1901

Really sorry if peple have been over this already a million times, but… I have an aging desktop I’m thinking of upgrading the harddrive and OS on, and it’s XP. I haven’t turned it on in ages, but will XP give me the free upgrade to win10? And would that still be valid if using an XP key but on a completely new drive and not a pre-installed drive? I think I know the answer, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

1902

The free upgrades are for Win7 and 8 only.

1903

Ah, thanks. What I expected.

1904

From a post on reddit, “I feel like Windows mistakenly did something horrible to my files, and then managed to fix them while in a panic.” link for the curious, not really important in any way

1905

So my mothers laptop has been getting a really annoying message about installing windows 10 for a few days now. Luckily she follows the advice I say every time I visit ’ Do not install anything from the internet - Do not trust anything you read related to your computer - You will never win anything just by clicking on a link " so they have avoided starting the installation process as well as falling for phising or anything else.

Now I just have to dig through the computer to remove all traces of Windows 10 and all the other crap that got put there.

I was considering just disabling Windows Update altogether.

1906

Why? I don’t understand why not update and never worry about it again. My dad updated all his machines right away and never looked back.

1907

I also have an old WinXP system, plus an unused Win7 code. I guess I could upgrade to Win7 and then get the free upgrade to 10? It’s an 8 year old PC though, not sure it’s worth it. I basically use it for video/streaming playback to a monitor these days, although once in a while play a multiplayer LAN game like Combat Mission.

1908

I really don’t understand this. Is there some kind of horrible problem with Windows 10, such that you wouldn’t want your parents using it?

Pro-tip: disabling Windows Update is not going to make your parents safer. In fact, the opposite is true.

1909

I can speak only for myself, but I can understand the reluctance. It’s simple: My Win7 rig has been running flawlessly for nearly six years. No other computer of mine made it longer than two years without some kind of problem. So for me, it’s the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

If MS would tell me, “We’ll pay you $100 to upgrade IF the upgrade messes up your computer,” that wouldn’t be enough money for the time spent trying to fix it if anything went wrong. A good, solid, no-problems computer is nearly priceless to me. I’m not going to risk opening a can of worms.

Granted, I’m a little paranoid, since the last time I did an in-place OS upgrade, it was from 3.1 to Win95, the process of which scarred me forever.

1910

It’s broke, you just don’t know how yet. Look at Heartbleed for a visible and recent example: That code was “working” but had a massive security flaw in it for years. Less than 1 day after the security hole was revealed online properties, stores, and governments were being successfully attacked with it. That said, as long as Win7 security updates are coming out and you are accepting them then you shouldn’t need upgrade to 10.

1911

Pretty sure there were successful attacks prior to it being revealed widely. Successful hackers try to keep their exploits quiet where possible. I have no doubt threats and threat detection increased exponentially as soon as it became public knowledge.

“Do not install anything from the internet - Do not trust anything you read related to your computer - You will never win anything just by clicking on a link”

In terms of remote management for family members when you are the ‘IT guy’ of the group, these are words to live by. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. All these mobile apps are teaching everyone - everyone - to be version junkies, when in years gone there was little update pushing and only enthusiasts pushed the envelope.

Security patches, sure, install them. But MS does a very poor job of differentiating those these days. Here are our updates, install them all. Use Silverlight? No? Whatever, update it anyway! We don’t care if you don’t you don’t care about feature update or enhancements you never have and never will use - you can have them anyway. Who cares if it may make systems unstable.

They really should have an ‘opt out of anything not security related’ option in Windows Update. They used to, didn’t they?

Edit - I am being unfair to MS - Apple is just as bad, individual app developers are just as bad.

1912

Well I haven’t been able to update 10 in almost two weeks now because of error message (0x80240013). For what it’s worth, I don’t think I’ve gone a month without getting some type of WU error message since first installing the Technical Preview almost a year ago. I had always been able to solve the problem myself by clearing the BITS system manually, but no go for this one. I’ve been on Build 10576 since October I think.

1913

So, maybe a silly question, but how do I edit the start menu? I have some programming tools that didn’t make start menu entries correctly, and ‘pin to start menu’ doesn’t seem to do anything. They also don’t show up when I type ‘intellij’ or ‘gedit’, for instance, into the search bar, which is a much bigger problem.

1914

You first get Classic Shell and then you can add shortcuts to the Start menu like in the good old days.

1915

Is there anything like classic shell for RT?

1916

I don’t think so. Who the hell still uses RT anyway? Is it because your PocketPC broke? :p

1917

I know, right? I use it every once in a while. I put all the updates on and it’s a hybrid start somewhere between 8 and 10. Lastpass works on it, so that’s something.

1918

I have been trying to open up a hole in Windows firewall for remote SQL server access on Windows 10, and it’s surprisingly difficult to do. I have SQL Server 2014 and I want to access it with Excel from another computer running RT. As dodgy as that sounds (RT OS, RT build of Office), I can actually make the connection if I disable the Windows firewall on the PC hosting SQL Server. I tried to create a inbound/outbound rules for TCP 1443 using some blog, but it doesn’t work. :(

Also, RT doesn’t have a UI to turn the Windows firewall off. Fortunately I didn’t need to turn it off to make the connection.

1919

Does anyone know how to extend the screen saver / screen blanking time from the logon screen? If I leave for more than a minute, my monitor powers off. I changed my screen saver time from 1 min to 60 minutes but that logon screen still blanks out in 1 minute.

1920

Look at power saving options.