Hate it. Had to get it last March after XP computer toasted itself. Just this past weekend I received an e-mail from HP asking if I wanted to extend the warranty - with the ability to call a tech for assistance. I took it. I called them a lot during the early days since Best Buy sold me a printer and a flash drive for factory back-up that were compatible only with Windows 7 and the key card for Word 2013 - and I hate it - could only be used once and of course it didn't work the first time. Best Buy was useless and there is no way I should have had to pay the Geek Squad to hook up a basic printer - I didn't, I called the printer manufacturer and HP. HP had already sent me a warning re making sure my computer could handle Win 8.1 - I decided to just not even try it. The tech I spoke with when I bought the extended warranty suggested I not do it. Our Internet provider does not support Win 8 or Internet 10 so that is another problem. And if your problem is anything other than the Internet connection failing they transfer you to a "specialist" and charge you. Cdns. already pay a lot for basic services. Then there is the e-mail issue. My husband's office is going to stick with Win 7 and Word 2010. I can't pay to switch back to Win 7 because I never had it. But the difference between Win 7 and Win 8 is great - same with Word 2010 and Word 2013. All I use the computer for is Word, Internet and e-mail. I don't shop or belong to Facebook etc. I use a keyboard - and HP added a few keys so I am making mistakes that I never did before despite typing 120 wpm! I helped a friend book an air ticket using her tablet - I don't want a tablet - I need a real mouse. The future is looking grim computer wise. Then there is the cell phone issue. I don't have one - did for 2 years. I don't text. I would just like to have a plain cell phone that functions only as a phone. I have the phone that I used for the 2 years but it won't accommodate a pay as you go card. I don't understand how people can watch TV on a tiny little screen while driving yet need a 60 inch screen at home. I guess I am just too old!

I do understand this is a big transition for SD. I don't want to make her feel that she's not welcome, but I also don't want her using our home as her "crash pad" because she doesn't feel like driving back to BM's after seeing her boyfriend (he lives a lot closer to us). You probably can't have this both ways. If she is only allowed to "visit" and not stop by to shower, sleep, or raid the fridge, or other home-type, crash-pad activities, when she feels like it, she will probably not feel welcome. There probably is not a "fine line down the middle" that you can walk. I say this as someone who basically was your SD at her age. Well, I did have a part time job. But I was not heading to college, no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and went out partying a LOT. Up until graduation I lived half time with each parent. Once I was eighteen and out of high school, I basically decided I didn't need a curfew, so I stopped following one. My dad took basically the tactic you're proposing; told me I couldn't live there anymore unless I agreed to quit the partying and have an early curfew; first time I came home late, I would be locked out. My mom let me stay with her, paid a low-end of market value rent, I didn't have a curfew, didn't stop partying, but also didn't bring it into her home. In retrospect, which was objectively better for me? I honestly don't know. If my mom had given me the same rules as my dad, I wouldn't have stayed; I'd have found my own place. I might have "grown up" a little faster if I'd been living on my own, or I might have just been that one kid that has their own place so everyone else comes to party there, which would probably have wound up sending me into a lot more trouble than what I got into coming home to mom most nights. But I will say my relationship with my dad was strained for quite a long time. In my teenage mind, I was working, being a productive member of society, not out robbing banks or anything, and just because I wasn't going to college and liked to go to parties, neither of which seemed like horrible things to me at the time, I was --the way i saw it then-- being rejected by my parent. It did hurt me and I did resent it for years. Now, I'm not telling you that what you're suggesting is wrong I think that's a personal, family- and situation- specific choice. I'm just saying if you do it, be prepared for some emotional fall-out.

Many companies do like gregbradley describes and continue to run Windows 7 across their entire company so that the IT staff only have to install and maintain one version of the operating system. Any newly purchased computers are set up with the desired, stable older version. Then when it makes sense for that company and the risks are well known, they may decide to move to a newer version. Many companies decided to completely avoid Windows 8 since the perceived risks outweighed the perceived benefits. Many companies have decided to continue this approach with Windows 10, at least until the risks and benefits are more clearly known. According to an article I read recently Microsoft has just decided, unilaterally, that henceforth any newly purchased computers (with a processor newer than some arbitrary date) will only be sold with Windows 10. For the companies that prefer to upgrade when it makes sense, Microsoft is essentially saying "F--- you" I may be misremembering or mischaracterizing that article, I'll try to find it again and post a link here.

I got a new hard-drive and more RAM in my laptop. At the same time, it was upgraded to Win10. I use Opera and Google. I would use the Edge, except that it's not compatible with AdBlockPlus. I wouldn't be without ABP. I'm trying to upgrade the desktops to Win10. It took a couple of hours to (we thought) install on hubby's computer, but when it was done, it was still on Win7. So I don't know what it was doing all that time. We'd check on it, and it was installing (85% done, etc). I'm going to do it on my desktop to see if I have any problems. He did it from Microsoft's site, so I don't know why it didn't install.