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I'm not sure it this suggestion will fix or improve the above situation, but I believe that harkaz has verified that his Unofficial SP4 can be applied to XP mode, at least with previous versions of SP4 and I assume that is still the case with the latest v3.1 that is about to be released. Cheers and Regards

Mainly because I prefer the "classic" start menu style that was good enough for Win2K, XP, and still meets my needs today. Classic Shell also has some easily accessible tweaks such as delay time adjustments etc to help make the Windows experience just right. The tweaks are available without Classic Shell, of course, but Classic Shell makes them convenient to access and use. It's fine that you have different preferences, by all means use what works for you. The ability to personalize the experience has always been the beauty of Windows, until MS lost their freaking mind. Cheers and Regards

Hey Jody, NoelC would probably be the best person to answer your question. [ But if you aren't using any Metro stuff at all, I would suggest sticking with Windows 7 + Classic Shell. (Yes I know you posted on the Windows 8 forum and I'm not trying to start a fight. Why conceal the Metro stuff when you can just use an OS that doesn't include it? Also, many folks spend a lot of time and effort trying to make Windows 8.x look and act like Wiindows 7 anyway. ) I can't think of any missing capabilities in Windows 7 vs Windows 8 that can't be added with free or very, very cheap and probably better 3rd party alternatives. But that's just my opinion. ] It is interesting that your workstation supports Windows 8 and not Windows 8.1. What was added in 8.1 that your workstation doesn't support? Just curious. Cheers and Regards

Hey harkaz, It's nice to see that you are working on Win7. It's also great that your goal is that your cleanup stays "clean" as far as sfc etc are concerned. Your thorough approach should make things more stable and reliable even it doesn't produce as small a result as other approaches might. Will your tool be able to cleanup a "source" on which you have integrated all updates in addition to cleaning up an installed system? It would be very nice to not have to clean things up every time you install the OS. Cheers and Regards, my friend.

Happy b'day Kel, and many, many happy returns, my very good friend! Cheers and Regards, John

It might have been up yesterday, but it doesn't seem to be up today. No method I tried, FileZilla or command line per submix8c's link, worked. You could "log on", but no directory listing would work, it just hung with no response. Cheers and Regards

Which is a subset of the list of updates from here - How to avoid being "upgraded to Win 10" against your will. Cheers and Regards

Welcome to the light, Noel! I'm just sorry that you had to spend so much time suffering on the dark side. But better late than never. I am very glad, though, that you documented all your testing for the benefit of the rest of us. Now we'll have to find some other sucker brave soul to do that work. Cheers and Regards, my friend.

If someone really wants it, it is STILL available on SoftPedia. (The European mirror only) Cheers and Regards

This is from a guide on how to connect your new Honeywell Thermostat to a wireless network. If said SSID has been present "for a while" then it is likely a case where a technology is enabled by default where it probably shouldn't be. Maybe it's a case where the user never did the Wi-Fi Setup but just hooked it up and figured they didn't need to if they were only going to use it "manually"? Cheers and Regards

+1 Cheers and Regards

Assuming he is not responding to anyone, (maybe it's just a language issue), but if he is asking legitimate questions then this just screams for a response from the MS support team. Let's hope they respond quickly. Cheers and Regards

The easy way around this is to use the 'chrome-extension-downloader', in any browser you like, to download the requested Chrome Extension. Insert the web store url of the extension, or just the extension ID, into the box and click "Download Extension". You still might need to use "developer mode" to install. Cheers and Regards

Did you lose any functionality at all? Such as was found by some of the commentators to the suggestion to simply delete the VsHub folder such as the ability to display performance information about the running process during debugging. Another suggestion by Frederik, below yours, suggested "blocking instantiation with your Anti Virus", but I'm not sure I understand exactly what that means or how to do that. Do you? ( I would ask at stackoverflow, but I don't have enough points there to comment on another person's answer, yet. ) Would this accomplish the same thing as your suggestion, or could it be used in addition for another layer of protection? Cheers and Regards

FWIW, to help skrell, and anyone else who wishes to build a POSReady Addon, Molecule posted some wonderfully detailed instructions over at Ryan's. See here and here. (While it is only tested using RVMi, I believe the process might work as well using nLite, and in any case should be at least remotely on-topic for this thread. ) Cheers and Regards

No argument from me. I'm just saying that one could take that argument to extremes. I mean after all, at some point they are going to produce systems that can no longer run Windows 10, so taking that approach we might just as well give up and quit using computers at all. Actually, that does have some merit since in some ways we as a society might be better off with less technology and more personal interactions. Being forced to think for and entertain ourselves would probably have some long term benefits. But in the meantime, "Our computers still work." So I'll keep on keeping on. Not with blinders on, mind you. But I still see no convincing argument to change, yet. Cheers and Regards

No, but at least please provide a translation for the rest of us: Cheers and Regards

Now Noel, I seem to remember that you said something similar about Windows 8.x, yet you now say you will be "left out in the cold" if you remain with Windows 8.1 as the other 8.x users are probably the most likely to switch to Windows 10, while those of us, many, many of us, who happily stuck with Windows 7 continue merrily along. I agree that Microsoft desperately wants us to "upgrade", and we very well might be forced to at some point due to "a failure of some sort", but yet there are devoted users of XP, Win2K, and even Win9x that valiantly continue on to this day. I also agree that the vast majority of "users do need to just surf the internet, maybe buy a few things, order pizza." That's where the lion's share of the user market will go, as long as the equipment is inexpensive, reliable, and familiar and/or easy to use. So I understand that's why MS tried to force the same interface across all platforms to build familiarity and make the decision for the user to pick a Windows mobile platform an easy one. But that effort failed in the mobile market and the interface was not familiar and easy for computer users so it is failing there, too, even when it's "free" to address the cost aspect. Not to mention the recent emphasis on privacy concerns, etc. Anyway, Windows 10 doesn't do anything better for the "vast majority" than the iPad, Android tablet, and the other such products including any smart phone, so those are what the "vast majority" will keep using. And as dencorso pointed out, many large businesses are just now switching from XP to Windows 7, so that market should continue for awhile. If I really need a computer, and dealing with a Microsoft product just becomes more trouble than it's worth, even I am looking more and more at Linux, maybe ChaletOS as bookie32 pointed out (Thanks bookie ), see here and/or here and here. since it seems inexpensive, easy, and has a familiar interface. And as you have said, with all the stuff that Microsoft is doing, even if we think it is crap and/or invasive, they will most likely continue to keep the lights on for some time to come. They are just continuing to lose our respect and their reputation as a market leader and innovator, at least to many of us. Cheers and Regards

dhjohns has been able to add and configure enough 3rd party addons to make Windows 10 look good, as had NoelC, and it works for him. [ Though I think that even he would agree that the Windows 10 look out-of-the-box could definitely be improved.] He also has found some Modern apps that he likes. He also likes the new built-in virtual desktops. He is not concerned about the current storm about privacy issues. I don't mean to speak for him, but I think that correctly summarizes things, and as long as it works for him, then more power to him. Cheers and Regards

The respect is mutual. I like to think that I'm just stubborn about it, not belligerent. You are also stubborn, maybe a little more enthusiastically so than I am , and you are definitely more active and you continuously and thoroughly test all current and new options to the benefit of the entire community. I sincerely thank you for your ongoing efforts. I, on the other hand, tend to take the approach, if it ain't broke, ... Edit: I'm keeping a very close eye on the privacy issues as they evolve and I plan to adopt your host and firewall recommendations. Cheers and Regards

I have always had my Windows 7 update settings as "Notify only" and usually waited a week or two after "patch Tuesday" before installing anything. I also took dencorso's advice to heart from the first post in this thread, posted on April 12'th, and hid all suggested updates within a day or two from that time. As a result, I have never had the GWX folder or any associated files ever show up on my machine. As time goes on, I am feeling more and more justified and happy with my decision to stick with Windows 7. I have yet to see any persuasive argument to convince me to "upgrade". I'm not a gamer so I don't need the latest DirectX, I haven't seen a Modern app I can't live without, the very slightly faster boot time isn't significant in the overall scheme of things, and the "staying current" argument just hasn't impacted me yet. Windows 7 works with my hardware and the software I use and it meets my needs. Cheers and Regards

Yes but I think you can move the icon outside of the visible area and it'll stay there, in effect, hidden. Try this experiment ; first check that your settings are not to "align on grid" nor "reorganize automatically". Increase screen resolution, temporarily; now frag the offending element to the right border (of larger resolution screen), finally restore screen to its usual resolution : does thumbs.db not stay off screen ? WOW! And you called simply deleting the files as jaclaz suggested "a poor work around in last recourse for a standing bug (imho)"? I guess we all have our own definition of "work around" or "hack". Cheers and Regards

Just in the title of the thread. Please edit the title to correct this. And no, I know of no way to selectively display the system files. You either display them or you don't. Cheers and Regards

To me it sometimes depends on the type of potato and how they are prepared. eg baked white potatoes I eat the skins, while baked sweet potatoes I don't. If you mash the potatoes and want the creamiest texture then you need to take the skins off, but coarse mashed or "chunked" potatoes are just as good, if not better. Many potatoes, especially "new" or baby potatoes, have very thin skins, while some types of potatoes have thicker skins. I also understand that the skins of the potatoes have a lot of the nutrients that make the potato part of a healthy diet, see here and here, for example. But overall, I say "Eat the skins." Cheers and Regards

It's been awhile sine I've looked much at DirectX, but IIRC Windows 7 has never had a C:\Windows\System32\directx folder. Never. I believe that the DirectX DLL's are in C:\Windows\System32, and also in C:\Windows\SysWOW64 for Windows 7 x64. I believe that the only connection between DirectX and .NET is the optional DirectX for Managed Code, at least that's the way it used to be, and you very rarely hear much about that any more. Why are you convinced of the connection between DirectX and .NET? And like Trip, I don't understand your current anger about DirectX. The way DirectX works in Windows 7 hasn't changed since Windows 7 first came out, so why get mad now, 6 years later? I mean, I know you like to play the role of a bitter, angry old (young?) man, but still... Cheers and Regards