Windows 10 tamed at last

[alexham36]

Hi Guys,

I did not want to wait my turn for the Creator's update so I downloaded one manually last week. It took 3.5 hours of numbingly boring staring at blank screen with percentage progress, but it installed OK. The following morning the system wanted to check discs for errors, but after it "repaired" drive C: it would not boot up. I tried Repair Disc that I made before and Start Up USB, but neither worked. Apparently, I was missing \windows\system\boot\winload.exe error code oxc000225. Finally, the only repair tool that worked was to restore from System Image, but that restored me to a position about a month ago, so I lost the Creator's update and all the minor updates since. That put me again into the menacing path of automatic updates eating my broadband allocation of 10GB per month. I must tell you that I was tempted to rush off to the nearest John Lewis store, hit the salesman with anything up to £2k and walk off with the latest Apple Mac computer.

I made the second attempt to download and install the Creator's Update on Thursday - another 3.5 hours of staring into blank screen with percentage progress, but I endured it. This time I made a system image immediately and decided not to allow disc checking again. I must say that the update has not made any difference to how the system works. I does not have the facility to turn off the automatic updates, which I expected, but it does allow me to turn the system into permanent metered mode and thus stop the automatic downloading of updates. It also has the facility to extend active hours from 12 to 18, which prevents re-starts when I am using the computer.

So, if you are running Win10 and are fed up with automatic updates, installing the Creator's update will cure that problem. I am still tempted to dump Windows and go for Apple Mac, because I certainly do not want to this often. It is a pity that PCLinuxOS, which I have on another HD is somewhat "primitive" and does not have an effective Sleep/Hibernate feature, otherwise I would be using Linux permanently.

Best,

Alex

[mikkh]

Self inflicted wounds mostly, I have to say. You have a ridiculously low cap which would be fine for a smartphone, but (as you've found out) nowhere near enough for a PC and definitely not enough for several devices/PC's in the same house. I get that people need to save money in these austere times, but I'm currently living on £260 a month benefits and manage to afford a decent connection - and lucky to be in a cabled area with no limits. I could (and sometimes do) use 10 GB in a single weekend.

Apple is not really an option for saving bandwidth either, the May security update was 1.79 GB and future updates likely to be bigger. Apple is not a good idea for several other reasons too. It's a whole new system to learn/loathe, you can not tinker with the hardware easily or at all in some things and the repairs should it need any are very expensive - as are any new peripherals/add ons. If I was tempted to go that route, I'd go for a 'hackintosh' which is basically better hardware than Apple supply in a more familiar PC case for a cheaper price. Something like this as a random example from eBay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/i7-7700K-4-6GHZ-OC-16GB-2400MHZ-250-SSD-4GB-GTX1050Ti-Hackintosh-macOS-Sierra-/263008148977?hash=item3d3c81ddf1:g:JckAAOSw~y9ZKurN

As for primative PClinuxOS, it's still my day to day OS and I've never felt a need to sleep or hibernate in any OS. I've never even tried it to see if it works, but I will now you've mentioned it. I'm quite happy to let the screen blank when I'm away for short periods or simply just switch off if I know I'm going to be away a while.

[mikkh]

.... well it works (hibernate) but seems to take longer than a normal boot, so pretty pointless and not effective like you say. It's just not a habit I've developed, so I'm assuming it's supposed to be a time saver as well as being a snapshot of your current working progress. Saving or bookmarking things seems more logical to me, which is why I don't use it

[alexham36]

Thank you for the advice, which after I cooled down, looks sensible, so I am not changing the computer or OS. By the way, I am on unlimited broadband from midnight to 8am and as I am a night owl by nature, I can manage with that most of the time. My normal use is less than 4GB per month. I resent paying more just so that the Windows can hit me with updates at any time, but that has been sorted with the Creator's Update. However, PCLinuxOS, which is on another HD will not boot since the Windows update. All I get is a flashing cursor on a black screen and it just stays there. But Puppy still works, so I have a working alternative should Win10 play up again. Very interesting Hackintosh computers. I did not know they even existed.
Thanks again,
Alex

[mikkh]

The PClinuxOS KDE live CD version used to include a fix MBR tool for fixing such problems, it got dropped in later versions, but it may be included in yours
Other options include this sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/

Not quite sure why it's so big, but if it works it's worth trying

Anything from sourceforge is legit open source with no hidden extras

[alexham36]

Jul 2, 2017 15:27:55 GMT mikkh said:

The PClinuxOS KDE live CD version used to include a fix MBR tool for fixing such problems, it got dropped in later versions, but it may be included in yours
Other options include this sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/

Not quite sure why it's so big, but if it works it's worth trying

Anything from sourceforge is legit open source with no hidden extras

There is no redo-mbr on my live DVD, but on the advice from PCLinuxOS forum, I booted with Live DVD and downloaded redo-MBR in Synaptic. Once only use, because it cannot be saved on Live DVD. Well, it did not work, so I decided to re-install, which made matters worse. It worked for 2 or 3 boots and then something went wrong. It now goes into localhost login and Configure Your Computer is not responding at all. Suspend/Hibernate does not work at all and I have to <Alt><Control><Del> to get the shut down options. When Shut Down is selected the screen goes black, but the system continues running until the main power button is pressed. Far too unreliable and complicated for me, so I will not use it except in dire emergency. You mentioned that you use Mate. I looked at that, but there are about a dozen of them. Which is the one you would recommend? Alex.

[mikkh]

www.pclinuxos.com/get-pclinuxos/mate/

press download locations

Chose Ireland then 64 bit and pick Mate ISO - New July one just added

The repair boot CD link I posted works fine btw, it's a Debian live CD which is why it's so big.