38 minutes ago, SteveW said:

£200 - what did you have to buy? You mean you paid for Win10 when you purchased the new PC? That's not strictly the same thing as a copy of virtual machine sw.

Never purchased a desktop PC. I’ve always purchased the relevant bits and jigsaw them all together in some sort of logical order with a few nuts, bolts, sticking plaster, wing and a prayer...lol Seems to work!

As I recall, when I installed Win10 Pro I decided to press ahead and activate it. This resulted in me being transported to the Windows Shop where I made the purchase. That hurt! Once completed the activation process proceeded online. I never received a licence or product key as such so I’m assuming Microsoft keep a record of legit owners of their product and, if the need should ever arise, will reactivate Win10 automatically when requested by said owners.

Mike

I think 90% of the reason people who complain about Win 10 over Win 7 do is simply because they don't want to learn the new GUI-they're just different.   I'm one of those people.  I have always built my own PCs over the past 20y and use a Macbook Pro for basic computing needs now w/ Win 10 thru Bootcamp which I use for 2 applications that don't run in OSX.   Quite frankly I don't like how Win 10 laid out and that once again I have to guess is I just see little point in spending any time solving basic desktop/laptop computing tasks that have been solved in spades since XP really.  I'm weary of info tech change that adds very little practical value.  Often it appears developers create change just to stay afloat.  My only reason to move to Win 10 for P3D is when the hardware I'm using isn't supported by Win 7 and we're there now it would appear, at least for my next hardware upgrade.  One of the very desirable features of OSX is just that--the next major release often changes nothing in the UI, but adds a few discreet new features.  MS would do well to offer this same approach IMO.  As for security concerns in Win 7 post end of security updates I have none--I run Win 7 & P3D on the same SSD and use it only for P3D and utilities and add-ons is it.  No web surfing, no MS Office, no email, little to no need for malware/virus protection.  I'm running virgin Win 7 SP1 I think it was on the OEM disk since the build 6y ago.  Have never had an issue w/ this approach for many years now, not a one.   I have another SSD w/ Win 7 that I using for web surfing and office etc.  

Edited March 7, 20197 yr by Noel

Hi there, all we want is a platform to run our Setup Files and then have a nice flight from A to B. Who cares about what is running underneath FSX or P3D? Every router has a standard firewall and IMO everyone can enjoy his/her flight safely enough. All that been said, i use Win7 (no other software installed) for my flight simming tasks and if i want something else, i just reboot my PC to windows 10.

And i will continue to do so till i buy new hardware which unfortunately will not support Win7.

 

Regards.

Noel, I agree with you wholeheartedly. In the last couple of weeks I 'upgraded' to W10 and spent most of the time getting it to act like W7! Pretty much there now. I think there are more 'How can I disable this that and the other' websites, Youtube videos etc than there ever was for W7.

I still can't get over the use of the term 'Apps'! Programs for God's sake!

 

In Win8 there were a few improvements to performance, the way the display worked and also networking. Both these were useful to FSX. Win10 is a more recent Win8 and is a point release in the revision versioning. If some hardware drivers were not so compatible as they should have been and didn't move to Win8 quickly enough that led to Win7 being a keeper for some. Some users didn't like the starting screen presented whereby we had to move the mouse to a corner to remove it and it looked much like Win7, I was too busy using the thing to notice any differences. I'm on Win10 since I'm developing but even so, I basically didn't notice the changes other than actually some helpful stuff pertaining to my workflow so I'm happy. I don't recall having any kind of hassle with newer OSs. Most things appear in updates for Win7 if hardware allows. There's a lot of stuff around that might be better left on Win7 but a VM can take care of the odd old app in isolation - if it's that old. But then they would have updated their software by now? Most apps (Software Programs) for Win95 work reliably on Win10, if they were written correctly. Even so It's not worth upgrading for the hell of it. Rather wait until a new PC arrives for unpacking.

The writing is on the wall:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-many-people-use-windows-10-microsoft,38768.html

Regards

48 minutes ago, bean_sprout said:

The writing is on the wall:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-many-people-use-windows-10-microsoft,38768.html

Regards

Hi,

I have to question the motivation behind such posts. Even if the figures can be trusted it matters not one jot as the best operating system will always be the one that satisfies the particular requirements of the end user at any point in time. 

I respect your right to have chosen Windows 10. Can I suggest you allow others the right to make their own choices. Yes, choices that many are viewing mistakingly as being blinkered or even stubborn whereas, in fact, are based more on an appreciation of what each operating system has to offer.

Regards,

Mike

The motivation is security.

Regards
bs

24 minutes ago, bean_sprout said:

The motivation is security.

Regards
bs

Many of us have machines exclusively dedicated to simming and have little need for 'security'. I do not do email, browse the web or download directly on my sim PC. I think my risk if I stayed on W7 is pretty low.

32 minutes ago, bean_sprout said:

The motivation is security.

Regards
bs

Security has never been a significant issue as I rely on good hardware and software firewall protection along with ESET NOD32. However, much depends on sensible browsing habits and a healthy mistrust of anything unusual appearing in your Inbox. 

Regards,

Mike

That's right, they have to get something on the machine. What most don't realise is that there's different types of attacks. The malware you know about, virus cleaned from folder x. The ones you don't know about - "I've never had a virus".

No doubt about it, Win10 is a lot more secure than previous. How much that effects each of us we have to make our own minds up. I don't see much to worry about so long as nothing unknown is downloaded and run on there, followed by accessing the bank to check funds.

 

1 hour ago, odourboy said:

Many of us have machines exclusively dedicated to simming and have little need for 'security'. I do not do email, browse the web or download directly on my sim PC. I think my risk if I stayed on W7 is pretty low.

So you install P3D from DVD's?

Cheers
bs

58 minutes ago, SteveW said:

I don't see much to worry about so long as nothing unknown is downloaded and run on there, followed by accessing the bank to check funds.

Any passwords and PIN numbers used to access critical areas like banking services, PayPal, etc. should only be retrievable from those secure regions residing between your ears. Anything else their grubby little hands might get hold of is of little consequence and really not worth worrying about.

Mike

56 minutes ago, bean_sprout said:

So you install P3D from DVD's?

Cheers
bs

It's real simple:   w/ Win 7 Pro you can install one copy on two different drives in the same box for a dual-boot environment under the same license.   One drive is dedicated to P3D and all of its addons.  It is off-line except for where it needs to connect for example to real-time weather updates and that's about it for online connectivity.   For your 2nd boot drive you put everything else, office, email, browser, etc.  When it's time to download software for P3D you do this logged into your 2nd boot drive.  Scan it w/ AV/malware software, then move it to your dedicated flight sim drive, or to a shared data drive.  What's really slick about this approach is the entire flight sim is self-contained making clones or images a snap to do.  With today's fast drives it's perfectly effective to put sim and OS on the same drive.

1 hour ago, bean_sprout said:

So you install P3D from DVD's?

Cheers
bs

I download it off the network via another machine. Scan the files then copy them to my sim machine. Pretty safe.