Windows versions

Dorsetmike · April 20, 2019, 04:29:29 PM

As a matter of interest I often wonder what Win 10 has that other versions do not, apart from massive updates many of which seem to cause problems.

I run Firefox as my browser and Thunder bird for email on Win 7, what - if anything - does win 10 offer that is significantly better for internet browsing and email.

I've used AVG free and Ad block for over 15 years with no problems, does Win 10 offer anything better?

I don't have, nor do I want, a touch screen

MJKERR · April 20, 2019, 05:09:05 PM

Personally, I prefer Windows 10 to Windows 7
However, upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is hit or miss in reliability
The upgrade itself can take several hours
Equally, perform a backup of all essential files to an external drive, just in case

It can then take some time to customise Windows 10, as some features are just daft

Finally, support for Windows 7 ended in 2015
As a result it is easily compromised

For a new installation, Windows 10 is more parallel to iOS now, which synchronises to multiple devices easier (but I have it disabled), tablet feedback (pointless on a desktop or laptop), and integrated Apps
My main issue is the use of Edge, but again this can be disabled

lil chris · April 20, 2019, 09:55:52 PM

I am running w7 on this computer and the other day I got a message saying support for w7 is ending in June this year. I have another computer downstairs which has w10 which is ok, I did do a upgrade to w10 on this computer but it was awful and the computer had slowed down so much it was unusable so I re-instated w7. Having learnt from that I did a clean install of w10 on the computer downstairs, and like I said it runs good. So I might end up buying a cheap copy of w10 and doing a clean install on this computer, it has two drives so I can copy any data over. By the way do not pay the full price for w10, there are cheap copies available that are fully legal. You can install it from a usb stick and it is very quick to install too.

njee20 · April 20, 2019, 10:11:33 PM

No USB stick needed, just buy a licence key on eBay. You can kid yourself that it's fully legal all you want.

W10 here on all machines. Don't get why anyone would still use 7, even less so 8.

lil chris · April 20, 2019, 11:50:17 PM

@njee20 Hi there , yes I know you can install without usb. I have some programs that simply will not work on w10, to be honest some do not work that good on w7 anyway so maybe its time to give up on them.I agree about w8 what a washout that was, w7 has been good for me but time to give up now I think its just having to re install all the programs if I do a clean install. I did accept the free offer of a upgrade but it was disastrous the computer would not run. Its not that old, ssd drive etc, its a Sandybridge I5 2500k, but in computer terms it's ancient, things move on so fast.

Bealman · April 21, 2019, 12:01:27 AM

Gawd! I've been using Vista for 11 years! No wonder I haven't got DCC yet!

Seems to me nobody's answered Dorsetmike's original question yet, though..... what's 10 got that 7 hasn't?
I'm hardly the one to answer!

Bob G · April 21, 2019, 03:36:44 AM

Quote from: Bealman on April 21, 2019, 12:01:27 AM
Gawd! I've been using Vista for 11 years! No wonder I haven't got DCC yet!

Have you tried DOS yet? Delete C:\*.* was always a good one to try?

Bob

Bealman · April 21, 2019, 03:43:21 AM

I used to like the Commodore Vic-20 and 64. You'd switch it on and it would come up with

Ready.

Paul-H · April 21, 2019, 07:32:08 AM

My Windows is do old it's leaded

Been a Windows user since it's early days, that was something like v1.4 in the mid 80's and tried just about every version since then and 10 is probably one of the better vesion now.

Paul

stevewalker · April 21, 2019, 09:40:33 AM

Quote from: Bob G on April 21, 2019, 03:36:44 AM
Quote from: Bealman on April 21, 2019, 12:01:27 AM
Gawd! I've been using Vista for 11 years! No wonder I haven't got DCC yet!

Have you tried DOS yet? Delete C:\*.* was always a good one to try?

Bob

DEBUG g=c800:5

was better still - low level format of the hard-disk.

stevewalker · April 21, 2019, 09:44:43 AM

Quote from: lil chris on April 20, 2019, 09:55:52 PM
I am running w7 on this computer and the other day I got a message saying support for w7 is ending in June this year. I have another computer downstairs which has w10 which is ok, I did do a upgrade to w10 on this computer but it was awful and the computer had slowed down so much it was unusable so I re-instated w7. Having learnt from that I did a clean install of w10 on the computer downstairs, and like I said it runs good. So I might end up buying a cheap copy of w10 and doing a clean install on this computer, it has two drives so I can copy any data over. By the way do not pay the full price for w10, there are cheap copies available that are fully legal. You can install it from a usb stick and it is very quick to install too.

Assuming that you previously did the upgrade from Win 7 to 10 under the free upgrade scheme and the system activated Win 10, the hardware of the PC should have been recorded on Microsoft's servers and simply downloading Win 10 for free from Microsoft and clean installing it, should prompt it to go online and re-activate automatically. Just install skipping the licence key bit and it will talk to the Microsoft activation servers later.

lil chris · April 21, 2019, 10:48:19 PM

Thanks for that @stevewalker I was wondering if that might work, worth a try anyways.

themadhippy · April 22, 2019, 05:34:05 PM

If you want to try windoze 10 on 7 download a demo version of 10 and run it on a virtual box

Dorsetmike · April 22, 2019, 07:09:08 PM

I'm quite happy with 7, it does all I need, I was only wondering what - if any - advantages 10 has over 7, I'm not interested in touch screens or the cloud, nor Windoze mail.

JanW · April 22, 2019, 08:08:53 PM

First of all: W10 is supported so you get your security updates. W7 doesn't in a few months time.
And it has Windows defender anti virus built in so no need to add a virus scanner.
It's perhaps not the safest but for normal browsing and email it works fine and doesn't slow down the computer. Use it since the introduction of W10 (I upgraded as soon as it was available) and never had a problem. But who knows, maybe some hacker is now browsing my railway photos

And my experience with several older computers is that W10 runs (slightly) better than W7. Maybe people with slow W10 upgrades should check their disk space because the old install is still on the disk after the upgrade.

Oh, and I like the built in mail program. Very simple but it's all I need.
Edit: just re-read your last message and it seems you're not interested in the mail program.