Windows 9, er, 10.

[Holman]

This week I'm updating three laptops and my beloved desktop from 7 or 8.1 to 10. So far so good.

Suddenly it feels like Microsoft has it together.

[wonderpug]

Am I going to encounter any Windows 10 licensing nuttiness if I upgrade the mobo and CPU in my machine while keeping the same hard drive? This rig got to Windows 10 by way of an XP install disc to a Windows 7 upgrade disc to the downloadable Windows 10 free upgrade.

[Alefroth]

Am I going to encounter any Windows 10 licensing nuttiness if I upgrade the mobo and CPU in my machine while keeping the same hard drive? This rig got to Windows 10 by way of an XP install disc to a Windows 7 upgrade disc to the downloadable Windows 10 free upgrade.

From what I've heard, more than likely.

http://www.howtogeek.com/226510/how-to- ... -hardware/

[hitbyambulance]

something i'm not sure about - can a Windows 7 or 8 key still be used to activate Windows 7 or 8 after being used for Windows 10 purposes? (if that copy of Windows 10 is not installed anywhere else, that is)

[wonderpug]

Am I going to encounter any Windows 10 licensing nuttiness if I upgrade the mobo and CPU in my machine while keeping the same hard drive? This rig got to Windows 10 by way of an XP install disc to a Windows 7 upgrade disc to the downloadable Windows 10 free upgrade.

From what I've heard, more than likely.

http://www.howtogeek.com/226510/how-to- ... -hardware/

[Holman]

And I've hit a snag.

This morning I updated my desktop from 8.1 to 10. It seems to have worked, but it seems to believe I'm a different user now. My downloads and documents folders are empty even though Windows informed during setup that everything would be where I left it. (Yes I backed everything up, so nothing is lost.)

What's more, every time I boot the computer, I get a warning box on the lower right of the desktop telling me that I have logged in with a temporary profile.

Now, when I go looking in the C:\Users directory, I can see the folder for "Admin" (the old me) still there, and all the content of my old Documents, Downloads, etc folders are still there. Parallel to this user folder are two new ones called TEMP and TEMP.i5, which were created when Windows updated. These must be what I'm booting into currently?

How do I boot into my old ID to get my old self back?

EDIT: So, a couple of hours after upgrading, and after I had done a few reboots (per advice I found online), Win 10 finally decided to recognize my actual identity. Instead of booting to a temporary profile, it gave me the "Hi. All your files are where you left them. Etc." screens again and booted to something much like my old desktop. My old shortcuts were all gone, but I had immediate access to my Documents, Downloads, and other folders, and my old software was still installed.

Since then it's been smooth.

[Isgrimnur]

We're totally not spying on you:

n order to illustrate just how popular Windows 10 has become, Microsoft felt the need to share some milestones:

• People have spent over 11 billion hours on Windows 10 in December alone.
• Over 44.5 billion minutes spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in just the last month.
• Over 2.5 billion questions asked of Cortana since launch.
• Around 30% more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device vs. prior versions of Windows.
• Over 82 billion photos viewed within the Windows 10 Photo app.
• Gaming continues to grow on Windows 10 – in 2015, gamers spent over 4 billion hours playing PC games on Windows 10.
• Gamers have streamed more than 6.6 million hours of Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs.

[stessier]

Yeah, that's not cool.

[Smoove_B]

Just gave up trying to figure out how to get my Win10 laptop to provide/gain access to file sharing on the LAN. Went through all the steps I found online, toggled all the radio buttons; clicked all the check boxes. After an hour decided ordering a 64GB thumb drive from Amazon was easier. And even though that will take two days to arrive, it's still faster than my DSL connection speeds.

[stessier]

First step of all trouble shooting...did you connect your laptop to the LAN?

[Smoove_B]

Please - this is not my first time at the rodeo.

2x a year I attend a LAN party and there are IT professionals there that struggle with getting computers to a point where they can grab a mod from a file server on the network. I remember trying to get file sharing stuff working with Win95 and it was a pain in the arse. At some point with one of the Windows operating systems, you just connected to the LAN and everything magically worked. Now it feels like they went back to making it difficult. It's prompting me for passwords and telling me computers don't exist (they do). But I'm sure Microsoft could tell you what ads I've viewed or how long certain applications have been open on my laptop.

[Bad Demographic]

something i'm not sure about - can a Windows 7 or 8 key still be used to activate Windows 7 or 8 after being used for Windows 10 purposes? (if that copy of Windows 10 is not installed anywhere else, that is)

I don't understand your question. Did you install Win10 then decide to put Win7/8 back on your machine? If so, that's what I did, and I was able to reuse the Win7 key when I reinstalled 7 on my pc.

[hitbyambulance]

something i'm not sure about - can a Windows 7 or 8 key still be used to activate Windows 7 or 8 after being used for Windows 10 purposes? (if that copy of Windows 10 is not installed anywhere else, that is)

I don't understand your question. Did you install Win10 then decide to put Win7/8 back on your machine? If so, that's what I did, and I was able to reuse the Win7 key when I reinstalled 7 on my pc.

great, that's what i wanted to know.

[Jeff V]

We're totally not spying on you:

n order to illustrate just how popular Windows 10 has become, Microsoft felt the need to share some milestones:

• People have spent over 11 billion hours on Windows 10 in December alone.
• Over 44.5 billion minutes spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in just the last month.
• Over 2.5 billion questions asked of Cortana since launch.
• Around 30% more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device vs. prior versions of Windows.
• Over 82 billion photos viewed within the Windows 10 Photo app.
• Gaming continues to grow on Windows 10 – in 2015, gamers spent over 4 billion hours playing PC games on Windows 10.
• Gamers have streamed more than 6.6 million hours of Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs.

Just how does accumulating those statistics violate me in any way?

[Isgrimnur]

If this is the data that they're aggregating for release, and they've not specified how detailed the raw data they're collecting, how can you know that they're not violating you?

[stessier]

And why, by choosing an OS, should I allow them to get that data at all? I want something to run my computer - not a platform for you to figure out what I do with all my time.

[Jeff V]

If this is the data that they're aggregating for release, and they've not specified how detailed the raw data they're collecting, how can you know that they're not violating you?

If a bear shits in the woods and nobody sticks your face in it, does it still smell?

That is exceedingly general data they are collecting. Do you also bitch about road sensors that detect traffic flow? Or airlines and hotels when they count you as part of their capacity statistics? What about stores that include your Black Friday purchases in the aggregate totals they report to whoever collates such things?

I'd be pissed they were publishing a list of every packet of data coming from my IP address including personal information. But they aren't doing that. They are detecting time spent using a particular browser. They are detecting time spent (in my case, not spent) in the Microsoft ecosystem. They are not reporting that Jeff V spends 8 hours a day on PornHub (I don't, but for example). That would be a violation. The rest are general observations.

[Kraken]

And why, by choosing an OS, should I allow them to get that data at all? I want something to run my computer - not a platform for you to figure out what I do with all my time.

But you got it for free!

[stessier]

I know that's a joke, but I got a new computer and paid full price.

[Kraken]

Only partly joking. The Windows upgrade is "free" in the same way that Facebook is "free." We trade our data for it. The software isn't the product, we are.

If you paid for the OS you have good reason to be cheesed off. The rest of us...well, we can grumble.

I still haven't done the upgrade. I don't really want to; I'm happy with Win 7, but I know that ultimately I'll need to do it or be left behind. Thinking about doing my desktop machine this weekend.

[LordMortis]

We're totally not spying on you:

n order to illustrate just how popular Windows 10 has become, Microsoft felt the need to share some milestones:

• People have spent over 11 billion hours on Windows 10 in December alone.
• Over 44.5 billion minutes spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in just the last month.
• Over 2.5 billion questions asked of Cortana since launch.
• Around 30% more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device vs. prior versions of Windows.
• Over 82 billion photos viewed within the Windows 10 Photo app.
• Gaming continues to grow on Windows 10 – in 2015, gamers spent over 4 billion hours playing PC games on Windows 10.
• Gamers have streamed more than 6.6 million hours of Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs.

Is there a good checklist for how to turn this stuff off? As well as all of the Internet... whatever they call widgets in 10. I'm preparing my first work environment machine for 10 as a forerunner for the way we have to move in the future.

I know with my test machine at home I turned a ton of crap off in my agreement, and a ton more in edge but I didn't get the agreement options in my paid for version and I didn't take notes in my home machine like I should have.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Is there a good checklist for how to turn this stuff off? As well as all of the Internet... whatever they call widgets in 10. I'm preparing my first work environment machine for 10 as a forerunner for the way we have to move in the future.

I know with my test machine at home I turned a ton of crap off in my agreement, and a ton more in edge but I didn't get the agreement options in my paid for version and I didn't take notes in my home machine like I should have.

I posted the following in Paingod's "Yet Another PC Build Thread", but it probably bears repeating here:

FWIW, there are quite a few Windows 10 privacy tools available that may help allay your concerns. Here's a useful 'Comparison of Windows 10 Privacy tools' courtesy of ghacks.net.

ShutUp10 is one of the better freeware choices IMHO, as it doesn't need to be installed (so there's no OpenCandy adware shenanigans or the like). It also includes decent descriptions of its various tweaks. Coincidentally, it's made by OO-software.com, though obviously no relation to our humble abode.

[LordMortis]

You da man!

[GreenGoo]

For anyone who is still running 7 and accidentally installed the optional update that results in a permanent "Upgrade to Windows 10" notification icon, you can remove it by removing update KB3035583.

It may have been mentioned before, I didn't read the entire thread.

[Kraken]

Heh. I need to have that constant nag there or I will never do it. I don't like to fuss with things that already work just fine. I'd probably still be running Win98 if it were up to me.

[gilraen]

For anyone who is still running 7 and accidentally installed the optional update that results in a permanent "Upgrade to Windows 10" notification icon, you can remove it by removing update KB3035583.

Yeah, I had to uninstall that update, it was getting obnoxious with its "Upgrade now!" window popping up all the time.

[Cylus Maxii]

I pulled the trigger and finally updated my main PC from 8.1 to 10 last night. So far its pretty good.

My only issue was a very low-tone subwoofer feedback because it had the microphone on for Cortana (I think) and also had the mic mixed back into the speaker outputs. I had to turn off the mic entirely and haven't yet bothered to figure out how to get the mic out of the mix for playback so it won't feedback.

Otherwise - all is great so far.

[Carpet_pissr]

I still haven't done the upgrade. I don't really want to; I'm happy with Win 7, but I know that ultimately I'll need to do it or be left behind. Thinking about doing my desktop machine this weekend.

If I could go back in time, I would not have upgraded from Win 7 - just too many little things that piss me off, which IMO are worse than previous versions. Primarily, for games, I now need to change the permissions manually to get them to run, and/or they won't run at all. Far too many games in this category than I was expecting.

Also, just stupid small stuff. For some reason, on prior versions (not sure about 8), Windows Update would be HAPPY to show you what was being updated, so you could decide whether or not you needed or even wanted it. Just try to find out what that last update did for Win 10, or even what the proposed update will do! It's maddening, and pretty obvious that they intentionally hid the details as a conscious design decision.

Other small quirks: I dislike the lack of an easy "look" for installed programs where you can click UNINSTALL like in previous versions.

I dislike the very strong push for the user to associate their log in with an MS account. If you DON'T do this, you lose some functionality/features of the new OS.

I make these complaints with the hindsight of actually relishing my upgrades to Win XP and Win 7. I specifically remember thinking how much better each of those versions were compared to their predecessor. Not so here.

[Jeff V]

I still haven't done the upgrade. I don't really want to; I'm happy with Win 7, but I know that ultimately I'll need to do it or be left behind. Thinking about doing my desktop machine this weekend.

If I could go back in time, I would not have upgraded from Win 7 - just too many little things that piss me off, which IMO are worse than previous versions. Primarily, for games, I now need to change the permissions manually to get them to run, and/or they won't run at all. Far too many games in this category than I was expecting.

Never had to do this even once. Do you have something set to ridiculously high security?

Also, just stupid small stuff. For some reason, on prior versions (not sure about 8), Windows Update would be HAPPY to show you what was being updated, so you could decide whether or not you needed or even wanted it. Just try to find out what that last update did for Win 10, or even what the proposed update will do! It's maddening, and pretty obvious that they intentionally hid the details as a conscious design decision.

Other small quirks: I dislike the lack of an easy "look" for installed programs where you can click UNINSTALL like in previous versions.

You mean Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features? Works exactly the same as it did in Windows 7.

I dislike the very strong push for the user to associate their log in with an MS account. If you DON'T do this, you lose some functionality/features of the new OS.

Not sure what you lose. I usually use a MS account out of convenience, but I have local accounts too that seem to work just fine.

[Kraken]

Other small quirks: I dislike the lack of an easy "look" for installed programs where you can click UNINSTALL like in previous versions.

You mean Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features? Works exactly the same as it did in Windows 7.

I use CCleaner for that. I presume it will still run under Win 10.

[Blackhawk]

I have played a lot of games under Windows 10 now, and have run quite a few more without actively playing them. I have run into exactly one game that wouldn't run (Freedom Force), and the problem with it goes back to Windows 8. I haven't had a single game that I couldn't play because of Windows 10.

[Moliere]

Every other post of this thread has me saying

"Yeah, I should update to Win10 tonight!"
"Wait, no, there are too many problems."

I updated the laptop in December, but have been holding off on the desktop gaming rig. My two biggest concerns are the game compatibility and the possibility that I might be building a new rig in the next 6 months. If so, that means the new Win10 upgrade probably won't work and I will be reinstalling Win7 anyway.

[wonderpug]

If so, that means the new Win10 upgrade probably won't work and I will be reinstalling Win7 anyway.

I'll be doing my CPU & mobo upgrade in about a week and attempting to do a Win10 license transfer dance. I'll be sure to post about how it goes.

[Carpet_pissr]

Every other post of this thread has me saying

"Yeah, I should update to Win10 tonight!"
"Wait, no, there are too many problems."

I updated the laptop in December, but have been holding off on the desktop gaming rig. My two biggest concerns are the game compatibility and the possibility that I might be building a new rig in the next 6 months. If so, that means the new Win10 upgrade probably won't work and I will be reinstalling Win7 anyway.

I think it's fair to say that if there are 10 positive comments, and one negative, you throw out that negative as an outlier, no? Also, some of my complaints are personal preference. I bet a whole lot of people couldn't care less if Windows Updates tells them what its doing, thus the change.

And again, I just don't think the design or UI (or anything, really, that I have found to date), is BETTER than Win 7, and in some cases seems to be a step back. I wonder if part of it is the hybridization of design with touch in mind...no idea. But if 9/10 OO'ers love it and are glad they upgraded, it's likely you will too.

[Montag]

I have 4 machines at home (mine, wife's, daughter's, and a netbook) and a work laptop. All of the upgrades from Win 7 have gone smoothly. I have experienced only one problem tied to a home grown Access database with a lot of VB code. The hand off for generating and sending an email from Access to Outlook is now blocked by a security lock down in the way it was coded. Not that big of deal. All of my games have run fine.

[JetFred]

I have decided it was jv16 Power Tools that long ago hosed my Windows install so that everything runs fine but Windows update is broken beyond repair. I still can't get my primary desktop to upgrade, and now I've hit a point where it won't even update. No MS Fixit and Update Diagnostic don't fix it.

[Kraken]

I think it's fair to say that if there are 10 positive comments, and one negative, you throw out that negative as an outlier, no?

Or a 10% complaint rate reinforces your reluctance.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I have decided it was jv16 Power Tools that long ago hosed my Windows install so that everything runs fine but Windows update is broken beyond repair. I still can't get my primary desktop to upgrade, and now I've hit a point where it won't even update. No MS Fixit and Update Diagnostic don't fix it.

Have you tried the Tweaking.com Windows Repair tool? It worked for me when I needed to rectify the Windows Update service on a colleague's laptop, so ir's probably worth a shot (especially since it's free).

[Kraken]

I have decided it was jv16 Power Tools that long ago hosed my Windows install so that everything runs fine but Windows update is broken beyond repair. I still can't get my primary desktop to upgrade, and now I've hit a point where it won't even update. No MS Fixit and Update Diagnostic don't fix it.

Ugh. I had to reinstall Windows to fix that a year or two ago. Never did figure out what broke updates, although I suspected it was a CCleaner registry cleanup.

[JetFred]

I have decided it was jv16 Power Tools that long ago hosed my Windows install so that everything runs fine but Windows update is broken beyond repair. I still can't get my primary desktop to upgrade, and now I've hit a point where it won't even update. No MS Fixit and Update Diagnostic don't fix it.

Have you tried the Tweaking.com Windows Repair tool? It worked for me when I needed to rectify the Windows Update service on a colleague's laptop, so ir's probably worth a shot (especially since it's free).

I might try it. Does anyone know any reason I shouldn't?