Friday, November 6, 2015

Windows 10

I have been running a pre-release of Windows 10 for some time, and seemed fairly stable.  After making good backups,  I have decided to upgrade several working PCs to Windows 10 as well.  This included 2 x Windows 7, and a Windows 8.1 system.  Overall I do not regret this, but the following are a few issues I ran into.

The first issue was to do with remote log on.  I typically have more PCs than screens, partly because I use 3 screens on my main development PC.  The upgrade to Windows 10 took across my pre configured setups, but not everyone worked.  I am not entirely sure how I fixed it, but think the main problem is that Windows 10 is more precise on logon than Windows 8.1  I needed to add the full C name, eg \\Window7system\user name  rather than any abbreviation.  Once the correct logon string was determined, it has been stable.

Next big issue was a conflict between Carbonite backup, and Kaspersky 2016.  When one Googles this problem it is not uncommon.  The solution appears to be to remove both programs and re-install Carbonite followed by Kaspersky. I had to configure Kaspersky by hand to give Carbonite the required permissions.   Another laptop with Carbonite and Norton 360 did not have any issues.

The last problem, I have just solved is that the internet uploads seemed very slow.  An internet test on an iPad showed good speed, but on the PC, downloads were about 35Mbs, but uploads 0.5Mbs.  A few suggested tweaks made no difference.  I tried to update the Ethernet drivers, and was told they are up to date, dated 2012.  The PC is a 2 year old Dell, and I then tried to disable the Ethernet, and use the built in WiFi.  Internet speeds were back to normal, but obviously this is not the way top transfer TB files in the office.  My suspicion was then the device drivers, rather than the basic Windows 10 software.  I went to the Realtek website and found that for my board, RTL8168 there is a Win10 Auto installation package, dated October 2015.  I downloaded this and it now works correctly, ie fast.  I am sorry that the auto driver update did not find this driver.

I may be the last man in the world to stick with Windows Internet Explorer, rather than Firefox, Chrome etc.  IE11 however seems very flawed, and much to my surprise, Microsoft Edge works well.  This has now become my default explorer.