Windows 10 is here! The latest and greatest of Microsoft's operating systems, now for computers of all form factors. Yes, no more free upgrades after July 29th! Update October 2023: That end-date in 2016 was a lie, but now Microsoft has ended the free upgrades from Windows 7 and 8 to 10 or 11 for real. Should I upgrade right now? Windows 10 seems to be over the biggest obstacles, and there aren't many reasons left to stick to older versions. On the other hand, if your current system works well enough and is mission critical in some way, don't upgrade. What happens after July 29th 2016? Do I have to pay to keep using it? No. The free upgrade offer is "grab it now and it's yours forever". I'm running Windows XP/Windows Vista. Can I upgrade? No. You'll have to buy Windows 10, or a Windows 7 or 8 version to upgrade from. You might be able to find 7 and 8 on sale, just beware of super cheap keys, they might not be entirely kosher. What edition of Windows 10 will I get? Windows 10 comes in four editions, but only two are relevant to the free upgrade: Home and Pro. If you have a Professional or Ultimate edition of Windows 7 or 8, you get the Pro edition of Windows 10. Otherwise you get the Home edition. If you're using an Enterprise version, there is no free upgrade for you. You can do that. Use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to install right away, make a bootable USB thumb drive to install from, or even get a full DVD ISO. I have reserved, but I don't want to upgrade right now. Accepting the reservation means you will be upgraded automatically! If you don't want to upgrade right now, cancel the reservation. I did the upgrade. Where's my product key? There is none. You don't get a product key from the free upgrade. Repeating this: You do not get a product key from the free upgrade. When you do the upgrade, the installer sends a "fingerprint" of your computer (motherboard+CPU, mainly) to Microsoft, and that marks your computer as eligible for free Windows 10. However, see next question too. I don't want to upgrade. I want to do a clean install! Cool, you can do that now. You just need your original Windows 7 or 8 product key. Use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to make a bootable USB drive or DVD. Then start the installation as usual. When the Windows 10 installer asks for your product key, enter your Windows 7 or 8 key. It will recognize the key as valid and begin installing the appropriate edition. I already upgraded, but then I had to replace my harddrive. How do I do a clean install now? If you've already had the Windows 10 upgrade done on your system, just press Skip when the setup asks you for a key. When the install is done, it will then activate through the hardware fingerprint that got registered during your original upgrade. If you haven't ever installed Windows 10, enter your Windows 7 or 8 product key when the installer asks for one. Wait, if I upgrade now, then replace my motherboard in 2 months, will my license be invalid? Probably yes. You might still be able to reinstall using a Windows 7 or 8 key, but officially your motherboard is the computer, and the license is bound to the computer. So new motherboard means you must purchase a new license. 2016-06-22: This may be changing! With the Anniversary Update it looks like you will be able to link your Digital Entitlement license to a Microsoft account, and keep it valid across larger hardware upgrades. Something happened! Yes, that's an actual error message some have had while trying to do the upgrade. No-one's reported it for a while, so it's probably solved, but if you get it, the fix seems to involve changing your regional/language settings. More upgrade/install troubleshooting tips below. What's new in Windows 10 The Start screen from Windows 8 has been melded into the olden Start menu, to create a new Start menu with tiles on the right half. The Action Center control panel from Vista and charms bar from 8 have been replaced with a Notification Center that holds notifications from all sorts of apps, as well as lots of buttons and toggles for various things. One of those toggles is tablet mode. This basically disables access to the Desktop, and makes all apps run in full screen. It does make touch-only usage easier. You can switch it on and off quickly, useful if you have a convertible. Cortana is Microsoft's personal assistant. Cortana can search for things, create calendar appointments, and send all kinds of commands to apps. The apps just have to be made for it. However... it's only available for some combinations of language and regional settings. The app store has been enhanced, and can now offer regular old desktop software as well. Microsoft figured out a way to package regular Win32 software so it can be installed and uninstalled safely, and run in an isolated manner without affecting the entire system. Internet Explorer is being replaced with Edge, a new browser. Despite the "e" icon, it has little to do with the old IE, and is generally much more sensible. Definitely give it a chance. (You can still also use IE 11 if you need to.) Rolling upgrades — Microsoft is promising to continually update Windows 10 with new features and general improvements over time. Virtual desktops, almost like multi-monitor but without the need for more hardware. Editions There are four edition of Windows 10: Home: Does most things, but is missing several power user features. Is sold retail and comes pre-loaded. Pro: Can join domains, act as Hyper-V host, and load of other fancy things. Is sold retail and comes pre-loaded. Enterprise: Mostly the same as Pro, but with some more management features. Only sold through volume licensing agreements. Education: Mostly the same as Enterprise, but targeted at students. Sold through volume licensing agreements to educational institutions. Microsoft has a comparison here ...how about Windows RT? It's gone. Microsoft does have a Mobile edition of Windows 10, that OEMs can design phones and small tablets for. Windows 10 Mobile is the closest to a successor to Windows RT there will be, but is perhaps more of a successor to Windows Phone. As a consolation prize for buying a Windows RT tablet, you get a small update with a Start Menu. (Article on Softpedia) Privacy woes? You might have read various pieces attacking Windows 10 for ruining your privacy and control of your computer in various ways. How much of that is true? Forced updates: Yes, the Home edition will download and install updates without asking, and you can't turn that off. This can be an actual problem when a broken update goes out once in a while. However, this is generally a good thing, because it will most likely cut down on support calls from grandma getting hits by exploits due to not getting fixes in time. Although there is a tool to disable specific updates, but you still have to run it before the update in question begins installing. If you want to control your updates, you are a power user and should consider running the Pro edition. Peer-to-peer updates: Yes, by default updates will get downloaded not just from Microsoft's servers, but also from other users and systems on the Internet and local network. You can choose to only let P2P act over the local network. However, this is not a security risk. You cannot get viruses/malware pushed through updates like this. All packages are cryptographically verified before they get installed. Getting updates from other machines on the local network can definitely help save bandwidth, great if you have several computers at home, and a metered connection. FAQ Wi-Fi Sense/Network key sharing: This is a feature that lets you share wireless network keys with contacts/friends on Outlook.com, Skype, and/or Facebook. The claim is that this happens entirely automatically and your network key will eventually be spread to everyone across the world. The truth is, you have to actively choose which services you want to share network keys on, and you have to actively select a network and click a "Share" button for it to happen. If someone then connects to the network you shared, they won't be able to share it further. If you don't want your network key shared, just tell your friends to not click Share. FAQ Predictive loading/search suggestions in Edge: Like every other browser (particularly Chrome), Edge has some features to pre-cache pages before you visit them, show suggested search terms, and more. Some of the settings' descriptions could be misunderstood out of context. You can turn off the predictive features if you don't like it. FAQ Forced anti-malware: Yes, Windows 10 forces Windows Defender to be enabled if you aren't running any other antivirus software. If you don't like Windows Defender, install some other AV on your system. Telemetry: Collecting some basic usage statistics, like how often you launch applications from desktop shortcuts versus task bar pinned icons versus Start menu search, has been common for a good while. If you really don't like it, the Basic settings will basically only report what sort of hardware you use (already done by activation) and send basic crash reports. None of this is used for generating advertising or otherwise identifying anyone, but only for statistics to direct bug fixing and feature improvement to the most important areas. FAQ This post is delivered as-is. No warranties implicit or explicit are given to the correctness, applicability, merchantability or other desirable features of the Content. The Content may not be kept updated in a timely manner. All reading is performed at one's own risk. nielsm fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Oct 7, 2023 |
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 16:03 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:20 |
More FAQ stuff My Start menu is broken, help! GreenNight posted:Microsoft released a tool to troubleshoot the Start Menu in Windows 10. White title bars are ugly, or, I like my taskbar vertical Lum posted:If you're like me and prefer a vertical taskbar, but want it really narrow, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is now out of alpha and can be downloaded without being forced to donate. Windows 7 has the best Start menu ever! quote:Classic Shell may be for you. After a full format/reinstall I'm getting a Home edition rather than Pro. Can I get Pro back? wolrah posted:Just did a fresh reinstall on my laptop. I know the OS restore feature should be basically the same, but my install on this machine dated back to the initial public preview and was MBR/BIOS mode rather than GPT/UEFI which I wanted to change so I could enable Secure Boot. nielsm fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Jul 3, 2016 |
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 16:04 |
You could upgrade your existing install to Win 10, then do a fresh install on the SSD. But if you're currently using a mechanical drive it might be faster to install a new Windows on that, or perhaps image your old install over to the SSD, then upgrade on that.
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 16:54 |
Shumagorath posted:Just to be clear: The upgrade will never kick off without my explicit action, right? I have an old Core 2 that's been approved for the update but its motherboard is even further out of support than my Sandy Bridge (which got through fine) and I'm almost sure the Core 2 doesn't have Windows 8 drivers for a lot of things. If you have said yes to reserve, then it will upgrade automatically! If you have "reserved" and don't want to upgrade just yet, go and cancel the reservation.
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 18:53 |
I haven't had problems with display sleeping on Windows 10. I also don't use Chrome.
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 19:59 |
Irritated Goat posted:What? You mean my tiny Surface 2 RT might not blow super amounts of rear end when it comes to functionality soon? Yeah sorry. What I mean is, OEMs making new, small form-factor tablets (8 inches and below) will be able to put the Mobile edition on. Really, Win 10 Mobile is more or less Win 10 RT, except MS won't license it for "real computers", and it will be the exact same OS running on phones and small tablets. I don't know if an 8" tablet with Atom CPU could still get a real Win 10 Home. But no upgrades for Windows RT tablets.
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 21:39 |
awesmoe posted:Given that I am happy with windows 7 on a desktop pc primarily used for gaming, should I upgrade and if so why? For gaming, DirectX 12 would be the main draw. But there probably isn't much reason for you to upgrade right now, especially not seeing some people still have trouble with graphics drivers.
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# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 21:48 |
Not activating Windows will usually put it into a limited functionality mode. I think along the lines of the "Starter" edition of XP: Limited screen resolution, no desktop wallpaper, limitation on number of running programs. It shouldn't completely lock you out. If you still have the disc and key for your previous Windows version, you can try doing a fresh install, then let that activate, and do the upgrade again.
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# ¿ Aug 11, 2015 07:28 |
Cojawfee posted:What edition of 7 is it? Pro can switch between 32 and 64, I don't think Home can. Nah, no version of Windows has ever let you switch (cross-grade?) an installation from one CPU architecture to another, in particular not x86 32 bit to x86 64 bit either. It also isn't possible to upgrade a 32 bit version of any system into a 64 bit version of some system. However, since Vista, a license for 32 bit is also good for 64 bit, and vice versa: You can take your laptop with OEM 32 bit Windows 7, format it, and install the equivalent 64 bit edition of Windows 7 on it, using the license key on the sticker. For Windows 8 and 10 OEM it should be able to install using the key stored in firmware. Presumably that also means that once your system has been registered for free Windows 10, you can format and install a different bitness version of the correct edition on it, and get it to activate.
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# ¿ Aug 12, 2015 16:43 |
RightClickSaveAs posted:In the Windows 10 update screen, right click on these two updates (KB3021917 and KB3035583) and click "Hide" Added this to the second post. Suggestions for other stuff to go there welcome.
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# ¿ Aug 14, 2015 15:17 |
Repo Man posted:I installed Irfanview (I haven't needed that in years, takes me back to installing ACDSee on Win98 and 2000) but you can only scroll through a couple of photos before this happens: Your camera appears to the computer as an "imaging device" (that has storage) rather than a "mass storage device". The "imaging device" protocol on USB can let the hardware present a filesystem-like interface to already recorded images, but it doesn't work as an actual file system. That is, the camera is telling the computer "these are the pictures I have taken". The "mass storage device" protocol (device class) on the other hand, is general file storage. Some cameras, especially higher end ones, have a setting in its menu to control how it presents itself to the computer. If your camera allows you to switch mode like that, try it. That will essentially make it act like a very expensive and power-hungry memory card reader. Programs have to be written specially to be able to handle the USB "imaging device" protocol at all. It seems to be a new thing that Windows 10 tries to work around this by copying the pictures over to a temporary folder on the harddrive, then opening the copy in a program. IrfanView doesn't handle the "imagine device" protocol, that's why your camera doesn't show up there. It only handles normal drives/mass storage devices.
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 09:48 |
It definitely doesn't make sense to display compressed pages as straight occupied, as long as they could potentially be offloaded to a page file. The same way memory used for disk cache counts as "available", though not "free".
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# ¿ Aug 28, 2015 21:49 |
Storm- posted:In a few days I will be upgrading my mobo and CPU. What is the least painful way of reinstalling Windows 10 on my, by Microsoft standards, new PC? Reinstall Windows 8, reactivate through support and upgrade to 10 again? Or just buy OEM Win 10 and throw money at it since chances are you'll have to do it eventually? Are you running with old-style PC BIOS boot right now, and the new mobo would be UEFI boot? If that's the same, definitely reinstall. Going Win 8 install -> ensure activated -> Win 10 upgrade should work fine for that. If you're already using UEFI boot, first try just booting back into your existing install, see if that's possible. If not, try if you can do a boot recovery. You might need a bootable Win 10 DVD or USB for that. If you manage to boot into your existing install, see if it will activate. If it does, awesome. Report back! If not, see if you can phone Microsoft and get them to activate, also report that back I think lots of people want to know how that kind of hardware upgrade gets handled. If you can't get your existing upgraded install activated again, just do the Win 8 install -> ensure activated -> Win 10 upgrade dance. That ought to work.
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# ¿ Sep 2, 2015 09:31 |
Storm- posted:I do dislike how the Media Tool forces me to install it in my native language instead of EN-US even after changing my locale/location during the upgrade. Been using Windows in English for so long even native OS language is pretty much moonspeak. If you have it make an ISO you can choose language. If you're on Windows 8 or up you can then mount the ISO directly and just start the installer from that. If not, use WinRAR or something to unpack it and start the installer.
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# ¿ Sep 2, 2015 10:26 |
Anti Plum posted:I've briefly scanned the op and the last few pages but I didn't see anything. I guess that makes it official: The free Windows 10 upgrade expires when you do a major hardware replacement. No reactivations.
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# ¿ Sep 5, 2015 09:11 |
berzerkmonkey posted:That's what I'm doing, and I'm being asked for a license key. Are you running setup.exe from inside the existing Windows install?
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# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 16:52 |
There we have it, Windows RT gets a Start Menu, and that's it.
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# ¿ Sep 17, 2015 15:41 |
On the other hand, how useful is a Start menu actually on Windows RT? The only desktop software you really have is File Explorer and Office, and then a couple of administrative things.
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# ¿ Sep 17, 2015 15:48 |
Lowtechs posted:They have tabs in build 10547. I think GreenNight is referring to "tabs" as in multiple browsers in a single window, switched with tabs. Same way you have tabs in your web browser. Not the tabs on the toolbar.
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# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 20:40 |
ilkhan posted:Is there a way to limit the max size of a folder in win10? I'm thinking of limiting a downloads folder to 50GB or something, so it doesn't max out my SB's 256GB when I forget to You could enable quota management on your harddrive (Properties for the drive in File Explorer) which lets you set disk-space usage limits per user. However you can't set it on folders, only on disk volumes, instead you can only limit it per user. So you'd have to run your downloads in a separate user account.
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# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 16:23 |
Lum posted:Is there any way to teach Cortana commands that do something specific, e.g. if I say "Hey Cortana, turn the bedroom light off" it would make a JSON call to http://192.168.1.2:8084/json.htm?type=command¶m=switchlight&idx=99&switchcmd=Off (also need to figure out how to make Android do the same thing) Yes but you need an app to provide the commands and logic. For simple things like that it should be easy to just throw something together in Visual Studio Express, at least if the demos I've viewed from Build conferences are to be trusted.
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# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 18:35 |
Phobophilia posted:So basically **~~trusted windows store App~~** get installed through a mystery installer and not through the usual installers. Installed by the system, pretty much. Windows App Model packages (as I think they're supposed to be called) are supposed to be perfectly isolated, so software installed through one can't break things that aren't its own, and when you uninstall it, it's truly gone.
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# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 07:31 |
Josh Lyman posted:Not more dll's? They still exist, but you're supposed to bring your own copy of any that aren't supplied by the system. And definitely don't place your things in system locations. (You were never supposed to place your own DLLs in system locations.)
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# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 08:07 |
Abel Wingnut posted:i upgraded my main machine to windows 10 a couple of months ago. i want to create two VM on this same machine. i would like to install windows 10 in each VM. is it possible to use my existing license to download two more copies of windows 10 for those VM? Might be "possible", but it's certainly against the license conditions. One Windows client license allows you to install one copy on one physical or virtual machine. If you want to run multiple Win 10 VMs you can: 1) Run trial versions, need to reinstall every so often 2) Buy a retail license for each VM 3) Get licenses through an MS TechNet subscription
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# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 17:17 |
Mr. Fortitude posted:Wasn't sure if this should go here or in the SSD thread, but I just ordered a new SSD that's due to arrive tomorrow and I wanted to ask if I'd be correct in thinking that I should disconnect my current HDD leaving only the SSD connected, do a fresh installation of Windows 10 on the SSD and then reconnect the HDD to transfer any files I want to keep to the SSD? Have you done the in-place upgrade dance yet? If you use Win 7, 8 or 8.1 currently and want to use the free upgrade, you currently need to do an in-place upgrade to get your machine marked as eligible for Windows 10. If you have already done that, or you have a retail Win 10, go ahead with your suggestion, it sounds like the right thing. If you'd prefer to not do an in-place upgrade at all you can otherwise try getting the ISO for a recent Insider Build version, can't remember the exact build number. But it will accept a Win 7, 8 or 8.1 retail key and get a Win 10 license from that. Just keep in mind that it's then a beta build you're running and there's some extra telemetry forced on. That feature should appear in a proper update some time soon, though.
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# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 17:39 |
If anyone with experiences can write a blurb about the new use-your-old-key system for clean installs I can put that in the OP. And any other updates you think may be relevant.
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# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 22:37 |
ThermoPhysical posted:http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-yanks-latest-windows-10-release-from-its-download-server/ Ugh I just downloaded an ISO with the MCT a few hours ago, for use when my new hardware arrives some time next week. Is there any way to check if I got an RTM or 1511 package? Edit: install.wim and boot.wim on the image are both dated 2015-11-22, at least they're recent? nielsm fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Nov 22, 2015 |
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# ¿ Nov 22, 2015 18:22 |
BrainDance posted:I'm also getting a few bluescreens on build 10586, they're "driver not less or equal" (or something) errors with netio.sys. Any ideas what would be causing that? IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors usually means a buggy driver, or broken hardware that causes a driver to break. netio.sys is a system component, make sure you're getting the error reports sent off to MS. But it likely also means there is a problem with your network interface, wired or wireless. As for the "saving icon positions": No it isn't really that simple. And applications will typically start on the display the mouse cursor is at when the application creates its first window.
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# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 08:38 |
Lum posted:Any way to make it not flash the power light when hibernating, short of unplugging the cable? Pure hibernate and not hybrid sleep? I think it'd be a firmware setting if anything.
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# ¿ Nov 26, 2015 22:35 |
BrainDance posted:Also, I got all my desktop icons arranged but windows likes to be a bitch when a game switches my resolution or just randomly. Anyone know of any free solutions to "saving" my desktop layout that use very little cpu (I've got this thing about keeping my cpu as available as possible)? Two pages back, but I just randomly stumbled on this, which seems to do exactly that: http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm
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# ¿ Nov 27, 2015 20:35 |
Flipperwaldt posted:You can just change the display language in pc settings and/or the control panel, in both 8 or 10. Don't know if this has been possible since Vista or if in Windows 7 this maybe was only accessible in non-Home versions or something, but it isn't an issue now. You can switch display languages on the fly, more or less. It shouldn't require more than logging out and then in again, at any point. Vista made product keys agnostic towards language and architecture, but MUI language packs were only available for Ultimate and Enterprise editions. 8 made language packs available for all editions. That said, MUI packs are annoying and you're best off making install media in the language you want and install fresh.
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# ¿ Dec 11, 2015 15:19 |
Speaking of lock screen issues, my small tablet that was upgraded from 8.1 to 10, sometimes when I push the hardware Start button to bring it back from sleep, I just get a black screen. Backlight is clearly on, but nothing gets displayed. Windows also shows the little "touch trails" if I try to use the touchscreen. But if I then pull out a Bluetooth keyboard, already paired to the tablet, and press Ctrl-Alt-Del, I get the unlock screen. Happens a few times a week.
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# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 20:13 |
SinineSiil posted:Does Win 10 also have issue with not waking up from sleep by mouse/keyboard input? Or is it my new laptop's fault instead? I had some of that previously on my tablet, but haven't had that happen since the 1511 update. Now I "only" get the breakage with it waking up but never displaying the unlock screen, requiring me to Ctrl-Alt-Del, to get away from a black screen.
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2016 19:48 |
Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:This got lost on the last page. If there's a better thread for it, please let me know. This thread is pretty much only about Windows 10 the operating system, and not the software running on it. But uh I'm not sure I even understand the question. What do you mean by "cache" in here? Do you mean a server message store like Exchange, IMAP or otherwise, where you or the provider removes messages from on a schedule? You could set up a rule to copy messages to a local PST data file?
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# ¿ Jan 29, 2016 10:20 |
Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:I want the mail to stay on my computer after being deleted from the place it comes from. Like for example, a gmail or Yahoo account. Yep then you just need an inbox rule that copies new messages to a local PST file.
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# ¿ Jan 29, 2016 17:56 |
Sir Unimaginative posted:Chocolatey uses defaults. Steam by default installs to Program Files. Nonsense, Steam has natively supported installing games to different locations for a long time now. You just have to set up one or more additional Steam Library Folders on the Downloads page in Settings.
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# ¿ Feb 20, 2016 13:17 |
Sir Unimaginative posted:Okay, go try setting up a library on the same drive Steam's installed on. No really, that makes no sense. Also never had any issues with Steam being in Program Files. Though probably because of these permissions set up by Steam's installer. Yes arguably a bad idea, but really no more or less secure than having it anywhere else.
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# ¿ Feb 20, 2016 13:29 |
Sir Unimaginative posted:
The "correct" solution would probably be to only have a service running as an account with limited write access to just that folder do all the installation stuff, and then for games that depend on files in the install being writable, have some folder redirection magic, or worst case single-file special permissions, set up. And you might have to write manifests for each game, declaring what it needs. Good luck getting that to actually work reliably. If you install Steam somewhere else, you still end up having a user-writable folder full of executables. It just isn't below Program Files.
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# ¿ Feb 20, 2016 16:11 |
I originally did the reservation for my main home desktop, before the release. Then I figured I should probably do a long overdue hardware upgrade first, and un-reserved. I'm still on Win 7, have the GWX icon in the notify area, but haven't been bugged about it actively even once, and it's not being offered through Windows Update either. Apparently that counts as a "nope don't upgrade me"? I'm going to be getting another, bigger SSD soon, and install 10 on that for a fresh beginning instead.
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# ¿ Mar 17, 2016 22:56 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:20 |
ilkhan posted:There are several people here who would love to know where that switch is. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351 quote:Windows registry
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# ¿ Mar 17, 2016 23:24 |