Sunday, September 20, 2015

New paradigm with Windows 10 - KEEP YOUR COMPUTER ON!

With the installation of Windows 10 to your computer, you'll be entering a new stage of operating systems. Part of the trouble with older Windows versions was that we were given the choice to install upgrades and fixes... or not... and many of us did not...

Because of that (among other things), our computers were more vulnerable to attacks, hiccups, and general malaise. With Windows 10, Microsoft has taken away our need to do ANYTHING in order to keep our computers current. They take care of upgrading, updating, and fixing without our involvement.

The only trick is that you'll need to KEEP YOUR COMPUTER ON all the time! The default time for upgrades is 3:00 am, and your computer will need to be on in order to receive and process them. This is vital for your virus protection (now included in the operating system, called Windows Defender) to remain updated.

So, it's time to change habits. You can turn your monitor off, but leave your computer (box) ON! I don't recommend allowing it to "sleep" - that used to be necessary when our computers took 10 minutes to boot up. But now I think it causes more trouble than it's worth. Just leave it on.

One other thing... periodically, after an update, your computer will need to reboot. Once it's up again, you'll need to login. For some people, that's no trouble. For others, it's a pain they don't need! If you're a part of the second group, below is a "hack" to have your computer automatically login for you. (Careful, if you share your computer, you'll be logged in without you being there!)


To set your computer to automatically login for you, here is the hack:
  • Right-click on Start Menu, choose “run” (towards the bottom of the choices).
  • Type   netplwiz   and then click OK. For each user you want to have autologin, check the box which says “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.” When you click that, it will ask you for the user’s password. Type it in and click OK. If you want to include other users, repeat this section for each person.
Now you won’t have to login each time the computer reboots! Yay!