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A gnashing of teeth

(68 Posts)
BradfordLass72 Sun 08-Sept-19 09:02:21

My son installed Win 10 on a new computer yesterday.
It replaces the now unsupported Win 7 I've stubbornly clung to longer than I should.
So now I am learning how to cope with a new platform and it is driving me MAD.
Nothing responds as it should.
All the easy things which made life better on Win7 have gone and worst of all, I can't enlarge some of the tiny text on drop-down menus.
I have consulted the tech sites and they say it can't be done on Win 10.
My printer decided it didn't like Win10 any more than I did and spit the dummy.
Picasa is defunt so I can't edit pictures as I used to.
I have spent every bit of the day 7am-8pm with a very few breaks to go have a scream cuppa and I'm ready to relax with an audio book.

My nipple covers are no comfort.....

lovebeigecardigans1955 Sun 08-Sept-19 16:56:24

I share your pain Bradford - my laptop which I bought almost a year ago has Windows 10 and I've never been very keen on it. It was bought to replace the older one which couldn't really limp on any longer. I've almost torn my hair out over it. It's just change for the sake of change - not an improvement.
However, the nice people at the shop are always very helpful with any problems I've had. They never make me feel like an idiot, no matter what.
Could you email your son with your problems? Would he be able to sort them out? Fingers crossed.

Nellie098 Sun 08-Sept-19 15:54:26

Have you changed your preferences via settings? Settings is the 2nd button up when you press the start menu. I suggest you note down what you change and where so anything can be reset if any problems. I am one of the lucky ones who so far has not had a problem with any updates. Don't forget you can still do a system restore if something goes wrong. I use Firefox and Vivaldi search engines and when on a webpage I can make it bigger or smaller by clicking the three line icon at the top right of the page. There is a site called Howtogeek that is worth looking at. There are some good upgrades on all sites going on but it is hard to keep up unless you use programmes all the time.

Jaycee5 Sun 08-Sept-19 15:32:45

That should be 'introduces a new problem' not 'new programme'.

Jaycee5 Sun 08-Sept-19 15:32:16

I agree with Elegran. Every update introduces a new programme. When I got my new computer I was pleased that I could use Outlook for sending emails but an update put paid to that.
A recent one has frozen some of my keys, particularly the backspace. Apparently it is a common problem but the sites telling you how to correct it are full of warnings about what can happen if you do that. I managed to lose the sound on my old computer so I try to change as little as possible on the system.
Luckily, I found that it only affects Edge and so I am now only using Firefox. I'll give Chrome a try as I don't like to be stuck with one browser, they all have their good and bad points.
Given the amount of money that Microsoft makes, there is no excuse for them introduces upgrades that make things worse and then not sorting them out.

Elegran Sun 08-Sept-19 15:08:46

" . . there are a lot of programmes that no longer run under 10 unfortunately." In my case NO browsers would work with an updated windows 10 - ones which worked with previous versions of W10 - and one browser had been completely removed from my PC, with not a trace of it remaining.

nipsmum Sun 08-Sept-19 15:04:26

I am so sorry for you Bradford Lass.I had to get a new computer recently . My son in law has done everything so that i can use it and if i cant my daughter and SIL live a few minutes away and come down and help me or do it for me. I am not in the least computer literate and manage most of what i require on it and a small tablet. My SIL has spent a while this afternoon sorting out apps , passwords and sites that I had lost Access to with my inability to do things and a bad memory.

jocork Sun 08-Sept-19 14:46:37

I used to do things on XP which I've not been able to do now for years. I've heard lots of people had problems with moving to W10 but my current laptop is W10 and I seem to manage most things except the old XP features which I lost with W7. I do find it annoying when things update and look completely different but I usually work it out in the end. I suffered after an update while I was away this summer and using a free wifi. I was blaming the wifi provider but got home to find it was probably due to an update as chrome has been dodgy ever since. It works most of the time but seems to go unresponsive much more often than before and everything looks different. I'd still happily go back to my old laptop but I accidentally broke the screen and had to replace it immediately as at the time I had no smart phone so couldn't survive without it for the time it would have taken to repair it. Perhaps I should get it repaired now and keep it as a back up!

Bellocchild Sun 08-Sept-19 14:37:33

We had to have a new hard drive after updating from 7 to 10. Something different in the way it handled storage left PC terminally bewildered. We are also cross that you now have to pay an annual fee for MS Office. Soon mounts up.

grandtanteJE65 Sun 08-Sept-19 14:13:12

My problem is that I used the free update to Windows 10.

As far as I can see it installed itself but did not remove Windows 7.

I can live with that but does anyone know how to get rid of the adverts for a Premium version of Microsoft Solitaire that keep interrupting when I play Patience?

Kartush Sun 08-Sept-19 14:07:36

Windows 10 is fine honestly, I have been through every windows version since 3.1 and 10 is no better or worse than any of the others, the problems seem to arise if you upgrade your current version of windows to 10 rather than start with a clean installation. Yes it does have a few different ways of storing and sorting data but nothing too horrendous. Also yes there are a lot of programmes that no longer run under 10 unfortunately.

nanamac77 Sun 08-Sept-19 13:46:56

I changed from Windows Vista to Windows 10 and though it was not intuitively easy at the start I'm now perfectly happy with it. I found the book 'Windows 10 for Dummies' really helpful too. And I may be talking through my hat but I think it pays to allow automatic Windows updates.

Megs36 Sun 08-Sept-19 13:40:25

Bring back XP......

Magrithea Sun 08-Sept-19 13:36:26

To enlarge the screen (which might help with tiny writing) hold the Ctrl key and hit the + key. To reduce again hit the - key while holding down Ctrl

oldgaijin Sun 08-Sept-19 13:19:43

Windows 10 for Dummies for Seniors is a good investment.
I, too, loathe Windows 10 with a passion...90% of the stuff to make life easier is never used. Try gin/whisky/vodka/rum...drink enough and you won't care.

Mealybug Sun 08-Sept-19 12:33:10

If you look in the top right hand corner of your screen you will see three dots, click on that, then settings and some options will come up. One of them enables you to change the font size. Don't be scared of it, just experiment.

Luckygirl Sun 08-Sept-19 12:02:07

I agree - it isn't great. But I am getting used to it.

Revis Sun 08-Sept-19 11:59:30

Picasa is no longer available so I swapped to Google photos which seems to work well but not so easy to edit photos. Albums good so I've stopped making physical photo books now. Saves a lot of time

libra10 Sun 08-Sept-19 11:55:52

I eventually installed Windows 10, and have become used to the new system, though upgrades can knock my PC sideways!

Which browser is everyone using? I use Chrome, and find it very similar to when I used to use Windows 7. Once you get your preferred browser downloaded, other things fall into place.

Esmerelda Sun 08-Sept-19 11:49:09

I'm in the same boat as you, BradfordLass but I have decided not to abandon my lovely Windows 7. Although I had no idea Windows 10 was hated so much and gave everyone so many problems I did download the free version they sent me back when it was launched and decided that I didn't like it very much so opted to return to good old 7 ... and there I shall stay.

I'm thinking of investing in a laptop in the future, which will no doubt have the dreaded 10 pre-loaded, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it (and I'll still have my trusty 7 on the main computer to fall back on!). And who knows, they may have jumped to Windows 20 by then ... ???

maryhoffman37 Sun 08-Sept-19 11:45:01

I have used AppleMacs since 1989 and PCs are a mystery to me. But all Picasaweb data has migrated to Google Photos, so you should still be able to access and edit pics.

Rosina Sun 08-Sept-19 11:41:48

I had to buy a new PC, which had Windows 8, with a promise of Windows 10 when it was 'rolled out' I had been perfectly happy and felt I was pretty skilled on Windows 7, and when Windows 10 was installed - without warning - I hated it, and still do. Upgrades, as other posters have said, are installed without warning and always result in my being 'unlogged' from many sites - including Gransnet - and I have to log in again. Some of the better features which made my PC use easy seem to have gone completely, or are buried deep in the system and need many clicks to find them. I read at the time that Windows 8 was condemned as soon as it was launched - quite rightly - and that Windows 10 was to be the last programme. What a pity - give me Windows 7 any time as it was by far the best.

Lupatria Sun 08-Sept-19 11:41:12

i like windows 10! it's not really so different to other operating systems although it takes a bit of getting used to at first. i've been using it for several years now and i don't have any problems with updates. perhaps i'm lucky.

Neilspurgeon0 Sun 08-Sept-19 11:40:51

The worst version of Windows ever, and I have been using it since it replaced Gem in 1986. Microsoft ‘thought’ it could enhance users capability but all it did was de skill several ‘generations’ of users. Like many many people I eventually threw the whole thing away and adopted a simple Lynex system with Open Office on top of that.

Took a few weeks to become as competent as I was before the change but now I have a stable system that does need ever to be updated which will do for the remaining two decades (if I am lucky) of my life.

Can I encourage everyone that can, to tell Microsoft to stuff Windows 10 and adopt something that actually works. It feels like a big jump, but honestly it is not.

counterpoint Sun 08-Sept-19 11:38:21

I refuse to be held captive by Microsoft or Apple. My computers run Linux.

EllieB52 Sun 08-Sept-19 11:36:59

I use W10 but find it very annoying. Updates cause all sorts of problems. Last months update stopped W10 shutting down properly but every solution I googled meant you needed a Masters Degree in Computerspeak! I just didn’t understand most of it - and I’m far from stupid. Eventually, after a couple of weeks the system decided it needed to update a particular driver so I let it. It resolved the problem. Nothing should be that hit and miss though. When this one gives up the ghost I’m going iMac!!