Windows 10, Yay or Nay?

But every time 10 loads a significant update, it futzes with the bootloader, keeps 7 from starting, forces me to rebuild the boot and format 10 out of my life... again. I'm just glad MicroSnot stopped jamming 10 down my throat.

Third-party bootloader FTW.

jefboyardee said:

But every time 10 loads a significant update, it futzes with the bootloader, keeps 7 from starting, forces me to rebuild the boot and format 10 out of my life... again. I'm just glad MicroSnot stopped jamming 10 down my throat.

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Those "significant updates" are actually UPGRADES. They basically install an entire new OS and import your existing programs / data /whatever. If they were still numbering, it would already be (at least) Win12 by now. That's why it messes with the bootloader. I prefer to use small SSDs for each and select whichever I want to run from the bios boot menu (F11 or F12 usually). If one OS/disk gets fubar, I can always get in with the other. Makes disk imaging for backup purposes much easier as well.

Anyway, it seems that Win7 is safe to continue using now, still getting updates. So that's where I'm parking.

bcrichster said:

Hey, nice idea. Now I kind of wish I had gotten that HDD + SSD upgrade when buying that laptop..

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It's not too late. Depending on your model you have a couple of options:

1) Obtain a 2nd HD caddy to replace your optical drive (assuming you have one) with an SATA HD bay. Most modern laptops take a 9.5mm, some (mostly older models) take a 12.7mm one. I've done so many that I can pretty much tell which by just looking at it. If in doubt you can always find one on ebay and ask the seller if it will fit your model.

You simply remove the optical drive, CAREFULLY detach the escutcheon/cover from it, put it on the caddy, install a 2.5" drive in it, then reinsert it into the laptop. You can skip the escutcheon/cover part if appearance isn't an issue. Locate your laptop repair/disassembly guide/service manual for guidance if it seems a bit daunting. Should you ever need an optical drive (rarely I'll bet) you can put yours into a USB enclosure and simply plug it in when needed.

2) Alternatively, if your laptop supports booting from USB (nearly all modern ones do), you can install an OS to a secondary USB HD or flash drive (USB 3.0 is preferred). Won't be nearly as fast as native SATA, but it works well enough for my needs. I installed (vs running live) Lubuntu to a 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive on my i5 Lenovo with 16GB RAM, and can hardly tell the difference. I actually just did an in place upgrade of Lubuntu several weeks ago w/o issue and it didn't take long at all. This would be the most economical method if speed isn't of great importance, and there's no need to modify anything. You can still mount your Windows partitions to access or place larger files on.

I haven't done this the other way around yet (native Linux w/Windows to go), but it should work the same. Just don't let Windows touch your primary disk. Pull it out if in doubt.

I did something like F. Guido's option 1 with my own laptop and on my previous work laptop. I replaced the HDD with an 512GB SSD then put the old SSD in the optical/second drive bay. By pulling a whole bunch of data off the SSD to a backup drive I was able to get the data volumes low enough to allow me to use a tool that came with the SSD to copy an image of the HDD to the SSD, thereby avoiding a Windows reinstall.

After ensuring everything was working I reformatted the HDD and put the backed up data on it.

Note that you need to leave a LOT of free space on an SSD - recommendations vary but some say as much as 40% of the space should be left free. This is because of the way SSD work: basically files aren't modified in place, a copy is created with the changes and the old version marked as deleted.

This totally transformed performance on both machines and put off my work laptop upgrade by 6 months to a year. Obviously, even after the upgrade, neither perform anything like the new laptop, but then the processor on the new machine is 3 or 4 years more recent which according to Moore's law, should means it's around 2 to 4 times as 'fast' (well, strictly speaking, has 2 to 4 times as many transistors per square inch but that kinda/sorta equates to speed).

Don't know if this just Win10 or all of them...

Windows 10, Yay or Nay?

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After months of testing and deliberation........Nay.

Myself also thinking to quit. Though I am using this for 3 months. But now quite satisfied.

I had to boot up Win10 today. To start with, the system didn't use both my connected monitors, only the VGA connected one. I start up Office to edit a document. Took literally minutes to initialise! Nice usable system then
Couldn't wait to shutdown and return to Ubuntu.

LV426 said:

Took literally minutes to initialise!

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First World problem there, mate.

I was helping someone out in a different computer forum and recalling the stuff we had to endure back in the '80s and early '90s; and I realized that we are quite spoiled nowadays. Much as we like to complain about how slow things are, it's virtually instantaneous compared to thirty years ago.

I've got a cheapo Ramos Windows 10 tablet here, one of these....
http://www.ramos.com.cn/goods.php?id=64
...that I bought a year ago, posted about it in this thread at the time, originally came with 8.1, subsequently upgraded to 10, then recently the "Anniversary feature update". It takes 30 seconds to boot from cold, and only 8 seconds to start MS Office 2010 with the PPTs, spreadseets and docs that I need to look at. Can't use current versions of MS office because of the connected to internet requirement.

...of course my laptop is a Macbook Air.


So for me Win 10 on a tablet, definitely yay!

I dual boot. For me to test my isos, I have to boot into Windows to use Rufus (because 90% of the world's population uses Windows). It always sends shivers down my spine.
Theres always some system process out of whack that pegs my cpu or some crap like that. Usually it's get in and get out before Windows breaks my "obsolete" machine.

Gotta admit though. Once you get rid of the stupid start page and charms, Windows 8.1 is just like 7 only a bit faster. Almost tolerable.

I like Win7, won't use Win10.

my laptop is using Linux Mint Cinnamon which has a Windows "skin" GUI in that every Windows keyboard command is duplicated in Cinnamon... love it.

This is a new one on me...

... and, for some reason, my Windows is running slower than hell. Like Win 3.1 slow.

FFS, 12Gb of RAM should be enough...

Dngrsone said:

This is a new one on me...

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Formally called the BSOD, it's more common than you think and is likely a driver conflict due to forced updates. There's a few methods to T/S such, (here's but one). If you can get in at all, you can see if it's a recent driver update and then rollback to an earlier one. If you can't get in, you will need to perform a system repair.

On the ONE Win10 computer I have that isn't running the LTSB, I have disabled windows updates altogether with "Toggle Tweaker." Only problem with that is you don't even get security patches anymore.

Dngrsone said:

This is a new one on me...View attachment 112192

... and, for some reason, my Windows is running slower than hell. Like Win 3.1 slow.

FFS, 12Gb of RAM should be enough...

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Blue Screen Of Death, but looks like they've remodelled it somewhat over previous versions. Windows has crashed, nothing new here.

I am hoping it speeds up next time. I don't want to have to spend any effort having to fix Win.

I just read a newsletter about that from "Windows Secrets", they address how MSloth in their hurry to release the newest updates, somehow, forgot to sign all 500 of the Security Updates they just released....

MalwareBytes was the first to find the problem when their program started showing errors and 'malware' from unsigned modules.

Brand new Win10 AIO i bought is slow as $hit. Wait, even slower. Right out of the box. Only 4GB of RAM, but still... 4GB on my Win7 system ran fine for what I needed. Had a Lumia phone with 8 denim that was not too bad, until I tried the 10 upgrade. MS will need more than a miracle to keep customers. Just like Gurgle... They get something working great after a few updates and then change it. Win8 destroyed Windows for me, Google pushed me away starting with 4.4

Speaking of Malware. Here's one for the paranoid amongst us.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/malware-surveillance-turn-headphones-microphones,33085.html

Microsoft finally admits that its malware-style Get Windows 10 upgrade campaign went too far

Win 10 is painfully slow now... Glad I only have to boot it up once every other week.