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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: familydar on Thursday 25 January 18 17:28 GMT (UK)
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Following the demise of my old workhorse, for speed I've ended up with an off the shelf desktop pc. It's gone through all its windows updates and now I'm wrestling with the basic setup. I won't get round to installing all my old software, configuring printers etc till at least tomorrow.
I have all my old internet explorer favorites saved to a USB stick but I can't find the correct favorites folder on the new computer to be able to copy them over. I've managed to set up a single favorite website (don't ask me how I managed it) thinking that I could search for that, but it's not showing anywhere obvious. There is an "import from file" option but that seems to require each URL to be imported individually, not what I'm looking for. So please somebody help me out! As a workaround I've copied them all into a folder within documents so I can open them from there, but it's not ideal.
I'm also finding it very frustrating that the ie11 alt a keyboard shortcut to favorites doesn't work in edge, presumably because there is no longer a menu bar. Why can't the teenagers who develop the software they inflict upon us understand that some of us have difficulty manipulating a pointing device and want to use the keyboard? I think I might give edge a wide berth and use chrome or firefox, it will mean learning new keyboard shortcuts but last time I looked they did at least exist.
It has also surprised me that to get the new machine to look and feel like Win7 I need to rely on third party software, not just switch off features I don't want. ClassicShell seems to be the software that crops up time and again when I do an internet search, does anyone here have experience of it?
Jane :-)
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Just search for Favorites.. then Open Folder
Go to where you copied them all into a folder within documents.
Go Control+A
Then Control+C
Go to Favorites Folder and go Control+V
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I can achieve the copy but it doesn't seem to be landing in the right place. The favorites folder I'm copying them to doesn't seem to be the same one as the edge browser is referencing. When I search my c: drive for "favorites" it finds a number of different folders with varying dates against them. Two of them have MicrosoftEdge as part of the path name but they don't contain the shortcuts I've copied.
Perhaps the computer needs a reboot, I know I do. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have more success.
Jane :-)
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When you Search for Favorites there should be a default one
Just Open it, right click area (circled) and Paste.
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If you don't like Edge and want to stick with Internet Explorer, it is still available in Windows 10 (but is well hidden)
https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/6-ways-to-open-internet-explorer-in-windows-10.html
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Jane,
Perhaps you could let us know which bits you don't like, then we might be able to suggest ways to improve things. You really shouldn't need any third-party software such as ClassicShell. Once you get into the Settings you can customize almost everything to suit you.
The first thing I did was to turn off "Tiles" on the start menu, which leaves you with a pop-up menu list similar to Win7. The attached pic shows my desktop with the menu showing.
Mike.
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P.S. Try Ctrl + I for Favourites in Edge Browser ;)
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In settings you can import your favourites from another browser. I downloaded Firefox imported my favourites from a usb, then opened edge and clicked on Firefox, all my favourited downloaded immediately
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Ooh such a dangerous question Mike, which bits I don't like.
The answer has to be change. Having to learn something new has come at exactly the wrong time because there are rather too many other things going on in my life at the moment. I believe there are reports which say that workplace productivity always takes a dive after any significant change. I've never read beyond the headlines but would hope that it's only a temporary blip.
In terms of browser, I've found ie11 and it's recognising all my old favorites, so that's good although I realise that at some point in the future it will be unsupported and I'll need to switch to something else. What's not so good is that despite having changed the default browser and search engine, the global search still uses edge and bing. That's M$ for you.
When I met Win7 for the first time I bought a book "Windows 7 Tips & Techniques" and it has been worth its weight in gold, so I shall see if I can find something similar for Win10. Whether I will ever come to love Win10 in the same way remains to be seen but there's no going back.
The computer didn't come with any installation disks. This happened with my old computer too and one of the first things I was prompted to do was create a set of recovery disks. I've not had that prompt with this one, unless it was something I said no to without realising. As Win10 is a download is there no need? How do people with shaky internet cope?
On the plus side, I've successfully installed FTM V6 and M$ Works (my disks are v8.5 I think) so two of the staples of my FH distraction are at least available to me. They're not remembering the window size and position between sessions, whether that's a feature of Win10 or something I need to tweak I'm not sure, but at least I still have them.
I've had a wander round settings but can't see how to turn off tiles, so step by step instructions for that would be useful. The terminology is all a bit alien to me. Something else I find disconcerting is the apparent absence of a "save" or "ok" button - am I missing something?
Jane :-)
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I'm not too keen on change myself these days but I very soon got used to Win10, although I did cheat by trialling the pre-release version while still using 7 on my main PC.
As I said, I mainly use third-party software so I'm not too sure of some of the of the Windows apps. Maybe someone else can help there.
If you don't have an installation disk I would think it wise to create a recovery disk. In Control Panel select "Back up and Restore (Windows 7)", which doesn't do what it says unless you upgraded from 7. ::) At the top left of that window you should see "Create a system repair disk".
On the start menu, I seem to remember you right-click on the tiles one by one and select "Unpin from Start". Once they're all unpinned you should end up with the menu as in my earlier screenshot.
In the Settings window I turn off almost everything in the Privacy section, but if you use certain M$ services you will need some of them. There is no Save button, the settings change as soon as you close the window in most cases.
Keyboard shortcuts are here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts
Hope that helps a little :)
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Yes my plan was to get used to Win10 on a new pc while still having my existing fully functioning Win7 computer, but said piece of kit had other ideas :(
Jane :-)
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Is there a way to not have to sign in to my own computer every day? It seems a bit ridiculous since I am the only user in the house. I can understand there being a need to keep my m$ account secure, but if somebody breaks in and steals my computer I think that unauthorised access to my photos and FH stuff will be the least of my worries.
Jane :-)
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Is there a way to not have to sign in to my own computer every day? It seems a bit ridiculous since I am the only user in the house. I can understand there being a need to keep my m$ account secure, but if somebody breaks in and steals my computer I think that unauthorised access to my photos and FH stuff will be the least of my worries.
Jane :-)
Have a read at http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-automatically-login-in-windows-10/
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Thanks Falkyrn, option 1 worked. And Mike, I've followed your instructions and made a recovery disk, now stored safely with all its predecessors and disks for much-loved old software. I've also got rid of the tiles but my start menu still doesn't look like yours Mike until I've done a few extra keystrokes - start, cursor down, cursor down, cursor down, enter - what's the secret? Also I thought I'd configured jump lists but apparently not.
Anyway, I'm gradually getting there. I seem to have successfully configured my wireless printer (haven't tried the old wired one that I use for scanning yet). Have ordered a promising looking Win10 book at my local bookshop. Even managed to rename my second on-board HDD back to D:\ after it got relabelled E:\. To my mind the most likely reason for this unexpected behaviour is that I installed some antique software that expected the optical drive to be D, so Windows dutifully shuffled everything about. Too clever by half! I think that's part of the reason I'm struggling, I like to know how things work and Win10 is very much "black box" technology.
Jane :-)
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I'm afraid I can't remember everything I did in the early days but you can play around with the start menu settings under "Personalisation", there are several options you can switch on or off . . . I just tried it on mine and I think you need to switch on "Show app list in Start menu" :-\
As you say, Windows 10 is far too clever but you can tailor it to suit you with a bit of trial and error. One good thing is that it seems better than any previous version at sorting itself out if things do go wrong, if you give it time.