jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It looks like Win10 will be forced on us.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/02/02/windows-10-automatic-installs-for-windows-7-windows-8/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix#6c26b4ae75eb

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If it is called SOFTWARE, change is inevitable. Using a computer or OS that is over five years old puts you in that frustrating position of having to upgrade soon.

At the rate the bad guys hack systems these days, you DO NOT want to use one that Microsoft or Apple has abandoned.

Dead systems include every Win system from XP backwards, soon to include 7, 8, 8.1. Apple has effectively killed OS X 10.6 backwards. 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 are on life support, and 10.10 soon will be.

Plan on full support for no longer than five years per release.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And MS knows that. Unfortunately, this year old Dell won't take the update. My older one made the transition, but this one is running Win8.1.

dlay Loc: Maynardville, tn

I have put it off but think that I will go ahead and install windows 10, surely it will not be that bad. I am not computer savy, but a friend is and he said it should install with no problems and I shouldnt lose anything. He said I might have to hunt for some things, but it would be there.

cyan Loc: Northern NJ

right!!!!!!!

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2430187/you-will-have-windows-10-whether-you-want-it-or-not-as-windows-7-upgrade-patches-come-back-to-life

http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-gives-windows-10-upgrades-a-higher-profile/?tag=nl.e497&s_cid=e497&ttag=e497&ftag=CAD5920658

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-installer-could-be-on-your-pc-whether-you-want-it-or-not/

many, many, many articles! :hunf:

ottopj Loc: Annapolis, MD USA

I installed 10 about a week ago. I didn't lose anything but it is running unbelievably slow and no one can figure out why. I'm having an IT friend take a look at it this weekend.

I still have a bit less than three weeks to go back to 8.1.

joanloy Loc: St. Louis, MO

If you don't want Windows 10 turn off Automatic Updates in your PC. Microsoft has said that Windows 7 will be supported until the year 2020 ( not sure of the exact date). I don't know about Windows 8.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Unfortunately the upgrade doesn't always go that well. I upgraded an almost 6 year old Windows 7 laptop to Windows 10 and after a week had to roll it back to Windows 7. The main issue for me was the dreaded 100% disk usage issue on boot which after hours of research I discovered could be caused by around a dozen different reasons, and I tried resolving them all with no luck. After 30 minutes or so, the disk usage goes back down to where it should be, but then periodically goes back up making the machine so slow as to be useless.

For what this laptop is being used for, there is no compelling functional reason to perform the upgrade. It won't gain me anything. By the time Windows 7 support is completely abandoned, I probably will no longer be using this machine. As soon as I rolled back, the performance was back to where it should have been. Any time you upgrade the operating system of an older machine, especially when you skip a version there are potential risks. I may try converting again once I am confident I've got a better handle on the problem. But for now, I'm sticking with Windows 7. I can't believe MS would force an upgrade on anyone's machine since the potential for issues is so great. It would be fool hardy. People use these machine for work tools. Even if the upgrade goes well, it can take a few hours. And if it doesn't go well, you can end up with a brick.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

The problem with that is you don't get the updates you do need. Its a conundrum.

joanloy Loc: St. Louis, MO

In the control panel you can change your update settings so that you select which updates are installed. I select everything except Windows 10.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

Ubentu or Linux (spell) google chrome

cyan Loc: Northern NJ

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

What do you do then for Lightroom or Photoshop?

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

There are open source alternatives for both of them - open source software often starts on Linux and then gets ported by someone to Windows. IIRC, Darktable is a Lightroom alternative that is available on Linux but hasn't been ported to Windows yet. Even on Windows, I use Gimp instead of PhotoShop. For me, the issue will be driving my scanners - I may need a Windows computer just to do that.

EdM Loc: FN30JS

the only computer that I have that really works well has NEVER been connected to the internet [and never will]. this one is sometimes OK, sometimes i hafta reboot.. I am still successfully running (well it flashes excel 97] on the "GOOD" 'UN......