Windows 10 and Edge

[stand@desk]

Has anyone made the switch over to Windows 10 from 7 or 8?

I just made the switch this morning and it took about an hour or so for the software to load up..It seems good so far, wondering if I may want to switch to Edge from Google Chrome.

I do like the extended task bar across multiple monitors in Windows 10, I previously had to download third party software while using Windows 7 to make it happen.

Any comments or experiences would be helpful. Thanks!

[GandK]

I'm going to upgrade from 8 to 10 tonight. I'll post my thoughts when I'm done.

[tonyedgecombe]

There are two problems I can see with Edge, one is it doesn't support plugins yet so things like Last Pass won't work, the other is it isn't cross platform so bookmarks etc won't get shared with my Android phone.

By the time I turned off all the bells and whistles Windows 10 doesn't feel much different from 8.1 to me.

[George the original one]

Fairly smooth going so far. Edge has a few incompatibilities with the intergoogles, so keep an alternate browser handy. Hardest part was getting the proper video driver installed.

[Ydobon]

I am disliking:

1) Constant notification 'pings' (I have turned off sounds for the notification tray at the bottom right), but seem to be getting a ping whenever a website does anything.
2) Whenever we start the laptop, it defaults to my profile, my wife finds this annoying as she has to switch

[skintstudent]

It's been quite widely reported, but in case you aren't aware just how much privacy you've signed away you should read the EULA. http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos

[Ego]

I'm gonna wait a while to see if there is any good reason to change. It seems there are reasons no to...
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... microsoft/

[vexed87]

Why are people using Windows at all in the first place? Why not a linux based OS? Just curious . I kept windows until recently because I used to play a lot of video games and they weren't easily supported on Linux, now I've chopped the habit, I'm wondering whether I should abandon Windows all together.

9 times out of 10, the software I use is available on Mac or Linux or that is some third party solution to whatever problem I am solving, which is good enough for me. I only recently started using OSX before I starting thinking about making the switch to using only open source OS/software. I have dabbled in unbuntu and mint, but have never stuck with these for reasons mentioned above.

[tommytebco]

"why are people using windows at all?"
because It's so easy, of course.
I have tried Ubuntu several times, but the work of tracking down and installing drivers, etc. was way more trouble than the benefits.


In fact, I'm still running XP on my pc. My laptop came with win8, which I upgraded to 8.1 ASAP. There was a learning curve with 8.1, but with an after market start function, it's okay.

I'm waiting for the smoke to clear on the win10 introduction before I try it. Microsoft product intros are always more or less problematic.

[GandK]

Well, I've been playing with it for a while. Grain of salt here... I wrote software in the MS environment for a long time:

Windows 10 is a good thing. Smooth upgrade, and no problems this week. Conceptually and aesthetically, it's what Windows 8 should have been. MS tried to apply mobile software principles to the desktop in Win8, and didn't do it well at all. They alienated a lot of users, and people like me turned off a lot of Win8 features because they were a PITA to navigate, which meant we were basically back at Win7 again. Not good. So I'm glad they addressed the concerns of their users. And Edge is meh. Effective, but a browser is a browser. I'm sticking with Chrome.

However, for me as a user, this is too little, too late. I use and love Google products now, especially how they seamlessly operate and sync across devices, platforms and apps. All of the data I use to navigate life is now in the Goog: contacts, calendar, you name it. My writing group uses Google Docs for critiques. My teenager and I share music and movies in Google Play. My husband and I keep joint spreadsheets for our finances in Google Drive. The ONLY reason I still use Windows now, and bought a Windows tablet this last go-round, is because my favorite writing program (Scrivener) doesn't have an Android/Chrome OS version**. That's it. And that one app is worth so much to me that I buy an environment that allows for it.

Windows is great. It has served me well in the past. But my life has moved on and Windows has not kept up. I use it now only because my favorite software needs it.

**Scrivener has a Mac version also, but Windows is a way better option to a former dev than Apple, because (a) all devs like to tinker and tinkering on Apple devices requires playing "Mother May I" with them, and (b) once your data/files/media get sucked into the Appleverse, it's damn hard to get them out again if you change your mind.

[GandK]

Why are people using Windows at all in the first place? Why not a linux based OS? Just curious . I kept windows until recently because I used to play a lot of video games and they weren't easily supported on Linux, now I've chopped the habit, I'm wondering whether I should abandon Windows all together.

9 times out of 10, the software I use is available on Mac or Linux or that is some third party solution to whatever problem I am solving, which is good enough for me. I only recently started using OSX before I starting thinking about making the switch to using only open source OS/software. I have dabbled in unbuntu and mint, but have never stuck with these for reasons mentioned above.

I've played with all three (Windows, Mac, Linux), and keep coming back to Windows for comfort. There's always something critical I can't do on Linux, usually having to do with peripherals. Do I really want to buy a specific scanner to go with my latest Linux installation because it's the only one with a working driver? What good is it to have a free OS if I have to purchase new hardware to go with it? Sheesh.

And on a Mac, my experience is that you CAN do anything you can do with Windows, but it's usually twice as expensive, requires an endless stream of upgrades, and no one you're sending files to also has a Mac, so you end up doing file conversions to share your work. "You can't open it? Well here, let's all save our documents as RTF files. What, Microsoft stopped supporting RTF files? Now what?" This is a Pain. In. The. Ass. Not worth it at all. Plus you can't modify a Mac the way you can a Windows machine (see my post above). Not a big deal to some people, but I hated it.

The good news is that more and more software/data is online. Five years from now, barring a major technological disruption, this will likely be moot. Operating systems are becoming more like browsers: they're a doorway to the data we're all keeping in the cloud. It will matter less and less (from a user perspective) which doorway you use.

[jim234]

SSDs are so great and not that expensive any more. I have a Win 10, Win XP, and Ubuntu SSD and can boot into the one I want.
My main OS is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and really like it. I have been using Ubuntu for the last five years and don't miss Windows at all.

[jacob]

I have a Win 10, Win XP, and Ubuntu SSD and can boot into the one I want.

How do you do that? Manually changing the BIOS settings?

[cmonkey]

How do you do that? Manually changing the BIOS settings?

When you install a different OS on a different partition, it modifies the master boot record. From there you are given a list of OS's to boot from once you are past the bios load. No bios tinkering. I am currently running Windows 10 and Windows XP.

Windows 10 is definitely a fresh OS for those who want to do the upgrade. The only gripes I have are the obvious push to send usage data to Microsoft and the lack of a "hit start key / start typing " search function. Now I have to click the magnifying glass icon with the mouse.

Edit - I suppose I should have tried the "hit start key / start typing " search function before committing to that conclusion. It does work! Its just not obvious you can do that.

[GandK]

The only gripes I have are the obvious push to send usage data to Microsoft and the lack of a "hit start key / start typing " search function. Now I have to click the magnifying glass icon with the mouse.

Edit - I suppose I should have tried the "hit start key / start typing " search function before committing to that conclusion. It does work! Its just not obvious you can do that.

Yep! Or Win+S for a search window. Or Win+X for control settings, which also has a search.

[jim234]

I have a Win 10, Win XP, and Ubuntu SSD and can boot into the one I want.

How do you do that? Manually changing the BIOS settings?

I hit F5 on the boot up, it brings me to a menu with each disk listed. I am sure each BIOS is different.
You can set the primary boot disk in the BIOS as well.
When I installed the OSes I made sure no other disk was attached at the time, so they do not bother each other when installing.

[Scrubby]

Linux will always install a boot manager (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-booting), and I think Windows will too. I always use the Linux version because I don't think Windows will list the Linux partitions, and either way it's more flexible. When you install Linux it will find any bootable partition on any HDD and let you select what to boot from when the computer is started. You can set a default and a timeout. There is usually no need to go into the BIOS or disconnect disks when you install. If you install another OS you may need to run the boot manager tool which finds partitions again.

Multiple disks is not a requirement for multi-booting, but if you have more than one then it will probably reduce the chance of potential problems if you use one of the disks for Linux and one for Windows. Windows sometimes messes with the MBR on the disk it has been installed.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I have an older desktop with both Win 7 (original install) and Ubuntu (added later). If I upgrade to Win 10 will it wipe out the Ubuntu installation?

My opinion on Ubuntu is that it made an outdated computer run a lot faster than Win 7 and its fine for surfing or other basic computer uses. I think it could be very popular if it was just a little easier to use and the documentation was better. Tasks like finding, downloading and installing software are harder than they should be.

[cmonkey]

If I upgrade to Win 10 will it wipe out the Ubuntu installation?

No it should not. The upgrade only touches the Windows 7 installation. I had Windows 7 and Windows XP before upgrading to Windows 10 and it didn't corrupt the Windows XP install.

[jacob]

I'm not super happy about bootmanagers. I'd rather have different OSes live on distinctly different HDs and switch between them using hardware. Ideally a flip switch ... worst case, removable HDs.