Microsoft are desperate to get people off Win7 and 8 because it is a lot harder to harvest people's personal info for selling to 3rd parties on those operating systems. They want everyone on Win10 so they have loads of lovely data to sell, this is the Google business model that MS have now adopted, much more profitable than making and selling a new OS every few years

Wrong.

I highly doubt that Microsoft would betray people's trust by selling info that they did not have permission to use in the first place. They'd lose a lot of customers if they were found to be doing that.

What personal info?
If you believe all that no wonder you are paranoid.

Well "they" are probably out to get him .

Here is a good article (especially for the tin foil brigade) to read

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...or=-2147217396

Is this the random flashing black screen? I had that on my laptop 6 months ago. It seems to have gone now. Tried various attempts at fixing, none of which worked. Last one was to disable some Lenovo (yes I know) application. That seems to have sorted it. Though of course there's also been loads of Win updates since then, so who knows.

No such problems on desktop which I upgraded 3-4 weeks ago.

With almost all software of similar complexity there will be some users who have horrendous experiences and will naturally tend to think the vendor has done a bad job. If you are impacted it's often just bad luck that your particular combination of complementary hardware and software has caused all hell to break loose (with Windows, it happened to me with XP SP2 for example, PC rendered unbootable). In order to assess how well the vendor did we need to determine how big the "some" is proportionally.

Just updated to W10. OK so far, however when I take the PC out of standby I'm asked to sign-in. Never had this on W8.1, always just went back to the desktop.

is there any way to stop it doing that?

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disabl...ep-windows-7-8

article updated for windows 10.

Yep. Settings, then Accounts, then Sign In Options. Change Require SignIn to Never.

Then in Settings, System choose Power And Sleep. At the bottom is Additional Power Settings. This will open the old style control panel. Click Require a password on wakeup.
Then in the options click Don't require a password on wakeup.

Yes. Go into settings. Click on accounts. Select sign in options & make your choice

Thanks for the replies! Now sorted.

Another reason is to reduce operational costs by getting computer users on to the same, single platform rather than a multitude of operating systems as at present. That'll almost certainly mean no extra, extended support for Windows 7 and 8.1 when their time is up unlike for XP. I think it would be fair for Microsoft to periodically point out to XP users (and Vista users next year) that their operating system is unsupported and vulnerable.

I think they have already set the dates when support ends for 7 and 8, so they will have to keep those, but yes, they want to push as many people towards mandatory updates to keep the computers up to date whether their owners want it or not. Many computers are now vulnerable simply because their owners do not update them at all. Not sure, if this is the best way, but I don't see any sinister reasons. Yes, they do collect information to offer targeted ads, but I don't think they sell it further. They have a privacy policy that explains what is harvested and how it is used. In this respect they are more transparent than let's say Google that does not tell you anything, they just do what they like.

Re: forced upgrade policy, even some MS employees think they've gone too far. See my post here.

Quoting your own post: classy.

They do, I see it a lot if I use my old XP machine to search for something online.

Meanwhile it runs 24/7 very stably still pumping out my radio station, and has done so ever since support was withdrawn, with the single exception of being offline for 8 days when I moved house. The most likely reason I will upgrade it is the same as I did with the W2K machine I used for the same purpose for 7 years after support was withdrawn - hardware and some 3rd party software support was withdrawn.

I was almost forced into upgrading the other day. I clicked decline on the accept page.

I actually just bought a W10 machine to have the is available but I really want to keep my active W7 machine as it is - i.e. W7

The thing is they do have permission to harvest and sell your info as soon as you agree to Win10's EULA, if you don't agree to it you can't install Win10



lol, so naive. I bet you didn't even read the EULA before you clicked 'agree', that's exactly what Microsoft expect. If you're fine with them selling your info that's up to you but I won't be giving them mine

Quote the bit in 10's EULA that says that then.

Edit: I've just slowly skimmed through 10's EULA and can't see anything about what you're saying.

You are wrong on both counts, I have read it and am far from being naive.
It's a free world and you are free to choose.
However, please point out what personal info, I may not want to share, they have. Which was my question.

W7 is like using something out of the Ark in comparison to W10. I kept an image of my W7 setup for a while, sort of an insurance policy. However, once I been using W10 for a very short time and could see what a huge leap forward it was I ditched W7 for good.

It's like these TV programmes that look back with fondness to past times - yes it looks good when viewed on TV but you wouldn't really want to go back to the 1950s. Same for W7 - times have moved on though man/women is not very good with change.

You just reminded me of Steve Ballmer selling Windows 1.0. Except in Nebraska

Okay so on the computer I would be able to upgrade (my other ones are for work) I use Firefox, Thunderbird and TapinRadio. Please explain what is so good about W10 that it is worth my while upgrading to compensate for the risk involved? How do these applications work differently under W10?

I'm not at all bothered about a change of operating system but there needs to be some reason to upgrade that overrides the (small) risk of problems.

If you have to use Windows then in my experience Windows 10 is Microsoft's best one yet. Its like an enhanced version of Windows 7 and is much much better than the awful windows 8. I have upgraded a few systems for friends and relatives.

Having said that my usual operating system is Linux Mint 17.3 cinnamon edition.