I bought a new 'puter

[Dave W]

What a PITA when buying a new 'puter. I finally gave up after too many blue or black screens of death showing up regularly on my ancient home built desktop with XP. I still like XP or if upgrading, WIN 7 such as the laptop runs. Instead, I made the quantum leap to WIN 10 Pro. And of course, I have to redo all my bookmarks since I screwed up and ended up with two different sets of logins to the OS (Firefox). There is another way to transfer those bookmarks but need a bit more sit down time.

With this said, WIN 10 is fast and there are lots of places that I haven't wandered into yet but it is like learning a whole new way of life.

Now, if I could only type faster .............:nonono::nonono:

[chuckster57]

Win10 in the garage...Edge for browser. I know what you mean by frustration getting it set up. Jut bought another laptop for taxes...:banghead:

[MattHelm21]

If you camp a lot with windows 10, you will probably be in low bandwidth areas on occasion. One of the biggest drawbacks with it is that Win10 will automatically download windows updates using up all available bandwidth. There is no option to disable this however, there is a trick. Assuming you are using a wireless connection, you can change a setting to make this a “metered connection”. Windows will still download some “important updates” without approval but most will prompt you to download them or you can open and check for updates manually.

[chuckster57]

I’ll keep that in mind. Usually just iPad Air 2 when glamping.

[MattHelm21]

I mostly use the IPad Pro 12.9 like right now(generator exercise today). But the work laptop is Windows 10 Pro which I’ve been using about 1 year now. If there is a catastrophe at work the laptop will come out but I find I’m able to use it less and less when remote. At work, Windows still rules with wired connection, multi monitor support, port replicators, docks, and such.

[Dave W]

Luckily, my DW and I still have laptops with WIN 7 and will keep them as long as they work well tho html 5 wont play well.

I tried their latest browser, Edge, for a couple days but ended up reverting back to my longtime favorite, Firefox. I've been using it since V2, now V59 which is probably 15 plus years.

The joys of the electronic world. We may even go to a smart phone someday when our flippers finally quit:eek::nonono:

[CaptnJohn]

My new laptop came with Win 10. I loaded Win 7 as less junk . Still using Office Pro 7 or Essentials or whatever they call that. Use a hard drive backup - external- as I'm no fan of the cloud either. Guess you can tell I'm old.


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[Dave W]

My new laptop came with Win 10. I loaded Win 7 as less junk . Still using Office Pro 7 or Essentials or whatever they call that. Use a hard drive backup - external- as I'm no fan of the cloud either. Guess you can tell I'm old.


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I threatened to do the same but amfiguring 10 out, slowbut sure.

Not only do I have 2 external 500GB hard drives, I also use memory sticks and burn CDs for my back up info. Heck, the old 'puter I built had a 3,5 floppy drive and the previous build had the 5" floppy drive. I have control of my info and whatever, not a server farm somewhere in the world which puts me as old too

[chuckster57]

DW has a 500gig and a 1terabyte external for her photo business. Of course a MAC with Photoshop.

[SummitPond]

... With this said, WIN 10 is fast and there are lots of places that I haven't wandered into yet but it is like learning a whole new way of life. ...

Dave

If it's within the allowed actions of the forum, could you tell where you got your new machine, brand, model, specs, # ports, price, etc? I've been looking to upgrade, but I'm not generally impressed; they're either bare bones or over stuffed.

I've got a 15 year old laptop running XP and many of the keys don't work - I need to plug in an external keyboard. It's slower than molasses in January, so when I need (want) speed I boot to Ubuntu Linux, but I still have driver issues for peripherals that I have not yet conquered, so I must go back to XP regularly. The DW has a much newer (6 years old) laptop that originally came with Win7 but we upgraded to Win10 when MS made their free offer. It too has suffered performance issues, but at least all the keys still work.

Thanks.

Ken

[sourdough]

Folks, .......

I used to be on the forefront of technology development and implementation...circa 1982.

In these days we should all be running Windows 10. I loved XP. Windows 7 was forgettable. Windows 10 is cool but has a lot of issues....to me.

IMO no one should be running XP anymore...there's not much support. I buy new laptops/desktops every 3-4 years ago so that I can stay on top of the most recent innovations. I would suggest you guys think of that as well. Trying to run 15 year old software in this day and age is....slow. JMO

[chuckster57]

BIL (rest in peace) was a computer “teacher”, taught me a lot of “tricks” back in the day. He was the only one I knew that actually liked windows ME.

[CaptnJohn]

I've been on these things beginning with DOS. When Win 3.0 came out it was beautiful. Passed on xp and like 7 better than 10. No fan of Edge either and will never see where the cloud is better than keeping my information myself.


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[JRTJH]

There's a commercial floating around asking "Is your information on the dark web?" They offer a one time check to see if your information may be at risk on the dark web... The way I see it, if your info isn't there now, once they post it there to see if there's a match..... So, I'll take my chances that I'm not on the dark web and I'll keep all my information on a solid state hard drive that's "right here where I can see it"..... I trust the cloud about as much as I trust TowMax tires......

[sourdough]

I've been on these things beginning with DOS. When Win 3.0 came out it was beautiful. Passed on xp and like 7 better than 10. No fan of Edge either and will never see where the cloud is better than keeping my information myself.


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DOS was what I learned, after programming with hex and binary. You have to agree that all of the new stuff; xp, 7, 10 etc. are all so much better. I remember programming a new system.... 6 bays, 15' long filled with memory and processing cards along with peripheral equipment.

Our programming information was in 6 books, 400-600 pages each, with maybe 100+ lines of code to program on each page. We sat in the floor for days programming getting it ready to fly.

[CaptnJohn]

There's a commercial floating around asking "Is your information on the dark web?" They offer a one time check to see if your information may be at risk on the dark web... The way I see it, if your info isn't there now, once they post it there to see if there's a match..... So, I'll take my chances that I'm not on the dark web and I'll keep all my information on a solid state hard drive that's "right here where I can see it"..... I trust the cloud about as much as I trust TowMax tires......



My thought exactly! Keep a good antivirus on and change PWs often.


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[vampress_me]

Ok, can’t resist. Hehehe. Or, you go Mac and never go back. :D Or better yet, a Mac running Windows 7 on VMware. Best of both worlds?

[CaptnJohn]

Ok, can’t resist. Hehehe. Or, you go Mac and never go back. :D Or better yet, a Mac running Windows 7 on VMware. Best of both worlds?



If I did a lot of movies or graphics I'd agree. For business and personal applications I'll pass. That was a short term 1 and done.


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[vampress_me]

If I did a lot of movies or graphics I'd agree. For business and personal applications I'll pass. That was a short term 1 and done.


That was almost me too! The Mac had (for me) a horrid getting used to period. But I was so sick of the blue screens of death (and hubby was tired of me complaining and having to fix it since he’s a computer guy) he got me a MacBook Air. Mine does no movies or graphics. Just personal stuff, and the Windows 7 is just because I use AutoCAD for work, and have gotten used to it on a 13” screen so can work from anywhere. And there was no way I was buying a new copy of AutoCAD for a Mac (choke, choke). The version I did buy years ago about killed the budget!

[CaptnJohn]

DOS was what I learned, after programming with hex and binary. You have to agree that all of the new stuff; xp, 7, 10 etc. are all so much better. I remember programming a new system.... 6 bays, 15' long filled with memory and processing cards along with peripheral equipment.

Our programming information was in 6 books, 400-600 pages each, with maybe 100+ lines of code to program on each page. We sat in the floor for days programming getting it ready to fly.

If we still had to use DOS / dial up 95% of computer users would not be online. Most under 40 have never seen a slide rule or know what to do with one. Damn, I'm old!

[sourdough]

If we still had to use DOS / dial up 95% of computer users would not be online. Most under 40 have never seen a slide rule or know what to do with one. Damn, I'm old!

You know, I used to use a slide rule all the time....still have my "old faithful" in a drawer in my "office". Still in its little leather case.....don't know that I could use it any more.....

Dial up....I was on the forefront of the data age. We began with 300 baud, then 1200, 2400, 4800 and when we hit 9600 it was like....holy cow, we're "screaming". Modems for those circuits were like 20 lbs...Wescom, Western Electric etc. Then again, I was just a whipper snapper....:)

[notanlines]

I wish I could find the Windows 10 promotors in a dark alley. I'd almost be glad to go back to Fortran or PL/1. I could personally put a bullet in the back of Cortana.....:mad:

[chuckster57]

If we still had to use DOS / dial up 95% of computer users would not be online. Most under 40 have never seen a slide rule or know what to do with one. Damn, I'm old!


Yup! I remember writing lines in win 3.0, thought we were in the tall cotton with our first modem. Had 2 phone lines so surfing wouldn’t interrupt “normal” life. Don’t have a slide rule anymore but do have dial and slide calipers.

[SummitPond]

... IMO no one should be running XP anymore...there's not much support. ...
Danny, I haven't missed the XP support; my scanner and printer still work just fine with it. When I do use that particular laptop (versus my wife's newer Win7 now Win10 model) I tend to transfer data to and from it via USB flash drive rather than go out on the web. Even though my antivirus still works and updates, I'd rather not get something infecting me unawares! I've not given up that laptop as I've had issues with Win10 drivers with the scanner that I don't have with XP. Yes, it's slow as molasses, but I don't do web stuff with it.

DOS was what I learned, after programming with hex and binary. You have to agree that all of the new stuff; xp, 7, 10 etc. are all so much better. ...
I happened to learn on mainframes (IBM/360) and minis (IBM 1401 and 1800); my first "PC" was a single-board hex keypad device with 1K RAM and no way to save the programs that were manually assembled and entered. We have come a long way.

... Or, you go Mac and never go back. :D Or better yet, a Mac running Windows 7 on VMware. Best of both worlds?
Lynette, I'd love to go Mac (although I wish they would have stuck with the PowerPC chip); it is truly a superb OS. Unfortunately, it's the cost of a Mac that prevents me from taking the plunge. I keep hoping a good friend of mine will sell me his cheap when he decides to move up. One of these days when I don't have anything better to do I'm going to figure out how to configure WINE on my Linux system.

I wish I could find the Windows 10 promotors in a dark alley. I'd almost be glad to go back to Fortran or PL/1. I could personally put a bullet in the back of Cortana.....:mad:
Jim, they no longer teach FORTRAN in college (I can't speak for PL/I). I tell my "Intro to Engineering" students they should figure out how to learn FORTRAN as it could be the difference between being hired or not; I had a cousin that worked at Pratt & Whitney in CN, 10K employees on site and only 4 knew FORTRAN to be able to maintain their legacy code. Talk about job security! I keep telling myself I'm going to dig out my old 5.25" drive, hook it up in a desktop and load up my old copy of MS FORTRAN, but I've yet to do it. I can't think of anything I want to program, and I'm not sure it would even run in the DOS window any more.

Ken

[Nuke]

For those who want a new computer, but are not fans of Windows 10, here is a tool that basically puts window dressing on the Windows 10 unit so that it looks and acts like Windows 7. And it is a freebie! This was passed to us engineers direct from Microsoft during a conference (maybe they don't like 10 either!).

Anyway, the tool is called Classic Shell and can be downloaded from http://www.classicshell.net (big blue button on top left).

Pretty good instructions there on its use - definitely makes Windows 10 more friendly!

Enjoy!
JH

[Dave W]

For those who want a new computer, but are not fans of Windows 10, here is a tool that basically puts window dressing on the Windows 10 unit so that it looks and acts like Windows 7. And it is a freebie! This was passed to us engineers direct from Microsoft during a conference (maybe they don't like 10 either!).

Anyway, the tool is called Classic Shell and can be downloaded from http://www.classicshell.net (big blue button on top left).

Pretty good instructions there on its use - definitely makes Windows 10 more friendly!

Enjoy!
JH


Now that looks interesting and may happen if my 'frustration index' goes off scale. I was late to computing plus had other time eating interests. That meant I just became a user and an occasional builder with no skills beyond mechanical assembly of good parts instead of buying low end PCs like Dell that cost too many $$ for what you got.

Some good news for me, anyhow - was able to transfer all my bookmarks via thumb drive and an html file. Easy but not intuitive for me

[ChuckS]

I remember the days of DOS 2.11 and remember the computer lab had just a couple of the AT PCs with a 286 and a 10 gig drive with CGA monitor.. and we too had two phone lines at house with one dedicated to PC.. and a 2400 baud modem..

We have both Apple products and one Windows based PC now. We find just about everything can be done with an iPad or similar..

The one thing bad about Macs is if your HD dies, and ours did, you have to remove the front glass and such to gain access to replace drive unit.. luckily I have the skill sets and can do that type of work. Many can’t and have to take to PC store for repair.

Just picked up a rebuilt Dell with 8G ram, 1TB drive, Windows 10 Pro.. bit if a change from my two old laptops running Vista 32.. for $235 for rebuilt system Twas a very good deal..

[anuccite]

If you camp a lot with windows 10, you will probably be in low bandwidth areas on occasion. One of the biggest drawbacks with it is that Win10 will automatically download windows updates using up all available bandwidth. There is no option to disable this however, there is a trick. Assuming you are using a wireless connection, you can change a setting to make this a “metered connection”. Windows will still download some “important updates” without approval but most will prompt you to download them or you can open and check for updates manually.

There is always a way......

you can stop updated for up to 35 days.... and if your out camping for more than 35 days at a time, I hate you :bow:

to get here.... Click Start, type "windows update" look for Windows update settings, then Click Advanced

https://www.dropbox.com/s/99cb4a8rd9h4l1r/automatic%20updates.JPG?raw=1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/99cb4a8rd9h4l1r/automatic%20updates.JPG?Raw=1

[Dave W]

"Puter works great - and fast. Now another $170 bucks later, have a new Lynksys EA8200 WIFI router on order. My DW with her HP with WIN 7 Pro laptop is complaining on how slow it is in comparison. Oh well, it's only money (and keeping a many year marriage happy :D)