrade thankfully due to my update settings on my laptop). I hate 10 with a passion and everytime I have to do work on my parents computer I want to bang my head against the wall. It's not bad but it just does everything in the most round about way that it just irks me. I'm sure I'd come to like it if I had it (I mean I didn't like 7 all that much when I upgraded to it) but I just see no reason to upgrade the OS of a 5 year old laptop that's on it's last legs the way it is (yea, I'll have 10 on my new computer when I get around to buying the parts (if I ever get a job, the job market around here is atrocious)).

Plus, with the issues I mentioned with my video card in the Nvidia thread, I'd go back to having no video card besides my on board (and that can't even run FFXIV above 30 fps) since I'm sure I'd get saddled with a non-working driver for my Radeon.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

The biggest complaint I have about windows 10 besides the forced upgrade is the awkward settings menus. There's 2 different settings controls not counting the control panel. The best piece of advice I can give you when using windows 10 is to click on the little search icon at the bottom left of the screen and type the word setting in the search. Near the bottom you'll see "Settings >" click that and you'll get every setting option on the PC. Once I figured that out everything started going much smoother for me. 

4 hours ago, Myk JL said:

 

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=377

I guess I'm lucking out so far on my pc. I hope I'll get the same experience on my laptop. There is a major update for the win 10 coming out in August that might fix some of your issues.

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/06/29/windows-10-anniversary-update-available-august-2/

[Sledgstone 8,672]

After researching a bunch of information on graphics cards over the last 6 months, I've read numerous articles about how Windows 10 will have much better support for games that utilize DX12. Heres just one link from Nvidia:

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dx12/windows-10

The last day to upgrade is only a few days away.. and my laptop's windows 7 is having windows update errors like a bastard. If anyone reading this is planning on upgrading still, make sure you're still getting windows updates and that the little windows 10 icon doesn't have an exclamation point on it indicating a compatibility error. Resolve the issues now or you'll be scrambling like I have been for the last couple days trying to get a damn laptop to upgrade. I should have done this months ago. This is what I get for procrastinating. x_x

 

Edit:

I got my upgrades done. yay. I'm really shocked Dell stopped supporting its laptops from only a few years ago. I had such a pain in the ass with old drivers causing issues. My sony vaio updated nicely, except for a battery error caused by an unsupported driver that was easily removed.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I'm already starting to regret this upgrade. GW2 keeps giving me the 58:11:5:504:101 error and boots me to the char select screen, sometimes I cant even get into the game, and when I do I get massive skill lag with no change in ping. I clean installed my graphics drivers and that isn't the issue. I had to change some settings on my wifi to get it to run at a decent speed, but its slower than what my phone is getting, when it didn't use to be like that. I opened a ticket to anet and they had me run some game advisor app. I sent them the results and I'm waiting to hear back.

Edit: now I can't even connect to the Internet to try to download drivers for my wireless USB. I was getting 1300 ping on gw2 and the anet support said there was packet loss. This is pissing me off.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Damn. I had some issues with my upgrades but nothing like that. I did have a black screen issue with only a mouse cursor on a Dell laptop and some problems on my Sony laptop but almost everything gets resolved for me by uninstalling or disabling the pc manufacturers specific software that came pre-installed on my pc from the windows 7. Open task manager, click on the start up tab and disable anything from your pc manufactor except for maybe a touch pad app if you have a TouchPad. Then reboot and see if it fixes anything. Amazingly enough lady's laptops graphic issues got resolved by uninstalling the dell audio software and having win 10 install default audio drivers.

Worst case scenario you should be able to roll back to windows 7.

http://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/

Edit:

In task manager you can organize by publisher. For my sony laptop I had to disable the sony stuff (right click and click on disable, then reboot to kick it out of the system):

That ISBmgr.exe one gave me endless battery errors that caused a prompt to refresh onto my screen every couple seconds and forced me into hibernation mode if I ever hit ok on the window. x_x It was the same with Lady's dell. The more Dell software I disabled the better the system performed.

Also, it looks more like you're having limited wifi connection issues with that packet loss which is why GW2 is kicking you out to the login screen. Your graphics drivers are probably fine. I found this video that might help:

Google search your PC's model number along with windows 10 wifi. Since win 10 has been out for a year I was able to find most of the solutions to the issues I came across on random PC support forums. Thats how I was able to find out about the dell audio driver issue. I'd have never figured out that audio driver was causing the issue because that particular driver wasn't in the start up in task manager and it doesn't even have dell in the name of the driver.

 

Edited July 29, 2016 by Sledgstone
Added a second part

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

My wifi is still slow. I ordered a new USB adapter. Mine hasnt had a driver update since 2013, and there are 3 newer models that have come out since I've had mine. I bought a linksys dual band one though so I'll see if that helps any.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Is your router an 802.11ac? You could update that at the same time and have a beastly wifi signal.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

No, my router is just an wireless-N. Its about 2-3 years old.

http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/how-to-make-your-windows-look-any-way-you-want-1784215986?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

I've been tinkering with this a bit, Its pretty cool.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

BTW if you haven't turned off background apps, do that to save some PC resources.. and your privacy. Go to the search icon or bar at the bottom left of the screen and type in: privacy

You'll get the windows 10 settings screen. Turn off the background apps you don't want or need at all and set all your privacy settings in all the categories on the left:

Its the one big issue I have with Windows 10. It can detect that I'm using a PC and works as a desktop OS, but it still keeps all the apps running by default. My PC has no contacts list, phone dialer, apps that need these other apps, text messaging, etc. Gotta turn them all off and then check this list after any big windows updates in case more got added to the list.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

It was def my usb adapter. It seems people with wireless cards weren't affected as much. USB adapters are the main source. I got my new one in today and at first it was doing the same thing. Even though it said the best drivers were installed, I had to hunt down the actual windows 10 driver and install it with a drag and drop. o_O; Once I did that it works. I actually only lose about 2-5mbps as opposed to the 10 I'd lose with my old one. There are still packet losses here or there, but its minimal. Hopefully future patches will fix this. Just searching it seems to be a widespread problem.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

The first big windows 10 update is coming out this Tuesday so it might get fixed then. I'm hoping it fixes my headphone issue. It's getting a bit annoying to make 5 clicks to change my audio output every time I swap from speakers to headphones. I never realized I swapped between the 2 as often as I do on my laptop. It doesn't affect my pc or lady's laptop either. It's odd how 1 or 2 issues are unique to each computer.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I got the huge anniversary update on my PC last night. This update was so big it took over 1 hour to install with numerous auto resets. It went on for so long, I turned off my monitor and went to sleep after 50 mins and it was only at 40 something percent done. It might have taken as long to update as it did to upgrade from win 7 to win 10. The only noticable difference I see is the start menu now loads with all apps when clicked like windows 7 used to. That and my search function has been replaced with a cortana circle symbol because it apparently can't be turned off anymore. I can still click the circle and search like normal without ever giving cortana permission for anything so its ok I suppose. I'm more interested in getting this update done on my laptop to see if it fixes my audio issue so I don't have to manually turn on my headphones when I plug them in.