A Windows 10 odyssey

[Vegas Halo Fan]

A while back, I took Microsoft up on their offer of a free Windows 10 upgrade for my Windows 7 desktop computer. For the first couple of weeks, everything seemed fine. Everything worked, and while there were some differences in the interface, everything was reasonably familiar. Then the fun set in.

 

First, my mouse pointer vanished. Completely. Common problem, I was assured, that Microsoft was "working on". The only fix that I could find was to discard my wireless mouse and keyboard (Microsoft) and switch to a hard-wired USB keyboard and mouse that I had lying around. That fixed everything for a while.

 

Then I started getting driver-related crashes. Lots of them. Like one every 2-3 minutes. Cursor freezes followed by blue screens of death. Some were watchdog violations, others were IRQL not less or equal errors. At first I thought that my browser might be at fault, since it happened a lot while using it. Switching browsers did not help.  A utility that searched for and updated various hardware drivers cut this back significantly. Then...

 

My start menu and Cortana quit working completely. Another "common problem" that Microsoft is "working on" (sound familiar?). Suggestions were creating a new profile and porting everything over (which Win 10 would not let me do), plus executing various strings and patches, none of which worked. After about a week of searching and trial and error, tonight I finally found a solution that got it working again.

 

The morals of the story:

 

1. Nothing is truly free.

 

2. If you're not prepared for a period of debugging, digging and sorting out various problems, it's best not to convert a computer from one OS to another, no matter how compatible they are supposed to be.

[gotbeer]

Weird.  I have no problems with windows 10.  Then again, I don't use Cortana. 

 

But the things you are describing does sound strange.  Which driver programs did you use?  I typically use Slimdrivers and Driver Talent for drivers.  Should I Remove it to see if any crap was installed on my computer.  And the gold standard CCleaner and Defraggler to keep everything neat.  At the minimum, use CCleaner to do a registry check, and clean up your cache.  Maybe check your startup to see if crap is starting up that you really don't need to start up, like Adobe stuff.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I'm using Driver Update. CCleaner is a great program.

 

From what I have read, problems with Windows 10 often don't show up right away. What happens is that Windows updates your drivers and doesn't allow you to opt out of the updates. Some of the new drivers are a lot less stable than the ones that they are replacing, and as time goes along you get what I got - crash after crash, when things had previously been fine.

 

I had already gone through my startup menu and removed a bunch of stuff that didn't need to load every time I booted up.

 

I don't use Cortana either, but not having a start menu was a pain in the butt, especially since that is the only way to access MS Office 365. I needed to revise and send out my resume and I couldn't even get to it.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Vegas Halo Fan

[nate]

Honestly sounds to me like you need to clean install.

Also don't use third party driver update programs. Get the drivers directly from the vendor of the product or Windows update.

Lastly, cccleaner is shit, don't waste your time with stuff like that.

[red321]

About a month left for the free Windows 10 update...should I take the leap and upgrade my 8.1 system?

If have an i7-3770 3.4ghz cpu and 16gb of RAM

[gotbeer]

8.1 to 10 doesn't seem to be that bad.  7 to 10 can be bad. 

I'd do it.  8.1 just didn't do it for me.  And 10 isn't that much of a change. 

[nate]

My wife has an old i7 2600 with 8gb of ram and has no problems at all running W10

[Blarg]

Windows 10 automatically installed on my desktop computer, Microsoft snuck it in as a critical update. Assholes,  it took hours to remove it. 

[gotbeer]

40 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Windows 10 automatically installed on my desktop computer, Microsoft snuck it in as a critical update. Assholes,  it took hours to remove it. 

 

You need to go into your windows updates and turn off automatic updates, or else it will try and update again.  You would think that if you revert back to your old copy they would get a hint that you don't want windows 10 on that computer.  But no.  As soon as I reinstalled it, it tried to put it back on.

 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

If you are going from Windows 7 to 10, I found it useful to install utilities that search for updated drivers and automatically seek out solutions to crashes. I haven't had a crash in at least 60 days, and Win 10 works like a champ now. My browser seemed to trigger a lot of crashes as well. Uninstalling it and then reinstalling it with Win 10 as the resident OS cured that problem.

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

I like how with Windows you generally have to click something multiple times to actually do it, i.e. shutting down yet when I accidentally clicked update when it wanted to install Windows 10 it went right into it.  I did this two weeks ago and my computer has been a mess since then.  I need to figure out how to roll back the update to Windows 7.  My computer freezes and crashes regularly and it's partly or completely due to driver issues.  I googled the drive issue for solutions then when I tried downloading the drivers people said fixed the problem it says they aren't compatible with my computer/OS.  

[Jay]

On 6/10/2016 at 9:54 AM, red321 said:

About a month left for the free Windows 10 update...should I take the leap and upgrade my 8.1 system?

If have an i7-3770 3.4ghz cpu and 16gb of RAM

This is the same system I have except it's Win 7 Pro, which I like. I keep getting a pop-up asking me to upgrade to Win 10.

Mine's an Intel NUC.

 

[Redondo]

• Woman awarded $10,000 over Windows 10 upgrade (Fox News Tech)

A California travel agent has won $10,000 from Microsoft after she says her computer attempted to download Windows 10, then became unusable. Teri Goldstein says she called Microsoft's technical support, read support forums, and visited a Microsoft store in August 2015 after her computer began to crash and require multistep workarounds just to log in.

"For months I tried to work with them, but they kept blowing me off," she tells Computerworld. At times, her email was inaccessible and some customers chose to take their business elsewhere, she says.

Goldstein, who says she never consented to the upgrade, filed a claim in Marin County's small-claims court in January, armed with evidence of $17,000 in lost wages and the expense of new computers.

She was awarded the maximum of $10,000 last month, reports the Seattle Times. Microsoft—which says users must approve the Windows 10 upgrade and agree to a license agreement—didn't admit wrongdoing, and a spokesperson said the company ditched its appeal to avoid an expensive court fight.

Analysts say the company is getting increasingly aggressive as it pushes to have 1 billion devices running Windows 10 by 2018, with the goal of having fewer Windows versions to support.

At ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley writes that Microsoft is making it "convoluted and difficult" for people, especially those who aren't tech savvy, to opt out of the upgrade.

[Redondo]

Tried to download 10 on my laptop. It stopped on it's own and reloaded 7 that I originally had. I talked to a computer shop about it and they said others are having the same issue.

[red321]

Finally got tired of seeing the notice so after making sure I was backed up took the leap.

Not issues at all, and if anything computer seems to be running a tad bit quicker. I did notice at one point I could only type gibberish...but after a few minutes of cursing realized I had laid my phone down on the corner of my keyboard and it was pressing down on one of the function keys. 

[Blarg]

These are the kind of tech support problems my son used to field when he was doing desktop services. That and is your computer plugged in, yes, that is still one of those things people neglect.

I switched over my laptop and desktop and had little to no problems. A few drivers had to be updated on the desktop and one for the audio on the laptop but other than that it went pretty seamless. I'm guessing the more you have customized your system the more headaches will arise trying to sort out all of the bugs of non standard hardware and software configurations.

We still run WIndows 7 on the Avid at work because of the lack of support right now running a proprietary system of hardware and software on a server. I expect that to change within the year.

 

[nate]

20 minutes ago, red321 said:

Finally got tired of seeing the notice so after making sure I was backed up took the leap.

Not issues at all, and if anything computer seems to be running a tad bit quicker. I did notice at one point I could only type gibberish...but after a few minutes of cursing realized I had laid my phone down on the corner of my keyboard and it was pressing down on one of the function keys. 

I am someone that has worked on computers for the better part of 20 years now and am a constant source of tech assistance for my family and friends...

With that said this desk I work at, that I have had for at least six years, has a keyboard tray that slides and articulates from the under side of the desk, well every once in a while when I pull the keyboard tray out, the arm of my chair conveniently fits right over and presses down the control key.  I will get really irritated that my computer wont work properly only to realize that it is because the control key is being held down.

[Blarg]

My parents got a new kitten and my mom sent a picture of it walking across my dad's Mac book while he was using it.  They thought it was cute until the critter found exactly the right key combination that downed his Mac. He had to take it to the Mac store to have the tech unlock it from some programmer interface. 

The short story is,  fuck cats. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

My parents got a new kitten and my mom sent a picture of it walking across my dad's Mac book while he was using it.  They thought it was cute until the critter found exactly the right key combination that downed his Mac. He had to take it to the Mac store to have the tech unlock it from some programmer interface. 

The short story is,  fuck cats. 

That is fucking frightening.

[Blarg]

The cat tried to kill Mom on Friday morning. It was in the kitchen,  Mom was making breakfast and the kitten from hell tangled between her legs and tripped her. Down goes Mom,  busting her her pelvic bone. 

Fuck cats. 

[Inside Pitch]

On 6/10/2016 at 6:20 PM, nate said:

My wife has an old i7 2600 with 8gb of ram and has no problems at all running W10

Same -- my backup PC is a early series i7 2600 albeit with 24 RAM, but it's run Win10 flawlessly.  Hated 8, loved 7..   Been really happy with 10.   But like Vegas mentioned, I've always had a program that auto-updated my drivers.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 7/31/2016 at 10:13 PM, Inside Pitch said:

Same -- my backup PC is a early series i7 2600 albeit with 24 RAM, but it's run Win10 flawlessly.  Hated 8, loved 7..   Been really happy with 10.   But like Vegas mentioned, I've always had a program that auto-updated my drivers.

If I had known then what I know now, I would have gotten one from the beginning and probably saved myself a lot of headaches. I don't regret making the switch, but there was a time when I did.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

After a long period of trouble-free operation, Windows 10 reared its head again last Monday to remind me that it is still here. Somehow my bootup configuration file got corrupted. Windows said that it would start automatic repair. OK, I thought, no problem. It took me to a screen that told me to select a language to configure my keyboard to proceed. Easy enough, right? The only issue is that at the point where it stopped for this, it had not yet loaded the drivers for the USB ports, so neither the mouse nor the keyboard were active to make a selection. A total dead end. After checking around and finding out how to make a Windows 10 boot stick, I tried several times, only to be taken back to the same dead end. I finally made the right selection in the BIOS boot order for it to boot from the stick instead of the hard drive. Now we're making progress - but not really. Selecting the repair option yielded the same result that I had gotten all along. Finally I went back to a restore point from about three weeks ago, and I am back up and running.

I should mention that during this time I went to the Microsoft support site and went into the chat option. From the responses that I got, I could tell that (1) the person talking to me had absolutely no idea how to fix my problem, and (2) English was not her native language. India, I'm guessing.

[nate]

Do you have a lot of USB ports on your computer?  Windows 10 boot should at least load generic drivers for USB.  Sometimes USB3 has a separate controller that the drivers wont work on but you can move the keyboard/mouse to another slot and it will work.

 

Glad you got it working again.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 9/5/2016 at 7:22 AM, nate said:

Do you have a lot of USB ports on your computer?  Windows 10 boot should at least load generic drivers for USB.  Sometimes USB3 has a separate controller that the drivers wont work on but you can move the keyboard/mouse to another slot and it will work.

 

Glad you got it working again.

From what I understand, this particular glitch with Windows 10 interrupts the bootup sequence before the USB port drivers load - just what you need right before a screen that requires keyboard or mouse input in order to continue. The odd thing is that the USB ports work before the Windows boot starts (keyboard interrupts work, plus the mouse pointer moves), but once Windows starts loading, they are disabled. I have four USB ports, and I tried all of them to no avail before making the boot stick.

I have learned a lot more than I ever cared to learn about workarounds.

I went back to my wireless keyboard and mouse and have had no issues - yet.