Comments on: A Dire Warning over Upgrading to Windows 10 #Windows10 #Microsoft

By: Georgia Rose

Georgia Rose — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 10:16:39 +0000

In reply to Skilbey. I am envious of your Windows 7 usage Skilbey, having missed out this upgrade completely, and I wish you many more happy years with it. Apologies for the alarm caused but we can get lax about our backups and if this comes as a reminder to one person then it has done it's job. I have taken to copying my entire documents folder onto a separate hard drive as well as having the online backup. Then of course I keep a separate set at least 500 yards away from the house in a fire proof box, plus a couple of USB sticks with my novels (suitably passworded, of course) on somewhere entirely different...too much?? I think not, and I refute the allegation that I am a worrier :-)

By: Skilbey

Skilbey — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 09:28:49 +0000

I am literally sweating from reading your post. I was/am aware of the problems with Windows 10 because of my other half and daughter’s experiences but this advice given from a writer’s perspective really has haunted me. I ignore the pop-ups to upgrade- I use Windows 7, and my comp is 4 years old (Gulp, anytime now…), and do back-ups etc. but eventually I’m aware that Microsoft will phase out the backups for this and we will be kicking and screaming into Windows 10. I have decided to complete my novel using this comp and will change once it is finished. I just hope it doesn’t die on me before then. It has had check-ups during its hiccups and no one has told me it’s on its last legs yet, so fingers and everything else constantly crossed! 🙂 Thanks for your sage advice.

By: Georgia Rose

Georgia Rose — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 12:45:35 +0000

In reply to Carol Hedges.

Just make sure your back up is up to date Carol that’s all I’m saying. Hope you got all your AOL problems sorted out – technology, eh!! Many thanks for reading and commenting though 🙂

By: Carol Hedges

Carol Hedges — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 12:43:34 +0000

as you know, we also had a problem with AOL over the weekend…it blocked us off our account and I had to go arsonist in a hayfield on Twitter to get them to unblock it. I don’t know whether M has updated files..he was going to..I will check…

By: Georgia Rose

Georgia Rose — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 19:12:46 +0000

In reply to Wendy Percival. Fortunately I don't use Windows Mail Wendy, I stick to Outlook because I know how that works, most of the time! Maybe the machines really are taking over? Scary thought. Carbonite is great actually because it is always backing up in the background so you don't need to remember anything, apart from renewing the subscription of course. They also do a mirror image back up which places a mirror image on an external hard drive as well which I might just set up. I'm pleased you found it useful though and many thanks for commenting :-)

By: Wendy Percival

Wendy Percival — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 18:56:58 +0000

Crikey, Georgia, how scary is that! I do tend to back up my most important stuff but heaps of useful odd bits and pieces don’t always get the same attention. But the most alarming part of your experience was the way the machine took it upon itself to override your “no thank you” instructions! I have Windows 10 having bought a new laptop and desktop at a similar time both with 8.1 and not being a great fan of that, took the opportunity to upgrade quite quickly. But I’m not overly impressed with it. As you say, it has an agenda all of its own and Windows 10 Mail is dreadful! Seems to me, Microsoft have ditched a lot of what they used to include before and so are keen for everyone to move to 10 so they can charge for the extras! I will use your story as a prompt to be more serious about my back-ups. So thanks for sharing your experience.

By: Georgia Rose

Georgia Rose — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 17:00:42 +0000

In reply to Cathy Murray.

Well you’ve done the right thing. However, don’t be surprised if it just upgrades anyway, ours did and I didn’t ask it to. I’m not the only one either judging by the results on Google. It also had the cheek to leave a message saying everything was just where I’d left it on the second morning! Although I guess apart from the important stuff it was 🙁 It is pretty intrusive. Even on my laptop I set it up saying I didn’t want Cortana but after the next update there it was on my toolbar. I didn’t want to have my documents on OneDrive yet there they are. Anyway, many thanks for stopping by and commenting Cathy, I’m delighted you’ve avoided disaster and long may it continue 🙂

By: Cathy Murray

Cathy Murray — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 15:33:49 +0000

Funny, I just backed up all my docs and photos onto my external hard-drive and then I read your post. Every day I get a message from Windows to upgrade my laptop to W10 and every day I ignore it. I’m used to W8.1 now and don’t need to waste my time chasing missing docs. Your warning is timely – thankyou – and I’m sticking with what I’ve got until I need a new laptop.

By: Linda Huber

Linda Huber — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:11:30 +0000

In reply to Georgia Rose. And it's an important one. In the end, the only stuff I lost completely was all the bits and pieces I had 'filed' on the desktop of my laptop. Lesson learned!

By: Georgia Rose

Georgia Rose — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:02:43 +0000

In reply to Linda Huber. He is Linda, he's also very calming in such a crisis. It's the time it takes to sort this stuff out that annoys me, it's completely messed up my week. Back ups are the answer but they are so easy to not get around to doing and this time it could have been a disaster, if I hadn't had one. So that's my main message today.