Windows 10 - Printable Version +- Scoring Central (http://scoringcentral.mattiaswestlund.net) +-- Forum: Technology (http://scoringcentral.mattiaswestlund.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=5) +--- Forum: DAWs (http://scoringcentral.mattiaswestlund.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=6) +--- Thread: Windows 10 (/showthread.php?tid=63) |
RE: Windows 10 - Mattias Westlund - 03-12-2019 So... heh... I folded. Against my better judgment I decided to give Win 10 another try. I watched a video where it was mentioned that while the free upgrade period has ended, it is not uncommon that Win 10 can be activated with a valid Win 7 license key. I did run into the login loop issue mentioned previously in this thread, but after some research it turned out all I had to do was restart in Safe Mode and let Windows finish some updates or whatever the heck it was doing that prevented me from logging in properly. After that I restarted and boom -- Windows activated without a single complaint. And what can I say... it works fine. Actually it works better than fine since 10 is noticably snappier than 7 (which was no slouch to begin with). I've had to de-bloat the OS of course and disable all the telemetry stuff, plus that a lot of things need to be re-authorized, but all that's all to be expected. I'm going to evaluate it for a little while to make sure I don't run into any major deal breaking issues, but so far so good. I'll also need to look into some cosmetic customization options, because the windows being plain white boxes just hurts my eyes. So I guess I'm part of the Microsoft botnet now. Resistance is futile. RE: Windows 10 - Nayrb - 03-16-2019 Thank you for bravely taking this step. I'll be following suit later in the year, I think. So you grabbed it from the Microsoft site and used your old product key for 7? A big question I have is, are you stuck getting the same version or can you "upgrade" in this way? I want to put "Pro" on my PC when I do this so I can finally access all my RAM. The white boxes are indeed eye-frying. Sometimes I think they make it harder to figure out what I'm looking at. RE: Windows 10 - Mattias Westlund - 03-17-2019 Yep, downloaded some upgrade installer from the Microsoft site. It didn't even ask for the key, it just rebooted and was activated right off the bat. I know it's advisable to do a fresh install rather than an upgrade, but I just wanted to know whether I could get it running at all, given my previous failed attempt. I'll probably do a fresh install later on, but so far so good so I'm just going to keep this installation. Not keen on reinstalling every damn thing on my system right now. And yes, the version of Windows you upgrade (or use the key from) will indeed be the same version of W10 that ends up being installed. Please note of course that I can't guarantee that using a W7 key will work for everyone and in every scenario! Maybe I just lucked out. RE: Windows 10 - Nayrb - 03-17-2019 (03-17-2019, 06:04 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: And yes, the version of Windows you upgrade (or use the key from) will indeed be the same version of W10 that ends up being installed. Alas, that means I'll probably still have to shell out the cash for the "Pro" version, then. I wonder if I can at least do the "upgrade" rather than the fresh install. I agree that a fresh install is preferable, and I, too, had a lousy experience with the upgrade when I tried on a different computer. But reinstalling and reactivating everything will be annoying, for sure. Especially since I have already used up my installs on most of my stuff (though all the companies I deal with are pretty understanding about that, in my experience. They basically have said it's not a problem unless you start activating things repeatedly and so quickly that it appears obviously exploitative). Quote:Please note of course that I can't guarantee that using a W7 key will work for everyone and in every scenario! Maybe I just lucked out. I've known this to work for many people, actually, and I'm not sure why that is... It would seem Microsoft knows about it, too, and don't seem to mind. RE: Windows 10 - Mattias Westlund - 03-17-2019 (03-17-2019, 07:54 PM)Nayrb Wrote: I've known this to work for many people, actually, and I'm not sure why that is... It would seem Microsoft knows about it, too, and don't seem to mind. If it helps bring even more users into the W10 fold, I don't think they're in any hurry to fix this "exploit". OTOH -- I don't know whether my W7 key will work with a fresh W10 install! RE: Windows 10 - Mattias Westlund - 03-27-2019 OK, an update. I feel a little silly for being so wary of upgrading to W10, but then again I've had bad luck with it on other systems. I haven't run into a single major issue so far, but a number of minor niggles. The classic Windows calculator is gone, and you need to get a Windows Store (or Microsoft Store, or Microsoft Apps or whatever the hell it's called) app to replace it. And in order to use the Store you need get an online MS account, which I refuse to do. Thankfully you can download the old version of calc from third-party sites and get the same functionality as in previous versions of Windows. Also, the W10 Windows Defender is kind of annoying as it sticks its nose into everything you do causing little delays here and there. I can understand why you'd want to scan a program that's just been downloaded, but something that's been installed forever and you use regularly -- how could that possibly be a threat? I had to add my trusty old Metapad text editor that I use as a Notepad replacement to Defender's exclusion list in order to make it launch in milliseconds (like it did in earlier Windows versions) instead of in 10 seconds. This happens with other programs as well, and it's annoying. I know what I'm doing Windows, get off my back! Then there's the visual aspects. The plain white windows thing mentioned in a previous post can be fixed by just toggling a setting, which will get you the colored titlebars back. But there's no easy way to make W10 look nicer. Patching the uxtheme.dll to allow for the loading of third-party visual styles -- which I've been doing since XP days -- will not work anymore as every new major upgrade to Windows breaks that functionality. So I guess I'm stuck with a GUI that makes Windows 3.11 look all fancy and advanced. And speaking of GUIs, what the hell is up with this? One would think Microsoft would know a thing or two about GUI design, having been in that business since the eighties, but apparently not. Let's just throw a whole bunch of tabs and icons and text on the menu bar with no regard as to how they are grouped and aligned, shall we? Jeez. Admittedly I don't use Explorer much (I've been a happy Total Commander user for like 20 years) but still, things like that make my brain hurt. So inelegant and confusing and a step back from previous versions. RE: Windows 10 - Nayrb - 03-28-2019 Yep! I've been using 10 on my school laptop and I have to say, it is a butt ugly OS. I don't mind simple and clean by any means, but the glaring white is eye-sizzling and a lot of the apps (like Defender) are actually hard to navigate sometimes. It takes a minute for my eyes to adjust to the layout of what I'm seeing. I too am a little off-put by what appears to be a backwards move in GUI design. I have an MS account, but I set this laptop up (and will do so for all future Windows 10 machines) as local accounts. When I first turned this thing on it wanted to connect to every Windows 10 device within a ten mile radius (hyperbole), and I was not having it. Once I got it to stop bothering me and to, well, act like Windows as I'm used to it acting, I began to feel pretty good about it, too. Features are nice, as long as you can shut them off if you don't need them. One complaint I've had is that when it comes to finding ways to tweak settings, the instructions I find online are not exactly 100% percent applicable to my own system. It's as if the OS or layout thereof changed in some fundamental way in the time it took for someone to publish instructions on how to shut something off, or make some tweak or other. I'm not sure why that would be or if you had the same experience. This was especially bothersome when tweaking privacy features, for instance, because what the screen looked like in one person's tutorial did not match what my screen looked like. Sometimes features were in completely different places. RE: Windows 10 - Paul Battersby - 03-28-2019 (03-12-2019, 11:58 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: ... because the windows being plain white boxes just hurts my eyes. (03-28-2019, 02:36 AM)Nayrb Wrote: ... but the glaring white is eye-sizzling I had the same problem: too bright, so I reduced the brightness of my monitor. Much better. When I want to watch a video, I just turn up the brightness again. RE: Windows 10 - Nayrb - 03-30-2019 (03-28-2019, 11:32 AM)Paul Battersby Wrote:(03-12-2019, 11:58 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: ... because the windows being plain white boxes just hurts my eyes. Very true! I have not installed F.lux on my Windows 10 computer yet, either; but I might just do that, too. Works pretty well on the other machines... RE: Windows 10 - Mattias Westlund - 05-06-2019 I just managed to network my Windows 10 main PC with a retro PC running Windows 95. Admittedly I can only access a shared folder on the Win 95 machine from the Win 10 one and not the other way around, but that's fine for my needs, and I honestly didn't think this would be possible at all. |