I'm in the process of configuring my almost-never-before-used Windows 10 Hewlett Packard laptop bought in 2015 (I think.) Windows 10 is new to me and I'm running into things that I like and don't like. Mostly don't like. Nearly all don't like. Okay... entirely things I don't like.
• After I bought it on Black Friday 2015 (I think) and installed a few basic applications including Office 2000, I mothballed the laptop, doing nothing more with it until now. After all, I don't WANT to be running Windows 10. I've heard nothing good about it. But my older laptop was acting up and I figured it only had weeks to live. Turns out I was right. It had about 150 weeks to live.
Upon booting the new box today, I found that it wouldn't boot without being plugged into a power outlet. The laptop says that a battery is not detected. It's not dead, it is not detected. That means that the battery went bad... kaput... never again to see the light of day. Okay, I can understand that since batteries do have limited lifetimes, but it really hasn't been that long. Why doesn't Duracell make computer batteries??? Time to order a new one and I bet it will be massively overpriced.
• When I tried to use Word, Microsoft got all snooty and demanded I enter the Product Activation key. This is plenty annoying since I had to have entered it when I installed Office 2000. Right now, I don't know where my software binder is, and that's where I have Product Activation keys, so I guess Office is going to stay broken for a bit. Hmmm. I actually bought a copy of MS "Office Home and Student 2010" for one dollar at a garage sale a few weeks ago and I *do* know where that is. Maybe God is telling me that it's finally time to upgrade from Office 2000...
• Dammit. Wordpad can't open Word 2000 ".doc" file properly. I'll probably need to open the files I need on my wife's laptop, convert them to a format that Wordpad likes, then return them to this computer via USB drive. Whee. What fun to do that with a few hundred files. Installing Office 2010 is sounding better and better.
• Why did the "Eject USB Device" icon have to change? I don't know who the genius was at Microsoft who thought it was a good policy to change everything around with every new release even if they aren't broke... but I'd really like to go duck hunting with him sometime.
• It seems like every five minutes, my laptop is freezing up for 30 seconds or more. I seem to recall that this is one of the new Windows 10 "features."
• I don't remember the name of the application I had for Windows 8 that made the desktop look and feel like Windows 7, but I already miss it...
• Copying the files I recovered and put on my wife's Windows 10 box to this new Windows 10 box involves a USB drive that wasn't formatted with Windows 10. Consequently, a bunch of metacode that's embedded in various files is unable to copy. #$%^! The files themselves (jpegs, mostly) can still copy, but information associated with the files is apparently being lost.
• *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* Okay, that has nothing to with Windows, but I'm sure hearing a lot of gunfire. I think hunting season has either begun or is about to. It sure feels like hunting season. The low tomorrow night is supposedly going to be 22°. Time to find my long-legged pants.
• I wonder how much of the vintage software I use and love (Microsoft Digital Image Suite) is ALSO going to have problems running under Windows 10? Oh well. As with Office 2000, I don't know where the software is right now anyway.
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