Windows 10

[ComicChick]

Pro-tip for disabling the auto-update/restart ******** because active hours is stupid:

Use regedit

• Go to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
• IF the folder is not there, create one WindowsUpdate and another key for AU inside of the folder.
• Create new a 32-bit DWORD
• Name it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and set its value to 1
• Reboot

Since doing this last month, I've had a much better experience with W10.

i haven't experienced this yet, but thank you for sharing.

can anyone recommend some must-have programs? the first things i downloaded were: AVG, CCleaner, and Firefox

 

[Gee]

can anyone recommend some must-have programs? the first things i downloaded were: AVG, CCleaner, and Firefox

For a media player, I'd go with either MPC-HC or MPC-BE. VLC seems to have become a bloatware nowadays (I admit I've never been a fan of VLC).

If you copy/move a lot of files, I recommend TeraCopy to replace the default copy/move functions from Windows.

For listening to music locally, there's AIMP or foobar which are great alternatives to Winamp (RIP).

 

[the dmg]

Slashdot has links to a new development. Microsoft is taking over control of driver installation for those who buy games through their store. They automatically install the drivers they choose whether you want them or not.

UWP is making the same mistakes as when they launched GFWL or whatever it used to be called. If they drop support like they previously did, then your games are useless. Sticking with Steam/Origin/GOG is the better option.

i haven't experienced this yet, but thank you for sharing.

If you're shutting down your desktop/laptop frequently, you probably don't notice due to updates happening then. If you tend to leave it on for work purposes/whatever, then W10 will automatically restart (after "active hours") and you will lose your work/progress. It's annoying and unnecessary thing for an OS to do.

can anyone recommend some must-have programs? the first things i downloaded were: AVG, CCleaner, and Firefox

Depends what you're looking for. I didn't link my email account with W10 because I don't want to use mobile/tablet apps for my laptop and stick with traditional programs.

For music, MusicBee is my Winamp replacement and works very well. Spotify desktop client works well and is free with ads. A great PDF viewer is Sumatra. A notepad/text program is Notepad++. Open Office/Libra as an alternative to Office. A good image viewer is Infranview. Something Photoshop-ish that works very well is Inkscape. VLC for video with K-Lite Codecs. 7zip for zip files. For gaming, Steam and GOG. Deluge for torrent client.

Best way to download everything at once without searching for everything is https://ninite.com/. It makes downloading simple.

 

[Lily Adler]

So Microsoft will have Windows 10 ready to run on ARM devices and emulate x86 programs on mobile devices:

 

[ComicChick]

any suggestions on some video editing software?

i converted a bunch of old family vhs tapes to dvd but i'd really like to cut segments together and maybe make new dvds. i'd definitely like to edit out those awkward "is it on yets" and the static etc

 

[Lily Adler]

For free?

 

[ComicChick]

sure.

if there are some that cost but are worth their price tag, i'd definitely consider those too

 

[Hotwire]

So, we got a new HP computer for Christmas and it's running Windows 10. I want to put Avast! on it but, every time I download it and try to run the .exe, it just shows a loading type logo with a ring moving and it. It never changes and had been running like that for up to 20 minutes straight. I've never had these issues with Avast! before and there's nothing on their site about it. Help?

Edit: As I was typing this the screen popped up allowing me to click on "Install" but, when I did, it went away and stopped doing anything. Clicked on the .exe again and I'm back to the orange line running circles around the logo.

 

[Lily Adler]

sure.

if there are some that cost but are worth their price tag, i'd definitely consider those too

For free there's kdenlive, Open Shot, and Blender. There's also Lightworks which follows a freemium model. If you want to pay for the software, there's Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas.

 

[ComicChick]

thanks LiLo, i will check those out

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

Windows 10 is horrible, not surprised people paid to backtrack.

 

[Dark Raven]

I just bought a new laptop which has Windows 10 on it. It hasn't been a pleasant experience so far, but all laptops will have this. I can't afford to change to Apple, because not only is it too expensive for what I want, but also all my programs are for Windows, so I can't change.

How can I use Google on Windows 10? I can't download another browser in the first
place like Google Chrome or Firefox or Safari or use anything other than Bing. And then apart from that, I can't even get to the Google url address. That is blocked too. Also, Microsoft Edge blocks access to YouTube (also owned by Google) as well as a number of other sites of its choosing.

There are certain solutions I've seen on the net about how to make Google your homepage or Google Chrome your default browser, but these all involve actually being able to get to that page in the first place. I can't do this at all. Those solutions seem out of date, and some of these are from either 2015 or last year. Maybe the latest update prevents any kind of access.

 

[Lily Adler]

I just bought a new laptop which has Windows 10 on it. It hasn't been a pleasant experience so far, but all laptops will have this. I can't afford to change to Apple, because not only is it too expensive for what I want, but also all my programs are for Windows, so I can't change.

How can I use Google on Windows 10? I can't download another browser in the first
place like Google Chrome or Firefox or Safari or use anything other than Bing. And then apart from that, I can't even get to the Google url address. That is blocked too. Also, Microsoft Edge blocks access to YouTube (also owned by Google) as well as a number of other sites of its choosing.

There are certain solutions I've seen on the net about how to make Google your homepage or Google Chrome your default browser, but these all involve actually being able to get to that page in the first place. I can't do this at all. Those solutions seem out of date, and some of these are from either 2015 or last year. Maybe the latest update prevents any kind of access.

You can't even get on YouTube or Google?! I remember there was an issue with not being able to choose Chrome or another browser as your default, but that was in the early days of Windows 10.

 

[ComicChick]

ive used Youtube on Edge

i also downloaded Firefox for Windows 10. Maybe you need to check your settings and make sure nothing is blocked or prohibited

 

[Captain Bryan]

I just bought a new laptop which has Windows 10 on it. It hasn't been a pleasant experience so far, but all laptops will have this. I can't afford to change to Apple, because not only is it too expensive for what I want, but also all my programs are for Windows, so I can't change.

How can I use Google on Windows 10? I can't download another browser in the first
place like Google Chrome or Firefox or Safari or use anything other than Bing. And then apart from that, I can't even get to the Google url address. That is blocked too. Also, Microsoft Edge blocks access to YouTube (also owned by Google) as well as a number of other sites of its choosing.

There are certain solutions I've seen on the net about how to make Google your homepage or Google Chrome your default browser, but these all involve actually being able to get to that page in the first place. I can't do this at all. Those solutions seem out of date, and some of these are from either 2015 or last year. Maybe the latest update prevents any kind of access.

It's not a surface RT by any chance, is it?

 

[Grootster]

Ugh, I just left my computer for 10 minutes and I come back to find that it's automatically updating. I was in the middle of a Photoshop project and I lost some of my changes (thankfully not anything too major, but I'm going to have to recreate some colors I was happy with). Also, I had a bunch of photos and tabs pulled up for reference and all of those are closed down. On top of everything, this update seems to have deleted some of my cookies because my browser size is wrong.

Does anyone know how to disable automatic updates? (Honestly, I'd be fine with disabling ALL updates. I'm sick of them.)

 

[ram101]

I updated Windows 8 to Windows 10, I did not like the foot. I made the computer format and reinstalled Windows 8.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

My biggest gripe with Windows 10 is the lack of control over updates... oh yeah and the way they are trying to make access to the control panel ever more difficult.

Grrrrrr...

 

[Silicon Surfer]

I have more glitches on Windows 10 than every other version combined. I have been using computers since the days of DOS and there are errors that I have never seen before. Things going off just because the cursor goes across it without clicking anything. Windows collapsing on their own. The browser opening up the the Windows help page on it's own and more that I can't think of at the moment. You can't stop automatic updates but you can minimize them by setting your connection to read as metered.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

While it was a big jump going from Windows 7 on my old laptop to Windows 10 on my new one, I must be in the minority since I don't have any real issues with Windows 10 besides the lack of control over updates (keep it on metered connection until I feel like I need to do an an update has been my main work around.)

 

[ComicChick]

CAn someone explain this metered connection thing to me?

I’ve been pretty lucky with windows 10 so far even though windows 7 is still tops in my opinion. I do not like how controlling Microsoft tries to be; especially with the updates.

I still wish there was a way I could pull up a list of all my tags that I have on my computer since I have thousands of files organized with them. I know some of them are typos and it would be easier to fix them that way. It’s prob the only feature from vista that I liked and the only feature I wish I still had.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

CAn someone explain this metered connection thing to me?

I’ve been pretty lucky with windows 10 so far even though windows 7 is still tops in my opinion. I do not like how controlling Microsoft tries to be; especially with the updates.

I still wish there was a way I could pull up a list of all my tags that I have on my computer since I have thousands of files organized with them. I know some of them are typos and it would be easier to fix them that way. It’s prob the only feature from vista that I liked and the only feature I wish I still had.

Metered connections are those that have a data limit and setting your WiFi to one makes Windows Update stop automatic updates. To get those downloads in the future, you just have to turn your connection back to unmetered. Here's a link on how to do it:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028458/windows-metered-connections-in-windows-10