Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Stardock Start8 Start10
Stardock has by far the best replacement for the start button for Windows 8 and Windows 10. If you don't like the replacement start button images for Windows 10, I don't, you can move the Windows 8 images from a Windows 8 installation to the corresponding Windows 10 installation. If you have a normal installation taking the *.png file from C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start8\StartButtons and putting it into C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start10\StartButtons will give you a different image file than those supplied by Stardock with Start10.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Further Windows 10 Install Experiences
Well now having upgraded two computers, a desktop, a laptop, to Windows 10, my experience has NOT been good. The desktop was trashed and had to have Windows 7 reinstalled and then install Windows 10. After the Windows 10 install, all my apps had to be reinstalled. A typical Windows OS change experience!!
On the laptop, several reboots later, everything is evidently working EXCEPT for auto hide of the taskbar which does NOT work!! Leaving the taskbar visible at all times solved the issue, BUT that is truly crap! The reboots were done over a period of six hours AFTER the Windows 10 install completed, supposedly! What a pain in the posterior! BUT at least the laptop is back working again, which until the sixth hour, the laptop would not function at all. It appeared that after the Windows 10 install that the File Explorer was unable to function until multiple reboots cleared some setting or file that was keeping the laptop from functioning.
Typical new OS from Microsoft!!!
On the laptop, several reboots later, everything is evidently working EXCEPT for auto hide of the taskbar which does NOT work!! Leaving the taskbar visible at all times solved the issue, BUT that is truly crap! The reboots were done over a period of six hours AFTER the Windows 10 install completed, supposedly! What a pain in the posterior! BUT at least the laptop is back working again, which until the sixth hour, the laptop would not function at all. It appeared that after the Windows 10 install that the File Explorer was unable to function until multiple reboots cleared some setting or file that was keeping the laptop from functioning.
Typical new OS from Microsoft!!!
Saturday, August 08, 2015
Windows 10 Install Experience
Last week, I decided to install Windows 10 on my test computer that had been running Windows 10 preview perfectly. Unfortunately during the initial install process something got trashed and Windows 10 said that activation was not possible.
Calling Microsoft resulted in the comment that "....wait 24 - 48 hours and all will be well....". Well after 48 hours nothing had changed. A second call resulted in more crap!!
So... After reinstalling Win 7 and activating Win 7 via the phone, Win 10 then installed as it should have in the first place, BUT all my customizations and installed apps were gone, as per usual with a Windows install. So after putting the apps back and redoing my customizations as they were prior to all this foolishness, I could finally use Windows 10 on my Windows 10 Preview computer!!
Now after having worked with Windows 10 for a couple of days now, my impression is that it is a very nice Windows 7 OS.
All my old stuff works just fine on Windows 10. My very old "WinSize" program, which positions windows on the desktop and sizes them to the position and size I like for that particular window, works like a champ.
Yahoo, Konfabulator, widgets works great. The gadgets that I use work great. The Universal Apps don't hog the whole screen which is good. Unfortunately, many of the things that 10 ties together, I have already tied together with other programs, which all work fine on Windows 10. Unfortunately the Windows 10 apps, like Mail, appear to be crap at this time. Of course you are never supposed to use any Microsoft App v1 until they get it fixed around version 10 or so!
All in all it's an interesting OS, BUT not necessarily one that I will change all my computers to, since W7 and W8 work just fine for me. Maybe six months from now I will have to change to avoid paying for W10 and the upgrades for W7 and W8 may have stopped by then. Windows 7 was first published on July 22, 2009 and will not be supported for ever!
Calling Microsoft resulted in the comment that "....wait 24 - 48 hours and all will be well....". Well after 48 hours nothing had changed. A second call resulted in more crap!!
So... After reinstalling Win 7 and activating Win 7 via the phone, Win 10 then installed as it should have in the first place, BUT all my customizations and installed apps were gone, as per usual with a Windows install. So after putting the apps back and redoing my customizations as they were prior to all this foolishness, I could finally use Windows 10 on my Windows 10 Preview computer!!
Now after having worked with Windows 10 for a couple of days now, my impression is that it is a very nice Windows 7 OS.
All my old stuff works just fine on Windows 10. My very old "WinSize" program, which positions windows on the desktop and sizes them to the position and size I like for that particular window, works like a champ.
Yahoo, Konfabulator, widgets works great. The gadgets that I use work great. The Universal Apps don't hog the whole screen which is good. Unfortunately, many of the things that 10 ties together, I have already tied together with other programs, which all work fine on Windows 10. Unfortunately the Windows 10 apps, like Mail, appear to be crap at this time. Of course you are never supposed to use any Microsoft App v1 until they get it fixed around version 10 or so!
All in all it's an interesting OS, BUT not necessarily one that I will change all my computers to, since W7 and W8 work just fine for me. Maybe six months from now I will have to change to avoid paying for W10 and the upgrades for W7 and W8 may have stopped by then. Windows 7 was first published on July 22, 2009 and will not be supported for ever!
