Win X: 1 Down, 3 To Go

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07-20-2016, 09:40 AM
W3WN

Win X: 1 Down, 3 To Go

We presently have four active or semi-active Dell Optiplex 760 computers in the house running Windows 7 Pro 32 bit at the moment. (Plus a Dell Optiplex 625 that was Win 7 Home, now on Win X;Little Miss Field Day's new Win X laptop; her deceased Win 8 laptop; and a handful of laptops that are too old to upgrade -- two Win XP, one W2K. Those are future Linux candidates, but I digress)

So I bit the bullet last night, and scheduled the shack computer for the Win X update. Kinda running out of time, since, officially, the 'free' update to Win X from Win 7/8 ends on the 29th.

I was a little concerned, since the shack computer has some old routines I wrote, years ago, to manage my log and my QSL cards. How old? It was written in ... wait for it ... dBase IV 1.1. For DOS. OK, so I'm a procrastinator. In any event, they don't run on Visual dBase 5.7 or anything newer. The core programming is OK, it's just that the screen windows are using the old, now obsolete, @ say/get nomenclature, and I never got around to rewriting them as proper, ah, Windows windows.

To say nothing of the fact that dBase IV 1.1 for DOS is a 16 bit app. And I know from work that 16 bit apps don't run under Windows 8.1 -- 64 bit, though.

But, I figured, time to bite the bullet. I'd worry about rewriting the routines later, after all, I can still access the database tables through dBase 5.7 or 8.

So I set the upgrade to process at 1 AM. Checked the machine when I got up this morning, and outside of some very minor issues (NIC wasn't responding, but a reboot fixed that -- router issue, not a PC issue), everything else worked. I do have to do some tweaking to VE7CC's cluster app to get it to start automatically on boot again, but that's, again, a minor thing. Oh, and the M$ free games are gone, which I expected, but I already have the ZIP file to restore them all, so that's no big deal. I do have to check N1MM+, but either it will work, or I upload a new copy. No sweat either way.

Just for the heck of it, I tried to open dBase IV. Much to my shock and amazement... it opened! Win X did have to upload an NTVM (or was it NTVDM?) driver first, but it opened! No muss, no fuss. And yes, my little routines still work, too! [ I still have to rewrite them into the newer code, but now I can continue to procrastinate ]

Well, what do you know? Micro$oft actually did something right for a change? Who Gnu? (He'll let you know when he gets off First)

Shack machine will be finished tonight. The Boss's is next, that should be easy. Then either my "work/main" machine, or LMFD's old desktop (which is going to end up in the shack anyway). Should have it all done by the weekend.

M$ did something right. I'm not sure I can handle this.
07-20-2016, 09:58 AM
KJ3N

Quote:

Originally Posted by W3WN

M$ did something write. I'm not sure I can handle this.

We'll see how you feel about that once M$ decides to implement the per-month subscription fee (that they are currently in process of implementing for enterprises) for consumers.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/30947...nterprise.html
07-20-2016, 10:14 AM
W3WN

No problem. They pull that crap, the machines all revert to Windows 7 or get switched to Ubuntu.
07-20-2016, 12:31 PM
WØTKX

I have gone to the subscription model for Office 365 already. And, it's OK.

It will take a few years for the $$$ to accumulate, and by that time the co$t would have been more the old way.

$7 per seat quoted for enterprise is pretty cheap, compared to the (current) site license stuff.
07-21-2016, 06:33 AM
W3WN

Well, 2 more went down, so to speak, last night. The Boss's machine and my 'main' one. No issues.

Now, LMFD's old desktop, that was a different story. Keeping in mind that it's been turned off since last October, and is on a wireless link, it may just have a lot of updates to churn through first. It will be the weekend project, and if it fails, no big deal.
07-21-2016, 09:38 PM
W3WN

Well, I spoke too soon.

The Boss's machine went through without a hitch. I let mine go overnight, didn't have a chance to do anything with it first thing this morning.

Came home after a trying afternoon (another story for another thread) to find... A near empty desktop. WTF? Where's my icons? Where's my email? OK, found Outlook, started it... Setting it up for the first time? WTF? Yes, I was agitated. Not only a bad afternoon, but I had MAYBE a half hour to get ready for the VE session I'm running, and I need to get something from an email...

Turned out OK. One of the reboot cycles got hung up. I went to reboot, the cycle kicked back in, and after about 10 minutes of "Hi! Let us show you all the new features that you're just going to LOVE" the upgrade completed, my desktop was back, and I got what I needed out of my email.

Then spent another half hour after getting home reinstalling the games, and cleaning up the Start Menu. Sports, News, People, Photos, Xbox, Twitter, Skype... Who needs all this dreck? Very irritating that Micor$oft is pushing all this crap on us, and we have to jump through hoops to get rid of it. Especially on a Business Pro edition. Who wants this crap on a BUSINESS machine?

But that's the price of a "free" upgrade.
07-21-2016, 09:47 PM
KJ3N

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
07-22-2016, 07:22 PM
VE7MGF

thanks for that
07-22-2016, 08:06 PM
WØTKX

Downloaded it. As expected, I was pretty tight already.

Great software! Thanks Jim. :agree:
07-23-2016, 10:52 PM
W3WN

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJ3N

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

Thanks for the link Jim. Now implemented on all machines.

All 4 -- I got the SFF OptiPlex tonight. It had a few Win 7 updates to run through, and while it was doing that, it uploaded the Win X install files in the background. Not sure if one or the other or both were the issues. Regardless, it went through relatively pain free. And so the deed is done.

Well, almost. I remember on the test machine, I found and ran a Powershell script that removed a lot of the excess dreck. I need to find where I stashed that and run it. Then I'm done.
07-27-2016, 09:03 AM
KJ3N

Heads up, Ron (and everyone else).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/31003...ry-update.html

M$ always finds a way to make you hate them, don't they?

Possible solutions: http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/26/you...ays-microsoft/
07-27-2016, 10:00 AM
NQ6U

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJ3N

Heads up, Ron (and everyone else).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/31003...ry-update.html

M$ always finds a way to make you hate them, don't they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbFM105UuJw
07-28-2016, 10:44 AM
W3WN

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJ3N

Heads up, Ron (and everyone else).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/31003...ry-update.html

M$ always finds a way to make you hate them, don't they?

Possible solutions: http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/26/you...ays-microsoft/

Yeah, I saw that this morning.

Just like they're shoving Bing down every IE user's throats. They still haven't learned that lesson.

There is a Powershell script floating out in the aether to remove Cortana altogether. So I'm not too worried about this bit of intrusiveness.
07-28-2016, 05:07 PM
PA5COR

Already had it switched of in the Group policy edit and in the registry, mic = off camera = off etc.
Eff him.
07-29-2016, 09:42 AM
KJ3N

More stuff going on.

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/28/mic...indows-10-pro/
07-29-2016, 11:41 AM
W3WN

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJ3N

More stuff going on.

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/28/mic...indows-10-pro/

Yuck.

I know what my boss's reaction to that will be. One more reason to NOT upgrade the work machines from Win 8.1 to Win X.

Despite what Micro$oft might think, Candy Crush and Xbox are not exactly apps that are useful in the business environment. (Except to waste time)
07-30-2016, 08:53 PM
N1LAF

When I buy a Dell refurbished computer, I make an image of the drive, remove the small drive from the computer, and re-image a larger hard drive, and replace the smaller drive. The smaller original drive goes in a sealed ESD bag and placed in storage, with the others like it.

With the Free upgrade offer, I thought I would use an SSD drive, and with one computer at a time, copy the original image to the SSD, upgrade to Win 10, Register (for life), and roll back to Windows 7. The roll back is important because I read somewhere on the MS site that the license for Windows 7 will invalidate if not rolled back within a month of upgrade.

I only had one system refuse to upgrade, and others had the same problem with that particular system. The roll-back was an interesting experience. I had a 33% success rate in roll-back to Win 7. One system went into a perpetual repair/reboot cycle. During the upgrade/roll back process, ALL roll-backs took out the restore partition. Good thing I have image of all systems. All systems has been restored by procedure, reinserted the large hard drives (SSD for laptops), and all back to normal.

The only safe place for Windows 10 is in VMware... Jim, thanks for the info and warnings.

Speaking of imaging, I have been using Acronis for many years, but have been looking at/working with Macrium Reflect. Very easy to use, and there is a free edition. Does anyone here have experience with Macrium Reflect/Macrium Reflect Free?