Considering a laptop


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Old 01-30-17, 06:02 PM
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Considering a laptop

I currently have 6+ year old desktop at home. I have satellite for my Internet access. Windows 10 massive updates consume all of my data for the month leaving me stuck with dial-up speeds until my plan resets. Selecting "metered connection" has been little help. So, I've used every trick I could find to disable all updating. Now, I'm considering getting a laptop so I can turn off updating and take it into work occasionally and click "check for updates". Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

---
It is a shame that Win 10 does not allow me to specify a time to download updates. Data from midnight to 5am is unlimited.
 
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Old 01-30-17, 07:13 PM
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Now, I'm considering getting a laptop so I can turn off updating and take it into work occasionally and click "check for updates". Does this sound like a reasonable plan?
What makes you think that MS doesn't enforce the same Win 10 update policy, on a laptop. With Win 10 Pro, the user has a little more flexibility. It still sucks.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 04:24 AM
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All my updates are set to take place when I turn the computer off. But I understand the bandwidth situation, and taking it to work would be less burden on your satellite connection allocation. I only have updates probably once a week or less frequently, so it isn't really a problem. I was a staunch XP user, and I was steadfastly against upgrading, but now that I have w10, I consider it to be a good OS. I am running pro, so it has its attributes. I think having a faster RAM, at least 8 Gb is mandatory, along with a good memory capacity. I am running a HP ProBook 4540s, and it works great. Wifey has a HP, but not a ProBook, and only 4 Gb of RAM and it is an albatross.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 04:45 AM
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The real problem is the bad plan from the satellite ISP. Don't they have an unlimited plan or can't you switch to another provider?
 
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Old 01-31-17, 05:05 AM
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I am certain that Win10 will have the same update issues on a laptop. That's why I'd like completely turn off updating and have the portability to bring the computer into work and force it to update there where I have civilized Internet access.

As for the Internet provider I live too remotely to be served by wires. My two options are old fashioned dial-up and satellite. There are no unlimited data plans. You buy a certain amount of data per month and when your block of data is consumed they slow your data down to dial-up speed. Then additional data/bandwidth can be purchased for $10 a gig. The satellite Internet does offer unlimited use between midnight and 5am but Win10 does not allow you to specify when it downloads updates and I have not been good about waking up in the middle of the night to manually trigger updating.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 05:34 AM
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That's why I'd like completely turn off updating
I don't think that you can do that with Win 10 & if you can why didn't you do it on your desktop? Win 10 is the same on desktops & laptops.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 05:38 AM
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If you go into "Settings" then "Update and Security", you can change and specify when it downloads updates.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 06:33 AM
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you can change and specify when it downloads updates.
Right, you can specify 'when' it downloads updates not 'if' it downloads updates. There is no 'off' setting.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 06:54 AM
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Is the option to set active hours new? I swear it wasn't in my version of Win10. Maybe they added it with the anniversary update?

Unfortunately everything I found regarding active hours only covers the installation and restarting portion of updates. It appears that Windows still downloads updates anytime in the background when they are available.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 06:57 AM
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It appears that Windows still downloads updates anytime in the background when they are available.
That's in Win 10 Home. Win 10 Pro gives different options. Either way, you can't stop updates 100%.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 08:54 AM
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The more I work with Win 10, the less I like it. The lack of control over updates is one of my bigger gripes.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 09:02 AM
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In looking at that settings again, it appears you can just change the restart time, not the update time! I misread it. Sorry.
Seems they should add that option. They're probably not used to situations like yours and didn't think about it.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 09:30 AM
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Seems they should add that option.
Actually, they removed full user control & gave it to themselves.

They're probably not used to situations like yours and didn't think about it.
I don't think that they care about inconvenience.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 11:04 AM
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Yes, I'm in the 1% of our county that does not have high speed Internet access. It's rather embarrassing to try and explain to a Costa Rican living 20 miles from the nearest paved road that they have better Internet service than I get in America and pay much less for it.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 11:45 AM
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Maybe you should spread that info to your satellite provider so they should feel embarrassed by that!
 
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Old 01-31-17, 11:55 AM
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Maybe you should spread that info to your satellite provider so they should feel embarrassed by that!
Who is your ISP? Do they have more than one plan? How much are the plans & for how much data? Any idea how many subscribers they have?
 
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Old 01-31-17, 12:06 PM
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Well, so you don't feel too alone, I am also in that one percent; dial-up or satellite are my options. Went to satellite a few years ago, and it beats heck out of dial-up, especially with our 50 or so year old phone lines being as bad as they are, but, if for instance a storm is coming, and I want to catch the latest updates on the weather channel, I need to get online early enough before the clouds get too thick. Otherwise I am okay with it. I have a similar package, so many gb or whatever during "peak" hours and so many during "off peak" hours, and that hasn't been a problem, but we don't watch movies or anything like that on it. I am curious now though about the updates, because I never noticed it running many, maybe doing it and I don't realize it, but wondering if I need to leave the machine on at night so that it catches them? I'll have to take a look at the settings one of these days and see what I can find. Oh, and meant to comment on laptop. I bought one last spring, thinking that it would be good for taking to jobsites, on vacation, etc. But since got a smart phone that does most of what I can with the laptop, and the smaller keyboard is not comfortable for working hands, in my opinion anyway.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 12:12 PM
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do you have good cell phone reception at home that you could use a cellular network for web access? could even consider a booster for your cell reception if that helps.

- Peter
 
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Old 01-31-17, 01:10 PM
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Look into WSUS Offline. Presuming, of course, you can get away with sucking up that much bandwidth at work.

WSUS Offline is a home version of M$'s WSUS (Windows Server Update Services). M$'s gives administrators the ability to download all the updates their oranization's PCs will need just the once, and then push them out to the individual PCs at their discretion.

Except unlike M$'s WSUS, WSUS Offline doesn't need to be run from a server OS. In fact, it doesn't need to be installed at all. Just click on it and it runs, no installation necessary.

And the updates aren't getting installed (at least not right away), just stored. Bundled up so you can take them to your intended recipient, then run the installation half of the process.

And it's free. Eli the Computer Guy has a short video on it here.

There are other such alternatives to M$'s WSUS (three, IIRC) but WSUS Offline IMHO is the most straightforward to use. Before M$ sunsetted WinXP, I used it to download all the updates so I could reinstall XP whenever it suited me, then patch it, regardless whether M$'s XP updating server was still standing. Worked like a champ.

FWIW, I last ran it on October of last year to get my own copy of all the updates for Win7, 8.1 and 10. Archived with max compression, it came to about 11gb. Since Win7 was the oldest of those three, I'm guessing it probably was ~5gb of the 11. So make sure you've got some sort of storage media large enough to carry the collection home with you, be prepared for it to take quite some time to download, and be aware that WSUS Offline DOES NOT play nice with its neighbors. It has no facility for limiting how much of the available bandwith it sucks up, so your coworkers probably are all going to think the Internet slowed suddenly when it starts downloading updates. If your work has a network administrator, it's not likely to make him/her happy. And even if you don't, it probably would be best to start this when everybody quits for the day, and hope that it's finished by the following morning.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 02:33 PM
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Old 01-31-17, 05:50 PM
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My satellite provider is Excede (formerly Hughes formerly Wild Blue... and is also partnered I believe with DireTV). My plan is grandfathered on an old plan having 15gb of data which is sufficient when Windows isn't doing a major update. There is a considerable lag in the data volume reporting so we generally don't know it's blowing through our data until it's too late. And for all you people with unlimited data... extra costs $10 a gig.

I have cellular access at the house... after installing a directional antenna, booster and repeater antenna inside the house. Unfortunately the data rate is higher than via satellite. Which is better is harder to determine. Latency is much shorter via cellular but the download rate is slower.
 
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Old 01-31-17, 06:50 PM
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Just bought my mom a laptop with W-10 to replace a desktop with XP.
Now I know I don't want W-10.
 
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Old 02-01-17, 06:07 AM
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https://wildblueworld.com/forum/

Pilot Dane,
That site is a form for Wild Blue & Excede providers. Post something there or look for others who have the same problem. Maybe you can start a movement. The idea is to get them to provide more bandwidth at a reasonable price.
 
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Old 02-01-17, 08:09 AM
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The big problem with satellite based Internet is the satellite. Some changes can be made with software but the major improvement in performance and price has come with new satellite launches. Unfortunately they don't happen very often. The next is scheduled for early 2017. With final positioning and checkout I might see some change in mid to late 2017. I'm currently in a overlap area between spot beams from the satellite and get about 60-70% of the signal that those in the center of the beam receive.
 
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Old 02-01-17, 02:04 PM
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It doesn't sound like you want to rock the boat with those people.

Get DISH High Speed Internet | dishNET 1-855-516-7298

Maybe call them. ^^
 
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Old 02-01-17, 02:20 PM
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Dont you have century link or charter internet in your area?

It shows 10mbs unlimited for 19 bucks a mont with a 5 yr locked in rate. ( century link)

Um thats cheap... I mean im fast but pay 59.95 a month for this... Its expensive IMO..

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Old 02-01-17, 02:25 PM
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It's probably an area similar to mine. Until the POCO ran fiber optic lines to every customer the only internet choice was dial up or satellite. Charter finally quit sending me advertisements .... and if you call them they say I have a non serviceable address.
 
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Old 02-01-17, 02:27 PM
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Old 02-01-17, 02:34 PM
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Century Link telephone is available but DSL Internet is not. So, I have land line telephone and electricity. Those are the two wires available. DSL and cable are not available.

I already have DirecTV and there are a few things the wife likes about it over Dish Network so we're not too interested in switching to Dish. And, since we are grandfathered in with some decent packages/pricing that is no longer available there is not a huge savings switching to Dish and get Excede bundled with them. It is the same Internet provider we have now.
 
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Old 02-01-17, 05:07 PM
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well anyway I tried the lap top thing as my main computer twice... Never again..

Hard drive bearings went out twice on each. lost everything. Two times monitors went out/black. Expensive fix and not worth the effort..

All the desktops I have had got outdated before they broke with mechanical failure.. More powerful IMO.

Just what I have experienced is all..

Plus I like my 26" screen
 
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Old 02-01-17, 06:12 PM
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I know this does not address your internet speed problem but it will help it.

I have to agree with Mike. A desktop properly outfitted will out perform a laptop. Your best bet is to try to outfit a desktop with the fastest CPU and lots of ram. Also the latest router specs will also help.

Also keep in mind that a desktop can be updated to a degree, but little can be done to update a laptop.
 
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Old 02-02-17, 02:02 AM
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Ever thought of using a Chromebox, Chromebook, or Chromebase? I bought one of these for my wife because she was constantly having different issues with Windows. The Chomebox sounded very simple. Very lightweight OS, fast. And Google takes care of the updates. It has worked phenomenally. If a chromebox would do online gaming I would change today. So much faster and less problematic as compared to Windows.

Don't get me wrong. I like my Windows 10 PC, but have to acknowledge that the Chrome OS is faster and less trouble-prone.
 
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Old 02-02-17, 05:24 AM
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Yea, I'm leary of a laptop as well. I have had good luck with desk computers and last year I put a new video card in this computer so the ease of upgrades is very nice. But if there truly is no way to prevent Win10 from downloading updates whenever there is no sense in considering a laptop.

It may seem funny to many people but no matter who I go with my Internet will still come from the same provider. There is only one satellite and different companies under different names package or resell their services. And, for the most part every one I have checked ends up being very close in price. They each have different packages making direct apples to apples comparisons difficult but the cost per gig ends up being close.
 
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Old 02-02-17, 07:06 AM
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But if there truly is no way to prevent Win10 from downloading updates whenever there is no sense in considering a laptop.
My point exactly.
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Old 02-02-17, 08:42 AM
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If you use a laptop with W10 Pro and:

1. set Group Policy to “Defer Updates”.
2. take the laptop to work every week (or some other period).
3. change Group Policy at workplace to accept updates.
4. update the laptop (now at workplace).
5. take laptop home and repeat 1 above.

Why doesn’t that work? (assuming workplace approval)
 
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Old 02-02-17, 01:00 PM
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It doesn't work because I don't have Win10 Pro. The added control over updates only comes with the pro version.
 
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Old 02-02-17, 01:47 PM
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It's sometimes possible to go from Win 10 Home to Pro without cost. Scenario 3:
How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro without hassles | ZDNet
 
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Old 02-02-17, 02:25 PM
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PD-

What I was thinking is that if you were willing to shell out for a new laptop, I was thinking then for $99 bucks more, you can upgrade W10 Home to W10 Pro and that would allow you to postpone the updates and do them in work as you were contemplating. (didn't read stickshifts post yet)

Not saying that is the best solution but it seems it would fit the laptop scenario you were thinking about. If I understand, you can't postpone Security Updates even under Pro, but the Security Update load at home might be tolerable.

But I guess you wouldn't know that until you operated like that. W10 puts you in a bad position. To me it seems more like they are selling a service rather than a product - or something like that, LOL.
 
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Old 02-02-17, 04:09 PM
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Well, the long range plan is that we not move or retire someplace that does not have good Internet access.
 
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Old 02-02-17, 04:11 PM
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If it's still available, there was a free legal way to upgrade from Win 10 Home to Win 10 Pro. I recently had a computer built with Win 10 Pro. I hardly use it. I set updates to notify me when they were available. When I see that notification, I press the escape key & minimize the dialog box. If I choose to accept the updates, I have no idea when MS will reboot my PC. What a horror! I'm almost sorry that I bought the PC.
 
 

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