WINDOWS 7 - RIP

What do you object to with Windows 10 ?
Always takes a wee while to get used to a new operating system, but is worth it in the end.

I upgraded to W10 using Window's offer, then downgraded after using it.

I realised they were ending the security updates soon so I bit the bullet and upgraded again using the same route.

You soon get used to it.

You can upgrade free, the offer is still there because it's only been a few months since I moved up.

Anyone know how to change the seconds on the clock, windows 10?

I hate windows 10 too. One of my computers uses it, so what I did to make it bearable was download a windows 7 "Shell"
Also called "classic shell".

It's unobtrusive and makes the computer look more as you'd like it.

I recall when it came out there was a load of fuss made about how it tracks telematics of the user's computer.
They came out with an update where you could change the setting to limit its tracking facilities...

Then brought out another release soon after that eachtime it updated reset to default, disregarding your request

Trouble is as with all this tech now, you cant know to what extent these companies are extracting data, so I stuck with the old version

Jun 12, 2019 -- 7:31PM, mouse muldoon wrote:

Anyone know how to change the seconds on the clock, windows 10?

right click on the date then click on adjust date and time.  Then on the panel put set the time automatically to off and then click on change

Just tried that, Dave, it's still only got boxes for the hours and minutes.

Telemetry not telematics

aka espionage

ah ok don't know then.

Windows 7 doesn't have the seconds either which is very annoying. Plenty of space for it. In fact looking at a windows 10 machine it's got hours and minutes then below that the much bigger date taking up the width that would allow the time to have seconds, so it's saving precisely ZERO space. Microsoft don't seem to think things through anymore, they are an arrogant out of touch company. They way they in a cavalier manner decided they'd start deleting Paint from computers regardless of if users used the program shows their corporate attitude.

And now I check you can't even do the Windows 7 workaround I've regularly used which was to go and look at "Adjust Date/Time" which allowed you to look at the actual seconds on the window that pops up. The Windows 10 has the dumbed down interface designed for technically challenged 8 year olds... Windows 7 also allowed a clock widget which I think is removed from windows 10. So how DO you see the time in seconds on windows 7?

Ahhh ok I've found a way, ok mouse just click on the clock so that the calendar appears, it shows the seconds at the top.

I can see the bastards doing that, but I can't adjust them.

Ahh ok. Well other way I'd do that is via cmd line. You probably want to switch off the set time automatically.
Run a cmd line (you might need to do "run as administrator"), then either type say
> time 20:29:10  ... and hit return
or type
>time
.. then enter where it asks, and hit return.

(but syncing to internet time should be fairly accurate if it works, is that not working?).

Jun 12, 2019 -- 6:58PM, Dr Crippen wrote:

You can upgrade free, the offer is still there because it's only been a few months since I moved up.

Would you be as kind as to point me in the direction of this offer Dr Crippen, as try as I might, I can't find the little fecker? I did try to upgrade 1 of the laptops back to windows 10 last year,using a method on how-to-geek, but computer said no.......................

When the free upgrade to windows 10 came out I installed it but it would not play nicely with my poker games.  I uninstalled it but something happened and I could not get my windows 7 back AND could not get back windows 10 either!! I contacted microsoft but they were not interested.  I tried their support website but again no joy. I still have it and it works but it is asking me for a key, would those on offer on ebay and similar work, I don't think they do.  I am really fed up with microsoft about this, if I had not installed the upgrade I would still have a working computer.

Jun 12, 2019 -- 5:37PM, Angoose wrote:

What do you object to with Windows 10 ?Always takes a wee while to get used to a new operating system, but is worth it in the end.

I felt it wasn't user friendly enough and had hidden agendas, I still do, but's it's better than an OS that's gonna be vulnerable................

My advice to you having upgraded and had issues is don't try the direct upgrade method. Create media (either a burned DVD or USB stick) that has the entire huge image on it. That way if it goes wrong you can attempt and re attempt to fix the botched installation. If you have a duff machine that has already been licensed for windows 10 and you can get your hands on a DVD/USB stick with a Windows 10 installer on it, you may be able to fix it to get your machine working.

If someone tries the direct "upgrade in place" without media method and it goes wrong, that's a nightmare, and you need to download the entire damned thing any time you want to try it. Did you burn a DVD or something when you originally upgraded?

Jun 12, 2019 -- 8:32PM, annie. wrote:

When the free upgrade to windows 10 came out I installed it but it would not play nicely with my poker games.

There are two sides in a way with windows 10  and one way you can configure it to look and act almost exactly like windows 7.

The keys are only about £3 on ebay and they have positive feed back, so it would be worth a try, try hitting the 'skip' option when your asked to put in the key............

Annie go to here and download installation media overnight if you have nothing.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/software-download/windows10
Is your machine not bootable at all? That might be an issue.

Another tip. Make sure you temporarily switch off antiviruses (including windows defender) when upgrading then put them back on again after. I tried to upgrade a machine and after hours it failed, turned out it was security stopping it...

Thanks, JC. 

I looked at that site but it does say I must have a licence which is the problem.  But I will try it.

I bought the laptop very cheap secondhand from an acquaintance who bought sold and repaired laptops and it worked fine until I upgraded to windows 10.  When the upgrade left me with no working computer I went to a local community place which helped with computer problems and they could not fix it but put on an old trial vista system that only works for a month when you then have to put in a key.  It worked fine for a month, as they advised me, but then it asked for a license key.  So now I am stuck with a laptop that works but no system on it and it is not worth buying one -  for that money I could buy another laptop.  Has anyone ever tried the keys advertised on ebay etc.  I have read that they are only for those who already have the program??

Thanks GEESUS, I will have to try them

It didn't like me trying to run a cmd line as admin, JC, the whole thing just crashed which may have saved me some money as the old windows 7 machine just lost £20 on the last at Punchestown, so thanks anyway.

Some of us are trying to use Windows 98 it is the only system which plays my games

Bring back Windows 98 Microsoft

10 is Shyte , what Study says sounds interesting regarding a shell had 8 on a laptop and stupidly upgraded to 10

I actually have a pc Running xp  the best platform ever , I keep AV reg updated and have a couple of Programmes That I run

to make sure things are ok ,it actually recieved a microsoft update a month or so ago

Also run a 3rd party fire wall on it , never had a problem ,YET but I am going to take it out of commission

All these new effing  Platforms 10 and Android are interested in one thing , that you recieve as much advertisement as

possible while you are surfing

If you already upgraded to windows 10 on that machine you hopefully don't need another key, microsoft will most likely have stored that machine as being Windows 10 at their central servers if you were connected. Cheap Keys off ebay ... I don't trust them at all really. Though I considered one myself recently ;P

Why were they putting trial vista on it? If it was upgraded to windows 10 it'll have been 8 or 7 before.

There are two ways license keys work for laptops which are normally what's called OEM. There may be a sticker someewhere on it, or maybe hidden somewhere under a little door, OR the license is actually stored internally in a thing called the BIOS and if you install the original operating system on it from the correct OEM version, it'll see the BIOS license and you are off. Problem is getting your hands on the installer.

What manufacturer is it?
What operating system was on it before?
Is there a sticker anywhere?
I take it it came with no disks?

It MIGHT have a "recovery" partition with the original operating system installer on it that you can access at boot time if this shop didn't delete it. They started doing that instead of giving out Windows DVDs with the laptop. Is there anything wierd at boot time that says something like "press blah blah for recovery options"?

(Vista is already well and truly dropped, they stopped supporting that ages ago!).

I've not installed a shell on Windows 10 (though I might) but I used to use one on the horrendously sh1t Windows 8 to make it usable, that was "Classic Shell" but I think there are better alternatives now, I saw one in passing the other day it looked just like Windows 7.

Scary to think someone born when Windows 95 came out would now be 24 . And posting rubbish on here with the name "aaron"

I have another tower with 7 on it , can u upgrade to 10 or anything Else ?

Away from here, I'm a photographer, and when I installed Win10 (when it was free), it caused display issues with the current version of Photoshop at the time, so I too reverted back to Win7. 

As others have said, XP and 7 have been by far the most stable versions of Windows, in my experience.  Can hardly recall a single lock-up in all the years I used them.

Download and create the installation media from the above link and run it in the machine you want to upgrade, there are plenty of sites explaining what to do like zdnet.
Caveat emptor : I am not responsible if it breaks your machine, but that's what I've done previously. Backup everything valuable beforehand etc.
(Now I think about it I think the upgrade HAS to be run in the system it is to upgrade so might not be good for fixing a broken installation like a normal windows disk is).

I'm a huge windows 7 fan myself I'm scared of Windows 10 installing some new big update and ****ing people's machines up in an annoying or fatal way... again.

I bought a key off Ebay to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro and it worked fine.

I'm scared of Windows 10 installing some new big update and ****ing people's machines up in an annoying or fatal way... again.

The effing updates are endless JC , on a lap top I had ,I had to turn them off , every day some kind of update

I still have a desktop with XL but it is never connected to the internet. I keep some documents and files on there including Microsoft money that won't run on the later versions. The most secure way to store anything is on a machine with no internet connection. You can move stuff to and from another machine using memory sticks but even that is a theoretical risk of transferring a virus.

I've got a laptop that I put in Ubuntu 14.04 which I only use for banking.
Runs Firefox browser.

Windows 10 on mine, had to buy a new laptop so had no choice

Can't be bothered to downgrade to win 7 and it'll only be another upgrade in 18 months or so anyway when they release win 11 or whatever they call it

Jun 13, 2019 -- 12:40AM, the old nanny ;-) wrote:

I'm scared of Windows 10 installing some new big update and ****ing people's machines up in an annoying or fatal way... again.The effing updates are endless JC , on a lap top I had ,I had to turn them off , every day some kind of update

Same here

Proper s***ged my old laptop which was only 9 months old took 6 hours to come back on and it had corrupted everything, had to reboot it and then it wouldn't load the main screen on start up, had to keep loading up task manager to get into anything

An absolute joke. So everytime there's a "update and shutdown" now I dread loading it back up in the morning

Microsoft are a joke

Unless I'm missing something obvious I don't see any obvious reason to ditch win 7 until the hardware gives up

I've never used a microsoft update or patch orwhatever its called. You guys just need to learn how to not rely on Msft while using their products.

...which means i can continue using windows 7 beyond the 2020 date because i've never needed their support anyways.

I'm still working with no problems on my Sinclair ZX80

The reason I asked what model annie's was is that for example if it's a Dell, I believe you can enter the service code (something like JC12345) at the Dell website and download a disk image to reinstall the original operating system, which will then get the license out of the BIOS without needing a license code to be entered. If it's W7 you could then upgrade that again to W10.

I do have a machine with W10 on it and it has already went through cycles where it tries to update over a reboot then rolls back, and did this twice in a row (but has stopped now). It scares the sh1t out of me, what if that happens if you need it for something urgently, or lose data? Fixing computer issues can take so long, you can lose a day or more.

(BTW people who don't back up data .. like people who wrote and entire screenplay or record an album and get their laptop stolen, what are they thinking? The HD could fail at ANY time. I've seen them fail after a week!).

"I've never used a microsoft update or patch orwhatever its called" however is bad advice as well..

Angoose 13 Jun 19 12:38 Joined: 18 Jul 02 | Topic/replies: 2,262 | Blogger: Angoose's blog
I'm still working with no problems on my Sinclair ZX80

When support for XP ended i just carried on regardless and the sky didnt fall in.The laptop died from natural causes a couple of years later(broken screen).Will do the same with W7 and i bet nothing much will happen.

Gin is such an amateur, he forgot the BEEP

Your browser should always be patched - what if browsers aren't being patched for your OS? Firefox etc have stopped supporting Vista now.

Hopefully Win 7 with such a huge userbase has a good few years left in it.

I just saw something new that MIGHT make me want to upgrade and may interest people.

It has "virtual desktops" that allow you to act like there are multiple monitors or computers on your one display. Like you could create a desktop (screen) that's for your browsing, and another that's for betting, and another with everything layed out for say poker. You can then flip back and forth between them using the task switcher or just ctrl+windows key left and right, and all the windows are as you left them.

That is really useful (though I unix/linux has had that for many years).

Jun 13, 2019 -- 12:13PM, detraveller wrote:

...which means i can continue using windows 7 beyond the 2020 date because i've never needed their support anyways.

You can still use W7 after supports ends, but there will be no security patches which means it will become vulnerable and therefore might become a target, especially if there are decent numbers still using it, remember websites can determine which OS you are using. In addition if you have had an issue with internet fraud, let's say with your bank account, and the bank determine you have been using an out of date OS to access your account, they will use that against you, without a doubt.................................

Anyway,I've downloaded the window's media tool and put Windows 10 on a USB stick, will see if I can upgrade to W10 from W7 without a W10 license key, will do it tonight and post up if it worked............................

Thanks everyone for their help , I will try the suggestions, but I am a not technically minded, being a woman I suppose

I looked at the stickers on the back and they refer to XP!  So the windows 7 I had was put on later.  It does seem a shame I don't have an operating system as it worked perfectly before and it is a very solid laptop, unlike the current versions.

JC, I knew about the virtual desktops but hadn't tried them, but thanks to you reminding me I have tried it and it could come in useful with my poker.  It is early days yet with it but it does seem better switching between the two.  Thank you

XP? Wow it must be pretty ancient! I'd imagine windows 7 or 10 would run like a bit of a dog on that anyway? Maybe it had new memory and hard drive of course. You could spend hours get something all installed and the hard drive fails 2 days later. Laptops are cheap these days anyway.

If you don't care that much about it dying or the license somehow being revoked (if that ever happens) I suppose a dirt cheap ebay license is maybe a good option.

I would have given up on it but the fact that microsoft ruined it is very annoying.  If it had just failed i would have ditched it ages ago.  I have had two other computers, desktop, since then. But I do need a portable computer so I am thinking if I can't fix it then I might buy a tablet or laptop and I do need a smartphone as well.  I loathe shopping so I tend to wait until everything goes wrong.

It's always annoying if you know you had a license. I lost the license key for something years ago, had the disk but no key, grrr! You can download the correct windows 7 media from microsoft so you know that's safe if you can get a code. If it took windows 7 before it should install ok and be fairly straightforward even if you're not a geek, just like "enter language and keyboard type". For future reference (or anyone else who cares) there are safe ways to get your license keys out of windows so you can keep them safe somewhere even if you've lost the paper copy.

JC - You can use the following free software to recover lost keys if you have a machine with the working product still on it.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

I have used it and it works well.

As for the earlier discussion regarding cheap keys on e-bay, I bought one for office 2019 pro for a tenner and it works fine (licence was for a single installation on a single PC). I haven't previously bought one for Windows though but I hear that they are fine.

Jun 13, 2019 -- 7:21PM, GEESUSS wrote:

Anyway,I've downloaded the window's media tool and put Windows 10 on a USB stick, will see if I can upgrade to W10 from W7 without a W10 license key, will do it tonight and post up if it worked............................

Disaster :( , all seemed to be going well 40 mins in, then checked on it and it said Windows 10 installation failed and it was rolling it back to previous state, well it hasn't, multiple problems, mouse doesn't work, computer doesn't even recognise which OS it has now, think I'll have to do a re install of W7 :(....................

I feel your pain. Did you turn off antivirus + windows defender like I said?

I'd have also advised backing up the system image if you've a drive big enough to take it so you could get back to 100% where you were. I tend to keep system small and on C and everything else on D so it's not so huge.

I've got my own issues with windows, been battling them for over a day now, and that's a corrupt windows 7 that I don't want to fresh install but it's screwed so I can't properly back it up to try "risky" fix attemps. Maybe I'll try upgrading to windows 10, what could go wrong?

(One reason I'm not doing that is I can't backup the image, "catch 22" he says topically).

Oh BTW as I've just been looking at that there is a trick to try and fix windows 7 as an in place "fix" that I would try before a wipe reinstall?
These might give general idea. Basically you need a W7 SP1 disk assuming you are SP1 (you can download that I believe) and you tell it it's an upgrade and it it basically upgrades to .. the same version but hopefully now fixed. I'm probably going to try this later way things are looking.
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/how-to-repair-a-faulty-windows-installation-without-reformatting/
https://www.winhelp.us/non-destructive-reinstall-of-windows-7.html

It's annoying MS hide this sort of method as a reinstall-to-try-and-fix option USED to be an obvious pickable option on old versions of windows.

I've 3 laptops: A new one with W10 (sh1te) hence, in storage; another with W8.1 and a W7 (Home Premium). Presently, W8.1 has a dodgy power input socket (being fixed); upgraded W8.1 to W10, then revert back to W8.1 as W10 is awful. However, I'm using W7 as I find W10 tedious and incessantly downloading (unnecessary) software automatically.

I quite like W8.1 though. Any possibility of upgrading to W8.1 when W7 is absolute? W10 is a definite no-no for me unless I've no option.

Apparently you can, but the tip is to upgrade to 8 THEN 8.1.

It's pretty funny that the windows 10 upgrade rubbish is what puts so many people off (including myself), ruins so many machines, costs so many people so many time, yet Microsoft say they are doing it to help us and make us safer. They've the same attitude as a sex pest appearing at the end of someone's bed.. "I love you, this is for your own goooooooood".

"so many time". Even I'm corrupted and needing a reboot..

Thanks. I think I'll upgrade my W7 to W8 then W8.1 in the next couple of months or when I get back my W8.1 from repair.

I still remembered the stern and argumentative conversation I'd with a rep of Microsoft over the phone about W10 asking why imposed on the public "that" carp (description I used) when W7 was perfectly adequate, and with W8.1 having just been introduced a couple of years earlier?

I also told him for Microsoft to market (sell) W10 at a cut-price £10 for an upgrade from W8 for a specific short period was a marketing con as W10 was tedious, difficult to use and unnecessary. He was not the least pleased, but said W10 was an improvement, and safer.

W8 was an abomination, 8.1 at least almost usable. When the laptop I had upgraded (without asking me) to 8.1 it of course ****ed up and if I hadn't been a bit of a geek it would have been stuffed, I remember having to hack around in the recovery console to fix it using another computer to google things to try. Oh and to get the recovery console the IDIOTS had removed the ability to press an F8 startup. WHY do they make these stupid changes, it's like they WANT to annoy us. What do they gain from stopping us pressing F8 to try and stop the blue screen that's about to appear as their incompetent update has just broken the machine?

GEESUSS, sorry I haven't answered your question yet.

I upgraded to W10 from W7 pro using the offer I was sent from Microsoft to upgrade for free.
It was simply a matter of clicking a box.
After I reverted back to W7 the offer was still valid, so it was just as easy to do it a second time.

Microsoft did it for the money!

Jun 15, 2019 -- 10:13AM, Dr Crippen wrote:

GEESUSS, sorry I haven't answered your question yet.I upgraded to W10 from W7 pro using the offer I was sent from Microsoft to upgrade for free.It was simply a matter of clicking a box.After I reverted back to W7 the offer was still valid, so it was just as easy to do it a second time.

No it's ok, that offer isn't available to me it seems, I've tried 2 times trying to upgrade to W10 via the Microsoft media creator tool and get the same error after about 40 mins, feck them. I have a feeling Microsoft might renegade on their decision to withdraw support for W7 closer to the time when the media latch on and there's a public outcry. Even if they do, I'm quite happy using Linux Mint on one of the laptops for secure browsing and the W7 one for entertainment purposes, ie, streaming movies, iplayer, you tube and viewing 'video clips of personal interest '..................................

Your upgrade problems will be nothing to do with licensing which is checked as the very last step, it'll just be standard windows upgrade crap.

I'm very pleased i've got my W7 back to ~ full health .. No thanks of course to Microsoft trying to install updates on it that required other updates but they hadn't set the chain up so I had to hand install some. At least I could work that out as I had some control over it. I'll think long and hard about ruining it with windows 10 at some point!

I wonder if the people who make tools like autopatcher can extract the USEFUL and important updates so we can install them one at a time, while forcing W10 update to not work to stop it? If not they should.

To me W10/8 was designed to take away control of the computer from the user and put it in the hands of MS and it's partners in crime, with W7 I can calibrate the PC to do what I want it do or allow to do, W10 seems to make it deliberately hard for you to do that and with every update the changes you make in your favour seem to be reversed.................

Windows 7 - BEST ever - and by a   million miles.

I have to confess to buying a cheap lightweight notebook to take on holidays a few years ago but after the first 2 upgrades of W10, it told me that there was not enough memory to update it any further!!! I have tried to remove a few programmes to make space but have not used it for a year or more and now use a tablet but Android makes Excel Dropbox documents very hard to edit.

The only reason I need Windows on this laptop is Gruss. Gruss doesn't work on any other system. The laptop itself has Windows 7 on it, and I really, really don't want to switch to Windows 10. The only browser I've ever used on the laptop is Google Chrome. In fact, if it weren't for needing Gruss, I'd simply buy a Chromebook in January.

When the Windows 7 support ends, do people think it would be safe to carry on using the laptop in this fashion: i.e., basically as a Chromebook, since I'm doing everything on the Chrome browser, except for also using it to open Gruss?

W10 is truly non-user friendly to most including myself who's not a geek; the endless updates are so unnecessary and memory sapping. And, my only browser is Google Chrome.

W7 is more than adequate for what I need eg here, Exchange, email and buying stuff online; no films, you-tube or iplayer either. I'm just about getting-the-hang-of W8.1 before the power-socket issue (Lenovo), but W10 is a monster I do not need or want.

I know of a gamer who's still using W7, and that says a lot for W7.