I am shocked by this, but not really surprised. When I downloaded the ‘Media Creation Tool’ form Microsoft (why can’t they call it the Windows 10 programme download for crying out loud?) I saw it was on an ISO file - yeah right what’s an ISO file? Then when I tried to open it Windows tells me it can’t open this type of file, and I need to search the web for a suitable programme that will! So Windows put out a programme on a file that they can’t open?!!
So I search and find an ISO opening programme and apparently it does - but where? Nothing appears other than in my telechargements listing and on the panel on the ISO programme nominating the file to be opened. From this point the file simply vanishes never to be seen again!
I mean, I know I am pretty ignorant aout computer things, but this is bizarre surely? Plus using up 2Gb RAM for an OS system seems more than a bit greedy to say the least.
I will checkout this ubuntu again although I remember years ago not understanding that either.
I really am getting too old for this nonsense.
ISO files are the raw data for a DVD - you just need a DVD burner which can burn an ISO file directly to disk. Some ISO files are also set up so that they can be copied directly to a USB stick and will boot from that (but you might need a separate tool to do the raw copy needed - it’s no good just copying the .iso file onto a filesystem on the USB disk).
Can’t advise on the specific steps for Windows, I tend to use one of my Linux systems for handling iso files and raw copies onto USB sticks as the tools are easier to use (if you are a techie, if not they’re a bit of a nightmare 
)
2G is pretty much the minimum for anything these days. I have 4GB ram in my router FFS!
and this comes down basically to sloppy programming. Long gone are the days where developer managers insist on ‘tight’ overheads because memory is so cheap these days.
There is a wealth of on-line help with Ubuntu. The more recent variants have a graphical user interface (GUI) like windoze so you will see quite a bit of familiarity - although that is where the familiarity ends. The earlier systems were text based in a terminal screen (which can still be selected) and a lot of ‘propeller heads’ still prefer that methodology - a bit like MSDOS Command Line Interface instructions (CLI) pre Windows in the 1980s. Indeed, the early versions of Winsoze were a graphical shell running on top of MSDOS.
I prefer Debian and Suse, but there are several linux systems.
I tried Ubuntu many years ago, at that time it was not as well packaged as others I used.
Here’s list if some , to install google ’ download Debian’ . You need to download an installation image (ISO format) ’ burn’ a CD or a memory stick and off you go.
Top 9 Linux Distros For Programming for 2018
- Debian GNU/Linux. Debian GNU/Linux distro is the mother operating system for many other Linux distributions. …
- Ubuntu. Ubuntu is most famous and commonly used Linux distro for development and other purposes. …
- openSUSE. …
- Fedora. …
- CentOS. …
- Arch Linux. …
- Gentoo. …
- Manjaro Linux.
Eh? I appreciate what you have just written, but I didn’t understand a word of it 
I’m not sure that is the whole reason, or even the largest part of it.
Modern computers have to work with much larger data sets - I think when I got my first digital SLR it was a massive 6 mega pixels - these days you get twice that from a phone and four times from a good quality camera. The same is true for most types of media and document.
Even where code could be written to use less memory I don’t think it is “sloppy” programming per-se, but some modern development languages simply tend to use more memory (especially anything interpreted or JIT compiled) and some modern programming methods/paradigms just need lots more framework (introspection is a good one here).
The upside is faster development cycles, the downside - really - is security issues rather than needing a few extra MB of RAM (as I said, even my router has 4GB).
Oh dear… and I did try so hard to make it readable 
I think this was only strictly true for versions prior to 2.1 which is where Windows started to use CPU features not present in the 8086 so, although you launched windows from a DOS command line it pretty much pushed DOS out of the way and became the OS as it switched the CPU into 286 (or 386) mode.
Even prior to that Windows provided some “OS” features not present in the underlying DOS such as graphics device drivers (cooperative) multitasking and memory management.
I confess I was late on the Windows scene - the first version I used in anger was “3.11 for Workgroups” having been Unix developer at the time.
Don’t worry about it -from the first day I walked into a new job in Brussels and asked to meet my secretary and was aimed at a grey box on my desk - a Mac if I recall, I have been playing catch-up and failing for the most part.
I even still use pen and ink to write on occasions although my quill did give up a few years back. Funny how I recall cleaning that on my wig - how time flies?
The reduced cost of the basic resources of storage space and memory has not encouraged good programming practice. Add to that modern compilers and higher level languages and a lot more code gets dragged into programs than is necessary. Java is particularly prone to being overinflated when combined into programs.
For a few years I was tech lead on a UNIX and then Linux based program, there was a lot of unecessary “baggage” in the source code that was largely irrelevant, apart from one or two modules. I was not permitted to dedicate time to resolving that unless it caused issues. When we did we then had trouble getting it through the test team because the redukting build was smaller than the previous one!
Whether we call that “sloppy” or an efficient approach to time management depends upon ones management style. To give an idea of which side of the fence my chair was on, I think that when I left they looked forward to quieter team meetings. They probably had to upgrade the memory across the estate within a few months too 
Well thanks for all the advice, but finally I have decided to stay where I am asI can get the two extra programmes I want Publisher and Powerpoint equivalents from Open Office plus their Text is easier than Windows, and the internet connection provides youtube and Skype - and that just about satisfies my needs.
I have ripped out masses of old stuff from the laptop - all my old and current book files mainly, and have dropped my HDD space back to one-third being used, and my RAM to less than that. I have an exterior hard disc with 300Gb and have also cleaned that out so I have 200Gb plus free now. Several 30Gb USBs have stored current film files, and al those I have wanted to keep are on disc anyway.
All this HAS improved the speed of my Windows 7 - and made me finally come to terms with being old and not expecting anything more from my business life.
It has been funny but I have this idea that I cannot die before I have read all my books, listened to all my music and audiobooks, and watched all my DVDs.
Working on the basis of 5 days a weeks, 8 hours a day I calculated that I will live for another 45 years!
By which time I will be 124 years old! Looks as if my speed-reading skills at the very least will need to be vastly improved- especially with the French books!
If by “good programming practice” you mean dense, compact code which uses a minimum memory footprint then I would possibly agree with you – an I do confess a certain admiration for that sort of code.
If, however, you consider good programming practice to be that which produces reliable, testable, maintainable, bug-free and secure software then not having to worry about the last byte and (re) using proven modules and/or languages which encourage safe practice then you might argue that extra hardware resources encourage good programming practice.
I’m not the world’s biggest Java (or C++) fan though - too easy to induce bloat in both of those languages (plus their biggest sin IMO which is that it is too easy to produce “write only code”). One of my jobs was to finish development of a large Java system on a machine with limited resources when it all git a bit much for the team who were implementing it. Management had been sold a Java library on the basis it was “lightweight” - but it wasn’t built with scaling to the size of problem we were throwing at it in mind. I wound up feeding large chunks through a decompiler and re-writing them to get the memory footprint down (it reinforced my strongly held view that one should never use a library to which you don’t have source code).
Which, actually is fair enough - “a problem which is not a problem, is not a problem” is a reasonable maxim and efforts should be directed elsewhere.
In my context it meant both. It is not impossible for someone employed for their programming skills to produce reliable, testable code that lacks unneccesary modules or libraries, no matter how proven or reliable they are.
We have, however, wandered far from the OPs question. Regarding Windows10 I do believe that it felt faster and more responsive than the Windows 7 - 64bit that I upgraded from. I did, however, disable a lot of the statistics and usage gathering, plus automatic updates. The latter is best done by setting the network to a “metered network” and disabling updates over that type. Let others test the siper-tuesday updates, then change network mode towards the end of the month to update.
Sounds like a plan! 
Have you run defrag? That normally speeds up certain tasks that are disk-access intensive. Run it a couple of times, until it exits quickly.
You can, as you say, avoid automatic updates by setting the connection to “metered” but it is an all or nothing proposition, you can’t choose which updates to allow and once you let W10 think it can update it will catch up everything - you will miss out on security updates if you do this.
If you are going to do this, do so only when you are doing something that you don’t want interrupting and re-enable them later.
You can defer them for a bit if you have W10 pro, but not indefinitely.
I don’t think there is a way to really avoid automatic updates in the retail version. Maybe if you have a full commercial setup with locally distributed updates but most home users wouldn’t want the hassle.
Yes, funnily enough this is one thing I learned very early on. Can’t say I have run it a couple of times, but certainly once. Maybe I will do it again, as that hadn’t occurred to me.
You could also install a cleaner like CCleaner (don’t use the clean registry function unless you really know what you are doing) or you can clean out all your temp files safely by tapping in %TEMP% select all in temp file & delete but do not delete the temp file it’s self.
Unless you have a very specific need for Windows 10 the DO NOT upgrade. Windows 7 is technically better and far more proven.
In what way is Windows 7 technically better?