Ready for Windows 10 but is it ready for me?

[Tony Norton]

Hi All,

I would appreciate any comments about upgrading from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. I am entitled to download Windows 10, for free, as I get told practically every other day, but should I do it yet?

My PC is a working tool (Hardware spec below).

I do: -
CAD work, email, banking etc.
I do not: -
Play games, go on 'You tube', 'Facebook', or 'twitter', I do not use 'Cloud' or 'Google Chrome'.

In short it is what I would call a 'grown-up' PC.
My experience dates back to 1985 since when I have used the following Operating Systems.

MSDOS 6.22, Windows 3.x, Windows 98 (briefly), Windows NT 3.51, Windows XP Pro X64 and, currently Windows 7 Pro X64.

My concerns are: -

How many updates has Windows 10 had since its release in July last year? I can't find a full list anywhere.

I see the latest cumulative updates were issued earlier this month. If the updates keep coming with monotonous regularity this would seem, to me, to indicate that the product is not yet fully sorted. All the OS's I have used in the past have been rock solid, probably because I avoided the 'joke' ones such as ME, Vista and 8, and didn't dive in at the first issue, but waited until support was about to end on my current OS.

How difficult would it be to set up Win 10 to look something like that with which I am familiar. I don't particularly want a screen full of irrelevant 'Apps', just the things I need. e.g my CAD software, MS Office suite (well those bits I use), my System Mechanic and my Security software. You know, the sort of things grown-ups use.

I remember attending a seminar on the first Windows version of my CAD suite, during which the speaker said "There are 3 things you won't like about this new version, one it's different, two it's different and three it's different". If I sound as though I am carrying that belief forward I apologize, but I do need my system to behave itself and not play silly tricks on me.

PC Spec: -

Mobo Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2
BIOS Award F9 12/29/2008
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core 6400+ @ 3.2GHz
RAM 8GB (4 x 2GB matched) DIMM DDR2
GPU AMD Radeon HD7500 (1GB DDR5 4GHz 128-bit)
Storage (System) Kingston SV30037A240G (240GB, SATA600, SSD. [C: and D:]) (Best upgrade ever!)
Storage (Data) WDC WD2500AAJS-75B4A0 (250GB, SATA300, 3.5",HDD. [E: and F:]

I look forward to hearing your experiences, and thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

Tony Norton

 

[Tim Locke]

Does your CAD suite have a W10 compatible edition available. I would check that first.

MS Office 15 and 16 are fine What email client if any do you use?
System Mechanic is fine. If you now use IE, there will be IE-11 on Windows 10 as well as Edge which is missing some useful capabilities as yet but works well enough for regular use ( some people will disagree)
As for security software there have been reports of MacAfee, Norton etc causing weird stuff to happen in W10 but I have never seen any proof. W10 does come with Defender for AV and, to a certain extent anti-malware and Windows Firewall works well enough.

 

[Trouble]

AND..... do not proceed without first
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/please-for-your-own-peace-of-mind.794/

 

[Tony Norton]

Does your CAD suite have a W10 compatible edition available. I would check that first.

MS Office 15 and 16 are fine What email client if any do you use?
System Mechanic is fine. If you now use IE, there will be IE-11 on Windows 10 as well as Edge which is missing some useful capabilities as yet but works well enough for regular use ( some people will disagree)
As for security software there have been reports of MacAfee, Norton etc causing weird stuff to happen in W10 but I have never seen any proof. W10 does come with Defender for AV and, to a certain extent anti-malware and Windows Firewall works well enough.

Thanks Tim,

compatibility with Win10, I don't know. Would have to install and check because I am no longer on ongoing support. If it doesn't work I always have the clone of of my system drive that I can reload.

Office? I'm still on Office 12.

IE? I don't use it, I prefer Firefox, which I am pretty sure has claimed compatibility.

For security I use Avast Premier, which I would hope keeps up to date.

Have you any info on the number of updates issued to date.

Tony N

 

[Tony Norton]

AND..... do not proceed without first
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/please-for-your-own-peace-of-mind.794/

Thanks "Trouble",

I do have a clone of my SSD, made using the Acronis that came with the SSD, so I can always go back if it all goes pear-shaped.

Cheers
Tony N

 

[Saltgrass]

Video cards are one thing Windows 10 may have problems with. I am not familiar with the different AMD versions but you might check its compatibility.

 

[Tim Locke]

You didn't answer re Email client. People who have been using one of the older Windows email systems have reported incompatibilities but I have not seen a pattern ( I use Thunderbird for Gmail and my ISP mail and have had no problems whatever with mail)


The latest 2 or 3 Firefoxes are just fine on W10. Initially there seemed to be a problem with video but that went in November.

As for the CAD support for w10 have you tried just asking Google? A simple question should get some answers I'd think.

I think that AMD web site support will definitely show if there is new software for your video card.

I have 11 updates since the 1500 November release + a Windows Defender update every day or two. I believe you will get the latest version when you do the update thing.

 

[Tony Norton]

You didn't answer re Email client. People who have been using one of the older Windows email systems have reported incompatibilities but I have not seen a pattern ( I use Thunderbird for Gmail and my ISP mail and have had no problems whatever with mail)


The latest 2 or 3 Firefoxes are just fine on W10. Initially there seemed to be a problem with video but that went in November.

As for the CAD support for w10 have you tried just asking Google? A simple question should get some answers I'd think.

I think that AMD web site support will definitely show if there is new software for your video card.

I have 11 updates since the 1500 November release + a Windows Defender update every day or two. I believe you will get the latest version when you do the update thing.

Hi Tim,

thanks again. I use Microsoft Outlook, although I can, of course, go to the Virgin Media site to pick up on my emails. It's a lot easier though having them delivered to my PC.
I have the latest Firefox, and I'll check with AMD for compatibility.
I'll google my CAD as you suggest.

Cheers
Tony N

 

[Tony Norton]

Right then,

I finally got win 10 up and running, after 3 attempts when it "lost" my internet connection. I guessed, correctly as it turned out, that my "Avast" was seeing some essential files as "threats" and blocking them. Uninstalled Avast, ran the upgrade again and now it's working O.K.

One thing I really do not like, however, is that black Taskbar. Is it possible to change this? If so, how?

Thanks for your help guys.

Tony N

 

[Trouble]

One thing I really do not like, however, is that black Taskbar. Is it possible to change this? If so, how?

Sure...
Click Start button, settings, personalization, from the left column select Colors, choose a color and then to on "Show color on Start, taskbar, action center and title bar".
Unfortunately this feature / function is not very robust, there is no longer a "More" button to evoke the color wheel, nor a means to adjust hue and saturation or a means to effectively control the level of transparency, so.....
It's a bit limited.

 

[Tim Locke]

You can change the taskbar colour & transparency up to a point. settings->personalization->colors.

I am quite sure that commercial AV products are responsible for a fair few of the problems with installs.

Did your install get you 10586? (Winver will tell you)

 

[Gideon]

I use Avast AIS and used it through all the builds starting with 9926, I think I missed one. I just have to turn off the Avast Firewall to get any updates.

 

[Tony Norton]

You can change the taskbar colour & transparency up to a point. settings->personalization->colors.

I am quite sure that commercial AV products are responsible for a fair few of the problems with installs.

Did your install get you 10586? (Winver will tell you)

Yes I did, thank you Tim. Winver reported "Version 1511 (OS Build 10586, 104).

I think we can now mark this as solved.

I'm going over now to the "Sleep/Awake" thread, to which I think I have found a workaround.

Cheers

Tony N