But could you possibly fit the free upgrade onto a external hard drive if you wanted or would that be too confusing for a pc to handle?

If/when Windows goes to a subscription based service it will then be dead to me. And I would imagine it will be the same for lots of other people.

So far 10 sounds like the abomination I thought it would be, much worse than that claptrap known as Vista. No thanks.

--

westernlover47,

Well, first, it will depend on the size of the external HD. My Win 7 SSD is only 60 Gb (about 55 Gb usable) while the Win 10 SSD is a 120 Gb. I have everything I need on the 7 drive with about 8 Gb free. So as long as your external is at least 60 Gb you should be good to go.

I did once check the size of the Win 10 install but, I'm sorry, I forgot for some reason. But I don't think its much different in size that Win 7.

As far as booting from the external, that will probably depend on the age of your computer. If its relatively recent you should be able to boot from it with no problem. You'll just have to go into your BIOS and make sure its listed in the boot sequence.

Well, it looks like Win 10 for me will go the way of the Dodo. Spent some time last night trying to figure out how to get the Start button working again with no joy. The MS webpage I mentioned yesterday is only about 5 pages and nothing they mentioned worked for me. Their only remaining suggestion was to call Windows support! Yeah, right! Sure! Like I have tons of time to spend on a phone to them. Nah, not going to happen.

So I'm back on the 7 drive contemplating making an .ISO and transferring that to the 120 Gb HD.

So I guess my advice to anyone thinking of "upgrading" to 10 from 7 is not to do it. One would think a company who has had a Start button since 3.0 should be able to make a Start button that is reliable. But if they can't even do that then they have some problems much larger than they are letting on. So you might want to wait for quite a while.

And if MS is really going to start charging for service packs then they really are in trouble. I won't pay it. Ubuntu and its derivatives keep getting better and better.

Pay for a Service Pack ? Pay to fix Microsoft's mistakes ?

Could you imagine having to pay for a recall on your car ? Can you imagine what would happen to the auto industry if they elected to do that ?

I hope to God there will be no government sponsored financial bail out of Microsoft if this lunacy comes to pass.

Paying to use Windows ? Paying to use Office ? Paying for Service Packs to keep it all secure and current ?

Maybe it's time to consider bailing out before the Windows franchise crashes to the ground. The good thing is if you are running Windows 7 or 8.x, you have time to consider your migration before Microsoft pulls the rug out from under you and your current PC becomes a swamp of viruses, malware, and other Internet junk.

Three points to consider...........

Consider a Mac. Yes, it's not as "business friendly" as a PC, though it's corporate use has grown over the years. And the selection of hardware is restrictive. But if Microsoft cocks up Windows, where else will you be able to go for a supported, integrated personal computing platform ?

Start playing with an alternative operating system. To my mind that means Fedora or Ubuntu. Yes, they don't look or feel like Windows (though user interfaces for both bear a CLOSE look). Yes, there's a learning curve. But here's the $64 (or 64 bit) question: DOES WINDOWS LOOK AND FEEL LIKE WINDOWS ? That thought hit me during dinner. The farther Windows gets away from the classic look and functionality of say, Windows XP, the lower the uphill climb to an alternative OS. It's a learning curve either way. And if you suffered through Vista or don't like Windows 8, you've probably already started looking into alternatives.

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

http://fedoramagazine.org/whats-new-...2-workstation/

Start looking at LibreOffice. Office is Microsoft's cash cow. It's the key application in their integration strategy: Office on PCs, on tablets, even running on Windows Phone. But frankly, unless you are a power Office user or have applications written that require full Microsoft Office, the LibreOffice product is not a bad alternative. Yes, it does differ in some functionality with MS Office. It has to - Redmond would sue the product out of existence if it was too much like "real" Office. In July LibreOffice 5.0, which will be compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows is due for release. I have used LibreOffice, and I found it a serviceable alternative. Hey, it won't cost you anything but a download and disk space to try it yourself. You can put LibreOffice on a USB flash drive and give it a whirl, side by side with your existing copy of Office.

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice/

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/...crosoft_Office

Thanks to Rick Dangerfor more thoughtful contributions and resources.

One thing to add:
I tried LibreOffice as an alternative to buying another copy of MS Office. It looks similar and works similarly but there is definitely a learning curve, particularly if you have become very accustomed to commands and keyboard shortcuts. I found that a bit frustrating when I had Office on every other machine. The killer for me, though, was incomplete compatibility with Office.
For example, a file created in Office, edited in LibreOffice and then opened in a different version of Office (at a customer's site, for example), would frequently not work for me. Embarrassing professionally and a reason to drop LibreOffice like a hot potato. Maybe, if you don't need such complex compatibility it might work fine.

On the other hand, Ubuntu looks tempting. The thing that makes me hesitate is the local ecosystem of programmes, utilities and settings that have accumulated over the years and make the whole Window system work for me. Media players, fonts, compression software, photo editing, even Solitaire! Can I really do without them, or start again looking for replacements? <sigh>

I use this, and I'm very happy with it, and would also recommend it :thumbsup:

Posted by a435843 :

"Office is a weird case...LibreOffice has a similar look to Office '03. It certainly is not compatible with Office documents, but that's because MS has non-documented, hidden codes in Office documents, which keep competitors from being able to truly convert those documents."

Sorry for 'sort of' hijacking the thread, but I've been trying to find an office program that will allow me to work on my CV which was done a while ago on a pc with one of the versions of MS Office, and once worked would also allow me to send it to employers in a format that they can open.

I've got Ability Office 2001 (which I'm not surprised doesn't work with later MS Office versions), Open Office 4.1.1 and Microsoft Works 8.1.

Non of these, not even the Microsoft Works 8.5, can open the MS Office document!

Shouldn't MS Works be able to work with MS Office?

Thanks for any help.

Apparently Word 2002 was the last version of Word files that MS Works could read. Don't know if that helps or not.