Just replaced my PC - need to learn Win 10

[anglo]

Holy fackin jeezus.

You have to set a Restore Point to restore to. Then at a later date W10 will restore to this. You can't restore from nothing.

If you want to just check all they system files are present and correct:

• In the search box on the taskbar, type cmd. Right click and select "run as administrator"*. Hit yes
• type in DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press enter
• when its done type exit.
• sfc/scannow and press Enter
• when its done type exit.

Then switch PC off. Put in box. Return to sender.

Edit * make sure your user account is set to administrator. (I'm trying to get the answers in before the questions now!).

I think we are at cross purpose here, I think it's his browser he is having trouble with
He appears to have a browser page on screen which indicates his computer is working

 

[shiny_arrse]

Nothing - as it was a new PC and then I was not using it much over Christmas, as I could use my mobile phone for e-mail, internet, and ARRSE, but now I have important stuff to do. Sensitive files on the hard drives - medical etc.



I did have a Restore Point, but it did not seem to work, so I tried again with an earlier one, and it did work. I am new to Win10 remember.

Get Anti-virus of some description working.
Left click on "Type here to search" (Bottom left of screen) and type Virus.
You should see "Virus & Threat Protection", click on that.
You can then scroll down towards the bottom of the pop up.
Underneath "Who's protecting me?" you should see "Manage Providers" in blue, click on that.
You should be able to see what Anti-Virus and Firewall protection you have.

Let us know what you see.

 

[Tedsson]

I think we are at cross purpose here, I think it's his browser he is having trouble with
He appears to have a browser page on screen which indicates his computer is working

We are not.

I posted instructions on how to change the default setting for both browser and search engine in #108.

He is having trouble with everything.

 

[endure]

Get Anti-virus of some description working.
Left click on "Type here to search" (Bottom left of screen) and type Virus.
You should see "Virus & Threat Protection", click on that.
You can then scroll down towards the bottom of the pop up.
Underneath "Who's protecting me?" you should see "Manage Providers" in blue, click on that.
You should be able to see what Anti-Virus and Firewall protection you have.

Let us know what you see.

If it's a standard W10 install Windows Defender should be running by default.

 

[anglo]

We are not.

I posted instructions on how to change the default setting for both browser and search engine in #108.

He is having trouble with everything.

Sorry, I missed that post,

 

[shiny_arrse]

If it's a standard W10 install Windows Defender should be running by default.

Yep, however, its likely the PC came bundled with another AV, which might be running rather than Defender.
Thought it best to KISS for @Yokel's sake.

 

[Yokel]

I have just downloaded AVG and run a scan nothing. I forget to look for Windows Defender - it is there but periodic updates had not been enabled. They are now.

There is a Firewall up and running - just in case the Russians/Chinese/Iranians want my data.

 

[shiny_arrse]

Now that you have downloaded AVG, Windows Defender is automatically disabled.
If you keep AVG (no reason why not), you will have to use that for your AV, not Windows Defender.
Have a look at Microsoft Defender Antivirus in the Windows Security app - Windows security for info about Defender.

 

[Ruckerwocman]

It's the menu 'tiles' that threw me (I think they appeared with Win 8. A confusing, intrusive and seemingly random mosaic of nonsense.

The menu tiles first appeared in Win 8 and a bloody nuisance they were too. Earliest version of Win 8 didn't have a Start button either and the OS assumed that you were using a tablet with touch screen capabilities, even if you were not. Which is why I stayed with Win 7. I prefer making my moves by mouse, thank you very much. Microsoft heard the anger generated by Win 8 and released Win 8.1 which was an improvement and rolled back some of the most egregious features of Win 8, but I kept to Win 7 until Win 10 came out, and then I switched - at least on my new laptop as there was no option for Win 7. I'm slowly becoming a fan of Win 10, but I keep Win 7 on my desktop and intend to keep it so until the bitter end.

 

[endure]

Anyone that hankers after a start button should investigate Openshell

Open-Shell

Open-Shell has one repository available. Follow their code on GitHub.

github.com

Welcome to the Open-Shell-Menu

Classic Shell Reborn.

open-shell.github.io

 

[Civvy Scum]

How do you fully remove Office? Or at least specifically Excel?

I treated myself to a new laptop before Christmas. It came with a trial version of Office but - being a Yorkshireman - I've installed LibreOffice and got that set as the default app for the various Office file extensions. It's perfectly good enough for what I want.

I thought I'd deleted Office, via Settings, but I've got a very old bit of software that was created in Windows 98/NT days that when I hit the "results" button launches Excel. I can ignore it and open the XLS results file in LibreOffice Calc but I'm puzzled as to why Excel still seems to be present. Microsoft grrrrr.

Any thoughts as to what I've missed?

 

[shiny_arrse]

How do you fully remove Office? Or at least specifically Excel?

I treated myself to a new laptop before Christmas. It came with a trial version of Office but - being a Yorkshireman - I've installed LibreOffice and got that set as the default app for the various Office file extensions. It's perfectly good enough for what I want.

I thought I'd deleted Office, via Settings, but I've got a very old bit of software that was created in Windows 98/NT days that when I hit the "results" button launches Excel. I can ignore it and open the XLS results file in LibreOffice Calc but I'm puzzled as to why Excel still seems to be present. Microsoft grrrrr.

Any thoughts as to what I've missed?

Have a look at CCleaner. It has a Registry cleaner that can find bits left over from incomplete uninstalls. It gives you the option to backup before removing any registry keys and is fairly conservative.

 

[Tedsson]

Have a look at CCleaner. It has a Registry cleaner that can find bits left over from incomplete uninstalls. It gives you the option to backup before removing any registry keys and is fairly conservative.

Seconded on the CCleaner point. An essential piece of kit I have been using from the days when it was called Crap Cleaner (as it took off they decided to make the name more polite). The company that makes it, Piriform, also has a bunch of free tools for defragging, system information and Undelete (which has recovered many a deleted picture from HDDs and various memory cards).

@Civvy Scum - your old bit of software probably has a DLL or INI file linking to Excel. If you have deleted Office you should get an error message (probably saying nothing sensible). Is Excel loaded separately? Windows apps do not have to use the registry - .NET apps use XML files for configuration and some portable apps keep their configuration files with their executables. Not having a clue as to what the app is it might have some Excel VBA code in it.

 

[Ruckerwocman]

How do you fully remove Office? Or at least specifically Excel?

I treated myself to a new laptop before Christmas. It came with a trial version of Office but - being a Yorkshireman - I've installed LibreOffice and got that set as the default app for the various Office file extensions. It's perfectly good enough for what I want.

I thought I'd deleted Office, via Settings, but I've got a very old bit of software that was created in Windows 98/NT days that when I hit the "results" button launches Excel. I can ignore it and open the XLS results file in LibreOffice Calc but I'm puzzled as to why Excel still seems to be present. Microsoft grrrrr.

Any thoughts as to what I've missed?

Thought all of you Tommies could get a free (or super cheap) version of Office through the MOD license? (Not that I'm knocking Open Source Office; I have it too on my desktop) (Top tip: Don't fall for Office 365. Microsoft will keep robbing you annually for what should be a one time install)

 

[Civvy Scum]

Seconded on the CCleaner point. An essential piece of kit I have been using from the days when it was called Crap Cleaner (as it took off they decided to make the name more polite). The company that makes it, Piriform, also has a bunch of free tools for defragging, system information and Undelete (which has recovered many a deleted picture from HDDs and various memory cards).

@Civvy Scum - your old bit of software probably has a DLL or INI file linking to Excel. If you have deleted Office you should get an error message (probably saying nothing sensible). Is Excel loaded separately? Windows apps do not have to use the registry - .NET apps use XML files for configuration and some portable apps keep their configuration files with their executables. Not having a clue as to what the app is it might have some Excel VBA code in it.

Thanks for the help chaps.

I was sorting through some old emails earlier today and came across one with a product key and link to download Office 2019 from a previous employers Home User Programme that I'd paid £12 for at the end of 2018. It was installed on my old laptop. So nothing ventured, nothing gained and waddaya know, it downloaded, installed and activated! So now I've got it on this new laptop. Problem solved

 

[Yokel]

Another potentially dumb question - I spent hours yesterday evening (and into the night) downloading a large RAR file, and I am currently trying to open it using RAR Opener. It worked on a fairly small RAF file, but at the moment I can see this:

The bar at the bottom of the screen does not appear to be moving in a noticeable way. Could this be due to dealing with a very large file, so it needs time to work?

 

[endure]

Another potentially dumb question - I spent hours yesterday evening (and into the night) downloading a large RAR file, and I am currently trying to open it using RAR Opener. It worked on a fairly small RAF file, but at the moment I can see this:

View attachment 536157

The bar at the bottom of the screen does not appear to be moving in a noticeable way. Could this be due to dealing with a very large file, so it needs time to work?

Just download 7Zip. It will do all you need for RAR/ZIP files.

7-Zip

 

[Provost]

The menu tiles first appeared in Win 8 and a bloody nuisance they were too. Earliest version of Win 8 didn't have a Start button either and the OS assumed that you were using a tablet with touch screen capabilities, even if you were not. Which is why I stayed with Win 7. I prefer making my moves by mouse, thank you very much. Microsoft heard the anger generated by Win 8 and released Win 8.1 which was an improvement and rolled back some of the most egregious features of Win 8, but I kept to Win 7 until Win 10 came out, and then I switched - at least on my new laptop as there was no option for Win 7. I'm slowly becoming a fan of Win 10, but I keep Win 7 on my desktop and intend to keep it so until the bitter end.

I did the same with XP (and way beyond the official end of life). No ill effects whatsoever. Eventually, though, more and more new software refused to play with XP. It was a bit fussy about USB 3, as well.

10 can be tweaked quite satisfactorily, but by using third party software rather than natively. It's a bit of a faff and It shouldn't really be necessary. I keep a disk image or two so that if it all goes tits I don't have to start again from year zero.

 

[Yokel]

Just download 7Zip. It will do all you need for RAR/ZIP files.

7-Zip

Thank you. I downloaded and installed that and it dealt with a large RAR file just like that. What does RAR stand for anyway? Never encountered it before.

I wonder how sensible or otherwise it would be to download some sort of programming language and the things associated with that? Or would it be better to use an old laptop or something?

 

[terminal]

Thank you. I downloaded and installed that and it dealt with a large RAR file just like that. What does RAR stand for anyway? Never encountered it before.

I wonder how sensible or otherwise it would be to download some sort of programming language and the things associated with that? Or would it be better to use an old laptop or something?

RAR stands for "Roshal Archive", where Roshal is the name of the programmer who wrote the software.

RAR (file format) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

RAR is a proprietary file compression system. The software to do the compressing is proprietary and costs money while the software to de-compress the files is given away at no charge.

It is a very uncommon compression system with no significant advantages over more common and non-proprietary systems that I am aware of. You will see it occasionally used to distribute some Windows-only files, but I can think of only one instance where I have ever run into it myself.

It's definitely not worth buying the RAR compression software and it's generally a bad idea to use the RAR format. There are big advantages to using widely used non-proprietary formats such as gzip and zip, particularly that everyone will already have the software to open those files which is not the case for RAR.