Comments by "John h Palmer" (@johnhpalmer6098) on "Ask Leo!"
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Having used both 10, and 11, I have no issues with either. If you are having issues with snooping from Microsoft, then turn off all the settings deal with snooping, such as turn off your webcam, microphone etc.
Currently, I have both Pro and Home on 2 computers. Pro is on my desktop, but for some reason, my Dell Latitude laptop has Home. Both were purchased refurbished within the year. I have run most flavors of Windows, from Windows 3.1 through 11, minus ME, outside of the 2-3 times I borrowed a buddy's PC when at his house, Likely not run Win 2000, NT, 8, or 8.1, but have run everything else and have not has any usage issues with any of them. Vista was OK, slow and power hungry, but OK, as long as you ran the 64 bit version. XP was great, The little I've run of 7 was fine, liked 10/11 better than 7 IMO.
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I'm old enough to remember before the internet where if you wanted to do a deep dive in something, you had to go to your local library, sometimes to look things up online via Wois, among other services, but mostly to utilize the library and its card catalogs (remember those?), the Microfiche machines (also, remember those?) and of course, at times you had to go to a basement to use the stacks, or at our library, you could go down and be in the stacks and there were tables to use, now a dumb waiter can bring up the stuff to the patron but the staff had access to the basement stacks and would bring stuff up to the front counter.
Now, I can access all that online through the library's online website, including image archives. I've used these archives a lot of late for several video projects where history is the main subject, as in, seeing photos of my old community I grew up in with images going back 50+ years.
Some of these were also pulled from the community's historical site for many photos. For project on the history of Christmas lights, I utilized much of the image archives at the library online and just spent time recently adding attributes and resizing for later editing.
Also, being autistic, I'm more prone to do these deep dives, even if it meant heading to the library in the physical sense to gain access to historical materials.
What I DO see a lot is folks not using their brains and ask questions that in many cases, a few minutes online could have gotten them the answer they were seeking easily enough. Also, common sense does seem to be lacking and scamming, while older than the hills, seems to have become much more prevalent than it used to, and most normal folks seem much more prone to fall for them, rather than critically thinking, which is something many schools are failing to teach folks.
The blame is many and from many corners so no one component is at fault, but a myriad of faults that seem to be in collusion to making critical thinking be a thing of the past for many folks. The computer is not to blame, but CAN make it easier for some folks to turn off their brain than to use it for some tasks.
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One area where you should upgrade is the OS itself, that is, if you want to go online, most browsers will not support non supported OS'. That is, they force you to use an older, outdated version of say, Firefox.Only one browser will work with a modern version is Opera, but I've had issues getting it to download, let alone work in XP. Thus, the old eMachines I was using as a media server of sorts, eventually got scrapped as of last year.
The PC was old enough to run, not just a Celeron (I had upgraded it to a P4 in 2012), but also ran IDE drives but no longer had a working copy of XP on disc and what was on the drive was not working correctly by bringing up a sign in prompt when I had no password setup.
I also had to upgrade from Vista when my old Dell Studio XPS from 2009 took a dump in 2019 by a failing hard drive, Windows 10, and now 11, so what's the big issue? I'm not as bad about change as I once was, but I still don't like change for changes sake, but don't mind if change is needed when what you'd been using simply does not work anymore.
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One thing to be aware of is some software may cause Windows to crash, or the software itself crashes due to a conflict say in windows. The software (or driver) is often not Windows fault (unless it's generic drivers for many third party devices where they get it from the manufacturer). At that point, as Leo says, it's out of MS's hands.
A good example is your graphics card may cause issues with Windows, blame the card manufacturer for the interface/driver, not Microsoft for the issue.
Due to a wide range of products that can run in Windows, things will happen that are not Microsoft's fault.
I've run most variants of Windows going back to Windows 3.1 and have had no issues with any of them as far as usage goes. I do welcome improvements, such as being able to multitask (couldn't do so initially due to where the development was with Windows, and PC's to start with).
So getting your panties in a bunch does not serve you well at all. Just learn to roll with it and move on, and as long as Microsoft can take care of the more egregious bugs that affect more than 1% of users, or prevents the software to running correctly, leave it be. Also, sometimes your device is just bad and causing vexing issues with the OS.
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Agree with Leo here, way too many conspiracies out there on Windows. I've used most versions of Windows going back to 3.1, That includes 95/98/xp/Vista, some 7/10, and 11. 11 came by default when I had to replace my aging 4th gen i5 box unexpectedly in late 2023 with a 7th gen i5 box with 11 already installed, yes, refurbished. My older 4th gen was the same when I bought that in 2019. 10, 11, mostly the same, some changes like control panel changed in 10 but not enough of a change to make much of a difference in use for me. So what's the gripe?
I am now on a home brew box, based on the Core 7 Ultra, Z890 chipset motherboard and DDR5 memory, running Windows 11 Pro. I took my key from my retail copy of 10 and just used it to get 11 so no need to pay for 11 for this build, and yes, it's activated and works fine.
Some versions of Windows will readily blue screen as it's an all or nothing proposition, earlier variants were like this, but ever since they made it so you can just shut down an individual program that crashed, and carry on, it's gotten better, along with being capable of multitasking, it's been fine, all of it from a useage standpoint. I, like Leo don't see what the fuss is all about.
Is Microsoft ideal? No. It's wanting to snoop, but you CAN turn stuff off if you want/need to, won't affect your ability to use Windows. Why so difficult with making the switch and believing conspiracy theories is beyond me.
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I largely agree, change for changes sake, not so much, but change that truly improves a product yes, I'm all for it.
Let's take Windows for instance, I've used most versions over the years, going back to Windows 3.1, 3.11 for Workgroups, Windows 95/98/SE, dabbled in ME/2000, XP, Vista (64), Win 7 (some), skipped 8/8.1Windows 10 and 11. Some definitely better than others, ME was alright but nothing special, XP, excellent, Vista, not nearly as bad as some made it out to be, though to be honest, I think likely the 64 bit version being better than the 32 bit variant (more stable, less BSOD's), 10/11 I find to be more or less equal.
Sometimes, the changes made within a version while it's in support are nebulous and require a bit of research to find them when moved can be annoying or removed all together as well but overall, I migrate from one version to another without too much difficulty.
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Totally agree with Leo here, have done much the same over time. I began this over 30 years ago when I got my first machine, a 386 in 1994. To be frank, not good at backing up (would have save me mucho time later when I had to restore or upgrade).
Fortunately, I have a memory like an elephant for many things and have actually lost very little data over time fortunately. I've had hard drives die on me, including on infamous ceramic platter drive from IBM. Platter dust caused sticktion with the heads and thus the drive would not always readily spin up so clue was My Documents would not always stay active. That was in 2001 IIRC.
Currently, gathering the parts for a new build and will have to do this again.
Best to reinstall all software from scratch, install a fresh copy of your OS as the specs for one PC change how the OS/software installs, and thus will be different on another machine and no real way to guarantee its functionality on the new machine.
Now, if you are simply reinstalling on the same machine, but on a new drive, then a full image backup copied over is all you need.
Once the new PC is up and running I have GOT to go through all the drives and sort/clean them all out so I can find stuff. Stuff gets moved around, shuttled from one drive to another as far as my data/files go and it's gotten difficult to find stuff. It's been needing to be done for a long time and been putting it off, so this year, not going to put off and just get it done one afternoon.
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When I worked IT at a 2 year college, they did the 3 pass wipe of the drives. This is due to they often get reused in computers sent to surplus as boot boxes only, no OS or anything, just a wiped drive. For computers not heading to either scrap or surplus, wiped drives may be put in and then reimaged for use for another employee.
This is most likely to not just a single format, but may add in a random character(s) as well so NO critical info can be found on the drives, once the computer leaves the campus for surplus. Similar is done when a drive is to be disposed of, drill or hammer the drive so it can't be used, especially if it no longer works (at that time, 2 or so years ago, mechanical drives were still in use). I think these days if SSD drives are used, they just break them when they are to be disposed of, or as said, they do the full wipe and then sell the surplus PC/laptop with an empty SSD.
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I'd say, a little research on your part would have been wise. The 2 comments below say pretty much the same thing, your PC is fine, outside of the CPU, and even that challenge is not insurmountable for the end user to circumvent.
A case in point, I bought 2 refurbished computers, one a 7th gen Core i5 processor in the small form factor Dell Optiplex desktop last fall, and it was already upgraded to Windows 11 Pro. Today, bought an 8th gen Core i5 based laptop that was upgraded to Windows 11. Both came with SSD drives, the desktop an NVME based M.2 drive, the laptop is SATA based M.2 and both came kitted with 16GB of DDR4 RAM. While not for the overall long haul, they will more than suffice for the next couple of years at least and both cost less than $250 each.
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That's a good way to go when it comes to YT. I watch it all the time, but am very selective about what I watch. If you go just by the posts on Trump (for or against) is a good example. I scroll through the recommendations by YT, and read the title of the recommended video, right now, a lot of push back (or seems anyway) against Trump but meanwhile, no one is putting him in jail and letting the whole thing with him being president commence, so I DO hope the videos that proclaim pushback that could stop Trump materialize, but then again, posts that show they possibly are for him, I just move on past.
It now takes being a critical thinker, sadly, it's becoming not a thing for many folks. I'm old enough to have learned how to be critically thinking and not take stuff at face value. Also, I think being neurodivergent helps.
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I think it was earlier this year I got an email from a guy that was able to explain where I was, what I was looking at etc as an attempt to get me to be safer online, much of it was actually correct. I was a tad unnerved, but ultimately deleted the email and I think it happened again about a month or so later, and again, I just ignored it.
Yes, I have defender on firewall etc. and so far, I have not noted any attempts that I'm aware of, of folks trying to breach my accounts.
Some like banks, I have had to let go due to lack of any real money coming in that requires such as I've been mostly living off of EBT/Cash, but transitioning to SSDI with PT work to make up the difference so will need to get a bank of some sort soon.
Anyway, another good episode.
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Like you, I've used most variants of Windows from 3.1 to 11 and have not had any issues per se.
That said, some are clearly better than others. 95-98 (and SE) were fine, though it was all or nothing when they crashed. That lessened significantly with XP as now, you can just shut down the offending software or peripheral and windows soldiered on. Vista was not bad, but those that had issues, I suspect one was trying to run it on under spec computers or had the 32 bit version for lesser machines that were only 32 bit. I had the 64 bit version as my old Dell Studio XPS was 64 bit and largely had no issues with it by itself. Then when I had to do an upgrade, the refurbished PC I got had 10, then when I had to replace that machine 4 years later, the newer refurbished box came with 11, and I just built a new, up to date PC, and went with 11, using a retail copy of 10's key I had to get 11 Pro. Easy peasy.
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Another way to see if you are on is look at Windows settings/internet/networking and if online, you should see your ethernet connection, if not, a dialog box will say you are offline.
This happened to me earlier this week and I thought my gateway (Verizon 5G) was offline, rebooting/updating, turned out the model was offline and didn't come back up on its own, so had to power off, power on to reboot, and it came back up online. Likely the ping command will be more useful for anything that is not local to you.
At least this method I explained will let you know you are online, or not. Being online simply means you can get on the internet, but not always to specific sites and if you can't reach any site, likely you are offline.
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Yep. I got a cordless mouse, had several, 2 from Microsoft, but they failed and now have a Logitech mouse and one thing I've found is, if your computer is a tower, and sits on the floor, you need to bring the dongle up to roughly level with the mouse, or it won't work reliably as it's line of sight transmission.
My SFF Dell sits on my desk, but my keyboard and mouse are on a keyboard drawer below the surface, so use an extension to bring the dongle to the same level of the mouse and that works.
Another issue is when you've been able to rule out the mouse etc, but find an issue is something larger, check to be certain your USB ports are working. Years ago, I had a first gen Core i7 based Dell Studio XPS desktop who's motherboard was failing due to loosing periodically the USB ports. A new MB fixed that. Clue was the keyboard, mouse and other peripherals stopped working. So be aware of that.
As to Windows 7, I hope you are not online with 7, it's been off support for several years and using it with an outdated browser leads you security risks, and a lack of proper operation of some site due to being forced to run an older version of the browser due to this lack of support.
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Not a bad idea, though I'd get (and have) a dock for the drives. They are hot swappable as it's likely you are using SATA drives. IDE drives were not, but SATA is. That way, you can put a drive in the caddy, do your image backup, pull it out and store it.
Mine is a 2 drive caddy that also has the ability to clone one drive to another internally. They are designed to only accept SATA drives, both 2.5 or 3.5" drives, mechanical or SSD. Works a treat, and makes it easier to pull files from drives and consolidate them onto one, larger drive. Currently, I have a 2TB HDD and I'm slowly pulling files to it so data is not scatted over several drives.
Exceptions are SD cards and thumb drives as I often will pull the images onto the drives for storage/project use, then when full, I wipe (format) the cards and reuse them again as needed. This way, I don't have to buy new all the time.
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I think you are missing the point. It's a form of 2 factor authentication. There are several ways to implement this, email (a separate one, ideally from a different provider), biometric (if using your phone), or by text messaging whereby they send you a code (use once, limited time to reply) that you then type in on your PC, something that says, it's you that is requesting a change. That's it. Some, though another email is the ONLY option, but that is I think becoming less and less. I personally have 3 emails, one is my primary one, and 2 others, one is Gmail as in it's needed for some services on Google, but they all require 2FA now, so I have had my main email (MSN) used for Gmail, and vice versa. Both are used so no issues there. I do often try to remember to log into my yahoo email periodically, though it is "used" by sites like Live Journal to send me notifications as it was for that kind of thing. I don't get into LJ much these days so Yahoo falls by the wayside mostly now.
But 2FA is often a requirement, along with password vaults to help you with recovering accounts.
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I rarely need to call customer service as I can often glean info from say Tom's Hardware or whatever, even if it's an article on someone's product or service, but the info can still be useful in say, why something is, and how it's handled, and oh, by the way use our service to do just that. The info before the by the way portion is where I can get an idea of what I need to be doing and I move on. Eventually, I'll get what I'm after after a few minutes of rooting around the internet and can then go do what I need and fix whatever issue I have.
Granted, sometimes I need to ask someone instead, thus I go directly to the source and find their number if they have one, or failing that, an email or chat for assistance. Sometimes it's a bot chat and often they are useless but I try anyway as it's a you never know. but I will eventually find what I'm after.
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You can call me lucky. I have 2 email accounts, both free I've had since the early 2000's, MSN (when it was still MSN, never had Hotmail) and a Yahoo account for gay related stuff primarily. At one point, had a paid email account through MSN with a broadband service, but that email now no longer exists. Not a big deal, really. Due to being a Youtuber, I do have a Gmail account and it gets used for some things, but almost never send from it, it's receive only. I have alternative ways, mostly 2FA now for retrieving/changing passwords as needed, which is very, very rare.
MSN is my main email and I send/receive from it all the time. I do agree with most of what you say here and should look into a password vault or similar and also update my coded log in credentials list in Libre Office (started out in Microsoft Office) and make it a spreadsheet instead for easier searching, cleaning it up while at it.
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Yep, Google is indeed your Friend, as is Wikipedia, among other things. A lot of the time, the bibliographies at the end of Wikipedia etc can be very helpful too.
Something as simple as finding out what an abbreviation is, is helpful. For instance, FWIW, I suppose you likely know what it means, I do as well, but for someone that doesn't know, just hop on Google and ask, what is FWIW, the answer is at, or near the top of the results that comes back when you hit enter. 30 seconds or so, you have your answer.
As you have said, it does help if you have an inkling of what to look for too in your search. Sometimes, as you've pointed out, recalling the specifics of an answer you were not sure of, but have looked up before in the past to refresh your memory in answering a question.
I have at times have had to admonish some folks online for the lack of researching as one, the question asked is so basic that a 30 second search will reveal the answer quickly say, I'll say, Do your own research, Google is your Friend or variations of that.
It is true that sometimes you just have to read between the lines, and triangulate the answer to answer a question.
I do often feel like I don't know enough to do what I am doing sometimes, but know I'm not alone in having to look things up.
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Thank you. I recently got my 2 computers, one a desktop, the other a laptop (both Dells running Win11, though the desktop is Pro, the laptop is Home but the laptop can only see the shared folders of documents, downloads etc, not the regular ones we drop files to by default. The desktop can see all that on the laptop.
This was the first time I've successfully got this far with Windows network as trying to run older non 10/11 machines to either 10/11 has often resulted in failures, especially anything pre Windows 7. I had tried to network and old Dell Inspiron B120 laptop with XP to my old Windows 10 desktop a year or so ago, no dice. XP could not be seen on my desktop. So I think you also need to be using on all machines the similar era OS, such as 10/11, with maybe 7-8.1 being alright to use for file sharing/printing.
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Other than needing TPM 2.0 and compatible CPU, I have not had an issue with using 11. My last PC, a 7th gen i5 Dell had 11 and ran it no problem. My current PC is much newer, home brewed and based on the 15th gen Core 7 Ultra, it has 11 Pro.
That said, I have not found no real difference between 10 and 11. Yes, the start bar defaults to the center (big deal) and the move function was removed (again, no big deal) as Cut and Paste is essentially the same thing in the long run.
I just shuffled a bunch of files recently that way to consolidate things to one drive and get my drives all reorganized again after several years of having to move stuff around due to a lack of space on some drives as stuff got scattered over several drives.
Otherwise, what changes are not the OS per se user wise, but some of the telemetry has changed, and not all for the better in their defaults. Just turn them off and your privacy is mostly preserved.
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I have been having an issue with an old graphics card that is not playing nice with Windows 11 and simply crashes, sometimes with a brief buzz, then both screens go black, triggering the power saver on both, but the PC is still operating (say, a video still is playing).
So I used to hit the power button and hold it until the PC shuts off, now realizing that if you press momentarily the power button, the PC will do the proper shut down command. Wait a second or so, then repress the power button and it'll go through the boot process and you can then resume.
Otherwise, I tend to hit Ctrl/Alt/Del to bring up the task manager open and scroll down and select it, find the offending driver/program, and force Windows to shut it down and resume from there.
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Agree with you in that if you have a PC that is on Windows 11 and is fine, keep at it, you've got a year and a half to upgrade. I had to upgrade because I had to replace an older Dell Optiplex that is too old for Windows 11, bought it used in 2019 refurbished, and was a 4th gen I5, so can't run Windows 11 as is. So the new machine I got to replace it is a 7th gen i5, and is also a Dell Optiplex, both SFF machines and it was also refurbished, but came with Windows 11, got it last October and it also has an NVMe drive. The previous Dell had a SATA SSD as it did not have NVMe.
Windows 10/11, does not matter as far as basic usage goes as they are very similar, yes, some things have changed and with careful research, you can get rid of many items and reduce the snooping from Microsoft. But once done, it's done and you should not have to deal with them again, so what's the big deal?
I did briefly use Windows 7, but an ISO that was likely non legit as Microsoft caught it and shut it down, had to go back to Vista (yes), but by this point, the original hard drive in my very old Dell Studio XPS was failing and got it to limp along until we can replace it. This was in 2019, hence the 4th gen i5 Dell. The old XPS was the first gen i7.
That old i5 based Dell was to be a short term replacement, but 4 years in, we realized I had to upgrade, and tried to do so then, but funds were not to be had, and add to that, the computer had to be replaced suddenly, and thus picked up another SFF Dell, which is the current one, and "fell" Windows 11. I now have an 8th gen i5 based Dell Latitude with 11 too.
So, eh... it's all Windows and for the most part, works fine.
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@danteerskine7678 I call BS on your claim, they ALL die, Period. I've had old fashioned hard drives fail, yes, but not after at least several years of in some cases, a hard life in IT, in another case a DECADE of heavy read use (OS and programs), only to loose sectors and corrupting the OS badly. The computer was getting long legged anyway, and had plenty of other parts like the motherboard replaced over its lifespan, the original WD blue finally died 10 years in. One or 2 of the not quite as old, but from IT drives failed to be recognized by the OS.
I have had a thumb drive die from mostly a lack of use over time, an SD card fail eventually (it was an Adata class 4 drive for my Nikon D90 DSLR. I have 2 and the second one still works).
The point that Leo is saying here is, no matter the drive, most will last between 3-3 years on average but many will last at least a decade, often with many reads and writes and that you are best to backup everything.
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