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Phil’s Ramblings

S If any of you are facing this problem as you install
ummer certainly passes quickly in our area,
doesn’t it? Football season is upon
the Anniversary Update, here is a link to this par-
us, and the stores are stocked with
at:
http://
This
can
fall and winter clothing – and Halloween ticular thread on Microsoft’s Community Forum.
found
be
thread
costumes! Meanwhile, oblivious to the answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/
seasons, things continue to change in the windows_10-update/windows-10-anniversary-
world of computers. update-for-32gb-emmc-budget/9158168e-54a2-
4e9e-b6e7-784e7ace2469.
Microsoft released their long-awaited
Windows 10 Anniversary Update in August. I’ve Amazon is continuing to expand their offerings.
installed that update on all four of our Windows 10 The Amazon Echo is a free-standing device that
computers and tablets, and they are still running provides many of the features offered by Apple’s
well. I can’t say that I notice much difference, but “Siri” and Microsoft’s “Cortana”. I bought one in
then I haven’t yet truly explored the changes incor- 2014 to use for music playback. Since then, Am-
porated in this major update. I did have one hic- azon has offered many new capabilities; I receive
cup, which I partially described in the August news- an email from the company every couple of
letter. I have an inexpensive HP Stream netbook weeks describing some new feature or use for the
and a Dell Venue 8 tablet, both of which contain 2 device. (Here is a link to a recent review, that de-
GB of RAM and 32 GB of solid-state ROM. Alt- scribes the evolving nature of this device: http://
hough both devices allow for the use of SD cards www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/hi-fi-and
for additional storage, the operating system and -audio/audio-systems/amazon-echo-1272454/
application software must be installed on the built- review. Meanwhile, as reported in USA Today,
in ROM. Everything worked fine when I upgraded Amazon will be offering selected Great Courses
them from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 in 2015 through Amazon Prime at a discounted price.
under the free upgrade offer. Here is a link to that article: http://
Things did not go so smoothly when I tried to install www.usatoday.com/story/tech/
the Anniversary Update. One of the prerequisites columnist/2016/08/30/cutting-cord-great-courses-
for installation is 20 GB of free ROM. But Windows amazon-prime-streaming/89001148/?csp=tech.
10 and associated operational software were al- As a follow-on to our smartphone discussions,
ready taking up about 14 GB of the existing 32 GB here’s a personal example of the bargains that
solid-state memory on each device. Even when I are available out there. On at least one occasion
deleted everything else stored on the C: drive, during past meetings I have mentioned a very ca-
there was less than 20 GB of free ROM. In our Au- pable, moderately-priced ZTE Android
gust newsletter, I wondered if Microsoft understood smartphone that I purchased at Best Buy and
that their new update could not be installed (by nor- then activated as part of the TracFone BYOP
mal means) on less-sophisticated Windows 10 de- (Bring Your Own Phone) program. I just repeated
vices. To date, I am still wondering – since I have the process to buy a new smartphone for my wife.
not seen anything “official” from Microsoft address- TracFone has deals with at least three of the four
ing this problem. major wireless network operators, to provide ser-
vice over their networks. (I’m not sure about Veri-
However, since my August column several enter- zon.) You can use a compatible phone you al-
prising Windows 10 users have posted “work- ready own to sign up for their service, or pur-
arounds” on Microsoft’s Windows 10 Community chase a new one. Since AT&T offers some very
Forum. The first one (and the one I used) involves nice smartphones under their GoPhone prepaid
downloading Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool and brand, I checked out their current models and set-
using it to install the latest version of Windows 10 tled on a 5” LG Phoenix 2. This phone has a
on these devices. It took a while, but it worked. Snapdragon 210 1.3 GHz quad-core processor,
However, to follow this process you must have at 1.5 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, ac-
least 8 GB of free ROM on your device. This creat- cepts up to a 32 GB micro SD card and comes
ed a problem for some users, so another creative with an 8 MP rear camera with flash. Of the 100+
soul cobbled together a process using two comput- user reviews on the Best Buy website, 97% of
ers, a USB drive and the Media Creation Tool to purchasers would recommend this phone to oth-
achieve the same results. ers. More good news: while the regular price is
$99, it was on sale at Walmart for $70. To acti-

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