Phantom

Not sure if anyone saw this but... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mississippi-same-sex-adoption_us_56fdb1a3e4b083f5c607567f Gay couples can now officially adopt in all 50 States!!!!!!

Remember... Most technology issues can be fixed one of three ways: 1. Smacking it till gently until it works 2. Unplugging and plugging the power 3. Running it over and/or throwing it out a window and buying a new one Eric

Hope everything goes swimmingly for our favorite green frog...

Technically speaking it wasn't a forced upgrade, Microsoft installed a nagware update (KB3035583) via Windows Update for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 there are many sources online that discussed this and provided steps to get rid of this. Also on another note you can let it sit there and stew without upgrading, you'll just have that annoying icon to see. As for the RTM, Microsoft has had this in development for quite awhile and released a Technical Preview back in February (If I remember) and I had it installed as a secondary operating system. They added features to each update cycle after getting a general idea of what was broken, what worked and what kinda worked. AFIK they did work out most of the major issues before releasing it to the general public but speaking as an IT professional, no matter how much refining you put into a piece of software (Office, Operating Systems, Games, etc.) you'll always have a segment of computers that will just go bonkers with any new software installation. For example awhile back I installed Spotify onto my Windows 7 machine and the next thing I knew my computer blew up and I had to restore it from a backup I made. So a tiny music program basically wrecked my Big OS. Finally as for the upgrade in 6 months, it won't be anything like the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, Windows will continue to offer updates like normal and allow users to upgrade various components of their Operating System with additional add-ons in the future. Even now with it being out for a month (or so) many people do like the upgrade, especially the return of the start menu, and the general consensus is that it's going to be adopted more and more as time passes on. Eric

So far I must say I am intrigued by the synopsis and I'll defiantly be reading this... expect some comments in the review part of the story

As you can see Andy... we have a very diverse and welcoming community here at GA... so I want to extend my welcomes as well and hope you enjoy yourself here Eric

I'm going old school here.... https://www.youtube.com/embed/SRwrg0db_zY For some reason I'm drawing a blank on embedding video... but it's Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock that I have stuck in my head...

My response to 440 will be posted by Monday... I think I'll take a different route of travel with it

I'm sorry to hear what happened Steve, it seems really horrible GACK! That's just horrible and sounds like something went wacko when your upgrade happened. I think the techs were trying to restore using a windows program however I do believe that you can restore from the recovery partition that should be built into your computer (provided windows 10 didn't overwrite it during install). PM me if you want some help with that and I can see what I can do to help I like to think I'll be a bit more reliable than the Windows Tech People (I've learned from experience that the way to fix something is to do it yourself, because nine time out of ten they're reading a scripted fix that probably works for most people, not all) As for switching to another desktop, should you so choose, now is the perfect time since it's back to school time and there's deals and sales all over the place, from Amazon to Best Buy and beyond. Most computers you buy should still be loaded with Windows 8.1 and there's a way of disabling the nagware that gets installed to tell you to switch to windows 10 (I did that on my gaming computer and there was no ill effect and I'm more than happy to help people who don't want to do the upgrade). When I was testing out Windows 10, me and Cortana had a love-hate relationship, but then again it was still in developer preview and she might not have been all put together yet heh heh. But I agree with the privacy issue out of all the companies out there that you can use and sign up for (Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, etc). Google is the worst when it comes to privacy issues (they even say so themselves in articles you can find on the web). When my contract is up on my phone, I'm defiantly switching from the Note 4 to either a iPhone or a Windows phone (most likely an iPhone) since Android is becoming more and more bloated and screwing up with things, and heck don't get me started on TouchWiz that Samsung forces you to use. Ugh. I will miss the stylus input though when I switch Computers and technology are such a PITA at times... makes me wonder why I'm going into the tech field as a teacher :S

I applaud you both! This is what I love seeing, people taking time to understand what is going on, how it affects them and how to fix the issues and solutions. I love how it can also help others and spark more conversations. I took a read through the articles and found some interesting tidbits myself that didn't occur to me (I tend to over analyze the technobable and allow the simpler stuff to pass by...) and am glad that I got a back-to-school present from my parents in the form of a Macbook Pro yesterday (laptop with Windows 10 was donated after wiping the hard drive to DoD 5220.22-M specs (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_erasure for more info) for non-classified information, so good luck trying to get any information from it haha!). I can see the security and privacy concerns coming out of the woodwork and am glad I was able to jump off Windows 10 and still be able to use Windows 7 as my primary gaming PC (I can still get the upgrade for it but I'm choosing not to until I see what goes down along the line) This thread is quickly turning into one of my favorites

Best advice ever!! I love it when an author lulls you into a false sense of security then POW! straight in the kisser! Though sometimes authors do use the 'Deus Ex Machina' one to may times when they peak in or during conflict that can get old. Once if fine, twice is pushing it, three times is dull. Just my thoughts Eric

Nope you didn't jinx yourself and you're not alone with programs getting wiped out or disappearing. Many reports on the web that I've been seeing are saying the same thing. Since Windows 10 stagnated the release of it's OS, you'll start to see more and more reports and complaints similar to yours I forgot about the upload bandwidth. DOH! That said Windows 10 is being transitioned more as a service platform than a single platform, meaning that as times goes by they'll add different features to it rather than stick with Windows 10 and release a new edition later on (think of Apple's OSX and how they are keeping the same platform but adding different upgrades to the base OS). So while you may not see a real uptick now in used bandwidth, reason stands that you may in the future. That all said I still can't believe I forgot the bandwidth! Goes to show I was looking it mainly as a IT professional in a large company where bandwidth and speed doesn't really matter Yes. Microsoft is an egomanical and ecomanical bastard at times. I'm still irritated that they won't release DirectX 12 to 'older' systems. I'll be damned if I upgrade my gaming rig to Windows 10. My laptop, I don't mind since I just use it for school, writing and basic mundane stuff but come between me and my baby and well, it won't be pretty

Its similar to using a torrent in that instead of using one source and having a slow bottleneck end connection, this option allows for Microsoft by way of Windows 10 to gather pieces of updates from everyone and speed up the update process. I'm a little on the fence with this option myself but I can see more pros than cons to this. That said though, security conscious people might disable it in case there's an exploit that can be used.

This one is an inspirational one to me, though it can be very tongue in cheek as well... Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go - Oscar Wilde You can find it on my signature here on GA and taped to my monitor at home remind me to be humble

Remember this one thing that all IT professionals know... anytime there is a massive upgrade of a system, there's something that will always go wrong no matter what. In this case Windows 10 has put security above everything else and sadly it can lead to issues like DavidAB had. The one thing I recomend to both my friends and students is that when you upgrade your operating system (no matter if it's OSX, Windows, Linux, etc.) take time to read the literature about it, research what people are saying about it on the web and never take one person's word that 'it works wonders' as the go ahead to upgrade. In the professional IT world, there's a lot and I mean A LOT of testing that goes into seeing if programs are compatible, how the end-user adapts to it, etc. and that takes a year or so after the initial release of said system before it goes live in the business. So a private individual like us has to do our own research, testing if we know how and above all read reviews that normal everyday people write and take the articles written by publications with a grain of salt. Eric