Windows 10 - Overall Review and Modding

[TechAngel85]

Actually, you can use any account...or could. I used to use my Google account to sign into Windows 8.

[Octopuss]

Oh yeah, I guess it's the same stupid thing that was mushed into my face when I tried Windows 8.1 for about 10 minutes about a year ago or so.

I hope this can be easily worked around by automated setup with an answer file.

 

After all I read I will wait at least half a year before giving 10 a shot. Apparently it has to mature a lot. I heard some sort of a bigger update is supposed to come in a month or so, and a really big one some time in autumn. Rushed development anyone? I said it.

[Neovalen]

Oh yeah, I guess it's the same stupid thing that was mushed into my face when I tried Windows 8.1 for about 10 minutes about a year ago or so.

I hope this can be easily worked around by automated setup with an answer file.

 

After all I read I will wait at least half a year before giving 10 a shot. Apparently it has to mature a lot. I heard some sort of a bigger update is supposed to come in a month or so, and a really big one some time in autumn. Rushed development anyone? I said it.

Eh, I have two computers and a laptop working flawlessly thus far... will see if my luck holds out. :)

[Octopuss]

I got overcareful with age, I don't even use beta BIOSes and beta drivers anymore... :P I'll take my time with this. I mean Windows 7 works perfectly fine for me, and it will be like, a year or two before we even get any Dx12 games, so the urge to upgrade is pretty low.

[alt3rn1ty]

Couple more notes for anyone upgrading from Win 7 or earlier, and with older graphics cards :

 

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1.

 

Windows 10 has Microsoft Security Essentials installed and running by default ( same deal as Win 8 ) ..

 

.. Its now known as Windows Defender ( MSSE replaced the old Vista / 7 Defender, but kept the old name instead of calling it what it is )

 

So you have rudimentary realtime malware protection installed and running by default, checking your emails and downloads as they come in.

 

 

MalwarebytesAntimalware has been updated to be compatible with Win 10 aswell, which is nice to have installed as a second opinion to Defender ( MSSE )

So thats one bit of good news for Win 10. The two work well together in my experience with them both on Win 7.

 

Though good online practices are still the best prevention ( no pr0n / w4r3z / multiple advertising methods getting hooks into your system )

 

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2.

 

NVidia have done one last reference driver update for old laptop graphics card, which is Windows 10 compatible

 

That would have been the last hurdle to overcome somehow otherwise.

 

For anyone else with an old NVidia Graphics card - Have a search here :

 

https://www.geforce.com/Drivers

 

Just click the boxes in the Manual Driver Search section for your card, Windows 10 ( 32 bit or 64 bit )

 

And you should find - Reference Drivers version 341.74

 

Supported Products :

GeForce 400M Series (Notebooks)

GeForce 405M

 

GeForce 300M Series (Notebooks)

GeForce GTS 360M, GeForce GTS 350M, GeForce GT 335M, GeForce GT 330M, GeForce GT 325M, GeForce GT 320M, GeForce 320M, GeForce 315M, GeForce 310M, GeForce 305M

 

GeForce 200M Series (Notebooks)

GeForce GTX 285M, GeForce GTX 280M, GeForce GTX 260M, GeForce GTS 260M, GeForce GTS 250M, GeForce GT 240M, GeForce GT 230M, GeForce GT 220M, GeForce G210M, GeForce G205M

 

GeForce 100M Series (Notebooks)

GeForce GTS 160M, GeForce GT 130M, GeForce GT 120M, GeForce G 110M, GeForce G 105M, GeForce G 103M, GeForce G 102M

 

GeForce 9M Series (Notebooks)

GeForce 9800M GTX, GeForce 9800M GTS, GeForce 9800M GT, GeForce 9800M GS, GeForce 9700M GTS, GeForce 9700M GT, GeForce 9650M GT, GeForce 9650M GS, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce 9600M GS, GeForce 9500M GS, GeForce 9500M G, GeForce 9400M G, GeForce 9400M, GeForce 9300M GS, GeForce 9300M G, GeForce 9200M GS, GeForce 9100M G

 

GeForce 8M Series (Notebooks)

GeForce 8800M GTX, GeForce 8800M GTS, GeForce 8800M GS, GeForce 8700M GT, GeForce 8600M GT, GeForce 8600M GS, GeForce 8400M GT, GeForce 8400M GS, GeForce 8400M G, GeForce 8200M G, GeForce 8200M

 

ION (Notebooks)

ION

 

ION LE (Notebooks)

ION LE

 

Quite recently the last couple of NVidia driver updates before Windows 10 my old GeForce 8600M GS card fell off the end of the list of supported graphics cards, but thankfully it seems they have probably realised that would stop a lot of people being able to update to Win 10 with old cards in laptops.

 

I just updated all other machines in the house today, and was dreading trying Win 10 on my own laptop until I found out about this 

Fingers crossed its a good set of drivers  

 

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3.

 

I havent had to use any Microsoft Accounts on any of the machines I upgraded :)

 

( Refer to post #180 and Local Account creation - In situ upgrades use accounts already created ( even for multi-user setups such as our desktop ) ... PITA going through all the Privacy Options for everyone repeatedly after the upgrade, but for everyone in our household the transition has been pretty good on a desktop and one laptop so far .. My laptop machine is in progress ).

Edited August 10, 2015 by z929669

[alt3rn1ty]

Windows 10 .. I'm a convert.

 

Lots of stuff needs tamed, but there isnt anything you cant switch off ( When installing Win 10 dont let it do the Express setup, get the options to switch all that rubbish off - This can be done afterwards aswell, but then windows will already be having a ball uploading as much as it can to the cloud if you have let it, not only that but its a bit of a bandwidth hog by default )

Settings, Privacy, off to everything - And after a few windows updates, revisit them to switch off even more crap

 

My Hard drive light and WIFI busy indicator are now back to their usual, barely any activity that I am not expecting to be happening.

 

Theres a lot of tiles doing flip flop animations and cartwheels in the Start menu by default too, all of that can be deactivated with a right click and also removed ( Unpinned ), to be replaced by useful things from the "All Apps" list, like Run, Calc, Command Prompt ( which you can still elevate with a right click )

 

 

 

 

I'm comfortable with it already. So long as you dont use a Microsoft account, and just use a Local Account like we always have, then a lot of what Cortana and the OneDrive service try to do become useless because they need you to be using a Microsoft Account for them to work.

 

That OneDrive service too will be an Icon in your SysTray ( Bottom right of windows, you might have to expand the Arrow to see it ) - If you right click it and choose settings, you can get it to not auto start when windows loads.

 

If you have a machine with multiple user accounts ( local accounts ) .. Standby for lots of redoing all the above  :scared:

 

The only downside I dont like to Win 10 is not having so much control over what installs with Windows Updates

The rest is easily tamed with a bit of finding where things are at now.

 

Oh and if you want to see filename extensions, open an explorer window, and expand the view ribbon at the top, on one of those tabs you can put a tick in a box to see dot three letter extensions

 

 

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Those NVidia Reference Drivers mentioned earlier for older graphics cards on laptops .. Working great for all games here :)

 

 

Edit : Forgot to mention, the Search window, when its up, if the default of it searching the web is as annoying as it was for me - Click the Gear Icon so you can switch of the Web Search, and just have it search your machine.

 

This may not work initially, but there have been some updates since which sort out that problem of not being able to access the Gear icon, so just wait for windows to update and give it another shot later.

Edited August 6, 2015 by alt3rn1ty

[TechAngel85]

Well, I have a big notification to upgrade now. I'm still planning on waiting for a while though.

[hellanios]

Are they really lighter than Win7 or not?

[TechAngel85]

Most reports I've seen have mentioned an increase in performance from upgrading from Windows 7 to Window 10; however, this is not surprising to me as there is an increase simply by upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, as well.

[DoubleYou]

Well, I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 and got an increase too, so either or.

[Octopuss]

This might be of some interest: https://news.softpedia.com/news/blocking-these-domains-stops-windows-10-from-phoning-home-488630.shtml

The site is garbage, but sometimes they post non idiotic stuff.

[Nozzer66]

Have 10 up and going now. I don't like the black task bar that comes as default, so that's going to change. But no complaints so far aside from one small driver issue that was my own silly fault for not resetting my modem and router after all had been done.

 

EDIT: Just on first look, things do seem to be 'quicker' ie everything like dumping the recycle bin, mouse control etc, all seems quicker and crisper, though that MAY just be cause I am wanting it to be...

Edited August 6, 2015 by Nozzer66

[hellanios]

Yes, but are they using less GPU resources? That's what's important.

[GrantSP]

@Nozzer66

Was that an upgrade or a forced-install? Also do you see any issues with Cortana or have you disabled her/it?

[Nozzer66]

I don't think Cortana works in down back country Australia...