Questions for Windows 10 users

I guess it is getting around to that time for you to make a decision if you still want to get Win 10 for free ?
FWIW, I'm probably the wrong person too answer you too much in depth ...
I made the jump to Win 10 around November of last year . I picked up a Black Friday beater lappy w Win 10 on it .
Once I got used to it I did an in place upgrade from Win 8 to Win 10 on my computer ..all went smooth ...
I liked Win 10 much better than Win 8 ...for Music it seemed to perform better ...
Once I got on board with SPlat I was surprised at how well SPlat ran on my computer in Win 10
At the time of the upgrade to Win 10 a couple of my other music programs seemed to be having problems ..
Thankfully a few of those other music company's seemed to have caught up a lot regarding optimizing their  programs for Win 10 ...
Cakewalk definitely beat them all to the punch as far as optimizing SONAR for Win 10  and it's all good now ....
 
Since I'm on Win 10 home edition I seem to be getting a little fed up with Windows forcing a bunch of $hit on me I don't want ...Shhhesh , when it want's to do it's thing , it don't seem to care that I happen to want to do my thing instead ....That's only the tip of the iceberg .....
In all honesty , Yeah if your gonna use Windows , Win 10 is very good if your OK w Windows ...
I hope somebody else will be of more help to you since I have broken up with Windows for the time being
 
all the best,
 
Kenny
 
 
 
 

I like now that I played around with it. There are really good tutorials on youtube. I have much to learn but already I can see it's more efficient for what I do. As far as intrusions I can see how that's possible because of the info needed to operate it. I'm happy with it  

The free upgrade time period ends on July 30th and I'm about to install 8.1 on an SSD so I can create a couple of virtual machines (VM's).  One to do work with (running Windows 7 or 10) and the other to access the internet (so I can nuke and restore my golden copy if I get a virus or malware).  Only Windows 8.1 or 10 have native VM's (7 can handle them but requires third-party software to create and manage them).  
 
I'm trying to decide if I can just ignore 8.1 and go straight to 10.

Works OK on the three machines I have it installed on.  You need professional to have greater update control.  As for the snooping unless you are running enterprise you need one of the third party anti-snoop programs.

With regards to the snooping many packages are now investing in similar technology, SONAR has it though you turn it off as you can with Arturia's software.

Win 10 has been the best version for me (since XP) and the upgrade was the most easiest. All I had to do was click on upgrade, deny access to some privacy questions, and everything was updated (especially all my drivers for my hardware). I've had it for about a year now and very happy with it.......hasn't obstructed/caused a problem in anything I do......I can't say the same on the earlier versions.
 
I have a second machine with Win 8 that the family uses (my old DAW machine) that I'm also going to upgrade to Win 10. It only has 4GB of RAM and a 9 year old CPU, but still runs well......only thing I that ever had to change in that machine was 1 stick of RAM that went bad and the video card. I'm actually surprised it's still going strong.
 
As long as all your hardware has good Win 10 support for drivers, it should be a good and positive experience.
 

Cool.  Thanks for the replies!  It's been a year so I thought I'd let you guys kick the tires.  Being in IT for almost 45 years(!) I know not to grab the latest and greatest OS until the bumps have been worked out. 
 
Sounds like the solidest Microsquish OS yet so I think I'll give it a try.

Thanks Drew, I'll take a look and see about this SuperFetch Service......tbh, I was one of those people that didn't notice as it didn't (seem) to affect anything.  

craigb

drewfx1
But now I'm noticing a gradual increase in memory usage not directly associated with any process, which at times amounts to something on the order of 50MB a minute. 

That's just Big Brother checking out whatcha got! 

I only notice these things because I'm OCD enough that I would not only notice something is amiss with memory, but network traffic as well.
 
And IME Big Brother's historical competence level makes me think of a different kind of bug than the kind you're suggesting. 

jamesg1213
it's just another operating system.

^^ THIS ^^
 
as was DOS, Win 3.1, 95, 98, XP, 7 and 8.1.

I definitely won't be using the Home version.

craigb
Ok, now that you've had some time with it what do you think?  What are the pros and cons of upgrading from Windows 7 (besides the ability to run virtual machines which is why I'm considering it).
 
Also, how do you prevent it from snooping around all your data?
 
TIA!

Hi,
 
4 of my 6 computers are on W10 and I have no issues with it. One of them, that is being used by my friend (neighbor), is having issues, but he is not quite too knowledgeable about things, so it is possible that he clicked on something or other. He has Parkinson's and is on med's all the time, and some days, it's like ... he's not here. I go over there and clean up here and there and make sure video drivers are up to date and the like and he seems to play WoW quite OK, although it is hard for him to get past a certain point ... his right hand is over his left hand on the numbers for keystrokes, and his left hand is on the arrows for example, and he confuses left and right 3 out of 4 times.
 
On my 3 machines with it, only my old laptop and one other machine do not have W10, all seems fine.
 
One very IMPORTANT detail.
 
W10 on the 32 bit version, or the Home version (I think they are the same) is not very good at NETWORKING and it loses the Name Resolution information on your HOME Network, just like the W8 and W8.1 did. I think this is intentional, so you go to the "professional" versions of 64 bit, and such. One day you can get the printer which connects to that machine and the next day that printer is not there. Gets really boring after a while.
 
Jim, my neighbor, says that he is having some issues with the machine locking up on occasion, when he is playing WoW, which is possible, however, he is using a 32-inch monitor that is probably taxing the GTS 650 (Nvidia) and the memory on the machine (4G), though it should not. He says that once in a while he gets a "blue screen", and I keep explaining to him that I need more information as usually that screen lists a file name, so I know what to do with it, and if I can fix it or not. If it's WOW, that would help.
 
On my 2 main machines, no issues. I just updated my music recording machine (not the one with all the VST's and mixer and such), and all went well, and I even can play WoW in it -- a really good test, since it is really heavy on the graphics and you can turn up or down the quality of it, and watch the FRAMES PER SECOND move, or simply slow to a crawl and die! Either way, it is about 70 to 90 FPS, which is good for the higher level of the game, although in those situations I would turn down the quality so I would not suffer on the connection, which on large "raids" could have 25 people and the graphics get tax'd heavily.
 
My main music machine, is still on W7-Pro 64bit, and I have not made the decision yet, but will likely update it quickly so I do not have to pay for it later. BUT, I will have to remove all the software and then start all over again, which is not an issue, but it is time consuming. I prefer to have "nothing" but the firewall, on the machine on these upgrades, and I think this is WHERE most of the issues happen. Some software is not good on this or that, and it would be more efficient to have it re-installed anyway, and thus a clean re-install is usually better, than a redo, where some settings are causing problems with the computer's basic operating system and its controls of the hardware -- where drivers used to be a serious problem.
 
All in all, no issues for me, and I'm OK with it all, except the opening window ... I do not like the cellphone look at all, and was really peed off when W8 did not have an option, and I had to set an ADDON to be able to find things. That addon made the navigation easier, since navigating the INSIDE of W10 is not for beginners or the squeamish, or the squishiest of folks.
 
Only suggestion is to ensure it is a clean install, and this is my procedure:
 
1. Uninstall all software, and only leave the Firewall (Norton, McAfee, F-Secure).
NOTE: If the Firewall is a free product you will NOT have the proper protection. Highly recommend ensuring your product is paid for and registered.


2. Do a Disk Cleanup, including any Windows.old files and setup files. This is slightly "advanced" but it cleans up massive amounts of hard drive space and makes confusion not an epitaph!
 
3. Do a Defrag. Let it finish.
 
4. Go ahead and install your W10.
 
4A. Install your Firewall, if it is not there already from the previous version. I recommend (again) a paid version, and NEVER a free version for anyone here trying to do music and specially professionally.
 
5. Reinstall things you need in a logical order. A DAW would be first I think.
 
NOTE: Updating will, normally, simply redo the same type of Windows you already have. So if you have a 32 bit Home Version, the W10 edition installed will be just like it, and I am not sure that you can make the change on install to 64 bit. I think that a disk will be required for that and normally, it would also ask for a reformat, if I remember correctly. If that's the case, you want to make sure all your programs that you need to reinstall, either have disks, or you have the links saved on a CD, or another machine in your network (my case).
 
I would NOT, under any conditions, use anything under 64 bit. The networking side of things is a total pain on any other version of Windows, and you do not want to waste time on that crap.
 
BTW, W10, appears to be "designed" to be a part of the cloud, and it has some stuff that is really annoying, like the "One Drive" thing, which in my own thinking, would be "snooping" and should not be done. But, that's not to say, that it is worth it and honest, but the fine print in W10 is ... not for artists ... as far as I can tell ... and I think that in time, they can say they own the product and your work, because you did not pay for Windows.
 
Snooping, is not an option -- you have to get over it, and stop being paranoid! It's already there even if you don't like it. You just have to learn to protect your stuff better, and where. And if you are an old folgie like me, I went the extra step and marked the information on the Will and it is listed with a lawyer with all the information, with an addendum that an update on the listing is to be done every 6 months as long as I can maintain it. Files changes, usually show a date, though that can easily be cheated on by anyone. Essentially, my work is already protected (hopefully), even though we all know that "security" is an illusion.
 
This is my experience, and hope this helps.

I've never used a "Home" version of any OS.

drewfx1
 
What I've experienced is memory issues with 10 eating RAM. The first problem was the superfetch service causing the kernel to grow to a couple of GB (that's GB with a "G"). Since disabling superfetch (which isn't necessary as I have an SSD drive but MS turns it on anyway), the kernel process stays at 144 KB (that's with a "K", not an "M").
 

I took a look at this service today and didn't see anything unusual on my RAM usage........it showed something like 3.3GB's out of 16GB's was being used (I had a few programs and a bunch of webpages open at the time).
 
Is that RAM eating issue a constant thing or when you run certain applications?

Oh no, tell me he didn't go there.......
 
 
 
BTW craigb (ITHRN), that's National Geographic you're talking about and not what you're referring to.