Saturday, April 9, 2016

The Adventure of Installing Windows 10 - Part One

Way last year, when they first offered the Windows 10 upgrade for free, one of my friends downloaded it and fell in love with it. Since he usually complains about all things Microsoft, and actually liked Win10 so much he invested in it, I decided to download it too.  But then I couldn't get myself to install it.  I told myself I would wait until the end of the year.  I run a small business and wanted to make sure nothing happened to my year's worth of accounting. Then when the new year came and I printed off the account statements, I decided to wait until after I was finished with the taxes.

Earlier this week, my computer, which had up until then been reminding me daily to install the program, or at least pick an installation date, decided to just tell me it was going to do the update on Wednesday April 6 at 11pm.  The taxes were pretty well done, but they needed to be checked over, and printed off.  (Yes, I know I can save the files, but I like a hard copy, thank you.) Microsoft was giving me the kick start I needed to get the job done.

I don't care how much they promise you that your files will be right where you left them, I don't trust computers to work properly after such major upgrades. I also don't trust the printer, or other peripherals, to remain compatible with a new operating system.  I know I had to go buy a new printer when I got a Windows 7 machine.

So, off I went to bed, hoping that I'd be able to work the computer in the morning.  I must admit, I put off approaching it until after 10AM.  Thankfully I have a tablet, as I'm an admitted computer addict and needed to get online for various things long before 10AM.  It was time to write a blog post though, and I find that rather tedious without an actual keyboard.

The first problem I encountered was being faced with the legal document before Win10 actually opens for the first time. I discovered  I was unable to access my Read Please at that point. When faced with a page or more of reading, I generally let the computer read it to me. I had to wade though this one on my own. Not fun.

At one point it said "If you live in (or if your principal place of business is in) the United States, please read the binding arbitration clause and the class action waiver in Section 10.  It affects how disputes are solved."  I wondered, what about us here in Canada?

Then for Express Settings, it said "to help protect you from malicious web content and to use web predictions your browsing data will be sent to Microsoft."  I know a lot of people who would object to that!

Then Windows 10 actually said "Hi" to me, right there on a blue screen.  That seemed friendly, and gave me hope that the whole operating system was going to be user friendly.  No such luck. It did assure me that my files are exactly where I left them.  And they might be, if I could figure out where they hid the folders they are stored in.  I cannot, for instance, find the programs, other than the most frequently used ones. I was glad I had shortcuts to some of them on my desktop.  

I do wish Microsoft had left the Windows Express the way it was in XP and the systems preceding that.  It was so easy to find anything you were looking for back then.  Win 10 is set up more like Win 7, but with just enough changes to make it seem complicated. But hey, it's day one, so give me time.

I noticed the screen was breathing, in different shades of blue to the point where I thought it was stuck. But finally a notice came up on the screen that simply said, "Don't turn off your PC."  I still don't know what it was doing at that point, but once it stopped I was finally in.


One of the first things I noticed was that my keyboard had come up with a few glitches.  I tried to type I'm and I got an e with an accent where the apostrophe should have been (Ièm). And when I tried to type a question mark, I got É.  Thankfully a relative on Facebook helped me find out how to change that back.  I decided that may not have been a Win10 problem,  when I found out how to fix it (press the Control and Shift button at the same time).  Maybe I just have had fat fingers, though I've never had that sort of thing happen before, and I've been on a computer keyboard since the days of the Commodore 64.  Coincidence?

Next I discovered the printer didn't work, but I remembered that I had a similar problem when I first got Windows 7.  I had to reconfigure each program to work with my printer all over again back then. I did that for the application I was in, and the printer started working.  Win 10 then popped up a window saying the printer would scan my PC to determine if updates were available. There was one, so I installed it. I can see that this system is trying to be helpful.

And then there's Cortana.  But that's another story.  Stay tuned as I'm going to take you all on this little adventure as I explore and learn how to deal with the problems and delights of Windows 10.





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