It’s That Time Of The Month
Is your computer getting cranky and having mood swings?
That must mean it needs its monthly CCleaner update. 😉
Git Along, Little Dogies
Them Texas cowpokes at [H]ardOCP have a PCIe SSD Performance Roundup.
Highway To The Danger Zone
Kick the tires and light the fires baby, Maverick is back!
Reader Emails
Q – You recently commented that in your view Windows 10 was still a long was from being complete or well polished. Could you please elaborate why you feel that way? Is it to the extent where you’d be expecting a service pack for a more polished experience?
A – Here are a few things that come to mind:
Explorer crashes
Explorer title bar washed out
Cortana hangs
Networking issues
Flyouts sometimes don’t work
Shutdown sometimes doesn’t work
Sound not working on one machine
vmware player serious issues (guest and host)
lots of reports of upgrade failures
lots of reports of hardware / driver issues
apparently tablet mode is a disaster (dont have one)
Things continue to improve with each build. Windows 10 will continue to be a work in progress.
– – – – –
Q – Hi Eric, I’ve got a question about your thoughts on upgrading to Windows 10. I currently run a dual boot installation of Win 7 and Win 8.1 on a five year old computer that still runs everything, including games, just fine (8gb ram, ssd, i7) and I am happy with this. First, I am wondering if there would really be any benefit of upgrading to Win 10 for me. The only reason I am even asking is because of the free upgrade, but here is what I was thinking about doing:
I currently do not have the “Update to Win 10” Windows update installed, but I was thinking of installing it, getting the upgrade when it comes out, and then making a system image after the upgrade takes place. Then, I can mess with Win 10 for a while and if I don’t like it, I can go back to my Win 7/8.1 system image. (Also, I would have the Win 10 upgrade system image to keep for anytime I wanted to reinstall it.)
Here are my questions; First, does this sound feasable? Do you know if Win 10 will come with a built in system image creator like previous versions? (I have Acrois 2015, but haven’t used it yet)
Again, I wouldn’t even bother with this if it wasn’t for the free upgrade option, but if it will work I thought I might try it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again and love the site.
A – My feelings on upgrading (this is simply my opinion) :
– Yes, upgrade from Windows 8/8.1
– No, do not upgrade from Windows 7
Now, your situation is somewhat unique as you are dual booting. You can
– Not upgrade at all.
– Upgrade both Win 7 & 8.1.
– Upgrade Win 7.
– Upgrade Win 8.1.
Personally, I would choose to only upgrade Win 8.1.
You are on the right track. I would:
1 – Make a full system image* before upgrading
2 – Upgrade Win 8.1 (if the upgrade is working to your liking, skip step 4)
3 – Make another full system image*.
4 – Do a clean install of Win10 on the Win 8.1 partition.
* I only use Acronis True Image (boot disk)
– – – – –
Q – Hello Eric, I am interested in how your progress is going with the Alienware laptop. Are you pleased with its performance? I think you mentioned you obtained it second hand. I have been watching the product for some time now and was delighted to know about the modifications you did. I was thinking along the lines of using one as a substitute of a desktop and adding a larger external monitor while utilising the graphics performance of gaming and photography etc.
I enjoy your web site and the information you provide. I do access it quite regularly, thank you very much.
A – I’m sorry, I just realized I never responded to your email.
I love my laptop. Pefrormance is fantastic. I often use it as a desktop (hooked to monitor and mouse).
Alienwares are expensive so I recommend a really good sale or used if you can.
(I’m not sure if the advice below applies to you. Seems you are in New Zealand?)
New
I would watch Tiger Direct and Amazon.
Used
I would watch Dell outlet but only when there are really good sales/coupons. Watch for deals via Techbargains.
Good deals can be had Ebay but be very careful there.