osRe

Since Win8 shifted to all-in-one updates things have become more difficult. What are the current best practices to avoid "telemetry" and similar updates or components? Any cleaner/disabler programs?

Something is odd about the way Aero Peek behaves for you. All I had to do to get rid of the transparent window behavior was to uncheck the mentioned setting. I think it works for other people as well. Maybe start a new topic on this specific issue to see if other people encountered it? I don't know of a way to hide the Metro junk windows from the old-style AltTab switcher. But I can't say I've explored it in depth since I've always used the modern Metro one, after the obligatory tweaks

Did you try unchecking "Enable Peek" under System Properties \ Advanced \ Performance \ Settings? I thought of changing the program to add a scheduler rule instead of a startup shortcut but: crashes don't happen often, scheduler tasks are still more sneaky and hidden for most people, and I'd have to waste some time doing it. Doesn't Winlogon event 1002 happen only after explorer.exe has loaded? I recall it worked fine when used directly, but it's been quite a while since I looked so maybe I'm wrong. I haven't checked in detail the Z-order changes, but I guess it's not something I encounter often. If I need to switch in a "complex" way I usually press and hold Alt-Tab then use the arrow keys. Or else, WinKey+number to target based on taskbar order.

Hey GCRaistlin. There wasn't a need to develop anything in quite a while because AltTab.dll stayed the same. At least as far as I know, as I haven't checked if recent Windows updates changed it. Do you mean Aero Peek? If so, there's a setting for it in Windows: http://www.intowindows.com/fix-use-aero-peek-to-preview-the-desktop-grayed-out/

- If you mean running EXEs in compatibility mode, I do see Win95 and up in Win8.1. - The 6 Library folders can be removed by deleting or renaming the 6 CLSIDs under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\ Is there a real use for WEI? Isn't it just a very limited benchmark tool?

I've never installed IE/Flash's update separately. After posting the original message, I've waited more than an hour but it never finished "checking". Apparently something's broken here more than the usual long delay. The behavior was the same after using some fix from Microsoft that resets WU's cache/whatever. I haven't tried yet other measures, or even just restarting Windows. Since I haven't checked for updates in 1-2 months my current theory is that it could be related to Microsoft's new all-in-one updates system which is in effect since 3 weeks ago.

Oovoo used to be an alternative, if memory serves. But looking at their site design now, and their download-installer, it doesn't not look promising.

On your computer, how long does Windows Update take for the initial "checking for updates" phase? Before even showing the list of available updates. It seems to me like this phase is getting longer and longer, but I don't do it often so I don't remember clearly. Running it now, I've been waiting 15+ minutes.

And this is running even when Skype isn't?

There are multiple updates available, but the last time I checked there were more, and I didn't install any of them back then. Also the size of this July update is atypically big.

Checking for Win81 updates, I think I see now less updates available than the last time I checked (without applying), 3 weeks ago. An atypically big one, at 100MB+, is KB3172614 "July 2016 update rollup". I thought Microsoft's new all-in-one update strategy for Win7/8 starts October. Am I missing something? Apparently we're already in the new age of forced all-or-nothing updating. Are there already 3rd party tools to completely disable/disarm/modify Microsoft's telemetry mechanisms in Win8?

Oh. Thanks. @blackwingcat: How is it related to the MSE updates?

dencorso, thanks. But I thought, just in case newer updates include updated DLLs that might be found to have some issues on XP, I should keep the last official XP update around. Else, I'll just extract the MS SFX manually. heinoganda, where's that update downloader (I assume) from? I prefer MSE to other AV software. Less overbearing, and I trust MS more not to ruin the OS. If not that, my sole AV software would be VirusTotal. :)

Anyone got a link to the latest update EXE that can be installed on XP without manual extraction?

That'd odd. Maybe the forum dislikes 7z? Though it was downloaded once. Anyway, I put it also here: http://neginfinity.com/calttab/ Oh. Oops. A web search came up empty.

Thanks for the info. Too bad people have to jump through hoops to do simple things.

I've no idea why MS would introduce new formats, or what might be the technical differences. For all I know ESD might stand for "Extended Surveillance Data" and is a ploy to add even more "telemetry points". It's just something I was randomly curious about and couldn't find a clear answer in 5 minutes of searching and reading. It has no immediate relevance to me so for now I guess I'll remain ignorant on topic.

I did. A quick search didn't find a quick and clear technical explanation. I thought forum members might be able to explain what's the idea in a line or two.

Is that a Microsoft format for a compressed WIM, or just encrypted? Why was a new format needed at all?

ESD?

What does Task Manager show?

I'm not sure if you end up with a nice and clean ISO, but maybe one of these: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media ISO images are available too from Microsoft, but I'm not sure if there's an easy way to get them without an MSDN subscription. You would still have to install updates, but far less. The latest ISOs are from 12/2014.

BTW, maybe you should apply 3080149, as it does the following: Though, not sure why it should try to connect anywhere at all if CEIP is disabled.

Win8 is not Win10. If you have a normal variant (non-KMS, etc.), why should it require reactivation all of the sudden? And in the unlikely case it does, it's not like it's going to boot into "Choose boot action: [1] Update to Win10 [2] Format all drives (default: [1], booting in 3 seconds)". You could just take corrective actions from within Windows.

I don't see why it should expire. And if it does, it'll be a benign expiry.