Important Updates on Windows 7

[CFC]

I registered for Windows 10 and I can now download it but I am still using windows 7. I am thinking about keeping Windows 7 as I am happy with it. Since Windows 10 was realeased and I have updated my PC i havent had any important updates which I can download. Anyone else notice this. I am wondering if any importance updates will not be available for windows 7 now that i have registered for Windows 10.

Edited August 9, 2015 by CFC

[uksomchai]

If you like 7 as did I you will think 10 is great as well. I have had it since it was released and it has not caused a single issue. Just go for it. You can always revert back if for some reason you don't like it

[lopburi3]

Good luck with that - my history has failed installs since the 29th listed - download in update and attempt to instill while attended resulted in not completing the checking process (telling my to check my computer - which using Windows reports no issues). The window icon just says working on phased rollout and will advise when ready - but computer has been trying to install anyhow. Another goat ....

On another computer did get it installed after five hours work (had to shut down at 51% after over an hour actual install after several hours to download/get enough room in hard drive/prepare for install). Only way to stop was pull plug. Positive was the system was able to restore to Windows 7 without too much trouble next day and then with plenty of time installed in about 90 minutes after all pre install functions. It was a low spec computer so expected it would be slow - but not hours from Microsoft talk.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Good luck with that - my history has failed installs since the 29th listed - download in update and attempt to instill while attended resulted in not completing the checking process (telling my to check my computer - which using Windows reports no issues). The window icon just says working on phased rollout and will advise when ready - but computer has been trying to install anyhow. Another goat ....

On another computer did get it installed after five hours work (had to shut down at 51% after over an hour actual install after several hours to download/get enough room in hard drive/prepare for install). Only way to stop was pull plug. Positive was the system was able to restore to Windows 7 without too much trouble next day and then with plenty of time installed in about 90 minutes after all pre install functions. It was a low spec computer so expected it would be slow - but not hours from Microsoft talk.

Lopburi, I had the same problem on a couple of my Windows 7 machines... While the Windows 10 app was showing that I was reserved but still waiting for being ready to install Windows 10, my Windows Update history in Windows 7 began showing daily failed Windows 10 updates every day over a period of about a week. Even though I hadn't done anything, and the Win 10 app was still showing my Win 10 was "coming soon."

About a week after those failed updates surfaced, the Win 10 app finally delivered the message that the Win 10 upgrade was ready. And at that point, I let it go ahead and my system handled the in-place update pretty well. The first time, it seemed to hang on "working." So I shut the PC down after waiting a long while to no result, and the next time I restarted it, it went through the upgrade pretty much as expected.

Overall:

--don't really care for the increasing "appification" of Windows under 10. For example, there's now a Windows 10 Mail app for handling email, and various other Windows 10 apps for doing basic things, like playing DVDs, reading the news, etc etc. But for my tastes, I prefer and would rather continue dealing with my email and many other tasks in the browser, especially in a desktop or laptop setting.

--don't really care so much for the new Win 10 version of the Start Menu, where all the entries have to be big or small tiles on the screen, as opposed to the more compact expandable folders and shortcut links in more text-oriented Start Menu under the Windows 7 version. (Though clearly the Windows 10 version is an improvement over what was offered in Windows 8/8.1.)

--Pretty much all of my legacy Windows 7 programs continue to run OK under Windows 10, with a few exceptions. I had a third-party Bluetooth enabling software package on my Win 7 machine that I had to reinstall under Windows 10. And for some weird reason, some local video files (mp4s) that I used to be able to play fine with the Win 7 MS Media Player program now show up as unplayable under the Windows 10 MS Media Player program, probably something to do with whatever codecs were or weren't included with the Win 10 version.

At this point, I've done the Win 10 update on one laptop, and I may well do it soon on my wife's desktop computer. But I think I'm going to hold off a while longer on my own main desktop PC and both a] play around with Win 10 on the other machines first, and b] continue to follow the Win 10 headlines on things turning out both good and bad.

I will add, as soon as my laptop finished doing the Win 10 upgrade, knowing how MS goes, I went back into Windows Update and checked it again at that point. And sure enough, even though I'd just done MS's own Win 10 upgrade, there already were a couple of Win 10 update files needed to be installed as add-ons right out of the gate.

[lopburi3]

Had good experience with Windows 7 installs (5 of them) so expected things to be good. Seems the failed to install is very common and Microsoft blaming bad downloads (but do not believe anything had been downloaded as could not find and when it actually tried to install it had to download 2.7GB - the Microsoft page it up to 53 dealing with issue with more than 4,000 posters. Suspect it was an issue with those having automatic install of updates selected - poor programming.

[RichCor]

--don't really care so much for the new Win 10 version of the Start Menu, where all the entries have to be big or small tiles on the screen, as opposed to the more compact expandable folders and shortcut links in more text-oriented Start Menu under the Windows 7 version. (Though clearly the Windows 10 version is an improvement over what was offered in Windows 8/8.1.)

Try installing classicshell and see if you like it. It has some oddities (shift-click doesn't work for me), but otherwise a nice presentation with options.

I configured mine to display classic Window 7 Start Menu when clicked, and Windows 10 Start Menu when the Windows Key was pressed.

Still playing about with the Windows 10 Start Menu, moving 'groups' around, sizing boxed to 'small'. I think it's mostly a left-right list vs array visual issue I need to adapt to.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Ya Rich... I had already installed and was using ClassicShell on my wife's desktop PC at home that had the misfortune of previously requiring an upgrade to Windows 8/8.1. And ClassicShell works/ed fine for me in that setting -- not quite as clean and simple as the native Win 7 Start Menu, but certainly an adequate substitute in Win 8/8.1.

Re Win 10, yesterday was my first machine and first Win 10 upgrade, and once it was done, the thing I spent most of the time post-upgrade with was fiddling around with the new Win 10 Start Menu, since I'm one of those PC users whose UI with the machine pretty much revolves around the Start Menu, which I had highly customized in Win 7 to fit my style of use and working. With the Win 10 upgrade, most of the Start Menu I had configured in Win 7 pretty much went out the window (so to speak), and I had to start from scratch.

At this point, I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed for the future. I may get used to the new Start Menu version in Win 10 after having set/rearranged/resized various of the tiles, and grouped them into various collections. Or, I may decide, it's just too much of an unwanted PITA, and I'll install ClassicShell as well on the Win 10 machines. I was kind of trying to give the native Win 10 version a try first...and see if I can live with it without any 3rd party adulterations.

BTW, I should add, for context, all of my current and intended Win 10 uses are on desktops or non-touchscreen laptops. If I was using Win 10 on tablets or touchscreens, I'd probably have a different/better opinion of the whole tiles approach. But in a Windows desktop setting, the whole tiles implementation seem a clunky waste of space.

Edited August 9, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[DogNo1]

I downloaded the Win 10 ISO to a flash drive and installed Win 10 from within Win 7 and Win 8.1. If you want to do a fresh install after you have upgraded, you can use a utility such as magicjellybean to extract your key from the upgraded Win 10. My upgraded computers are running OK but, of course, the one on which I did a fresh install is running best. I'm getting used to Win 10 and see no reason to go back to an earlier version. It's better to accept the new technology and learn to live with it, IMO. BTW, Office 2016 is available from Microsoft as a preview.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Wait till you have to deal with this one, re Win 10... Another little gem I discovered today.

Win 10 comes with a variety of pre-installed apps that have been packaged by MS. Things like Xbox, Groove Music, Contact Support, Voice Recorder, Weather and others -- many of which the typical user might never use or want. And yet, they will take up space in your increasingly long and unwieldy "All Apps" list, making it even longer than necessary, and wait for the big surprise.

Unlike other ordinary programs, these prepackaged CORE MS apps CANNOT be uninstalled via the normal Windows Programs and Features menu, nor can you remove/delete/hide them from the "All Apps" list in your Win 10 Start Menu.

In order to actually get rid of all that various junkware, the ordinary non-techie user apparently has to go into the pretty obscure PowerShell commands within Windows and start entering line commands one-by-one for each named MS CORE app you want to remove. What a MAJOR PITA!!!!

See the explanation of this whole thing here:

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/02/how-to-remove-core-apps-in-windows-10/

Edited August 9, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

OK... I've had enough!!!

Keeping Windows 10 on my laptop since that's going to be the future. But broke down and installed Classic Shell, took 5 minutes of organizing, and everything's back to the way it was before with my very nice, tidy and sensibly organized Start Menu under Windows 7.

Sometimes, MS can be such *******s.

[speedtripler]

OK... I've had enough!!!

Keeping Windows 10 on my laptop since that's going to be the future. But broke down and installed Classic Shell, took 5 minutes of organizing, and everything's back to the way it was before with my very nice, tidy and sensibly organized Start Menu under Windows 7.

Sometimes, MS can be such *******s.

Usually I'd agree, but I've never been more pleased with the upgrade process before

I do understand the frustration if someone upgrades and suddenly the drivers don't work for anything else etc but I've did everything from a 1 year old power laptop and a hp entertainment laptop that was a good spec but in 2009 lol and have yet to find a driver that didn't update itself

I'll be doing another fairly hi spec laptop tonight, it's belongs to friend and cost around 30k just a couple of months ago

Don't expect any issues but I'll post them if there are, it's upgrading with a full package of "free" thai software too

Windows 8.1 I think And the latest office version are already on they're and showing verified even though they were "gifts" from the laptop seller...

[Pib]

People installing Classic Shell even with Win 10. Mt gosh the MS hype made it sound like their new way of displaying app selections and OS menus (basically a mixture of Win 7 and Win 8.1 methods) would please every one. I know I've used Win 10 for over a week now and the various ways to access OS menus can be confusing if using their new menu scheme and some things in the old menus based on Win 7/Win 8.1 have changed/disappeared.

I've only seen one failed update where it tried to install an English language OS system but probably failed due to my version being Win 10 Home English International which really means English UK. Only been a couple of updates released so far.

Other than Win 10 being the latest MS child which means it will have the longest life cycle support from this date and may not be replaced in just a few years, I really don't see any advantages it has over Win 7 or Win 8.1.

[lopburi3]

The advantage is Microsoft - they become the Google data collector. I, for one, are tired of spending more time updating there operating system than actually doing anything that am seriously looking for alternatives - and version 10 seems to be more hype than answer. Had no issues with Windows 7 installs - it is the work required to keep it secure that is my bane. Seriously considering the other guy.

[Suradit69]

If you like 7 as did I you will think 10 is great as well. I have had it since it was released and it has not caused a single issue. Just go for it. You can always revert back if for some reason you don't like it

Yes, I was reluctant to upgrade because of worries over things not working right or incompatibilities and the usual issues that arise (especially when I left XP behind), but I prefer it to 7 for some things and haven't encountered any problems that weren't easily resolvable with this transition. Nothing all that great about 10, but knowing MS, you'll quickly become an unloved orphan if you stick with one of their older operating systems.

Edited August 10, 2015 by Suradit69

[CFC]

If you cant beat, join them. I upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday. I have to say I was very happy with Windows 7. I have had windows 95,XP,ME,Vista and Windows 7 & 8.1 (Only used 8.1 for a few months) and to me Windows 7 was the best. Anyway lets hope Windows 10 lives upto the hype.

Edited August 10, 2015 by CFC

[taotoo]

My upgraded computers are running OK but, of course, the one on which I did a fresh install is running best.

Out of interest, what differences are you noticing? Edited August 10, 2015 by taotoo

[Pib]

If you cant beat, join them. I upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday. I have to say I was very happy with Windows 7. I have had windows 95,XP,ME,Vista and Windows 7 & 8.1 (Only used 8.1 for a few months) and to me Windows 7 was the best. Anyway lets hope Windows 10 lives upto the hype.

Remember, Vista and Win 8.0...they had tons of Micrsoft hype also...we know how that hype turned out. Vista created a lot of pain for me...Win 7 was good to me....I never used Win 8.0 and started with Win 8.1 instead which worked good although I was not a fan of their tile/menu structure which was greatly improved from Win 8.0.

But I'm pretty sure Win 10 will be a very good operating system once it gets through it's mass public release teething pains which is ongoing right now and for about another year.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I've done two machines thus far with Win 10 upgrades, and the upgrade process itself -- once the MS Win 10 applet gave the go-ahead -- was relatively smooth and uneventful in both cases, one being from a Win 7 machine and the other from a Win 8.1 machine.

I wasn't commenting on the upgrade process above. Thus far, all of my peripherals seem to work OK and I haven't had any major third-party software faults thus far.

Likewise, contrary to some alarmist posts on Win 10, I found dealing with the Win 10 privacy settings to be relatively painless. Just don't choose Express Setup at the beginning, and instead choose "Customize" setup, and you'll get a plethora of toggle switch options to turn on or off various kinds of info reporting and data collection to MS.

What I was commenting on was what I consider to be the still pretty user unfriendly version of the Start Menu in Windows 10, especially for those who have/use a lot of different programs on their computers. And here's an example of why.

Let's say I do a lot of photo work, and thus have maybe a half dozen different photo editing, managing, resizing, etc program on my computer. In Win 7, I could create a single "Photo Programs" folder in the Start Menu and then drop all of the various photo program shortcuts into that one folder, which would take up one line of screen text in my Start Menu and then expand when clicked. When I wanted to do photo work, clicking that folder would show me all my photo applications all nicely grouped together.

With Win 10 in that same scenario, AFAICT, I can't create my own folders in the Start Menu and the only way to group similar apps together is by dragging the various tiles into a shared space under a common heading, where six program shortcuts will take up a lot of screen space if using medium sized tiles, and a moderate amount of space if using the smaller tiles sizes that typically have no text label for the program and graphic icons that make them difficult to distinguish one from another.

Then multiply that same issue over a range of different types of programs a person might use -- audio programs, video editing programs, video players, chat/IM/telephone programs, Windows utilities, file backup programs, etc etc, and suddenly you start to get a very unwieldy and cumbersome Windows 10 tiled Start Menu. And no choice to use simple text label listings instead of tiles, AFAICT.

Of course, you could avoid all that and simply deal with Win 10's "All Programs" list, which arranges everything alphabetically with text labels, but for any reasonably complicated "power" user starts to get VERY long very fast.

So yes, until MS makes the Win 10 Start Menu more friendly to power users, it's going to be Classic Shell or something similar.

Edited August 11, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[SantiSuk]

Must have been through at least 5 upgrades of operating systems since the late 80s. I've found it's fine just going with the flow and adapting to the next version. Can't be @rsed to try reco-opting parts of the old into the new*.

Just upgraded my system from 7. No problems so far and it looks fairly intuitive from a quick road test. It took the best part of 4 hours to download (2.7GB and TOT in Isaan). Good that you can just leave it to fire away and pick up where it's left off later. Good for the uninitiated that your files and apps pop back up without having to backup; didn't trust that it would of course and it's strange that the download installation screens are silent on that issue. Perhaps they don't want to make any promises in case, but equally don't want to make the process seem like a fag!

I think my Windows 7 was Windows 7 Professional. Are there any gradations in 10 or do we all get the same package? I don't really care as long as the new one works fine.

The only issue that might have given a real amateur a worry was when I deferred my scheduled installation by an hour when the originally scheduled time was approaching (still had not backed-up). The upgrade never did pick back up on-screen at the appointed time or for an hour or so thereafter, but I found it again by clicking on Windows Update in Control Panel. Seemed like it might have been continuing stealthily in the background but it should have advertised its presence.

[*Mind you I never had to work with the notoriously poor ones]

[lostinisaan]

I just updated two W 7 to 10 and would like to share my thoughts. My home PC is already back to 7, the school desktop's still running 10 and I'll see how it goes.

.I'm glad that Windows offers a one month restore back to your old system option. Some programs on my PC at home didn't work anymore. I saw some messages that these programs wouldn't run on this version, that's all.

When trying to reinstall, the same message, not running compatible....

If it's possible to run my programs, I might consider to upgrade again. Right now, I don't see a reason why I should throw away really good programs that were very helpful in the past.

Edited August 12, 2015 by lostinisaan

[mxyzptlk]

Must have been through at least 5 upgrades of operating systems since the late 80s. I've found it's fine just going with the flow and adapting to the next version. Can't be @rsed to try reco-opting parts of the old into the new*.

Just upgraded my system from 7. No problems so far and it looks fairly intuitive from a quick road test. It took the best part of 4 hours to download (2.7GB and TOT in Isaan). Good that you can just leave it to fire away and pick up where it's left off later. Good for the uninitiated that your files and apps pop back up without having to backup; didn't trust that it would of course and it's strange that the download installation screens are silent on that issue. Perhaps they don't want to make any promises in case, but equally don't want to make the process seem like a fag!

I think my Windows 7 was Windows 7 Professional. Are there any gradations in 10 or do we all get the same package? I don't really care as long as the new one works fine.

The only issue that might have given a real amateur a worry was when I deferred my scheduled installation by an hour when the originally scheduled time was approaching (still had not backed-up). The upgrade never did pick back up on-screen at the appointed time or for an hour or so thereafter, but I found it again by clicking on Windows Update in Control Panel. Seemed like it might have been continuing stealthily in the background but it should have advertised its presence.

[*Mind you I never had to work with the notoriously poor ones]

You should now be on Windows 10 Pro. Thats what happened when i upgraded from Win 7 Pro

Here's how to find out http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/which-operating-system

Edited August 14, 2015 by mxyzptlk

[The Fat Controller]

I tried a 10 upgrade from 7, but the one program I really needed, Microsoft Money, does not work with 10 as it needs components from Internet Explorer.

I had 10 on my Acer laptop for about an hour, and the only other issue was the lack of a correct audio driver for Dolby Digital sound.

After reverting to 7 you have to reinstall quite a few Windows updates.

Once done, uninstall KB3035583, which offers the upgrade to 10.

Then find it again using Windows Update and hide it and the 10 download which still appear in the list.

Edited August 14, 2015 by The Fat Controller

[RichCor]

Fat,

While it's not an issue to keep running on Windows 7, you could run Windows 10 and then run non-compatible apps from an earlier OS in a Virtual Machine.

But there were also some Topic Threads running on answers.microsoft.com concerning Microsoft Money and Windows 8.1 and Windows 10:

Windows 10 TPV Builds 10240-10049 Crashes Microsoft Money, see last post.

Use Regedit

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
• In the right pane, look for both Version and W2K Version registry values.
• Modify the value data from 9.11.10240.16384 to 9.11.10240.0 (so... 16384 -> 0 )

Someone found a registry entry change allowed the Microsoft Money to continue to work using current loaded IE versions (and not requesting IE 5 or IE 6).

The same registry change is quoted in about 28 other answer.microsoft.com Microsoft Money Windows 10 topics.



Also, the Dolby Digital drivers (Dolby Advanced Audio) can be had for Windows 10 by downloading and installing the Windows 8.1 Acer sound drivers from the ACER support website. Installing them in Windows 10 will also install the Dolby support files (including Control Panel and Tray Icon in the taskbar), then on subsequent reboot Windows 10 will reload the generic Windows 10 sound driver, leaving the Dolby Advanced Acer drivers intact.

[The Fat Controller]

Thanks RichCor for the links and information.

I have just read the last posts in the thread and it seems that a W10 update may have cured the problem with Money.

When I have the time to backup everything, I may have another go at the upgrade to W10.

[fasteddie]

I've got windows7 ready to upgrade but am holding off until next year. I've just done 13 important updates today though admittedly it hasn't been tuned on for a week.