I restarted my computer today (Dell Inspiron 17R 7720 laptop with Windows 10 Pro) and much to my surprise it performed a Windows update. This was unexpected as I had Windows Update set to download updates but ask me before updating. After the update completed, I went into control panel to check and change, if necessary, my Windows Update setting. Second surprise of the day, the "Windows Update" setting no longer appears in my Control Panel! Has anyone else encountered this issue?

I thought that too, but once I accidentally used one of my SCHC cards in two of my Nikons without formatting inbetween (D610 and either the D300 or D3X). When I put the card in my card reader, there was two folders on the card, one for each of the cameras.

Just to be clear, I use a SDHC-CF adapter in both the D300 and the D3X so I only need to carry about one type of memory card.

Then I take it you've never heard of Zeiss?

The hard drive in the old computer has 4 years worth of accumulated software - MS Office, 2 versions of Photoshop Elements, 2 versions of Corel PaintShop Pro, MS Office, IOLO System Mechanic, my Canon Printer software plus quite a bit more. The new computer has Win8 and practically nothing else. Since both computers have identical hardware other than the mSATA drive, I figured cloning the old hard drive would be a lot simpler than digging out a bunch of install discs and reinstalling and configuring everything.

As for data, I have a separate 1TB external hard drive that I use with MS SynchToy to backup my user libraries. I run SynchToy once a week or so to keep the data current. I bought an extra HDD identical to the drive in both computers and an external USB case for it. I'm figuring once every month or two I will do an incremental clone from my main computer's HDD to the backup computer HDD and the backup external HDD. That way I will have three identical working drives plus a backup data drive so I should be covered for about any disaster.

SynchToy only takes a couple of minutes to synchronize my data files and I expect the incremental cloning to be about the same per drive, so I figure 5 minutes once a week and a half hour or so once a month will keep everything coordinated.

I was only given two choices - Nikon or Canon....

Same here. I bought several Arca-Swiss compatible plates off Ebay for $5 or so, they work just as well as the expensive name brand plates that came with my Oben and Giottos tripods but a hell of a lot cheaper. Now I have dedicated plates attached to all my bodies and lenses with tripod mounts and I never have to worry about switching plates again.

I have two nearly identical Inspiron 17R 7720 laptops; one which I bought new from Dell 4 years ago and one which I bought used a couple of weeks ago. Both have identical hardware with the following exceptions: my original has a Core i7 processor and a 32GB mSATA drive while the new one has a Core i5 processor and no mSATA drive. Hard drives, video, memory etc. are all identical on the two computers.

The mSATA drive as implemented by Dell in this configuration works a little bit differently then a normal mSATA drive; it holds only the OS and is used as an OS accelerator while all user programs and data are run off the HDD.

I purchased an identical mSATA drive for the new computer and am trying to clone the mSATA and HDD from the old computer so I can have two identical computers. I tried cloning the drives using Macrium Reflect. The HDD cloned successfully, but Reflect only finds a 8GB unformatted partition on the old mSATA drive, not the whole 32GB. I cloned the new mSATA drive and tried it in my old computer, it properly identified the drive but said it was not a valid RAID 0 volume and wanted me to change my drive configuration to non-RAID.

Any thoughts as to how I can properly clone the old mSATA drive to the new one?

Exactly the point! Most modern batteries are alkaline, the acid in vinegar neutralizes and removes the alkaline deposits. Vinegar works very well in removing the crud.

My local WalMart used to carry the Zeiss wipes, then replaced them with a cheaper brand with very little alcohol. They dried out very rapidly. I now buy my Zeiss wipes from Amazon.

I second that emotion. Alcohol, lighter fluid etc. may work but I use Hosa DeoxIT Contact Cleaner. A 5 oz spray can is $14.95 on Amazon. A brief squirt on a Q-tip will clean your lens contacts, DIMM contacts, or any other sensitive electrical contacts quite nicely & 5 oz should last a couple of lifetimes for most folks.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006LVEU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1

Not quite sure where the $220 comes from, but I have a different approach. I currently have Corel PaintShop Pro X7 Ultimate and Photoshop Elements 14 (along with earlier versions of both). I wait until the new versions are announced/released, then watch B&H Photo & Adorama for close-out pricing on the discontinued versions and buy those. At close-out each usually sells in the $30-$40 range for the boxed versions. Then I upgrade every 2nd release - that is, since I have PSP X7 I will upgrade to PSP X9 when PSP X10 is released. To me there is no great urge to have the absolute latest versions since the incremental changes generally aren't that significant, which is also why I upgrade every second release. The exception to my plan was PSE 14 which I bought at full retail, since I was very interested in the de-haze feature which was new in PSE 14.

Using my methodology I pay only $60-$80 every two years vs a $120 annual subscription to Photoshop CC, a savings which to me is significant.

FWIW, I use Corel PaintShop Pro for most of my post processing. I find it more intuitive than Photoshop Elements and the syntax follows Photoshop very closely, so I can use tutorials written for Photoshop virtually step-by-step in PaintShop Pro.

I wish I had the money, a Rollei is on my wish list and this seems to be an excellent example. Is that a f/3.5 taking lens?

That is the way BBF works - you have to hold the BBF down to lock the focus while you press the shutter. Holding the BBF button down prevents the shutter release from activating auto focus. On some cameras, like my D610, you can also set it up to decouple focus entirely from the shutter release. Press the BBF button to lock focus and release and it holds that focus until after the shutter is tripped. The shutter button will not activate focus at all in that configuration. I HAVE to press the BBF button to focus and then the shutter button to release the shutter.

I dont use my phone as a mobile hotspot but my kids do. 'They have a Motorola Droid Turbo, Droid Turbo 2 and Moto Z. All seem to work well.

Out of necessity (we live way out in the boondocks, no cable/DSL, only satellite and wireless) we use a MiFi for home internet. It works very well, reasonably (4G) fast and totally portable. The footprint is about 1/2 the size of of a smartphone but thicker. It has an internal battery that lasts several hours, and recharges and can be run on a standard micro-B charger, same as most smartphones. With a MiFi and an in-vehicle power cable you can be on the internet forever. IIRC, the MiFi is about $20/month plus data.

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/wireless-networking/verizon-wireless-4g-lte-mobile-hotspot-mifi-4510l

I'm not into the subscription models either. I don't see the point in paying $120/year when I can buy capable photo editors for quite a bit less and use them for as long as I like. I currently have both Corel Paintshop Pro X7 Ultimate and Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.

I bought Paintshop Pro X7 at a great discount just as Paintshop Pro 8 was coming out, I paid only $39.99 for it at B&H Photo. It is the program I use most often. Photoshop Elements 14 is the current version, I paid the full price for it, $79.99 at B&H Photo, because it has a de-haze feature which I felt would be useful.

Paintshop 9 and Elements 15 are both just coming out, so if you want to save a fair amount of money you should be able to buy the previous editions of either at the close out prices.

I did use an earlier version of Elements before I bought Paintshop, and an earlier version of Paintshop before the earlier Elements (and the full version of Adobe Photoshop before that), so I have a long history with both. Either will work well for you, I just find Paintshop a little more intuitive than Elements.

One interesting feature I have found with Paintshop is that its syntax is very similar to Photoshop, so if you see a Paintshop tutorial on line or in a magazine (most published tutorials are written for Photoshop) you can use the same tutorial with Paintshop to achieve the same results. I haven't played around enough with my current version of Elements to be able to say if the same holds true for it.