Our home just gained a shiny new HP laptop, which was immediately upgraded to Windows 10.
Much of the last tweny-four hours has been consumed by two tasks: making it print to an HP printer networked to our router, and moving email from Windows Live Mail on an XP box to the same program on the W10 machine.
If I run into a Linux problem (or even Android) I can usually visit a forum or other resource and get an answer in a few minutes. With Windows I'm Googling madly and chasing many more dead ends than useful answers.
And yes, that not surprisingly includes Microsoft's own sites.
So Soylentils, what are your go-to places for good-quality Windows 10 information?
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by mendax on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:08PM
Best Windows 10 resource I know is a Linux or MacOS desktop trash can, where it all belongs.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Katastic on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:12PM
I spent almost two weeks of company time trying to diagnose why ONLY TWO salespeople's iPhones couldn't get their Exchange e-mail on their phones. They kept bitching and bitching, they called their "IT nephew" to try and give me advice. It turns out that a SPECIFIC iPhone with a SPECIFIC iOS version decides to shit all over everyone.
Microsoft's entire software stack is a gigantic pile of trash, and Apple's updates only make it worse.
All they care about is getting the software sold. If it works--even if it throws a thousand errors in the Event Log every day--nobody gives a shit until the next IT guy comes along (read: me) and has to clean up the mess.
I never used to hate Microsoft's products until I had to maintain them for a living. When I start my company, I'm going to ban them and write it into a stone tablet for everyone to see.
(Score: 2, Touché) by kazzie on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:49PM
When I start my company, I'm going to ban them and write it into a stone tablet for everyone to see.
Does the tablet run Windows 10?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:21PM
It runs Moses 1.0
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 06 2015, @08:33AM
Stone tablet? The odds are pretty good. A brick tablet, on the other hand, would probably be Apple.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:55PM
So basically like Linux distros that have tons of errors in the log on a clean install.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:18PM
So basically like Linux distros
This is not the appropriate thread for a M$ shill to post tu quoque accusations. And you are offtopic, since, if you had read the Fine Summary you would know the issue is finding information on the errors, not that there are errors. So, try harder, or just give the OP your secret contact number to Redmond so the poor bastard can get some help.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:16PM
I think I saw another post on this printer made by the OP elsewhere yesterday.
God! I am SOOO Glad for Linux! [linuxmint.com]
If the 2 usernames are not the same person, that is a fantastic coincidence.
My question at this point is:
What task do you need to do that requires Redmond's spyware?
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:32PM
You mean like every version of windows, which after installing all the mandatory updates to fix all its problems also fills the even log with needless spam, so that when something does go wrong the log is virtually useless since you can't tell what is business as usual, and what is real problems. I would rather be homeless again, then maintain other peoples Microsoft products again.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by darkfeline on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:42PM
Linux exploits this chink in the defenses. Your computer notices a bootable disk in the floppy or CD-ROM drive, loads in some object code from that disk, and blindly begins to execute it. But this is not Microsoft or Apple code, this is Linux code, and so at this point your computer begins to behave very differently from what you are accustomed to. Cryptic messages began to scroll up the screen. If you had booted a commercial OS, you would, at this point, be seeing a "Welcome to MacOS" cartoon, or a screen filled with clouds in a blue sky, and a Windows logo. But under Linux you get a long telegram printed in stark white letters on a black screen. There is no "welcome!" message. Most of the telegram has the semi-inscrutable menace of graffiti tags.
The only parts of this that are readable, for normal people, are the error messages and warnings. And yet it's noteworthy that Linux doesn't stop, or crash, when it encounters an error; it spits out a pithy complaint, gives up on whatever processes were damaged, and keeps on rolling. This was decidedly not true of the early versions of Apple and Microsoft OSes, for the simple reason that an OS that is not capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time cannot possibly recover from errors. Looking for, and dealing with, errors requires a separate process running in parallel with the one that has erred. A kind of superego, if you will, that keeps an eye on all of the others, and jumps in when one goes astray. Now that MacOS and Windows can do more than one thing at a time they are much better at dealing with errors than they used to be, but they are not even close to Linux or other Unices in this respect; and their greater complexity has made them vulnerable to new types of errors.
In the Beginning was the Command Line [inria.fr]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by el_oscuro on Monday September 07 2015, @12:43AM
But this is not Microsoft or Apple code, this is Linux code, and so at this point your computer begins to behave very differently from what you are accustomed to. Cryptic messages began to scroll up the screen.
Unfortunately, for most distros, you are incorrect. Most these days have a crappy splash screen which I hate. I would much rather see those cryptic error messages so if there is a problem, I can see it and google the error message.
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:01PM
When I start my company, I'm going to ban them and write it into a stone tablet for everyone to see.
Yeah, that usually works out well [independent.co.uk].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:41PM
All software sucks [cat-v.org]. It really does. We are at a point where so much overly complex shit has been shoveled on top of more overly complex shit that it's become nearly impossible to dig ourselves out.
Bottom line? If it works good enough then it's done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:11PM
My network shared printer worked fine on XP and Linux, Replaced XP with 7 and everything went to permission hell. Never got it working even after upgrading to 10. I scoured the Internet, including MS, for way longer than it should have to. Gave up.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:24PM
If you read the EULA for the print drivers, you are only allowed to install the software on *one* machine. Not sure if that is related to the problem you and the OP were having.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:41PM
Pffft. Works fine on Linux. Never worked on Win7 and up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:20AM
You've read the EULAs for all the printer drivers he could possibly be using, and they all state they can only be installed on one machine? Wow! Either you're talking out of your arse, or you must have been really bored to think reading all those EULAs was worth doing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @04:20AM
I tried to buy an HP printer before ultimately returning it. the EULAs are fairly boiler-plate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:17PM
What printer is it?? Old printers are like window machines... Toss in trash.
Now, get a RPi and make it printer server, then you should be good to good.
At office we have hp jetdirect boxes (10baseT) to handle old printers. No longer can see the JAVA webpages - to old of java. Newest 2016 test box, cannot be setup as a print server to them either. DRIVERS are not supported.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:14PM
Stop buying crappy printers that don't support the generic Postscript drivers and/or plug into the Ethernet or at the very least (for home use) wireless.
It doesn't matter what OS you use, crappy propreitary protocols on your printer will eventually push you into obsolesence. And, no, CUPS won't save you. I can point to at least half a dozen printer models I've used where the Linux "support" (even when advertised) consisted of a binary driver to interpret their own protocol that plugs into CUPS (and stops working when you update CUPS or the underlying system), or actually just never works.
I've just spent an instructive afternoon trying to auto-print support emails to a particular networked printer from a major manufacturer. Works fine with Windows drivers. Under Linux, I had to enable FTP printing and FTP a postscript to it. Hint: You can't do that automatically under CUPS without scripts. None of the supposed drivers (manufacturer's, similar model names from openprinting, etc.) would work at all, or only produced garbage. Even with working ones, things like non-standard paper sizes or booklet printing or even duplex? Forget it.
Buy better printers, don't blame the OS. If it doesn't do PLAIN POSTSCRIPT and get an IP address itself, it's a piece of home-targetted shite.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Subsentient on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:15PM
I hear that in the seventh level of hell, you can find the developers that wrote Windows 10. Beware though, they try to get you to sign an EULA that gives them the rights to monitor your eternal soul.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:22PM
"Disruption of Communications can only mean one thing."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:18PM
Star Trek reference... "It's dead Jim"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:01PM
" For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical ocean to kill whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for theirs; and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew." Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
(Score: 2) by gman003 on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:26PM
I had some audio driver problems when I updated my laptop to W10. I would have had similar problems had I updated to W8, but I skipped that one, and the fixes weren't exactly identical.
After about a week, the community for that laptop had figured it out, and a reasonably specific search ("asus g75 subwoofer not playing windows 10") brought me to a detailed, step-by-step fix [asus.com] for the problem.
I have not needed to do anything else. All of my programs work - the only defect I've noticed is that PuTTY's jump list no longer works, but that's not exactly a big deal (and the devs are working on it [greenend.org.uk]). I didn't use many Microsoft programs, though, so that might be part of it.
If you're having hardware problems, look for forums for that specific hardware. If it's software problems, consider alternatives (can you use Thunderbird instead of Windows Live Mail?). And of course, a good Google query will narrow things down for you. I'd like to assume anyone here would know how to phrase a search well, but I've sadly seen too many people lack that skill who really should be better.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:26PM
a good Google query will narrow things down for you.
This.
The only issue I had on my single Windows 10 machine was bluetooth pairing, and that was because Microsoft had actually fixed pairing in W10, which was overly aggressive in prior versions (you could pair with just about anything that walked by in the past, now it insists that the device be visible and actively seeking to pair.
Google (or even Bing will find the answers, and I suspect Applebarry (submitter) knew that already when he posted the submission.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:28PM
or the H1-B in Redmon watching you masterbate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:34PM
reminds me when the new win7 equipped machines got shipped at work.
I start the first one, do the initial setup and activation, try to configure the LAN printer / copier, win7 starts auto-looking on the net for the driver.
Well, in the meantime I might double boot sidux on another machine... done (sidux from usb installed in 2:30 + 1 min to set configuration opts)
Well, in the meantime I might double boot sidux on yet another ... done
Well, in the meantime I might double boot sidux on the last one ... done
Well, in the meantime I might check if printing work on sidux... flawless. The scanner? too.
20 mins into the printer configuration, the win7 machine finally configures the printer. To this day the scanner works only on linux.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:32PM
did you switch to siduction?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mtrycz on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:37PM
I don't think there is any. Windows 10 is too new to have a respectable source of info, and the millions of links still have to "surface" on google. For now it's just a mess.
I think that not having three interfaces for settings would help, for a start. No wait, three different interfaces, and some things are possibile only in one of them, while other things are possible in another. It's just a mess beyond all recognition.
As for your problem, i'd try to export the mails in an *open* format, and then try to reimport them. Or something.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:39PM
<newb> hey guys i'm trying to print on my linux
<l33t> rtfm
<d00d> stfu
<c00l3r> fuck off newb
<b3st3st> learn to google
(Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:57PM
Probably because anyone on IRC asking such a dumb question ("on my linux" -- on my linux what?) is an obvious troll, or beyond help.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:21PM
I think you're well wide of the mark.
It's far more likely that this is what actually transpired:
God! I am SOOO Glad for Linux! [linuxmint.com]
Up the thread [soylentnews.org]
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @12:35AM
You should ask that in your distribution specific IRC channel, not #openbsd !!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:51AM
Whew! OCD crisis averted.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by No Respect on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:41PM
is where to find a good deal on Windows 7 Pro.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:51PM
If you have a reseller account, SourceCode.com [sourcecode.com] is where I buy mine.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:55PM
A lot of stuff on CDW still comes with Windows 7 Pro.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:59PM
yeah I almost think this post is just trolling, but the user isn't a troll.
I guess he rolls with the punches and doesn't really care what is going on under the hood.
I *am* concerned that he upgrades to windows 10, and then asks questions. It should be the other way around.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:47PM
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/ [goodbye-microsoft.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:36AM
I'd be surprised if that worked on anything newer than Windows 7. It was apparently last updated in 2011, that's before Windows 8 was released, the executable download is newer, but I expect that is only to update it to install the latest version of Debian.
(Score: 1) by axsdenied on Sunday September 06 2015, @12:08PM
And welcome systemd :-)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @08:53PM
There are people that actually want to use windows 10?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @03:01AM
There are people who have to use Windows to get money from other people and stuff.
Out of these, there are people who would like having some SSD space left after installing their OS. Hint: Windows 10 has been heavily optimized.
Personally, I'd rather be using OpenBSD to do my work, but I think Windows 10 with MSYS2 is about as usable as Linux(take that as you will).
(Score: 3, Informative) by Justin Case on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:13PM
rm -rf
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday September 06 2015, @05:53AM
ITYM rd /s
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Whoever on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:59PM
This has always been the case: resources for Windows problems suck.
Search for most problems and you will see lots of postings like:
Poster A: I did A, B and C, it fixed the problem for me.
Poster B: I tried these and it didn't fix the problem
Poster C: I did B, C and D and it fixed the problem
Poster D: I did A, C and D and it did not fix the problem.
etc...
In other words, lots of postings where people made a bunch of changes, most of which were irrelevant and often result in reduced security and no clear answer on how to solve the issue. At least one of those posting will instruct the reader to turn off the firewall (*)
None of this is new.
*: The Linux equivalent of this is an instruction to disable or turn off SELinux.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:04PM
Poster E: I nuked it from orbit and reinstalled.
Poster F: Thanks, that worked!
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @09:39PM
Poster G: I got a call from "This is windows calling", they fixed all my problems. It only cost $875 per year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:02PM
This has always been the case: resources for computer problems suck.
Fixed that for you. ALL platforms follow this model.
You also forgot poster "I am seeing this issue too." And that is the *only* reply.
The ones that kill me are the 'how do I x' and someone shows how to do it for an irrelevant OS. Or the obligatory 'install this other OS' of which this thread is full of :( Oh yeah I am going to spend 2-3 hours installing something else then spend hours redoing my work flow because you have some irrational idea that an OS does something special other than LAUNCH other programs...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @03:58AM
if all the OS did was launch programs why would you have to redo your workflow if you changed OS?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @06:53AM
At least one of those posting will instruct the reader to turn off the firewall
That's me. When times get tough I sometimes have to fight scruffy bot herders for a living. Burring the answers in non-solutions is part of my job security through obscurity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @07:45AM
The answer is B. Poster B is retarded.
By the way, if your Windows 10 upgrade gets stuck with a black screen, disable everything you can in the BIOS. Then after it has booted once you can enable everything again.
Disabling SELinux doesn't remove any security because much like Windows Firewall it didn't add any in the first place. No wonder you get Windows-like posts for your Windows-like OS.
SystemD, SELinux, D-Bus, seriously...
No wonder the Linux Foundation gives Chrome!books away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:03PM
The linux equivalent nowadays is to tell people to run it with sudo.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday September 06 2015, @07:54PM
Windows problems?
That is like from an Aesop's fable.
The peasant boy with a problem that he doesn't know how to solve asks numerous village adults and they provide inane or useless advice, some of which would clearly harm him if he tried to do whatever they said.
After sitting for a while on a rock wondering about what to do, a thought strikes him and does something that is like a mix of all of that and he benefited from the collective wisdom of the village/tribe but didn't actually learn how to solve the problem exactly. Instead, he learned to critically think about the problem, take other people's experiences and advice into account, and make a decision for himself -- good or bad, without necessarily knowing why.
(The boy who disabled the firewall to let the sheep back in after it got dark accidentally enabled the boy who cried wolf to kill half the village on accident when the additional safeguards of anyone paying attention to logs had been disabled due to repetitive messages indicating an has occurred which may or may not be a problem. Check with your village elder.)
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:20PM
How to use Windows 10:
Step 1: throw it in the trash!
(Score: 5, Informative) by number6 on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:28PM
windows-10 printer lan setup help - Google Search
www.google.com/search?nomo=1.....&q=windows-10%20printer%20lan%20setup%20help [google.com]
site:youtube.com/ windows-10 printer network setup help - Google Search
www.google.com/search?nomo=1.....q=site%3Ayoutube.com%2F+windows-10%20printer%20network%20setup%20help [google.com]
windows-10 HP printer network router help - Yandex Search
yandex.ru/yandsearch?text=windows-10%20HP%20printer%20network%20router%20help [yandex.ru]
HP Printers - Using Print and Scan Doctor for Windows to Help Resolve Printer Issues
support.hp.com/ru-ru/document/c03286146 [hp.com]
This document applies to HP printers supported in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. .... HP provides a free tool called HP Print and Scan Doctor to diagnose and resolve printing and scanning problems. Download and run HP Print and Scan Doctor to quickly and automatically perform several troubleshooting tasks known to resolve this issue. When this link is clicked, HP Print and Scan Doctor is downloaded using your Internet browser's download capabilities. .... FAQ: After you install the HP Print and Scan Doctor, review this list of frequently asked questions on using the tool.
Windows 10 TP file/printer sharing doesn't work in mixed ...
www.windows10forums.com/.../windows-10-tp-file-printer-sharing-doesnt- work-in-mixed-environments.184/ [windows10forums.com]
WIN10 - Windows 10 TP (non-enterprise edition) WINXP - Windows ... But NetBIOS has to working on the LAN because I can ping each PC from any PC. ... Do you have a home network environment setup the same as I described and file sharing is working for you? ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940684. [microsoft.com]
Will my HP Printer work with Windows 10 ? - HP Support Forum ...
h30434.www3.hp.com/.../Printer...Install-Setup/...Printer...Windows-10/.../ 5169746 [hp.com]
Jul 29, 2015 ... Are you considering upgrading to Win 10, will my printer work?” So you are considering upgrading to Windows 10 or you have Migrated to Windows . ... Notebook Hardware · Wireless, Internet & Home Networking · Hardware Upgrades & .... from hp.com and install (or re-install) for their product on Win10.
How to Share a Printer with the Network in Windows 7 or Windows 8
www.7tutorials.com/how-share-printer-your-network [7tutorials.com]
... quite a few steps. Here's how it works, both in Windows 7 and Windows 8. ... 7 Tutorials - Help and How To for Windows & Windows Phone. All Content ... How to Install a Windows 7 or 8 Network Shared Printer in Mac OS X ... by Anonymous on 03/09/2010 - 10:46 ... If your printer is not ethernet ready, buy a print server.
Windows 10 Wireless Setup - HP Support Forum - 5189830
h30434.www3.hp.com/.../Printer-Networking.../Windows-10...Setup/.../ 5189830 [hp.com]
I'm frustrated. First the installer on my new HP LaserJet P1102w didn't start. Then my Windows 10 PC didn't locate the printer or see the disk pr.
HP Printers - Installing and Using the Windows Built-in Print Driver ...
support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01796879 [hp.com]
This video shows how to install the built in print driver in Windows 10 ... Both your printer and wireless router must support the WPS push button connection ... Connect the printer and the computer to your router with a standard Ethernet cable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @03:46PM
Spare us the google search results. I spent 10s of hours scouring the interweb looking for answers to sharing a printer on winblows, everything from permissions to adding administrators and registry hacks shows up. Phuck that, run a flavor of Linux, share a printer, and it all works just fine.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:45PM
I have Win 8.1 and a wireless HP printer (309g or somesuch). For a year and a half things were good. About 6 months ago, when I printed a doc I got "printer is offline" message. I could http to the printer and see it was online. I could also get my fat ass out of my chair, walk over, and see it was online.
Google wasn't much help but the HP website has a Print and Scan Doctor. Downloaded it, it suggested I disable the Windows firewall. I did, things printed fine. More googling showed the ports I needed to open. Opened them up, still no joy. I spent hours on this without ever getting it to work.
To this day, when I want to print I have to disable the Windows firewall first.
This might be a good place to ask, does anyone know a Win8.1 command line command to enable/disable the firewall?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Informative) by number6 on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:58PM
Quickly Turn ON/OFF Windows Firewall Using Command Line
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/....FirewallUsingCommandLine.html [windowsnetworking.com]
This article explains how you can quickly Turn Windows Firewall On or Off. This tips applies to Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008...
Commands:
- To Turn Off:
NetSh Advfirewall set allprofiles state off
- To Turn On:
NetSh Advfirewall set allrprofiles state on
- To check the status of Windows Firewall:
Netsh Advfirewall show allprofiles
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday September 06 2015, @12:05AM
Works like a champ, thanks!
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @04:23PM
I disabled Windows firewall, you really don't need it if your home router has it's firewall enabled which it should. It's a different story if you use wifi hotspots though.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Appalbarry on Saturday September 05 2015, @10:58PM
OK, ignoring the obvious useless posts, here's more info:
SO actually knew pretty specifically what she wanted in terms of processor, RAM, drive space, and wanted to be able to flip the lid and use it as a tablet. She's also one of those people who actually care about design, so the machine had to look and feel good. Keyboard mattered. The choice based on budget wound up being an HP Envy. I'll say that it's a nice looking machine, and seems to function just fine.
It's her machine, not mine, and she chose to do the Windows 10 auto-upgrade. More to the point, she knew there might still be issues because it's new.
She has some pretty specific software needs, and has no interest in moving to Linux. Her first serious system ran NeXT, so change is not an issue. She just knows what she wants.
Parenthetically, she also looked at Apple products, but they lacked the touchscreen, the flip to laptop option, and generally cost a lot more money. If they had offered what she wanted she probably would have gone to a Mac. Well, except that she finds the Apple attitude irritating.
(God I love this woman!)
The printer is a not too old HP 2600 All-in-One, with a network cable running to the wireless router. I was gobsmacked when Windows could not find the printer, even when handed the IP address. Don't know why, don't entirely care. Once we installed the MASSIVE HP driver pack the HP software found and installed it fine.
I swear that after installing printer drivers Windows forced a reboot.
I mean, seriously, is this 1998?
Moving the email from Windows Live Mail on her XP box to Windows Live Mail 2012 on the HP proved to be an endless hassle. She made the big jump from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail a couple of years ago, and has no wish to move to another program. It works fine for her, so that's where she's staying.
Way too much Googling told me only that with some versions of this software, on some versions of Windows, email can be moved by copying over the whole mail directory. Or maybe mail can be moved by exporting and importing mail. Ultimately I wound up trying both.
The Export/import scheme for some reason only moved over mail from 2011.
Exporting Account information for import was a non-starter. Don't recall why.
Copying all mail directories over worked better, except that all mail was now marked "Unread." CTRL A + Mark read. This also copies over the various email account settings, except for passwords.
Contact lists had to be exported and imported separately, but lost any contact groups that has been set up.
Honestly, I have long since learned to dread moving between MS e-mail programs.
As for the product itself, I was surprised how little it actually changes from Vista or even XP. Aside from tiles and touchscreen capability it really feels and looks about the same. And I like that if you dig a bit there are lots of geek type options available for tweaking the system.
We both found that we were using the touchscreen a lot in a very short time - again, something I wouldn't have expected.
Most of my searches for answers were Googled, and yes, I didn't think to look for hardware specific forums, although it seemed fairly obvious that the issue was with Windows, not HP.
What I found was that even if I wrapped Windows 10 in quotes, all sorts of things relevant to Windows 8 and 7 showed up, some of which were possibly useful, many of which weren't. It really does seem that there's very little Win 10 info out there yet. It also seems that a lot of Windows users are posting a lot of "fixes" that don't work for any one else.
I don't think that any result from the Microsoft.com web universe was of any use, including their user forums.
Despite this being a new product, I would have expected a fairly solid base of support information from Microsoft. Then again, Even as far back as Windows 3.1 I recall that MS was the last place you expected to find answers.
Ultimately I'd say that she really likes the HP hardware, and that Windows 10 looks like it'll be just fine once we're beyond the teething pains. There are still a lot of niggling "features" that she wants to kill off, and certainly tons of crapware that will need to be removed, but the system itself is quite OK.
The other noteable thing is that Microsoft really, really, really wants you to move things on-line, and is pushing people to store documents in The Cloud. Needless to say they also really want us to rent Office 365 instead of borrowing a CD player to install our old copy of Office 2007. Good luck with that!
Me? I'm typing this on my ancient dual-core, 4 gig RAM HP desktop, running Mint 17.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:05PM
Oh yeah, in response to the guy who posted along list of stuff that he Googled, good for you. I guess I have limited patience.
If just about everything on the first results page is useless I tend to assume that pages 2 through 47 won't be much better.
And trust me, just because a page at MS or HP says they have the answer doesn't mean it will solve the problem.
Besides, every system in this house, including Linux and Android devices going back a few years, has been able to find the damned printer. It's insane that Windows wouldn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @12:27AM
I get that you would want to "ignore the obvious useless posts" but why do you have to be a jerk to the one person that actually provided information? "good for you".
You're the kind of asshole nobody really likes hanging around. You're a smug piece of shit.
Next time you ask for help, how about trying to not belittle the one person that actually helps you. Or maybe not asking for help at all.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday September 06 2015, @09:19AM
I don't read that as being a jerk - he acknowledged what the other poster had done and said 'good for you'. You seem to have taken it as a sarcastic statement, whereas I read it as an acknowledgement and a hat tip.
However, you certainly don't make the mistake of leaving your views unclear - this is an unnecessary comment and, imho, quite undeserved.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Sunday September 06 2015, @06:39PM
Yes, just to re-clarify, I wasn't looking for specific Googled answers to the question "How do I make my printer work with Windows 10."
I was asking what specific sites are best for quality advice from users and others.
For instance, for Mint Linux I go to http://forums.linuxmint.com/ [linuxmint.com].
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:29AM
A large part of the problem is that google search has gone to shit.
Putting quotes around a phrase no longer means exact match, it means search for these words with quote marks. I don't know how to specify exact match any more.
Also, the advertising and SEO has taken over, even in the section after "sponsored results" . Your best bet is to go straight to page two or three.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday September 06 2015, @04:50AM
A large part of the problem is that google search has gone to shit.
Putting quotes around a phrase no longer means exact match, it means search for one or more of these words, or words with similar spellings, with quote marks. And the "region" setting is just a guideline. I don't know how to specify exact match any more.
Not corrected, just more details.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by acharax on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:06PM
You need to use the burried verbatim search mode (if you disable scripting it will show up on the right side of the screen, instead of being burried under a layer of useless menus). Beware, if you use this too frequently for "complex" queries, there's a chance you'll get flagged as a bot.
(Score: 2) by acharax on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:09PM
* Left side of the screen.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday September 07 2015, @11:46PM
Maybe us peons in the rest of the world get a different page, but the only way I could get that option up was to turn on scripting and go through the advanced search menu.
The problem is that it doesn't work. You still get multiple pages of crap that is "related" not a list of exact matches.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:52AM
You really should be using IMAP for email, it is a lot less hassle when switching mail clients and you can use it on multiple machines.
For Office you can just copy the files onto a USB stick and install from that, it doesn't need to be installed from a CD. Also CD/DVD drives can be shared over the network, it's a convenient option if you don't have a USB drive handy, though it probably won't work for any programs that check for the disk as copy protection.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Sunday September 06 2015, @06:51PM
I swear that after installing printer drivers Windows forced a reboot.
No. Windows didn't. HP did. And it wasn't because you installed printer drivers. Its because:
Once we installed the MASSIVE HP driver pack the HP software found and installed it fine.
Those weren't just printer drivers. There were printer drivers in there, but that's not the half of what was in there. And that's barely a printer, an HP Photosmart all-in-one?
I was gobsmacked when Windows could not find the printer, even when handed the IP address.
Why? If the device doesn't respond like a normal network printer and wants only to be spoken too in arcane HP proprietary gibberish why on earth should you expect Windows to speak its language without first installing HP's garbage. And if I'm not mistaken that's a 10+ year old consumer grade inkjet that was discontinued before Vista came out. The HP support pages have Windows 98 and OS9 downloads for it.
Moving the email from Windows Live Mail on her XP box to Windows Live Mail 2012 on the HP proved to be an endless hassle.
Use IMAP. Don't transfer between mail programs directly.
Me? I'm typing this on my ancient dual-core, 4 gig RAM HP desktop, running Mint 17.
Yeah, but how well would it run on the new envy? From what I've seen... not so well. Everything from sound issues to graphics issues to battery life issues (power management) to keyboard and trackpad issues. And hows Mint as a touchscreen OS?
Am I trolling at the end here? Maybe a little. I like linux, and I like mint in particular. But I'd rather run Windows on most new ultrabooks / transformers etc.
(Score: 4, Informative) by deimios on Sunday September 06 2015, @05:30AM
The simplest method I use to move mails from wherever to wherever is:
1. On source machine set up imap access to an account you use currently. If you are not using any service with imap access then create one, on a local server or gmail.
2. On source machine in the mail client copy your mails (usually drag and drop) onto the imap account. This will take ages.
3. On target machine depending if you have an imap account or not:
3.a. If you have an imap account you already have the mails once the copying finished
3.b. If you set up a temporary imap account and don't want to use it (for example you want your mails offline locally) connect to it via POP and download the mails. After that delete the imap account.
I've moved a lot of mails during my days. From exchange to qmail+courier to postfix+dovecot, from maildir to mbox and back.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @10:39AM
you just copy "/home/{old.username}/.thunderbird"
to some usb-connected stick (or you can samba it also) then connect the usb-stick to new computer and copy the folder
to"/home/{new.username}/.thunderbird"
and start thunderbird on the new computer?
.
yes email storage is a conspiracy with no ANSI, ISO or any world wide standard AT ALL!