Windows 10, Finally got brave! (sorta)

[cheaptackle]

I'm far from being a techie, but not quite totally inept with pooters and such what goes on with 'em.

OK so some of y'all know I was hurt at work almost a year ago and now am in school. WSIB provided me a pretty decent laptop with windows 7 which I have no problems with other than the constant pumping to upgrade to 10.

Most of what I've read seems to indicate upgrading is best done as a "clean install". So, me being the "geenyus" I am, I disabled auto update on windows 7 for a bit to avoid the chance of it downloading 10 automatically like I've heard about. Keep checking on what people are saying about 10 and not ready even now to mess around with upgrading from 7 on the laptop, YET!

So, my old desktop running Vista has been having more and more problems with various websites like this one, my banks and Walmart.ca etc. As a solution I bought a refurb computer with windows 10 installed. Good enough for what I do and cheap (160.00 all in).

Got it all setup today, ran the windows updates manually right away, activated windows defender for now, rebooted as commanded, hopped on the web and starting setting up my favorites etc. I use a rogers rocket stick for internet here in the boonies and the connection manager shows me constant usage. Kept an eye on it as I've learned 10 is supposed to be bandwidth hungry due to updates, but I had run them manually until it said they were all done.

It was going nuts! Where I usually might use 5-10 mb for the time I was on doing the little I had, it was already past 250 mb and rising like a bottle rocket - what the hell!

That's when I started panicking - this wasn't gonna work for me at all. I pay 40.00 + tax for 5 gb/month, 10.00 per gb after that. This sucker is gobbling up over 1/4 of a gb up in well under an hour! So I gotta fix this and now! Goggled for some ideas and found a few, the 10 I have is home and the metered idea won't work with it and the rocket stick, could change regedit for the auto updates if I had Wi-Fi but I don't.

Starting poking around in settings etc, deleting/changing some of the stuff I won't ever use, turning off options in privacy etc. etc. Checked in settings again to see if it was doing/wanting more updates (nope!), task manager to see if I could find anything using bandwidth (nope!) but I did see something I didn't recognize called edge, and it was there 4 or 5 times in task manager.

Now zooming past 400 mb and heading for 500 mb, thinking of switching back to the old Vista unit to research this, decided to try once more. I did a bit more poking around in start, all apps and noticed Microsoft EDGE! What's that anyhow? Started it and got the same browser I had been already using!!! Found Explorer buried under Windows Accessories - CRAP! When I thought I was using internet explorer, it was actually Microsoft Edge. Dang Icons are almost identical! Shut that thing down, deleted the icon from the task bar and got explorer added/going. Usage immediately returned (plummeted!) down to what I expect. I've been surfing around, adding favorites, downloading some small add-ons for about 1.5 hrs now and am just under 20 mb usage. Whew!

Next step is to get better internet here - it'll have to be wireless and that limits the options. Good news is that 10-50 gb/month can be had for 50-60 bucks, bad is upfront costs. Still looking though!

Bottom line for all - make sure you're not running Microsoft Edge unless you have unlimited usage- that sucker makes Mama Cass like Twiggy! It's interface and icon looked like an updated explorer to me, dunno what the heck it does to keep cranking bandwidth but I'm not gonna find out unless I somehow get unlimited here. Haven't had time to try chrome or firefox yet - I'm just getting started today with my new pooter, hope I don't have another experience like this!

 

Michael

 

Edited July 29, 2016 by cheaptackle

[DRIFTER_016]

I never even bothered to try the Edge browser.

Just installed Chrome and that was it.

When I'm using my phone as a WiFi hotspot I tell the puter it's a metered connection so it waits until I'm @ home to update.

I guess it's not possible with the stick.

[aplumma]

chrome seems to be just fine with 10

 

 

art

[Ralph Field]

I agree with Art.

[cheaptackle]

Yeah I'm still working on it. Found some other applications like map that constantly try to update and shut 'em down. I had noticed there was still some usage beyond anything I was doing though not as bad as when I first started. Other than Edge, it doesn't seem to be a browser issue so much as background stuff in the built in applications. I was fine with my usage with vista, quite often I'd read stories for hours and hardly use any bandwidth at all. Noticed last night I'd gone to almost 200 mb and it should have been 50-75 mb at most so something was still happening. This morning I shut some more stuff off like the maps etc. We'll keep an eye on it but I think this computer will end up at school where they have unlimited and I'll bring the laptop with 7 home for now. Hell I'm gonna be there 2 more years so I got lotsa time to work it out!

 

Michael

[Raf]

You should be able to find what processes are utilizinh network bandwidth using task manager or the more advanced perfmon.

[GBW]

If you are "rural" as you are Michael then you have 2 options for internet there, Bell and maybe Explorenet but that would be like going back to dial-up if you went the E way.

[cheaptackle]

No "if" Geoff - I'se here yup! Been doing some research and there are options, still looking. Most have start up and/or hardware costs varying from not too bad to holy ****! Just gotta see which is best for me.

 

Raf - used task manager and am also digging thru all the options in 10. Only reason I found out the offline maps was updating was one of those options reported an update attempt 15 minutes ago - haven't even activated it yet and it's trying to update!

 

I've only been playing with 10 since yesterday afternoon, still got my hair and what was left of my sanity before I started, haven't crashed anything yet so I guess I'm making progress. Found an item that said if I disable it the update function wouldn't work. Not brave enough to try that yet, still keeping it off the internet (using the old vista computer still for that) until I know/learn more. Kinda neat running both units, 2 of everything on my desk right now. Using my 500 gb external drive to transfer files (remember my rocket stick is expensive so no cloud etc for me!). Between this and school I might jest end up a geenyus yet!

 

Michael

[dave524]

Not that I want to , but it has been quite a while since I've got a computer with disks for Windows but most come with a partition on the hard drive called " D: Recovery " or something to that effect. Would it not be possible to use that to take a PC back to factory state and the originally installed version of Windows if some one had a problem with 10? So most people have an out if they really wanted to .

[cheaptackle]

I've seen that configuration Dave, in fact it's on my laptop with 7, it's at school so I can't say much more about right now. The vendor also supplied backup on cd too.

My refurb with 10 has it too, but that would just restore it to the windows 10 as installed only, I'd lose anything I've done or installed unless I choose the option to save all that with the risk of errors if I do (that's what the instructions say anyhow).

For those upgrading from 7 (or 8 or 8.1) to 10 there is supposed to be the ability to restore to the previous within 30 days is what I've learned. I think you would also lose all data and installed apps that way though, unless there's a way to do a backup including these in the recovery partition before upgrading, dunno how to do it but it would seem worthwhile for me to add it to the list of what to find out about (list is now long enough to reach toronto from here!)

 

Michael

[dave524]

I understand the 30 day reversal doesn't work too well but it is suppose to keep your data, yes with recovery you would lose and apps and data you did not save to some external device. On a refurb it could be the refurbisher installed 10 on the C: drive and the the Recovery partition could still be the original factory restore version of Windows.

Edited July 31, 2016 by dave524

[davey buoy]

I have had 10 for a while now,love it.Having said that I have unlimited internet,but my speed is as good or better than 7.I like it.Good luck Micheal.Hope you get it all figured out.

 

Dave.

[GBW]

I understand the 30 day reversal doesn't work too well but it is suppose to keep your data, yes with recovery you would lose and apps and data you did not save to some external device. On a refurb it could be the refurbisher installed 10 on the C: drive and the the Recovery partition could still be the original factory restore version of Windows.

I did the 30 day reversal and it now says "this copy of windows is not genuine" yet it's been legit since I got it from Dell back in 2005/06