I find myself switching constantly between tablet and desktop modes on my Surface 3 Pro. Looks like they paid more attention to desktop this time around.

Oh come on. That's not true.

A simple electronic "implied" click through agreement isn't binding with that power anywhere in the world.

And they've always added and subtracted features as they will--this is nothing new. While the inability to stop updates is annoying, realistically they've always had plenty of ways to impose their will on people anyway.

Worst case, they can't stop you from manually going back to an older Windows. They can, as they always have been able to, stop supporting it. That tool has always been in their toolbox.

We need to be careful and observant, it's true. But there ARE limits to what they can do and not be crucified in the press (or sued). That's a factor too. They don't have people locked into some dystopian unbreakable contract.

No they have not.

I have almost never installed the, now confined to history, 'optional' updates.

Me too.

Is desktop Skype compatible with Windows 10? I do not want to download Windows 10 just yet, incase the desktop Skype version won't work.

Seeing that Microsoft now own Skype you would hope so! With the upgrade it kept all my existing applications MS or not even if there were new Windows 10 designed similar applications. I think Explorer was the only one gone replaced by MS Edge. All the old MS apps still worked though I have since moved to the new Windows 10 offerings and de-installed things such as Windows Live Mail.

Yes, it's fine. The update didn't affect or change my contact list. Didn't update the program (I'm still resisting the new look ).

When I first fired up Skype, it asked for access to microphone, which I forgot to turn on, but other than this, it works fine from thereon. Video calls work fine.

Thank you.

That is good. Thank You.

I am thinking of doing 1 of 2 things.

Doing a clean install or going back to win 8.1 on one computer and back to win 7 on the other.

Both of my computers are slow and clunky with win 10, so perhaps it still needs a lot of work.

I assume that if I do revert to my previous OS I can still install win 10 at some point before they start charging for it.

i'll give it a whirl, thanks

I rolled back my old-ish laptop. Originally it had W7 installed, W8.1 worked perfectly well, but with W10 the fan was on almost constantly. I did not see much hope for it.

The general understanding is once you have installed it, your pc is registered and you can reinstall any time even after a year. However I would not bank on it working after a year, but up to a year - no problem.

I don't really understand what about Win10 would do that. Generally the fan, if it's variable at all, is controlled from the BIOS--which won't have been affected by an OS upgrade.

Unless you are running some Windows front end that digs into the BIOS (and that maybe might malfunction in 10). In which case... just uninstall THAT.

Constantly running fan suggests the processor works more than before.

I don't / can't see why any difference either. But some are still reporting strange problems.

The current limit of my knowledge (without Googling for hours):

Uninstall AntiVirus temporarily (MS Defender will take over automatically)
Uninstall any Tune-up Utilities (Permanently!)

Backup drivers with Double Driver. http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...le_driver.html

Create a Restore Point (Settings > Create a Restore Point)

Try reinstalling Chipset and other relevant drivers from your Computer Manufacturer's Support / Downloads webpage


Also check Safe Mode with Networking runs at expected performance speed, in case of co-incidental hardware failure

And right-click Start, Command Prompt (Admin), sfc /scannow

The usual cautionary advice given by computer magazines and websites is to wait until the first service pack is issued. However, if someone wants to upgrade for free, they had better do it by the cut off date of 29 July 2016 irrespective of whether a full service pack has been issued.

New!

Redmond operating system smack-down
Windows 10 has finally arrived. Thanks to a daring strategy on Microsoft's part, the latest version of their operating system allows you to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 for free until July 29 2016 (as long as you’re not on an Enterprise licence). Windows 10 is great, especially when compared to its two immediate predecessors, Windows 8.1 and 7, as our blow-by-low head-to-head comparison shows.

This is incorrect. MS have made it clear that Windows 10 updates will be a continual process. So there will not be a defined service pack any more. How will you ever know when to take the plunge!

The old IE is still there. Edge may be the default now but if you want to use IE it is still listed in the Start menu.

My thought exactly. W8.1 was great om a tablet. W10 sucks, a lot of the features and gestures have gone. Love W10 on my desktop PC but my tablet is going back to 8.1

I installed Windows 10 this morning, after a couple of hours I wanted to revert back to windows 7 as I found it rather annoying from th onset, it wouldn't let me do it so i promptly formatted my hard drive completely and re-installed the original Windows 7 that I got with my new PC set-up back in April.

I now have a clean computer running on Windows 7 which is running much faster, though I will have to chose updates carefully from now on.

Better the devil I know.

See, Windows 10 isn't completely useless But I really wonder what people expect MS will slip them in while they are not looking. They just want people to have all security updates ASAP.

Talk about bringing a wall down to squash a mosquito! You seem to be suggesting that a new OS should be immediately gratifying and that any problems should occur later. I would say that anything new takes a little getting used to but problems can be ironed out over time. If we were talking about Vista I'd give you the benefit of the doubt but Windows 10 seems pretty good to me, and worth any teething troubles (that are inevitable anyway).

Making a rod for your own back.

There's a CPU monitor you can watch to tell that, as well as logging tools. Certainly guesswork via the fan might lead to trying those out, but I hope nobody actually draws a definite conclusion from it.

CPU-wise Win 10 seems to use less than 7 for me, and about the same as 8/8.1. Most people I've read seem to feel the same. If someone is getting more CPU use out of the same config, then I'd be suspicious of something else (new) going on.

Upgrade took 3 hours, when it finished it wasn't exactly snappy. I left it running over night. In the morning I had a lot of white rectangles on the desktop (incomplete/ damaged shortcuts). I could not start absolutely anything, even starting Task Manager reported some problem about nonexistent contract. I really wasn't in the mood trying to find out what happened there. W8.1 runs very well on the same machine and that's good enough for me for now.