Computer problems and/or advice-2015 to 2017

[Maggi Young]

I think I need to go to W10 for my new laptop - thanks JohnL  for giving a touch of confidence to the process - and thanks to  all for the tips re  which bits to ditch. 

[David Nicholson]

 ..........In all 3 cases it is definitely superior to Windows 7..................

John, obviously your computer skills are well in advance of many of us here and I wonder if it is possible for you to expand in fairly simplistic terms why you feel Windows 10 is superior to Windows 7?

For example in my case Windows 7 is perfectly capable of everything I want to do on a computer. I also use an iPad mini, but not a lot and I don't own a mobile phone and never will. Thus, to me, the concept of something capable of operating over many platforms is a mis-homer.

[Martinr]

I've followed John's advice and dumped the useless (to me) modern apps. I have to say the most obvious and remarkable difference on my desktop machine is the vastly improved start up time with W10

[Alan_b]

John, obviously your computer skills are well in advance of many of us here and I wonder if it is possible for you to expand in fairly simplistic terms why you feel Windows 10 is superior to Windows 7?

This question was not addressed to me but I still prefer Windows 7 to 10.  The graphics of Windows 7 are much more sophisticated than those of Windows 8 or 10 which, to me, give those a dumbed-down feel.  Windows 10 has 'Cortana' - which is a voice recognition search assistant that will respond to spoken questions - but she's really just a gimmick at this stage (and John probably uninstalled her  Edit: No, I read in the link John provided that that is not possible).  Other than that I have not found anything of significance that Windows 10 can do that Windows 7 cannot.  I recently had to do a fresh install of Windows 7 which I run on the same computer as two copies of Windows 10.  I cannot tell the difference in start-up time or ultimate speed between any of these although I have not got rid of the Metro/Modern apps as John has and I don't play computer games, which tend to be more performance sensitive than ordinary programs.

John, it looks as if I could set up one account with the Metro apps removed and run it side-by-side with an un-tweaked account to compare the differences between the two.  You have inspired me to try this.   

[JohnLonsdale]

David,  There is no need to upgrade at all if you are perfectly happy with your Windows 7 setup.  W7 is a great OS and won't fall apart overnight. If you are not going to do much at all beyond what you do now, then you can choose to stay with what you've got.  You can read in many places why W10 is 'better', but I suspect most of those improvements won't be of any interest to you.  W7 was released in October 2009 so is 6 years old, even though it has had a lot of service packs and updates over the intervening years.  Microsoft will continue to support it for a long time.  That said, new products and future developments will be aimed at W10 and W7 will become more and more of a legacy product.  I never updated to W8 or 8.1, after a quick look see on a laptop convinced me it was horrible on the laptop and unusable on a desktop.  I was ready for W10 and couldn't find a good reason to not upgrade.  I had several good reasons to move on though.  I use Google Chrome as my browser and recent updates have introduced major memory leaks which consume tons of RAM in W7, at least on my systems - although it is well documented elsewhere.  This slowed down my browser and necessitated frequent closure and reopening events.  Still in Chrome, there has been a well documented issue for ages that Shockwave keeps crashing, and nothing I've been able to do would fix it.  After installing W10 these two major issues (for me) have completely gone away.  I love the multiple desktops available in W10 that were not available in W7.  It certainly boots faster and I prefer the look and feel of W10.  Transitioning from W7 is very easy and W10 is free.  I took a look for a few days to see how the updates would roll out and the whole update process seems to have become a non-event - exactly what Microsoft hoped for.  Sure, there have been small glitches for a minority of folks but how could there not be with something of this magnitude, and philosophically I'm not on board with the forced updates they are pushing out, but that may change.  Microsoft couldn't afford to get it wrong, and they got it right, it seems. 

[David Nicholson]

John, thanks for taking the time and thanks also to Alan. As a result of what both of you have said I shall continue to use Windows 7 for as long as it is available and it will probably see me through to my dotage

[Alan_b]

John has a very positive view of Windows 10 and the upgrade process.  In my professional capacity I was contacted by someone who upgraded but then found major difficulties,  She subsequently emailed me thus:

It's taken 4 hours but I've finally got Windows 7 back! P.C.World stated they have been inundated with complaints about Windows 10 and thought that Windows 7 was just as good at the moment because Microsoft have not sorted out the teething problems and gremlins with version 10.

In my case both the upgrade itself and the first major update failed in the first instance.  Both problems I was able to resolve for myself but only by delving deeper into the inner workings of Windows than most people would wish to.

[Mike Ireland]

After searching for a way to run Microsoft Money in Windows 10 I came across this fix.

MS Money has worked with following registry change.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer]
"Version"="9.11.10240.0" (originaly: 9.11.10240.16384)

Just replace the last 5 digits with 0 & program works fine.
Could not manage without MS Money.

[Martinr]

Thanks Mike, good old Money 2002 now working normally..........bliss And as I'm still using IE rather than Edge the emoticons work as well

[Peter Maguire]

Thanks for that Mike, I may try it if I'm feeling bold enough to delve into the registry.
I'm currently on the 'waiting list' to upgrade Windows 8 on my laptop as I've never been comfortable with W8. If we get on ok, then I'll possibly upgrade my desktop (where MS Money is) - after I've finished my accounts for the year!

[Alan_b]

While some folks might like some of them I have my own preferences for other programs and the Modern/Metro apps are completely superfluous and certainly take up a big chunk of system resources, as well as screen real estate.  They and many more are accessible through the Microsoft Store (another app). You can't uninstall them like you would a regular program but you can get rid of them by running Windows Powershell (have to 'run as an administrator) from the search tool.  See http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-remove-all-bundled-apps-in-windows-10/ for how to do this. 

On reflection, I think that's a very drastic solution, John.  If you right click a tile there is the option 'Turn live tile off'.  Presumably turning a live tile off should be sufficient to prevent it from consuming any system resources and you can make your decision on a case-by-case basis.  There is also the 'Unpin from start' option if you don't want it to consume screen real estate.   

[JohnLonsdale]

"On reflection, I think that's a very drastic solution, John.  If you right click a tile there is the option 'Turn live tile off'.  Presumably turning a live tile off should be sufficient to prevent it from consuming any system resources and you can make your decision on a case-by-case basis.  There is also the 'Unpin from start' option if you don't want it to consume screen real estate."


Just to clarify, my aim wasn't to pretty up the start menu by getting rid of a few tiles, active or otherwise.  I wanted to uninstall all the unwanted (by me) system apps for all users and make sure they didn't show up in the "All Apps" menu and consume system resources.  If you try it you'll find that no amount of right-clicking in the "All Apps" menu will achieve that.  If you want to be selective rather than get rid of them all in one go you can do that as well - https://thomas.vanhoutte.be/miniblog/delete-windows-10-apps/.  None of these actions are irreversible, but if you are not comfortable doing them or don't care about clutter and unnecessary use of system resources then just don't do them. What I did accomplished exactly what I wanted to do in the most effective and efficient way.

[Alan_b]

... What I did accomplished exactly what I wanted to do in the most effective and efficient way.

Yes, I understand that perfectly.  But as a recommendation to others, who may be less certain about exactly what they want to achieve, using the option to turn-off live tiles on a case-by-case basis ought to prevent anything you don't want having an adverse effect on performance whilst allowing you to change your mind later without having to look-up the command syntax.   

[JohnLonsdale]

Yes, I understand that perfectly.  But as a recommendation to others, who may be less certain about exactly what they want to achieve, using the option to turn-off live tiles on a case-by-case basis ought to prevent anything you don't want having an adverse effect on performance whilst allowing you to change your mind later without having to look-up the command syntax.   

You are confusing two completely different things Alan.  The tiles are in the start panel and can be there or not, live or not, but unless you take one of the approaches I suggested the parent apps are ALWAYS in the "All Apps" menu and consuming resources.  Right-clicking the tiles in the Start panel allows you to turn them on or off or unpin them.  Right-clicking the system apps menu items in the "All Apps" menu does not allow you to get rid of them.

[Graeme]

just in case you get this issue.......
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/11/windows-10-broken-update-endless-reboot-loop

and how to fix it............
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-update-kb3081424-fails-to-install

as yet micro$oft have failed to issue a fix