Hi Folks, I have successfully installed Windows 10 on my 7 year old desktop computer running Windows 7 and Jaws 16. While there are still bugs with this newest version of Windows, especially for us Jaws users, such as the inability to access the Start Menu search results, or the inability to access individual updates in order to deselect them from installation, the overall speed of my decrepit desktop has improved quite noticeably.
The lag is much less then it was on Windows 7, and no, I have no idea whether Windows 8, or 8.1 would have helped that or not, but I can happily say that Windows 10 is much faster on my desktop computer, then Windows 7 was. In terms of hardware issues, I did not have any problems, even though I was assured of this fact from the Windows 10 upgrade utility, so that wasn’t as much a concern for me, especially when I remembered that I had a really old sound card from Creative Labs installed on there that was giving my old Windows 7 system a problem, and I even thought that that same sound card might have been the culprit in my inability to install Windows 10. As it is, I need not have worried, as Windows 10 by-passed that issue with no qualms whatsoever. There are some tips I can offer that will help the installation, and if you’re experiencing the issue I was having, with the upgrade stalling and/or discontinuing in the middle, you may want to pay attention. First, disable any malware or anti-virus that has real-time protection on your computer, and by disable, I don’t mean turn it off temporarily, I mean disable it from start up in the MS Config utility. This can be accomplished by pressing the Windows key+R to bring up the run dialog box, then typing msconfig in the edit box, and pressing enter. In the resulting dialog box, control+tab to the services tab, and uncheck the boxes that apply to your anti-virus or malware blocker applications. Once done, control+tab over to the start-up tab, and again, uncheck any boxes having to do with those applications, then tab to the apply button, then shift+tab over to the ok button. You may be prompted to re-start your computer, and if you are, go ahead and do so, but if you’re not, simply re-start your computer. Secondly, you may want to disable anything having to do with online services, such as Dropbox, iCloud services, Send Space Wizard, and non-essential services, such as Printer monitoring services and One Drive. While I can’t guarantee that these applications will give you problems, and I don’t have any confirmation as to whether these were the causes of my predicament, during the Windows 10 installation, you won’t need these services anyway, so it doesn’t hurt to disable them. Now, you don’t have to disable them using the MS Config utility, simply doing so from the task manager with control+shift+escape, just before you begin the installation process is enough. Now, the reason I told you to disable the anti-virus and anti-Malware applications through the MS Config utility, and not the online services is because your computer, or, at least, the Windows 10 installation wizard claims that your computer will re-start many times, and so if you simply use the application’s settings, the disabling will only take effect until you re-start your computer, and I would suggest you keep the services disabled until the installation has been completed. As I said, I have no guarantee that these tips are absolutely necessary, as you’ve seen by other’s experiences, not everyone has suffered what I have suffered, and they’ve actually been successful in installing their Windows 7 to 10 upgrade. I am simply outlining what I did to ensure that my upgrade process when flawlessly and as smoothly as possible. Also, those of you using Jaws should know that I had sighted assistance, and so when the Windows log on and set up screen popped up, I was advised of this event. If you don’t have sighted assistance, then you will have to guess as to when this happens. I have no actual technical guidelines as to when this event takes place, but I can extrapolate that when you no longer hear any noises from your hard drive, assuming you aren’t running a solid state drive, this should be the ideal time to toggle Narrator on with a press of the Windows key+enter. You’ll enjoy the richer sounding voice that pops up. That keystroke is a toggle, so when you want to shut narrator down again, you simply have to press Windows key+enter again, or caps lock+escape to shut down Narrator. Again, some people may or may not have Jaws popping up when Windows logs on to the desktop, I can’t categorically state this will happen, but surprisingly, mine did, but I took the safe precaution, as Freedom Scientific suggested, of running the Windows 10 upgrade utility available on their website, then re-installing the latest build of Jaws 16. In my case, I uninstalled Jaws, while leaving shared component, and re-installed Jaws. Once that was done, I had Jaws popping up with my original settings. Oh, and you may have to re-configure the Jaws start-up setting, as for some reason, the automatically start Jaws at the log on screen and Windows desktop log on got disabled. I also wish Freedom Scientific would fix their installer to make Jaws automatically start once it’s installed on a new system, and not make us re-start the system to a computer with no speech. Make things much easier, but alas, this is not the forum to run my mouth off. LOL. In any case, I hope this helps anyone having the same issues I was having, and apologize for any errors made in my explanations, or steps/tips. I am not explaining how to do it correctly, I am simply explaining what I did to ensure a successful upgrade to Windows 10, following my inability to upgrade using the standard Windows 10 upgrade utility found in the system tray. I should also mention that I also used the Windows media creation utility to download the Windows installation ISO file, which I extracted onto an external hard drive, and ran the setup from the setup.exe file in the folder, at which point I was given the option to upgrade to Windows 10 now. I did, and am loving Windows 10, and it’s speed and performance. I am posting this message to several lists, so I apologize to anyone if I sound patronizing, as some lists have members who are experienced, and others have members who are not, So, I chose to place more information than necessary because it’s better to have too much and not need it, than have too little information and need it. In other words, I didn’t want to have to explain myself over and over again, thereby creating more traffic to the list. In any case, if anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to contact me off-list at: scorpio...@gmail.com Or, if the moderators approve, on-list, and since I am the moderator of one of the lists, permission is given and encouraged. So, off to enjoy my copy of Windows 10. Hope this helps. Scorpio For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
