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Windows 10 for free, there has to be a snag??


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I upgraded the desktop to Windows 10 last week.  I had an issue with the computer not recognizing my second monitor.  I had to update the driver on the graphics card (Nvidia) in order to get it to work.

 

I was absolutely CRUSHED when I discovered the Windows Media Center is no longer there.  I had my computer set up with two monitors and I have a Television Card in the computer - I used to watch network broadcase TV (antenna connected to the computer) in the evenings while I edited photos.  The computer even came with a remote control for the TV back when I bought it a few years ago.  That's no longer possible with my desktop.

 

This has forced me to move my 37 inch television in the front room into the spare bedroom and I had to buy a new 50 inch TV for the front room.  It's Microsoft's fault.

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Never thought I would write this but the stupid number of updates in recent weeks plus the hangs and problems with Windows has just given Mr Jobs' empire another convert. I've envied my other halfs trouble free use of her iMac even running some old OSX.

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Having played with Windows 10 as a fresh install on a separate PC, I thought I try a Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade to see if I got my free licence. The process seemed to go well. All settings preserved except it overwrote my screen driver with a Microsoft generic driver that only allowed 1024 x 768 resolution. Forcing it to use the Windows 7 driver soon fixed that.

 

But.... my big bugbear is that Windows 10 refuses to activate. Even though I upgraded from a genuine validated Windows 7 SP1, my new Windows 10 installation is not validated. It seems that I've joined an enormous pool of others suffering the same problem. Hey ho!

 

I should have waited until they'd sorted more of the bugs... Fortunately it's not my main PC (I wouldn't dare upgrade that one at the moment)

 

 

My experience has been that a number of drivers revert to generic catch all drivers during the upgrade process but after 30mins or so on line everything sorts its self out and windows downloads the correct and latest drivers.

 

As for the activation, yeah I had that too but after a day or two it had sorted it's self out.

 

After 1 hour online with Microsoft support they took over my PC and used a "one time only" activation key to activate my copy. Seems that their "activation servers" have been overloaded and as a result there a lots of problems with activation.

 

As a result of the shambles I played with a MacBook Pro for a while today. In my opinion the OSX user Interface is loads more consistent and polished than Windows 10, which looks decidedly scruffy and inconsistent in comparison. It's a shame Mac hardware is so expensive or I'd swap over in a heartbeat.

You get what you pay for. I have paid more for the hardware, love my Mac, and no longer spend time cussing Microsoft.

:). That's called peace of mind, you can't put a price tag on that.

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Having played with Windows 10 as a fresh install on a separate PC, I thought I try a Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade to see if I got my free licence. The process seemed to go well. All settings preserved except it overwrote my screen driver with a Microsoft generic driver that only allowed 1024 x 768 resolution. Forcing it to use the Windows 7 driver soon fixed that.

 

But.... my big bugbear is that Windows 10 refuses to activate. Even though I upgraded from a genuine validated Windows 7 SP1, my new Windows 10 installation is not validated. It seems that I've joined an enormous pool of others suffering the same problem. Hey ho!

 

I should have waited until they'd sorted more of the bugs... Fortunately it's not my main PC (I wouldn't dare upgrade that one at the moment)

 

My experience has been that a number of drivers revert to generic catch all drivers during the upgrade process but after 30mins or so on line everything sorts its self out and windows downloads the correct and latest drivers.

 

As for the activation, yeah I had that too but after a day or two it had sorted it's self out.

 

After 1 hour online with Microsoft support they took over my PC and used a "one time only" activation key to activate my copy. Seems that their "activation servers" have been overloaded and as a result there a lots of problems with activation.

 

As a result of the shambles I played with a MacBook Pro for a while today. In my opinion the OSX user Interface is loads more consistent and polished than Windows 10, which looks decidedly scruffy and inconsistent in comparison. It's a shame Mac hardware is so expensive or I'd swap over in a heartbeat.

You get what you pay for. I have paid more for the hardware, love my Mac, and no longer spend time cussing Microsoft.

:). That's called peace of mind, you can't put a price tag on that.

 

 

Ah Betty, it's all relative. My son has spent many an hour cursing his Mac. Been to the shop twice. Maverick totally seized up his entire system. First he had to pay over $700 for the mess Maverick made, but  after some heavy arguing, Apple did cave and sent him back the money.

 

Friend of mine has also had to send hers in for repairs a number of times. 

 

No system is perfect. I have had very few issues with any of my versions of windows. 

 

Jill

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I upgraded the desktop to Windows 10 last week.  I had an issue with the computer not recognizing my second monitor.  I had to update the driver on the graphics card (Nvidia) in order to get it to work.

 

I was absolutely CRUSHED when I discovered the Windows Media Center is no longer there.  I had my computer set up with two monitors and I have a Television Card in the computer - I used to watch network broadcase TV (antenna connected to the computer) in the evenings while I edited photos.  The computer even came with a remote control for the TV back when I bought it a few years ago.  That's no longer possible with my desktop.

 

This has forced me to move my 37 inch television in the front room into the spare bedroom and I had to buy a new 50 inch TV for the front room.  It's Microsoft's fault.

 

Ed, I haven't used Media Center in years. I use VLC. It's free and you can download it here:

 

http://www.videolan.org/

 

Jill

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Jill, I looked at a few apps like VLC.  The trouble with them is they don't seem to work with normal network broadcast television.  I just want to see the broadcast shows in my area, not necessarily videos or TV stations from around the world.

 

The new TV works just fine.

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Jill, I looked at a few apps like VLC.  The trouble with them is they don't seem to work with normal network broadcast television.  I just want to see the broadcast shows in my area, not necessarily videos or TV stations from around the world.

 

The new TV works just fine.

 

I might be presumptions, but the US should be ahead of Sweden in this matter? We haven't used broadcast TV (via antenna or similar) in almost 8 years. All channels; local, national and premium are all available via the internet on any device (mobile, ipads, computers, TVs). All local channels as well as all the major national channels have live HD streaming and are for free. The same with radio. This worked fine even when we only had 8 Mbit/s broadband (currently we have 130 Mbit/s, up to 1000 Mbit/s available).

 

Have you checked the website for the TV-station(s) that you miss?

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Another possible bug. The image on my second monitor is not entirely stable at times, with an annoying flicker sometimes occurring near the bottom of the screen. This has only happened since moving over to Win10, but could be a coincidence I guess.  :unsure:

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. All channels; local, national and premium are all available via the internet on any device (mobile, ipads, computers, TVs). All local channels as well as all the major national channels have live HD streaming and are for free. The same with radio.

 

We don't have this in the UK. Not all channels anyway. You still need a thingy in your computer.

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Jill, I looked at a few apps like VLC.  The trouble with them is they don't seem to work with normal network broadcast television.  I just want to see the broadcast shows in my area, not necessarily videos or TV stations from around the world.

 

The new TV works just fine.

 

I might be presumptions, but the US should be ahead of Sweden in this matter? We haven't used broadcast TV (via antenna or similar) in almost 8 years. All channels; local, national and premium are all available via the internet on any device (mobile, ipads, computers, TVs). All local channels as well as all the major national channels have live HD streaming and are for free. The same with radio. This worked fine even when we only had 8 Mbit/s broadband (currently we have 130 Mbit/s, up to 1000 Mbit/s available).

 

Have you checked the website for the TV-station(s) that you miss?

 

 

Martin, we switched to digital from analog a few years ago.  When that happened, people either had to buy a digital converter (receiver) to attach to their analog sets or buy a new television set.

 

When I bought the new televesion that had a digital receiver in it, I simply hooked it up to the Antenna that was in the attic of the house when I bought it about 20 years ago.  I get my digital television signal via that antenna.  If I wanted cable television or satellite television, I would have to pay extra every month (from about $50 on up and even that doesn't guarantee I get local network broadcast television)

 

The U.S. is behind from that aspect.

 

Though I could download an app that allows me to watch Swedish TV over the internet...I just wouldn't get my local news or sports broadcasts.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My FTP programme (CoffeeCup free version) doesn't work properly. It seems to connect - but won't work and show the recipient's directories and will not disconnect, but keeps hanging....

 

It may have something to do with the new firewall perhaps, but there is no help fo find on the Internet as if no-one else has had this problem.

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I must be one of the lucky ones and hope I'm not speaking too soon.  I upgraded to Win 10 on four PCs of differing ages right from the off. 

 

Not one problem noted to date on any of the machines. One from Win 7 Pro and the others from Win 8.1 .

 

The PC that was on Win 7 is noticeably 'slicker' in operation.

 

John

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Another possible bug. The image on my second monitor is not entirely stable at times, with an annoying flicker sometimes occurring near the bottom of the screen. This has only happened since moving over to Win10, but could be a coincidence I guess. :unsure:

This problem appears to have been sorted (Windows update?), but my machine crashed while trying to solve a crossword (The Independent) accessed using Chrome. Something about a driver error.

 

I am a!so seeing a problem in that the machine is unable to shut down properly if I forget to close Lightroom before ending a session. Had to switch off the power to force shut down.

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My FTP programme (CoffeeCup free version) doesn't work properly. It seems to connect - but won't work and show the recipient's directories and will not disconnect, but keeps hanging....

 

It may have something to do with the new firewall perhaps, but there is no help fo find on the Internet as if no-one else has had this problem.

 

Also seems to have solved itself - now it works. The programme wanted to report the crashes to CoffeeCup - but I tend more to believe it was an automatic update from Windows 10 that solved it...

 

 

This problem appears to have been sorted (Windows update?), but my machine crashed while trying to solve a crossword (The Independent) accessed using Chrome. Something about a driver error.

 

 

Perhaps a new feature in Windows 10 determining whether the crossword is too difficult   :)

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Never . . . ever . . . ever . . . be an "early adopter" . . .

 

dd

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Another possible bug. The image on my second monitor is not entirely stable at times, with an annoying flicker sometimes occurring near the bottom of the screen. This has only happened since moving over to Win10, but could be a coincidence I guess. :unsure:

This problem appears to have been sorted (Windows update?), but my machine crashed while trying to solve a crossword (The Independent) accessed using Chrome. Something about a driver error.

 

I am a!so seeing a problem in that the machine is unable to shut down properly if I forget to close Lightroom before ending a session. Had to switch off the power to force shut down.

Maybe the inability to shut down is caused by LR waiting for a response to a request to back up the catalogue?

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I am a!so seeing a problem in that the machine is unable to shut down properly if I forget to close Lightroom before ending a session. Had to switch off the power to force shut down.

Maybe the inability to shut down is caused by LR waiting for a response to a request to back up the catalogue?

 

Yes Ian that is the case, but Windows asks if you want to force the shutdown, which used to close the program successfully in 7 pro.

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