Windows 10

Windows 11: Some Questions

~ beetleypete ~ 52 Comments

I use a Hewlett-Packard PC for blogging, bought new with Windows 10 pre-installed. It seems to suit me very well, though I have only the most basic knowledge of how to use computers. I do not explore all the possibilties of computing, using it only for blogging, photo storage, emails, and an occasional word document.

Microsoft has been sending me invitations to download Windows 11. It is currently free to do this, and Windows 10 is unlikely to be supported after 2025. So I would like to ask PC users already using Windows 11 if they recommend that I do this.

I also have some other questions, and forgive me if they seem obvious or simple to you.

1) Will the change to Windows 11 lose the photos currently stored on the PC? (Or does all that have nothing to do with Microsoft?)
2) Will it lose the settings and shortcuts that I use regularly?
3) Will I need to reinstall my current Antivirus software, and other intsallations like Disk De-Fragmenter?
4) Will I lose any or all saved passwords on Google Chrome?
5) Is it drastically different to W10? Will I need to ‘learn’ how to use W11 from scratch?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Farewell Windows 10

~ beetleypete ~ 57 Comments

I saw this yesterday on Twitter. It was the first I had heard about it.

Windows UK
@WindowsUK
The new Windows 11 is coming on 5th October to bring you closer to what you love. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a total film lover, you can find your favourite apps, films, and games more quickly and easily in the new Microsoft Store.

In April 2020, I bought a new PC after the old one running Windows 7 started to break down. Now after just 18 months, Windows 10 is to be replaced before I had even managed to fully understand it!

Microsoft is apparently offering a free upgrade, but only if my current PC ‘meets the requirements’ to download it. If not, it seems likely I will be having to consider replacing a perfectly working PC sometime next year.

Planned obsolescene strikes again. So much for Microsoft’s carbon footprint.

Farewell, Windows 7

~ beetleypete ~ 59 Comments

I am usually late to the party, when it comes to technology. I don’t always read emails from Microsoft either, I confess.

But I did read one recently, and although many of you will be well ahead of me on this subject, I thought to share the information anyway. As regular readers will recall, ‘planned obsolescence’ is one of my constant annoyances. It seems that Microsoft is about to jump on this bandwagon, regarding the Windows 7 operating system.

The email informed me that all support will be withdrawn from Windows 7 in January, 2020. There will be no further updates, security patches, or technical advice provided by the company. They did something similar with my old favourite, Windows XP, some years ago. Now having just got used to Windows 7 on my 2012 PC, it seems that I may well be forced to upgrade to Windows 10, to ensure a smooth experience of computing, without the dangers of no security, and no updates. They also hinted that ‘other applications’ would cease to be compatible with the ‘old system’.

For those of you comfortable with computers, Apple users, and the many of you who find computing as easy as falling off a log, this will probably not concern you in the least. But in my case, it represents just another annoying and unnecessary ‘forced upgrade’. The email also served as a blatantly cynical marketing ploy, suggesting that I buy a new computer early in 2020, or face electronic Armageddon if I remain stubborn. They provided links to numerous special offers that invited me to spend up to £700 on a new PC, or £450 on a laptop.

And what of the old equipment, that would end up being so much junk? Landfill, presumably.

So I ask these serious questions of my computer-savvy friends at WordPress.
Will I need to change my system?
Will remaining with Windows 7 be as potentially disastrous as implied?
Or can I just blunder on in the same old way, and ignore the warnings of Microsoft?