ARRRGGGHH!!

In lumber, Grade A beats Grade D.

I wasn't speaking alphabetically.

Although, in lumber lower numbers are a better grade.

Whatever. You say tomato; I say nasturtium.

Windows is wood.

And apples is fruit.

Powder post beetles beat brown rot fungus.

Uh...okay?

Color me surprised. Got the new (old) keyboard today. Plugged it in and prepared to install the program to support it. Gave it a try first -- and the damn thing works: keyboard, mail program key, browser keys, volume control, mute button, and a few others.. Apparently, one of the updates that the computer automatically installed provided a driver for it. The last time I tried one of these keyboards, a week ago, it did not work without the additional program.

Who'da thunkit? The softies did something right. Astonishing.

Something you plugged in worked, without finding and loading drivers? Christ, there must be an Apple engineer hiding in the woodpile.

If Apple was involved, I would only be able to use the keyboard they decided on. At their inflated price.

richard09 wrote:

I finally cracked and let the thing install Windows 10. First impressions are - blah. A few things seem to be actually harder to find, which is a retrograde step. And I don't do that much with the machine, so basically I don't see any real improvement anywhere. On the other hand, nothing broke, so that's a good thing.

Meh.

I'm downloading the Windows 10 update now. But I'm sending it to a flash drive so that I can do the update when I feel like it. I can always roll it back to Windows 7, but I understand there can be problems with that. I have found ways to get all my peripherals drivers to work with 10 - at least I think so. With any luck, the new version with have U/I options to make it look and act like XP or Win 7. Hope so.

I have a spare Windows 7 OS drive that I can plug back in and ignore Windows 10. Maybe I can make a dual boot machine. I've done that with XP and Linux. From what I've read about it, I really don't think I will like Windows 10, but I can always revert.

My impressions after using it for a little while are still pretty much... meh. I don't plug in many things, but the machines behavior as I plug and unplug may actually be better than 8.1. And nothing has actually broken. So overall, seems pretty harmless, may be a little better in spots. I'm interested if you have problems, but it sounds like you are doing more than I am.

I've read numerous articles about privacy concerns with W10. You need to go thorough and change several default settings to keep the damn computer from almost constantly communicating with Microsoft. It also appears that you cannot turn off automatic updates. That troubles me.

I've downloaded the update to a USB drive. Now I just have to work up the desire to install it.

Bugs? I believe those are called "features."

Four.

That's how many times I have now inserted the USB drive to begin the Windows 10 update. Four is also the number of times I have said, "Fuck it. Maybe later." and removed the USB drive.

NoCo is not the only one who doesn't like or trust Microsoft.

You misunderstand me sir. I trust Microsoft implicitly.

I trust them to always do the wrong thing, to always make life more difficult, to always make me scream in frustration.

Hey, a buddy of mine says there's a version of Chrome for the iPad. Should I download it?

I don't know why they would make you scream in frustration - you use an Apple.

Chrome is a Google product, not Microsoft. I doubt that Chrome could be worse than Safari or IE.

Microsoft has not always done everything wrong. NT 4 was an outstanding operating system, as was XP. Before there was an IBM PC, Microsoft was a languages company and provided the best  programs of that type available for CP/M computers (but they sure weren't perfect).

Before computers became commodities, when you had to call and talk to someone (who knew what he was doing) to order a computer as you wanted it configured, everything was fine. When it got to the point where computers were being designed for, and marketed to, people who knew little or nothing about computers, that's when everything turned to shit.

With Windows 8, and now with 10, Microsoft has followed the industry in creating what are little more than internet/email devices. They assume that the user will have no fucking idea of what is going on (and doesn't care, anyway) and will be content with a computer that boots and lets the user browse the web.

I liked it much better when computers were expensive and the users were demanding.

Five is the magic number.
The new box is installing Windows 10 as I type (on the old box).
I have no idea how long it will take, but I'm sure the SSD will help with the speed.

After Win 10 is installed, I have thirty days to roll it back to Windows 7 if I want.

Gee, I wonder why they would put that capability in there. Hmmm.

I also have system disks for both versions, and a cloned of the Wind 7 drive, so I should be okay in any case (except for possibly wasting some time).

Wish me luck.

Good luck. I hope it goes well for you.

After just twenty minutes, the desktop is there - even has my old background.

It's now doing something it calls "Updating PE Environment" whatever that is. Says it needs another four minutes to complete that.

The screen resolution is not set properly, and the icons have been moved (but I have a program that will magically put them back where they belong).

At this point, the screen looks like Wi ndows 7 (except for the afore-mentioned resolution and icons).

Doesn't sound like a disaster yet. What were you so worried about?

On the Win 10 box now.

Got a few problems. The second monitor is not showing up and the video card program doesn't want to open. Everything else seems to be working, but deep testing not done.

Sure is ugly, though. I will have to see what I can do about that.

I know there are a lot of updates that I have to download (W10 is a work in progress, to say the least), but my internet connection is very, very slow today.

Do an "About Windows 10" - "Update Software."

There are probably at least a dozen or two security updates to be downloaded.

I restarted the computer and the second monitor showed up. They even put all the items I have pinned to the start menu on an additional start menu on the second monitor.

Funny deal, though. After restarting, the computer will not connect to the internet over the cat6 cable, but will connect via the wireless.

After the upgrade, it maintained some of my default programs, such as Thunderbird for email, but tried sneaking in their browser instead of Firefox. Easy change, though.

Still ugly. Gotta look into that.
And the damned ethernet cable bit.

Ethernet cable problem resolved.

Turned the machine off and did a cold boot. Takes about ten seconds longer for cold boot.

Everything seems to be working just fine. Still ugly, though.