Windows 7 End of Life Announcement

[DCBassman]

Good luck trying to unpick 'norton' from any computer, I think they write a lot of Malware as a sales gimmick.

It will certainly mount a lot of complaints, but it will uninstall.

 

[alicat]

Going to 'upgrade' from Win 7 to Win 10 today. Wish me luck.

 

[wonderloaf]

Well after upgrading to W10 a couple of weeks ago everything is running as sweet as a nut except for one thing, I keep getting random restarts. Not very often but enough to be annoying. I've tried all the suggestions about upgrading graphics drivers, changing power settings, etc but it still happening. Any suggestion?

 

[DCBassman]

Well after upgrading to W10 a couple of weeks ago everything is running as sweet as a nut except for one thing, I keep getting random restarts. Not very often but enough to be annoying. I've tried all the suggestions about upgrading graphics drivers, changing power settings, etc but it still happening. Any suggestion?

Definitely a no-no...Updates updated? Any overlooked announcements during the upgrade?

 

[wonderloaf]

Definitely a no-no...Updates updated? Any overlooked announcements during the upgrade?

Didn't see any announcements and got it set on auto update. I gather this issue is not unheard of and is sometimes attributed to the graphics drivers, so as suggested I uninstalled the graphics device and deleted the driver, then re-installed them again ... still happening
I'll take another look at the updates tonight to see if there's anything awry there.

 

[ColinJ]

Why not later today?

Ah - indeed - I am working on it today!

Usual computer problems... Try to do one thing, but immediately get an error message (which turns out to be incorrect - my USB flash drive is NOT write-protected, given that I have written over 1 GB to it!)...

I've fixed the w-p error, and have started again, currently reformatting the USB drive to FAT32 (was NTFS). It is taking a LONG time, probably because I misread the size - it is 64 GB not 4 GB!

I'll be back...

 

[MontyVeda]

Didn't see any announcements and got it set on auto update. I gather this issue is not unheard of and is sometimes attributed to the graphics drivers, so as suggested I uninstalled the graphics device and deleted the driver, then re-installed them again ... still happening
I'll take another look at the updates tonight to see if there's anything awry there.

Can you turn off auto-update and set it to ask you first?

 

[ColinJ]

Attempt #2... fail! Different error message.

Make changes...

Attempt #3... fail! Another error message.Slowly getting there!

More changes...

Attempt #4... Ooh, progress, hang on... I have got the installer up on screen now!

 

[presta]

Well, as of this afternoon I'm the proud(?) owner of a new computer. Having been round Currys and picked the one I loathe the least, I'm now finding more stuff I hate that I didn't notice in the shop.

I've been sneered at for suggesting it before, but I maintain all my family's pc's using a program called Advanced Systemcare and another called Defraggler. Installed and used them recently on my father in law's laptop and he said I'd absolutely transformed the thing. If they don't work for you you can easily uninstall them, no harm done. (They're both freeware, in case you were wondering.)

Thanks I'll give it a try, it remains to be seen whether I stick with this, or end up going back to the old one.

You've answered part of the problem - Norton.
Uninstall it. You'll see an immediate improvement.
As @swee'pea99 says, run defraggler, after going to the drive properties, and running disk cleanup.
So long as the drive is fully functional, you should have an almost as new laptop. Try it. If nothing else, it will show you how to keep the new one running sweetly. Warning: if your new machine has a solid state drive, DO NOT run any sort of defragmentation program such as Defraggler. It will harm the device.

Norton's been there for 7 years, but it's only been really bad for the last 2-3 months.

BTW, anyone notice that Windows 7 did an upgrade today, the day after the support was supposed to end?

 

[Mike_P]

I'm now finding more stuff I hate that I didn't notice in the shop.

Norton's been there for 7 years, but it's only been really bad for the last 2-3 months

I used Norton for years at one point it did get very bloated but they trimmed it back, like most things pc once something gets critised it sticks.
MS snooping is also a big concern to many but as previously said here so do Google, Facebook etc. In terms of W10 there is an excellent guide on that issue and what steps you can take at https://heimdalsecurity.com/en/windows-10-security-guide/privacy
Also as previously commented on here if you dislike the new start menu install classic shell http://www.classicshell.net

 

[ColinJ]

Well, that is Win 7 binned!

I am typing this in a SeaMonkey browser window on my 12 year old Dell D430 running Linux LXLE. It seems to work pretty well as it is, but I am now letting it do hundreds of updates.

It looks like the hotkeys for brightness and volume don't work but I leave them set to maximum anyway.

I'll leave Linux alone for now but will try to get back to play with it later.

Hmm... I just saw a box popup saying that I was now connected to wifi network 'none', which doesn't sound right. Let's see if this actually gets uploaded ...

 

[ColinJ]

Odd! Updates have finished so I might as well reboot to check all is well. Oh, and after that check that 'sleep' and 'hibernate' still work.

 

[presta]

MS snooping is also a big concern to many

I haven't got anywhere near that far yet, what's driving me to distraction is the touchpad.

On the old one, if I'm dragging something and I run out of space on the pad, I can just lift my finger and move it back into the middle of the pad without the drag cancelling. On the new one, it cancels the drag if I lift off even for a fraction of a second.

The old one is a Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
The new one is a Synaptics SMBus ClickPad

 

[Mike_P]

The old one is a Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
The new one is a Synaptics SMBus ClickPad

Is there a Synaptics app on it anywhere for you to adjust things? Alternatively have a look in settings - devices, you get to them from the cog that shows up on the left side of the start menu.

 

[raleighnut]

Well, as of this afternoon I'm the proud(?) owner of a new computer. Having been round Currys and picked the one I loathe the least, I'm now finding more stuff I hate that I didn't notice in the shop.


Thanks I'll give it a try, it remains to be seen whether I stick with this, or end up going back to the old one.


Norton's been there for 7 years, but it's only been really bad for the last 2-3 months.

BTW, anyone notice that Windows 7 did an upgrade today, the day after the support was supposed to end?

Yep and it was a biggie (20 odd minutes to reboot) maybe it was "So long and thanks for all the Fish"