Windows 10?

[Mini-Geek]

My main computer is trying to get me to "upgrade" it to Windows 10. I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any compatibility issues with crunching software. Specifically, here's what I run a good amount of the time: MISFIT, mfaktc, PRPnet, PSP runner, PFGW, cllr, Prime95, and msieve (for post-processing NFS@home jobs). I might want to run any other software you might find on this forum, too, but those are the more important ones.

I have a GTX 970 (just one graphics card, so I won't have the mix-and-match issue I read about here) and play games via Steam and Battle.net, but I'm less worried about those than the rarely-used software that comes from this forum.

If I upgrade at all, I'm planning on installing it with as few spying-on-me things as possible (sorry, Cortana).

Any other pitfalls to know about? And, in case I want to go that route, does anyone know how to stop it from trying to "upgrade" me to Windows 10? It's showing up in Windows Update, and it only seems to briefly respect my "Hide update" command (it goes away, but then comes back soon).

Other stats on the PC: currently has Win 7 Pro, i5-4670K, 32 GB RAM, an SSD (with OS) and an HDD (for other storage), and GTX 970 (as mentioned earlier).

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

My main computer is trying to get me to "upgrade" it to Windows 10. I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any compatibility issues with crunching software. Specifically, here's what I run a good amount of the time: MISFIT, mfaktc, PRPnet, PSP runner, PFGW, cllr, Prime95, and msieve (for post-processing NFS@home jobs). I might want to run any other software you might find on this forum, too, but those are the more important ones.

I have a GTX 970 (just one graphics card, so I won't have the mix-and-match issue I read about here) and play games via Steam and Battle.net, but I'm less worried about those than the rarely-used software that comes from this forum.

If I upgrade at all, I'm planning on installing it with as few spying-on-me things as possible (sorry, Cortana).

Any other pitfalls to know about? And, in case I want to go that route, does anyone know how to stop it from trying to "upgrade" me to Windows 10? It's showing up in Windows Update, and it only seems to briefly respect my "Hide update" command (it goes away, but then comes back soon).

Other stats on the PC: currently has Win 7 Pro, i5-4670K, 32 GB RAM, an SSD (with OS) and an HDD (for other storage), and GTX 970 (as mentioned earlier).

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/windows...2260.html?nf=1 is one thing I read before upgrading and I think batalov knows how to prolong it upgrading or not.

[retina]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

If I upgrade at all, I'm planning on installing it with as few spying-on-me things as possible (sorry, Cortana).
...

Other stats on the PC: currently has Win 7 ...

You might want to disable the ~half-dozen updates for Win7 that also enable spying on the current system you use. Plus of course any futures "updates" that will override those disabled updates and so on in the future. MS is currently going all out to get your data, and they probably already have a lot of it if you have let those updates through without blocking them, but still a good idea to kill them before they do more damage.

Like I suggested in another thread: Upgrade to WinXP.

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

My main computer is trying to get me to "upgrade" it to Windows 10. I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any compatibility issues with crunching software. Specifically, here's what I run a good amount of the time: MISFIT, mfaktc, PRPnet, PSP runner, PFGW, cllr, Prime95, and msieve (for post-processing NFS@home jobs). I might want to run any other software you might find on this forum, too, but those are the more important ones.

No issues for me with Prime95, MISFIT, mfaktc and GTX690 with Windows 10. I have it on a desktop and two laptops.

[chris2be8]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

And, in case I want to go that route, does anyone know how to stop it from trying to "upgrade" me to Windows 10?

You could install Linux (or one of the BSD variants). In the long run the only alternative to Windows 10 (or a successor) is probably to stop using Windows at all.

Of course people are trying to spy on Linux users as well. But the OS itself doesn't deliberately spy on you.

Chris

[ric]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

Any other pitfalls to know about? And, in case I want to go that route, does anyone know how to stop it from trying to "upgrade" me to Windows 10? It's showing up in Windows Update, and it only seems to briefly respect my "Hide update" command (it goes away, but then comes back soon).

You might want to take a look at this page and follow its recommendations. I've personally found Woody's site a source of reliable information on Msoft's minuets (on automatic updates, just to name one).

You might also want to take a look at this other page, for a practical solution.

All this said and done, I'd second fully cris2be8's hint above to jump on the *nix bandwagon - no intention whatsoever to start a religion war on this, naturally...

hth,
ric

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by Chuck

No issues for me with Prime95, MISFIT, mfaktc and GTX690 with Windows 10. I have it on a desktop and two laptops.

Originally Posted by chris2be8

You could install Linux (or one of the BSD variants). In the long run the only alternative to Windows 10 (or a successor) is probably to stop using Windows at all.

Of course people are trying to spy on Linux users as well. But the OS itself doesn't deliberately spy on you.

Chris

Originally Posted by ric

You might want to take a look at this page and follow its recommendations. I've personally found Woody's site a source of reliable information on Msoft's minuets (on automatic updates, just to name one).

You might also want to take a look at this other page, for a practical solution.

All this said and done, I'd second fully cris2be8's hint above to jump on the *nix bandwagon - no intention whatsoever to start a religion war on this, naturally...

hth,
ric

I would like to switch (cost, privacy, supporting free software, etc.), but I feel like there are still too many games and other apps (e.g. VS 2015) that are Windows-only. Even for the games that are on Linux, you're usually sacrificing some performance because drivers aren't as good. Unless Wine and native Linux support has come a lot farther than I've realized.

Like most people these days, 95% of what I do is web-based and it won't matter that I'm on Linux, but it's that last little fraction that can become really annoying and time-consuming...and then you spend a few hours working on the terminal and with documentation and sources and...bleh.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

My main computer is trying to get me to "upgrade" it to Windows 10......
.....
Other stats on the PC: currently has Win 7 Pro, i5-4670K, 32 GB RAM, an SSD (with OS) and an HDD (for other storage), and GTX 970 (as mentioned earlier).

What version would you be "upgrading" from? If the answer is "7", the next question is "why do it?" Seven is fairly solid and reliable for me, (aside, possibly, from the nasty 'updates' to which Retina refers. I am overdue for a reinstall, but I need to research the afore-mentioned updates, first.)

Edit: Oops.

[LaurV]

The "feral teenagers"^® in our house upgraded to 10. They are happy with it. OTOH, they don't do much with their laptops except school-related things (office, visio, movie-editing), youtube, facebook, and the like.

We stayed on 7, and we even run Vista on an old Sony Vaio FW series, which is used by SWMBO and she is happy with it. We were never able to upgrade this toy due to drivers issues with Sony.

We like 7, and we join the former advice: if it works, don't fix it. We were extremely difficult to convince to move from XP to 7 at the time when we did this move.

We also used to go to work in the old coat from about 10 years ago, which fit well and felt well, in spite of having a new one (both given by the company, they give clothes for workers every two years or so) till the big SWMBO decided to scrap the old one (we just couldn't find it one morning! we were very upset! ), and we had to take the old Samsung Galaxy S2 from the little SWMBO few years ago, after she bought a very new one, because, after trying for half year to convince us to drop our old Gigabyte G-Smart phone, she decided to hide "the brick" (yes, you guessed right, we just could not find it one morning! we were very upset! ).

We used the old phone mostly for GPS, and now we use the new one mostly for GPS and NFC, since we work with NFC at job. We don't call much, and don't have friends who call us a lot. Nobody likes us..

But nobody in the world could convince us to get rid of our current S2, actually it is a very nice toy, and the last one having a proper GPS circuit - all smartphones coming after it only have "partial" GPS circuits. This phone is a lucky phone, it was dropped in the sea water and in the toilet bowl, both by the little SWMBO in cause (she was clever enough to take the battery out immediately, and bring it to us for cleaning before reusing it), and when we took it for ourselves, it had mechanical issues which we could not fix: when mechanically stressed (like you apply some bending force, not much, on the corners) the LCD shows missing lines (the COMMON/SEGMENT drivers are most COF (chip on film) and the film does not adhere to the TFT glass properly, anymore. We are still looking for a newer phone with proper GPS and NFC, we were not able to find one.

Today is Saturday, the sun is shiny. Don't update to 10 if your 7 works fine for you...

[kladner]

Further, everything from Win 8 on has a lot of touch baggage. I don't get the impression you are running a touch screen system.

I really like Win 7 at this point, but it looks like XP, thanks to Classic Shell.

I have to use machines with Aero graphics at work, but I find it visually confusing, and consequently, an irritating waste of cycles. (Leave aside that quad i5s are pretty much overkill, anyway.) Also, it tries to anticipate what you aren't planning to do, and minimizes the Outlook (yeah, I know) window you just started typing a response in, because you moved the cursor out of the way.

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

My main computer is trying to get me to "upgrade" it to Windows 10. I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any compatibility issues with crunching software. Specifically, here's what I run a good amount of the time: MISFIT, mfaktc, PRPnet, PSP runner, PFGW, cllr, Prime95, and msieve (for post-processing NFS@home jobs). I might want to run any other software you might find on this forum, too, but those are the more important ones.

I forgot, there was one thing back in July or whenever this upgrade first came out. The NVIDIA driver I had installed at the time was not Windows 10 compatible and so the display came up in a native low-resolution mode as if I had no graphics card installed.

As soon as I downloaded a current NVIDIA driver all was well. So update your graphics driver before the Windows update.