Windows 10

[CovingtonBay]

I never had any issues with it.

 

[elbe00]

moving to linux

I have had nothing but trouble with Win10. I prefer Win 7. After the win 10 mess I am switching to Linux. Much better computer control and it runs all of my software.

 

[Waltfore]

I'm happy with it. As it turns out my first go at Windows 10 failed because my main hard drive actually had corrupted space on it. Ironically I found out when I couldn't access a few saved videos. Been running windows 10 installed on another hard drive with a brand new drive to replace the old one and I've had zero issues with it other than some initial lag after upgrading from win7 to win10 again. I was admittedly hesitant at first so I waited a while to try win10 again but I have had no issues as opposed to my first try.

The only negative is that I have a sound card which works but if I ever need to reinstall windows I will have to install 7 just to reinstall the drivers as as far as I know they won't work on win10.

 

[mino521]

I like Windows 10, it's better than windows 8!

 

[Shelter]

I like Windows 10, it's better than windows 8!

:agree::agree::agree::agree::thumbs up

 

[petrovic]

I do not like it.

 

[sallywoppy]

using 8.0

 

[randome]

As my cursor froze or disappeared all the time on windows 8 my laptop was useless.I was loathe to try the 10 update as each one is worse than the previous one.I did upgrade and cursor problem has gone.Programme better than 8 but still not as good as Vista.Not to me at least.I love my Android Tablet as it has no Microsoft at all.Any views in Windows 10?

If you enjoy Microsoft spying on you, it's great.

 

[gb2000ie]

at the moment there are no lumia phones in the ms store, ms stop there mobile store?

Yes - MS have gotten out of the mobile phone business.

B.

 

[topdog]

Yes - MS have gotten out of the mobile phone business.

I would say that they are still in the mobile business, but, like Ross & Rachel from Friends, they are on a break. It has been about a year since their last mobile phone release.

However they are moving on their next phone release set for mid 2017, so there are multiple products in the pipeline including a new flagship. They are also taking a tight-lipped Apple approach to the new products, so there is rampant speculation but little hard facts to go by.

In the meantime, there are still lots of Windows Phones in the store. (The link is to the US Microsoft store, so local availability may be different.)

The top phones that can use all Windows 10 Mobile features are:

• Microsoft 950XL
• Microsoft 950
• HP Elite x3

Other phones work well, but miss a couple of high end features like Continuum.

 

[topdog]

...Users want to be able to access information from anywhere, at any time, and through any device! ...If you think the nice Mr Bill lets you upgrade your shiny win7 to win10 for free then you did not understand the new business...

You made a good simple picture of the privacy tradeoff. At its base, Windows 10 is incredibly secure. It's the same operating system used by professional servers. However, for consumers there are extra features added (that can be removed) that give your the "work anywhere" ability.

If you don't use a Microsoft Account on your computer, then there is little that is shared.

If you do use a Microsoft Account (as recommended), then your settings, data files, and even some applications can be automatically coordinated between multiple devices. That means your information is encrypted and saved in the Microsoft Cloud (Azure).

You can decide how much you want to leverage the cloud for convenience.

Let me just finish by adding that if you are concerned about security, your data is FAR more likely to stolen or compromised on your local computer than in the Microsoft Cloud. Microsoft has top engineers and protocols guarding data in their data centers. Security on your local laptop is up to you. Just sayin'.

 

[topdog]

Well, there is actually a brand new Windows Phone in Europe - the Alcatel IDOL 4 Pro. You can look it up and read the reviews.

However, Microsoft has abandoned all consumer focus in Windows Phone and seems to be keeping the platform alive because they have so many companies that rely on the phones.

So if you really love Windows Phone (as I do) there are options. But it becomes less and less reasonable to invest in new hardware at this point when even fans are leaving the platform for Android or Apple.

 

[dragonscub]

R.I.P. Windows Phone: you should have been a contender.

I just sold my two brand-new backup Lumia 640s on eBay for a few $ more than they cost me, leaving me with just my active 640. Whenever I find a passable Apple or Android replacement, I'll bid a fond farewell to that last 640.

The final nail in Windows Phone was Windows 10. For the few people who actually loved Windows Phone, it peaked with version 8.1. WP10 was too different and less functional in many ways (great if you were one of the 9 people in the entire world interested in Continuum, otherwise blecch). WP10 rendered far too many phones obsolete, many of them only a few months old, because they could not run the new system (which isn't phone optimized: WP10 is more akin to a slightly pared down clone of Win10 for PCs- i.e., bloatware).

Finding a replacement phone is proving much harder than I expected. Apple pricing is ridiculous, and I *hate* that they killed the headphone jack. But at least they're known to work reasonably well, as opposed to the wild, wild west of Android. It seems the better-made Android phones are all older models: everything recent is dogged with horrendous unrepairable hardware faults (ringer dies, audio dies, screen develops stripes, call function dies, battery management drops out).

This can be especially daunting if your USA service is not thru Verizon or AT&T, which virtually all phones are optimized to run on. If you're with a smaller provider like T-Mobile, your choice of models dwindles considerably. T-Mobile, Sprint, Cricket, etc all use recently developed tech trickery to make their LTE coverage seem better than it actually is: for a phone to be compatible, it needs an arcane combination of circuits and antenna specs that aren't necessary for the Big Two services. So most phones don't bother including those special modifications.

Those that do seem to be the ones most likely to break down within 90 days, unless you buy a $600 flagship Apple or Samsung. Having enjoyed my rock-reliable $79 Lumia 640 for two years. I'm not thrilled at the prospect of paying $250 for a second-tier Motorola, LG or Nexus with more than 50% chance of becoming worthless six months later. How do these companies sleep at night?:angry:

As for MicroSoft, they've apparently given up and partnered with Google to make some sort of Frankenstein "Android With Windows Skin" devices, and port over popular MS Office apps to interop better with generic Android (a watered-down version of Continuum). Their own Windows Mobile strategy seems re-oriented towards devices no smaller than a 7" Surface Mini that they'll pitch to government and corporate clients.

Sooner or later, Apple will be badly impacted by this unholy MS+Google alliance: they're already in trouble with the iPhone 8 being DOA (laughably slow sales). As ludicrous as the $999 iPhone X is, it has had the educational function of revealing just how critically Apple is dependent on snob appeal nowadays. Virtually nobody is interested in the more sanely-priced iPhone 8, but there's a sixth month waiting list for the idiotic iPhone X, just because. After the X anniversary stunt, they really have no place else to go. Phones have matured past the point where any one mfr can offer a compelling exclusive feature.

 

[topdog]

To jump ship, or not to jump ship? That is the question.

Or maybe it's just - when?

My beloved Microsoft Lumia 950. It still has the best camera I have seen due to the Nokia software, the large sensor size, and Optical Image Stabilization which is amazing to have for video - it's like working with a Steadicam. I am not taking a step backward - but choices are limited.​

For me, it wasn't Windows Phone 8, but Windows Phone 7.5+ was the pinnacle of the system. It was the fullest expression of the original vision.

So, pardon me while I wail my eulogy for what once was and what once could have been. Here is what made the original Windows Phone 7 special.

Metro ("Modern") Interface - that knock-your-socks-off design with large typefaces, small icons and no clutter.

​

Hubs - No need to hop between separate apps for Twitter, Contacts, Facebook and Messages - all contact with friends is in one place - the People Hub. Bring up a contact and you can also see their latest emails or messages to me, plus their latest public postings from Facebook and Twitter.

Live Tiles - The app tiles aren't static - they give you information, like new emails, the weather, news headlines, you latest photos.

This was a totally different way of working than the ugly screenfull of apps that Android and IOS offer.

And the media player! Microsoft lucked out being able to just directly roll Zune into the phone OS. It could match iTunes feature for feature with support of music, video, podcasts and streaming. As a matter of fact, it was ahead of Apple on that last point since Apple at the time didn't have a streaming music service.

And then, they threw it all away. Windows Phone 8 was not about adding new features and capabilities to the platform - it was about moving towards the goal of one common mobile / desktop platform. That meant that the entire Windows Phone codebase (written on Windows CE) was thrown in the trash, and Microsoft had to code a whole new mobile OS from scratch.

Think about that for a minute. They just launched a new OS, have been lobbying developers to write for it, and are struggling as the kid late to the party against already established competitors - and instead of pushing their new OS up a level, they go back to square one and reinvent the wheel.

Consequences:

• All Windows 7 phones are made obsolete. You have to buy a new phone to run WP 8.
• All apps are deprecated. They have to be rewritten if they want to update them in the Windows Store.
• There are practically no new features in the OS. It was all they could do to try and reach parity with the old one.
• Zune is gone.

The last one was a huge setback - all the functionality of Zune would have to be recreated from scratch. And when Windows 8 debuted it wasn't anywhere near ready. There were no podcasts. It was awkward getting media on and off the phone. Playlists didn't work. And it looked like crap.

But the biggest blow was more subtle. They sacrificed the Metro design and the hubs - arguably the biggest selling points of the whole system - to make things more app-friendly. I mean, I get it. People were used to apps and picked up a Windows Phone and didn't understand how it worked. Microsoft wanted to bend more in the direction of apps to make it easier for people to switch.

But it was really the beginning of the end. By the time you got to Windows 10 Mobile, the whole thing had devolved into being just about Tiles. The big Metro fonts were gone. The hub functionality was mostly gone, now replaced by official Facebook and Twitter apps. That put Windows Phone on a more level playing field with IOS and Android and in that game, the lack of WP app support was a deal breaker. By becoming like every other kid on the block they lost the only reason to choose them above the competition.

They could have still held on and made a go of it for fans and enterprise customers. But they have other plans.

For all the arguments and tears, I get why they did what they did at each step. The success of the Surface would not be possible without the road they traveled with Windows Phone. And who's to say if they had kept the original design things would have turned out any better? It may be that the best Microsoft ever could have done was to be the third horse in the race. Android and IOS had already defined the market.

Anyway - yeah at some point, like you, I will need to get a new phone. If you are looking for a mid-range phone take a look at the Motorola Moto X4. For under $400 you get mid-range design but a lot of flagship hardware and features. And if you like 'em small (< 5" screen) the new Sony Xperia ZX1 Compact will be out next month. That's a flagship phone in a sexy small package.

Also, the Nokia 8 will be out this fall. People that have used it are raving about it. But, it is a flagship so I am sure it will retail for $600+.

 

[brmstn69]

All these decisions to make...
With my old flip-phone my most difficult decision was which ring tone to use. I had to pick from over a dozen, tough choice. I went with "Classic Pay Phone"....

 

[topdog]

All these decisions to make... With my old flip-phone my most difficult decision was which ring tone to use.

I borrowed my ringtone from this video of a classical violinist being interrupted by a cell phone.

 

[topdog]

Windows Phone, RIP

It's official. MS has stopped development of Windows Phone. The head of the mobile division advises customers to go get an Apple or Android phone.

Windows Phone is now officially dead: A sad tale of what might have been

The thing that pisses me off is that they could easily have put this info out a year ago rather than string customers and partners along.

 

[Stonecold]

I got a refurbished windows 10 pc with an i7 processor which works great and it did come with a windows 10 home key. I have a problem though as it only came with a 500gb hard drive. I am wondering if there is any way I can get this copy of windows 10 on a new WD 4GB HD or will I have to buy a new copy of windows. Thanks for any help you might be able to give me.

 

[brmstn69]

I got a refurbished windows 10 pc with an i7 processor which works great and it did come with a windows 10 home key. I have a problem though as it only came with a 500gb hard drive. I am wondering if there is any way I can get this copy of windows 10 on a new WD 4GB HD or will I have to buy a new copy of windows. Thanks for any help you might be able to give me.

Why not just partition the existing 500gig to run the operating system, apps and programs while using the new drive for storage. Most PC's have a bay for additional hard drives.

 

[Stonecold]

brmstn69

Why not just partition the existing 500gig to run the operating system, apps and programs while using the new drive for storage. Most PC's have a bay for additional hard drives.

Yes there is an extra bay, I thought the large drive had to be the main one. I will do this if there are no drawbacks as I already have the 4 tb drive in the pc.