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by Craig Lipski on Tue May 19, 2020 11:46 am
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Just got our new Laptops (2) - "Lenovo ThinkPad 53"s - 2 P53 Units, NOT the P53S model.  Win 10 Pro,  32 Gb RAM, full spec's here: https://www.naturescapes.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=287465

Since my wife has taken up nature photography, 1 workstation wasn't cutting it, so now we'll each have our own.  We're 6 mo's of the year on the road, in a medium-sized RV, so space and weight are at a premium, hence laptops.

1st rude surprise, (my fault), only 2 USB ports!  Plug in the mouse, there's only 1 available port.  Normally, that's not a problem, but if I want to use the laptop to transfer files between 2 external drives, it could get tedious.  Is something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/RSHTECH-Splitter ... 07HMZSRS7/

a good idea?  Anything I should look for?  Look out for?  My external drives do not plug into AC, but draw power via the USB cable; should I be looking for a "splitter" that plugs into AC rather than relying on the laptop's power?

I live in the boonies, and have TERRIBLE WiFi - I long for the days of dial-up!  So, I'm going to drive the van to town, park in the (closed) library's parking lot, and use their WiFi; here's my plan:

1. Get PS CC off the old desktop before I leave
2. Download Chrome, (my preferred browser), to both new units
3. Download PS CC onto one of the units.
4. Once I've seen that works, take it (PS CC) off my old laptop, and load it onto the other new unit
5. Purchase and Download the Nik Collection to both units
6. Same for Topaz; I'm looking at the NR and Sharpening programs.  These are new laptops, they haven't been sullied by previous Topaz installations; should they both go easily into my plug-ins in PS, or do I need to re-read some of the older threads addressing Topaz here?
7. I'm new to Win10; CCleaner still recommended for "deep cleaning," or does Win10 have a built in, easy, effective routine?
8. SyncToy on both; mainly to back up the laptop to external drives, I use the "echo" mode a lot; would this still be the recommended tool, or is there something way better I should look at?
9. Transfer files from old laptop to new laptops.
10. Google how to make Win10 not constantly suck our lousy (and limited) WiFi!

Thoughts or suggestions?  I'm probably the least knowledgeable person on this forum re: computers, so I greatly appreciate any advice.  
Thanks in advance.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue May 19, 2020 11:55 am
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1-5 is good
6. No, if you're downloading the latest versions, they all use the new installer.  Just make sure you do the install in an administrator account, not a user account if you are setting the systems up for multiple users.  That really goes for any software.
7. YES!!!  Mainly for registry cleaning.
8. I still use it, just make sure you have the most recent version so just redownload it.  It even works with network drives now.
9. OK
10. When you first boot up it will ask you a bunch of questions about this, pretty much you don't want to allow anything.  Also in the network settings, if you set the system so that it thinks you are using a metered connection, it will minimize the amount of back and forth with Microsoft.  In rare cases it may limit some other stuff too but you can turn that on or off at will.  If for some reason something isn't working or some video stream isn't coming in, it's probably due to that.  It's designed to keep you from using too much internet data for people that are charged on a per megabyte or gigabyte basis for their internet.

If you are using Win 10 Pro (I recommend you upgrade if the answer is no), then you can defer critical updates for 30 days and major feature updates for a year in the advanced section in the Windows Update area.

P.S. - just based on the quality of your questions, you are nowhere near the least computer literate person here ;)

P.P.S. - I deleted your original thread and changed the title of this one :)
 

by Craig Lipski on Tue May 19, 2020 12:28 pm
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Thank you so much, E.J!

RE: #6
I don't *think* I'm set up for multiple users; I didn't intentionally do it, and I'd imagine the default mode would be administrator? Should / How do I check?

I did go w/ Win10 Pro because you'd mentioned deferring updates in another thread; how do I go about that?

Thank you AGAIN
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue May 19, 2020 12:30 pm
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Craig Lipski wrote:Thank you so much, E.J!

RE: #6
I don't *think* I'm set up for multiple users; I didn't intentionally do it, and I'd imagine the default mode would be administrator?  Should / How do I check?

I did go w/ Win10 Pro because you'd mentioned deferring updates in another thread; how do I go about that?

Thank you AGAIN
You don't need to worry about it then.  I only put it in there because I was recently working with someone that just couldn't get things to work.  I finally realized that he was installing everything using his personal user account rather than an administrator account.
 

by Craig Lipski on Tue May 19, 2020 12:31 pm
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Re: the USB "splitter" - am I on the right track?
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue May 19, 2020 12:33 pm
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Craig Lipski wrote:Re: the USB "splitter" - am I on the right track?
That will likely work but not always, it depends on the power demands of the devices.  A better option would be to replace your mouse with a bluetooth mouse, then you won't need to waste one on a mouse.  Also I would never ever put data on a shared USB hub.  Plug the external drive into its own port.  
 

by Jeff Colburn on Wed May 20, 2020 5:50 pm
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Hi,

I've never tried this, and I know it's not the fastest connection in the world, but you could try using your phone as a Hot Spot and see if it's faster than what you have at home right now.

Have Fun,
Jeff
Fine Art Prints and Stock Photography of Arizona www.JeffColburn.com See my ebooks in the NatureScapes Store.
 

by Craig Lipski on Wed May 20, 2020 7:57 pm
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Jeff Colburn wrote:Hi,

I've never tried this, and I know it's not the fastest connection in the world, but you could try using your phone as a Hot Spot and see if it's faster than what you have at home right now.

Have Fun,
Jeff
Nice thought, but we're in a cellular black hole, too.  
 

by Craig Lipski on Fri May 22, 2020 11:09 am
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Things are going sort of pretty well?

1) I logged into Adobe, it showed that I only had CC running on my old desktop; it didn't show the old laptop.  I took off the old desktop and installed CC on both of the new laptops, so now it's on all 3 laptops!?  Now - I haven't updated CC on the old laptop in, well, forever.  I'm thinking I can't deregister it, since it doesn't show in "my accounts" (or whatever,) but I don't want to, in the future, have PS disappear from one of the new laptops!  Thoughts / advice?  Like I really want to try to talk with someone at Adobe??

2) I donwloaded the Nik Collection; that, too, hadn't been updated since the free version; I'm loving the new Topaz stuff, but for "quick and dirty", Nik was good.  I also liked Viveza for global adjustments; well, they changed that up and took away a slider I liked, but I'll still use it.  ANYWAY. . . I put it on new Laptop #1, went to put it on #2, it wouldn't recognize my authorization code / serial number / whatever, (the one I had JUST purchased and used to install to Laptop 1), so I installed the free 30 day trial.  We'll see what happens when the 30 days are up, I guess, unless any of you have thoughts or ideas?

3) I tried to download SyncToy.  I got a pop-up message:

Image
I try that, start the download, and get this:
Image
I'm clueless.

Thanks you.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Fri May 22, 2020 2:46 pm
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This may help:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 9d1fe6ec2c
 

by Craig Lipski on Fri May 22, 2020 4:20 pm
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That worked!  Thank you.
 

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