Windows 7 / 10 Advice Please, Thank you

[slimbob]

Quick reply.
Thanks so much UBUYSA and Tony and everyone else
This is short because my proper success and thank you post will follow with screen shots when get myself sorted its a learning curve but an enjoyable one.
Hope this posts o.K I have been having problems with Chrome and had to use Edge to post.
Anyway I wont' say anymore and will save it for my next post!!!
Windows 10 is AWESOME!!!!!

 

[slimbob]

BEHOLD !!!!!!

So sorry it has taken a while to post this success screen shot and find the appropriate wall paper, it has taken me a while to figure things out but I am getting there slowly but surely. I think I am getting to grips with it.

Thank you so much (Alphabetical Order) Scott, Slimcini, Spydertracks, Tony1044 and Ubuysa.
I really can't thank you guys enough, can I buy you a beer I have a paypal account is this allowed? I hope so. Please tell me how I can.

I can't stop smiling I feel like I have a new P.C honest to God, it feels so much faster!! I fully appreciate I might be over reacting due to excitement but it does feel faster!! It has to be right?

This means I can play Metro Last Light on max settings ......... doesn't it?

I am keeping everything nice and tidy and personalizing it so it feels like home.

Verdict = Windows 10 is absolutely AWESOME !!!!!! I love it.

Scott all your links, guides and advice were an absolute life line, there is so much advice online but advice varies in quality and yours was platinum as was everyone else's for that matter.

Ubuysa thanks for everything including the word replacement software advice, giving me peace of mind knowing all was O.K. at the very end and for everything else you have done for me.

Spydertracks thanks for helping me with that Nero Rom Burning software and everything else too! I have tried dark mode and it looks badass I think it will take me a while to get accustomed to it but I will try alternating with light mode and see how it goes. You will love my next post by the way!!

Tony thanks for your extremely helpful and encouraging posts it is so much appreciated. Before I forget regarding the image you posted yes it was the sync feature, mine was on so that is how the old wallpaper got there like you and Ubuysa said.

Slimcini thank you very much for your contribution too.

Basically thank you everyone.

I have always loved computers since I was a child but they do scare me to death I must confess. It takes a long time for things to sink into this thick skull of mine. But this adventure has give me so much more confidence, I want to try other things I wouldn't of dreamt of trying in the past. I am not going to sprint before I can crawl but I am making progress.

Hope you are all o.k.

Thank you !!!!!

 

[SpyderTracks]

That’s so cool!!! Well done for your perseverance Followed directions well!

BTW with dark mode and light mode, you can actually set it so it will automatically change to dark mode when the sun sets wherever you are, pointless but fun!!!

 

[slimbob]

Here you go Spydertracks ... Dark mode.

 

[Scott]

Great news, really happy for you. No rewards or gains are accepted or necessary, thanks is more than enough and helping someone is always a reward in itself.

You need to give yourself some credit too. There are so many people that would just go in guns blazing but you took your time and got the method in your head before applying it. That's testament to you and your patience.

I know I keep saying it, but other than backups of important files.... there's nothing that can't be fixed from a software stance. You now have the tools to fix ANY issue, a clean wipe will fix anything software related (usually a last course of action, but you have it in your tool belt now).

Enjoy Windows 10. Just make sure you update everything, GPU drivers especially. Looks like you don't have the glass mode switched on (going by the task bar). Is this deliberate? It's normally a sign of a driver being recently updated (or not installed). Just a small thing of note haha.

 

[ubuysa]

Very well done! Now you're a techie. Welcome to the club. [emoji846]

 

[slimbob]

Great news, really happy for you. No rewards or gains are accepted or necessary, thanks is more than enough and helping someone is always a reward in itself.

You need to give yourself some credit too. There are so many people that would just go in guns blazing but you took your time and got the method in your head before applying it. That's testament to you and your patience.

I know I keep saying it, but other than backups of important files.... there's nothing that can't be fixed from a software stance. You now have the tools to fix ANY issue, a clean wipe will fix anything software related (usually a last course of action, but you have it in your tool belt now).

Enjoy Windows 10. Just make sure you update everything, GPU drivers especially. Looks like you don't have the glass mode switched on (going by the task bar). Is this deliberate? It's normally a sign of a driver being recently updated (or not installed). Just a small thing of note haha.

Thank you Scott it’s a shame I can’t buy you all something as a thank you and thanks for you kind words by the way.

I certainly didn’t go in guns blazing! I printed off all your link notes and post notes and read it countless times I was scared as once I started the boot I was on my own so to speak apart from a phone call to PCS. Plus I appreciate PCS are very busy so I didn’t want to bother them unless I was really stuck.

I did some looking into backing up before as I new I had to get my act together as I just manually back up on portable external hard drives and have never done a system image back up. Anyway the first thing I did was download a free copy of Macrium Reflect then disconnect from the internet and take a system image of my fresh install. I read I should make windows recovery drive too unless my USB bootable drive is the same thing? I might have to order another so I can make one. That Macrium Reflect software is amazing!!

It’s great I can now fix most things and can do a clean install if something really goes bad. I feel empowered !!

I will make sure to update, I don’t have a graphics card apart from the integrated graphics card that came with my P.C as it took me over my maximum budget.

I have searched for glass mode and how to turn it back on if I accidently switched it off, is it Aero Glass? I am not quite sure and will look into it.

Thanks so much again for all your help.
Cheers.

 

[Scott]

In Win 10 if you right click on the desktop, click "Personalise" then click "Colours" it's in there under "Transparency Effects".

 

[ubuysa]

Yes you do need to make a Macrium Reflect recovery drive. There are a couple of options you'll find...

You can make a bootable system on your hard drive. That way when you boot your PC you'll see two options; Windows 10 and Macrium Reflect. Selecting Reflect will boot the recovery system and run Reflect so you can do a restore.

The other option is to make a USB attached drive a bootable Reflect recovery medium. This could be another USB stick (a tiny 1GB one will be fine) or it could be the external hard disk you write your backups to. To use that you just boot the external hard drive or USB stick and run Reflect so you can do a restore.

 

[slimbob]

Very well done! Now you're a techie. Welcome to the club. [emoji846]

Hi UBUYSA, well I wouldn't call myself a techie yet are you kidding I am just a bit less of a non Techie !!! It is nice to feel part of the club I must say. I really wish I could buy you a beer or something it's such a shame it's not allowed.

Thanks so much for everything

I have just been reading one of your excellent posts about the benefits of partitioning a hard drive it makes so much sense!!! Plus now is the perfect time to do it (I think) and I can use my new Macrium Reflect software to take system image back ups of my windows partition !!!!!
When I was putting my system together from PCS I was so fortunate because I could afford to get a WD Raptor 500 gig drive do you know what it has been one of the best things I have bought. My P.C is still going well and it is coming up to it's 7th birthday! I think it is down to the raptor !!

Anyway my previous P.C had a 80 gig drive and I did manage to almost fill it and I thought my new Raptor 500 gig drive would never get a quarter full ever. However I must confess I have manged to fill about 330 gig because of my home family movies I make with my old Panasonic camcorder and it makes very big files.

I am going to keep installing all my software and see how much space it takes up I can't see it being much the biggest one apart from windows is OpenOffice which is really big but so good, thanks again!!. I honestly can't see me going over 40 gig, surely not. You said 128 gig was a good size for a windows and program partition so I could do that and then put all my other data on the other 372gig. Plus apparently I can do this with windows10 and don't need to get special specialist software to help me do this. I will look for Microsoft tutorials to learn how I can do this.

What do you think? This could be my next project to becoming less of a non techie.

Hope you are well and thanks so much again

 

[slimbob]

Yes you do need to make a Macrium Reflect recovery drive. There are a couple of options you'll find...

You can make a bootable system on your hard drive. That way when you boot your PC you'll see two options; Windows 10 and Macrium Reflect. Selecting Reflect will boot the recovery system and run Reflect so you can do a restore.

The other option is to make a USB attached drive a bootable Reflect recovery medium. This could be another USB stick (a tiny 1GB one will be fine) or it could be the external hard disk you write your backups to. To use that you just boot the external hard drive or USB stick and run Reflect so you can do a restore.

Sorry I only read you post after I posted mine I will read it now.

 

[ubuysa]

If you only have one drive then the major benefit of partitioning it is that you'll be able to reinstall Windows in the future (to the Windows partition) and not lose all your data (on the data partition).

For the future it's much better performance-wise to have two separate drives. A fast SSD for Windows and programmes and a HDD for your user data.

I know you think 500GB is big but in today's world its actually very modest. My data drive is 2TB and my SSD is another 512GB. Many on here are running systems with 6TB or more storage space. [emoji846]

 

[slimbob]

In Win 10 if you right click on the desktop, click "Personalise" then click "Colours" it's in there under "Transparency Effects".

Hi Scott,
O.K. my transparency is set to off do I need to turn it on?
Underneath it I notice the "start taskbar and action centre" is not able to be clicked and is light grey or is this the problem? What do I need to do to fix this please.
Thank you

 

[slimbob]

If you only have one drive then the major benefit of partitioning it is that you'll be able to reinstall Windows in the future (to the Windows partition) and not lose all your data (on the data partition).

For the future it's much better performance-wise to have two separate drives. A fast SSD for Windows and programmes and a HDD for your user data.

I know you think 500GB is big but in today's world its actually very modest. My data drive is 2TB and my SSD is another 512GB. Many on here are running systems with 6TB or more storage space. [emoji846]

I understand what you mean about 500 gig to being very big now. Your SDD drive is the same size as my main HDD . This is the only drive I have in my computer so is what I mentioned in my previous post not really a good idea or should I go ahead until I can afford to get two new drives like you advise? Is it acceptable do you think? I am saving up so hopefully I can get new drives in the near future.
Thank you

 

[ubuysa]

If its big enough for your current needs then it's fine. As I said, partitioning will allow you to reinstall Windows without destroying your user data. That's really the only advantage. If you're not fussed about being able to do that then don't partition it.

 

[slimbob]

If its big enough for your current needs then it's fine. As I said, partitioning will allow you to reinstall Windows without destroying your user data. That's really the only advantage. If you're not fussed about being able to do that then don't partition it.

Thank you, O.k I will have a think and make a decision, I am looking forward to improving my P.C and I would like to learn how to fit the drives myself and get more hands on plus as I understand I can buy the parts from PCS and fit them myself. Thanks again for your help and advice.

 

[Scott]

Yeah, you just need to switch transparency on..... only if you want it of course. It's a visual luxury as far as resource goes but it's just something I always pick up on

 

[slimbob]

Yeah, you just need to switch transparency on..... only if you want it of course. It's a visual luxury as far as resource goes but it's just something I always pick up on

Thanks very much Scott, I prefer how it looks turned on

 

[slimbob]

Yes you do need to make a Macrium Reflect recovery drive. There are a couple of options you'll find...

You can make a bootable system on your hard drive. That way when you boot your PC you'll see two options; Windows 10 and Macrium Reflect. Selecting Reflect will boot the recovery system and run Reflect so you can do a restore.

The other option is to make a USB attached drive a bootable Reflect recovery medium. This could be another USB stick (a tiny 1GB one will be fine) or it could be the external hard disk you write your backups to. To use that you just boot the external hard drive or USB stick and run Reflect so you can do a restore.

I am going to take your advice and get this sorted, thank you again