Donna doesn’t like Windows or the Cloud very much. She writes:
After reading your tips, I wish to hell that I had waited until I could afford a Mac!
I have a car…I don’t need to know how all the mechanics work in order to make it go. I need a computer that is no more useless to me than this one with MS 8.1. I use yahoo and gmail and I don’t want now or ever to have one’s mail sent to the other. I don’t know (or care) what One Drive is. I have drives C, D, E, F etc and don’t need any additional “drives” and I don’t plan on EVER using the cloud. I don’t trust it any more than I trust our current federal government.
Your tips aren’t the problem, it is MS and their need to control everything we do. Thank you for doing your best with something that is expletive deleted. I certainly don’t want to have to speak my commands to “Cortana”. My computer commands are not the business of everyone within earshot. If things keep “improving” as they have since XP, I will likely go back to a land line, snail mail and banking in person. Everyone in the world knows or is able to know way too much of my business due to computers and OSs that are developed by people that aren’t smart enough to keep the crooks of the world from breaking their so called “security”. And don’t even get me started on cell phones and our wonderfully snoopy government.
Your tips are probably the best you can do with the garbage with which you must work and they probably will do what you say they will IF I should happen to have the version of 10 that you use as an example.
Perhaps World Start needs a separate edition to address the business versions so you, in your tips, could address the version most people will be using. (I haven’t been anti computer until recently…I started on computers with a Mac with no hard drive and graduated to a PC with DOS. Early windows weren’t terrible but if the security was addressed instead of adding Cortana and other unnecessary things, windows ‘could’ still be good).
I know, you are just doing your job and apparently do it well considering the material with which you must work. Sorry about the RANT but I have held this in way too long. BTW…I hate the tiles and just making them smaller won’t help. A menu and no other ms junk on startup would be nice…any tips for that.
Well Donna, I’ve got some bad news for you about your plan to switch to a Mac. Macs are heavily integrated into the cloud. In fact, Apple is following Apple’s lead in this area. Microsoft is very proud of their iCloud Drive and their systems are actually more cloud-connected than Windows. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the iCloud is actually kind of aggressive about making sure your devices are synced with the cloud.
You don’t have to know how a computer works to use one, I impart that information to folks to sometimes explain why something isn’t working. Just like a mechanic might if a part breaks. Using the OneDrive is completely optional (and pretty darn convenient) as is Cortana. Though, to someone with mobility issues, a digital assistant like that can be a godsend. Also, you don’t have to talk to Cortana. You can just type your questions in or choose not to use Cortana at all.
As for combining your mail, that’s completely up to you, but some people prefer the convenience of receiving it all in once place.
We also do address the versions of things most people are using – which is why I get so many complaints about not featuring Mac and Linux systems. Out tips are almost always written on the Home and Pro versions of Windows. Most of our writers are freelancers, so they aren’t going to have an Enterprise edition of Windows at home. But I also address the questions folks are asking, and because 8.1 was the newer system folks had lots of questions about it.
For Windows 8, you can just go to the desktop and skip interacting with the tiles completely. In fact, if you have 8.1 and are using a keyboard, it should boot to the regular desktop. You’ll probably like the Start Menu in 10, you can remove all trace of tiles and customize it to feature the things you want.
For the record, I don’t think Windows is garbage. I’ve used both Mac and Windows systems and think they are both perfectly fine. I think one of the major issues with Windows is that it often comes on PCs that the manufacturers have stuffed with bloatware that makes it harder to use. I know I’m not going to change your mind, Donna. But I think the issue isn’t really Windows, it’s that you don’t like the direction of cloud-connectivity and information sharing that technology is moving in. But in this case, Microsoft is actually struggling to catch up with Apple on that front.
I do have to admit that a return to a land line and snail mail has its appeal. Good luck with your future computing and if you have any questions about whichever Windows system is giving you trouble, I’d be glad to try and help out.
~ Cynthia
I can definitely understand donna’s COMPLAINT!
I’ve seen people use the Cloud and totally LOOSE ALL DATA, IMPORTANT FILES, EVERYTHING! So, I don’t trust it eather. So I depend upon my hard drive and backing up on another hard drive. On comunications with others, I’ll use Drop Box, but ONLY for files that are backed up on the hard drive and nothing personal or confidential! Also, the Government is snooping around where it has no business snooping, so I’m very cautious in those matters too! We are RAPIDLY loosing our privacy and liberties for no DAMN GOOD REASON, so PLENTY OF CAUTION IS QUITE PRUDENT!
Carl, I am in full agreement with both your and Donna’s comments on the snooping of the government and private enterprises in our modern day lives. As for computer folks and their allies, it will always be a matter of what is making them the most money. Customer care or ease and safe computing “be damned”.
i agree about the desertion of the wysiwyg way of doing things. My first computer was a 360/40 mainframe with a Harris terminal. If you didn’t know, there were many books that helped. The first thing I learned with the 8.1 was how to delete or hide things that you did not want to be bothered with. Hence no lock screen and no tiles. What I couldn’t delete I hid somewhere and have not been able to find it even if I want to. itunes forced me to learn how to avoid the cloud, at least in part. Once I learned how to get rid of the little cloudy things I was good to go. It is good to have what you can use and just hide the rest of it once you determine its value to you. As long as I have a delete button, I will not be troubled at all.
I thought you handled that so well. Seems she just does not like computers. I know I use windows 7 (desk top) works great have signed up for windows 10 when it comes out and my husband has 8.1 and I set it up to work just like my 7 so he has no problems, it goes straight to a screen as you said no tiles unless he wants them. Not sure I will put 10 on our lap tops or just both desk tops but I will certainly give it a try. Technology is going to move ahead and if we do not we will be left behind and lost so we have to move with it. I am so proud of how professionally you handled the problem and at the end even told the lady you would willingly you would be to help her with further questions. You are wonderful as is the entire staff. G
Dear Cynthia,
Thank you for putting up with my RANT. One thing that bothers me nearly daily is the lack of alphabetization in areas like “control panel”. A lot of time is wasted just looking for what you want. I believe a small expenditure for a booklet re: the use of the OS would go a long way toward improving the general image of MS IF it was included with the computer. If it gave us a summary of the changes and how to use them, I think it would be ideal. It would be especially helpful if it gave the “new” word for the “old” task. If they didn’t change nomenclature with each so called upgrade, we might all function with greater ease.
GENISE, surprisingly, I DO like computers but find the OSs since XP very unfriendly. I particularly find the 4 items (search, charms…less than charming, along the other 2 items that pop up and obstruct what I am working on when I don’t want them) an interference with my computing.Because I don’t like the track pad because I live in Florida and the humidity on my hands makes it difficult to use, I put a sturdy cardboard over it and no, this computer doesn’t have a on off switch for it as previous ones had, and then I use a mouse and at times it may be the culprit which causes those irritating charm et all items to get in my way. I have had to keep XP, Vista (yikes), 7 and 8.1 all working at the same time…no small task for a nurse, not a computer IT.
I do believe that MS is doing us a favor by getting most of us on board with a single OS with multiple flavors for home, business, etc. It is just their lack of normal human needs for alphabetization ( you did learn the alphabet in school and that is how most records in the real world are filed, right?). Those old habits of using the alphabet (control panel as example) die hard and are what we need in control panel.
Again, GENISE. I too, appreciate WS and their assistance and understanding. If not, I would not have been a premium member since the onset of that concept.
CYNTHIA, I compliment you on your understanding of my issues and I am sorry that you happened to be the one on the receiving end when my patience with MS broke. You do a difficult job and you do it well. Thank you, Donna
Donna, remember that the quickest way to find anything on Windows, is just to type the name of the program in the search box. Usually it will pop right up and all you have to do is click on it. Thanks for the compliment. You make good points, but for better or worse, computing is going cloud-based – especially in a business environment.
Three cheers for Donna!
From finger laden flu bugs on touch screens to hackers sucking money out of the bank accounts to text sending drivers driving over curbs and fences and all the users are afraid of privacy from the government. they keep putting their X in the all democrats or republican boxes of the ballot. Keep the internet free but find the baddies and burn them good, twenty years without parole and no computer priviledges.
DONNA et al ~~ Well I finally bit the bullet and just in this past week switched over to APPLE! after exhausting my frustration dealing with MS Windows 7 & 8 – my grade school daughter has been an apple user at school and at home – that is all their school has is older donatede apples, so I have bought her 2 older apple laptops on ebay – one for $99 several years ago and in the last year a refurbished, excellent condition 2012 apple mac 13 with Yosemite 10.10.3 on it for only $170 on ebay – & free shipping !!! Ever since she started school she has used macs – she is now entering 6th grade and the apple mac laptops have worked flawlessly and fast for her !!!! MY STORY after my 2006 German made Medion XP laptop died from overheating because I was not able to open it up far enough to get at the accumulated dust out of the fan over the processor – I bought a Windows 7 eMachine – windows-7 was a piece of doggy doo doo from the get go compared to my XP despite having 4 times the memory as my XP win7 was slow and uncooperative and compared to XP everything I needed was hidden somewhere else and I had to continually search to find things that were so obvious in XP even after I reset win7 for the “traditional” mode – and the multi band wireless connectivity never worked right either – after reading many many posts about how slow windows 7 was, my $400,000/yr EMBA Western Hemisphere Sales Director for Thyssen-Krupp Stainless Steel son in law will confirm what I say is true !! After his entire office switched over to win7 !! everybody on the planet hated it !!! and all the MS message board slugs from MS would say is “it must be your provider” well when an XP and a win7 are sitting side by side and the XP with 4 times less memory can stream a youtube video perfectly at the same time in HD 1080p and the win7 has to stop and rebuffer every 3 seconds at half the pixel rate or does the max headroom chop chop chop chop until the buffering catches up – something is very wrong ! and it wasnt just me – if you read the complaints on the MS boards everyone was saying the same thing – finally I came across one guy who solved the problem with reprogramming and reconfiguring the wireless receiver – he shut off the multi-mixed-band wireless receiver and went with pure B or G band because the N band never worked right and slowed everything down and a few other programming changes in the keys submenues and win 7 was now able to stream lower quality video – but still could not do 1080p like my XP did, w/ 1/4 the memory !!! after several months of hate and frustration with win7 and no help from MS, I bought a refurbished XP Thinkpad for $170 on ebay and that is what I am still using even right now !!! Refurbished XPs became the big go to to get around the win7 boondoggle !!! and even my son in law’s entire German based Thyssen Krupp steel office sale biz all went back to using Refurbished XPs after they got rid of their old XPs and switched to win7 and had so many problems that even MS couldnt solve they said screw it , threw in the towel, and went back to XP !!! I shut off my win7 laptop and never used it again – except for word procession other than that it sets unused collecting dust – [and my win8.1 pad is doing the same thing !! collecting dust] – win7 & 8 didnt come with OUTLOOK EXPRESS either ! one had to buy outlook and pay to get their downloadable email browser !! – and I am one who hates the cloud too !!! I want my emails downloaded on to my laptop, not floating around in space somewhere to be pilfered by DHS or the NSA or god knows who !?!?!?! and after using outlook in the business world, which I hated to have to use because it slowed me down ! – outlook express could do a lot of simpler things that outlook could never do ! like attached pictures actually show up in the body of the email !!! where in outlook you have to click on each one to see them and wait for another program to open to view them individually – what a time waster !! and when you deal in real estate and site aquisitions and site survey pictorials having all of the contractors pictures appear in the body of the clients email as soon as you receive it, and have them to look at while talking to the client on the other end of the phone, is a god send !! outlook cannot do that !! – and the F’N’ cloud cant do that either ! believe me i’ve tried when google 1st went cloud and i’ve tride MS LIVE ! and even outlook ! they all suk compared to outlook express !!! I’d even pay a few $$$ to put outlook express on my win7 or another platform !!! just to have its simplicity and convenience of how smooth it works when compared to everything else !!! So after dealing with nothing but an ever creasing pile of dung from MS where the windows programs grow by 300% everytime they come out with a new edition and each one works worse than the previous one since XP and win-2000-professional — I have finally thrown in the towel and bought into apple – after seeing my gradeschool daughter use her apples to do everything !!! creat amazing artwork , music on garage band down load and edit music and videos – stream movies, and you tube videos – everything works flawlessly – and she never has to delete cookies, manually search for and delete temp files, or never has to defrag her HD to try and get her apple back up to speed !!!! I am through with MS for good !!! I started with DOS when it first came out and stubbornly stuck with MS for even my DAW music making when everyone else was switching over to apple for their music and video making .. and now I know why and now I have finally have too ! The divorce is final !!! good bye – asta la vista MS Windows ! Oh and by the way I have been watching ebay for a used apple system for many months now and have always been outbid by just $2 or $3 – but about a month ago I finally won, excellent, like new cond. a complete apple system with 8Gb mem. 500G-HD ultra wide samsung 35″ HDMI monitor, wireless keyboard & wireless mouse for the unbelievable price of $430 !!! when most of the used apple mini computers alone are selling for $380 to $700 !!! Now my Refurbished XP Thinkpad is only used for downloading my email on outlook express until such a time, which will be soon, that I find a suitable email browser for my new / slightly pre-used apple mac mini system !! Good bye and Good riddance MS-WINDOWS !!
I note from the comments that this is a recycling of an article posted last summer around the time that Windows 10 emerged. I upgraded from 8 to 8.1 to 10 and in each instance found that I had the option to continue selecting the same Desktop view in each version as I had used in Windows XP and 7. It IS possible to retain that familiar environment. The difference in 10 is that when I click the Windows icon in the Taskbar, the charms will pop up so I see them as well in case I want to use them. I do like the fact that 10 defrags automatically daily.
Also, it sounds like Donna is using a laptop computer. I hate using the cursor pad (for want of a better description). I solve that problem by attaching a computer mouse to one of the USB ports; it IS possible to use a mouse with a laptop.
I too am fed up with all the c— that Microsoft thinks we need in this too much tech world we live in! I downloaded the Win 10 upgrade and tried it for a day and got rid of it.. what a bunch of c—! I hope my Win 7 will outlast me. The ‘cloud’ is all BS and we all know that eventually the hackers will get into the net and shut down everything. We are too complacent and way too dependent on the new technology…If you think technology has made transactions, etc. faster than using cash, just stand behind someone in a checkout line. Wake up world !
-Bill