Windows 9, er, 10.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:58 pm

It's probably best to hold off upgrading to Windows 10 if you do not see the "Get Windows 10" icon in the taskbar, as that may indicate the system has devices that are not yet fully compatible with Windows 10.

For anyone considering upgrading to Windows 10, it's worth running the Windows 10 Compatibility Appraiser to check the system for Windows 10 device and app compatibility beforehand. You can also run the Windows 10 Compatibility Appraiser manually if necessary.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:16 pm

Last time Zone Alarm was free, I kept the installer and it was still working and updating on the Win8 laptop that I upgraded, but 10 seems to have left it off. What free antivirus do you all like for 10? I'm assuming that Defender is not enough.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:22 pm

Defender is enough. It's a real AV, unlike Defender in 8, which was anti-other stuff-only.

WarPig · Post by **WarPig** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 10:33 am

WarPig wrote:I thought I was good on my upgrade on my home desktop until I forgot to put my PC to sleep for the night and woke to a blue screen MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION. I restart, everything works for hours, no problem. Go to lunch and come back after it being idle for an hour or so to the same error. Restart, works fine again and I leave it for the night. Wake in the morning to the same error.

Finally, this morning I'm sitting in my office on my work PC and go to play some music on my home Win10 PC and it's frozen. No mouse, no keyboard, the screen is on the desktop, just won't respond to anything. I let it sit for a few minutes and up comes my blue screen error. Now, I haven't had a blue screen in Windows 7 in I'd say at least a year. Upgrade and they happen all the time.

Research points to a hardware issue or driver issue. Possibly programs installed. So I'm going through and uninstalling stuff; noticing that driver versions of most things have been changed to the windows version and release (10.0.10240.16384) instead of their original driver versions so Windows thinks all of my hardware drivers are up to date.

I'm just venting; seriously considering rolling back.

Well, that was anticlimactic. After reading others' issues with the nVidia GForce software I turned it off and have had no blue screens for 48 hours. I'll try an uninstall/reinstall with the latest from the website if I feel the need to "optimize my game performance".

The timing of the blue screens was co-incidental with the timing of nVidia's periodic driver update check. Apparently it was having problems seeing the driver and causing the OS to freak. I suppose I could prove that by disabling just the driver update check...

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:10 pm

Just did the install on my main Windows 7 computer and the process was unfathomably quick and easy. My programs all seem to be running just fine so far, and other than changing a bunch of privacy settings and some default applications there didn't seem to be much to fix after the install. That felt more like installing a new patch than installing a whole new OS.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:34 pm

WarPig wrote:
Well, that was anticlimactic. After reading others' issues with the nVidia GForce software I turned it off and have had no blue screens for 48 hours. I'll try an uninstall/reinstall with the latest from the website if I feel the need to "optimize my game performance".

The timing of the blue screens was co-incidental with the timing of nVidia's periodic driver update check. Apparently it was having problems seeing the driver and causing the OS to freak. I suppose I could prove that by disabling just the driver update check...

Hmm. I do have Geforce Experience running and it is checking for drivers successfully on my machine without errors. I don't think it's an overall compatibility error, so if you decide you want to try it again I would look to see if perhaps the permissions are hosed for where it is trying to place the downloaded files?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:18 pm

same re: geforce experience

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 4:15 pm

I made the upgrade on my bedroom PC. I think I may try and set it to dual-boot with XP, as it is a slower computer, and I run a lot of older games on it. I was able to run No One Lives Forever just fine on Win7, but it won't even launch under 10.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 7:40 pm

Blackhawk wrote:I made the upgrade on my bedroom PC. I think I may try and set it to dual-boot with XP, as it is a slower computer, and I run a lot of older games on it. I was able to run No One Lives Forever just fine on Win7, but it won't even launch under 10.

This has turned out to be a bigger headache than I thought. Nothing I do is making the new XP installation visible.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:36 pm

I surrender. Microsoft, you win.

I do hate how, whenever I upgrade my OS, a portion of my game library becomes unplayable.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:38 pm

No One Games Forever.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:16 pm

I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 on my cheapo laptop. Man, so nice to say goodbye to 8.1. It was no fun fighting with a tablet interface on a laptop. The feels just about right and so far no problem running the limited number of games the laptop can support.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:05 pm

Windows 10 God Mode

To unlock God Mode all you have to do is create a new folder on your desktop and name it this:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

One really interesting thing is that you can change the name of it from “GodMode” to something else if you wish by just changing the “GodMode” string to something else. You could do “AllSettings” or “JediMode” if you wanted.

The resulting folder you create will have 232 items inside representing virtually every configurable option in Windows 7. Here are a few screenshots of the folder we have created.

WarPig · Post by **WarPig** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:22 pm

My God Mode button from Windows 7 still works, appears to be the same string.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 6:13 pm

Zaxxon wrote:Defender is enough. It's a real AV, unlike Defender in 8, which was anti-other stuff-only.

I decided to try Defender + Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit Free.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:13 pm

Has anyone already mentioned the "game bar" if you press win+g? I saw it but didn't try it. Does it let you record your gameplay?

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:30 pm

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:19 pm

Just tried to do an upgrade from 8.1 to 10 today. Got in, had no sound, but everything else seemed to work. Tried a reboot to see if that got the sound drivers working. It didn't and instead broke my network connection.

I tried downloading and installing, and uninstalling, and reinstalling, etc the drivers for the motherboard (an ASRock H97M Pro4), both from the manufacturer's site, and direct from Intel. That got the audio working, but no luck on the network adapter.

The infuriating thing is that Windows doesn't think there's a problem. It reports the driver installed correctly, and everything's swell. Yet when I go into the Network Adapters screen, I see the adapter disabled. If I hit "Enable", I get a window saying "Enabling..." for a few seconds, then "Enabled". It closes, and the adapter still shows disabled. I'm 90% sure that's the issue, but I've got no idea how to convince Windows to flip it on.

After about two hours of banging my head against the wall, I wound up rolling back to 8.1. On the plus side, THAT was super fast and easy. Anyone have any ideas about a network adapter that won't enable?

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 11:21 pm

Thanks Microsoft for free 10! Now i will wait a year or so, and then will consider upgrade.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:36 am

Matrix wrote:Thanks Microsoft for free 10! Now i will wait a year or so, and then will consider upgrade.

It won't be free in a year.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:10 am

So, pulled the trigger on this yesterday morning. It's been telling me it was ready for several days now but wanted to wait for the weekend before going down the rabbit hole. It was surprisingly... anticlimactic... and upgraded without a hitch. I would hope so, however, as this is on a basically brand new Windows 8.1 machine that I still haven't reinstalled all of my old software on. Only a couple of minor things so far, first was with my NVidia drivers. They were kind of there and not there as the control panel would show up on the menu but not launch, it wasn't until I downloaded and installed the latest version (released on August 13th) that the control panel came back and everything is working as it should. I also didn't have a "sleep" option in spite of 8.1 sleeping just fine. Not sure exactly what fixed it but after checking the power settings and rebooting, it is now back as an option and it is back to sleeping just fine. And Skype won't go away on my Administrator desktop, I used to be able to right-click / quit and it would complain but then exit completely, now... it ignores it. Perhaps an uninstall / reinstall is in order.

No issues with anything not "working working" that I've found yet.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:44 pm

Right off the bat, I notice my permissions for some games in Steam are a bit wonky. Van Helsing 1 for instance (others having the same problem).

Even when going in and manually adjusting the rights, it's not behaving properly.

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:17 am

Windows 10 will sniff out and block pirate games and unauthorised hardware

Okay, so this is an antipiracy measure which many folks won’t like of course – particularly for the snooping aspect if nothing else – but you’ve nothing to fear if you’re on the straight and narrow anyway, right? Well not quite, as the wording around the hardware side is worryingly vague.

What exactly is an “unauthorised” piece of hardware – how does Microsoft decide what is on the blacklist? And if it’s an expensive peripheral that Redmond decides is dodgy, that will certainly make for a disgruntled Windows 10 user, and doubtless we’ll see complaints start to pop up on the net.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:13 am

I wish Win7 would stop nagging me every time I restart my PC, even from sleep. I'm going to upgrade, of course, but we've got until July, right? What's the rush? I kinda figure they'll have the kinks out of it by the first of next year.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:32 am

Kraken wrote:I wish Win7 would stop nagging me every time I restart my PC, even from sleep. I'm going to upgrade, of course, but we've got until July, right? What's the rush? I kinda figure they'll have the kinks out of it by the first of next year.

This. I was going to back everything up and make the change one day next weekend, but after reading so many horror stories I think I'll hold off for a while.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:51 pm

Can I download the upgrade but not install - as in, download the software but just not run it yet? I'd hate to not be able to play my games. I'm currently still on Win 7.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:27 pm

Chaz wrote:Just tried to do an upgrade from 8.1 to 10 today. Got in, had no sound, but everything else seemed to work. Tried a reboot to see if that got the sound drivers working. It didn't and instead broke my network connection.

I tried downloading and installing, and uninstalling, and reinstalling, etc the drivers for the motherboard (an ASRock H97M Pro4), both from the manufacturer's site, and direct from Intel. That got the audio working, but no luck on the network adapter.

The infuriating thing is that Windows doesn't think there's a problem. It reports the driver installed correctly, and everything's swell. Yet when I go into the Network Adapters screen, I see the adapter disabled. If I hit "Enable", I get a window saying "Enabling..." for a few seconds, then "Enabled". It closes, and the adapter still shows disabled. I'm 90% sure that's the issue, but I've got no idea how to convince Windows to flip it on.

After about two hours of banging my head against the wall, I wound up rolling back to 8.1. On the plus side, THAT was super fast and easy. Anyone have any ideas about a network adapter that won't enable?

Did you check for an updated driver? Also check for an updated BIOS.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:14 pm

Bad Demographic wrote:Can I download the upgrade but not install - as in, download the software but just not run it yet? I'd hate to not be able to play my games. I'm currently still on Win 7.

Why bother? If you (we) do that it only adds another step to the process as W10 would have to be updated. If you (we) wait until word is that it's safe to install, the latest version is downloaded automatically.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:31 pm

tgb wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:Can I download the upgrade but not install - as in, download the software but just not run it yet? I'd hate to not be able to play my games. I'm currently still on Win 7.
Why bother? If you (we) do that it only adds another step to the process as W10 would have to be updated. If you (we) wait until word is that it's safe to install, the latest version is downloaded automatically.

But would I have to buy it then (because I have no faith that any fixes would come out while it's still free).

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:34 pm

The free offer is tied to activation. You can download without installing, but that doesn't help you. You need to install and activate within a year.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 1:44 am

Zaxxon wrote:The free offer is tied to activation. You can download without installing, but that doesn't help you. You need to install and activate within a year.

Ah. Okay, thanks.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:28 am

Bad Demographic wrote:
tgb wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:Can I download the upgrade but not install - as in, download the software but just not run it yet? I'd hate to not be able to play my games. I'm currently still on Win 7.
Why bother? If you (we) do that it only adds another step to the process as W10 would have to be updated. If you (we) wait until word is that it's safe to install, the latest version is downloaded automatically.
But would I have to buy it then (because I have no faith that any fixes would come out while it's still free).

Umm...the third patch is already out. I am not sure what you think is unsafe; people I know who were in "early access" said it was stable long before the final code was released. I've had no issues since day 1. I also don't think I've heard of a single case of software that works in Windows 7 not working in Windows 10 (there is no logical reason there should be an issue...unless the developer stupidly hard-coded Windows version into the installer...something I've not experienced since Great Battles of Alexander insisted on running only in Windows 95).

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:37 am

Jeff V wrote:
Umm...the third patch is already out. I am not sure what you think is unsafe; people I know who were in "early access" said it was stable long before the final code was released. I've had no issues since day 1. I also don't think I've heard of a single case of software that works in Windows 7 not working in Windows 10 (there is no logical reason there should be an issue...unless the developer stupidly hard-coded Windows version into the installer...something I've not experienced since Great Battles of Alexander insisted on running only in Windows 95).

Many of the recent posts here indicate that people are still having driver/BIOS issues, and that's not something I necessarily want to deal with right now.

WarPig · Post by **WarPig** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:41 am

Yep, updating to the latest nVidia graphics driver put me back in the BSOD loop. I rolled back and uninstalled everything nVidia and then let Windows update my driver for me by asking to update driver from the device manager. Working great again. Weird.

Can't be too upset, like it has been said. Early adopters know this stuff happens. I kind of like it, brings out the help desk in me.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:43 pm

Jeff V wrote:I also don't think I've heard of a single case of software that works in Windows 7 not working in Windows 10 (there is no logical reason there should be an issue...unless the developer stupidly hard-coded Windows version into the installer...something I've not experienced since Great Battles of Alexander insisted on running only in Windows 95).

Nothing current. It was announced yesterday that SafeDisc will not function under Win10, and will not be updated to do so. This means that any game using SafeDisc cannot be run.

Unless, of course, you apply a no-CD.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 1:14 pm

Blackhawk wrote:
Jeff V wrote:I also don't think I've heard of a single case of software that works in Windows 7 not working in Windows 10 (there is no logical reason there should be an issue...unless the developer stupidly hard-coded Windows version into the installer...something I've not experienced since Great Battles of Alexander insisted on running only in Windows 95).
Nothing current. It was announced yesterday that SafeDisc will not function under Win10, and will not be updated to do so. This means that any game using SafeDisc cannot be run.

Unless, of course, you apply a no-CD.

Thank you for vindicating my boycott of all Safedisc encumbered games. This is not a problem I ever would have had.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:10 pm

First post-RTM Insider build is out. Highlights: can now customize more interface elements, and memory compression to reduce paging.

Victoria Raverna · Post by **Victoria Raverna** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 12:34 am

Jeff V wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:
tgb wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:Can I download the upgrade but not install - as in, download the software but just not run it yet? I'd hate to not be able to play my games. I'm currently still on Win 7.
Why bother? If you (we) do that it only adds another step to the process as W10 would have to be updated. If you (we) wait until word is that it's safe to install, the latest version is downloaded automatically.
But would I have to buy it then (because I have no faith that any fixes would come out while it's still free).
Umm...the third patch is already out. I am not sure what you think is unsafe; people I know who were in "early access" said it was stable long before the final code was released. I've had no issues since day 1. I also don't think I've heard of a single case of software that works in Windows 7 not working in Windows 10 (there is no logical reason there should be an issue...unless the developer stupidly hard-coded Windows version into the installer...something I've not experienced since Great Battles of Alexander insisted on running only in Windows 95).

While you have no issue, Windows 10 is still buggy. I had no issue for almost two weeks until my computer shutdown because of electrical power failure. Then when I boot it back up, it started to behave strangely.

I experienced the following problems:

1. Taskbar problem. After booting up, the taskbar worked correctly but after a while (several minutes to hours), the taskbar glitched. On the left side where we have application shortcut, I can left click to start application but I can't open the right click menu. On the right side with the taskbar buttons, I can't left click to open any of the applications but I can open the right click menu. This keep happening even after rebooting. One way to fix it without rebooting is to kill the explorer using task manager and let it restarts itself. Searching internet there are several report of the taskbar bug since several months ago.

2. One time freezed up with black screen (monitor is on so not freezing with the power saving black screen).

To fix the No. 1, I tried to uninstall updates that were automatically installed by Window Update because I thought maybe an update or a corrupted update caused the problem. I tried to set defer update then uninstall all the updates and then do a Windows update to download the security updates but it didn't work as expected. It redownloaded all updates including non security one. So I disabled the defer update because it is useless.

But that reinstall of updates seem to fix the task bar problem. Haven't had a problem with taskbar after that.

As for No. 2 problem, it was one time thing, but to prevent it. I disabled all power saving features. So far no problem with freezing after 3-4 days.

So for people that can wait, I think it is a good idea to wait. You have time until next August to upgrade for free. Or just wait until games started to use Directx 12 then upgrade. Hopefully Windows 10 will be more stable.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:26 am

Where is the Add and Remove Programs feature at in Win 10?

Thanks!

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:44 am

dbt1949 wrote:Where is the Add and Remove Programs feature at in Win 10?

Thanks!

Find the program in the Start menu and then right click it.