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Advice Please on W8.1

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Xas1953NC:
Hello all, a few days ago I received an unexpected present but have been ordered that I can unwrap it and have a look but cannot use it until the 1st. Of December which is my 80th birthday. As a result I have been Googling for advice and info but will appreciate any feedback from you based on your experiences and advice. The present is a Lenovo Notebook LN G50-30 N2480 8gb 1TB 8M with 15.6 screen and 8.1 OS. I will use it basically for graphic work. I have read various info re upgrading to W10 but do not fancy that just yet due to its infancy but would probably do so as the free update period nears expiration. I was contemplating, if affordable, to have W7 installed but do not know when Microsoft will pull the plug on that OS. I have read about the SuperFish adware crap but do not know if it is installed. I intend to also uninstall any existing free trial stuff and offers and install AV of my choice. Thank you.

Boggin:
You are well advised to steer clear of Win 10 at the moment as since the recent November updates, it has caused problems for a number of people.

Should due to having Windows Update settings set to Automatic you get the Window icon in the Taskbar for Win 10, you can download and use the options in GWX Control panel to keep it at bay and it is best to change the update settings to Check for but let me choose and then you can hide those you don't want.

Clicking on each and then on the More info link in the right pane will show you what each relate to and you want to hide any Telemetry or ease of upgrading related.

This is for the GWX Control Panel http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/gwx_control_panel.html

They were supposed to have removed Superfish but it would depend how long your Lenovo has been on the shelf.

You can run this removal tool as a precaution though and that should do it.

https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/product_security/superfish_uninstall

Xas1953NC:
Hello Boggin, thank you for the info. My wife and a friend both have W7 and I uninstalled the 3 particular kb files that caused the W10 icon to appear in their taskbars. My friend inadvertently installed them again upon installing a later batch of update tuesday files even though he had hid them on a previous occasion when he realised they had popped up again. Will the GWX prog prevent them again from being inadvertently installed? My friend had been having problems with his system as although he did indicate he wanted to be informed only of available updates they were still being downloaded and installed without his say so.  As my desktop computer has Vista Home Premium I do not have that problem. Thanks.

Boggin:
When you download the GWX Control Panel you will see the options for the different scenarios and then click on whichever applies.

Dougcuk:
You say you might choose to install Windows 7 - to replace the supplied Win8.1
- but you don't explain your reasons behind that suggestion
- and it is difficult to advise without knowing your requirements and expertise.

It does take a fair amount of preparation (downloading all the correct drivers and utils) and setup time to do that conversion
- and you can run into some install problems depending on how much experience you have.

While it can be satisfying to know exactly what drivers and software you have installed the process can take
most of a day to get everything installed and updated and that is just the basic install.
Then you have all your security and application software to install and configure.

If it is just the need to be back on a familiar GUI (Desktop and StartMenu) then my advice
would be to install the Classic Shell menu replacement. http://www.classicshell.net/
For most day to day operations you can believe you are running Windows 7
- and it is only when you dig a little deeper you can tell the difference.

Windows 7 is supported until January 2020 for security updates
Windows 8 is supported until January 2023
See here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/lifecycle   

I have been installing Microsoft OS's since MSDOS v3.2 in 1986 and used Windows v2 (with 286 and 386 CPU's)
I myself will be sticking with Windows 7 for as long as I can, as I did with WinXP
- but have used the Win8.1 + Classic Shell combination for many of my customers
who wanted a classic Windows system on new  hardware.

The GWX Control Panel is a must have if you want to take control of the Win10 upgrade process

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