Windows 10 concerns

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I have been working with the Windows 10 Technical Preview for several weeks now. It is slowly starting to stabilize, and I am becoming slightly more proficient in working with and around it.

Just the same I have some concerns that lead to questions for which I have not found answers.

I am concerned about support for vendor-specific device drivers from the likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo. In many cases these manufacturers did not provide new or updated drivers for Windows 8 / 8.1 for “recently released” Windows 7 computers.

What’s going to happen when someone thinks they can update to Windows 10 because Microsoft said it was possible – and they no longer have network access because there are no Windows 10 drivers for their network card? The only option at present is to roll back the upgrade and hope that the computer still operates properly.

I am also concerned about what is going to happen after the first “free” year of Windows 10 as a service. What is Microsoft going to charge consumers and small businesses to continue using the operating system on their computers, laptops, and tablets? Will there be a “buy one – get two free” offering? Will each device require a subscription? How much money does Microsoft think consumers will be willing to spend monthly or annually?

I am patiently waiting for some answers to come from Redmond…

Your Firefox Search Results Have Changed Without Your Knowing It

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On December 1, 2014, Mozilla released Firefox 34. The major change with this release was the deal the organization struck with Yahoo to place that search companies’ product as the default search engine, displacing Google, which had been the search engine for years.

If you use Google as your home page, and you conduct searches from there, you will not see any difference. However, if you search using either the Address bar or the Search bar (located to the right of the Address bar), you are now using Yahoo to perform your search. That is, unless you change your search providers.

Here’s how to do just that. Click to the immediate right of the magnifying glass in the Search bar. You should see a menu option appear underneath titled, “Change Search Settings.” Click that option and the following window appears:

FFSearchOpts

In the search preferences window, select a default search engine in the drop-down menu.

Then, add or remove the check mark next to “Provide search suggestions” to turn them on or off.

In the lower half of the window, remove the check mark next to each search engine you don’t want to use. This will keep them in the list of available search engines if you decide later that you want to use them. But, if you simply don’t want to use any one of the listed entries, check each one and click the Remove button.

When you are finished, click OK.

If, at any point, you think you may have made a mistake, you can click the Restore Default Search Engines button to bring the list back. It will still be up to you to select the search engines you want to use.

To find out more, click the Help button.