Windows 10

[Fay]

I am getting near to the deadline for upgrading.

has everyone been ok with it?
have you all upgraded?
is it a lot different to Win 7?
do all programs have to be redone?

Fay

[doug]

I have an ASUS laptop running Windows 10, Fay, and have found that it`s a lot better than Windows 8. Had to replace my old Sony laptop to do the OAS reports...... The new laptop came with the Windows 10, but it`s better than Windows 7.....

Hope this helps. Doug.

[ApophisAstros]

i've had every windows since its inception and win 10 is by far the most stable and fastest, on my systems.
  If you want to before you upgrade , you can do a ghost copy of your old system and if things go wrong you can always go back so you can sort something out.
Roger

[The Thing]

I have windows 10 on my observatory laptop and desktop and have had no problems. It does uninstall a lot of programs it thinks are incompatible but you can just re-install them after as it does create a list for you. Bit of a pain but gives you an opportunity to make sure everything is the latest versions.

[Fay]

 I am going to stay with Win7. I will be ok for a few years and will probably be ready for a new computer by the time, all support stops

[Rocket Pooch]

I am getting near to the deadline for upgrading.

has everyone been ok with it?
have you all upgraded?
is it a lot different to Win 7?
do all programs have to be redone?

Fay

Ok I'll answer your questions

Yes
Yes
+3
No but you will lose some if they are very old

[Delphine]

I finally gave in and upgraded last week and I am happy with it.

[Klitos]

Ok I'll answer your questions

Yes
Yes
+3
No but you will lose some if they are very old

How can you answer "yes" to "Have you all upgraded?"

I've got two PCs. I allowed Microsoft to upgrade my desktop, but prevented it from upgrading my laptop, which is still running Windows 7. For the last 10 months, I've been using both versions regularly. On the whole, I still prefer Windows 7. I have some minor gripes with Windows 10, but for the average user, I would say go for it, it's not that bad. (And definitely go for it if you're on Windows 8.)

[Rocket Pooch]

Because Yes we have all upgraded here.  I'm far from the average user and its better than Windows 7.

[Carole]

I shan't upgrade to windows 10 until I really have to. 

Currently using Windows 7 Desktop and still have my old imaging laptop on Vista.  Everything works just fine on that except I had to ditch google chrome which is no longer supported (but since the primary use is for imaging and hardly ever use it for the internet I'm not bothered too much).

I also have a 2nd imaging laptop running windows 7 but I haven't ironed out the guiding on the W7 laptop, can't remember what the problem was now as not done any imaging for a while. 

I just have a sneaking suspicion that once most people have gone over the W10 that they are going to start charging for stuff you can get free on earlier systems.  I think I saw something once when my computer was trying to get me to upgrade to W10 that there might be charges to use the internet. 

Carole

[Mac]

I saw something once when my computer was trying to get me to upgrade to W10 that there might be charges to use the internet

More then lightly they are covering their arses with regard to the mobile version of the software as windows 10 is a one shoe fits all platforms,
and as they have stuffed it full of advertising and data collection which they send back to themselves so that they can target custom advertising, they are warning
that data usage will be high, and by that they probably mean a few hundred meg (of adverts) which when you are using it at home is nothing but on a mobile data tariff you will soon
rack up a nice bill if you dont monitor it, especially if you are on a low data usage.

I upgraded Rhondas laptop and i must say i am surprised as it does run quite well, a few niggles to start with, reinstalling a couple of bits of software, but that wasnt a problem,
but the only real thing that still grates me is the fact that they still wont let you run your own PC the way you want to,
I'm an administrator, just give me bloody access to the files i want, dont tell me that I dont have permission,
especially as its only the host file.

The only other thing that I thing is appalling is the fact that to set up the parental controls I must set James up with a Microsoft account and link it to a Microsoft account that i own,
well I did fire an E-mail to them telling them that they can shove that idea as there is no way Im setting James up with any account.
So I just reinstalled Nortons Family, It does the Job with out any hassle, no accounts, no linking of people for data mining.

These days everything is geared up for data collection, advertising, junk  E-mails ect and if im brutally honest its really annoys me thats why I always Jailbreak my devices and stick ad blockers in and firewall monitors and update host files, Im just not interested in adverts period, and windows 10 is going to be an advert based operating system which is a pity.

Mac

[Fay]

well I have stayed with Win 7. if I want 10 in the future, before I buy a new computer, I will just pay for it.

[Mike]

These days everything is geared up for data collection, advertising, junk  E-mails ect and if im brutally honest its really annoys me thats why I always Jailbreak my devices and stick ad blockers in and firewall monitors and update host files, Im just not interested in adverts period, and windows 10 is going to be an advert based operating system which is a pity.
Mac

Which is why I've switched to Linux.

[Carole]

Which is why I've switched to Linux.

Not using apple any more then Mike? 

Does Linux operate all the astro software needed for imaging?

Carole

[Mac]

Which is why I've switched to Linux.

Not using apple any more then Mike? 

Apple is linux based...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X

I would do but at the moment I have too much software to port over, but give it time

Mac.

[Mike]

Which is why I've switched to Linux.

Not using apple any more then Mike? 

Does Linux operate all the astro software needed for imaging?

Carole

I have a Macbook Air with OSX. My desktop and another laptop I use are Linux.

There are plenty of Linux based pieces of software for imaging/astro stuff. A lot of software nowadays has cross-platform versions anyway. Plus, you can run Windows software in Linux and OSX using Wine or Crossover. Linux is a lot more mature and user friendly than it was just 2 or 3 years ago. Especially Ubuntu and Zorin OS is very Windows like.

However, you do need to be reasonably computer savvy to do a few things in Linux still so if you still don't know the difference between left click, right click, folders and files then perhaps it is not for you.  For me, it has everything I need, is ultra secure, stable, fast and is also 100% free.

[MarkS]

I've just bought a Windows 10 laptop.  I love everything except the tiled apps on the start menu because they take up too much screen space.

The only astro-related problem I had was the Prolific driver for HitecAstro EqDir lead that I use to control the mount.  I had to manually install an earlier driver because the latest driver doesn't support that older version of the Prolific chip.

I wish I had upgraded my desk PC for free while I had the chance

Mark

[JohnP]

Mark - I love win10 as well. You can get rid of tiles - just rightckick on tile & unpin from start... John

[Carole]

You can get rid of tiles - just rightckick on tile & unpin from start... John

Worth knowing if I ever get W10.  I have used it when setting up my sons PC, and I could see a lot of prominent stuff that I would not need dominating the home page.  Presume that is what you mean.

Carole

[The Thing]

You can get rid of tiles - just rightckick on tile & unpin from start... John

Worth knowing if I ever get W10.  I have used it when setting up my sons PC, and I could see a lot of prominent stuff that I would not need dominating the home page.  Presume that is what you mean.

Carole

That sounds like you're talking about the Win 8 'tiles' - they were the 'desktop' as MS assumed you would have a touch screen. They were inherited by Win 10 and can be turned off.

[Klitos]

Well, not really. In Windows 10, by default, live tiles are in the Start Menu instead of taking up the whole desktop as they did in Windows 8. There is no officially documented way to completely remove live tiles. You can unpin them from the Start Menu one by one until they all disappear. This leaves the illusion of having no tiles, but in fact the framework for them is still loaded into memory and constantly running.

[Mac]

If you just want to disable one live tile you can do this by right-clicking it and selecting More > Turn off live tile.

If you want to disable all of the tiles, you'll have to repeat the process for each one in turn.
However, you can kill the whole lot in one go using the Group Policy Editor or, if you don't have that feature in your edition of Windows 10, a registry tweak.

Firstly, to use the Group Policy Manager, follow these steps:

Open the Start menu.
Type gpedit.msc and hit enter.
Navigate to Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Notifications.
Double-click the Turn off tile notifications entry on the right and select enabled in the window that opens.
Click OK and close the editor.
The Group Policy Editor isn't available in Windows 10 Home, so if you're running that edition of the new OS you'll need to use the Windows Registry Editor instead. Follow these steps:

Open the Start menu
Type regedit and hit enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications
Right-click on PushNotifications and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
Call it NoTileApplicationNotification.
Double-click the item and set its value to 1.

[Klitos]

Thanks, Mac. Can I ask if anyone had any success with this?

I've got Windows 10 Pro at home and I used Group Policy Editor as described to turn off tiles. After applying this setting, I confirmed that it had the effect of adding the Registry entry shown in the second section of the above post. Yet, my tiles are still there, even after restarting.

[doug]

I just live with them on my laptop.... but I ain`t a pro user. Just an `umble user.

Doug