Windows 10 Update thoughts and questions...

[baldgye]

where are the win10 fanboys?

I love the One Drive link between my Windows phone and Win10. I don't ever have to connect my phone to my PC ever again. Pictures are almost instantly transferred to my PC after I take them.

**** like this makes me wish I didn't have an iphone because wifi sync just dosn't work and my iphone is forced to interface with itunes which never works lol

[njbair]

where are the win10 fanboys?

I love the One Drive link between my Windows phone and Win10. I don't ever have to connect my phone to my PC ever again. Pictures are almost instantly transferred to my PC after I take them.

**** like this makes me wish I didn't have an iphone because wifi sync just dosn't work and my iphone is forced to interface with itunes which never works lol

Isn't that what iCloud is for? I mean, my Android phone does this with Google Photos.

[heedpantsnow]

where are the win10 fanboys?

I love the One Drive link between my Windows phone and Win10. I don't ever have to connect my phone to my PC ever again. Pictures are almost instantly transferred to my PC after I take them.

**** like this makes me wish I didn't have an iphone because wifi sync just dosn't work and my iphone is forced to interface with itunes which never works lol

If you get iTunes Match and iCloud then the reasons to sync with your computer shrink quite a bit.

[baldgye]

where are the win10 fanboys?

I love the One Drive link between my Windows phone and Win10. I don't ever have to connect my phone to my PC ever again. Pictures are almost instantly transferred to my PC after I take them.

**** like this makes me wish I didn't have an iphone because wifi sync just dosn't work and my iphone is forced to interface with itunes which never works lol

If you get iTunes Match and iCloud then the reasons to sync with your computer shrink quite a bit.

match costs too much and everytime I try and sync icloud it says i need to pay for more space

[heedpantsnow]

where are the win10 fanboys?

I love the One Drive link between my Windows phone and Win10. I don't ever have to connect my phone to my PC ever again. Pictures are almost instantly transferred to my PC after I take them.

**** like this makes me wish I didn't have an iphone because wifi sync just dosn't work and my iphone is forced to interface with itunes which never works lol

If you get iTunes Match and iCloud then the reasons to sync with your computer shrink quite a bit.

match costs too much and everytime I try and sync icloud it says i need to pay for more space

You can go into ICloud settings and delete old backups and stuff. You can also deselect what gets backed up there if you have it backed up somewhere else (like I have pics going to Dropbox so I don't need them on iCloud too). Maybe that could help.

I'm basically going out of my way to avoid iTunes however I can, even if I have to pay a few bucks a year.

[baldgye]

I don't like the idea of giving Apple anymore money on the basis that Apple Music is such an abhorrent service and program. It's ****ed up my music and stopped me from syncing all my playlists, as well as totally ****ing them up in iTunes.

I guess I should sort out my iCloud stuff though, but I think my picture and **** fill it up anyway? Idk

[kishy]

So I updated to Win10. I allowed it to activate, to generate whatever sort of hardware key it uses to activate (still a mystery to me where it stored it), so that I could then use bootable media to properly wipe and install. I suspect they've improved the upgrade process since XP, but that is not a confidence that will be easily earned (goal being upgrade to get the free product key entitlement, then wipe it)

The download and upgrade went smoothly. Some of my programs, motherboard utility software, were broken afterwards...but that's fine. I then realized there is a 'reset' function that essentially reinstalls as if it was fresh off the disk. Jackpot. Did that.

BSOD...inaccessible boot device. Apparently common. Not a damn clue why it happened. Must have written something it needed onto a storage device it shouldn't have. Oh well. Reinstalled from USB stick.

I then got into exploring things and the more things I changed, the more I wondered why I wasn't sticking with 7.

• Disallowed advertising ID sharing between apps, app access to language list, location, app access to name and account information, app access to hardware radios, access to contacts, camera and syncing data.
• Set diagnostic reports to Basic (since there is no disable)
• Disallowed apps running in the background
• Not using a Microsoft account, using a local Admin account
• UAC turned off including EnableLUA key set to 0
• Used PowerShell to uninstall all apps including Store (they don't work with UAC off anyway)
• Had to find an old Calculator to use instead of the app, since there is no non-app Calc on Win10
• Turned off Action Center, removed search in taskbar
• Disabled lock screen
• Disabled OneDrive via policy then uninstalled it, then changed a registry key to get rid of shell icons for it
• Removed 'most used' and all tiles from Start menu, made it one column only
• Disabled Homegroup services
• Removed taskbar from second monitor
• Set Windows Updates to install when I tell them to, and to defer upgrades

Still on the to-do list, find a way to obliterate Cortana and Edge, which seem to be very difficult to remove without side-effects, as well as eliminate any further home-phoning it may try to do. I will most likely also build scheduled tasks to make Windows Update downloads only occur when I want (by way of disabling the service and enabling on a schedule for specified time windows)

I have no privacy concern whatsoever about the information this particular computer is used for. I just don't like that the above functionality exists in the OS at all.

[rowdy]

That's a bucket full of changes to a raw install to make it usable.  That says a lot about the usability of Windows to begin with i.e. that it is not very.

I got sick and tired of the Aero crap at work and switched my Windows 7 back to classic - it has been much more usable since then.

[heedpantsnow]

So I updated to Win10. I allowed it to activate, to generate whatever sort of hardware key it uses to activate (still a mystery to me where it stored it), so that I could then use bootable media to properly wipe and install. I suspect they've improved the upgrade process since XP, but that is not a confidence that will be easily earned (goal being upgrade to get the free product key entitlement, then wipe it)

The download and upgrade went smoothly. Some of my programs, motherboard utility software, were broken afterwards...but that's fine. I then realized there is a 'reset' function that essentially reinstalls as if it was fresh off the disk. Jackpot. Did that.

BSOD...inaccessible boot device. Apparently common. Not a damn clue why it happened. Must have written something it needed onto a storage device it shouldn't have. Oh well. Reinstalled from USB stick.

I then got into exploring things and the more things I changed, the more I wondered why I wasn't sticking with 7.

• Disallowed advertising ID sharing between apps, app access to language list, location, app access to name and account information, app access to hardware radios, access to contacts, camera and syncing data.
• Set diagnostic reports to Basic (since there is no disable)
• Disallowed apps running in the background
• Not using a Microsoft account, using a local Admin account
• UAC turned off including EnableLUA key set to 0
• Used PowerShell to uninstall all apps including Store (they don't work with UAC off anyway)
• Had to find an old Calculator to use instead of the app, since there is no non-app Calc on Win10
• Turned off Action Center, removed search in taskbar
• Disabled lock screen
• Disabled OneDrive via policy then uninstalled it, then changed a registry key to get rid of shell icons for it
• Removed 'most used' and all tiles from Start menu, made it one column only
• Disabled Homegroup services
• Removed taskbar from second monitor
• Set Windows Updates to install when I tell them to, and to defer upgrades

Still on the to-do list, find a way to obliterate Cortana and Edge, which seem to be very difficult to remove without side-effects, as well as eliminate any further home-phoning it may try to do. I will most likely also build scheduled tasks to make Windows Update downloads only occur when I want (by way of disabling the service and enabling on a schedule for specified time windows)

I have no privacy concern whatsoever about the information this particular computer is used for. I just don't like that the above functionality exists in the OS at all.

Yeah bro you just hacked your W10 install back to W7.

[kishy]

• Disallowed advertising ID sharing between apps, app access to language list, location, app access to name and account information, app access to hardware radios, access to contacts, camera and syncing data.
• Set diagnostic reports to Basic (since there is no disable)
• Disallowed apps running in the background
• Not using a Microsoft account, using a local Admin account
• UAC turned off including EnableLUA key set to 0
• Used PowerShell to uninstall all apps including Store (they don't work with UAC off anyway)
• Had to find an old Calculator to use instead of the app, since there is no non-app Calc on Win10
• Turned off Action Center, removed search in taskbar
• Disabled lock screen
• Disabled OneDrive via policy then uninstalled it, then changed a registry key to get rid of shell icons for it
• Removed 'most used' and all tiles from Start menu, made it one column only
• Disabled Homegroup services
• Removed taskbar from second monitor
• Set Windows Updates to install when I tell them to, and to defer upgrades

Further changes made:

• File Explorer set to go to This PC on open
• Folders removed from This PC, only display drives
• Quick Access removed from Explorer
• Menus turned back on for windows which support them
• Hiding extensions turned off
• Sharing Wizard turned off

Still to-do:

• Completely remove Cortana
• Completely remove Edge
• Eliminate any further home-phoning it may try to do
• Build scheduled tasks to make Windows Update downloads only occur when I want (by way of disabling the service and enabling on a schedule for specified time windows)
• Try to figure out if I can repurpose 'most used' in the Start menu to store user-specified shortcuts, rather than MRU list, so I can keep my Start menu only one column wide and still have things in it
• Stop Explorer from displaying removable storage devices twice in the 'tree' on the left (one inside of This PC, a second outside of This PC)
• Relocate personal folder items (Downloads, desktop etc) to second drive. Easy to do and relatively unchanged from last version but too lazy to do right now. Ha.
• Fix 'downloads' in Start menu as I broke it while making one of the changes made so far, probably when I killed the registry keys for folders to appear in This PC...

That's a bucket full of changes to a raw install to make it usable.  That says a lot about the usability of Windows to begin with i.e. that it is not very.

I got sick and tired of the Aero crap at work and switched my Windows 7 back to classic - it has been much more usable since then.

Honestly, it would be usable if I weren't very stubborn and stuck in my ways. I do like Aero as an appearance feature but I dislike things like Aero Shake, or the way snapping now works in Win10. Fortunately the snapping changes can be configured with settings.

Yeah bro you just hacked your W10 install back to W7.

Getting there, but not quite yet...

As one might infer from my change list I could very comfortably use Windows 2000 for my daily computing needs, were it not for application compatibility issues and the knowledge that IE6 is still lurking around.

[heedpantsnow]

• Disallowed advertising ID sharing between apps, app access to language list, location, app access to name and account information, app access to hardware radios, access to contacts, camera and syncing data.
• Set diagnostic reports to Basic (since there is no disable)
• Disallowed apps running in the background
• Not using a Microsoft account, using a local Admin account
• UAC turned off including EnableLUA key set to 0
• Used PowerShell to uninstall all apps including Store (they don't work with UAC off anyway)
• Had to find an old Calculator to use instead of the app, since there is no non-app Calc on Win10
• Turned off Action Center, removed search in taskbar
• Disabled lock screen
• Disabled OneDrive via policy then uninstalled it, then changed a registry key to get rid of shell icons for it
• Removed 'most used' and all tiles from Start menu, made it one column only
• Disabled Homegroup services
• Removed taskbar from second monitor
• Set Windows Updates to install when I tell them to, and to defer upgrades

Further changes made:

• File Explorer set to go to This PC on open
• Folders removed from This PC, only display drives
• Quick Access removed from Explorer
• Menus turned back on for windows which support them
• Hiding extensions turned off
• Sharing Wizard turned off

Still to-do:

• Completely remove Cortana
• Completely remove Edge
• Eliminate any further home-phoning it may try to do
• Build scheduled tasks to make Windows Update downloads only occur when I want (by way of disabling the service and enabling on a schedule for specified time windows)
• Try to figure out if I can repurpose 'most used' in the Start menu to store user-specified shortcuts, rather than MRU list, so I can keep my Start menu only one column wide and still have things in it
• Stop Explorer from displaying removable storage devices twice in the 'tree' on the left (one inside of This PC, a second outside of This PC)
• Relocate personal folder items (Downloads, desktop etc) to second drive. Easy to do and relatively unchanged from last version but too lazy to do right now. Ha.
• Fix 'downloads' in Start menu as I broke it while making one of the changes made so far, probably when I killed the registry keys for folders to appear in This PC...

That's a bucket full of changes to a raw install to make it usable.  That says a lot about the usability of Windows to begin with i.e. that it is not very.

I got sick and tired of the Aero crap at work and switched my Windows 7 back to classic - it has been much more usable since then.

Honestly, it would be usable if I weren't very stubborn and stuck in my ways. I do like Aero as an appearance feature but I dislike things like Aero Shake, or the way snapping now works in Win10. Fortunately the snapping changes can be configured with settings.

Yeah bro you just hacked your W10 install back to W7.

Getting there, but not quite yet...

As one might infer from my change list I could very comfortably use Windows 2000 for my daily computing needs, were it not for application compatibility issues and the knowledge that IE6 is still lurking around.

You probably know this but I think you can disable IE through group policy, but there's not much way to deal with the app compatibility...usually it's the other way around (old application that needs legacy OS).

By the way it's good to see you around, Kishy!

[katushkin]

Why are you wanting to get rid of Edge and Cortana? Just don't use them?

[jerue]

So I think I will be stuck on 8.1 for a while...my wifi extender does this odd thing where it likes to stop working about once a day - the indicator will turn from green to red, usually while my PC is in sleep mode. I'm not sure if this is an issue I can fix (my previous hacked setup of using a linux machine as a wifi repeater was consistent but took 30 seconds at least from my PC going from inactive to active - WAIT, is there a way to keep my network card active while my PC is in sleep mode? I bet this is causing issues...)

Anyways, I can see where the Windows updater has attempted to download Win10 at least 10 times, and gets stuck at around 1GB of the download each time. I am running a VM of 10 at work, however Virtualbox does NOT like that my dummy laptop only has 4GB of ram, and I've requested an upgrade...so maybe I'll get to use Win10 for more than 2 seconds someday.

edit: went into my network adapter's settings and disabled any energy efficient settings. didn't see anything specifically for "stay awake dammit", but have both ports set to wake for any activity.

I don't like the idea of giving Apple anymore money on the basis that Apple Music is such an abhorrent service and program. It's ****ed up my music and stopped me from syncing all my playlists, as well as totally ****ing them up in iTunes.

I guess I should sort out my iCloud stuff though, but I think my picture and **** fill it up anyway? Idk

These are the types of statements that make me not want to get an iPhone and stick with Android and/or Blackberry.

[fohat.digs]

It's ****ed up my music and stopped me from syncing all my playlists, as well as totally ****ing them up in iTunes.

I am a crusty and paranoid old man, so I hate all of that weird Apple stuff.

My (huge) music collection is stored (on internal and external archive hard drives) in conventional directory tree structure:

E:\-MP3 collection\Rock\Beatles\1966 Revolver\901 - Taxman.mp3

and I don't even know what a playlist is. I also avoid "Libraries" whenever I can and don't understand how they relate to stored music.

My music files are cataloged and stored and archived just like my documents and photographs and everything else.

The concept of an arcane and proprietary "lock" on a particular category of my "content collection" frightens me.

[baldgye]

I have an internal 300gb HD with all my music on, including that which is iTunes (for the most part), but having all your music properly laid out with album art etc and then curated playlists (that I made) one or two clicks away from being played at all times is very useful.

Having working library software is invaluable and is something that's been kind of lost. Despite iTunes being hateful it's still better than it used to be in the days of MusicMatch Jukebox and similar programs. But as iTunes gets worse and worse and just ****s up my **** more and more, I'm less likely to care and be interested in putting up with its ****. The only problem is the next best thing is Foobar3k (?) which is as easy to use and get to grips with as Linux always claims to be and has a pretty large learning/setting up curve... But yeah when my contact is due for renewal next year I'll see if I can make the switch away from iTunes and iPhone.

Apple only need to fix there **** and I'd be happy...

[heedpantsnow]

I have an internal 300gb HD with all my music on, including that which is iTunes (for the most part), but having all your music properly laid out with album art etc and then curated playlists (that I made) one or two clicks away from being played at all times is very useful.

Having working library software is invaluable and is something that's been kind of lost. Despite iTunes being hateful it's still better than it used to be in the days of MusicMatch Jukebox and similar programs. But as iTunes gets worse and worse and just ****s up my **** more and more, I'm less likely to care and be interested in putting up with its ****. The only problem is the next best thing is Foobar3k (?) which is as easy to use and get to grips with as Linux always claims to be and has a pretty large learning/setting up curve... But yeah when my contact is due for renewal next year I'll see if I can make the switch away from iTunes and iPhone.

Apple only need to fix there **** and I'd be happy...

I agree. I haven't updated iTunes on my computers in a while just cause it has gotten worse and worse.

They add on features, splicing them in, making it unstable and unreliable, having to keep old compatibility but new doodads...oh wait, this is iTunes and not Windows we're talking about...

They need to "nuke the entire site from orbit...it's the only way to be sure..." and just redesign the whole thing from the ground up.

[godly_music]

Foobar2000 is absolutely doable. I would recommend it. In fact, I found it pretty easy, barring some very in-depth modifications to get the UI 'just right' and a crazy MassTagger script that I use to bring new music into the fold.

[rowdy]

Windows 10 Worst Feature Now Installing On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Microsoft intensifies data collection on Windows 7 and 8 systems

[Elrick]

Windows 10 Worst Feature Now Installing On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Microsoft intensifies data collection on Windows 7 and 8 systems

No probs, I've stopped updating my systems some time ago  .

Maybe time to rock on back to Vista SP2 x64, yet again........

[rowdy]

Windows 10 Worst Feature Now Installing On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Microsoft intensifies data collection on Windows 7 and 8 systems

No probs, I've stopped updating my systems some time ago  .

Maybe time to rock on back to Vista SP2 x64, yet again........

Vista?  Ewwwwwwwww

[Oobly]

... the more things I changed, the more I wondered why I wasn't sticking with 7.

...

Yup, I don't see any need to change from Win7 64 bit. Win10 brings nothing to the table for me, but takes a lot away.

Win7 x64 ISO file and RTSe7enLite... take back control. You can choose every component and most settings during the configuration. Then make an unattended install disk, boot from it, choose partition and... fully customised, set up and safe Win7 without requiring any further interaction (you can choose which updates to apply during installation).

Boot a well customised (bloat-free) Win7 build from an SSD and you know what speed is The best part is that it doesn't slowly bloat / slow itself over time (depending on what components you've chosen), it remains responsive and predictable.

[fohat.digs]

Win7 x64 ISO file and RTSe7enLite... take back control. You can choose every component and most settings during the configuration. Then make an unattended install disk, boot from it, choose partition and... fully customised, set up and safe Win7 without requiring any further interaction (you can choose which updates to apply during installation).

This sounds good, but the site seems a little old. The downloads refer to " .... x86 ...." doesn't that indicate the 32-bit version?

[kishy]

Why are you wanting to get rid of Edge and Cortana? Just don't use them?

Cortana does not function outside of the US currently, so it's dead functionality. I've removed the UI elements but I'm irritated that the background components are there at all. To be honest even if it worked I'd still want to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure it/she has integration with things like the Maps app which I ditched since, in my humble opinion, it sucks. With all the removing I did of next to everything, it/she can't work very well anyway.

You probably know this but I think you can disable IE through group policy, but there's not much way to deal with the app compatibility...usually it's the other way around (old application that needs legacy OS).

By the way it's good to see you around, Kishy!

As it happens, I want to keep IE. I don't use it often, but some websites do cooperate better with it, so I like to have it for those situations.

It's its new sibling Edge I want to nuke. Edge is already disabled to the point of being unable to open, via side-effect of turning off UAC - turn it off, apps stop working, including Edge. Bear in mind that the slider bar all the way to the bottom does not turn off UAC, just its prompts. Setting EnableLUA to 0 in the registry disables the linking/token action and all programs run as Administrator at all times by default. This basically undoes all of the anti-privilege-escalation technology introduced in Vista but I'm OK with that.

And thanks...always liked this community, just got buried in responsibilities. Bought a house.

Yup, I don't see any need to change from Win7 64 bit. Win10 brings nothing to the table for me, but takes a lot away.

Win7 x64 ISO file and RTSe7enLite... take back control. You can choose every component and most settings during the configuration. Then make an unattended install disk, boot from it, choose partition and... fully customised, set up and safe Win7 without requiring any further interaction (you can choose which updates to apply during installation).

Boot a well customised (bloat-free) Win7 build from an SSD and you know what speed is The best part is that it doesn't slowly bloat / slow itself over time (depending on what components you've chosen), it remains responsive and predictable.

Well, my main goal in upgrading with this particular machine was to see if I can "deal with it" and I am increasingly feeling that I'm not sure if I can. There will come a point in the future when it is preferable to have 10 for security updates...but then you have to get into the topic of what exactly security is, and if functionality designed into the OS is already violating it...

I have yet to decide if I'm updating my mother's laptop, and I know for certain that for at least the near future my ThinkPad will not be getting 10, in either case not due to lack of capability but due to concern over how it will impact the user.

The ThinkPad, btw, has an i7-2760QM, 16GB of RAM, two SSDs and a spinning disk. I definitely know how fast Win7 can be...but the desktop with the i5-2500k has 8GB and also an SSD. 10 does edge out (pun?) 7 for boot time, but I'm not sure that the literal two or three second difference is that big of a deal.

[Oobly]

You can go through this list of vulnerabilites and check if any have a chance of affecting your system: http://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-26/product_id-17153/Microsoft-Windows-7.html

If not, you don't need any security updates. If there are some, you can cherry pick the updates you want in the configuration.

I have concluded that even the security updates are not useful to me.

[FreeCopy]

Why are you wanting to get rid of Edge and Cortana? Just don't use them?

Cortana does not function outside of the US currently, so it's dead functionality. I've removed the UI elements but I'm irritated that the background components are there at all. To be honest even if it worked I'd still want to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure it/she has integration with things like the Maps app which I ditched since, in my humble opinion, it sucks. With all the removing I did of next to everything, it/she can't work very well anyway.

You probably know this but I think you can disable IE through group policy, but there's not much way to deal with the app compatibility...usually it's the other way around (old application that needs legacy OS).

By the way it's good to see you around, Kishy!

As it happens, I want to keep IE. I don't use it often, but some websites do cooperate better with it, so I like to have it for those situations.

It's its new sibling Edge I want to nuke. Edge is already disabled to the point of being unable to open, via side-effect of turning off UAC - turn it off, apps stop working, including Edge. Bear in mind that the slider bar all the way to the bottom does not turn off UAC, just its prompts. Setting EnableLUA to 0 in the registry disables the linking/token action and all programs run as Administrator at all times by default. This basically undoes all of the anti-privilege-escalation technology introduced in Vista but I'm OK with that.

And thanks...always liked this community, just got buried in responsibilities. Bought a house.

Yup, I don't see any need to change from Win7 64 bit. Win10 brings nothing to the table for me, but takes a lot away.

Win7 x64 ISO file and RTSe7enLite... take back control. You can choose every component and most settings during the configuration. Then make an unattended install disk, boot from it, choose partition and... fully customised, set up and safe Win7 without requiring any further interaction (you can choose which updates to apply during installation).

Boot a well customised (bloat-free) Win7 build from an SSD and you know what speed is The best part is that it doesn't slowly bloat / slow itself over time (depending on what components you've chosen), it remains responsive and predictable.

Well, my main goal in upgrading with this particular machine was to see if I can "deal with it" and I am increasingly feeling that I'm not sure if I can. There will come a point in the future when it is preferable to have 10 for security updates...but then you have to get into the topic of what exactly security is, and if functionality designed into the OS is already violating it...

I have yet to decide if I'm updating my mother's laptop, and I know for certain that for at least the near future my ThinkPad will not be getting 10, in either case not due to lack of capability but due to concern over how it will impact the user.

The ThinkPad, btw, has an i7-2760QM, 16GB of RAM, two SSDs and a spinning disk. I definitely know how fast Win7 can be...but the desktop with the i5-2500k has 8GB and also an SSD. 10 does edge out (pun?) 7 for boot time, but I'm not sure that the literal two or three second difference is that big of a deal.

I followed this and it seemed to work on killing Cortana. There was some other useful information in that thread as well: https://rbt.asia/g/thread/S49344553#p49347106

[DrOizo]

Can i update to Windows 10 from a non genuine Version of Windows 7?

[rowdy]

Can i update to Windows 10 from a non genuine Version of Windows 7?

Probably not.

Everything Microsoft have said hangs off you having a validly activated installation of Windows 7 to begin with.

There were rumours before Win 10 was released that MS would allow everyone to upgrade, even if you did not have a valid installation or 7 or 8, and everyone was rejoicing.  But that was quickly retracted.

[absyrd]

This morning's update has me stuck on login screen forever. Sigh. Proceed with caution.

[katushkin]

Can i update to Windows 10 from a non genuine Version of Windows 7?

I had a VERY good cracked copy of Win 7 and it let me upgrade. I think so long as you have the correct prompts and notifications, you will be OK with the upgrade. I've not had any issues with authentication.

[Oobly]

Windows 10 Worst Feature Now Installing On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Microsoft intensifies data collection on Windows 7 and 8 systems

Those updates have been pushed by my company to both my work machines. Fortunately I have been granted permission to uninstall and hide them But I am concerned about how it affects our company security overall.

MS is trying to become a services company instead of a products company and I fear it will not go well for them except for some diehards using Office 365. Which is really still a "product".

[rowdy]

Windows 10 Worst Feature Now Installing On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Microsoft intensifies data collection on Windows 7 and 8 systems

Those updates have been pushed by my company to both my work machines. Fortunately I have been granted permission to uninstall and hide them But I am concerned about how it affects our company security overall.

MS is trying to become a services company instead of a products company and I fear it will not go well for them except for some diehards using Office 365. Which is really still a "product".

Few of these big companies seem to be immune to security vulnerabilities, at least that we know about.

Microsoft has had some problems, Apple too.  I keep asking myself whether it is a matter of time before they have a really huge breakin and someone steals terabytes of the sort of information they collect about the users.

[azhdar]

You can't launch the calculator if the UAC is off, I didn't trust it, up until I saw it.

[rowdy]

You can't launch the calculator if the UAC is off, I didn't trust it, up until I saw it.

Seriously?

Microsoft have no idea what they are doing.

[baldgye]

You can't launch the calculator if the UAC is off, I didn't trust it, up until I saw it.

wait what? I'm pretty sure I have launched the calculator and I turned off uac as as i could

[rowdy]

You can't launch the calculator if the UAC is off, I didn't trust it, up until I saw it.

wait what? I'm pretty sure I have launched the calculator and I turned off uac as as i could

What has UAC got to do with the calculator anyway?

That has got to be one of the most innocuous applications ever!

[azhdar]

In french sorry,

"Can't open this application"

"Can't open calculator while the UAC is disabled"

"Activate UAC"

[Oobly]

Show Image

In french sorry,

"Can't open this application"

"Can't open calculator while the UAC is disabled"

"Activate UAC"

[baldgye]

Show Image

In french sorry,

"Can't open this application"

"Can't open calculator while the UAC is disabled"

"Activate UAC"

weird, I'll have a crack tonight and see if I get the same msg

[kishy]

That is correct, and I noted it in my list of things I had to fix. The Win10 calc.exe is an App and Apps (none of them - not Edge, not Store, not anything) will function at all if UAC is disabled.

Note that the slider in Control Panel only adjusts the UAC notifications. It does not actually control UAC being active or not. The registry key EnableLUA being set to 0 is what actually disables UAC (specifically, the dual token limited user functionality - this makes all things run as admin all the time).

The registry key change to run all programs as Admin became necessary in Win8, though it existed prior, but the slider setting (or checkbox in Vista) was sufficient before. Anyone who uses or supports 'legacy' software has known about this little headache for quite some time.

[baldgye]

That is correct, and I noted it in my list of things I had to fix. The Win10 calc.exe is an App and Apps (none of them - not Edge, not Store, not anything) will function at all if UAC is disabled.

Note that the slider in Control Panel only adjusts the UAC notifications. It does not actually control UAC being active or not. The registry key EnableLUA being set to 0 is what actually disables UAC (specifically, the dual token limited user functionality - this makes all things run as admin all the time).

The registry key change to run all programs as Admin became necessary in Win8, though it existed prior, but the slider setting (or checkbox in Vista) was sufficient before. Anyone who uses or supports 'legacy' software has known about this little headache for quite some time.

ah ok so the UAC slider doesn't actually turn it off, just mutes it? Whats the (relative) difference between having it 'off' on the slider and manually setting it to 0?

[kishy]

That is correct, and I noted it in my list of things I had to fix. The Win10 calc.exe is an App and Apps (none of them - not Edge, not Store, not anything) will function at all if UAC is disabled.

Note that the slider in Control Panel only adjusts the UAC notifications. It does not actually control UAC being active or not. The registry key EnableLUA being set to 0 is what actually disables UAC (specifically, the dual token limited user functionality - this makes all things run as admin all the time).

The registry key change to run all programs as Admin became necessary in Win8, though it existed prior, but the slider setting (or checkbox in Vista) was sufficient before. Anyone who uses or supports 'legacy' software has known about this little headache for quite some time.

ah ok so the UAC slider doesn't actually turn it off, just mutes it? Whats the (relative) difference between having it 'off' on the slider and manually setting it to 0?

If the registry key is not set to 0 but the slider is off, you will receive no prompts for escalation for a program to run as Admin. If the program tries to make a change that requires Admin in a way that is UAC compliant, it should figure it out automatically and work seamlessly.

If, however, you need to run a program that will misbehave when it does not run as admin (perhaps it needs access to a file location or mapped drive that exists under only the Administrator account) and is not UAC compliant (e.g. some obscure utility from 1997 that wants to write to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP or store its configuration in the registry), you have to right-click it and run as admin or create a shortcut that does the same. When the registry key is set to 0, "run as admin" happens every time.

Basically the way UAC works is, even if you're an admin, your account runs programs with non-admin access until admin is needed. The program can be given admin access by UAC on an as-needed basis, but programs that aren't designed consistent with Microsoft's standards may not behave correctly. Setting the registry key to 0 disables this behaviour and runs everything as admin.

[baldgye]

ah ok, tbf I feel like that is well beyond what I actually use my PC for these days

[kishy]

ah ok, tbf I feel like that is well beyond what I actually use my PC for these days

Right...ultimately most people can coexist with UAC and non-admin program access without problems. I do run into issues sometimes with some things I do, so I try to bypass that situation entirely.

Disabling UAC (as opposed to just disabling the notifications) is not necessary for the average user and probably majority of users.

[njbair]

ah ok, tbf I feel like that is well beyond what I actually use my PC for these days

Right...ultimately most people can coexist with UAC and non-admin program access without problems. I do run into issues sometimes with some things I do, so I try to bypass that situation entirely.

Disabling UAC (as opposed to just disabling the notifications) is not necessary for the average user and probably majority of users.

So, just for the sake of anyone else here who might want to follow in your footsteps, I should point out that this is a really bad idea. You're undermining the single most important security measure on your computer--the gut check that keeps you from accidentally doing something stupid.

[Elrick]

This morning's update has me stuck on login screen forever. Sigh. Proceed with caution.

You poor kids I've stopped updating Redmond's Garbage some time ago, simply because it's too much of a risk.

Besides I'm really liking Mint 17 which has surprised me quite a bit and since I've been using MS related garbage for years, can now say I really don't miss them whatsoever.

[patachu]

let's sum up the reasons why Win10 is the worst windows so far. i mean, worse than Millenium and Vista combined.
- flat design abomination
- no backwards compatibility
- no customizability
- no way to actually have a proper administrator session
- same NTFS filesystem
- no improvements on DirectX
- embedded spyware and keylogger that can actually NOT be disabled, if you read and comprehend the EULA, it means windows has the right to do it, and own the "analytics" data they collect, and can do anything they want with it - i'm a security IT person and we're starting to see a lot of complications about this in administrations and other domains where windows machines will get upgraded to win10 willingly or not. "for free"
- abhorrent lack of security, opening the doors to new kind of attacks (serves you well! you were asking for it, why didn't you listen?)
- designed for tablets and cloud environment, it's more like a terminal/client OS than a proper PC OS.
- lack of commonsense in design, awkward handling.

well, it happened. that's why i'm staying the **** with WinXP x64 and Debian.

[baldgye]

let's sum up the reasons why Win10 is the worst windows so far. i mean, worse than Millenium

And now I know your not old enough to have had to deal with ME.

[Elrick]

let's sum up the reasons why Win10 is the worst windows so far. i mean, worse than Millenium and Vista combined.
- flat design abomination
- no backwards compatibility
- no customizability
- no way to actually have a proper administrator session
- same NTFS filesystem
- no improvements on DirectX
- embedded spyware and keylogger that can actually NOT be disabled, if you read and comprehend the EULA, it means windows has the right to do it, and own the "analytics" data they collect, and can do anything they want with it - i'm a security IT person and we're starting to see a lot of complications about this in administrations and other domains where windows machines will get upgraded to win10 willingly or not. "for free"
- abhorrent lack of security, opening the doors to new kind of attacks (serves you well! you were asking for it, why didn't you listen?)
- designed for tablets and cloud environment, it's more like a terminal/client OS than a proper PC OS.
- lack of commonsense in design, awkward handling.

well, it happened. that's why i'm staying the **** with WinXP x64 and Debian.

Summed it up PERFECTLY.

Better still move elsewhere and leave Microsoft where it belongs now, in the bin ready for pick-up to their next land-fill site  .

[kishy]

ah ok, tbf I feel like that is well beyond what I actually use my PC for these days

Right...ultimately most people can coexist with UAC and non-admin program access without problems. I do run into issues sometimes with some things I do, so I try to bypass that situation entirely.

Disabling UAC (as opposed to just disabling the notifications) is not necessary for the average user and probably majority of users.

So, just for the sake of anyone else here who might want to follow in your footsteps, I should point out that this is a really bad idea. You're undermining the single most important security measure on your computer--the gut check that keeps you from accidentally doing something stupid.

This depends on your perspective. I want all processes to run elevated. Therefore, it is a bad idea to use an OS that has this protection (bad idea relative to my goals). I work around this with configuration that is made available by the OS developer. I have not, in however many years Windows 7 has been out, had a single issue as a result. I run questionable software that might do harm in a VM and I take backups to be able to go back to before an unauthorized malicious change (not that I've had to do so yet).

UAC serves a purpose and I agree that it is an important warning - "hey, something might happen that you don't want, are you sure you want to let it happen?" - but I'm content to carry on as I am.

If this 'app' model doesn't die off (and as much as I can hope, I know it won't) I will probably have to change at some point, but perhaps by then I won't have any meaningful reason other than stubbornness to turn off UAC anyway.

[njbair]

ah ok, tbf I feel like that is well beyond what I actually use my PC for these days

Right...ultimately most people can coexist with UAC and non-admin program access without problems. I do run into issues sometimes with some things I do, so I try to bypass that situation entirely.

Disabling UAC (as opposed to just disabling the notifications) is not necessary for the average user and probably majority of users.

So, just for the sake of anyone else here who might want to follow in your footsteps, I should point out that this is a really bad idea. You're undermining the single most important security measure on your computer--the gut check that keeps you from accidentally doing something stupid.

This depends on your perspective. I want all processes to run elevated. Therefore, it is a bad idea to use an OS that has this protection (bad idea relative to my goals). I work around this with configuration that is made available by the OS developer. I have not, in however many years Windows 7 has been out, had a single issue as a result. I run questionable software that might do harm in a VM and I take backups to be able to go back to before an unauthorized malicious change (not that I've had to do so yet).

UAC serves a purpose and I agree that it is an important warning - "hey, something might happen that you don't want, are you sure you want to let it happen?" - but I'm content to carry on as I am.

If this 'app' model doesn't die off (and as much as I can hope, I know it won't) I will probably have to change at some point, but perhaps by then I won't have any meaningful reason other than stubbornness to turn off UAC anyway.

We're not that far removed from this being the norm. Prior to XP, there was no concept of privileges in Windows (on the consumer side, anyway). And even then, XP made everyone an admin by default. Those of us savvy enough, managed to avoid major issues through simple diligence and caution.

That said, when Vista introduced UAC, I welcomed it with open arms because I knew it would save me a ton of time supporting other users. Windows 7 has been even better.

I'm curious, you say that your goal is to run everything elevated. I have to think your actual goal is to not be bothered by elevation requests. Wouldn't silencing them have the same net effect?