Windows 10 From mac osx --> Windows 10

De TImmertjes

Well-Known Member
Good day.

Small introduction. I'm Rien from The Netherlands. 42 years old. In a few weeks 43. Things go FAST!
Excuse my english, I'm doing my best.

As the title says, i'm currently moving away from mac osx and going to Windows 10.
Basically for economic reasons. My macbook has died on me, I bought it 2011.
The laptop was not used often. Most we do with the ipad and our iPhones. The laptop was used to play a game like Diablo 3 bit world of warcraft. And do some photo and video editing with the build in apps. iPhoto & iMovie.

Via my company I can order an hp pavilion gaming laptop for 50% discount. End year bonus.
So that is for a bit over 500 euro. Since a new macbook pro kost me 1500-2000. I had to think really good. I have 2 young children. And I like to give them a present as well so now and then. Lego is expensive to ;)

The only thing is, I left the windows camp in the 90's. Since then i used apple computers. For my work i stayed a bit in contact with Windows, since my work machine is windows. But not used it private.

The new system I have ordered will arrive probably in a few weeks. So there is now way back.
Exciting, since windows 10 is completely new for me.

Important for me is that we keep using Apple Icloud. WIth our iPhones we make photo & Video that are uploaded to Icloud automatically. This can be viewed on our apple-tv. This is most important. We like to watch our recordings with the fam so now and then, and we use the apple-tv for this.

A few questions that come to my mind at the moment:

* The laptop will be used for a bit Photo and video editing. What will come close to simple foto and video editing? I remember from the past there was windows movie maker (windows xp i believe). That worked well.
I guess there is no photo or video program that works like iPhoto on the mac. Where the pictures come automatically in the program. This is no showstopper btw.

* Gaming laptop has the name, guess Diablo 3 & World of warcraft will be no issue. SInce it are not the newest games. Further not real intention to play games btw. Perhaps the standard minesweeper and Patience if it is still there with windows 10. Most games are played on our consoles anyway.

* Features i used so now and then, only when i had the mac on my lab. So totally no showstopper. That is that i was able to use the system to send imessages / sms and even pick up the phone. Since i'm going to windows 10 I assume this is not possible anymore. I learned that I can switch to whats-app and use it web-based on the windows 10 laptop.

* on my mac i had never virus protection software. Again I remember something from windows xp that it has free virus protection from Microsoft to download. Advise on antivirus programs are welcome. Again I prefer free.

* Any other advise for a brand new windows 10 user? Currently reading the forum.

I'm hope when the laptop comes i'm prepared.

Thanks!
 
Hi

First photo and video editing...

While Windows has it's own basic photo and video editing software, Windows Paint and Windows Live Movie Maker, (downloaded from Microsoft it's part of the Windows live package but you can download it by itself).

I'd recommend the Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Element package.

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Elements-Premiere-14/dp/B014GP8WW2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449256097&sr=8-2&keywords=adobe+premiere+elements+14

You can hardly go wrong getting both Photoshop and Premiere Elements at that price.

I use Photoshop Pro, but I've used many versions of Premiere Elements over the years and it is easy to use after a short learning process, and will give really professional results.

It will open and output to pretty much any format you can think of and export directly to You Tube and Vimeo, and create movie DVDs.

Second antivirus...

I use Windows Defender along with SuperAntiSpyware, and Malwarebytes, both have free versions.
I run a scan with both Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpayware every day, (only takes a few minutes) and I literally can't remember the last time I had anything more serious then a few cookies to remove.

Since you are going to be starting with a new computer I have a few suggestions that you can use or not.

Use Disk Management to partition the hard drive into 2 partitions before you do anything else.
Make the Partition that has Windows on it fairly small, I use 200 Gigabytes.

When you start installing your games and software install it all on the second partition (just change the C:\ in the install address to D:\ and leave the rest of the address unchanged, it will create a Program Files and Program Files (x) 86 folders on drive D:\).

The reason for this is to make backing up your system easy and protect your data.

I use EaseUS Todo backup to make a system image of my C:\ drive, and since it reproduces the entire drive the small size makes this process fast and easy (about 17 minutes for me) I make a new backup once a month.

Best free backup software for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, etc - EaseUS Todo Backup Free

It's super simple to use and creates its own boot disk to restore your computer if you need to.

Save the backups to a folder on the second partition.

Save all you data to the second partition as well.

No matter what happens to your C:\ partition all your software and data should be safe and the computer can be restored in less then half an hour.

Anyway that's the way I've found works best for me over the 20+ years I've been using Windows.
Since you are starting fresh now's the time to get organised.

My last suggestion is to get an external USB hard drive and backup the irreplaceable data like photos and music to it just by copying the material to it.

You don't need to use any backup software just copy the stuff and then turn off the external drive until you need to use it again.

I don't have any idea about Imessages.
But this may be helpful...

Set up and use iCloud for Windows - Apple Support

Mike
 
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Hi Mike,

Thank you so much for your advise. Have printed it out. I hope i can choose an partition and create one during setup, I assume that windows is already partly installed or so. Or can the 2nd partition be created after installation? I know this can be done with the mac, i did it to.

Have read the icloud part for windows. Seems very good. Only they do not support yet office 2016 as far I understand. Have bought that as well.

WIth a bit luck the system will arrive next week. Have got an confirmation. Sooner as expected.

The backup part. I always relied on timemachine on the mac it did make an backup each hour or so. No user intervention required.
Have used the restore function 1 time as far I remember, this went pretty smooth.
Guess there is not something like that for windows? We have an western digital my duo book (nas) what we use for our documents, photo's etc. The mac made an backup on this disk. Would be nice if I can use some sort proces for windows. But again, no showstopper if not. Usb drive is fine to. Have to make sacrifices and thats no problem at all.
I have an external usb drive. For now it is formatted for mac. From my colleagues I got the advise to download an program to read the disk and copy files. After done re-format it.
have tried on my work windows system, and indeed this seem to work. As soon i have the new system will install that program and copy the disk and then format.

Thanks again for your help it is very much appreciated!
 
Hi

It is easy to partition the disk after you are in Windows 10 using Disk Management.
Right Click on the Start Button, and select Disk Management.

This is what my Disk Management Window looks like...

Disk%20Managment_zpspfy1jwil.jpg


As you can see, my partitions are clearly labeled as to what's on them.
Drive D:\ is where I install all my games and software for Windows 10.

Here's some info on how to create partitions...

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2569580/make-partitions-windows.html

There is an automatic backup option in Windows 10 called "File History" but I choose not to run it, and use EaseUS Todo backup to make system images of my C:\ drive to protect against crashes, viruses etc.

I backup my data, music, images etc, manually to an external hard drive, that doesn't show in my Disk Management window because it's not turned on.

Mike
 
Hi.

Received the laptop yesterday evening.
Setup of windows was a matter of a few minutes after. I have an outlook.com account so I used that to log in.
Directly after the setup i noticed that the system was slow. It was really slow. Was doing a lot of things I guess.
As Mike advised have partitioned the drive afterwards. I could only split the drive in 2 parts. Want to see how things evolve.
have now basically C & D each around 450 gb.
Perhaps that i'm going to split C in 2, so 200 gb. And use the other 200 gb for games or so. The D 450 will be photo and video.

Outlook:
Further I have installed outlook 2016. This was a matter of a few minutes. Tried to get my outlook.com mail to outlook, but that seems not to work. Getting errors about ssl or something like that. Have tried to find something on the web without results. Further i noticed that Icloud is not synching the calendar and contacts. So thats a no go for outlook 2016.
The default mail application shows the icloud calendar. So will keep using that program.

Battlenet:
Installed the battlenet client for my Diablo 3 and world of warcraft.
And let it download everything. All on the D drive.

Icloud:
Have installed Icloud to sync my photo's and some video's to the laptop. Everything to the D drive.
Started yesterday evening, and this was an very slow proces. It hung the system almost. I placed the computer on the desk and let it run and went to bed. Did change the power settings to prevent it going to sleep.

Seems these tasks brings a windows system on his knees. Never had that with the mac. But that is not a problem.
A bit dissapointed to be honest I went to bed.

This morning I came downstairs and saw that the system has done an update and has restarted.
Nothing done with the icloud photo's. Stil not there. Clicked the icloud config screen and went again through the settings.
And after that the photo's started to download.
This proces is still going as I type.
The system feels so much much more responsive as yesterday evening. No lag or something noticed.

This morning I have deleted some programs, uninstalled. I know from the past that you cannot delete a folder with windows to remove it. Have to uninstall an program. Have uninstalled some programs that came with the laptop. A few games that use the 3d camera or something. Mcaffee scanner. Dropbox.

Installed iTunes, since we use that with the apple music on our devices.

At the moment the system is feeling pretty responsive.
So my dissapointment is gone. Yesterday evening i went to bed a bit dissapointed and talked to myself, well i'm not using the system on daily base anyway. :)
Now i'm much more happy with it.


Found the knipprogramma what i'm using almost daily on my work laptop. Where you can make screenshots of parts of your desktop. Don't know the english name of it. Super handy program.


IMG_0496.JPG IMG_0498.JPG IMG_0499.JPG IMG_0500.JPG IMG_0502.JPG
 
Hi

There are a few free programs that I recommend.

The first is Agent Ransack, a search utility that's I have used for years.
It's easy to use and will find anything on you computer with lots of options to control what it searches for.

Once installed it adds a link to the drop down menu, so you only have to right click on where you want to search, select Agent Ransack, and type in what you're looking for.

It remembers so it's easy to search different locations.

Agent Ransack - Free File Searching Utility

The next is Revo Uninstaller a utility that removes software that you want to get rid of.
It gets rid of all the stuff that the program installs along with it that often get left behind.

Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download - Uninstall software, remove programs, solve uninstall problems

Select the free one.

Everyone who uses Windows pretty much uses CCleaner.

CCleaner - Free Download - Piriform

And I also use Defraggler created by the same people who make CCleaner.

Download Defraggler - File & Disk Defragmentation - Piriform

Last I'm going to recommend that you install Malwarebytes.

Free Anti-Malware Detection & Removal Software

Malwarebytes will find pretty much any kind of malware that gets on your computer and remove it.

Mike
 
Hello Mike,

Thank you so much again for your help! I have installed the programs.
On what schedule should I run the tools like cc cleaner, defraggel and malware? Once a week, or more often, or not that many times?
 
Hi

I run CCleaner and Malwarebytes every day.
CCleaner will run in just a few minutes.

Defraggler has the advantage of having a mode that defragments only the fragmented files, so once you have defragmented the drive you can select the "File List" tab and select "Defrag Checked" it will do it in only a few minutes.

I do this a couple of times a week that keeps the drive clean and fast.

For me the fact that you can defrag a specific files comes in handy.
When editing large video files I've found that defragmenting a 6 gigabyte file often makes editing it a lot faster.

Mike
 
Need to get used to that. For my mac I never did any maintenance.
Not a problem, i'm open for a new challenge.

few days further now with the system, and it is getting better each day. Response is so much better now. Starting up from scratch take some time if I compare with my mac. But that had an ssd drive. This Pavilion has an hybrid drive or something.
When I close the lid, and opens it again after some time it wakes up directly. Thats how it was with my mac to. Perfect.
My work system take a minute before I can work on it after opening the lid.

Using the Edge browser, and it works very well. Never missed Safari to be honest.
Itunes is working.
Using th build in photo application and it works great with Icloud photos.
Downloaded moviemaker, and for a small Facebook video it is ok.
Perhaps that i'm going for an paid video program. Not sure yet. Will check the adobe programs. Important is that it must work easy.
And must be able to play it on our apple-tv.

Much to learn, I enjoy it.
 
Hi

I use Google Chrome for my browser, you might want to try it out.
For me it's the easiest to use, just drag the address from the address bar to the links bar to make a favorite, etc.

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for Email.

For video I use Adobe Premiere Elements and have for years, (many versions) it works great and lets you do a pro looking job.



Apple has an advantage in that it always runs it's OS on it's own computers.
There are so many different Windows computers it makes it hard to satisfy everyone.

Mike
 
Want to give my personal review about windows 10. I'm now a few weeks running with the brand new os, for me that is. Coming from OSX.

Before I begin, im pretty pleased with it. This is basically i can do the most tasks. The laptop is not daily used only a few times a week. Thats why I didnt want to buy a expensive macbook pro and went for an company system pretty cheap.


The positive:

Have an system for a bit more as 500 euro. Instead of a mac that cost me 2000.
That is a BIG differene, especially with 2 young kids running around. I prefer to spend the money better.
Windows 10 is an very nice operating system. It responds quickly, starting up is almost as fast as with the mac.
Waking up is prety fast aswell. I'm never power the system off, I just close the led.
The screen, this is hardware related it is bright, very easy to read even with some sun. I can play a few games on it without issues. On my mac starcraft II for example did run, but when it was getting crowded it became an PowerPoint slide show. This system keeps going settings on high. No issues at all. I noticed that I grab the laptop a bit more to play a bit Diablo or another game during the week.
So in the end, yes I'm pleased with the new system. And i'm using it currently more as my old macbook pro.


The negatives:
Most likely this can be solved with help. But it is something i'm not used to. I expect that things are working when i buy them as tech noob.

Connecting to a hidden wifi network is not going to happen. Had to make the network visible. Have spend a few hours on this, and without the help of internet it was a no go. In the end, the network is still visible.
If this is an software issue or hardware issue is not known by me. And I should not care, with the mac this works out of the box without searching.

The edge browser, I really like. Only it seems that it crash on regular base. I get the error that the display adapter or something stopped working. Again, hardware or software: No idea. With the mac this didnt happen. Advise was, update drivers. Tried, but everything is up to date. I can life with it. Have installed safari for just in case If I get to upset about it. For now, it is fine. Cant expect to much from a cheap system I guess ;)

Copying files to my nas. This is something that cost me serious time. Our pictures we take and video are as well copies to the nas. We keep them in the iCloud and on the nas. Just to be sure we do not lose anything. Copying with the mac to the nas was slow, i thought. With windows it is even slower. It start with 4 or 5 mb per sec, but then it goes back to 0 in a matter of seconds.
Sometimes it start again, but most times I get an network issue. Disabled firewalls, deinstalled malware detecter program. etc. no difference. When i connect an old mac via wifi, i can copy without issues. Yes slow, but it keeps going. So again, or software or hardware, no idea. Have no problems with other network things, like internet or downloading. Everything full speed.

iCloud. Photo's and videos are coming to the build in photo app. Very good. Only thing is, what i delete stays in the iCloud. So have to delete it manually from 1 of our iDevices to get it removed. This is not an big thing, would be nice if it worked. Since i'm using the laptop specially for that.

If anyone has ideas how to solve the negatives for me, this is very welcome.

My system : Hp Pavilion gaming notebook:

Product specifications

Operating system
Windows 10 Home 64


Processor and graphics
6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300HQ Quad Core Processor + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 4GB Discrete Graphics


Display

15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit IPS Display (1920x1080)

Memory
8GB DDR3L - 1 DIMM


Hard drive

1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive

Office software
Office 2016


Primary battery
4-cell 48WHr Lithium-ion Battery

Optical drive
SuperMulti DVD burner


Keyboard
Backlit Keyboard

Personalization

Intel RealSense(TM) 3D Camera with Dual Digital Microphone (twinkle black)

Networking

802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1]

Battery life
Up to 8 hours

Audio
B&O PLAY with 2 speakers

Pointing device
HP Imagepad with multi-touch gesture support

Network interface
Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN

Expansion slots
1 multi-format SD media card reader

External I/O Ports
2 USB 3.0; 1 USB 2.0; 1 HDMI; 1 RJ-45; 1 headphone/microphone combo

Power supply
90 W AC power adapter

Energy efficiency
ENERGY STAR® certified; EPEAT® Silver registered

Dimensions (W X D X H)
15.14 x 10.44 x 1.14 in

Weight
5.12 lb
 
Hi

One thing that I'd recommend it that you try using Google Chrome instead of the Edge browser.
I've tried using Edge but it was just a lot harder to use and less stable then Chrome.

On the hidden network thing I have no idea.

Same for copying things back from the cloud, it just kind of takes as long as it takes, but you may find that it's better to do it a few folders at a time rather then just telling it to download 20 gigabytes of stuff all at once.

I've found that it seems to slow down after a certain point in the process and doing it a section at a time keeps things moving along faster.

I also have no idea about iCloud.

Mike
 
a nas drive also sorts data... not just stores it, and that can slow the system down... it's also why lots of small transfers are often faster than one big one. if you have mac/ linux and windows files on the same nas then that will also slow it down but you can use different sign in ids to separate them as a work around of that issue.

I'm not sure what you mean by hidden wifi... as in not a broadcast name?
 
Hello all,

Just want to give some personal feedback. We are now in June, and I'm now using windows 10 a bit over 6 months.
The beginning had some hickups. I'm not a person that gives up fast. So with help from here we managed to get things going.
Last month 1 of the usb ports of my pavilion stopped working. Together with the service desk of HP it was decided to call in the laptop. 2 weeks further: Laptop came back : Same issue..... Nothing was done as far I can tell.
Long story short, laptop again back to HP. They have replaced the motherboard and put in an motherboard with I7-6700hq. To ease the pain of being 1 month without laptop. Original it came with an I5-6300hq. Not that I notice any difference btw. I'm not that heavy user.

Windows 10 works pretty well for me. I can do most things I did on the mac without problems.
I'm pretty used to it already. Running a few times a week the tools Mike recommended. Seems to keep everything running.
I noticed that since I have this new system with windows 10 I'm using it a bit more to play a game so now and then.
In the past I was using the iPad a bit more, now I'm grabbing more the laptop. Strange is'nt it?
With all the adjustments done in the OS and with tools Mike advised it feels much more personal than my macbook pro.
I'm bonding with my Pavilion system more.

I'm very very pleased about windows 10. To be honest I gave myself a few months, and then saw me going back to the mac store.
Not going to happen.

Few points that could be better

iCloud:
We both use Iphone's (wife and me), and we take lot of pictures. These are all put in iCloud automatically.
These photo's are nicely synched with Windows 10. Only thing is it is 1 way. It download the photo's. If I delete an photo on windows it does not get deleted on iCloud. 1 of the tasks of the macbook pro was for example to clear out the "bad" pictures.
Currently doing this on the iPad, that works a bit better as on the iPhone's.

Video:
Seems i'm not able to find an easy movie editor what comes close to iMovie. Have tried a few demo versions of software found on the internet.
Currently using the Application that was shipped with this pavilion : Cyberlink Powerdirector 12.


In short, very pleased with Windows 10. More pleased as I (ever)could imagine when I got the laptop in December 2015.
 
Connecting to a hidden wifi network is not going to happen. Had to make the network visible. Have spend a few hours on this, and without the help of internet it was a no go. In the end, the network is still visible.
If this is an software issue or hardware issue is not known by me. And I should not care, with the mac this works out of the box without searching.

DO you have SSID broadcast turned off and you're trying to connect to it? All you should need to do is click on the network icon by the system time and select "Hidden Network" and enter the SSID (name) of your network. I will tell you this though, hiding your SSID is not a security feature and doesn't really hide your network. A wireless access point while in use will always send out beacon packets and any wannabe hacker with any one of a dozen tools can still find your network, so in short it's not work turning off SSID broadcast. Just make sure you use WPA2 and disable WPS if you can and your network should be safe.
 
>>>>Regarding this issue: it turns out that there has been a version of iMovie available for Windows. I was using it back on Windows7 about 7 years ago for my Mutlimedia & Computer class I taught. I don't know whether Apple is still offering it or has updated it for use with W10, but it might be worth checking out as it sounds as though you have familiarity with iMovie on the Mac platform. Might be worth checking out, as the program is likely to be very similar as it was on the Win7 platform.<<<
Best, :encouragement:
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

"Seems i'm not able to find an easy movie editor what comes close to iMovie. Have tried a few demo versions of software found on the internet.
Currently using the Application that was shipped with this pavilion : Cyberlink Powerdirector 12.


In short, very pleased with Windows 10. More pleased as I (ever)could imagine when I got the laptop in December 2015.[/QUOTE]
 
Thanks all for the reply's.

Nas:
The nas issue has been solved, seems 1 disk was defect. Replaced that one and the speed is back. Gladly we have it in mirror state. So 1 disk may go down without losing our data.

Wifi:
The wifi issue has been resolved by broadcast the SSID. Didnt find any way to select an hidden network or setting to put in manual name.

iMovie:
Tried to find Imovie for windows. Came to an site where I found an program Movavi. This come pretty close to iMovie. I'm now in my 7 days trial. And must say i'm positive so far.

Will check if there is an trial of Adobe premiere elements.

After comparing I can decide which one to buy.
 
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