My Windows 10 Experience And Some Suggestions

I upgraded a HP Slate 500 that ran a Win 7 pro OS with 2gb of ram that had been up in the closet for the last 2 years back in it's box. The first thing I did was let it download and install all the updates over 150 of them then installed W10 with the tool, to date it has been rock solid with not an issue whatsoever. I'm not a tech savvy person, just an average user who has been using Windows since 3.0.

Gumtree said:

News flash! The average computer user is not a computer tech. Windows 10 should be designed with this in mind. I suspect so many problems are coming about because there are just so many systems out there and so many users. Does Microsoft build its software with only tech heads in mind or do they cater for the everyday user? This should be the critical question.
The thing is most users who have purchased a brand new PC and ran the Windows 10 compatibility checker (as I did) were informed that Windows 10 would run on their PC. So I installed it in good faith and have had no end of problems ever since. The average PC user should not be expected to jump through numerous technical hoops every time there is an update. Sadly this has not been the case and many users have been left in the dark. I personally know of at least a dozen Windows 10 users who have become so disenchanted by the experience that they have wiped their drives and installed Windows 7. One thing the Microsoft techs in their ivory towers seem to forget is that every problem causes a huge loss of time and productivity for users. Techs will often advise people to delete their hard drive and re-install from a fresh ISO. They forget that if people are running businesses and their livelihood depends on a stable system, they simply cannot afford such constant interruptions and delays due to downtime. Many hours of entered data could also be at risk of being lost. We seem to be entering an age of back up, back up, back up, and then don't expect your new system to be able to cater for the back ups. It is all getting a bit ridiculous in the name of the almighty god called "The Upgrade". Well in my experience The Almighty Upgrade has become a very vengeful god and not one that can be counted on.

The Windows 10 compatibility checker does not absolve the end-user from the responsibility of performing due diligence by checking with their manufacturer to ensure their machine's make and model has been blessed by the manufacturer to run W10. Microsoft's compatibility checker can only do so much, the rest is up to the end-user. Many users experience issues because they fail to check with their manufacturer to see if they will be supporting W10 and associated drivers. To say that an end-user should not have to jump through hoops for an update is true, but going from W7 to W10 is much more than an update, it is an upgrade of an OS, and should not be attempted by those not willing to troubleshoot issues. Those "non-tech heads" who cannot troubleshoot should enlist the help of a professional then. You mention backups. A good backup strategy using reliable software should be established way before "The Upgrade". In this day and age there is no excuse for anyone not immediately being able to return their PC to a desired state within an hour or two, give or take, depending how much data is on the drive your OS resides on. There is good reliable FREE software (Macrium Reflect for one) that will take a system image and be able to restore that image easily and reliably. It does require the maturity to learn the software (about an hour or two) and discipline to do regular backups. But then, people who rely on this data and a working machine for their livelihood surely already know this and have been taking these types of precautions all along.

Seymour Heiney said:

The Windows 10 compatibility checker does not absolve the end-user from the responsibility of performing due diligence by checking with their manufacturer to ensure their machine's make and model has been blessed by the manufacturer to run W10. Microsoft's compatibility checker can only do so much, the rest is up to the end-user. Many users experience issues because they fail to check with their manufacturer to see if they will be supporting W10 and associated drivers. To say that an end-user should not have to jump through hoops for an update is true, but going from W7 to W10 is much more than an update, it is an upgrade of an OS, and should not be attempted by those not willing to troubleshoot issues. Those "non-tech heads" who cannot troubleshoot should enlist the help of a professional then. You mention backups. A good backup strategy using reliable software should be established way before "The Upgrade". In this day and age there is no excuse for anyone not immediately being able to return their PC to a desired state within an hour or two, give or take, depending how much data is on the drive your OS resides on. There is good reliable FREE software (Macrium Reflect for one) that will take a system image and be able to restore that image easily and reliably. It does require the maturity to learn the software (about an hour or two) and discipline to do regular backups. But then, people who rely on this data and a working machine for their livelihood surely already know this and have been taking these types of precautions all along.

In other words, don't upgrade to Windows 10 unless you are a tech head or it will drive you insane. Thanks for the confirmation!

I pose these questions:
1) How come I ran Windows 7 on this computer for a LONG time without any problems whatsoever?
2) How come Windows 10 Original Core Edition was flawless and had no problems?
3) How come all of the problems suddenly became apparent as soon as upgrade 1511 came along?
4) How come I experience many more problems with every update since 1511?

Yet we hear continual denials from Microsoft that there are any bugs in Windows 10.

Ztruker said:

You experience is definitely not the norm. For instance, I have Win 10 Pro X64 on two laptops and 1 Desktop. The Desktop has never been in the Insider program, both laptops were and still are.

Laptops:
Dell Inspiron 15R 5520
Toshiba Satellite A305-S6872

Desktop:
Lenovo IdeaCentre K450

I have had 0 significant problems with any of them. I run Win 10 Home at work on two systems, no problems.

One laptop was clean installed just because I wanted to do it. All the others have been upgraded as each was released.

My opinion, for what it's worth.

#1 cause of problems is hardware/drivers, especially video.
#2 is anti-virus and/or firewall software.
#3 is file system or account corruption

People who like to play with themes and modify themes seem to have a higher failure rate then people who don't.
Originally, relocating user folders was causing major problems. This seems to be fixed in the latest builds.

For what it is worth I do not play around with themes or modify them. Really I would not know how to. Anti-virus is always non-existent during an install. I always update my drivers straight after an install. The file system corruption you mention has happened twice now for me following Windows updates. If you have not had any problems with Windows 10 yet you are either 1) very lucky or 2) you will.

whs said:

Maybe you guys could publish a little guide explaining what that entails. The simple users will love you for that.

ditto.

Too much diversity, that's the issue. By the time the user is done intentionally or unintentionally adding and configuring software and devices, each system is unique. And most of them will have some resident malware. The Microsoft installers are pretty good, most of the time the install or upgrade just works.

AFAIK the issues that do arise do not have generic causes and therefore do not have generic solutions. Certainly hunting out as much malware as possible is a help. turning off security adds-ins is critical. getting rid of accumulated cruft in the registry and in the file system helps - what the various 'cleaner' applications try to do. BE SURE THE SYSTEM MEETS OR EXCEEDS THE HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS for the new software.

Probably the closer the base system can get to a 'new-out-of-the-box' state, the more likely the upgrade will work.

Finally, one could hire expert assistance in advance, so at least restoration of pre-attempt conditions can be reasonably relied upon.

Gumtree said:

I can fully sympathise with your comments as I feel the same way at present. I jumped through numerous hoops to get Windows 10 Ver. 1511 installed on my machine. Eventually I did install it and everything was running smoothly, great PC performance, fast bootups. All running well. Then this morning I switch on the PC and it boots to the calendar screen. WT....? I click on the calendar screen and it changes to the password login screen. I have never had a password! I ask a Microsoft tech. His answer is to boot in Safe Mode and if that doesn't work perform a Clean Boot. Umm, how am I suppose to do this when I cannot get into Windows? Silence.

Create a Trinity recovery disk/USB Trinity Rescue Kit | CPR for your computer and reset/remove the administrator password. If you have to enable the Administrator account.

Finally, one could hire expert assistance in advance, so at least restoration of pre-attempt conditions can be reasonably relied upon.

And from where do you get "expert assistance". I have not met any experts in a long time.

Hello, I just joined this forum because I am having problems with Windows 10 since I installed it about a month ago. I don't know if it is because of various settings on my computer or what. I can usually figure things out even though I am not an experienced tech fix it person just an experienced user.

I was running Windows 8 on an HP Envy laptop purchased in 2014. I installed Office 13 Professional when I bought it. Everything was fine. I knew it was inevitable to move to W10 so I did it. Perhaps I didn't fully turn off all virus protections when I did I'm not sure. Among the most frustrating things are:
- Unable to use Outlook except for mail. I always used the cloud calendar and adressbook in the outlook app before so I could see things on my phone and IPad - now only email works. I tried to follow directions to import the cloud calendar and address book, but no luck. So I have been using the ICloud address book and calendar but I hate using the web-based app. It does not have the versatility of Outlook.

- in using websites where you have to log in - some are missing fields like the username field - I can see where it is supposed to be but it isn't there and I can't type anything in.

-sometimes when I click to view what I know is a safe site or link within a website - I get a little blocked icon that is like a yellow star - is this a setting that is unrelated to windows 10?

There are a number of other issues that I won't go on about. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I am also new to using forums such as this.
Thanks