Still Running Windows 7 ? Time Is Running Out Fast

[Judge]

This is off-topic, but can anyone explain why my laptop runs much faster and efficiently while I'm in Mexico than in the US? Does it have something to do with cookies? Fewer ads pop up when I'm there.

Similar question about my I-phone. In the US, I have to charge the danged thing about every 48 hours. In Mexico, I have to recharge about every 4 or 5 days. And I use my phone a lot as a camera while in Mexico which I would think would use up battery supply.

Hard to say without you posting your actual connection speeds to compare and at various times of the day. Otherwise I can only guess that while your domestic connection technically has a much faster speed potential, given the average usage at any one time it drags down those numbers considerably.

OTOH, in Mexico you may have a considerably less number of persons accessing that provider at any one time in comparison, allowing faster connectivity in general whether it involves peak usage times or not.

Then again, given Mexico's improvement in areas like 4G over the last couple of years, it's also conceivable that their hardware might actually be newer and better on whatever provider you're using there, as opposed to your primary ISP in the states.

 

[Mary Terry]

Hard to say without you posting your actual connection speeds to compare and at various times of the day. Otherwise I can only guess that while your domestic connection technically has a much faster speed potential, given the average usage at any one time it drags down those numbers considerably.

OTOH, in Mexico you may have a considerably less number of persons accessing that provider at any one time in comparison, allowing faster connectivity in general whether it involves peak usage times or not.

Then again, given Mexico's improvement in areas like 4G over the last couple of years, it's also conceivable that their hardware might actually be newer and better on whatever provider you're using there, as opposed to your primary ISP in the states.

That makes sense. I wondered if the better speed is due to Mexican servers which probably are newer than many US servers. Internet usage is substantial and increasing there - almost every Mexican has an I-phone and they use the internet frequently, as do Americans. But, then, I'm a technological idiot......

 

[Judge]

That makes sense. I wondered if the better speed is due to Mexican servers which probably are newer than many US servers. Internet usage is substantial and increasing there - almost every Mexican has an I-phone and they use the internet frequently, as do Americans. But, then, I'm a technological idiot......

Hard to say. So many variables involved. Though it's conceivable that you tapped into a Mexican ISP that is ahead of the curve in their country. Yet such facilities may not be used in such great numbers to curb their bandwidth. In comparison, it may distort the difference between your domestic ISP and one in Mexico.

 

[Judge]

One thing for sure about Windows 10, if you want to see just how inherently intrusive it can be, download a utilities program called "Glary Utilities 5". In their privacy and security menu they have a function called
"Tracks Eraser" that can instantly itemize and delete all those files and registry entries that leave details about not only where you have been online, but what you're doing offline even it has nothing to do with the Internet. Makes you wonder how much of this OS is from Microsoft versus Homeland Security.

Though despite all these horrors, it doesn't change an inherent need to abandon using Windows 7 as an unsupported OS. You need to replace it with something, whatever you choose. Otherwise use it at your own risk.

 

[Misery]

One thing for sure about Windows 10, if you want to see just how inherently intrusive it can be, download a utilities program called "Glary Utilities 5". In their privacy and security menu they have a function called
"Tracks Eraser" that can instantly itemize and delete all those files and registry entries that leave details about not only where you have been online, but what you're doing offline even it has nothing to do with the Internet. Makes you wonder how much of this OS is from Microsoft versus Homeland Security.

Though despite all these horrors, it doesn't change an inherent need to abandon using Windows 7 as an unsupported OS. You need to replace it with something, whatever you choose. Otherwise use it at your own risk.

At this point I'd rather take an unsupported 7 over this disaster.

Yeah, with 7 you might face some threats... but at least the OS is not literally made out of them. What's the point of all the anti-virus/malware software and stuff for 10, when 10 itself IS malware? Ridiculous.

At least traditional hackers are forced to play fair, they cant sell an entire OS to get your stuff from you. Probably.

Just... ugh. At this point I'd take anything over this. I'm so tired of giving the thing an extremely direct command, and watching it just SIT THERE ignoring it. Knowing full well that it's doing something else it is NOT supposed to be doing instead.

Or my favorite part: having it "regenerate" processes that I forcibly close. No, Windows, I dont want Office whatever to be somehow partially open in the background. And why is there a Skype thing? I dont use these. I forced you to shut them down 10 minutes ago. How and why are they there again? At this point, I dont really want the answers. I just want a digital chainsaw.


I've decided in the last couple of days, I"m going to buy me a retro PC or two. An old Tandy machine. Pre-Windows. Just good ol' DOS and all the ancient floppies I can find. I expect... no... I *know* it'll be a better experience than any of this junk. Tell it to do something, it freaking does it, the end.

 

[Transmission]

Lots of choices when it comes to Linux:

The Best of the Best Linux Distributions of All Time

If someone wanted to try Linux I would recommend a distro that has been around for a long time, is well supported, and is easy to set up and use. Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, and Debian would be good choices. If you only want to test how Linux works on your computer you can also put a Linux distro on a CD, flash drive, or SD card and have it start up without it installing on your computer.

 

[Judge]

I've decided in the last couple of days, I"m going to buy me a retro PC or two. An old Tandy machine. Pre-Windows. Just good ol' DOS and all the ancient floppies I can find. I expect... no... I *know* it'll be a better experience than any of this junk. Tell it to do something, it freaking does it, the end.

I love having a "legacy PC" running Windows XP, with software and hardware indicative of circa 2002. Completely cut off from the Internet. It's tweaked and no one else can modify it. And I can still print in color or b/w using various applications that go back into the early 90s.

I still have regrets about tossing my even older legacy system, that ran DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Though I got so I would take it out of a closet to run once a year, for about five minutes. The graphics were so primitive that it overcame any sense of nostalgia. Still, I loved that era in computing as well. When I went from being a user to becoming a geek.

Had I not been able to get an old but full version of Photoshop to run on Windows 10, I might have given up on Microsoft altogether. Though on occasion it can crash when I use the marquee function spanning too many pixels at one time. Not perfect, but then I encountered the same problem with Windows 7 as well. I can also still use my Extensis and other brand filters inside Photoshop, but its menu/navigation system doesn't work as well as it did with Windows XP. And using Open Shell to change the navigation menus helps a great deal.

Download Open-Shell (Formerly Classic-Start) - MajorGeeks

The real trick I discovered in running some rather old applications in Windows 10 is to use the "compatibility mode" not only on the file executed to begin opening the program once it's installed, but also to use it on the setup file before you even begin installing the application.

https://www.howtogeek.com/228689/how-to-make-old-programs-work-on-windows-10/

 

[Misery]

I still have regrets about tossing my even older legacy system, that ran DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Though I got so I would take it out of a closet to run once a year, for about five minutes. The graphics were so primitive that it overcame any sense of nostalgia.

Yeah, alot of people would probably have pretty much that same thought. I always feel like the odd one out when it comes to this.

For gaming, give me something like the newest Assassin's Creed or.... or.... whatever damn stupid big-name game is popular right now, and the response will probably be something like "eh, do I have to?"

Put me in front of some ancient thing, and I'm good to go for awhile. Played through an old DOS game called Arctic Adventure recently. So old that it is CGA only. And then the Atari stuff, 2600, I do that all the time.

My friends all think I'm nuts.

 

[Judge]

Yeah, alot of people would probably have pretty much that same thought. I always feel like the odd one out when it comes to this.

For gaming, give me something like the newest Assassin's Creed or.... or.... whatever damn stupid big-name game is popular right now, and the response will probably be something like "eh, do I have to?"

Put me in front of some ancient thing, and I'm good to go for awhile. Played through an old DOS game called Arctic Adventure recently. So old that it is CGA only. And then the Atari stuff, 2600, I do that all the time.

My friends all think I'm nuts.

Forgot to mention that my legacy system has removable drives. I have another drive with Windows XP where I run only games from the late 80s,90s and early 2000s.

All run of course with "no-cd" cracks. Obtained in an era before hackers started infecting much of any freeware involving games.

Sucks though to admit that my legacy system still plays DVDs pefectly. Something that Microsoft deleted support for entirely in Windows 10. WTH? Where third-party DVD player software runs "so-so" at best. Even with an astronomically more powerful video card!

Anyone playing DVDs on a Linux system? Just wondering...

 

[Mary Terry]

I love having a "legacy PC" running Windows XP, with software and hardware indicative of circa 2002. Completely cut off from the Internet. It's tweaked and no one else can modify it. And I can still print in color or b/w using various applications that go back into the early 90s.

I still have regrets about tossing my even older legacy system, that ran DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Though I got so I would take it out of a closet to run once a year, for about five minutes. The graphics were so primitive that it overcame any sense of nostalgia. Still, I loved that era in computing as well. When I went from being a user to becoming a geek.

Had I not been able to get an old but full version of Photoshop to run on Windows 10, I might have given up on Microsoft altogether. Though on occasion it can crash when I use the marquee function spanning too many pixels at one time. Not perfect, but then I encountered the same problem with Windows 7 as well. I can also still use my Extensis and other brand filters inside Photoshop, but its menu/navigation system doesn't work as well as it did with Windows XP. And using Open Shell to change the navigation menus helps a great deal.

Download Open-Shell (Formerly Classic-Start) - MajorGeeks

The real trick I discovered in running some rather old applications in Windows 10 is to use the "compatibility mode" not only on the file executed to begin opening the program once it's installed, but also to use it on the setup file before you even begin installing the application.

https://www.howtogeek.com/228689/how-to-make-old-programs-work-on-windows-10/

I wish you'd come clean out our garage. I don't think my husband has ever thrown out any old computer or computer-related gadgets since the 1990s. There also are old working vinyl record turntables, FM/AM radios, DVD players, one of the WI thingies that was never used, an enormous set of speakers from an old movie theater that was torn down, and Lord only knows what else stored out there. Pretty sure there's a 8-track player out there, too. It's like an electronic archeological dig site.

 

[Graphin]

Let's talk about how public schools and colleges usually directly or indirectly force students to sign up for windows 10!

 

[Judge]

Let's talk about how public schools and colleges usually directly or indirectly force students to sign up for windows 10!

No surprise there. For better or worse, most businesses outside of graphics are Microsoft clients. It's a dominant OS in terms of future employment.