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Well here we go again!
1 November 2020 | by 
On January 15th, 2020 I posted my short ride with Windows 10 installation on my PC. I was having issues with the upgrade and I decided to downgrade back to Windows 7 pro. It's now 10 months later and I am getting the Windows 10 itch again. I was having sound card issues for my WSJT-X and JTDX programs when using Windows 10.....but I am hoping now those issues have been dealt with. I have also read and seen some YouTube videos on how to stop Windows 10 from doing updates. It seems at times Windows updates cause issues with some ham radio software. This time around if I go ahead with Windows 10 I will do a fresh install and not overtop of Windows 7.
I am looking forward to the input of those of you who are using or have upgraded to Windows 10 and what has been your experience and what advice do you have?
24 Responses to “Well here we go again!”
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I have too many computers, or so it seems. In this house, between my wife and me, close to a dozen mostly older ones and one new one for the XYL. Most are Win10. The rest are real computers running Win7 and one Win8.1. The least important ones that are used for emailing, FB, News and research all have Win10. The important ham radio are Win7. One Win7 Dell Notbook runs my IC-7300 and TS-990S. The Win8.1 in on a older HP laptop and runs my IC-9700. My RCA 2 in 1 for the field is Win8.1 also. When I say RUNS, I mean they are used for Win4icomsuite, Log4OM, WSJT-X/FT8, JTAlert, SatPC32 and ARCP-990 for the TS-990S and SDR programs like SDR Uno, HDSDR and many other programs. All have drives that I do NOT want screwed with by Windoz…
I gave up with Windows quite awhile ago and do NOT plan on going back unless a new program I can’t live without comes out and requires Win10. Until that day I will not go back to Windows 10 bloatware. I want a stable program that does not require constant updating..
If you love more years of grief and burning up radio time trying to correct Win10 issue then yes load Win10 in your ham radio setup. If not stick with Win7 and use Win10 for everything else… Just my 2 cents worth..
73 to You and Yours.
Harry K7ZOV
Good afternoon Harry and I can always count on you to be honest and thanks, regarding my OS I am like a flag in the wind at times just now sure which direction to go in. I can no longer get updates for Win7 but is that really the be all and end all?
The more reading online I do the more I see folks having issues with the Win10 updates and you can stop the machine from updating. If I end up stopping Win10 from updating due to update issues I may as well stick with Win7 as I am not getting any updates from Microsoft for that now anyways.
73 and thanks very much Harry for being upfront,
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Mike & Harry, I use Win 10 on all computers, and the only problems I have are the ways Win10 complains about the unsafe certificates that most Ham Radio programs arrive with. I understand it costs to purchase these certificates from MS et al, so we continue to get free programs from designers. With the proper certificates, that would not be the case. So perhaps ARRL & RAC should make some kind of arrangement with MS? Just a thought, pretty sure it won’t happen!
73 Bob VE3ETE
Good evening Bob and very nice to hear from you again, the main issue I had with Win10 was with the digi programs such as WSJT-X and JTDX. There was one sound card issue after another. Do you use the digi modes with Win10 as well and if so are you having any issues?
73,
Mike
VE9KK
get you win10 drivers located for the devices on your old laptop. good luck.
Good evening Jeff, there is no laptop my PC is a desktop and I plan to wipe the hard drive clean (if I in fact end up moving to Win10 still going back and forth) and install on a fresh drive.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Yes, do a fresh install. Overlaying 10 over 7 can create some issues. Plus, security will be better. I use linux where I can but can’t always get everything working properly. Using window 7 is definitely leaving your security not good enough and with 10 you still got to stay on top of it..good luck, N0XO Alan
For what it’s worth some years ago I found myself on a public panel which discussed at Microsoft’s behest their upgrades and changes. One day we got into a long talk about how the constant introduction of new versions with the end of support for the old ones was awful. We agreed it was expensive, often unnecessary for our purposes and very irritating. The next day I, at least, was politely told by Microsoft to go take a hike.
I have a Windows 10 computer for surfing and banking (all that stuff I need to be right the first time). My Ham computer is a Windows 7. I try not to do any surfing with it but it runs my log and other ham apps while connected to my rigs. I almost went with a Linux OS for my main computer. I have several Raspberry Pi 3s and an Odroid Xu4. All my windows computers are home brew.
73, Larry WB8LBZ
El Paso, TX
Good morning Alan, I first wanted to say that I read your bio on QRZ and I must say you certainly had a very adventurous life for sure. As for the installation if and when I do it this time around it is going to be a fresh installation on a nice solid state hard drive. Thanks for stopping by Alan and taking the time to leave a comment.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Good morning Richard very nice to hear from you again, well funny thing I had a similar situation. I was working (worked there for 0ver 30 years and retired there) for a company that had a very large meeting and the new CEO asked for input from the employees. He asked all of us to be honest and say what was on our minds. Well….the management members in the auditorium who spoke their peace and who’s ideas were not lining up with upper management found themselves looking for new jobs that same week!
The union members were fine and did not lose their jobs but were somewhat targeted for a bit to “get in line”. I understand your exuberance 100% first hand.
Thanks for stopping by Richard and have a good week,
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Good morning Larry and thanks very much for the input, we only have one Windows machine in the house (the shack PC) all other PC’s are Mac’s. I did have a very old and slow laptop that I installed Ubuntu on to speed it up and it did but that was years and years ago.
I am still on the fence regarding Win10 and over the next few weeks I will see how I lean. On your QRZ page very nice FJ in the upper right corner…..just kidding nice FJ-40….:)).
73 and have a great week Larry,
Mike
VE9KK
It works!
Take the plunge…………..
Windows 10 requires permission to access apps that run sound. If you go to “Start, Settings, Find a setting” and enter “microphone” You’ll see “Allow desktop apps to access your microphone”. This has to be set to “on” for your WSJT-X and other Ham apps to access the microphone. It drove me nuts trying to find out why Win 10 wasn’t working with my Ham apps.
Fred nothing like getting to the point. Oh, and I checked out your QRZ page and a very very nice view from Arizona.
Thanks and 73,
Mike
VE9KK
Good morning Thomas and thanks for taking the time to comment, this is what I have been reading and also to not install Wind 10 over 7 but do a clean installation. Thanks for taking the time and for the information.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
I use Windows 10 Pro and am pleased with it. I have recently acquired several older vintage ham radio software (i.e., Control Systems CPS Codeplug Programming Software) and I’ve noticed some issues, but I attribute it to old software that needs to be maintained a little better (e.g., unable to resize windows, also when changing display size above 125% the windows don’t scale down to match; they end up getting cut off).
Highly recommend AskWoody.Com, especially their Lounge/forum, for anything related to Windows. They have a bunch of outstanding contributors with regular columns on subjects like how do I prevent or manage updates, etc. All or almost all articles are free. I choose to contribute to them and have never regretted it.
Good morning Dan and thanks for the great input, I have never heard of that website but visited it this morning. I took a fast look around and it’s fantastic. I am going to spend more time this evening on the site, thanks very much for the comment and for the website.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Windows 10 for sure is just becoming one big mess. I noted the other day they are now removing the control panel and making it accessible some other way. It just all makes me want to do everything Ham on XP that will work for most of our hobby stuff and move the rest over to Linux, the latter I have not been brave enough to make the move, yet?
73
Steve
I have nothing but Apple Mac computers. I do have a dual boot system on the Mac Mini so I can run some Ham programs on Win 10 and I have no trouble running digital communications programs on my Kenwood TS-590G, but sometimes I leave it in the Mac OS and there are digital programs for that too which run fine.
All is not well in my Mac world. Nothing but grief when Apple went to the Catalina OS (from 32 bit to exclusive 64 bit). My printers have hiccups and a OS reinstallation cost me $400 in repairs. I use a Win 10 machine on my radios although I don’t like it, so far it works okay in the shack.
Good evening Steve and thanks very much for taking the time to leave a comment, as for me, I was with XP for a long time but then moved to Win7 and have been very happy with it until the support was stopped. As for Linux I did have a laptop that ran Ubuntu BUT there was little to no ham software that is supported……well software that I use on a daily basis.
Have a great weekend Steve and 73,
Mike
VE9KK
Good evening Lon and thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, the only PC I have that is windows is the one that is in the shack. In the past I did have a Mac PC in the shack but back then I just could not find the software I wanted that was Mac supported. We do have 3 Mac laptops, iPad and iPhones but at this point I just don’t see the ham radio support from Mac that I need. I am not wanting to do a big switch on most Windows ham radio software to Mac.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Gordon very nice to hear from you, we do have some Mac PC’s here and for just internet stuff and there has been no issues…BUT we have Catalina on any of them. Interesting to hear that Mac also has some issues with an OS. In the past I did try Mac for my ham programs but there was just not the choice I was used to and most were not free….
73 and thanks again for stopping by,
Mike
VE9KK