This is a little rant I'm afraid. I know it's basically my fault BUT!!!!!

Sometimes when at clients premises, I have to use a series of rescue/installation discs to resolve an issue.

Sometimes, it can take quite a few hours to sort out the multiple problems people allow to accumulate on their computer before seeking professional help. A lot of which is helped along by the 'bar room fixers' who know absolutely sod all in real terms about much at all.

They don't know what the real problem is because they've not seen it and clients rarely know how to describe the problem fully anyway - not that there's anything wrong with that, I don't expect it.

The client then goes and mis-follows the wrong advice they've been given and make an even bigger dogs breakfast of the whole thing and after they've totally screwed their computer, they call me.

Now to the point of my rant.

After I've spent hours sorting out the cock-up, I put my things back in my bag (or so I think) and head off home. Some days, or even weeks, later I open my bag looking for the discs to find that I've accidentally left at my clients.

The annoying thing is the client, who now has a full set of service and recovery discs that I've paid for, and doesn't have a clue in hell how to use them, hasn't had the decency to ring me and let me know I've left them. This has happened every time I've done it.

I now have to go through the time and expense of getting a new set of dics together.

ONE THING YOU GET FROM ME IS HONESTY, IF YOU CAN'T RETURN THE FAVOUR THEN YOU DON'T DESERVE THE SERVICES I OFFER.

​I will work out where I left them and that person will have a heavy bill next time they call me!

It just goes to show, there's a lot of really dishonest immigrants out there.

Well, after giving Windows 10 the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks I'm ready to give you some real life feedback.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Thank you.

OK, so maybe it's not quite that bad but would I give up my Windows 7 machines for it.

No! I wouldn't.

Apart from insisting on installing the wrong video drivers for my motherboard which resulted in a very bad display pattern, I didn't like having to use the search facility for things I never had to search for before. What's that all about?

Clicking buttons on the start menu so I could find things that were hidden in another section of it, oh my goodness, now it's all changed and I can't find anything. What was it I was supposed to click on again!?

Clicking on all the buttons on the start menu and I couldn't find the original list. Pah!!!!! Reboot.

Right then, lets connect to my VPN. Where is it? Ah, there it is. Put in password, oh bo**ocks, it won't connect. Oh, more bo.......... it won't do anything now. Reboot.

OK, lets delete it and set it up again. Right, let's connect, enter password. Even more bo......... it still won't connect, a.n.d .......... Reboot.

OK, repeat steps above BUT, don't put in any credentials. Let's try to connect now - put in credentials - hey, it's connected yahayyy. What a palarva. Now I have to put in both user name AND password as I'm connecting or it won't work. That's poor, very poor!

After a few weeks of putting up with this, we both had enough. Lets revert back to Windows 7.

Haha, That's another game Microsoft screwed up. After reverting back, it now reports my machine has a pirate copy of Windows on it and I need to buy a new licence.

Well, I only have two words for that and it involves sex and travel.

All in all, Windows 10, to date, is definitely not an upgrade if you currently have Windows 7. Is it an upgrade to Windows 8? I think I prefer Windows 8 to 10 if I'm really honest.

Who knows, maybe they'll have got it working by next July when your free upgrade deadline is due but don't hold your breath. Microsoft gave up on Windows 8 when they issued service pack 1, long before the 3 year cycle was up. It could happen with this as well.

If only they would only stop trying to fix things that ain't broke, who knows, we could end up with a decent version of Windows but until that day comes, Linux Mint is a brilliant alternative for most of you out there.


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Well, Windows 10 has been available as an upgrade for nearly 2 months now so is it now OK to go for the free upgrade.

In short, no. Do NOT accept the free upgrade unless you know what to do if everything goes wrong as it often does.

Just about everyone who worked with the evaluation and testing versions say it's OK. A lot of people who've upgraded say it's OK BUT, there's a lot of people out there who've gone for the free upgrade and regretted every second.

It's not that 10 is intrinsically that bad, it's better than 8 but that's all you can say about it. The real problem lies with the upgrade process, it's just too unreliable.

Almost everyone who has opted to do a clean installation of 10 says it works with few exceptions but that comes at a cost. The price of 10 starts around £80.

My bottom line is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Only go for 10 if you REALLY want to have the latest version of windows. It certainly isn't any better than 7.

OK, I've got XP, what should I do?

That's easy. Get Linux Mint. It has an appearance of win 7 and is free. Mint has a crisp, clean appearance and is built on the ever popular Ubuntu version but with a different appearance not too dissimilar to 7 making it easy for windows users to cross over.

Unless you have specialist needs, Linux Mint will work for you.


Opinions are those of the writer.
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How many of you out there have noticed the free windows 10 upgrade notice lurking near the clock down in the bottom right of your screen?

One of my clients did, and they decided to take advantage of it. Oooops.

Don't get me wrong, it's very easy to do the update but that's when your problems will begin and, to make matters worse, microsoft know all about the problems you're going to experience.

As with any update, always back up your stuff, all your photos, those letters to the solicitors and all the other stuff you've accumulated on your trusty computer.

Now you need to make sure you have all the drivers for all the bits you've got bolted on to the computer as well because chances are, they ain't gonna work after the upgrade.

The problems we had included deleted drivers for the pci-e usb3 card, printer not working, machine taking more than 10 minutes to boot up. No, it's not an old pc unless you call 8 months old. Win10 is supposed to work on old machinery.

OK, supposing you've managed to get everything working in windoze 10 and you decide you don't like it, how can you get rid of it?

Well, that's supposed to be easy too. You go to the start menu, go to settings, then update and security then recovery. There you'll be given the option to revert back to win7 (or 8) but don't bank on that working either. On my clients machine, it simply would not roll back to windoze 7 and kept defaulting back to 10 saying there was a problem.

Don't get me wrong, not everyone will have a screwed machine after doing the 'upgrade' but if you are, well.........


Search the internet, it's a known problem and the ONLY answer is to reinstall your previous version of windoze from your disc, your motherboard drivers and all the discs for the bits you've got bolted onto it.

Not got your windoze or motherboard discs? Oh bugger, you're in real bother now. You've got win10 and stuff that don't work and no way of getting back to what you had before without forking out for a new copy of windoze. That's a bit of a shitter innit.

I've just spent the best part of a day recovering a computer back to it's previous state because of the damage caused by microsoft. Having to source obscure drivers because the original pc builder didn't give any discs to the client.

From what I've seen of win10, I'm not impressed. It's yet another learning curve to try and work out where everything is. Haven't the people at microsoft-in-the-head heard the old saying - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We've moved on from a menu system that was easy to work to something that isn't, and they call that progress.

So for now, ladies and gentlemen, keep away from the win10 free upgrade until they've got the bugs out of it. When will that be? Give it at least 6 months and definitely not before service pack 1.


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