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I keep getting prompts to try Windows 10 on my pc but I have heard stories of it messing up people's computers. Has anyone here downloaded Windows 10 and found it ok? I read that if you are happy with Windows 7 then stick with that but I also heard that Windows is gradually adding it to our pcs via updates.

I was already on Windows 8 so there is little difference. Just remember to not accept Microsoft's recommendations without thinking about or researching them.

I installed Windows 10 on four machines without major hiccup. Though it did detect a failing hard disk on my laptop which I had to replace.

I installed it but now I'm back to W7. The install seemed to go ok but gradually my pc slowed down, then started freezing until one day the screen slowly faded away to the blue screen of death. The engineer, someone I trust, was able to restore the pc to working order but strongly recommended a re-install of W7 as, on some makes of pc, incl. mine, there is a degree of driver incompatibility.
The more I look into W10, the more I realise that it can spy on you. Users should really be careful and learn how to turn off many of the little controls that are installed automatically. And don't use Edge, or Cortana, for that matter.
W7 with Firefox or Opera works well and I saw no difference in speed compared to immediately after installing W10. Support for W7 should continue till 2020 and by that time. I'll probably have a new pc running a, hopefully, improved version of W10.

And that describes Edge and Cortana in a nutshell. They are Microsoft's version of legal spyware. Every entry that is done under them is helping them to direct their strategic idea, not to help any user.

Which has now highlighted that I understand why my daughter is having issues with her laptop! Thank you for that light bulb moment.

I got on with Windows 10 just fine. Much better than Vista.

BTW, if you use Google Chrome, that is also downloading all your searches for advertising purposes. If you are worried, use Firefox with appropriate add-ons.

(that said, the government deliberately have a back door open for security purposes, so you are never that sheltered, except by more nefarious means).

I'm still using Windows XP, and it works fairly well with this site. Doesn't work with most of the blogs mentioned here, though.

^You're long overdue an update - XP is no longer supported.

Don't I know it! I now have Windows 10 installed on another machine when I'm desperate to read something, but I just haven't got used to it. Because it wasn't designed to be idiot-proof, XP is simpler and more straight forward, and it doesn't insult the user with pop-up commands like "Help me choose which music to listen to".

This old machine with XP also runs an ancient (therefore affordable) version of Photoshop, and has a CRT monitor. I hope I never have to colour a comic strip using an LCD monitor, they're useless for colour work.

i downloaded windows 10 and my laptop died with blue screen of death i sent it back to hp as it was a week within warranty expiring and they said they repaired it but it was the same so they sent me a restore dongle back to windows 7 or 8 which thankfully got it up and running again and i am now getting prompts every day to upgrade to 10 but i will not click on it again.

Another technical question which I won't start a new thread for. I have recently become a smartphone owner and was wondering if it is necessary to download anti virus onto it? I don't use my ebay log-in on it for fear of it being hacked. There are some anti virus programmes on the apps list.

I know I should but I currently don't. It does depend on what phone you have, what are you going to keep on it and what are you going to do with it e.g. will you use it to access sensitive data such as your bank account?

At the end of the day, the smart phone is a smaller version of the tablet which in turn is a keyboard less smaller version of the PC (albeit with a different operating system but you perform similar tasks).

So I would definitely look around.

I'm using 360 security but i never use my phone to access stuff with passwords such as my ebay account.

Does no one else here use the Mac OS?

I've been using Apple Macs since 1999 and they seem far less trouble than Windows.

I had a Mac for years and agree that they are excellent - the trouble is that they are also comparatively expensive, which is why I'm now using a PC.