Win7--->Win10 has evidently solved a bad problem with this machine

[Muse]

It was a long time before I installed my first SSD, an Intel 330 180GB. I'd read posts galore from people who said they loved the improvements over HDs. I bought this SSD almost 4 years ago (Nov. 2012), didn't install it until March 2014), at the same time installing Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit. Could have installed 64bit on the machine but I have some apps that require 32bit, so stuck with that.

I have had persistent 2-5 minute timeouts almost daily ever since... until I installed Windows 10 five days ago. Not one since then. There were days I must have had 1/2 dozen such timeouts... they were very aggravating. The computer would become completely unresponsive. Windows Event Viewer Windows log showed iastor() timeouts with the storage device, obviously the SSD.

It seemed I was the only person on the planet who had to say that moving from a HD to an SSD was a terrible experience, all things considered.

Running Intel SSD Toolbox's Optimizer (weekly and then daily) seemed to slow down the frequency (I may be mistaken there), but it certainly didn't resolve the problem. I thought the SSD might have been bad, but I was uncertain and I let the 3 year warranty slide by. One person posted that if I tried to RMA the SSD, I'd have a very frustrating experience.

One guy at Thinkpad Forums in a thread said he had the exact same machine (Lenovo Thinkpad T60) and SSD as me, had the same timeouts using Win7, and that when he upgraded from Win7 to Win10 his timeouts went away. So, I was hopeful that would happen for me, but I still put off the upgrade for more than 1/2 a year and with the deadline fast approaching, I did the fresh install of Win10 (again, 32bit), last week (evidently successful although the upgrade tool said my CPU wasn't supported!!! I thought that bogus and ignored it.). I had imaged the Win7 installation, but the way things are going looks like I'm never looking back!!! :awe:

 

[nerp]

People often overlook the improvements for device support and newer technologies in Windows 10. It's more than a new UI.

 

[sweenish]

People overlook EVERYTHING that isn't UI related. Even on these boards.

 

[TeknoBug]

The Intel toolbox isn't needed on SSD's newer than X25-M (6 years ago).

 

[bruceb]

Muse, I was worried about the same thing. But just about all 32 bit apps will install fine on a Windows 10 64 bit system. On your C drive you will find 2 directories: one marked Program Files and the other marked Program Files (x86) (your 32 bit programs will install there). Only program I had was for my HP7410 which needed newer Win10 compatible drivers .. everything else so far (except Photoshop 7, I updated to Photoshop CS2) installed fine.

 

[Red Squirrel]

People overlook EVERYTHING that isn't UI related. Even on these boards.

UI is kinda the most important factor of an OS though. You can have a brand new sophisticated piece of machinery, like let's say an excavator or something, but if the controls are crap it kinda makes the entire thing annoying to use and operators will actually rather use the old one.

I just wish windows 10 would have classic view like 7 and lower. That would solve all the complains about the UI. It is a nice OS at it's core and has lot of technological improvements and from what I heard it's fast, it's just that it's hard to read text, hard to navigate, hard to even tell where an UI element starts and ends due to no borders, color changes or anything, and in general it just looks like crap.

It's still better than win8 though, that is a freaking horrible operating system. There's a laptop at church used for powerpoint that has 8, I always have to click all over the place franticly so I can try to find a menu or something that will give me access to explorer so I can get to the USB stick and actually open the presentation. I'm going to format it and put 7 on it when I get the chance. There is literally no start menu in that OS, not even a start bar. I have seen some win8 machines that do have at least a start bar, but this one does not. I don't know if maybe this one is 8 and the others I've seen are 8.1 or something. When you do manage to find something like Explorer, don't minimize it, it's gone! Well alt+tab works at least. Just seems cubbersome you have to use shortcut keys to get to stuff instead of just being able to click somewhere.

 

[bruceb]

Red Squirrel,

Install Classic Start Menu from here:
http://www.classicshell.net/

It will bring Win 10 back to the way you want it.

I also added Ultimate Windows Tweaker For Windows 10 from here:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-4-windows-10

I also use Webshots so I can use any photo I want for desktop wallpaper.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I did install the classic shell on one of the win10 PCs I manage and it helps for making the start menu more useful, but I'm not aware of anything that makes the overall UI better.

That tweaker app looks interesting though, have not tired that one yet.

 

[bruceb]

This is how my win 10 desktop looks on a Toshiba laptop
Note: You may need to go into Control Panel, Personalization and change the
theme that you are using. Not sure how good you can do it without webshots.
I also have Winaero Tweaker installed from here:

http://winaero.com/

 

[nerp]

Holy old office version. Plus classic shell, all those tray icons, not to mention the price is right. You are stuck in the past, aren't you?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Didn't that intel SSD precede the Elm Crest? I just recycled an Elm Crest 120 GB SSD. The specs on it show sequential write speeds below 200.

You might have done a Secure Erase before redeploying the drive.

Then there is the "optimization" software. I would bet that Intel's is better than most, but I'd discovered that I preferred doing it item by item -- manually. Comprehensive "TRIM," reduce page file to 2GB, turn off prefetch and superfetch, and disable indexing. And maybe "over-provisioning" to leave 5 to 10% "unallocated."

I've stopped installing Intel drivers -- or -- I've forsworn installing the bundled software. I use the native MS AHCI driver if I can.

 

[TeknoBug]

<3 classic shell

 

[bruceb]

I have seen worse and like it looking that way. Easy to get to what I need. Tray icons could be turned off, but they do not bother me. Office on that unit is 2010 year version. And yes, that model, Manuela is from Price Is Right

 

[Polar2002]

My start ups in win7 with a SSD was always around 1.5 minutes (the regular hard drive, start ups was around 3.5 minutes). I tried everything to correct the slow start up. When I upgraded to win10, the start up went down to 15 seconds.

 

[MustISO]

My start ups in win7 with a SSD was always around 1.5 minutes (the regular hard drive, start ups was around 3.5 minutes). I tried everything to correct the slow start up. When I upgraded to win10, the start up went down to 15 seconds.

Had to be more going on with your Windows 7 system. I've done 10 upgrades to Windows 10 over the last month and performance is about the same except the amount of disk activity which is higher in Windows 10.

 

[nerp]

I have seen worse and like it looking that way. Easy to get to what I need. Tray icons could be turned off, but they do not bother me. Office on that unit is 2010 year version. And yes, that model, Manuela is from Price Is Right

I was just kidding around, I have no problem with your setup. And I agree, if your stuff works for you = it's the right way to do it.

 

[nerp]

Had to be more going on with your Windows 7 system. I've done 10 upgrades to Windows 10 over the last month and performance is about the same except the amount of disk activity which is higher in Windows 10.

I've seen this too on an older machine I have and the thing is, it was a purpose-built Win 7 box with no software installed on it, ever. Just ran Windows Media Center. Bootup was a good minute or so. Win 10 with fast boot enabled in BIOS and the OS has it to just under 15 seconds. Pretty impressive.

And to top it off, I can start clicking around and doing stuff as soon as it's booted, unlike 7, which would still have delay and chugging after dropping you to the desktop.

 

[TeknoBug]

And to top it off, I can start clicking around and doing stuff as soon as it's booted, unlike 7, which would still have delay and chugging after dropping you to the desktop.

I remember Windows XP taking forever before you can actually click and do stuff on it after boot even on a fast system, someone proved it still being true on a SSD. Glad MS sorted that crap out.

 

[Muse]

Muse, I was worried about the same thing. But just about all 32 bit apps will install fine on a Windows 10 64 bit system. On your C drive you will find 2 directories: one marked Program Files and the other marked Program Files (x86) (your 32 bit programs will install there). Only program I had was for my HP7410 which needed newer Win10 compatible drivers .. everything else so far (except Photoshop 7, I updated to Photoshop CS2) installed fine.

I use Pagemaker 6.5 and it didn't install (or work OK) in 64bit Win7, it did/does work in 32bit Win7 or Win10. I can maybe convert my Pagemaker 6.5 documents to an app that's supported in 64bit, I have been so informed, but haven't pursued it. I have one or two other problematical apps, ones that may/will not work/install in 64bit Windows AFAIK.

 

[bruceb]

Muse,

Have a look here at some ideas to get it to install\

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...7/d0db0a3f-4285-42d8-873d-125f22a446a4?auth=1

 

[Muse]

I did install the classic shell on one of the win10 PCs I manage and it helps for making the start menu more useful, but I'm not aware of anything that makes the overall UI better.

That tweaker app looks interesting though, have not tired that one yet.

I have never used Win8. I'm used to Win7. I installed (and saw for the first time) Win10 on both my Win7 machines one week ago today (32bit on one, 64bit on the other). It took me not long but now I'm comfortable enough, at least so far. Control Panel has become Settings, so what? Finding something isn't what it was for me in XP, but I just use the search and it's worked for me so far. Windows Explorer, well, it's there the way it used to be (File Explorer, they call it), right clicking the start button. I have a shortcut to it and a bunch of my favorite apps now in the task bar, where I like those... it's the least work to launch something!

I turned off everything except Smartscreen when I installed (chose Custom). So far I'm finding Win10 very fast and IIRC/AFAIK efficient. I doubt I'm going back (I imaged my Win7 installations before installing Win10, but the feared disaster never happened).

Best fallout so far is that I haven't had a single iastor() timeout on this machine in the week I've had Win10 running on it. I even searched all the Event Viewer Windows events for any such occurrences and couldn't find one (a couple days ago). I should have installed 6 months (or a year) ago!

 

[Muse]

Muse,

Have a look here at some ideas to get it to install\

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...7/d0db0a3f-4285-42d8-873d-125f22a446a4?auth=1

I don't recall having any problems with Pagemaker 6.5 on my Win7 32bit install, but the only way I could get it to work in 64bit Win7 was to do the embedded OS thing ("Windows XP Mode"), which was a serious PITA and I abandoned it and just used the 32bit machine for my Pagemaker work (or one of my XP machines). Pagemaker 6.5 appears to work just fine in Windows 10 32bit. Haven't tried installing it on the Windows 10 64bit machine, don't know if I should even try.

 

[bruceb]

Worth a shot. Worst case is it doesn't install. If it does, then fine. And Win 10 you can install in XP Compatability Mode for most programs if needed.

 

[Muse]

Worth a shot. Worst case is it doesn't install. If it does, then fine. And Win 10 you can install in XP Compatability Mode for most programs if needed.

I'll give it a shot. Thanks.