Use Microsoft’s Windows Compatibility Center to see if a program or device is compatible with Windows 10.

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Q: We’re running Windows 7 Home Premium and are considering upgrading to Windows 10. But we’re concerned about the availability of drivers that will allow continued use of our Photoshop Elements 11, Microsoft Office 2010 and Canon MG8200 printer — among others.

Following upgrade to Windows 10, won’t all of those be inoperative for a time, pending driver or product updates? And won’t vendors like Adobe skip developing drivers for Photoshop Elements 11 and force upgrades to their latest products?

In all the talk and articles about Windows 10, I’ve seen no mention on these questions.

— Harold Reed, Kent

A: Many vendors have been working with Microsoft for months to ensure compatibility of their products with Windows 10. In those cases, you won’t have any delays.

Of course, there will be some older products that companies no longer choose to invest in updating. If you have any trouble, contact the vendor to see if there is a compatibility update.

If you want to check in advance to see if a program or device is compatible, try Microsoft’s Windows Compatibility Center online. It reports that both Photoshop Elements 11 and Office 2010 are compatible with Windows 10.

As for the Canon printer, it did not have any information, so you’d need to check with Canon on that.

Do vendors refrain from developing drivers and patches for older products to force upgrades? I’m not equipped or willing to dive into the psychology of marketing people, but there are a lot of reasons to abandon support for older programs and devices, especially if the user base has shrunk.

In some cases, for example, the software may be so out of date that it doesn’t take advantage of important features of the new operating system.

Q: I’ve been using Windows 7 Professional for over a year without any problems. Now, the first time every day I launch an application requiring access to the Internet, no connection can be made. I do a restart and everything works fine — until the next morning when the same issue pops up again.

I have not installed any new software during this time (although there are updates to existing apps) and have no unusual applications. Has this problem been reported by other users?

— Don Prince, Kirkland

A: Actually, a lot of users have this problem. And network issues are among the trickiest to figure out because there are so many potential causes.

So I’ll give you the workarounds for the two most common causes of this problem.

First, it’s possible that an application has reconfigured your driver for your network client adapter so that it’s going to sleep along with your computer.

Go to Device Manager in the Control Panel and locate your adapter in the Network Adapters section. Double-click on hit and then select the Power Management tab. If the option “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” is checked, uncheck it.

The second most likely culprit is your Internet router. Reset the router by unplugging it and waiting at least 15 seconds before plugging it back in. If that doesn’t solve the problem, try resetting the router following the instructions provided in its manual.