[OP]
Member
My 42 month old Dell laptop has been slow, one thing I wanted to do was to update from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10, but software is over $100 and I understood that the free upgrade offer expired long ago. Yesterday I ran across this Microsoft link that worked at no cost. I am now running Windows 10 Pro. No key was required. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10 Happy camper.
NOW you tell me...
Contributor
Hmm, I wonder if you will be able to get updates without a license.
Brian
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher
Guest
I have recently been messing with the computers again switching over to SSDs and bringing some really old ones back into service.
From what I have been reading, Microsoft is still transferring the Win7 license to Win 10.
Additionally even on brand new hardware Win10 can be used indefinitely without activation and Microsoft does the updates to it.
All of my old computers were still on Vista so I loaded a clean install Win10 using the same Microsoft link in the post above.
Of course the continued support for inactivated Win10 could change at any time, even to the point of being rendered nonfunctional.
Contributor
I finally got my first taste of Win10 last week, courtesy of a friend who was having issues getting Engravelab to install. Pretty impressive. No more annoying little popups in the bottom right corner or 2x3"-ish error messages. Instead, they've been replaced with 10x20" stop-what-you're-doing-NOW splash screens, most of which pointed out in no uncertain terms that it wasn't connected online. I didn't WANT it online, I just wanted to load a program from a dvd. And to find one of his engraving files. And to locate the device manager to see what his USB things were. I'm glad it's his and not mine. It's the only reason I'm not still sweeping up pieces of broken computer off the basement floor...
So the fact Bill's still giving it away doesn't surprise me. You get what you pay for comes to mind...
Maybe 10 is good for social media and gaming, but as a WORK computer, XP is the first and last decent Windows...
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ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
FOUR - CO2 lasers
THREE- make that FOUR now- fiber lasers
ONE - vinyl cutter
CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle
Contributor
I loved XP, but I have to disagree with you on this one. I've been using 10 since it came out & I'd hate to have to go back to XP. I still have an old XP laptop that I can't upgrade because of 1 piece of software that won't run on newer OS's, even in compatibility mode. It's painful to use in comparison to 10.Originally Posted by Kev Williams
Moderator
I have to agree with you...Win10 has been significantly more stable and less problematic than WinXP and even Win7 ever was for me. While I only use Windows when forced to at this point (for CNC related), I'd never go back to the earlier versions and all the "hoop jumping" I had to do to keep them running reliably and efficiently.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Contributor
I only use Windows. I dabbled just a bit in various Linux years ago, but I use some estimating software at work that is Windows only. So that is where I have dedicated my very limited brain capacity
This is an argument that will go on and on. I have been in I.T. since Ethernet was still in the lab. Computers are tools for us. Windows 10 is a big pain for me and the network engineers that work for me. If you're in the profession it is not unusual to have several OS's and several flavors of those OS's on machines that you use as tools. Using only Windows 10 for my type of work is akin to working on your car with a Crescent wrench. But, as I said, it becomes an argumentum immortalem.
Last edited by glenn bradley; 05-03-2019 at 1:29 PM.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Contributor
Interesting comments. However working for a company with thousands of computers using Windows 10 it has been very stable and reliable. Some do still have Win 7 but they will be gone by fall. We use them for data input and management as well as communication functions. The change over for all is coming because Win 7 support is being terminated soon but all new systems have been Windows 10 for at least a couple years. If your controlling machines with the system then I'm sure the older versions work well. However with all software updates that occur everything seems to work very well. If they felt something else was better we would be using it. They forced iPhones down our throats so they wouldn't hesitate to change if they felt it there was a benefit in doing so. Basically all the complaints that XP and Vista had are gone. Boot up and shut down are fast. It doesn't crash. There are those that think no one uses Windows any longer but they are certainly wrong.
Contributor
If your motherboard has the correct connector for it, this widget is slightly more expensive than a standard SATA SSD, but much faster:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
(Good chance if the computer/motherboard is less than 2-3 years old.)
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Contributor
It doesn't but for $13 I can add this adapter-- workable?
adapter.jpg
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ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
FOUR - CO2 lasers
THREE- make that FOUR now
ONE - vinyl cutter
CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle
Contributor
I have a PCIe in one of my computers as the only SSD in that unit (the only drive in the unit). Regular SATA (6 Gbps) in my other computers. While the PCIe is probably faster, I can't tell the difference for the applications that I use (i7 processor in two of them). I would only go for that PCIe if you're doing some application that's really I/O bound.
Of course, if your computer presently uses a PCIe SSD as your only SSD, I'd certainly replace it with a larger PCIe.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 06-14-2019 at 1:51 PM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
I have a newish PC with NvME drive. For common desktop usage I don't notice any speed advantage over a SATA III SSD. Perhaps in a Server/Storage role the speed increase would be noticeable.
Contributor
That's been my experience, also. I replaced a laptop with a SATA SSD drive with one with an NVMe drive and if it's faster, it's not by much. By that, I mean faster booting and faster loading of programs. The programs I use are fairly simple, such as photo editing, word processing, spreadsheet, etc. Maybe something that was heavily disk oriented would see an improvement.
And it's an i7 processor for the new laptop.
I helped a friend and installed a SATA SSD drive in her Pentium computer to replace a mechanical drive. That made a BIG difference.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 01-20-2020 at 10:14 AM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
That's what I've heard/read/experienced. "Spinning Rust" HDD --> SATA SSD big improvement assuming the rest of the machine is limited by HDD input/output. An older machine that was pretty low end when purchased I'm not sure how much difference there'd be.
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