Windows 10 for seniors

https://tinyurl.com/yddjl2n4

In windows 10, Click the start menu icon and scroll down to Tips - explore the left margin items 'Browse .. and 'Watch video's

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/microsoft-tips/9wzdncrdtbjj

If you don't see the Tips apps its in the Store under Microsoft Tips.

Elmer J: What wonderful news, because I hate what I know of Win10 and am clinging to my dear old WIn7 until the bitter end in 2020. Thanks to you, it seems I may be able to hold on to a great deal of the Win7 experience. That's the first I've heard of it! I have been saving articles on how to use Win10, from the Windows Secrets newsletter and GroovyPost.com; but now, hopefully, I won't need many of them.

This is great news...My laptop has Windows 7.0 Professional and I love it....It is much faster than my desktop with Windows 10 and less complicated...Elmer J....

I am going to download Classic Shell. Thank you!

Although both of us are still clinging to our PCs with Windows 7 Home Ed., recently we have had to learn to deal with Windows 10 on my husband's new laptop. Thanks to some members here, the worst of that is over, but since Houzz sent Cricketm's message to my email this morning, I thought I would let anyone else here know that I took the advice to install Classic Shell and am loving it. It was very simple to install, too. There are still a number of things that puzzle me, but I have been finding out how to do them, a few new ones every day, it seems like.

With
Windows my progression started with 3.1...to 98...to XP...to
Vista...to Win 8.1 and now Win 10. At no time did I ever find the
interface so bothersome or troublesome that I felt I needed to do
anything to change how it operated. My main concern with things like
Classic Shell (and I sincerely hope I am wrong) is that
someday...somehow...at the worst possible time...Microsoft will do
something to screw with it thus leaving those users in a tizzy until
a fix comes along. That is grief I don’t want or need, and as long
as I can adapt to the way Microsoft does things it is completely
avoidable. I feel that as long as I keep my system **stock** to
the highest degree possible, I can hold Microsoft responsible for how
the interface works versus dealing with a possible problem that they
did not cause. YMMV.

you forgot windows 95

I didn't forget Win 95. I never used Win 95. I never had Win 7 either.

Azinoh: Your comment gives me something to think about; your reasoning makes sense. From time to time, I have had computer problems that I suspect were related to an update from Microsoft, like a simple program for photos that for ages worked perfectly on my Windows 7 computer, which now frequently decides it has to shut down in the middle of my working with it. I can't be sure that an update or updates have changed it for the worse over time, but uninstalling and reinstalling it from the original CD makes no difference, so I figure something in the environment has changed. Ah, well.

And you are right, about "at the worst possible time," which, in my experience, is usually when my husband's or my computer acts up--no matter who or what is responsible, Microsoft, or not. It will be in the middle of some big job that requires Word or Excel, not when I am reading personal emails or news or fooling around with music or pictures!

Apparently, Classic Shell is easily uninstalled, so I plan to simply remove it, should things go wrong. Here's hoping it will still be uninstallable if Microsoft does do something that causes trouble.

I am a senior too and was not happy with Win 10. Someone told me about Classic Shell and I installed it on my new laptop. It was great until about one week later when my laptop froze and I couldn't do anything with it . I tried the usual things. I got to thinking that the only change I had was installing Classic Shell. I finally got into the computer so I could uninstall Classic Shell and everything came back and it's been good for weeks now. I'm gradually getting used to Win 10. Just my experience with it.....

marcia-

Every change in operating systems will make people unhappy. In the long run, the best solution is to do what you have done, which is to make the best of it and learn the new system. It also makes it easier for the future when it gets changed again ;-)

Marcia, In principle, I agree with you about making the best of a new OS and learning it, the more so as I originally favored Windows XP and dreaded the change to Windows 7, but now love it. However, Windows 10 is another beast altogether. It was great to find that it provides for slideshow type changes in the background picture, and apparently ditto for a screen saver, though I haven't tried that because it is my husband's laptop that is the first Windows 10 OS in our house. Still, I hope that Classic Shell doesn't cause us problems! I'm glad you were able to get everything back by uninstalling it and will keep your experience in mind if my husband's new laptop freezes.

It's quite unusual for Classic Shell to cause abnormal behavior. It's a very mainstream "product" enjoyed by millions of users. I first started using it with Win 8 nearly 5 years ago. I currently have it on 5 PCs in my home (Win 8 and Win 10) and have never had an issue at all.

The biggest problem with using shells is that you may need to use a computer which doesn't have that shell, e.g. the library, etc. I find each "advance" in Microsoft programs has gains and losses and I've decided to just live with the losses. I do find Win10 trying too much to be Mac-like, beginning with calling programs APPS! My biggest complaint is then when I click on a file, it doesn't open the standard program for that filetype. I gradually have to teach each type what I want to use.

PS I've used every version of Windows starting with 1.0, except for ME and the 8's

That is certainly something to think about, mtvhike. When 2020 rolls around, I will just have to roll with the punches, or live with the losses, as you say, and learn to get along with Win10 in all its (to me) unpleasantness. Meanwhile, Classic Shell is helping somewhat. I was interested to know how many vs. of Windows you have used. The first PC I ever had was a Touchpad running Windows 3.1. I still have it--don't laugh, but I kept it because I love the beautiful jungle-themed screen saver rendered in black silhouettes that it came with, and which I watch every once in a while because it is so calming. It seems to be part of the Dark Night series, and yet, I have never been able to find it "modernized" to a form that can be used in a modern PC running Windows. From 3.1 I went to 98, then XP, 7, and now, my husband's Windows 10 laptop.

mtvhike, why would you think Microsoft is aping the Mac user interface? Windows has a >80% market share for personal computers, Macs are less than 10%. It's competition they pay attention to but hardly something they lose sleep about. Rather, I'd say the apps and icons approach more closely resembles what EVERYONE uses with their smartphones, of all types. Don't you think?

I got my first Win 10 PC (got another two subsequently) with the icon tiles 2 years ago and had had two Win 8 machines with the similar interface for those two years plus another two. I've used Classic Shell with all of them to avoid using the icon interface.

You're suggesting I'm going to encounter a problem using a public PC or someone else's PC. I haven't encountered that yet, should I be expecting that will happen soon?

I use Classic Shell at work, as does my boss. No issues whatsoever.

I could not fathom Windows 8 either and simply stopped using the new W8 PC I had just bought. If anything came up, I would try to use my work W7 PC off hours as much as possible and extended the life of my Windows XP to forever. It is still there. I did turn on the W8 PC on so it would update itself and then powered it off. It was a waste of good money. It eventually overlaid W8 with W10.

W10 is almost just as bad as W8 but I finally bought a new PC with W10. Too many changes and nothing is where it used to be. Or it is hidden and cannot be logically found. No power buttons that one can click so I just hit the power button on the PC itself. Ha. No Windows Explorer. No idea how Windows Update works anymore; it is/was so easy with XP. Oh well. But one thing that has helped me is to go to computer classes in my local areas senior centers. They usually have them and you can go talk with others face to face and get good answers. Better than getting a book although, if you have time, you can get a "dummies" book for W10 too.

"No power buttons that one can click so I just hit the power button on the PC itself. Ha. "

I hope you are not doing that, really.

Luis_pr and any others suffering with Windows 10:

I am now getting along and making some progress with my husband's new Win10 laptop, thanks first of all to advice I got here. But for many small things that stump me, since I want to do what I can without taking up other people's time, I now use my trusty, easy-going Win7 computer to search online and almost always find an answer. For example, I might search for some permutation of "Windows 10, can't find X," (X being whatever it is that has disappeared) or frame a question that begins with "How to". Maybe, in Luis' case, "Windows update in Windows 10" would work. If I get no answer, I change the word order or change the question in some other way.

You’ve got to accept that operating systems will continually change and build that into your mindset. I reluctantly switched from a turntable to a CD player to digital music because I realized that I could only put off the inevitable so long. It’s like the people that manufactured buggy whips when cars first came along.

The same is true with computers and software inevitably evolving. If you accept that fact rather than resist it, it becomes a little easier to start to figure out what’s what. When my latest computer came with Win10, it took a while to figure out how to do some stuff, but I knew what I needed was in there, and, while I’m not convinced that all of the “improvements” are improvements, I have come to appreciate many of them. And it never takes more than a couple of seconds for Google to get me an answer to: “Where is [blank] in Win 10?” Or “How do I do [blank] in Win 10?”

For those of you still having problems getting used to windows 10, if you put the classic shell on, you will find yourself getting used to the new operating system a lot less frustrating. A lot of things will look like your old XP or windows 7. The basic operation of windows 10, gets better with classic shell, and gives you time to figure out other things. My XP sits next to my Windows 10, and my Vista sits on the other side of XP. All three look pretty much alike for basic day to day things, with the classic shell on the windows 10.. My biggest pet peeve is that no matter when I set windows 10 to update, it updates when microsoft decides it should, and not at my convenience. Other than that, it is a very good operating system. I also hated the mail program, and dug around online for a better one. I found one that is almost exactly like my favorite outlook express. It is called oe classic, and is almost a replica of OE. I also didnt like the options for playing music, but, found out, that my very favorite long time music player Winamp, now makes a version for Windows 10, and that does an excellent job. Right now, looking at my windows 10 alongside my old and trusty XP, they look and perform pretty much the same.