Newsletter Archives

• Windows 8.1 is an excellent choice

  Posted on November 7, 2018 at 09:13 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  More interesting mail this morning:

  My clients are frustrated with [unexpected and frequently destructive Win10 patches] and I don’t have a good answer other than one I have chosen myself. I moved my personal computers, except for one laptop back to Windows 8.1 as it seems to be clear of the update mess and it has update support for about 4 years. Do you recommend this as a solution to individuals who don’t care to know that Microsoft screwed up, they just don’t want their Windows 10 computer to have to be repaired again via a clean install of Windows and then manually reinstall all applications and user data? I don’t know anyway to protect them from unrequested updates that may then cause their machine to not boot. Telling them to backup is beyond the skill of most average computer users and even if so, how would you know when to do a backup as the updates happen in the background without warning.

  Excellent question.

  Windows 8.1 remains the most stable version of Windows — even more stable, of late, than Win7, and considerably more stable than any Win10 version. It has the fewest patches, the fewest bugs. You can block updates until you’re ready to install them (hopefully with an eye to the AskWoody MS-DEFCON setting). General usability ain’t much, but if you install a Start menu replacement like Start10 or Classic Shell (now open source), it’s fine.

  I’d say get ’em on Win 8.1, and gradually move them over to Chromebooks. Any dissenting opinions?

  Other Chromebook, stability, Win8.1

• Five fatal flaws in the current Windows 10, and how they’ll fare in the new Creators Update

  Posted on March 14, 2017 at 12:00 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Take a look at the five worst traits of Windows 10 Anniversary Update – forced updating, snooping, advertising, stability, and hijacked settings – and how they’ll change in the Creators Update. Some very good news. Some not so good.

  Details in InfoWorld

  Windows News Advertising, forced updating, hijacked settings, snooping, stability