According to Sony site, my laptop is not compatible but works fine. Companies only say that about older machines so you can't go back and expect help if things go pearshaped.

As moox says, if MS say it is ok, it most likely is (main issue has been with nvidea graphics).

Just make a full image backup before you upgrade so you can backtrack if it goes wrong.

Someone here recently pointed out that Microsoft have bet the Farm on Windows 10.
It is not a question of if niggles will be sorted out. It is a question of when they will be sorted out. Are non optional drivers a niggle? (leaving aside the option to hide updates). Yes they are and I will bet my farm on this policy changing soon.

Network activity during idle is interesting and maybe even worrying. But is not really about W10. This could just as easily have been a service pack for W8.1. Who knows what they are looking at? I have never met anyone who has not used pirated software. A low level offender might have used a copy of winzip on a floppy disc 20 years ago. Or....it might be someone today using an expensive pro video editor that they have not paid for.

I don't see that being ever enforced at the OS level. It's becoming less and less relevant these days with streaming, all you can eat services for both audio and video are becoming more and popular and affordable. Coupled with faster and more reliable internet access for most.

Rampant piracy half killed the music industry so it is not all a bad thing.
In a way, it is a shame that no standardised DRM came about for music.

It was the mish mash of non standards that killed music DRM, with near no one wanting to buy iTunes DRM music.

I don't agree.

It's a matter of positioning, and if we're being honest, assistance.

A Linux PC should never be someone's primary one--lets say that straight out.

While the biggest of them, Ubuntu, can be almost no effort for an amateur to set up, that (like with Win 10) differs on a case by case basis depending on the hardware and how it's supported.

But if the box is going in the trash anyway, it's worth a shot (after moving the data elsewhere first). The key is to have someone more technical set it up, but also to establish ahead of time what the box will be used for, and what else is there to use for other purposes.

The ideal is to set the old PC up with Linux JUST as a supplemental web browsing platform. That way it remains useful, but nobody is deluding themselves about what's possible on that box. That way next time the wife or kids are hogging the main PC? You boot up the Linux box just to do your websurfing. You use your smashing new box with Win 10 or Win 8 or whatever to do your more complicated computing (although at the very least, various Office suites and photo editing packages DO exist for Linux and work pretty well out of the box).

This is my last response on this thread for obvious reasons!

Yes, it is all quite silly.

There will be a fair few in the population whos only internet access is via an iPhone 3GS.
Simply put, unlike us when we type, they have a life !

Look around the web, Cortana is getting good reviews.

You don't like 10 so don't use it and keep off the windows 10 threads,

Old PCs are still I believe collected by charities and sent to Africa. Linux is typically what's put on those old boxes to support them--and the intent is just to support web browsing, nothing else. Alternatives like Raspberry Pi have reduced the need for those projects somewhat, but it still exists.

For years, public libraries tried solutions like this too. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Stories like this:

https://www.techsoupforlibraries.org...running-strong

It all comes down to who wants to spend money and who doesn't. TALKING about these older PCs is very germane to the topic of Windows 10, only because people keep posting with their frustrations at installing Win 10 on decade old computers. Communicating the existence of an alternative to those people in a general way is fine, but debating the issues of if Linux deserves to exist or be discussed is a waste of breath on both sides.

Here is a topic for Linux as an alternative to Win 10: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2098297

But yelling, screaming, and lecturing people HERE simply for bringing it up is quite off-putting. Now that there IS a topic, try being polite and pointing them there. Incidental answers about marketing positioning and such seem harmless though, in either topic. Actually technical advice is perhaps better in that other topic however.

I would agree with you and why I have always said that computers are a dangerous tool if you are clueless with what you are doing.

There should be some sort of 'driving test' for owning and using a computer. Sounds drastic I know, but the total mess some folk get themselves into tends to back up my argument.

I would agree with that. The early adopters of Windows 10 are facing that issue right now but I expect that very many of these issues will be resolved with time so that, for example, people will face fewer difficulties and incompatibilities if they try out Windows 10 again after another six months have elapsed. It is to Microsoft's credit that they are keeping the free upgrade offer open for a whole year.


That particular aspect cannot be emphased or repeated enough before upgrading or reinstalling an operating system. Yes, it might take an hour or two, but it'll make life much easier if things unfortunately don't work out.


FREE -----> Macrium Reflect Free

Just one thing, there is no reason what so ever not to have Linux as your primary OS if it does what you want. Is that your view on OS X as well? I know people who uses Linux only and do not have a windows or Apple device in their house.

As I said, money talks, i wonder how many of those sites have adverts from MS?
i have seen a few reviews and they have said all good things about windows 10 and then you see a advert from Ms about Windows 10,. so of cause they are going to get good reviews.
Cortana may be fine on a phone, like Siri is on a apple phone and what ever it is that Google uses on Android, but for a desktop it is really not that useful.
Most people who are still using desktops and laptops will load up their normal browser and search using Google.
I have seen it already where a couple of people have updated to 10 and the first thing they asked me is where is Google.
I myself use Duck duck go, so when I was trying out windows 10 I only used windows search a couple of times, I never got Cortana working on my computer due to the fact I would not sign over my life to MS and allow my computer to stay linked to my MS account. But I did try it on another computer that it may be more useful on as it was more of a laptop come tablet.
It was not that good to be honest, because it relies on Bing and Bing is truly awful.


I will do as I like, it is nothing to do with you.
I have told you before, no one is forcing you to reply, I have no idea who you think you are, but you do not tell me what to do. simple as that.

Well i have told most people that I know that if they update to Windows 10 and it goes belly then they are on their own. I can no longer be bothered to sort out everyone's problem. There are some I will help, close friends and family and that is it.

My own advice is wait for a few months before trying out this shiny new operating system so that all the initial and early bugs and incompatibilities get ironed out with updates and newly available drivers. I help some people locally and none of them is a computer expert and they'd all be hard pressed to deal with some of the problems that have been outlined in the two big Windows 10 threads.

Ignoring Wikipedia DuckDuckGo 99% uses Bing. Truly awful you say?

Not sure if anyone has tried to install windows 10 on a sony vaio, but chatting to a friend yesterday, thought this may be interesting.
He recently bought two SVT1121B2EW that came with 8.1 and it did display very large on the box and the argos website 'windows 10 free upgrade', which he presumed would mean an easy upgrade. Oh dear fooled...
His GW10 did not appear, so he got the media and tried to install. It started the install but stalled after a few hours.

He did contact sony support, who he said were just awful and uninterested, just wanted to login to his machine. That just frightened him.

On looking I found a few links that he was not aware of on the sony support website.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/os10upgrade.pl?
http://sony-eur-eu-en-web--eur.custh...ail/a_id/81928


They are recommending waiting to install until the drivers & installation instructions are available and showing that as October/November 2015.

Not had much experience of Sony Vaio, first Sony I've come across for a long time.
Not actually seen the machine. But after I spoke with him yesterday, he took decided on a full refund. He told me he is now the owner of two Acer Aspire V15 (VN7591G) and both upgraded last night with no issues.

Wondered if anyone else had any thoughts or perhaps were not aware of this from Sony.

The problem is inexperienced users (Victim Blaming) and we can all say Upgrade is No Problem or you may get problems.

If one advises to go for it, a user may get frustrated with failed attempts or possibly a non-bootable (but still fixable, with some faff) computer/device.

It's tricky to advise many customers. I suspect that is why Sony is playing safe with their advice.

I hope someone can give me a simple answer to a question that I've tried Googling but without a clear answer. I'm ready to upgrade to W10 on a Windows 8.1 laptop. Does Windows 10 have Windows Media Player? I don't mean Media Centre but simple Player. Only concerned with audio as I rip off parts of CDs and download tracks and use the Player to burn CDs. Help please!

Yes Windows media player is there and works exactly as before.
You can also manually install also if needs be. Its not changed since xp, but still works.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/down....aspx?id=20426

Seems Sony has abandoned the Windows PC market. Thus, rather than paying twice in fixing Microsofts update changes they are waiting for a more stable version of 10 to appear.
I think they have also sold the Vaio name.

I agree about the waiting, but some people won't, they got to get the shiny new OS as soon as possible.

I don't mind helping people, but some of these people I do not hear from for months until something goes belly up with their computer, which is why I said I would only help close friends and family.
Saying that, one person I thought may have had problems installing Windows 10 managed fine,

Not sure what you mean there, do you mean 99% os people uses Bing, or Duck Duck go uses Bing?

DDG used to use Google a few years back, now I think they use multiple search engines. They seem to get things right more than Bing.

sony do not recommend updating their machines
#

Thanks for that!