Wednesday 13th April 2016

News

Windows 10 Upgrade – “Never 10”

The upgrade from W7 or W8 to W10 is being delivered via the normal Windows Update process as a recommended update.  It should ask before upgrading, but there are reports of it just happening without user approval (see https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/15/windows-10-automatically-installs-without-permission-complain-users).  

If you definitely don't want Windows 10 (at least for now), how can you stop the upgrade?

Avoid the KB3035583 update (this is the Get Windows 10 update) by hiding it, but this seems to be unreliable.

Also, I have previously mentioned GWX Control Panel (http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/) to prevent W10 being installed on your W7 or W8.1 system, but this app has to be installed and looks more complicated than it really needs to.

Now, a simpler, easier utility has been produced by Steve Gibson of the Gibson Research Corporation.  Steve is a well-known and respected figure in the technology world, probably most famous for his weekly security podcast, Security Now.  His utility is called Never 10 and can be downloaded, completely free, from the Gibson Research web site at https://www.grc.com/never10.htm. This utility is very small and does not need to be installed – you just run it.  You can download it to your Desktop (or any other folder) and once you have run it, you can either leave it there or delete it. Alternatively, you could just run it from a USB stick. It uses Microsoft’s own recommended method of modifying the Registry to prevent W10 being installed.  If W10 has already been download, it should prompt you to remove the W10 files that have been pre-downloaded. You can simply run Never 10 again if you ever what to re-enable the W10 upgrade. If you want to read Steve's full description, have a look at https://www.grc.com/never10/details.htm.

  

Windows 10 Anniversary Update

The next major update to W10 is expected in July and will be known as the Anniversary Update – roughly a year on from the release of W10 on 29^th July 2015. It was code-named Redstone 1 and will probably be version 1607. So what's new in this update?

• Major upgrades like this will now show a blue progress screen, similar to regular updates (rather than the percentage circle in the middle of the screen).

• Edge will get support for some extensions (e.g. ad blockers).

• New 'Active Hours' in Windows Update prevents restarting your system during your active period. (go to Start, Update & Security, Change active hours to modify).

• In Multiple Desktops, you can now pin a window so that it will appear on all Desktops (go to Task View and right-click on the app and select Show this window on all desktops).

We looked at some of the above features in the preview version of the Anniversary Update. If any further features are announced, we will look at these next time.

Will Free W10 Upgrade Offer End in July?

Microsoft is doing everything it can to urge W7 and W8.1 users to upgrade to W10. The time limit (until 29^th July 2016) to get the upgrade free is designed to get users to upgrade as soon as possible. But what happens after the deadline? Surely adding a charge at that stage is unlikely to entice the stragglers to upgrade? In addition, if you look at the money Microsoft make for consumer upgrades, it is a very small percentage of their revenue, as this graph from the zdnet.com web site shows:-

(Image taken from ZDNet web site at http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-transition-to-the-cloud-picks-up-steam/#!)

The small blue line on the top of the right-hand column was what they earned from retail upgrades of Windows in 2014.

So my guess (and this is just my guess) is that we will see an extension of the free upgrade period - but it won’t be announced until the last minute

Birthdays!

It's amazing how quickly new technology is adopted!

• Twitter was 10 years old on 21^st March this year.

• The iPhone was first released on 29^th June 2007 – it will be 10 next year.

• The first iPad was only released on 3rd April 2010, so it’s just 5 years old this month.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

This is a new feature on mobile devices. When you search for a topic with Google (currently on the Chrome browser), web pages created using AMP will appear in the Top Stories section which can be swiped horizontally. This feature was introduced on 24^th Feb 2016. Currently, it only seems to work in the Chrome browser, but I am sure Firefox, Safari, etc will soon adopt it. It is designed to give a faster experience in viewing these top results.

Q & A

Printers and Ink
A question was raised about an old printer not working after the upgrade to Windows 10. The 'driver' software which links a particular model of printer to a particular operating system (e.g. Windows 10) is produced by the printer manufacturer. It is worth visiting the printer manufacturer's web site and checking if there is a Windows 10 driver for your model, and installing it. Otherwise, re-installing the latest driver (which may be for Windows 7) is worth trying.

There was a little discussion about printer ink. While manufacturers discourage the use of 

third-party inks, many of us use them and find that the compatible cartridges are much cheaper. There are many compatible ink suppliers - I often use www.7dayshop.com. Using alternative ink suppliers may void the warranty on your printer.

BBC iPlayer
Brian asked about messages appearing on his smart TV indicating that it would not support BBC iPlayer fom September 2016. This is explained on this web site http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/v2_closure. Older TVs and set-top boxes which were designed to support BBC iPlayer version 2 will no longer support the service from September this year. However, other streaming devices are available which can be connected to your TV via an HDMI socket. Roku is one manufacturer of such streaming devices and they are available from Amazon and other retailers.

PDF Files on Windows 10
Margaret had a CD with a PDF file which opens in Windows 7, but on Windows 10 it says "an error occurred" when she tried to open it. I'm not sure why, but I suggested copying the file to a USB stick on the W7 machine and then trying that on the W10 system.

Microsoft Edge
Bob raised a query about setting Favourites/Bookmarks in Edge. I demonstrated how to do this, but it is described in my article on Edge - see the link to All Computer Club Documents on the right.

Next Session

Wed May 11^th 1:30pm to 3:30pm.