This page documents my experiences, including problems and solutions, with Windows 10.

15.05.2016 Windows 10 upgrade network problem solved

One annoying problem after the upgrade to Win 10 was that my upgraded machine could no longer be seen by my main machine, although the upgraded machine could see my main machine. After trying all sorts of things I enabled NetBios over TCP/IP on both and suddenly they could both see each other - the strange thing being that back in March I'd turned it off specifically to solve a network problem caused by the latest Win 10 update!!

12.05.2016 Upgraded backup machine to Windows 10

Finally bit the bullet and frankly expected a lengthy and painful process, probably with many programs and device drivers killed but it went smoother than anticipated. Yes it took over 5 hours, two spent apparently 'stuck' on preparing installation. When it was over I had no internet connection but it only took a few minutes to resolve that, and then I had to customise with Classic shell and used O&OShutup to stop Windows data collection, and finally checked out and updated my regular software.

16.03.2016 One or more network protocols are missing on this computer

I thought the recent update to version 1511 had gone painlessly. For the first time since that update I tried to access another computer on my network and got an error - used the troubleshooter only to get the above message and no obvious solution. I have no idea what caused the problem in the update but by disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP on my network adapter my other machine could be accessed in explorer once again. Thanks for the suggestion by SimBy on tenforums .

01.01.2016 Update failed 0x80070570

Checked my system with the ususal "sfc /scannow" but no errors showed, and there were no errors on the disk. Resolved the issue by stopping the Windows update service then went into "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download" and deleted all the files, started Windows update service, retried the update and everything worked fine.

09.09.2015 Nvidia Windows drivers

Tried to update the Nvidia drivers, both through Windows update and using the Nvidia GeForce Experience utility, but both failed. I downloaded the latest drivers from the Nvidia site, but trying to manually instal them also failed. I repeated everything after disabling my virus checker and firewall, just in case, but still no joy, same update failed message. At one point, I forget which, my screen went completely and I had to hard reboot and use system restore to get my previously working(old driver) system. I even tried a couple of uninstaller packages to remove the Nvidia drivers but with the same results. Eventually I tried the display driver uninstaller I found on the Guru3d website, after making a new restore point with the latest updates for Windows and my firewall and virus software. It asked to reboot into safe mode, and then proceeded to uninstal the Nvidia drivers and rebooted so I could instal the latest version, which now went without a hitch!

27.08.2015 Windows tracking - disabling

Not happy with the extensive data collection in this version of Windows, I looked at a variety of utilities that disable many/most. Eventually opted for O&O ShutUp10 as it clearly lets you know what the options do and is very extensive - it's also free and by a well regarded software company!

26.08.2015 Windows multiple desktops

Initially I wanted to carry on using VirtuaWin to provide multiple desktops, but ran into a few issues, so thought I'd give the new inbuilt facility a whirl. I was quite impressed. Sadly there is no way currently to have multiple desktop icons on the taskbar(like Linux), but otherwise it seemed to work quite well. I keep my machines running 24x7, so to save power I switch off my monitors when not in use, but when I did this I noticed that windows on the various desktops would move and/or resize?? The solution was quite simple, I don't switch off my monitor but let Windows 10 switch it off after a period of inactivity, and now my windows don't move.

25.08.2015 New machine now active

Customising my new machine went much better than anticipated, so with most of my key software installed and customised, and the arrival of my new 32" monitor, I decided to instal my new machine as the main one. The only major hiccup so far was that my digital microscope doesn't work with Windows 10(a driver issue), so it'll have to stay with my old machine in due course. My new machine is unbelievably quiet and impressively fast, the monitor is huge, and Windows 10 is thus far better than I feared(despite running it in a virtual machine for the past few months)! Still plenty of software instals to go on my main machine, plus the conversion of my old main machine and decommissioning my secondary machine, so I'll be busy in the coming week or two!!

22.08.2015 Software installed

Given the new menu system is far from perfect I installed Classic Shell, and recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone else who prefers the old style start menus.

With my new large screen I didn't want to have to visit the start menu too often, so installed a utility I've used under Windows 7 for a number of years, Quick Cliq, which enables you to have a custom designed menu under your mouse(using a right-drag to activate-you can change this and various hotkeys). It's an excellent utility that deserves greater recognition.

I like to continually monitor various aspects of my system and find Rainmeter an invaluable tool. This desktop customisation tool lets you use a large range of default skins and a variety of widgets, all of which you can customise by editing the text configuration files.

21.08.2015 New PC

Took delivery of my new PC, running Windows 10 pro -
   Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition Processor(8 cores 16 threads)
   be quiet! BK019 cooler
   32 GB of Corsair 2800Mhz memory
   MSI X99A Godlike Gaming motherboard
   Corsair RM1000 Gold Rated Power Supply
   Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X - 12GB GDDR5
   Samsung 850 pro 512GB x2 SSD
   WD Black 3TB x2
   TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224FB DVD/RW drive x2
   Fractal Design R5 case
Well pleased with it, but will need a lot of software installations and customisations in the coming weeks before I can swap out my old machine. Just ordered a new 32" monitor, the BenQ BL3201PT 32-Inch 3840 x 2160, 4ms, model, which should arrive next week.