More Googling.... seems the utter cock-up that is 'Device Manager' is all down to a driver provided by MS [figures] - PCMCIA.SYS .....and all you have to do is rename it to .old and full reboot.

Suddenly, 'almost' all of the duplicates/conflicts are gone...and you'll be on the net....again....

....probably just in time to get some new updates that'll bork the system once more....

That is just mind-bending.

Well I guess I have about a month before microsoft stops supporting W7.  I have 10 and I'am sure I will hate it as much as I did 8.

10 is ugly, but very good under the hood.  YMMV.

It is usually really good about getting your drivers for you.  

Of course, you can't prove any of that by Paul...lol.

I just went to Win 10 on both computers and I agree with Jafo.  Try eliminating some of the , "universal applications" if you are feeling masochistic.

I'm feeling 'mildly' confident that I have wrangled my lappy into submission.....

....now to get the better of Uncle's.

In spite of Microsoft's best efforts, I am gonna get on top of both.....probably have all those years of messing with Litestep [coding] to thank for 'maybe' winning out...

I don't like Win 10, either, and I quite often visit Majorgeeks.com for tips on how to manage difficulties in the OS, especially on how to eliminate the damned apps and 'suggestions'.... MS' covert term for blatant advertising.

Luckily, I've not had issues with Wi.fi or network connections, nor have I had issues with USB connections since ridding myself of a USB hub that kept dropping drives for no apparent reason.  Instead I now use a couple of PCI-E cards that provide me 10 rear-mounted and reliable USB 3.1 ports if/when needed.

One of my pet hates, though, is when trying to access a drive, file or open a folder, and Win 10 sits there for a while "working on it".  Another is when moving files and folders and File explorer just stops part way into the operation.  There have been times when I was forced to use Task-Manager to close the stalled operation so I could recommence moving those files/folders.

Other than that, most of the things that pissed me off about Win 10 have been rectified or eliminated.  However, I still prefer Win 7 or 8.1.

I did have a copy of Win 7 that activated okay and ran for several weeks, then MS deactivated it and marked the screen with "This Copy of Windows is Invalid".  I rang MS to find out why and was told that the product key had been recalled and that I would have to purchase a copy of Win 10.  And no, it didn't matter to MS one iota that perfectly legitimate money had been expended to secure the 'now' invalid Win 7.

For mine, MS is nothing more than a bunch of software thugs.

Seems everytime I shut the computer down it loses my passwords.  Sometimes it just loses them when I'am running the program.

Thank you Red Neck Dude.  You have made me happy as a big dog!  I have been trying to get rid of some of that Microsoft junk for months!  Thanks to you, I got rid of it all in one quick session on each computer.

Glad to help, boninc!

use win 10 ltsc , less bloatware and less crashes

I am truly baffled.  I have 12 PCs and laptops in this house, all of them run windows 10. Very few issues.

Sadly, the ones that do have a few issues happen to be issues with Stardock products. ( Not bashing SD, just a fact)

I use at least 4 of these rigs daily with graphics work, photoshop, gaming, etc.   Very few issues.

Baffles me why so many have so many issues with 10.

Other than it's ugliness, I think it's the best OS ever!

Other than maybe MacOS,

Confidence. [n].  The feeling you have immediately before you fully understand the situation.

Being cocky....after getting a handle on three [3] new installs of 10, 2 Pro and one Home on lappies...I have a hankerin' [been around Americans too darn long] to try my luck with an old desktop that still has a wonky 10 on it....probably from the days when MS actually admitted it was a beta.....

Maybe I can get that updated too....

....probably just pissing into the wind...

RND-  I agree with you.  For the most part with Windows 10, I don't have very many problems. It is very stable across the enterprise. Every once in awhile an odd issue.  As of Late, almost all the problems I have been having is with Stardock products, and permissions issues on folders that are used with Deskscapes.  And now the Black screen and constant WDM crashing that started with 19536.1 and Deskscapes.

Keep away from the 'registry defrag' option in Advanced System Care ...it'll 'frag' your registry.

The rest of the stuff is pretty functional though...

Jafo would be correct. 

Damn, that was hard to say.....  

I never had that problem when I used Advanced System Care, and I used it once weekly when I performed maintenance.  I'm currently using Wise Care 360 and have had no issues with registry defrag there, either.