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I keep a 16 GB USB 3 thumb drive around because it's very handy for transferring anything from small to moderately large files. I do also have a portable 1 TB USB 3 external hard disk drive for backups and really large files and folders.
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Although I haven't used one as of late, I used flash drives frequently whenever I was in school and I had either a project to complete or an essay to type up.. I own a 2 GB flash drive and a 4 GB flash drive, both manufactured by Sandisk, respectively. I know, I'm old by using small flash drives like that, but I have yet to max the capacity on both of them, and usually after a school year completes, I dump the files.
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As soon as you use backup programs (which now come with Windows and is comfy and easy to use), you'll wish you had a portable hard disk drive of the USB 3.0+ variety. ;)
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Have you guys been able to install an OS into a flash drive before? I gave it a try once, but unfortunately, it didn't work out too well for me. I've installed Elementary OS into one of my USB sticks a few months ago, but every time I tried booting from it, it kept giving me a black screen with a blinking cursor. I've asked for help on Ubuntu forums, but nobody seemed to have any solutions to this issue, which made me quite upset. ): I may try installing a different Linux distro at some point in the future and see if it works or not.
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I don't suggest booting operating systems in any external device, except for troubleshooting purposes.
Linux distributions tend to be rather finicky with hardware - try another one if one cannot be used. You might luck out, or you might not. Some Linux distributions are more... tolerant with exotic hardware. |
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I've managed to destroy my Windows 7 installation on my computer somehow, and since I didn't have the recovery disc, I wasn't able to fix it. This forced me to go with a Linux distro. I've chosen to use Ubuntu, since it's the most popular Linux OS and probably the most stable. It's not a bad OS, but I'm just not a big fan of its interface. Its window borders aren't anti-aliased, and its buttons are just... y'know. xD I know that I could add new themes to change the appearance, but it can be quite a big hassle to install them.
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You'll find these disc images in this article, in "Getting Windows install media". Don't forget to get networking drivers somehow, in case Windows can't work with anything you have. You can't change the edition without having a corresponding licence and its key, but feel free to go between bitness as long as your hardware supports it. |
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I don't think I have the Certiticate of Authenticity, unfortunately. They haven't given me any of that information when I've purchased this laptop. ): I may be able to give them a call and see if they can help me out a bit. They offered me a warranty for an additional eighty dollars when I was buying this computer, but I didn't accept it. I probably would've accepted it, though, if I knew that I was going to be facing these kind of problems in the future. xD" Also, I don't think it's got anything to do with the bootloader. If the bootloader was nonfunctional, then I wouldn't have been able to log into Ubuntu or any other OS at all.
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So your computer didn't come with a product key sticker on it? Most computers these days did. If not, then definitely give the manufacturer a call and see if they can trace your product key down by its serial number at least.
If you do have the product key sticker on your machine anywhere, then you should be able to take a Windows 7 install disk and install from scratch using the same key. |
Actually, I've given a good look through my laptop, and it seems that I do have my product key. I'll download a Windows 7 disc image as Twiggy suggested, burn it onto an empty CD, and see if it works. I've been growing a little tired of Linux lately, so I really hope that it does work. Thanks for the help, you guys. (:
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Just don't forget to download all the drivers you need from your laptop manufacturer's site. That should get you started - and after you install all the drivers, keep running Windows Update and install everything until it comes up empty after a "check for updates".
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Bleh, Windows Updates.. that is probably my #1 pet peeve when it comes to reinstalling Windows on a computer is all the countless updates that have to get done. I actually recently reinstalled Windows onto a laptop of mine recently from scratch and all I needed somehow was the wifi driver and the rest of the drivers just downloaded themselves, and I deleted all traces of the drivers by reformatting the drives before installing Windows, too.
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Speaking of updates, after getting back my laptop, it's overdue for updates. Way overdue. |
My laptop is probably overdue on Windows Updates as well haha
My tablet has taken over my portable way of browsing these days, and I mean just being able to relax out in my living room watching TV and browsing on the internet. Before I had my Nexus 7 tablet, if I wanted to browse in my living room, I had to use my laptop, which was a pain to really keep in my lap at times :P |
I really like using my Surface after the revision emergency as the web browser for pretty much everyone.
Outside? Sure. The screen pierces the sun and doesn't get too unreadable even when smudged up and it also displays 1366x768 1:1. Nice for desktop pages. (Who needs a mobile site when your tablet is basically a laptop without a keyboard?) In bed? Much more convenient than a laptop. Much easier to see than my phone, and the screen brightness goes significantly dimmer, too. 10" tablets are very nice when you get the right one. I can run IRC in the background, browse in the foreground, play music, and still get about 8 hours. |
I use my phone to browse the internet most of the time these days. I do have a laptop, but I don't turn it on unless I have some important work to get done, such as my homework. I have a tablet, too, but I don't use it at all. It's not very convinent to surf the web with it while you're laying down somewhere, because it causes your hands to start hurting after only seven to ten minutes. The last time I've used this tablet was four months ago, I think. d:
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I haven't touched my laptop in a few weeks now because of my tablet. And speaking of using the tablet while laying down, I lied down with my tablet for the first time since I've owned it last night and it didn't seem to hurt at all.. maybe because my tablet is 7 inches, and not 10 inches like a normal-sized iPad.
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My tablet is not that big, either. It's only nine inches, I think. It weighs around six to nine ounces though, which is a lot heavier than my phone. I don't know, maybe I'm just not used to holding up things that are as heavy as that while laying down. xD" That's probably why my hand hurts.
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I'm at least glad that my tablet is able to fit into my pockets with other objects.. because it's at least 7 inches and I don't really care for larger sizes. The larger the size the less the portability, IMO.
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I have a hard time finding a productive use for a 7" tablet. There's not enough screen area for a lot of things I'd like to use when you scale them up.
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I prefer absolute screen area over pixels :P
I don't like things going smaller than a specific size. Resolution doesn't tell me size of objects with no PPI number. Even with a 1366x768 display, with 10", I can get away with 1:1. Things are still large enough to see and tap, even on the desktop. Also, I don't like scaling up anything that isn't designed to be scaled up. Having a usable 1:1 desktop and web browsing means a lot to me. |
Oh gosh. I have my laptop right now. Big ol 17 hp laptop. Also have the Nexus 10 and my phone. I prefer using my laptop even for simple stuff. Youtube, Netflix, Web Browsing, Music. I use my tablet when I don't have access to my laptop, who feel like it, but I don't like browsing the web on the smaller stuff, at all.
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Decided to finally go the way to root my Nexus 7 tablet.. hopefully the ROM I load onto it will be stable and hopefully no more random reboots.
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What do you need a custom ROM for with your Nexus 7?
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^That sounds like a huge problem, especially for a stock ROM.
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If your device is getting random reboots, it might not be a software issue. You might want to get it serviced before flashing a custom ROM.
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It's just that in the process, stupid me decided not to take a backup of his tablet and I lost everything in the unlock process :( and I had thought Google would restore everything because I backed up everything to them (pictures, apps & such) but nope all I got was browser data |
That sucks man. :( I hope you enjoy PA though. I am trying out SlimBean right now -- it's pretty awesome so far. B)
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Speaking of backups, that's a big reason why I always keep my backups offline. Not relying on the cloud and not missing anything have their benefits.
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Speaking of backups, I need to create a system image disk for my desktop and get a backup of it onto my external HDD. I've really been meaning to do that for months now and I've just been procrastinating at that.
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Backups? I don't bother with my computer but I try to do it with my phone, especially my old Samsung as I used a lot of custom ROMs and I had to back up data/ROMs to my sd card.
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I'm thinking of upgrading my laptop's memory to the maximum supported configuration, which would be 32GB/DDR3-1600 by chipset. I keep thinking that this would be a waste of money. |
Hmm, so the Android browser runs much smoother than Google Chrome, although it can be a pain having to open up Google on every new tab instead of a list of recent sites I've visited.
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I tend to use Opera Mini in all of my mobile devices. Well, except my laptop. Opera opens up itself as soon as you click on it, it runs very smoothly, and it has a beautiful user interface that makes it very easy for us to navigate to things. Plus, Opera Mini saves you a lot of data, which helps you to keep your phone bills at a reasonable level. The only thing that I don't like about this browser, though, is that it randomly closes itself every now and then without any sorts of warning. I've asked for help regarding this issue on the Opera support forums, but nobody seemed to be able to figure out any solutions. D:
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Does Opera Mini restore last opened tabs at the very least in the event of an unexpected shutdown?
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You cannot reopen your last tabs, unfortunately. You may be able to perform this task in the regular Opera, but there's no option for that in the mini version. ): I have no problem with the unexpected shutdowns, because I can easily open up the browser again and revisit my previous websites from the history, but it can get a bit frustrating if it does that when you're in the middle of something important (such as when writing a long forum post).
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Huh. Kind of strange when you think about it - when everyone else does the same thing...
In other news, refreshing and resetting PCs is a lot simpler with Windows 8/RT :) Just refreshed the Surface to see if I can wipe the dictionary suggestions for some weird reason that I won't be saying here. |
I honestly can't wait to hopefully see if I'll have a new laptop with Windows 8. It's really not that bad.. however a couple of months ago I installed the Windows 8.1 release preview on my old laptop for testing purposes and the graphics card was really glitchy. I'm sure that's changed though for the final version.
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I like Windows, but I just don't like the direction that they're headed with their computer operating system. They are trying to make it look and behave sort of like a tablet, which I, unfortunately, am not a big fan of. d: I may switch over to OSX at some point in the future. I already have an iBook (and it's in totally new condition), but it's been released ages ago. It's completely outdated now. Mac are extremely pricey these days, so I would have to save some money from my paycheck for about six to seven months before I'm able to buy a new one.
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I'm ... all right with Windows 8. Though I haven't done much other than browse the internet on my mom's computer which I think is already virused. You can't use Firefox on it and while I'm not sure about Chrome (maybe I should casually download it onto her desktop sometime) you can really only use IE. Not really sure about anything I just said though haha.
My sister is getting a laptop really soon though. I'm wondering if there is anything that someone can recommend that isn't too pricey? I don't know much about the current laptops that you can buy and don't think I want to base it on my own experience. But we both want to make sure her laptop can last a while since we wouldn't know the next time she can get one. Don't want her to end up getting something like my first laptop that didn't last beyond (not even) two years. Luckily my current laptop is three and a half and stuff working fairly well but crappy battery and so forth haaa. |
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I really like the choice and flexibility of mid-size laptops, though my laptop can actually be qualified as an Ultrabook, weren't for its thickness (It's just 1.95 kg, but it's too thick by a few centimetres.) for all the ports, vents, and stuff - not to mention the optical drive. Hey, it at least have user-accessible components! Quote:
Ask her what she wants to do now and in the near future, and what she has in terms of both applications and media (like pictures, music, and videos). Is she comfortable with dealing with external drives and is willing to give up libraries? |
Okay, so I'm doing my desktop's backup now.. I was going to do it overnight, but considering how I had no USB ports open for me to plug my external HDD into, I had to wait for this morning, since my Nexus 7 needed to charge overnight.
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My Surface relies on its own power adapter. You need a separate outlet. Inconvenient, maybe, but it charges really fast. Gotta love 24 watts.
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Well she needs it for school I know that. Other than that I'm fairly certain it'll be a lot of music, pictures, and videos (like music videos or something idk). However not gaming. We don't really do much PC gaming in this house so it's not that much of a big deal if the laptop isn't capable of gaming at all (especially considering if you really want a computer to game on I know that you're better off getting a desktop which is not what we're getting her. She needs to bring the computer to school after all haha). I do have two external hard drives and she is welcomed to use one if she needs to but it'll be nice if there is enough space to where she doesn't have to for a while (in which videos would probably be the last thing on her mind to download. Music likely being the first and pictures the second.) |
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I'd rather get a powerhouse gaming laptop than blow my money on any sort of Macbook, even if it meant less portability. You can do way more to a machine that's built for Windows than you can with Macbooks. At least with a non-Apple laptop you can upgrade the memory yourself without having to worry about the memory being soldered to the motherboard.
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Trying to maintain an OS X install on non-approved hardware might be a hassle, too. And it might not even work as smoothly as ot would, as it's a hack in the end. I suggest running with only a single operating system for a given laptop and it is a very good idea to stick with the OS it came with and Windows, which is extremely likely to be both. :) Less hardware and software incompatibility, less headaches down the road. |
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It's always best indeed to run operating systems with the best compatible hardware indeed.. but I've heard that Hackintoshes can be quite unstable. And for gamers, I've never met anyone who is a heavy gamer and plays games on OSX at all.. it's usually Windows for the gamers that I know.
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Either way, it's actually pretty easy to find a laptop that suits her needs. Just remember that Intel graphics aren't useless anymore (but look for at least HD 4000) and any AMD APU is likely to be too slow in terms of CPU power. |
I'd probably get a laptop with an Intel i5 processor for my next laptop, as that's in the middle between the lower-end i3 processor and the higher-end (and probably a little too powerful for my needs) i7 processor. I'd also want a laptop with at least 6-8 GB RAM as 4 didn't cut it for my laptop and a GPU that can at least handle gaming, unlike my current laptop's GPU.
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Make sure your 8 GB config is 2x4. Dual channel is nice, especially when you even start to think about using the integrated graphics for anything other than "putting a picture on the screen", which is extremely likely if you're into quick video transcodes. (Intel QuickSync is faster than almost every CPU) |
I'll definitely be looking for a laptop that has expandable memory, that's for sure.. but yeah, I'm definitely looking at a laptop with 8 GB RAM so I can do more for sure. I'd also wish to have a laptop with a good processor that doesn't heat up easily or have fans running on high just from opening Skype and an internet browser.
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So last night I was talking screen resolutions and device usage with someone, and I had complained how 1366x768 was small, but they disagreed.. so then I told that I've adjusted to working with a 1920x1080 resolution and that whenever I go to work on my laptop I feel "confined" to the small resolution of my laptop since I use my desktop way more.
As for my tablet, though, it's 1920x1200. |
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Really, I can't live with anything narrower than 15:9 these days - I feel 15:9 is a better "compromise" than 16:10 or 3:2 with regard to 4:3 and 16:9. 16:10 already feels unusually narrow and cramped and sometimes give me an uneasy feeling. If I'm working on a laptop or desktop, I would expect a screen size of at least 14" for it to be useful and not too straining. If it is a 16:9 screen and 1366x768, it would be a display of about 110 pixels per inch. In the world of desktop computing, the PPI is perfectly usable with items a 100% scaling, so you have zero compatibility issues. I can work with 133 PPI 10" 1366x768 screens at 1:1 in a pinch, but usually I have a bit of a harder time working for longer periods. If the PPI goes anything above about 135, I'd want scaling, but in Windows they don't work too well - I don't like non-integer scaling, so I'd end up needing at least 192 PPI and a minimum effective screen resolution of 1280x720 (which would make the display 2560x1440 if we're doing 2:1 pixel scaling). Any PPI lower than 96 PPI looks grainy to me; anything higher than about 135 at my usual viewing distance (usually 1.25x the long side of the display) needs scaling. It's a bit complex. I certainly find a 15" 1366x768 display significantly more useful than a 7" 1920x1200 display, if only because you have more physical area to work with. :) |
I guess you're right about the pixels per inch value, Twiggy.. so I guess it just takes some time getting used to, since I don't really use my laptop much anymore these days.
If I began using my laptop more, then my eyes probably wouldn't feel as confined to a smaller resolution. Back last year, I was using my laptop more since I didn't have a desktop that ran Windows 7 (my old desktop ran XP), and that's why it felt different to me. |
Using a laptop and only a laptop tends to change your perceptions in a big way. You start to learn to make full use of the limited physical screen area. You begin to take advantage of automatic window management features. You begin to take advantage of scaling out content slightly. You begin to use applications that can hide unnecessary toolbars. And you do all of them while you have things stay readable.
Microsoft's default UI experience for a lot of desktop apps in the Windows 8/late Windows 7 era actually work very well with regard to this. So clean, so thin... I don't mind using only a single row for both address and tabs as I have made sure that it can show 4 tabs at full size maximized. This leaves ample space for the address bar; it's long enough to display most domain names in full (not the complete path). And sometimes you don't want the spacing to get too tight. Sometimes you want things to go the opposite way. Take the Zune media player that you can install separately. It's not an Excel spreadsheet music player, so it's already more usable for me in terms of user experience. Every thing in the player does something that you would expect it to do, is responsive, and world really well with common audio formats. I also like how near and cleanly organized every single view is. I'm actually also a fan of the Ribbon in Office and many parts of Windows. It enhances discovery a lot and it's much easier for me to work with them, as well as them being easily hidden and shown when needed helps a lot, especially with tablet screens where you get a lot more padding for good reason. |
I just bought this for my Nexus 7 so I can use it like a mini-laptop.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E9QDP0I/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item I can't wait to get it and review it, omg! :D I should get it next week. And yes, Twiggy, I love the Surface tablets :P But I gotta have Android xD |
That really seems like a cool thing to have with my Nexus that's for sure, and the price is good for now.. but too bad that I don't have the money to own one of those now >__> and it's on sale too :(
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I'm finding a lot of use for the Touch Cover myself.
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While tablet keyboards are surely becoming a thing, I still don't think they'll be enough to replace laptops entirely. The only real use though for a tablet keyboard for me is if I'm on the go away from home and I want to type something swiftly without the need to bring my laptop. Other than that, I'm just as fine using Swype to get something typed up on my tablet.
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I'm one of these people that would rather have as much screen space as he can.
Doubling as a cover is nice, too. Usually I use the touch keyboard while I'm outside with my Surface and there tends to not that many flat surfaces for the cover to work. When it does, however, I find it very convenient to be able to type normally. |
Hey ^^
I'm here Zach! Tablet keyboards are great in general, but since people are most used to laptop keyboards etc, it'll take a while for people to get used to tablet keyboards. |
I tend to use the Touch Cover as a cover and a grip assist more.
I tend to use my Touch Cover as a literal cover more often than not, but it comes in very handy when you want to work in Office. It's also much nicer to hold compared to bare metal. |
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(You can bring a tablet much closer to you, and use it without having somewhere to put it on - perfect in public transport or when on the move.) |
Uy, it's Patch Tuesday this upcoming Tuesday, so that means updates! updates! updates!
Ever since I've had my Windows 7 desktop, I've been actively updating it automatically to ensure it stays very secure. WHile I'm not saying the updates are a bad thing, sometimes it just annoys me to wake up and see my computer at the login screen and having to reopen all my programs :P |
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Windows 8 is smart enough to be very patient and will hold it off for 3 days... and if you're not there when it's time to restart, it gives you 15 more minutes after you log in. If there's anything running and/or there's the possibly of unsaved data, it'll hold off restarts. |
I rarely using Windows Updates lol
I did update my Windows on my early days when using my laptop, but I have giving up on it because there are so many of them, I don't think my internet connection might pull it off. Regardless of it, I think updating Windows is nice. |
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No, seriously. You'll thank me later. Updates are not something to be ignored wily-nily. |
I have just checked, that last time I'm updating my Windows was on February 7th, 2010. Boy, I must have left my Windows outdated for a really long time lol
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Some updates are even both. Take all the "critical" Internet Explorer updates, for example. Besides fixing security bugs, they also throw in performance fixes and also fixes some rendering bugs (for an example, when IE9 was first released, it had issues with rendering SVG files. A critical "security" update also contains fixes for that.) IE 9.0.0 is different from IE 9.0.10. (Sometimes I keep thinking they should increment the IE version number by 0.5 when they're 6 Critical Security Updates in...) I'm a fan of SD cards and its smaller variants. I tend to use them as permanent storage more often. Except on my laptop, because it has so much space. |
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Has it always been crashing since the beginning? |
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And btw, in recent months, my computer has waited until at least Thursday before it overrides my decision to do updates (as compared to when I first installed Windows 7 onto my desktop, it installed and restarted immediately). |
I think they're getting way smarter with the timing of the updates these days.
Sometimes I check for updates myself anyway, even when it's not just after Patch Tuesday. Sometimes I get unexpected stuff... Or it's a firmware update, in the case of the Surface. |
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EDIT: I have downloading it, and Windows Update is smart enough to reduce the size of SP1 when I have updated some part of it before. I wish any kind of updates can be flexible like this. |
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Most Windows updates are differential and incremental - they only change what they need to change, and newer updates that do the same thing as the previous update replace them entirely. |
Well I guess I jinxed myself with Windows Updates.. woke up this morning and there my desktop was on the login screen :p but this must have been a large Patch Tuesday because a lot of updates in my list of installed updates came from today.
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Most of my computers over here update Wednesdays because of time zones. |
Just did a count and it appears 28 updates came through Windows Update for me, although I'm sure that number is going to be different for others.. I also installed 2 optional updates today and now my Windows is up to date :P
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Speaking of Windows updates, my Surface RT got a firmware update today, dated the eighth of October.
I can't wait for the day where all Windows computers can update their firmware through Windows Update. |
Updating firmware would be neat through Windows Updates, but at least drivers can be updated through Windows Update as well.
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Sometimes, the drivers you get from Windows Update is all you need.
I still prefer proper driver packages, though. One thing about hard disk drives is that they're more resilient than you'd think. Most modern hard disk drives should be able to handle shock up to 350G operating. |
Welp, I mad the silly mistake of ignoring windows updated and now I am left with a computer that won't start up!
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Windows 8 and RT will also figure it out if it sees three unsuccessful boot attempts in a row. |
I tried that but it just did the same thing as going into "Start Windows Normally". I managed to start it up and get into the System Recovery software by pressing F2, basically I've done a system restore and it's working again! n_n
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Have you tried reinstalling updates yet? (Try installing all updates that are checked by default - not all updates. Some updates have a higher chance of installation success if installed after some updates.) |
The last time I had a corrupt Windows Update was when I tried like 4 times to install Windows 7 SP1 on my laptop last year.. however what the culprit was is that I had a bad boot record, so after fixing that SP1 was able to install fine onto my laptop (and any other subsequent updates as well).
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*gives this topic more activity*
Ah, so I booted my laptop for the first time in ages today and so far it seems to be running okay, except for all the updates I had on it :p I also booted up Skype as well and that didn't take long thank gosh |
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And good to see you back online, too. Anyway... uh, well, tried reinstalling the updates? |
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