Windows 10 is One Year Old
Can you believe that it has been 12 months since Microsoft introduced Windows 10! Well time stands still for no man and while we have been getting acquainted with all of the new features brought to us in W10 the guys behind the scenes at Microsoft have been busy designing changes for the first of what will become major yearly ‘anniversary updates’.
Yes I am starting to think that the old adage of ‘change for change’s sake’ is well applied to the latest updates as there are little in the way of worthwhile new features for the average user. The start menu has once again come in for some changes (just when we got used to it) and to stay on par for the course the power button has once again been shifted!
Most of the changes centre on Win10’s new web browser (Edge) which is not really a good browser anyway – unless you live in the US. We already disable Microsoft Edge and set Internet Explorer as the default browser which is by far the best option in Australia. Apart from some advances for US based users there are certain disadvantage brought about by this anniversary update.
Microsoft has once again expected all of its user base to have a great Internet connection with plenty of download quota as this latest update will burn through around 2.5 gig of data download. If you are on a limited capacity connection then you will start to really hate Win10. We are also seeing examples of the update being interrupted before completion and unfortunately starting to download all over again.
We are now suggesting that people with limited Internet quotas go into their network settings and click on their current connection – go to advanced options and set it to a ‘metered connection’. This will effectively stop any further Windows updates but it can unfortunately have other less desirable ramifications if they add a new device for instance and do not already have the right driver. If going with this setting then you should look at getting your PC serviced every 6 months by a competent computer shop.
If you do have good internet connection then expect the 2.5 gig download to take around 5 hours and also expect the update to take around 45 mins to install (on a good PC) and much longer on a less powerful PC. You may also find some problems with previous programs which worked fine but are now broken – like the Microsoft Games Suite. Also Microsoft Defender will try to take over as your main anti-virus scanner until it realises that you already have one.
All in all we are still very happy with Windows 10 as an operating system but are now a little jaded with this latest update which seems to create or have the potential to create some havoc while offering very little gained.
Future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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