WARNING!!! What follows is a major computer geek fest.

You would think after the disasters of DOS 4 and Windows 98 (original, not the patched SE) that Microsoft would know not, under any circumstances give one of their operating systems an even ID number. So, what did they replace the largely stable Windows 7 with? Windows freakin' 10. Just never learn, some people. Let's start with the issues I have at work.

I write a lot of heavy technical reports. They require illustrations, photos and graphic plots. So, my employer has given me Microsoft Word, Visio (something they recently bought) and EXCEL. So, you would think that moving stuff into Word to assemble my reports would be easy, after all, the software all came from the same place. Gentle reader, you could not be more wrong.

First off, Microsoft don't want you to move the pictures and graphs from one app to another, they want you to embed them so all you have to do is click on them to do more editing. That is an absolute, non-negotiable no-no within our company and just about every other tech company I know. The customers does not get anything he/she can edit except the actual Word text. Everything else comes as is. I say again, this is not negotiable. Certain customers only get locked PDFs of our Word docs. This stops somebody's well meaning intern from changing the whole meaning of the report. You may guess how I know this.

OK, so Microsoft has a means to transfer stuff between its apps called the "Enhanced Metafile" format, EMF for short. This is a vector graphics format that, in theory, takes the picture/graph plot you have made in Viso or EXCEL and reproduces it exactly in Word. Short version, it doesn't always work. If I do a line/box drawing in Visio, it seems OK, but if I have included a picture and used Visio to add point outs, all hell breaks loose. The picture resolution goes away, lines move, call out fonts suddenly get funky spacings. Ugly does not cover it.

Oh, before any of the those with experience ask, I have the "Do not compress graphics" boxes checked in all my apps. It hasn't helped.

The only recourse is to save my completed Visio diagram as a PNG file, but even then Visio adds extra space around the right and lower edges of the graphic. Oh, and if I want to reduce the color depth to save on file size, I have learned never to use the facility in Visio, it is utterly hopeless. I use a freeware app called Irfanview to do that and trim off the Visio extra.

When I use EMF to move stuff from EXCEL, the effects are a little more subtle. Any bold text in the plot becomes less bold and distorted. Even simple fonts like Arial just do not look right. Sooo, I tried copying and inserting into Word as a PNG file. The bold looks great, Arial numbers look OK, but the Arial in the legend suffers random letter shifts. I have a work around for this that is too long winded to go into here.

So, the short version is that Microsoft's own EMF transfer format does not work. As you might guess, it now takes 3-4 times as long to add illustrations and graphs to my reports using all my workarounds.

Today came the last straw at home tonight. My wife's brand new and expensive HP laptop repeatedly loses the pointer associated with the touchpad, like a mouse pointer. Even restarting the machine does not guarantee the pointer's return. Web research suggests that this may well be caused by Windows and HP software creating an impasse, especially if the machine enters sleep mode. Naturally, the laptop is running Win 10. My wife will be taking it back to Best Buy tomorrow for a permanent solution, because right now it's an expensive paperweight. If that solution involves returning her money and buying a Dell or Lenovo, so be it.

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Release the Kraken

I worked in the research department of a company where a lot of technical papers were produced. After doing some studies I figured that we DIDN'T want a format that was editable or somebody could go in and screw up somebody else's work. There was always some conflict and the technology was changing rapidly.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

LVSteve, I'm sorry for the misery that Windows 10 is putting you through. I can't help with your technical issues, but I know that hundreds of your fellow Forum members will benefit from your post. After reading it, they will all come to the same conclusion: "Thank God I'm retired!"

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What, me worry?

It seems that most of your trouble is with Visio, not windows. Instead of a meta file, try taking screen shots and paste as a picture. Just a suggestion, I’m not trying to be mr. Know it all tech support. Good luck.

Win10 works fine for me.

It may depend on which version of Word/Visio you’re working with. I’ve had good luck exporting Visio drawings as JPEG’s and imbedding the JPEG’s in Word on Windows 10. Mouse click wise it’s a little cumbersome, but it seems to work.

Also, has your wife downloaded/installed the latest driver packs from HP?

Early on, I had some issues with Win 10, but been pretty stable for quite some time.

If you really despise Windows, you could always go with Linux as your base OS and use Oracle Virtual Box (free) to host a Win 10 virtual machine for Windows only apps. The Virtual Box drivers are pretty simple and stable.

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Vegan by proxy.

You read my mind. Also, remember being glad I never needed to assemble reports. That was someone else's gig.
I do remember enough about tech to read that nothing in the problems description relates to the Windows 10 operating system, rather the writers use of the software added to it. Sounds more like a gripe with MS Office.

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Slava Ukraini!

If you want to go for a seriously geeky solution, ditch word and Visio completely, install Rstudio, and write your docs in R markdown. Or even more geeky, do it in LaTex. You will never want to touch Word again.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I turn my computer on, I turn it off. What’s Windows 10?

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Sure you did

YEP ; that's me also.

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John

I feel your pain when it comes to computer problems, but if I'm not mistaken everything you complained about here is not an OS (Operating System - Windows 10, for the uninitiated) problem but rather an app/program issue (Word, Excel, Visio, etc.). If data compatibility is a problem between programs then there are lots of alternatives to choose from, but Windows 10 by itself doesn't appear to be at fault here.

This is like blaming your house because the colors you chose to paint it don't complement each other.

And the issues with your wife's laptop sound more like a driver compatibility or hardware issue having to do with the maker of the touchpad and not the OS there either. If forced to guess I would lean towards a hardware issue. I do empathize that suspecting this as a cause doesn't fix the problem, however. Good luck!

Whoa!

Not that clean with Windows.

One of the big complaints about Windows as an OS is it exposes a number of application services that apps like Office use to interact with each other. Makes it easier to write apps, but also ties the app to the Windows OS. It's interface based to make it more generic, but not perfect. That's why OS updates to Windows can break parts of some apps. One of those OS services is the ability to exchange/embed info between apps.

That tight coupling between OS and app makes it hard to say if the problem is an issue within Office or an issue between Office and Windows.

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Vegan by proxy.

For years, I used free word processors like Libre Office and OpenOffice. They worked ok. Then I purchased an engineering spreadsheet to do some number crunching I need for work, and it didn't function right with Libre or Open Office and I felt gypped. Then I finally broke down and gave Word a free trial and, lo and behold, the spreadsheet worked perfectly. So now I subscribe to the MS Office license and everything I need to do works flawlessly.

Good description of the possible issue here, but the big picture still seems to be an end user trying to make multiple add-on programs work seamlessly together, and in a way that's different from spec. That's been a problem for every computer platform.




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Slava Ukraini!

I have no idea what OP is talking about. I didn't know anyone used computers for work.

Adobe InDesign might be worth a look?

As a Mac user for 35 years, I'm always left scratching my head over all the grief I hear about winders.

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Alden
Guns N' Rosés

Got my new Windows 10 , early this year.........
saw it right off when,

I went to Libre Office to writer document........
and saw how my old data was printed out and presented to me.

The page looked like it was reduced down to 88% and a little hard to read with my old eyes.

In some of my pistol load data sheets, the columns were too small for the font size !!

Yes, a few problems but at least I have a brand new PC and can now send & receive e-mail !!

Another possible suggestion is to "print" your Visio diagrams & etc. as a .PDF and insert that into your Word document.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I hear it’s the wave of the future!

I'm a Linux/Android/Aqua Velva man.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Not what you're thinking....

LaTeX - A document preparation system

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Common sense isn't so common.

All this brought to you by the man who wants the world to run his way.
No thanks pardner.

pfff, it's just a fad...

HP laptops, I had a few for work. I stopped buying them because they had SO much junk installed on them.

HP assistant, useless junk, half a hard drive of bloatware. I would spend hours removing this stuff or the machine would use most of its own power just running its own junk.

Then turn the thing on and it would take twenty mins to update all the junk you didn't want use or need.

I went to Lenovo, besides the wife loves the Track Point...

@ the OP, I know this is a very frustrating situation, but have you selected: "Do not compress graphics".

In all seriousness though, I have been in your situation and am sorry/empathize.

It is important when we have 'bad days' to laugh at the absurdity of it all...really. I had a world-class one today, in fact.

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Rather be outdoors

I must agree with this. I have and old HP and it really did have a lot of junk and bloatware. I just bought a Lenovo Ideapad 3 which I am typing this on and, was utterly surprised at how little junk and bloatware was on it. It boots from shut down in about 15 seconds.. So far I am loving it.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

LVSteve, don't buy the Dell. I am a one-man IT for my museum - 4 dozen Dell laptops for public use, plus numerous large-format touchscreens of various brands. Having a lot of trouble with the Dell laptops. Dell denies they have a problem with Win10 20HT (on all), and Microsoft denies they have conflicts with anything Dell, including drivers. I hate Win10. But we are stuck with it.

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Heavily armed old man.

Oh, you may be sure I have that selected, but some on the Web seem to think that certain network settings can ignore this setting without telling you. Ain't that special!

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Release the Kraken

My wife's Toshiba that recently crashed its hard drive was like that. It's a disease with all the manufacturers.

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Release the Kraken

Exactly. Recall that the EMF format is supposed to be an advanced version of "Windows Metafile" WMF. All sounds pretty joined up to me, except in practice it's not.

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Release the Kraken

Your Visio fix is close to mine except I use PNG files with reduced color depth to keep the overall size of the Word document down. With the stuff I'm doing a graphic can be 1 MB in 24-bit color, so when you to Figure 36 the the Word document is getting a bit large.

My wife took the HP back and they discovered a bunch of drivers AWOL or replaced by generic Windows efforts that don't really work. Either somebody had screwed with the machine before she got it or a Win 10 update took exception to the HP drivers. My disgnosis of the machine was pretty much the same, but I wasn't about to mess with it during the "free fix period".

I am not in a position to switch over to Linux or anything else. Company policy and all that.

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Release the Kraken

You lost me after "WARNING."

LOL, lemme guess - Apple guy?

Funny thing is Apple is WAY more "my way or the highway" than Microsoft ever thought about being. And by comparison they charge you twice as much for their exclusivity and incompatibility with the rest of the world.

Admittedly there are a lot less problems - because there are so many fewer choices and different sources - especially in the area of hardware - but also in terms of software too.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I do tech support for end users, and when I get a Mac call, my stomach turns over. It's always a huge pain and a long call. So much easier to fix a Windows issue.

Actually no. I use the Windows 10 junk but I do not like it. However my computer needs are real basic and I need the thing not not to much stuff. definitely no editing or anything. On the rare occasion when I feel an urge to dive in deeper I shut it off and head out to my reloading shed.

As an addendum it did have Amazon Alexia on it and I finally found out how to uninstall it. They won't tell you but it can be done however not through the normal windows control panel uninstall method. You have to right click on the Alexia App and when the menu window comes up click on More and you will see several options and when you scroll down a little, lo-and-behold the uninstall option pops up.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

I'm not a computer guy. I wrote my first code in 1968, so I don'y have much experience. When you said HP the flag went up. I have never had a good anything that said HP on the label.

Toshiba and Dell have been trouble-free for me. I won't own a printer unless it says Epson. Although I liked Windows XP the best, Win 10 with an original install has also been quite good.

Mac is another story. You can have it. I would take Vista before I owned a Mac, and that of course is IMHO.

One of the problems we have encountered at work is the platforms are specified by people who don't under stand what we do, and that they are a SUPPORT service, not the drivers of the train. This is a common problem - end users are the reason for the design and purchase, and rarely consulted. We don't get enough memory to do the job; the new version of Outlook Web Access is about as user friendly as a Honey Badger so checking email at home is a vile task, and when we report problems and need them fixed get blamed for not doing stuff their way.

Some grumpy old lawyer not only says "You can't spell (guess) without IT", but some of us are considering making T shirts to that effect.

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NHI, 10-8.

And this my friend is why this old guys favorite saying is "I hate computers........and people who like computers".