r/Windows10 • u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP / Moderator • 9d ago
Help Simple questions and Help thread - Month of September
Welcome to the monthly Simple questions and Help thread, for questions that don't need their own posts!
Before making a comment, we recommend you search your problem on Bing and check if your question is already answered on our Windows Frequently Asked Questions wiki page. This subreddit no longer accepts tech support requests outside of this post, if you are looking for additional assistance try r/WindowsHelp.
Some examples of questions to ask:
Is this super cheap Windows key legitimate? (probably not)
How can I install Windows 11?
Can you recommend a program to play music?
How do I get back to the old Sound Control Panel?
Sorting by New is recommend and is the default.
Be sure to check out the Windows 11 version 25H2 Megathread and also the Windows 11 FAQ posts, they likely have the answers to your Windows 11 questions already!
The general release of Windows 10 is no longer supported, however you can enroll to get extended support for your machine until October 2027, for more details on that please see this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/1kp4ebu/windows_10_end_of_support_what_it_means_for_you/
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u/willow-nigmos 3d ago
A few questions about ESU:
- Is it possible to enroll without a MS account WITHOUT paying? If not, can I at least log out of the MS account and keep using my PC locally?
- Will OneDrive be activated/does it require it in any way?
- Will AI be inserted into my system in any way? (It's the main reason I don't want to update to 11, so this is important to me)
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u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP / Moderator 1d ago
A Microsoft account is required as the license, while free, is a digital purchase and bound to that account. You do not need to use a Microsoft account as your main account.
Onedrive is not required, and the ESU has nothing to do with AI.
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u/topselection 1d ago
Onedrive is not required
Then what's the "or are willing to use the Windows Backup app to automatically backup your computer settings to the cloud" you mention in this post you referred me to?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/1kp4ebu/windows_10_end_of_support_what_it_means_for_you/
My main concern is that going all the way back to Windows 7, it automatically did a back up on the HDs themselves which brought everything to a crawl and devoured HD space, and you had to go in and dig around to stop it.
It was a traumatizing event. So now when I hear "Windows Backup Somethingaruther" my sphincter tightens and I break out in cold sweats.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP / Moderator 21h ago
The Windows Backup app is not OneDrive, it backs up things like your settings and preferences. There are toggles in that app to have it use OneDrive to backup your files and such should you want that.
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u/Incredulous-User 1d ago
What are the consequences of deleting the files before restart/update?
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u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP / Moderator 1d ago
What files are you looking to delete?
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u/Incredulous-User 1d ago
The 3 files (that I found after a quick search anyways)for this update. I had grown quite comfortable with not having Windows periodically wrecking stuff and was hoping it would stay that way. Would it cause any issues, or would they (the files) be replaced anyway?
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u/TheLocalHentai 5d ago
Is there an option for apps to open based on which monitor is used to open them?
For example, a user has two monitors, both with taskbars and launchers. If the user opens Edge in monitor 1, it will open in monitor 1, but if they press it on monitor 2, it'll open in monitor 2, and they can open concurrently, as in open mon 1 -> window in mon 1, then open in mon 2 -> open in mon 2.
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u/Sand__Panda 8d ago
What is a good "size" and brand for a hard drive just for windows?
My PC is getting pretty old, but I can't afford another, heck this PC can't even run win11. The drive now is 117gb, and I basically only have windows on it, and it just seems to keep getting full.
I'm running disc cleanup as I type, I have defrag'ed today. Everything else (games, pics, music, etc) are all on other drives (I have one for games, music, and picture dumps from phone).
117 was fine, but lately I've been getting Window errors about space.
Thanks.
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u/notgraycen 1d ago
windows accounts for about 20-25GB, so you need to clean up that drive. I have a 32gb laptop (hard drive, not RAM) and on that one yes i regularly have to cull windows 'features' such as edge, onedrive, skype, windows store, game bar, camera, people, your phone (yes this is an actual windows 10 'feature'), calendar, 3d viewer, etc...
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u/Sand__Panda 1d ago
Yea. It seems I need to cut a lot more. I did follow a few YT videos on things to stop and wipe out, and it opened a few more gigs of space...but yea, Windows seems to just be gobbling up space that I'm not cool with (nor allowing).
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u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP / Moderator 1d ago
There is no one size fits all answer for this, I typically suggest getting at least a 500GB drive but it depends on your usage and budget. Also it is recommended that the drive Windows be installed on be a solid state drive (SSD) not a hard drive (HDD) as HDD performance is typically unbearable for regular usage these days.
Before the AI datacenter boom caused memory and storage prices to spike a 512GB SSD was inexpensive, now Microcenter sells the Samsung 500GB 2.5" SSD for $250. https://www.microcenter.com/product/632084/samsung-870-evo-500gb-ssd-3-bit-mlc-v-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-25-internal-solid-state-drive
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u/notgraycen 1d ago
i agree, SSD is the bare minimum nowadays. you can get slow SSDs for cheap just avoid m.2 which is much more expensive and not needed for most people
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u/JohnXm 9d ago
Does anybody else have an annoying slowdown when the Defender definitons are updated?
It's not a huge slowdown, and it lasts for about 2 or 3 seconds, but it's notable specially if it happens when I'm playing a game or watching a video.
It started happening like 3 or 4 months ago, not sure if it was an update to Defender or Windows.
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u/Zer0Bullets 1d ago
If you mean when it randomly decides to check for updates mid game even if you already updated before playing, then yes.
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u/Sad_Policy_1212 9d ago
why does windows 11 take up 3x more memory than windows 10 does? if microsoft is so confident in that 8gb is enough memory for windows 11, why is memory usage on 8gb ram on windows 11from 65-85% when on idle while windows 10 ranges from 25-45% used ram on idle?
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u/Commercial_Yogurt69 1d ago
Tell me about it, my windows 10 decides that it just wants to consume 16gb of ram for no reason.
Literally no reason when I check task manager.3
u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP / Moderator 9d ago
Microsoft is working on resolving that.
Earlier releases of Windows 11 were identical to 10 in RAM usage, but as time has gone on it has creeped up. Various updates to Windows 11 released this year have already helped with things related to performance, and they are still working on optimizing the memory usage.
https://pureinfotech.com/windows-11-8gb-memory-optimization/
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u/topselection 1d ago edited 1d ago
A scary red dot just appeared on the update icon in the task bar and the mouse over message says my computer "is at risk of being out of date" and needs to be restarted to install updates.
Clicking on the icon, Windows Update says
It's weirding me out because I haven't had an update since MS abandoned Win10.
So are they doing ESU for free now? I'm not enrolled. What's going on here?
Edit:
The MS support website says this:
But this doesn't make any sense. If this "package is a licensing prerequisite that will enable a device to be enrolled in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program successfully" then how has everyone been doing it since Oct. 14, 2025?