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Windows10 Frustrations Discussion

(Original thread started on 01-14-16 by Ron Rollo)

I am a bit frustrated at Microsoft and here is why....About a year ago, Microsoft decided to no longer support WindowsXP. I had a 10 year old computer that worked great although a little slow. So maybe it was time to update anyway right?

 

For an early Christmas gift, my wife Michelle got me a brand new Acer computer with Windows10. I thought about building one myself but it is almost twice as expensive to go that route and this computer is just for the bedroom to check email, manage photos, websites, draw, research, etc.....

 

So as the story goes, this new Windows10 computer would not allow me to install my CoralDraw program or my security surveillance system software. A few other programs did not want to go in at first (and as it turns out, I don't blame them) but I was able to convince them to work with Windows10.

 

Funny thing is my now 11 year old WindowsXP machine is still working 24/7 handling the security software and apparently I will have to use it to do my artwork in CoralDraw too.

 

Now for the frustrating part of the story.

Three days ago, my brand new Windows10 machine decides to check itself out in the middle of the night. Windows10 gave me no choice but to reinstall it. But Windows10 says, "We kept your photos, documents and files RIGHT where you left them!" Thanks.....like it did me a favor..... I still had to spend countless hours re down loading P3D, FSUIPC, ADE, OfficePro, etc...etc....etc....etc....

 

And now for the unbelievable frustrating part of the story!

Windows10 says that it is not activated on my computer. After trying to correct it myself, I called NewEgg, then Microsoft, then Acer, then Microsoft again, then another call to Acer, and then transferred to India and back to Pakastan, and then another call to Microsoft, and then Acer again. Long story short, no one has the answer and no one has a Windows10 registration key on file for the products that they sell. I was told that it might be in the computer case behind the motherboard. That equals voided warranty. It's not on the outside of the computer case and it is not on any of the documentation that I have. It might be on the box but the box is long gone. I was told to reset the date/time to basically get another three months of Windows10 use. And then what? Now it's out of warranty and I would have to buy another copy of Windows10??

 

So my next phone call is to NewEgg to either return the computer or hopefully somehow get a copy of Windows7. I'll buy a copy of Windows7 if I have to! Although these days, if you buy a copy of Windows7 you get a free upgrade to Windows10!!!!    You got to be kidding me!

 

The bottom line is I learned from the many friendly folks overseas that Windows10 is going to be a great product. It is going to be a merged product of Windows7 and Windows8.1. It is going to be a great product for someone who has nothing better to do with their time but admire all the neat things Windows10 will be able to do some day. For me and the rest of us that just want to get stuff done, we will stick with Windows7. Please don't fix Windows7 Microsoft!!!!! Sorry, I just had to get this off my chest.

 

UPDATE:

I just got off the phone with NewEgg. Although they could not help with the current issue the nice representative offered me half off of a Windows7 Pro 64bit software package. This will fix the problem.

Thank you NewEgg!!!!!!

 

I also put in the word to NewEgg that apparently Acer is NOT affixing the Microsoft product key number anywhere accessible to the end user on the computers that they are building. At least that is what HP and Emachine did back in the day when I purchased a few of them. Or maybe that is not a common practice these days.

 

Good luck to all using Windows10. I wish you better luck than what I had with it.

 

And another thing.....As I am sitting here checking emails, drawing and doing general research while still using Windows10, it just hit me. When I switch to Windows7 in a few days, I am not giving anything up but headaches!! There is not a single feature within Windows10 that I find myself upset about that I will no longer have. Which begs the question, why is Microsoft pushing so hard to get Windows10 into everyone's hands? Usually when you go out and buy something new like a car or truck, it has new features that you find yourself wondering how you ever got along without them, like seat warmers as an example. If anyone has the answer to this, we would like to know. What is the "seat warmer" feature within Windows10 that we can not live without?

 

With all that said, this gives us a great opportunity to compare apples to apples as far as how well Windows7 compares to Windows10 when it comes to the one thing that all of us here in the Hangar care about. And that is how well does P3D 2.5 do with each operating system.

 

So the first test is with Windows10 on a clean computer. P3D 2.5 has been installed and nothing has been added or touched with the exception that I moved the default FY22 to the active runway at St Augustine Regional Airport. (Keep in mind this machine has an i3 processor and it is not built to handle P3D, so the fps are going to be low to begin with.) This is just a simple frame rate test to compare Windows7 to Windows10.

Windows10 test:

 

I can not even give you a solid number because the frame rates were jumping around so much. The range was between 4fps and 17fps.

 

This is a snap shot of the fps every second for 30 seconds: 8,8,14,15,8,8,8,8,9,7,14,11,8,10,8,17,10,11,6,10,8,16,4,8,11,16,9,9,15,6. AVG FPS =10

 

Once Windows7 arrives and everything is up and running on this computer again, I will run this simple test to see if there is a noticeable difference. My hopes are that there is no difference because I am afraid that with time, we are all heading to the same place, Windows10.

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 01-15-16)

One thing is that eventually, if you want to use the latest games (aka, the latest graphics and new features coming down the pike for P3D) you will need Windows 10. This is because Direct X 12 will not be supported by any OS less than W10.

 

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/198964-dx12-confirmed-as-windows-10-exclusive-amd-and-nvidia-go-head-to-head

 

This will eventually force folks to move away from 7. That said, let's pray and hope that Windows "11" + will be a much better product after all the outcry toward 10, much like 7 was to Vista.

 

(Posted by Steve Cooke on 01-18-16)

Sorry your having so much issues with 10. I ended up upgrading to 10 about a month ago (clean install) and it's been good to on my FS rig. Your story sounds like my issues with Win 8/8.1. Even at an enterprise level that I support here at work, support is about how you explained it... SUCKS. I wish MS would improve their support. I've dealt with other companies outsourced or not on support, still better than MS. Believe me, I feel your pain, XP and 7 have been strong OS's. Still better than WinME or Vista!

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-18-16)

My main issue is that I read somewhere that MS wants to make Windows10 look and work more like W7 because of all the backlash they were getting from W8.1. The only except is that they moved some things around making it "fun" to go find them again. I guess it's fun if you need something to do with your time, right?

 

The other issue that forced me back to W7 is when I woke up and saw that W10 had a fatal error and could not recover. This happened in the middle of the night and I can't afford to loose even more time by loading everything back up on W10 just to have that happen again. An unprovoked fatal error??? I have never had that happen before.

 

I know one day we will be forced to move on to newer operating systems, especially if what Eric T. was reporting on is true. And if W10 along with DirectX 12 result in 20 plus more FPS, then I will be the first to switch back to W10. I think MS just needs a little more time to iron out the rough patches.

 

UPDATE:

The saga continues......I purchased a copy of Windows7 Professional 64bit and got it at half price from NewEgg. Thank you NewEgg!!

 

Last week I spent three days attempting to do something as simple as loading up the operating system onto a clean hard drive. After three days of frustration, I gave up and took it to the Geek Squad to see if they could do it. A week later they called and said they could not do it. They did however load up Windows8.1 onto my computer. I said, "Thanks, that's worse than Windows10 and is about equivalent to a virus." I ended up getting a refund from the Geek Squad because they were not able to load Windows7 onto this computer.

 

Next step believe it or not is to order a new mother board. Apparently the BIOS in the mother board is set up to accept only Windows8 or higher. The lesson to be learned here is that if you want a Windows7 machine, you will have to either buy it if you can find it already built and installed or build it from scratch.

 

I'll keep you updated on this mess. I'm going on three weeks being down.

 

(Posted by Maciej on 01-29-16)

Ron, It's been few years since I build last computer but I used to be able to update motherboard's BIOS to the newest one. In your case there might be a need to downgrade your BIOS to previous version that accepts Windows 7.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-30-16)

The Geek Squad guys tried that. I had a gaggle of geeks looking it over and they could not figure it out.

 

As it turns out, I have found a mother board that is Windows7 ready and I am also going to increase my RAM from 4gb to 8gb and also add a few more USB ports in the back. All that for $80. I got my $99 back from Geek Squad so if all goes well, I should be back in business with a little bit better computer and not to mention with Windows7!!!!! I still need to do a little more research just to make sure I don't have anymore surprises. Prebuilt Acer machines are a little different than what I am use to but everything looks promising so far. I'll keep you all posted.

 

And please, good or bad, post your Windows10 experience here in reference to how well it works with the sim stuff that we are doing. We will all benefit from the information.

 

By the way, while talking to a Geek, I asked about the DirectX12 news and only working with Windoews10. He said it was a rumor and he has heard that DirectX12 is designed to work perfectly with Windows10 but should still work with Windows7 but with a hiccup or two. We will see.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 02-07-16)

Quick update.  Still waiting on the slow truck from the west coast. The package should be here Monday, (tomorrow).

 

On thing that I had to do was order a few extension cables to hook up various things to the motherboard. I thought I thought of everything! However, one thing that I discovered two days ago was that the 24 pin Molex power plug from the PSU will not be long enough. It was less than 2 inches long which is just long enough to bend over and plug into the old Acer MB in the upper right corner. Remember, this was a prebuilt, ready to go, Acer/Windows10 machine and don't even think about changing anything!

 

Well after putting as much of the computer back together as I could without having the MB in hand, I discovered this new issue. I could have purchased a 6 inch PSU power extension plug for $6.95 with free shipping but instead, I am making one so that I have it when the MB arrives. Talk about getting off into the weeds.

 

UPDATE:

Short version: I got it working!

 

Detailed version: The package arrived yesterday and last night I built up the computer with the new ECS MB, 8gb of ram and the i3 processor that originally came with the Acer computer. I put it all together and hit the power button. To my surprise, it actually worked and worked as any of us would have expected it to work. Windows7 slipped right in with no issues.

 

This has been a huge learning experience for me and hopefully you guys can pull a lesson or two out of it for yourself. Here are a few highlights of this lesson plan:

 

1. Hold off on getting Windows10 for as long as possible unless you have a specific need or reason for moving to it. Windows7 is currently the "Holly Grail" as far as I am concerned when it comes to WORKING and being user friendly. "If it's not broke, don't fix it."

 

2. Sometimes you have to just do stuff yourself. Even a so called professional organization will prove to be little to no help in fixing the problem or finding a solution. Countless, phone calls around the world to several organizations and businesses could not help. Even dropping the dog gone computer off at Geek Squad was a bust.

 

3. Technical lesson learned. If you have a pre built computer with Windows8 or Windows10 installed on it and you want to put Windows7 on it instead?? Hopefully you won't have the problems that I did. But if you do, the answer to the problem is to replace the MB due to the BIOS being Windows8 or 10 specific. I know just as much as I need to know about BIOS systems to get things done. But what I learned is that even if you know what you are doing, (like a Geek Agent) you will end up with no choice but to start with a new MB. I was very surprised that the guys at Geek Squad did not foresee this issue or have never seen this issue. But then again, I think I was the first to request to go back two operating systems! For the record, I came up with the idea of replacing the MB. Geek Agents had a strange look on their faces when I suggested that.

 

"This update was made from the newly built Windows7 machine"

 

Again, if you guys have any Windows10 stories or info to share about Windows10, please post here.

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 02-09-16)

I wonder how long WIN7 MBs will be available?

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 02-09-16)

I think the physical MB will be good for a long while.  It's the BIOS software that is the question.  And if that is the problem in the future then we should be able to find a way around that too.