Pardon me. I asked barbeler a question and you answered it, and I assumed I was talking to the same person.

My brother does it because everything is on one switch, the problem is his router is also on the same system so I found out. Maybe explains why his internet is slow..
i have told him to put it on a separate power feed, if he will take notice is another thing.


i could do the same here, with a flick of a switch I could turn computer, monitors, external hard drives, printer and the scanner all off at the same time, but no point, the computer is normally doing something anyway, so is left on a lot.

Well given W10 power requirements, plus modern PC power technology, why would you be shutting it down anyway? I haven't closed down (apart from essential maintenance and updates) either my Mac or a Windows machine in the the last five years - sleep is the option to use.

This leads into the other thorny debate about people who go around switching off their routers too - the barmy army I call them. Why would you do this, you wouldn't go round switching off your fridge freezer at night so why go around switching off such an innocuous low powered item as a router?

That's true - thank you for offering a different perspective which I hadn't thought of.

I’ve been a Win10 convert for a while now and apart from ‘Windows updates’ doing their own thing as and when it suits (which certainly can be annoying), overall I’m quite pleased.

What are the ‘plenty of annoying faults’ to which you refer?

I’m not saying that the ‘annoying faults’ don’t exist by the way;

…it may well be that I’ve got so used to them that I don’t see them as issues anymore. Or maybe I’ve just not come across many of them.

You could use a suitable UPS. Plenty available on the market. Depending on size you could run a computer, printer and router through one of them and not worry about power surges. Some allow you to automate a proper power-down sequence if necessary.

I use a gang socket with built-in surge protection. Then again I use a laptop, so I already have a UPS in a way. They're a great idea for desktop PCs though, especially considering that experiencing a power cut while the computer is running is far more likely to cause problems than the surge caused when the power returns and the computer wasn't even switched on in the first place. Switching it off at the wall after shutting down is highly unlikely to ever have any benefit at all.

Switching 'kit' off at the mains goes back years, I remember staying at my gran's many years ago and getting up early...everything was unplugged including the fridge (mom talked her out of that practise).

I don't isolate power to anything in the house these days, that said I do have an isolation switch in the radio shack and all the family and friends know that if they go in the shack and I'm not responding the first thing they do is flick the 'OFF' switch (lighting is on a different power loop) before touching me.

MS calls them features, but i have been though this before on here and people on here seems to get upset when I say what I do not like about Windows 10 and I will not use it, but just for you.

Telemetry, awful start menu, forced downloading of updates, cortana, that is a pain to disable even more so now as it keeps running in the background. Knocking out drivers for hardware because it thinks it knows better, but i have heard they have solved that problem now.
Shoving apps at people and making it more awkward than it should be to make other software default and then getting rid of those defaults when 10 have an update.

The awful look of Windows 10 in general, it is worse than Windows 8.

Don't anyone else reply to this as we will be going around the same thing again.

How come you are allowed to go around the same thing again (and again, and again.....) but we are not?
Sorry, forgot - you are a god and we are mere mortals.

Yep, I am god and don't forget it

Just telling poster my reasons as he asked me, but you know my views as much as I know yours, so no good going over it again.

at least I have said some things have been sorted, by all accounts.

I read it as an exhortation not an imperative.

Periodic reinforcement of W10's features, by repetition, good and bad, is essential for open and transparent considerations.

If you'd like some more good news, I turned the telemetry and Cortana off on day one. It was very straightforward and has caused no problems at all. I have never had any apps shoved at me. I did choose all my file associations on day one to avoid using the new music app and other things, if that's what you mean by having apps shoved at you. I have yet to visit the app store. Has nobody mentioned these things to you?

I really like how I have the new Start menu configured, but then I would wouldn't I? You just have to fiddle with it to get it how you want it, and it's pretty straightforward. If you're trying to recreate the old menu you'll be disappointed, but the old menu was pretty rubbish by comparison.

Not a problem.

I would say what you are suffering from is inexperience - plain and simple. No don't answer this as we will be going round and round all over again.

I do have a UPS for my main computer setup. And the phone base unit and router is also plugged into this.

However I've got other PC setups in the house, and as the UPS unit was about £60, it would be a bit expensive to buy more. But I may do in the future.

The PC that the PSU went on was my 'business' PC, and I thought it was on a surge protection socket, but I notice the surge protection LED has gone out. It may well have been knocked out by a previous spike, as we get lots of these short power cuts for some reason (out in the wilds of the Scottish Borders), and I just didn't notice.

For all those who wondered why I always switch my computer off at the mains; it's in my bedroom, and if I don't I get various LED's either lit up or blinking at me all night. I suppose I could cover them all with sticky paper or items of clothing, but I prefer to turn the whole lot off. Apart from anything else, I'm saving about 0.5p on my electricity bill each night and doing my bit to prevent global warming.

First, power outages do not damage a properly designed appliance. Power restoration means voltage slowly increases as everything is powered. This is problematic for motorized appliances (ie refrigerator). And is ideal for electronics.

Second, power outage does not cause damage. But power outage can be created by something that is also potentially destructive. Many will blame power restoration rather then an anomaly that created that outage. A classic example of conclusions justified only by speculation.

Third, normal (acceptable) failure process for any protector is degradation. Degradation is never detected by a circuit that triggers that 'Protector Good' indicator light. That light reports an emergency protection device blew. Not to protect appliances. To protect human life. If that emergency protection device does not open fast enough, then catastrophic damage (ie fire) can result. Have your attention?

That emergency protection device disconnected protector parts as fast as possible. And left a potentially destructive transient connected directly to appliances. Where is protection? A transient too tiny to overwhelm protection inside household appliances also damaged a near zero protector.

That indicator light says a protector was so grossly undersized that emergnecy protection had to avert a catastrophic failure (ie potential fire). A transient too tiny to damage anything else damaged a near zero protector. Two facts that should cause concerned reflection.

Four, UPS is temporary and 'dirty' power so that unsaved data can be saved. Adjacent protector only claims to protect from transient typically too tiny to damage appliances. (If in doubt, read specification numbers.) If any appliance needs protection, then all appliances need protection.

Effective protection of all appliances (and does not fail even after a direct lightning strike) is a properly earthed 'whole house' protector. This superior solution costs about one quid per protected appliance. Even plug-in protectors need protection provided by this superior and tens of times less expensive solution. Protection that was installed in facilities that could not have damage - even 100 years ago.

There are no lights left on or blinking when my computer is shut down, the power light blinks when it is suspended, but the computer is so quick to turn on not worth suspending it.

the post was for the person who asked me, that is why I said for other people not to reply as we have been through this.
I have used windows 10, I even tried it again after the anniversary edition, but my main problem with it is still there.

Telemetry can not be turned off now, by all accounts the big update last November saw to that, there is software that says they do, but I wonder if they really do.
Cortana can be disabled, but since the last big update it is running int he background, sure there are ways to stop it happening, but you should not have to use there ways, there should be a switch to disable cortana. the image of windows 10 I have stored on my external drive have cortana disabled well and truly, but it do not stop Ms changing it on the next update.

I can use start is back which is what I use with Windows 8 to give me a old style menu.
While you can use other apps, MS had a habit of getting rid of default setting on large updates.

Windows 10 is a pretty good Os underneath, but just so much lost of control.

I really dont understand why people complain about the start menue in windows 10.
It works OK for me.
Dont need Start is Back or Start Menue etc to replace it.

Thanks.

...I won't add any further comment.

Tinkering with computers, for non-standard purposes, has been around since they were invented.

Constraining General, multi-purpose machines seems counter intuitive. I wonder what Turing would have said?

The difference now is that MS obviously considers Unauthorised Modification a crime and is doing their damndest to stop it (God know why)

Compulsory features, settings and unwanted updates annoy millions, but thousands are sufficiently savvy to find and publicly publish workarounds within hours, days, weeks or a few months.

The Game has evolved

BIB Not really. Because I can't really understand your post.

But I think what you are saying is that you don't like surge sockets or UPS systems, but are recommending some other device - a 'whole house' protector? (a link would be useful)
Never heard of that, but it's a rented house anyway, so wouldn't be able to tinker with the electrical system.

All I know is that over the years power cuts/spikes/surges or whatever has knocked out 3 computer PSUs and 2 TV set top boxes.