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My Windows 10 adventures thus far....


MaximumRD

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Just thought I would share this here for those interested. 

 

Well I am enjoying Windows 10 home. I am using it on a not particularly powerful (even when I bought it) 7 year old Toshiba laptop! A machine that initially came with VISTA (YIKES) which though I did not hate as many did I was still too use to XP so after some google fu I found drivers and managed to get XP running well on it. Eventually I switched to Windows 7 which ran smoother than even VISTA that originally came with the machine. Over the years I did a couple minor upgrades, added 2GB ram to give 4GB total (Honestly in daily use I didn't really notice as much of an improvement as I expected) and last year I upgraded it to a SSD which was an obvious immediate improvement in everything from startup to reboot / sleep / wake modes, it was what convinced me to add replace my Desktop boot drive with an SSD. ANYWHO - the upgrade to 10 went smooth enough, the whole process was rather quick and mostly trouble free with the majority of drivers and auto configuration painless and uneventful. THE ONLY issue was for my graphic / display driver, for the lowly ATI mobility x1200 hardware, Win10 loaded a basic display driver and so I was limited on resolution options. 
 
Fortunately I took a chance on TOSHIBA's website and just downloaded and installed VISTA graphic driver (the last ones available) and after a reboot it was fine with the higher default display option I was use to. I managed to overcome that issue myself so I really cannot bitch too much that Windows 10 didn't have it's own full driver for a 7 year old onboard gpu device lol. The other issue was it simply refused to recognize the onboard Webcam. Now let me be clear, I rarely use any type of webcam but occasionally my wife wants to Skype with family plus my own mindset of having everything perfect was also a factor lol, but Win10 was not having any of it, I did attempt to install several possible drivers but again we are talking a Chicony Chinese inbuilt low end webcam which even several version of linux failed in past to recognize as well. So though I never did get get it running I simply opted to grab the USB Microsoft webcam of my desktop which surprise, it recognized the moment I plugged it in, it's a much better cam anyway so for the rare time I might need it that will do just fine. 
 
So, with hardware/drivers sorted (or at least worked around) I will say as one who really enjoyed (as far as windows goes at least) XP / Windows 7 / I am very happy with 10 on this machine, I did play around in VMware with 8 - 8.1 on my desktop and though I was not as annoyed as many seemed to be by I it did not move me enough to bother replacing my Win7 installs. I also am going to keep Win 7 64bit on our main desktop as long as it remains a good option but I took the chance and am happy with the operation of 10 on this laptop which I am typing this reply with at the moment. I will keep it installed, I originally imaged my Win7 OS and swapped out the SSD before installing Win10 as I wanted to be able to quickly restore Win7 in the event I just didn't like it as much but I wont be doing that. In fact after about for days of constant use I just created my first backup image of the Win10 install, after installing any new OS and updating, tweaking, customizing, securing and getting things to just about what I consider perfect I like to make an image as a "base" install, should anything go sour or for any reason I need to re-install I prefer to use such an image because not only is it faster to restore than form scratch but it also saves me having to bother with all the updates and work putt into it since my initial install. 
 
And NO I am in no way pretending it's all sunshine and rainbows as far as Win10 goes, believe me I am well aware of all the things many are complaining regarding Microsoft's default settings and "features", many of which already discussed here and while I am certainly not the tinfoil hat type and I also research and look into things personally before I jump on the Windows / Microsoft is evil bandwagon I still choose to disable, change, alter may of the "features" of Windows 10 lol.
 
Features I disabled or removed include Telemetry and Data Collection, Windows Update Delivery Optimization (as it hogs your bandwidth by using a p2p to "share" your bandwidth), WiFi Sense (a service to "share" your WiFi with contacts you've selected, not quite as bad as some have made it out to be as it actually does NOT give your password to contacts, that is to say it does allow contacts you have approved access to your connection when they are in range by sending your connection details with your password encrypted, still, I simply do not need and would never use it). Also I switched from signing in using my Hotmail account to using a local account. Now, these are just some of the things I have done off the top of my head as I have been literally tweaking, disabling, customizing etc non stop over these last few days but at this point I am very happy and satisfied with my current setup and performance overall as well as for now pretty confident about the security and privacy. So overall I've no complaints, everything seems to run great, the more I delve into Win10 the more I am digging it, running and looking just the way I like especially now with things tweaked or disabled it is a pleasure to use on this 7 year old work horse. 
 

Here is my current desktop for giggles ;)
 
kCVBTJm.jpg

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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Thanks for your list of items you disabled.  I need to do the same.  I have an old "Vista" laptop very similar to yours that I finally upgraded to 7 yesterday.  Very similar indeed:  4GB, SSD, about 7 years old. 

 

I've updated three computers to 10 so far, and they've all gone pretty smoothly.  The only driver issue I've had thus far is a Win 10 driver for a Sandisk Readycache drive. 

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Thanks for the update experience, MRD.

Still holding out, myself. Have Win 7 and, since it works and ain't broke...well, y'know.

 

Yeah, so far, as long as you turn off all the telemetry stuff from the Express installation, it should be good, from what I read.

Glad to hear about the whole WIn 10 being a good thing, actually.

From free upgrade to little or no surprises, it's just as good, commonly-used software should be.

 

Microsoft WIndows started out as a good friend, guiding the path into the PC experience fairly easily.

Is complexities were part of the charm of getting that 'programmer' mindset to the layman (like myself).

Insert diskettes, reboot, tweak the config.sys for your uses and voila!

 

Then it got convoluted with the merging of internet, browsers and CD-rom installations and missing graphic card files and errors and sluggish performance from a new, higher-end PC with WIn 95 and what-is-this-crap complaints that were well-founded but just seemed worse since we were in an age of no instant searching for answers (Ask Jeeves, indeed) and bleh...

 

yeah, this whole Win 10 gift from MS is close to what I expected my PC heroes to be.

 

Very nice, in this later stage of the MS-PC story

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Like many on a non touch enabled device I was iffy on the new Start Menu in 10, hell I even had Classic Menu installed for a bit but after a while I found I actually missed the new start menu, I am used to it and even though you cannot completely dispense with the tiles I really have no problem with them and in face being able to customize exactly what appears in them as well as grouping and naming categories as I see fit I am really liking it overall. Here is my customization thus far. After even ore time with customizing and using it on a daily basis I am continually impressed by the performance on this 7 year old laptop. definitely a keeper now, so much so I've already imaged the OS and deleted Windows.old folder and other files that would have been required to revert back to save the space. Currently even after all the updates and additions of my personal favourite Windows utilities and apps Windows 10 is using under 20GB of SSD space which I consider very reasonable and less than my Win7 install. 

 

bDPWUS2.png

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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I have Win 7 on my main desktop system, and I haven't upgraded because of the missing Media Center in 10.  I use this desktop as a DVR for cable TV.  Just need to explore the options before updating this particular machine.

 

The other machines in the house have been updated, and it's been just fine. 

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Why so?

I let everyone else work out the bugs in new OS before I upgrade..........

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

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It occoured to me my last screen shot may give the impression I was using the Start Menu in fullscreen mode, I am not, it just looks that way because I only grabbed the start menu. Below is my current set-up as I see it. I created the categories - Maintenance & Utility / Web & Info / Virus & Malware Control / Entertainment & Media. I like this arrangement for now and am adding different programs to each category daily. Yes I am a bit of an organization and control freak lol. 

 

@RickR Yeah I hear you, it was not something I personally used so I do not miss it but I have heard many who miss that particular feature. 

I am still enjoying learning more and more the differences compared to Win7 and really have yet to be disappointed. Most of all, and I have been hearing this from many is just how well Windows 10 runs even on older machines. 

 

oC2v75y.png

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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Windows 10 fully installed and running great on the main desktop, been enjoying it so much on the old laptop I was confident doing the upgrade and I am happy to have it natively on "The Rig" lol. Been enjoying it a couple weeks on the old laptop so nice to finally get on the main machine. Everything went smooth, Geforce Experience prompted me to download new GPU drivers for Win10 but otherwise upgraded with all my installed programs, settings and personal files intact. Built in like 2007 :P Would love something more modern but hard times these days. Asus P5K-E/WiFi-AP mobo / Win7 Ultimate  Core2Duo e6750 CPU / Nvidia 250 gts (thanks to my buddy AL) slightly upgraded from older 8800. / 4GB RAM / 120GB SSD (upgraded boot drive from HDD) - This will remain, no more upgrades until I can build a whole new system with latest architecture, wont be any-time soon. It does what I need for minor video editing, emulation and the odd PC game.

post-15-0-56950900-1441085330_thumb.jpg

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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I have Win 7 on my main desktop system, and I haven't upgraded because of the missing Media Center in 10.  I use this desktop as a DVR for cable TV.  Just need to explore the options before updating this particular machine.

 

The other machines in the house have been updated, and it's been just fine.

 

I seen THIS recently (getting Media Center in Win 10)

http://www.techworm.net/2015/09/microsoft-media-center-suite-can-now-unofficially-be-installed-on-windows-10.html

 

 

Below is my current Desktop setup. 

 

MY ONE PROBLEM with Windows 10 on both desktop and laptop...one of the default system fonts is not quite...right...I have tried everything believe me including re-registering the entire default set of fonts, changing fonts etc but it just does not work. Not the biggest issue, something that just bugs me being the controlling type lol but it causes a corruption where a couple rectangle boxes with display INSTEAD of what should be there or font looking just a little off, I will try to post a couple examples after my desktop image.........

 

fIHVAXQ.jpg

 

And here is my issue, seems to be a rendering problem with a system font in 10. I am usually good a fixing such things, I have fond many having these issues but none of the suggested fixes have helped. Here is a snapshot from this very site, no it is not an issue with CHROME as it displays same in CHROME / IE / Firefox etc on both machines in Windows 10, I have changed nothing in these browsers, I have highlighted the parts that look just not right - CLICK IMAGE FOR CLOSER LOOK

 

DSAyUup.jpg

 

 

Now here is an issue with an application, I cropped just to show the problem, see the two rectangles at the end of the last line? Those should not be there. If anyone has recommendations to correct these chime in. 

 

3LN06wv.jpg

 

Honestly, but for these font rendering issues I would be 100% happy with Windows 10 but it IS driving me  little loopy (as is my nature :P

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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Well, I pulled the Windows 10 trigger on my main PC today.  My main concern was that there is no "Windows Media Center" in 10, but I read there is a hack that allows media center to be installed.  I cloned my C: drive first, then did the upgrade.  All went smooth.  And the Media Center hack works fine!  Watching live tv now!

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Well, I pulled the Windows 10 trigger on my main PC today.  My main concern was that there is no "Windows Media Center" in 10, but I read there is a hack that allows media center to be installed.  I cloned my C: drive first, then did the upgrade.  All went smooth.  And the Media Center hack works fine!  Watching live tv now!

Congrats and now you are on the latest Windows so the worse is over. Having Win10 on my Desktop / laptop for a while now I don't see ever going back, have had no real issues and everything working great.  :thumb:

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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My main concern was that there is no "Windows Media Center" in 10, 

is that the same as Windows Media Player?

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

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I seen THIS recently (getting Media Center in Win 10)

http://www.techworm.net/2015/09/microsoft-media-center-suite-can-now-unofficially-be-installed-on-windows-10.html

 

 

Below is my current Desktop setup. 

 

MY ONE PROBLEM with Windows 10 on both desktop and laptop...one of the default system fonts is not quite...right...I have tried everything believe me including re-registering the entire default set of fonts, changing fonts etc but it just does not work. Not the biggest issue, something that just bugs me being the controlling type lol but it causes a corruption where a couple rectangle boxes with display INSTEAD of what should be there or font looking just a little off, I will try to post a couple examples after my desktop image.........

 

fIHVAXQ.jpg

 

And here is my issue, seems to be a rendering problem with a system font in 10. I am usually good a fixing such things, I have fond many having these issues but none of the suggested fixes have helped. Here is a snapshot from this very site, no it is not an issue with CHROME as it displays same in CHROME / IE / Firefox etc on both machines in Windows 10, I have changed nothing in these browsers, I have highlighted the parts that look just not right - CLICK IMAGE FOR CLOSER LOOK

 

DSAyUup.jpg

 

 

Now here is an issue with an application, I cropped just to show the problem, see the two rectangles at the end of the last line? Those should not be there. If anyone has recommendations to correct these chime in. 

 

3LN06wv.jpg

 

Honestly, but for these font rendering issues I would be 100% happy with Windows 10 but it IS driving me  little loopy (as is my nature :P

If you are still having trouble with the look of fonts, try running the "Adjust Cleartype text" wizard on the control panel. 

 

I'm not sure what causes those squares....but I haven't see that yet. 

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If you are still having trouble with the look of fonts, try running the "Adjust Cleartype text" wizard on the control panel. 

 

I'm not sure what causes those squares....but I haven't see that yet. 

Thanks for the suggestion but I've done that a few times among a lot of other things, the issue still present on both my machines, fortunately it is not a deal breaker, just an annoyance to a perfectionist like me. 

I am Rob aka MaximumRD aka OldSchoolRetroGamer and THIS is my world http://about.me/maximumrd

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

 - M. Bison

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