JorgeA

It's not the same idea, but one of my favorite movies is a fairly obscure one titled Interstate 60. One of the parts of this quirky film takes place in a town where lawyering has taken over completely and everyone is suing, or threatening to sue, everyone else. Illustrates the consequences of having too much of a good (?!) thing. --JorgeA

Will you try to mitigate the issues with Windows 10, or will you live with them? --JorgeA

The fire is spreading... Microsoft faces new lawsuits over aggressive Windows 10 free upgrade push --JorgeA

I can hardly believe it -- not even a registry tweak will work anymore?? This is going to annoy professionals and businesspeople who bought Pro precisely because they expect it to give them greater control over the OS. Now they have to put up with all sorts of bloatware, just because the Lords of Microsoft decreed that it must be so. The basic agreement between Microsoft and its customers used to be, "You pay us for the product and you can do what you want with it." Now it's changing over to, "You pay us for the product and we tell you what you can do with it." Microsoft's increasingly imperious attitude is offensive and outrageous. --JorgeA

Tim Sweeney: Microsoft is trying to kill Steam with Windows 10 --JorgeA

Microsoft makes Cortana unkillable in Windows 10 Anniversary Update -- but you can disable her The distinction seems to be that the UI for disabling Cortana is being removed even as it remains possible to get rid of it via Group Policy or in the Registry. Bottom line: the less-technically inclined will get sucked into the Cortana matrix, with no evident way out; staying free of it requires increasing amounts of expertise. --JorgeA

Speech monitoring brought to you, courtesy of Skype. Everything you say goes into our cloud servers and is subject to the Microsoft Services Agreement... --JorgeA

Thanks, Noel. Here's one "interesting" thing in the change list (#6): [emphasis added] Reminds me of the intro to the old TV show The Outer Limits: [youtube] "We are in control, do not try to adjust your set modify your hardware..." --JorgeA

ExtremeTalk: Does anyone actually love Windows? Well said. --JorgeA

Seems to me they would have gotten a lot more upgrades (and a lot less heat) if they had even retained the features they already had in Windows 7 but then added to these the things that are actually new in Windows 10. Sure, add a listing for the Windows Store in the (real) Start Menu. Offer flat, opaque windows as an alternative to Aero Glass, not as the only built-in choice. DirectX 12, go for it -- but why do you need to remove Windows Media Center and dismember Control Panel? --JorgeA

Yeah, at this point the nagware serves purely as a way to increase the cost to the user of staying on an earlier version of Windows. Which may be part of the plan. --JorgeA

What a nightmare. Keep us posted. --JorgeA

I haven't received this email (yet). Did they provide a link to the new MSA language, or at least a rundown of what's changed? If I had paid $$ for a Windows license (assuming that this will be affecting Windows) and then they changed the terms, I would be really p*ssed and demand my money back, as those were not the terms under which I consented to the agreement and chose to give them my money. --JorgeA P.S. Nice picture, BTW. Very fitting expression!

Since the new board software doesn't do embedded quotes, I have to provide the context leading up to the following. Regarding that French commission's finding that Microsoft collects excessive amounts of data from Windows 10 users... ...here are some details: France’s National Data Protection Commission says Windows 10 collects too much data (Updated) France: Windows 10 collects 'excessive personal data', issues Microsoft with formal warning Microsoft responds to allegations that Windows 10 collects 'excessive personal data' [emphasis added] And here's the original statement (in English). --JorgeA

Thanks for the thoughts and advice, Noel. Sounds like using that application for the purpose I described might require more time and/or technical expertise than I enjoy at the moment. Incidentally, and speaking about time, that Dennis Nelson (if there is such a person) must have virtually nothing to do other than review software. He gives fairly detailed assessments of SharewareOnSale products almost every day. --JorgeA

I wonder if something like this could be used from, say, a Windows 7 system to prevent a Windows 10 machine on the same network from phoning home. Check out this part of the product review: --JorgeA

Yes, and now that Skype conversations will be going through MSFT servers instead of peer-to-peer direct, the Microsoft Services Agreement provision where they give themselves permission to access everything you put on their servers becomes all the more significant. They've already deleted people's OneDrive (SkyDrive) files that they didn't approve of; now you'll have to watch what you say, too. --JorgeA

If it weren't real life, I'd say that it sounds like the plot to a horror film. --JorgeA

About MakuluLinux, I took a screenshot tonight: From a live DVD session on my (Vista) laptop. Hopefully this will help. Let me know if I should provide more info. --JorgeA

Guys, I advise against getting political. Not only is it OT, but it's the surest way to get this nice long thread to come to a screeching halt, either from "above" or from "below" -- or both. I know that here in the U.S. we're suffering through an unusually heated election cycle , but on MSFN that topic belongs (if anywhere) in the general subforum. Pleasepleaseplease, let's keep the thread on Microsoft and related tech issues! --JorgeA

Confirmed: Only Microsoft Edge will play Netflix content at 1080p on your PC Reports down in the comments section: --JorgeA

The quote from the MSFT spokescritter needed a little editing: [one word struck out, new word added in its place with emphasis] WTF does "the focusing of our phone hardware business" mean?? There are a few nouns that fit better in that sentence; I gave one of them above. Others include "disaster," "debacle," "fiasco." --JorgeA

You can be sure of that. Anything to puff up the numbers. --JorgeA

IMHO another factor in this, is kids at their first job at Google/Apple/Microsoft who can't resist the temptation to mess with millions of people's lives. Here we have arrogant twits who think they're smarter than everyone else, trying to shape our (onscreen) environment. The temptation is hard to resist if you have the knowledge to do it, but neither the wisdom nor the experience to steer you away from it. It's also the sense of power. If it were simply a matter of money and profit, it seems to me that, in the wide-open Internet market, sooner or later someone would come along offering stable products that don't change the location of the buttons or the color scheme just for the h3!! of it; while customers who'd rather focus on getting actual work done than on learning the Cool New Features that arrive every other month would flock to such vendors. But then, most vendors seem to be infested with arrogant twit developers who enjoy scr*wing with users' workflow... Because They Can. --JorgeA

The news is spreading: Microsoft confirms Windows 10 and Surface subscriptions are on their way Microsoft prices Windows 10 Enterprise subscription at $84 per user per year One question about this: Will this $84 per year be instead of or in addition to the astronomical fees that companies pay for Enterprise licenses? If it's "instead of," then it puts Windows Enterprise within reach of individuals and small businesses, posing an interesting follow-up question: Would you be willing to pay the yearly Enterprise subscription in order to enter the Long Term Service Branch and enjoy more granular control over both telemetry and the Windows Updates that get installed on your PC? On another point, check out this comment about MSFT apologists under the first link above: If we quoted that on the Windows Insiders forum, I wonder how quickly it would get taken down. --JorgeA P.S. Reading further into the PC World piece: