I have three chromebooks and two chrome boxes. I can dual boot two of them with versions of Ubuntu Linux (for full open source programs that are free) or Chrome OS. I have a windows 8 laptop and a windows 7 tower from a few years back but only turn them on to run a couple of Windows only programs...neither will run Windows 10. I am not a gamer or heavy graphics/video editor, mainly office applications and surfing the web along with streaming audio/video. The Chrome machines were inexpensive and have worked very well for me the three years I have been using them. Two are connected via hdmi to my larger flat screen tvs and work great as I cut the cable (tv) about three years ago also. Windows 10 did the auto update thing to the work computers at the small company where I am employed and they had to pay a tech big bucks to uninstall and clean up the mess it caused and are still having intermittent problems. Maybe more individuals and companies will sue Microsoft for this stupid, stupid auto update process that I am sure has caused both individuals and those businesses much trouble and wasted expense...

I think my screenplay software would work - but I manage our finances in excel - and have all of my other writingin Word. Thanks in Advance.

I also use Libre Office on my two machines with Linux...works a treat for my purposes....I don't do any super complicated documents or spreadsheets but have yet to find anything I can't get done with Chrome OS or Linux.

I've had no trouble converting, either at work or at home. Besides, there's an app under Cortana that will let you shift back and forth between Windows 7 and Windows 10. I use it a lot.

I love it.

I really do love it but they did violate people's rights by upgrading without permission

That's why so many people have disconnected or covered up their puter cameras.

You CAN turn the constant upgrades off...there is a way, just google it.

We migrated to Linux after Windows 98.
I actually am running Chromium more often instead of Firefox browser, cause FF is becoming way too nanny like.

It went and 'upgraded' anyway. That company should be sued for a bigger price than say $10,000 dollars. I also heard that Windows 10 has some other little treats for us ...LIKE THE ABILITY TO SPY ON OUR EVERY MOVE, hence the FREE upgrade. Get it? Oh it's free. Really? It's all becoming too surreal.

for some time now. I don't know a huge amount about operating systems, but it just doesn't seem like a very good idea to dump a new operating system on top of an existing one. It's fine with me that whatever next computer I buy will have Windows 10, but I can wait.

Recently heard it was working better due to some recent upgrade. My mom loaded it and hated it, but she really doesn't like changes like this. So I finally looked at it today. It is horrible. Multiple screens open asking you to change this or that and have no ability to close them. I had to go to the task manager to make one of the Windows close. Hate it. No way.

Trying to figure out if Linux is for me.

Never 10 from Steve Gibson is a quick, easy and totally safe way to prevent Windows 10 from downloading or installing on your Windows 7 machine. It will even get rid of the annoying "Get Windows 10" icon from the taskbar.

Available here: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

That's a blast from my past. Nice to know he's still out there doing his non bloatware coding.

I have a Windows 7 hp and that stupid Windows 10 popup box is driving me nuts. But I'm afraid to try something that might screw things up.

I ran it on my machine and it was easy as pie and worked just fine. I then had a friend who had been pestered for weeks to install Win 10, and she did it. She is no computer expert, and had no problem doing it. And now her machine doesn't pester her any more to install Win 10.

I have used Steve Gibson's software off and on since 1999. His utilities are all top notch and completely safe and easy to use.

Every time Microsoft foists new software on the world, stuff that used to work well in earlier versions, suddenly becomes unreliable in the new version.

Windows Livemail was worse than outlook and outlook was worse than Netscape's email program, which was my first email software and never did me wrong. Meanwhile twenty years later, MS email software still couldn't do what netscape's did in the 1990s.

I invested a great deal of time coding an MS Access 2003 database. When I upgraded to Windows 7 from XP, my Access applications seem to randomly turn my num lock key on and off. Same with the Insert key. Can you imagine the havoc that creates for a touch typist doing data entry?

When I last upgraded MS Word, basic stuff that used to work well, suddenly became buggy and unreliable in the newer version.

The worse thing I ever did was opt for Microsoft over Apple decades ago.

My small business uses it exclusively. Office 365 and Windows 10 both rock.

Unfortunately, they are such an implacable evil force, which is why so many people ignorantly use their insidious products.

Sad. Really very sad. Microsoft is utter rubbish.

They gave me DPP health benefits 16 years ago even though my wife, who worked for them, and me couldn't legally marry. That included excellent health insurance, dental, vision, and life.

They also matched our charitable donations and gave an additional nice grant to a non-profit I chaired.

People around here love Mucrosoft. They aren't evil in the least.

Are slow in coming when compared to other OSs like Apple.

One day they might actually become.e relevant again in the software game, buy today is not that day. My new laptop cMe with 10, email she and Office 365 - all of which constantly crash or don't load websites properly.

I switched to Linux and love it.

And I have never had a single one of them crash since it was installed almost a year ago. It is an excellent OS and extremely stable.

As for office 365 - there is absolutely nothing anywhere near as good offered by any other company. It's the standard in business and is just outstanding software. Add in the free iOS apps and you have got yourself very powerful business software that can be used on a PC, a phone, or a tablet. Can't ask for much more than that.

When I came into work this morning they made an announcement during our morning conference call that due to issues with Microsoft 10 we will be switching to Apple.

.... and buy new ones because of some issue with Microsoft? Sounds like they need better IT pros.

Lol right back at you.

I have news for you, it would not matter what system you had - a huge org like that needs IT. For security, for networking, for general maintenance, etc.

I can see why you have problems with computers. And I am highly doubtful that CGI is trashing all their computers and replacing them with uber expensive Apple products because of "issues with Microsoft."

CGI physically is in office space. Most of us work from home or travel around the world and mobility is key to our mission .

I see my office once every two weeks, at best.

It's funny you mention security. There's not nearly as many viruses that are coded for Apple than there is for Windows.

It gets in via user error, or cross platform software like Java or Flash via drive by attacks.

As for why most viruses (which are a tiny fraction of malware) attacks Windows, that's due to it being utterly dominant in terms of market share.

But again most of those are due to user error. Clicking on random email attachments or links that redirect.

Because Apple does not run the Internet, servers
or almost any large data storage facility.

Writing viruses for CRapple would be like
a tagger painting the inside of an outhouse.
No one would ever see your creation or give
you any attention. So why waste your time ?

yes, we are giving away all our windows computers and buying all new $1500 mac laptops because of " a problem with windows"....
sure, whatever you say

since Apple doesn't do servers anymore, never did them well, or are the Linux based? What AV will they use? Yes, AV is needed.

A iPad pro and MacBook, I'm just hoping they're not Airs.

with naming this one "Windows 10", I get the distinct impression they're trying to overcome the even numbered OS issue they have ALWAYS had.

It's not working....this is the NINTH version, which is why it's actually stable.

That they're going to the Apple numbering scheme: Win10, next will be Win10.1, Win10.2, Win10.3, etc. where each will probably have a silly name.

Much like the Android phone OS are named after candy and the Apple OS were named after animals, now parks. I'm hoping Microsoft goes with something interesting like mythological creatures from around the world. e.g. "Win10.3 Kitsune" or "Win10.7 Minotaur" and "Win10.10.5 Compassionate Conservative."

There's a whole history of their practices.

Does MS owe them a job or something? What else are they owed? Can I come over your house and force you to hire me full time? Let me know.

And they got screwed by that lawsuit. Because now they get laid off on a semi-permanent basis for a long period of time so it is clear they are free lancers. You cannot force a company to hire you. If they want to work someplace else instead they are free to do that.

They contribute (i.e. buy) politicians to ensure a healthy pipeline of H1B cheap labor.

MS goes through lay offs and dumps the US workforce while never touching the H1B cheap labor.

They are evil.

Which is the normal salary at MS for non-management jobs. So much for that canard. What is evil is the people who bitch about raising wages then call a company that pays good wages and benefits evil.

You sound like an apologist.

Sorry, you have no clue what you're talking about.

MS employs over 100k workers and needs many different skill sets. Most of their last layoffs were Nokia employees from that acquisition. The jobs were either duplicative or uneeded since MS decided to essentially exit phone hardware.

They DID NOT lay people off and replace them with H1B workers. So just cut that crap.

I live here. My wife was an executive there before she retired. Many of my friends and neighbors are these workers you seem to hate. And I will assure you our community is better for the diversity that Microsoft attracts.

You have no clue what you are talking about. And it's sad to see "liberals" spouting the anti immigrant nonsense that Trump loves so much.

No melodrama here.

MS is like Mac, they are both made for entry level pc folks. And most people stay entry level.

The update pop-up will harass you to death until you agree to it. In fact, if you
don't take action to prevent it, it will automatically install itself...

I avoided it at first because I am due to upgrade to a new laptop -- no need to
mess with the damn thing cuz it is 9 years old. I couldn't take it anymore!
When I finally succumbed to the bully, I got the BSOD (blue screen of death) --
my hard drive was gone, costing me $200 to repair and 2 weeks without a laptop.

I had the new hard drive installed without the update. A few weeks ago, the update
started on my laptop without my consent and you can't abort once it commences.
Internet is now slower than ever, set-up of screens is too "busy" and counter-intuitive
(designed for engineers and geeks), and some of my files were a mess. What will
happen when I download my iTunes library back onto my laptop ??

FUCK MICROSOFT !!!!!!!!!

Then one day I woke up, and voila! It was on my system. Don't like it, didn't want it, and it pisses me off that Microsoft took it upon itself to do something on my computer without my say-so. My system is definitely slower than before. (It's old anyway, and I'm thinking about getting a laptop, but I want to make these kinds of decisions on my own time, not because Microsoft has forced me to.) It still takes me a few minutes to get reoriented as to where things are.

I was very afraid about my iTunes library too. If that would go, so would my reason for living (joke). But I've had no issues with that -- the iPods charge just fine and I can download and synch music as usual. But I will always have those files on an external hard drive because I flat don't trust Microsoft to not do something that WILL hose them.

Everything about Microsoft always has been counterintuitive, which I guess is why they feel they have to jam "upgrades" down our throats. Microsoft's "improvements" too often cause more problems than they allegedly solve.

Obviously you're not the only one who has had costly results from this -- class action lawsuit may be in order?

It's precisely this kind of shit that is turning me into a Luddite.

updates for Windows 10 icon.

I read a very lengthy article about how Apple keeps your music in a cloud and how tunes can be disappeared or changed...
the article was written by a someone who composes music as well as had his collection partially disappeared. So he called Apple and wrote about the conversation.
so what happened was Apple ( he said it was Apple) reserves the right to put a different version of a tune in your collection.

I do know, for a fact, a now infamous case where Amazon customer had an argument with Amazon, and all of her Kindle books were disappeard from her device, and her account.

I don't cloud. My e-reader is just that...a reader, that I can sideload, but I rarely keep more than 20 books on it, which are copies of books I have on an external drive, with my music and movies.And I don't go online with it, I download and save the music/book, to my puter, to sideload.

I have this thing about wanting control over my stuff.

I have Apple everything, and don't use Cloud storage for my music, mostly because I'm too cheap to pay for that much storage (and that's why I get the largest memory phones; so I can have all my music on me). None of my music - nothing I ripped from CDs, no bootlegs, nothing - has disappeared.

I vaguely remember hearing about a problem with iCloud Match and that there's an easy way to keep your "unmatchable" files, but frankly, it's just easier for me to not pay for that much storage

And yes, I've heard those horror stories about Amazon.

As for Apple -- it also apparently has the right to download music that you may not want. Remember the U2 song? I deleted it. Apple will not take up space on my iPod with things it thinks I should like, with music or anything else.

At the end of the day I may have little or no control over this, but I will still keep to the illusion that I do, and act accordingly.

Because of "propiriatary software" which is copyrighted by the car companies, the computer stuff in newer cars, ..we don't own it, they do,
and therefore by extension, they say we are only "renting" the cars we thought we bought.

My iTunes is on an external hard drive now, and I am afraid to download it to my laptop.
As it stands, I have 6 copies of most music tracks on there which need to be cleaned out
(hours, if not days of work) because of Apple's notorious glitches. I hate Apple, too!

I will NEVER put any info in "a cloud". I will never place that amount of trust in Apple
or Microsoft.

It is all a time-sucking, money-sucking monster, forced-consumerism monster!!!!!

icon on your comp and then delete the files. I actually updated to Windows 10, it was a fucking nightmare, I rolled back to 8.1 and have been fine ever since.

I'm not on the desktop much anymore, only if I have freelance work. But I'll keep this in mind going forward.

when her old one took a dump. In May, it loaded the Windows 10 update without her permission and she blew a gasket over it. She sent me a note via her phone and our 9 hr time difference made it even harder to help her and find out what the hell happened.
She does not like change and neither does my 83 yr old Mother.
This was a scam by Microsoft and I hope more and more people sue their ass for this bullshit.

Pay up Microsoft. You deserve to get sued for that nonsense.

Period, end of sentence.

Since Microsoft often rolls out undertested and buggy shit, all the more reason to make the choice yourself.

I know one person whose laptop is so short of memory that 10 can't install -- may be the first time that not having enough memory is a GOOD thing.

I hope MS gets their ass handed to them for this stunt.

is a very sneaky little trick. That window comes up and you can choose "yes" or "no" to the update, BUT occasionally the options will be "Yes" (for now) or "update later". We get so used to clicking "no" that many people don't notice that "update later" is in the place where "no" used to be. I almost clicked the "update later" but fortunately noticed in time and had to X out of the window to get it to go away.

What happens if you click on the "later" button, is Windows 10 will keep trying to load onto your computer no matter how many times you uninstall it. Really diabolical.

what she told me and then the X out didn't work anymore as MS pushed out the update.

Microsoft is making so many enemies because the way they are pushing Windows 10. I think we have a right to be suspicious about their motives.

I read a review a while back (can't find it now) and it convinced me not to install Windows 10. The reviewer actually works for Microsoft and uses 10 at work, but refuses to install it on his personal computers.

I just found this article from yesterday and it confirms what you said. Microsoft's initial upgrade prompts for Windows 10 were relatively clear, but in recent months the company tweaked its prompt so that if you simply dismissed it using the "Red X" the upgrade would schedule itself anyway. "Since we introduced a new upgrade experience for Windows 10, we've received feedback that some of our valued customers found it confusing," admits Windows chief Terry Myerson, in a statement to The Verge. "We've been working hard to incorporate their feedback and this week, we'll roll out a new upgrade experience with clear options to upgrade now, schedule a time, or decline the free offer."

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/28/12049876/microsoft-windows-10-upgrade-notification-change

My girlfriend installed Windows 10 and hated it. She eventually took her new computer back to the Geek Squad and had them put the old version of Windows. I advised her not to do that because if you have any problems Microsoft will no longer be able to help and there will not be any more upgrades to help fend off viruses and other malware. Didn't matter to her.

I also read somewhere that Microsoft is going to basically force upgrades whether or not the owner wants it. However there is a way to prevent them from doing so.

I have Windows 10 and am completely satisfied with it. No installation problems. But then I have relatively new computers.

I purchased new in 'oo and came with XP. I have had Ubuntu on it so long I can't remember. I started with 10.04 and am up to 16.04 now and This old computer is as fast as our new laptop running windows 8.1 that I dual boot with Ubuntu on. Which was a bugger to do if I remember correctly. It didn't want to let me run Ubuntu until I changed some settings in the 'press F2 while you turn it on' boot screen

You couldn't pay me to go back to micro$haft

how do you prevent it other than going apple?

is supposed to end July 29th. Who really knows...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/what-happens-free-windows-10-upgrades-after-july-29-2016/

Upgrade. I can hold off using it until then.

I can get by with my iPad and old desktop with vista.

It is different in a cool and groovy way. I think people just like to hate and fear change sometimes. I suppose it would not work well on a very!d computer. Howerever mine is about 4 years old and it works great!

uses to force windows 10 to be downloaded. KB2952664, KB3025582 and KB3035583. Check for these in your downloaded updates and delete them. Check your 'suggested' downloads and hide them. It took me a few months of detective work, but I figured it out. Good luck guys!

When I checked the update site it came up page not found.

I did notice that your list didn't show 3123862. When I checked on it in the "beware" sites they said its purpose was unknown.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3030211/microsoft-windows/experts-recommend-dont-install-microsoft-patch-kb-3123862.html

and replaced with Linux Mint OS just to see if I could do it.

It worked rather well and now if I ever am compelled in the future to settle for a computer pre-installed with Windows it's great to know I can just replace it with Linux.

After setting up the computer I realized he would have difficulties with the this OS. I gave him an old XP laptop which lasted a few months and put the new computer away. Finally I upgraded it Windows 10 and showed him how it is was different. A month later he brought it back to me and it was dead. I tried to system restore several times with no luck and ended up taking it to a computer tech. He told that Windows destroyed the hard drive sectors. I researched this and found out I was not the only one experiencing this. I brought a new hard drive and put Windows 7 on it. The computer is running faster and I shut off the update to 10. I have another laptop with 7 and will not upgrade to 10 ever.

after the upgrade and then cannot undo the damage to more after reverting back to Windows 7.

My Win 7 computer is stuck on trying to opt-out. Only knows to try to run the Win 10 upgrade through updates. Others complain it's constantly nagging them to run the update which their applications are not compatible with.

Microsoft is another example of an overbearing corporation for evil.

and I upgraded as soon as it was released because of my intense hatred of Windows 8. I like the interface and the main benefit is the improved security behind the scenes.

But Microsoft was definitely overreaching by forcing the update onto the unwilling. That made no sense.

Many workplaces have been testing it before deploying it, and some have found issues with compatibility with their systems.

Activated as instructed, then my video card blew.
Got another, started up and whoa. Not activated anymore.
And to rid myself of the permanent watermark, will cost me $199.99

I guess it stays.

when I dumped Microsoft. Trying to be a sysadmin for my Windows 2000 system was a nightmare... Frequent BSODs, lost files, lost weekends, ugh.

I switched to Linux for a while, but found Red Hat more trouble than it was worth at that time. (I've since switched to Ubuntu on a couple of netbooks we use while traveling.)

Finally bit the bullet and sprung for the extra cost of an iMac about 10 years ago, and have been largely happy with the Apple ecosystem since. One problem with the iMac was that the video card was integrated with the motherboard, so when it fried after 5 years I had to junk the machine based oncost-benefit analysis of repairing an aging iMac.

Been using a Mac Pro since then (floor tower quad-core model) and loving it. It's great for audio/music production & CPU-intensive photography work. AND it's easy to expand and upgrade, plus I've got a nice collection of hard drives for various purposes, as well as external drives for backups & music storage.

I do use Windows at work, because I have to, but with a dedicated computer support crew I don't have to worry about maintaining it. I have a son who's an IT pro, and he swears by Microsoft. He does amazing things with his MS machines, and more power to him.

Sticking with Mac myself, for now. In years to come, after I retire and my income diminishes, I may consider Linux for my main machine, since it's gotten easier and more robust than when I tried to use it a decade ago. I don't need the anxiety that comes with maintaining my own Windows machine.

More user friendly. I didn't like 7 at all.

I resisted but finally loaded it, took all day.

Microsoft has been incredibly evil about pushing Windows 10, and this might set a precedent for more cases.

The rocket surgeons who came up with the new strategy for Windows 10 have to be fired like yesterday. Most Windows 7 users have rejected Windows 10 even for free. I really would like to see Microsoft bite the dust. They sell crapware and it causes more problems than it solves. If I could get Windows 10 to work right I'd install it. I tried it twice and I couldn't make it work for me and as such I went back to the more reliable Windows 7. The next computer will have an Apple logo on it unless Microsoft can make their Windows 10 experiment user friendly.

Two because they shipped with the damn thing installed, and the third because the damn thing was downloaded in the background and installed out of the blue.

I'll stick with 7.

was the way to do it. It took a couple hours, but once it was installed, it was easy. I refused to "upgrade" to 8, as it failed my personal crash test. Hubby had 8 on a lappie, and I crashed it in under 2 minutes, without even really trying hard.

Yes, there are some things that I needed to get used to, coming from 7, but there were things I needed to get used to with 7 coming from XP.

When my motherboard crapped out on me, I did have to reactivate Win 10. That's because it was a MAJOR hardware change. It cost me nothing but time, to work with the tech on the phone.