Thanks Chris - good idea.

often cheaper to buy new when needed, rather than pay D& G to repair. one of our washing machines some years ago cost more in spares to repair than a replacement, but they insisted in repairing rather than replacing.

Quote from: Browning 9mm on January 02, 2026, 11:19:29 AMoften cheaper to buy new when needed, rather than pay D& G to repair. one of our washing machines some years ago cost more in spares to repair than a replacement, but they insisted in repairing rather than replacing.

It's only the motor that has stopped working, and its only 3 years old. I used to work in the environmental sector where one of the biggest gripes used to be the longevity of white goods.
The service engineer is coming on Monday (10 days after he was booked to come) and all he's going to do is look at it! TBH I'd like it to be repaired!

Bob

I've managed to resist it for a long time but, somehow, Windows 11 has snuck past my defences and installed itself on my laptop. I don't like it. I can see why I resisted it. It just doesn't seem as intuitive as the old Windows 10. There are certain functions I find difficult and am having to find 'workarounds' to get a result that was easier with 10.
Basically I'm too old for these changes to routine  

Quote from: Newportnobby on Today at 09:55:28 AMI've managed to resist it for a long time but, somehow, Windows 11 has snuck past my defences and installed itself on my laptop. I don't like it. I can see why I resisted it. It just doesn't seem as intuitive as the old Windows 10. There are certain functions I find difficult and am having to find 'workarounds' to get a result that was easier with 10.
Basically I'm too old for these changes to routine  

We were forced onto Windows 11 at work and we now have to work harder to get things done. It's not intuitive at all. Very frustrating.

I'm still using Windows 7, I also have another PC running XP, in both cases to run older software that I've been using since the 1990s. I did buy a PC that had 10 and Edge, soon ditched that rubbish.
Another advantage - no updates to screw things up

I'm another who finds Windows 11 less than helpful.
Everything now seems to take three times longer than it did.

I'm convinced that many of these "upgrades/improvements" arise because the behind the scenes boffins are running out of ideas for future developments and need to justify their existence by tinkering with things that don't need to be tinkered with.

And whilst on the subject, what about the updated Met Office weather app? What a mess they've made of that.

Quote from: port perran on Today at 02:22:17 PMAnd whilst on the subject, what about the updated Met Office weather app? What a mess they've made of that.

Absolutely agree. It's awful. Can't keep the forecast I want as the main one, it insists on telling me what I need, and where's the long range and videos. Absolutely awful. Anyone have better app recommendations?

Windows 11 has bits that are OK and that I appreciate however some bits are driving me up the wall - especially CoPilot which is trying to embed itself everywhere. I call it Clippy 2.0. Many may remember Clippy as a failed attempt by Microsoft to introduce an assistant back in the days of Windows 3.1.

CoPilot pops up asking if it can be of help at the most annoying of moments. And one cannot easily remove it as its embedded in Windows. In personal editions you can switch it off. And corporate admins can turn it off in corporate licenses if the corporate license has a paid CoPilot license - however otherwise it is really hard to stamp out - and what's worse is just when you think you have suppressed it using various tricks and fixes, Windows gets an upgrade and its all reinstalled again....

Unfortunately although I can dual boot to Linux there are things I need in a Microsoft environment but not their AI. And I am not anti-AI- I use both ChatGPT and Perplexity however they serve at my (dis)pleasure. I even allow Google to use it for search sometimes (although I have removed that as default since its summaries are often wrong and I am perfectly capable of defining my own refined search terms... ). Truth is, edge embedded AI is my day job - but its a different kind of AI and not thed half cooked slop producing tools.

Rant over (for now...  ).

Quote from: alypar11 on Today at 02:34:08 PM

Quote from: port perran on Today at 02:22:17 PMAnd whilst on the subject, what about the updated Met Office weather app? What a mess they've made of that.

Absolutely agree. It's awful. Can't keep the forecast I want as the main one, it insists on telling me what I need, and where's the long range and videos. Absolutely awful. Anyone have better app recommendations?

I just had the very same rant about the new Met Office app. I've now installed yr.no on my PC and phone. Try it. It has graphs, tables, and err... facts and figures!

Bob G

Thank you Bob. That's cheered me up a bit. It even has some web cams of nearby locations so I can have a guess myself what the weather might do ( always important in Norfolk which is definitely a bit strange!)

I agree about Windows 11. Mrs Papyrus's new(ish) laptop came with it installed. She's got used to it but I find it very messy, so I'm sticking to 10 on my laptop. Hers also came with Copilot, which was very intrusive but we've managed to disable it.

Can't agree about the Met Office app, though. I think it's really good! Every feature I want, but much clearer and more readable. You can please some of the people some of the time!

Cheers,

Chris