The Windows 10 Megathread!

[Camacha]

My laptop, running windows eight is starting to misbehave a little, explorer is freezing, sometimes it freezes up while booting up, or shutting down...

I'm hoping installing the new operating system will refresh those parts, and get it working again.If this is actually a terrible idea, please tell me.

Doing a completely fresh install from time to time is always a good idea. That way you get rid of old problems and update your programs and drivers too.

[Cydonian Monk]

However, I like the 8 start screen. I like the way it pops up, slides around, and is a good distraction when waiting for stuff to load. Also, you can put cool backgrounds on it.

So, if they bring back the ability to add backgrounds to the start menu. (Or the start screen in tablet mode, or whatever that it's called), I will be sold, and probably will install.

There's an option to use a "Full Screen Start Menu" in Windows 10. I forget which setting screen it's on, but I stumbled on it this past weekend. (That seems to behave identically to the Win8.1 slap screen, or whatever it was called.)

And there's an option to change the background... that I think also includes the Start Menu? (there's certainly a registry setting for it).... But that settings screen is broken. Changing the desktop background works, but the screen to change the logon/lock screen background freezes up on me. Prolly be patched soon.

[One-Way Films]

my resolution is locked to 1024x768. Any idea how I can fix it and return to 1080p? I've updated my Nvidia drivers and restarted a few times now

[ZedNova]

My laptop, running windows eight is starting to misbehave a little, explorer is freezing, sometimes it freezes up while booting up, or shutting down...

I'm hoping installing the new operating system will refresh those parts, and get it working again.If this is actually a terrible idea, please tell me.

However, I like the 8 start screen. I like the way it pops up, slides around, and is a good distraction when waiting for stuff to load. Also, you can put cool backgrounds on it.

http://i.imgur.com/BVbT8Iu.png?1

I really like my sky and stars background.

So, if they bring back the ability to add backgrounds to the start menu. (Or the start screen in tablet mode, or whatever that it's called), I will be sold, and probably will install.

Looking at the real issues here.

You can turn on the full start screen, (goto Control panel>personalization>start then click the slider "Use full start screen") For those who want that..

It's not quite the same as the windows 8 start screen, but i always hated it on non-touch devices.

[pincushionman]

…So, if they bring back the ability to add backgrounds to the start menu. (Or the start screen in tablet mode, or whatever that it's called), I will be sold, and probably will install.

Looking at the real issues here.

Settings->System->Tablet Mode has options about this, as well as whether you get a normal, limited (or no?) taskbar. I've used this menu to disable the autoswitch based on opening my 2-in-1's screen too far and accidentally going into tablet mode. The manual switch is in the swipe-from-the-right quick actions, but I haven't found any other option for doing it with keyboard & mouse (such as a notification area option).

Where I'm missing some customizability is in the display settings. When my 2-in-1 is in tablet mode, the auto-screen-rotation is great, but in desktop mode I'd like it to always orient to the "normal" direction. Only way to make this happen is manually, using the orientation lock in the aforementioned quick actions.

Another shortcoming of the display settings is the "size of the display items" option like the taskbar, icons, and text. I can scale all these together to 125%, or it says the advanced display options can scale the text independently (but I haven't been able to get that to work). What I really want is to scale the taskbar only (for my thumbs), but keep the icons and text the smaller size. My screen size is small enough as is, dammit!

[HafCoJoe]

I hit the install this morning. I'm getting back on Monday though so I have no clue what the state of it is... XD

[Majorjim!]

I hit the install this morning. I'm getting back on Monday though so I have no clue what the state of it is... XD

You are a braver man than I.

[HafCoJoe]

You are a braver man than I.

MORE LIKE SMARTER XD. I literally started the conversion this morning at 5:00 and I won't be back for 4 days... My brother will have to check on it for me. I wonder if he's still asleep... It's about 10:30 now.

[Majorjim!]

MORE LIKE SMARTER XD. I literally started the conversion this morning at 5:00 and I won't be back for 4 days... My brother will have to check on it for me. I wonder if he's still asleep... It's about 10:30 now.

Big PC changes like that scare the poop out of me. It sets of my autistic side that just wants everything to stay the same way.. Let us know how she fared.

[One-Way Films]

Am I the only one who can't run a single game at more than 1270x768p while running at 2FPS?

Nevermind, I'm going back to Win7. I'll try again later.

[LABHOUSE]

My laptop still says it will let me know when it is ready to install...

[worir4]

My laptop still says it will let me know when it is ready to install...

I think there is a waiting line for downloads so they don't over run there servers with loads of people downloading at once.

[Kinglet]

I think there is a waiting line for downloads so they don't over run there servers with loads of people downloading at once.

Unlike the servers of pre-order able AAA games

[HafCoJoe]

Big PC changes like that scare the poop out of me. It sets of my autistic side that just wants everything to stay the same way.. Let us know how she fared.

Oops I meant to say "dumber" but my interwebs cut off before I could switch it. Going abroad does that... I'll definitely keep you guys posted.

[steve_v]

Currently the only known browser to have plugged the leak is Firefox, so it is probably best to use that.

Swapping out the stock browser for Firefox was step 1, minutes after getting the device.

[Virtual Flyboy]

Swapping out the stock browser for Firefox was step 1, minutes after getting the device.

Shame Adobe Flash absolutely hates it, at least for me. It just crashes or freezes completely the instant the page is loaded, every time. Haven't been able to work out a fix so far, dug around for an hour or so, only been happening with Windows 10, and I did a clean install.

[steve_v]

Flash is one of my pet hates. Horrible piece of software.

There's a wrapper to use chromes "pepper flash" plugin with firefox on GNU/Linux... Dunno about Win 10 though.

It's better than adobes offering, but flash is still pretty nasty IMO.

[Superfluous J]

Yeah having Flash not work seems a bonus, not a detriment. I'd just get the flash blocker and the "Force YouTube To Give You HTML5" plugin. And anybody who forces flash... don't use their site anymore.

[SpaceXray]

Yeah having Flash not work seems a bonus, not a detriment. I'd just get the flash blocker and the "Force YouTube To Give You HTML5" plugin. And anybody who forces flash... don't use their site anymore.

www.space.com still forces flash on me...

[Tw1]

And there's an option to change the background... that I think also includes the Start Menu? (there's certainly a registry setting for it)..

A regestry setting for just the start menu background image? So it could potentially be changed?

Based on what I've read online, it seems the ability to change the background image was one of those things that I really liked, but most others where largely indifferent to.

It's more a nitpick though, if updating will make it run better, I'll probably do it at some point.

Doing a completely fresh install from time to time is always a good idea. That way you get rid of old problems and update your programs and drivers too.

True, but backing up and putting all the stuff I use would take up a fair amount of time...

I might just manually clear out things and just update it as it is for now.

[steve_v]

...backing up and putting all the stuff I use would take up a fair amount of time...

You mean you don't have a backup already?

You should probably get one of those anyway. If you're game to upgrade the OS without a backup, you're braver than I.

[HafCoJoe]

Well, it didn't break any hardware but it totally wrecked boot up...

It appears to be a driver compatibility issue with my graphics card (GTX 660) which causes the login screen to flash rapidly between a gray loading screen and the lock screen. I luckily backed up all the files I needed (only around 30GB) and then wiped the system and reverted back to Windows 8.1... And for now it will stay that way.

I've heard good reviews about Windows 10 from a friend of mine, and before I had system issues (it starts right after any Windows updates where it reinstalls drivers) I was quite happy with the appearance of it.

TL,DR: It looks very pretty, if it works. It didn't work for me though. An error (most likely related to GPU drivers) occured on boot or restart that prevents me from logging in. Fix was to revert back to Windows 8.1.

[Cydonian Monk]

A regestry setting for just the start menu background image? So it could potentially be changed?

Yes. There are a few different keys that affect the lock and the logon screen, though they're not very well documented. The results on Google can explain it better than me, but most of the customization settings are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System. Example: You can completely disable the image background of the logon screen by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\DisableLogonBackgroundImage to a non-zero value, which forces it to a flat color. That color can be changed by setting another key in the same place that I forget the exact name of. The programs that allow you to customize the lock screen background are really just changing registry values.

[edit: There's no space between win and dows in the key name.... I don't know what's up with the forum software wanting to break it there.]

I've noticed my PC sometime refuses to stay shut down when I shut it down from the Start menu. A third of the time it will stay turned off for a few seconds and then boot up again. Never seems to be an issue when I shut it down from the lock screen specifically, so I'm not sure what's up there. Very odd bug.

[xtoro]

I've had no issues upgrading from Win 8.1 to 10 and I find in general that it runs faster and smoother. This was an upgrade and not a fresh install. My laptop was also set to dual boot Linux and Windows and it didn't change the boot loader, so I can still boot into both. I'm loving the new additions and look, and I love the new Edge browser. I rarely used IE, it was always Firefox for me, but I find I'm using Edge all the time now because it loads and renders so much faster. And, it syncs my open tabs with my phone and vice versa so that's handy!

[Pixel of Life]

Is anyone else having problems with USB bluetooth dongles? I tried three different models (ASUS, Belkin and some generic one) and they all return a "this device cannot start" error. Windows downloaded and installed the drivers automatically but they're still not working.