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Updating : apparently the Microsoft gnomes have succeeded to make something of my PC. Box says :

“Your upgrade is ready. Your PC needs to restart to complete the upgrade”.

There was a countdown with 11 minutes to go. I stopped it with the link “Restart later”. Now the box says : “Save your work and leave your PC plugged in and turned on. If you choose to restart later we’ll automatically restart the PC when you’re not using it. The upgrade usually takes 90 minutes or less to complete, but we’ll let you know when it’s done”.

WHAT ?!? 90 more minutes to go “for the upgrade” ? So what was going on during the last 7 hours that the “update tool” was running ? Microsoft gremlins fooling around ? I think installing W7 from scratch takes much less than 90 minutes, never mind 8 hours and a half…

To recap :

– The update tool was running under my admin account, where I couldn’t see what was happening, since I always work under my non-admin account. If I hadn’t switched precisely at that moment to see how things were going, what would have happened ? No warning to backup current work, just Microsoft deciding to restart by itself ?

– Even if you chose to “Restart later”, there’s no way to decide when you want to restart. Microsoft gets to decide because Microsoft knows best. They will restart the PC “when I’m not using it”. How do they know I don’t want to use it ? Say, I go to the bathroom, so MS “knows” that I’m not using my PC anymore, they restart it, and it enters a 90-minutes cycle of “upgrading”.

Will I be able to use the computer during that cycle ? They are not saying. What if I’m working against a deadline, and I have something critical to do precisely at that time of the day ? Too bad.

What happens if I shut down the PC now ? What happens if this is a portable, I have an appointment and I need to switch it off and take it with me ? Nobody’s telling. It’s free, so shut up and get on with it.

At every turn, it seems that Microsoft enjoys bullying its users, with no discernible reason, just because. It really seems they are doing everything to make you understand that they are in command, not you.

I’m one of those stuck individuals.

I’ll say it once : I was negligent to wait until the last moment in order to do the upgrade to W10/restore W7 trick.

And now I can say with confidence : seeing all the people who tried far harder than me, and for much longer, and who are still stuck at 99 % or less, I don’t regret it for a minute.

The thread you linked to says it all :

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-upgrade-assistant-is-stuck-at-99/1708a411-3255-4bec-804a-d2553f2fd645

The solutions offered there by several devoted MVPs spill the beans, really. That you should have to jump through such hoops just to go along with a massive Microsoft marketing campaign trying to persuade you to switch to the best thing since baked bread means one thing : Windows 10 is a big, big piece of junk.

Don’t pretend to make it free if you can’t make people actually get it for free. Why can’t people just download Windows 10, stick their Windows 7 product key and be done with it ?

One of those MVPs even advised to upgrade the PC BIOS. Recommending this incredibly dangerous step just hours before the deadline, after a year of Microsoft poking us constantly in the ribs in order to make the jump, telling us how easy it is, is incredible.

It really seems that Microsoft is enjoying humiliating its users by making them lose hours and days of their precious lives, in order to take advantage of a free offer. Throw at them something for free, and look at them scrambling desperately trying to grab a piece of it.

I’m more than happy to let the blasted “upgrade tool” run its course, whether it succeeds or not. I’m not going to do anything else to repair Microsoft’s botched job. I’m not dismantling my PC to bits and I’m not uninstalling scores of software just in case it might accomodate Microsoft’s “easy upgrade path”.

If this thing that’s running under another account currently can’t do the job by itself, I’ll follow your InfoWorld advice and say to hell with it.

The thing is, I’m afraid I’ll still have to restore my whole system if this rigmarole fails. God knows what Microsoft has already messed up in my system.

If this author has trouble just connecting to the Internet after he “upgraded” to W10…

http://itsecurity.co.uk/2016/07/windows-10-internet-problems/

…then I think it’s fair to say many people should be very, very afraid of “upgrading”.

Actually, I’ve made a Windows Explorer Favorite out of my Start Menu folder, and I do all my filing of program shortcuts there.

So I get the benefit of a normal and ages-old logic of folders, sub-folders, moving, renaming and whatnot, instead of having to cope with that devilish non-Windows window called the Start Menu, which insists on jumping shut whenever it likes.

Unfortunately, Windows thinks that only administrators should work in the Start Menu. Since I work by default under a non-admin user account, each and every change has to be validated by the admin password. Copy a shortcut, type your password. Create a subfolder to accomodate the shortcut, type your password. Correct a typo in the shortcut’s name, type your password. Grrr…

When I’ve had enough, I change users and go under admin, but that’s a pain for such a non-critical and frequent management task.

On the other hand, installing most software under my non-admin user account is a breeze. In spite of the fact that installing software is supposed to be one of the most dangerous things you can do. Go figure…

“The new Start menu looks nice, but it isn’t nearly as useful as Windows 7’s –all of those apps in a massive, unmanageable blob still makes me cringe.”

Incredible ! W 7 Start menu is not stellar, by a long shot. Managing to downgrade that in W 10 is quite an achievement…

In order to reach a program in my W 7 Start menu (after careful customisation), I have to :

– Click on Start menu
– Click on All Programs

That’s one extra, totally useless step.

Generally speaking, the whole hullabalo around Windows Start menus is ridiculous. You mean, we have this huge piece of software called an operating system, and we’re arguing about a tiny dangling bit named Start menu ?

This should be a no-brainer. Do we have Start menus, debates about Start menus and philosophical doctrines of Start menus in Firefox, Word, Google, Twitter… you name it ?

I once read that Microsoft had a whole, dedicated developers team for… that’s right, Windows Start menu. And they still can’t get it straight. The Start menu, in my supposedly superior W 7, still looks like it was put together by committee, with no unified look, unrelated bits and bytes stuck together, clunky logic — and looking totally different from the rest of Windows.

Oh, and it’s a pain to customise (which you have to do). As for saving the customisation, forget it.

I’m the proud owner of a Woody Leonhard & Ed Bott book called “Special Edition Using Office 2003”. It’s a splendid piece of work in what used to be a splendid collection. As a matter of fact, I bought all Office 2003 books in that series.

I’m sorry to say that this did not generate any revenues for you, Woody, since I bought them 1 $ apiece (more or less) while they were on sale, long after Office 2003 was a current product.

It’s a problem people can’t benefit any more from the joy brought by such high-quality work, and it’s a problem the talent and dedication of people who produce such work can’t be rewarded any more.

I guess this illustrates the theory of Daniel Cohen, a French economist who asserts (I hope I’m not distorting his theory) that present-day technology is different from industrial revolution technology, in that it brings little economic growth and mostly destroys middle-class employment, while not replacing it with new jobs.

The challenge in the coming years, he says, will be not to get rid of technology, but to make it generate wealth and jobs again, as opposed to just cutting the cost of existing activities (and getting rid of talented and useful people in the process).

Sad and interesting trend.

Software goes from PC to cloud > We lose control over our software and data.

Software books disappear > We lose control over what we know about the software and how to use it (the assumption being : there’s no decent online help to speak of, which is another trend).

Software changes all the time > It’s impossible to keep track > A flow of new “features” of possibly doubtful interest trump coherence of design and mastery of the program by the user.

Big picture = disempowerment.

I hope I’m missing something.

Agreed. Re-installing programs is an incredibly time-consuming process, as I discovered once again when… reinstalling everything from scratch 6 months ago.

Especially if you configure them in non-standard ways, as I do. The amount of settings one has applied to programs day after day is staggering. And you can’t always save them. Even if you can, just finding where they are stored is a nightmare.

If you don’t restore your settings, then you feel as if you’re walking in a stranger’s shoes. You don’t know where things are. You’re driving a lemon and it takes ages to go where you want to.

Then there’s the loaded issue of what are programs and what are data. The answer in Windows is : you never know. There’s a huge grey zone.

Some people twist Windows’ arm in order to tame the madness : they put their Users folders on the data volume. I do. More departure from the standard way of doing things. More headaches.

I have my own AppData folder (not called this way), because I want it right under my nose where I can see and control it. Of course, not all programs will let me do this, so I have more “AppDatas” than Windows mandates — which is already a lot.

Then, I have two Windows user accounts for me alone, because helpful experts tell you you shouldn’t live under admin, for your own sake. Unfortunately, Windows is not designed for that, in spite of MVPs piling up on Microsoft forums to berate you if you stay in the admin seat all the time (and with good reason).

This also has to be restored, with the related applications gymnastics : some programs can work across accounts, some not. Etc.

I’m lost. Why should you “apply all updates”, “reinstall the apps” and “pull the data back” if everything was “restored in one go” ?

All my images are on external USB hard disks.

1. Suppose I image all my W7 PC on external disks. My system and data are on separate volumes.

2. Then I switch to W10.

3. Then in 6 months I want to revert to W7.

4. I restore the system and apps volume. Maybe the data volume as well. No need to install apps again, they are in the image. No need to pull up updates, either. OK, maybe 6 months worth of updates if they are green-lighted here.

5. Then I would want to restore my data from my W10 image (I would also have imaged the W10 install bafore nuking it), because I would have added to it in 6 months.

Correct ?

Ha ! Safe Price ! I got that, too. It’s an aggravation, but fortunately it’s easy to get rid of (at least, it was when I did it…).

> Use a Windows account with administrator privileges.

> In Avast : Settings / Troubleshooting / Enable Avast self-defense module = No.

> In Windows Explorer : go to where Avast is installed, delete SafePrice folder.

> In Avast : Settings / Troubleshooting / Enable Avast self-defense module = Yes.

Regarding anti-virus, my research (admittedly limited in depth and width) shows, on the contrary, that paid-for versions offer little more than free ones.

The current trend seems to be : put all the real value in the free version (because if you want to make money out of your brand, you can’t afford to harm your reputation by releasing a poor anti-virus), then try to twist people’s arm into upgrading to the paid-for version, by adding useless extras : file shredders, software updaters, anti-phishing modules, password managers, pseudo-VPNs…

Using scare tactics in the process, including nag screens warning of impending doom if you do not fork out $$$.

That’s what Avast does, to the best of my understanding. And there’s no pledge whatsoever that they will stop the snooping antics if you buy the upmarket version.

A few anti-virus tools have a clear-cut attitude : free is scan-only, online protection needs payment (Malware Bytes comes to mind). That’s fair enough.

That’s akin to being a marriage counselor, and telling clients : why did you marry that , anyway ?

Please don’t make me explain again why some of us (meaning : millions) need Windows.

It’s not a language issue. I’ve standardised English across all my software whenever it’s possible, because the largest and best support resources are in English.

Since we’re on a Microsoft-oriented site, it’s another Redmond scandal that non-English online support is mostly based on automatic translation — and therefore gibberish to a large extent.

You’d think that Microsoft, of all companies, would have some funds to allocate to human-based translation, at least for major world languages, but no.

My experience is of the French language, but if they don’t care to have French translators I don’t think they have Hungarian ones.

This means that every time I go to a Microsoft site, I have to force a change in order to get to the English original — because it would often detect that being in France, I must “want” their info delivered in their rotten, machine-generated French.

You can’t access foreign Bitdefender sites. you’re redirected to your own country’s.

Even if one could fool Bitdefender with Tor, a VPN or similar solutions, I don’t think it would be wise relying on a version Bitdefender doesn’t want you to use. If they monitor your country when you try to download the software, they probably monitor it while you’re using it.

You depend on constant communication with the vendor’s servers when using an anti-virus. I don’t want to go through all the trouble of installing a forbidden version of Bitdefender, only to realise somewhere down the line that it refuses to work properly (or at all).

“My concern is Microsoft plans to convert all Windows machines into parts of its corporate network.” — BG

Exactly.

“If you decide to move back to Win7, restore the old image, apply all updates, re-install the apps, and pull your data back.” — Woody

Any problem with changing this to : restore the old image with patched Windows 7 and installed apps, then restore your data with the latest backup ?