JorgeA
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by JorgeA
-
-
1 hour ago, jaclaz said:
Strangely enough, some good news ;):
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/microsoft-draws-flak-for-pushing-windows-10-on-pc-users/jaclaz
Nice find, jaclaz. This is the best Windows 10-related news I've seen in a long time.
You can bet your bottom dollar/euro/franc/rupee/pound/peso that Microsoft's army of lawyers would have fought this if they thought they could win. By "winning" I mean not just the case itself in a court of law, but also in the court of public opinion. They probably made a strategic decision to settle, in the hope that the news would be reported quietly and go away quickly, as compared to the months of bad publicity that an actual trial would have involved. Because no matter how they try to justify performing the
updowngrade, it simply looks bad. Even if they argue the legal point that "you must have agreed to the EULA at some point, don't you read these things?", it teaches the public-- that Microsoft is not trustworthy and that they do need to read the EULAs carefully. Those of us who read this forum may know that, but up until now the broader public hasn't been awakened to it, and minimizing news of this sort helps to keep it that way.Spread the news far and wide -- maybe it'll encourage other victims of MSFT's Win10 pushiness to follow suit (so to speak).
--JorgeA
0 -
On Sunday, June 26, 2016 at 2:28 AM, rn10950 said:
I really can't see M$ shipping Google Play Music with Windows.
I tried to duplicate the procedure that Dedoimedo used to create a new user account, down to making it a local account.
I did not get any of the bloatware that he reported. Instead, I got a fairly standard Win10 account, with some oddities. Most of the default settings were in place, including allowing zillions of apps to access the camera and microphone; and the Start Menu had all those tiles in it. OneDrive was back, compared to the main account where I had disabled it. The Windows Store icon was back on the Taskbar and the IE icon that I'd placed there in the original account was not. The Taskbar itself was at the default fat width.
However, some things surprisingly made it over to the new account from the original one. Classic Shell was installed (although the custom Win7-style Start Button was not), as were EMET and Firefox.
Bottom line: I'm not sure why Dedoimedo would get third-party bloatware on a newly created (secondary) Win10 user account, unless the programs already existed (factory-installed or manually installed) on the original Win10 account. OTOH this could all be some sort of randomization strategy to keep the skeptics off-balance, along the same lines of what we've speculated with respect to some Win7 users getting suddenly downgraded to Windows 10 despite their Windows Update settings while others remain unscathed.
--JorgeA
1 -
Huh, pretty cool.
I went looking for LG models in the U.S. that would have that "Time Machine" feature. While I found references to its existence in India, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and even Pakistan, the feature sadly doesn't seem to be available in the U.S. Probably it's Hollywood we should be "thanking" for that omission. So I'll have to stick with Windows Media Center.
--JorgeA
0 -
On Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 2:50 PM, xpclient said:
- Media Center is missing but I got a new LG TV which has far better DVR recording features using modern compression and takes the load off the PC.
This caught my eye. Are you saying that your LG TV has built-in DVR functionality?
Which model is it?
--JorgeA
0 -
Steve Gibson weighs in on Windows generally
and Windows 10 specifically :
QuoteSteve: And so this is a good segue for me to talk a little bit about my relationship with Windows. I think people may have gotten the wrong idea. Sometimes I'm at fault for being a little too glib and sort of assuming...
Leo: Well, you did say Windows 10 was a turd.
Steve: A flying turd.
Leo: Oh, I'm sorry, a flying turd.
Steve: I did. I did early on.
Leo: That was Windows 10, not necessarily Windows in general.
Steve: Well, yeah. And so I want everyone to understand. I don't hate Windows. I love Windows. I have a multi-decade massive investment in Windows. And it is today, remains the majority operating system, with more than half of the market share, even when you include iOS and Android, the large mobile platforms. And if you look at only desktop, it's at 83.6%.
So, I mean, so my whole deal is that I want to be able to write software which helps people, is useful. And I'm able to do that for a greater percentage of all users if I'm writing for Windows. So even today I'm not regretting the investment that I made. I'm not wishing that I knew how to program one of the much lesser desktop operating system platforms. I'm 100% happy with my knowledge and understanding of Windows and my past with it.
My complaint is that my needs are at odds with Microsoft's needs. And it's why I'm on XP still today and didn't move. It would be nice if I didn't have to completely rebuild a system from scratch in order to move. So certainly a compelling idea, a concept in Windows 10 is that it will now just evolve as it is, rather than you needing to just effectively start over. But it is a problem for me that it's Microsoft's closed source commercial profit center. And through the years they have needed to create new ones because we all know upgrade revenue was what fueled Microsoft historically.
And so the tension that exists with me is only that it's changing for Microsoft's purposes, not for mine. And this matters to me because it's not a toy. I don't just bounce around with it and use it for displaying social networking and Instagrams and things. I mean, it is a tool. I need it to work, and I need it to be reliable, and I need it to be stable. And so, for example, when Microsoft says, as they are with Windows 10, "the most secure Windows ever," well, that's complete nonsense.
They also said that about XP. And as we talked about at the time, it's impossible to declare a platform secure at its birth. You may want it to be secure, but it's up to history to prove that. And if XP is any example, it was the biggest security disaster we've ever known. Code Red and Nimda and the MSBlast worm and, I mean, it provided material for this podcast endlessly because it was a disaster. And Windows 10 will get fixed and patched. But as we know, with security, leaving things alone rather than constantly changing them is the way for them to be secure, rather than constantly adding stuff.
And then on top of that, there's my feeling that I've talked about before, that the role of an operating system is to provide a file system for managing files, manage memory, manage applications, create a foundation for applications to run on, and provide I/O and networking services. That's what it's for. But it's the way that Microsoft is evolving it in their desperation to move people to something new. None of those things are of use to me. So as Windows 10 acquires increasing market share, we'll continue covering it. There's nothing there that it offers me. And so I will be, as I've said, moving to Windows 7 at some point.
And again, I think that people want me to love the Windows they've chosen. And I'm not going to. I love Windows itself. But there's nothing that 10 or 8 or 8.1 have for me. And I'm moving to 7 because I do need 64 bits so that I can use a lot more RAM. And as protocols evolve, I do need to be able to be using the latest protocols and crypto suites and have those available. So there are things that push me. But in the case of an operating system platform, I'm definitely not in a hurry to be the first out there with arrows in my back because for me it's a tool. And what I just want is stability.
So anyway, I just - I wanted people to understand that I don't hate Windows 10 at all. You know, the fact that I created Never10 isn't a statement at all about Windows and Windows 10. It was that Microsoft was pushing people. And we see instance after instance of this push that Microsoft has to move everyone to 10 not being about what's best for the user. It's what's best for Microsoft. And that's a problem. So Never10 just gives people some control over that.
--JorgeA
1 -
9 hours ago, rn10950 said:
I'm pretty skeptical of this one. The user said something about "upgrading" existing Win8.x installs to Win10, and some of the things downloaded are in direct competition with M$. I really can't see M$ shipping Google Play Music with Windows. This is probably residual bloatware from an OEM install of 8.x upgraded to 10. I would love to see a retail 8.x install "upgraded" to 10 and the user creation process wiresharked just to be sure.
He says he encountered the bloatware in the new user account that he created on his existing Win10 system in order to see what a reader had reported about having trouble creating additional users after the reader upgraded from Windows 8.1:
QuoteA bunch of weeks ago, someone emailed me, informing of a potentially big problem with user management on Windows 10. Namely, after upgrading from Windows 8.1, the person had trouble creating additional users. Apparently, there is an issue with the user profile format and whatnot. That definitely sounds tricky.
FWIW, he goes on to describe the process he went through to create a new account:
QuoteWhen you start the wizard for a new account, you will be asked to provide the email or phone of the person that you want to add. As you can imagine, this option means you will end up with an online account. No, don't want.
If you want a local account, as you should, you still have one more hurdle. You will still be asked to setup an online account, so pay attention. You actually want the option at the bottom of the window. Then you can do the normal thing. Again, I like how the online account is advertised - Microsoft services are all better and more personal. What? What does that mean? Better how? More personal how? Has anyone read this sentence and actually felt inspired?
This will complete the creation of the user. The next step is to log off your current user, and try the new one, or you can just switch, but that will also lock existing programs and files in use. To actually log off, hit the user name at the top of the menu.
The login took several minutes, as Windows 10 was busy preparing the user environment. What this effectively means is, if you have an Internet connection, Windows 10 will download all sorts of useless stuff and populate your account. As you can see from the desktop screenshot, all sorts of crap have been added to the system. Now, why would I ever be interested in these promo semi-adware semi-spyware nonsense programs? Google Play Music on a desktop? What?
If I get the chance to, I may try this procedure and see if the same thing happens on my machine. Or maybe somebody else will beat me to the punch.
--JorgeA
0 -
12 hours ago, BudwS said:
Used a procedure with Boot Camp to create a thumb drive with Windows drivers. Installed the drivers on 32-bit 14371 and now there are no missing drivers in Win 10. 14372 installed cleanly and no drivers were lost in the process.
Have you put into writing the procedure that you use to create that thumb drive with Windows drivers? I assume you get the drivers from the manufacturers?
This is interesting and readers in a similar situation may wish to do what you did.
--JorgeA
0 -
The fad for ignoring user's clearly stated preferences is spreading:
Why can't 'no' just mean 'no' when it comes to free software?
Quote"Installation Complete", says the message. Now I can start defragging. Before I do though, the program would like to check the system for errors and remove junk files, optimize the computer for maximum performance, and increase internet speed and keep my PC secure. I just need to click "Finish" to run a free scan.
This all looks like part of the setup, but hold on a minute. A minuscule "i" next to the "Run a free scan" check box reveals the truth. By leaving this box checked, I’m agreeing to install Auslogics BoostSpeed. A program which I HAVE ALREADY SAID NO TO.
A good question:
QuoteWhatever happened to making a piece of software good, so users would choose to install it? Why do we now have to be tricked into installing something? How can that possibly be seen as a good idea? Happy customers will be returning customers. Unhappy customers will look elsewhere, and rightly so.
--JorgeA
3 -
Dedoimedo found that setting up a new user account in Windows 10 downloaded crapware onto his PC:
Windows 10 user management - Account Savant
QuoteThe login took several minutes, as Windows 10 was busy preparing the user environment. What this effectively means is, if you have an Internet connection, Windows 10 will download all sorts of useless stuff and populate your account. As you can see from the desktop screenshot, all sorts of crap have been added to the system. Now, why would I ever be interested in these promo semi-adware semi-spyware nonsense programs? Google Play Music on a desktop? What?
It gets worse. The menu is there, and it features all the stupidity you can imagine. Flipping live tiles, stupid news that tell us what happened in moronland, promotional s***, games designed for people with unpaired chromosomes, trialware that does nothing useful, and other associated digital diarrhea.
Just as PC manufacturers get paid a small fee by software vendors to put their programs on newly built computers, I wonder if MSFT gets paid for adding all this stuff to people's already existing Win10 installations.
--JorgeA
0 -
17 minutes ago, helpdesk98 said:
Windows 10 is not ready for main stream! Just admit it MS! I wish they would take a step back and take a breath and move forward not forgetting the lessons learned from the past.
They're like The Terminator -- laser-focused on their objective and totally unconcerned with the destruction they wreak in the process.
--JorgeA
1 -
In a recent episode of What the Tech, Paul Thurrott lays hard into Microsoft for what he calls its "dishonest" practices pushing Windows 10 on users. The discussion then ranges out into the apparent inability of some folks to understand that their own experience with Windows 10 is not necessarily what others are experiencing with Windows 10.
QuotePT: I've been a vocal opponent of Microsoft's overly aggressive stance on getting people to upgrade to Windows 10. They've really ratcheted things up over the months... Some of the more notable things they did was secretly downloading Windows 10 in the background so that it'd be really easy to install it if you chose to do so --
AZ: Or, even worse, as Mary Jo Foley and I have both experienced, where you just woke up one day and you had Windows 10 on your computer without even clicking on anything.
PT: Yeah, they added it to the "Recommended Updates" section of Windows Update a couple of months ago, thus ensuring that it would be auto-downloaded and installed (after a couple of prompts) on millions and millions of computers. There's kind of a "social engineering" quality to the advertisement window that pops up where a giant "Install Now" and no other button for "don't install" and that kind of stuff.
AZ: Yeah, you have to know to hit "X," right -- is that how it is?
PT: Oh, but see, that's the Upgradegate: you have to know to hit "X." Well guess what: they've made a change, and when you hit "X" now, you've agreed to install it.
AZ: Really!?!
PT: Yeah. That's the problem.
AZ: Oh, you're absolutely right, because it gives yo a thing saying, "I want to delay this." Like, it's very hidden... Is there an actual button that says, "I never want to do this stupid thing"?
PT: No.
AZ: OK.
PT: What you can do is cancel an automatic upgrade -- because it's automated now through Windows Update -- but that won't cancel it forever, and if that dialog pops up and you just don't want to install Windows 10, in the past if you closed the window by hitting that "X," which is the "close window" box, you would cancel it. For a while; it would always come back, but you could kind of cancel it. Now, if you close that window that way, it will install.
AZ: Oh, my God.
PT: Yeah.
AZ: Terrible.
PT: Now, Microsoft defenders -- I'm sure they're out there -- would explain to you that there are still some prompts that occur. Fair enough, but I mean, this is social engineering. The point of this is to calm you down enough that you don't pay attention to what's happening. This isn't designed for people that want to make a decision that is in their own best interests, it's designed to fake you out. You can try to defend this all you want; this is indefensible. This change happened with no announcement, with no understanding this was happening -- it's just that a bunch of people started complaining and this is what we figured out this is what's happening.
AZ: This is a major problem. Not because Windows 10 is bad and you're gonna have a terrible --
PT: Windows 10 is awesome!
AZ: It's not that it's not honest; I'm trying to find --
PT: No, it is dishonest.
AZ: It's dishonest, and it's really sleazy of a way to do it.
PT: You go to a car dealership and you're like, "I'm looking at a brand-new car." What do we do to get you in this car? And you're like, "I'm just looking. I'll come back later, I need to look around a little bit." And then you go home and the new car is sitting in your driveway and your first bill has arrived in the mail. You bought it, even though you told them you weren't going to buy it.
AZ: No no, you told me you're thinking about it.
PT: Yeah.
AZ" I'll come back next week, maybe I'll look at it next week.
PT: Yeah.
AZ: I had this problem with a -- I was in California we have a studio there, and I turned a computer on and -- I'd had a weird issue, there was a Windows Update that did something and it just triggered the UEFI BIOS to tell me that I don't have a hard drive, so I had to go into the BIOS and reset everything... But when I turned the computer on, I got a popup, and it was Windows 10. It said, "Your Windows 10 [upgrade] is scheduled for" it was that night at 8PM.
PT: Yeah.
AZ: Why?? The computer's been off! It's been off for, probably, two months. How would I have possibly put that I want an update? So, in my case, I had to update that machine to Windows 10. I had no problems with that. But I had proprietary software -- and this is a rarity, and I'm one of these people that uses special drivers for special hardware -- and I turn the computer off, I leave my office, I come back and I have Windows 10 and I can't run this stuff: that is a major problem. I don't care that thing does that "driver check" that tells you that it's going to work: it did the driver check for me also, and I've had it not work for certain drivers.
PT: Yeah, you're not the only one on that one, too.
AZ: So, that sucks.
PT: The whole thing sucks. By the way, imagine that Microsoft was the Microsoft of the past, 'cause they're not, right? ...They're just a deceptive company. We all know this, it's the way it is. And they do this, and you would say, "OK, well that's just they way they are, those bastards at Microsoft." But they're actually better than this these days, for the most part. And Windows 10 is awesome. It's just that you can't force it on people. People have their own reasons for sticking with Windows 7; it could literally simply be fear, because they upgrade process is so fraught with problems -- it could fail, you could get a Windows 10 install that doesn't work properly, you could go to roll back and that doesn't work properly. You know, your data is on there, your applications are on there. Most people don't know how to do backup and restore and all the things they could do to protect themselves. It's just horrible.
AZ: I think the problem here is that Microsoft has a little too much faith in the install process of Windows 10.
PT: This is the engineers who are driving an experience and say, "Well, our telemetry shows that ninety, you know, whatever percent is working out great. That's neat.
AZ: Historically, Windows has been a difficult thing to install for most people. We're not most people. People listening... are not most people. Most people upgrade operating systems based on buying a new computer.
PT: Yeah, this requires you to look outside of yourself.
AZ: So, when you see it's for free, when you see "Hey, you want to upgrade to Windows 10?" you say, "Yeah sure!" And what happens when -- I have a great example: I have a Dell that cannot do the upgrade. I have to do a clean install. It goes into an endless loop, and then it freaks out and goes, "Oh, crap! Something is wrong, we're just going to revert right back to Windows 7, don't worry about it." But I still get this updtate from Windows 10. What happens if, when it reverts back to Windows 7, something is wrong? What am I going to do then? Who am I gonna call? Am I going to go to Microsoft and tell them to fix it?
[...]
AZ: I deal with this on a regular level. We have proprietary software and hardware that we use to get this going. And I talk to the engineers and I tell them, "Listen, we have this as an issue," and they go, "Why would that be an issue? I use it and I don't have that issue." Yeah, but you don't use it on a regular basis. You're an engineer, you're not actually using the software in real-time usage. You're testing it and you're implementing features, you're not using it like a real person. I've had such a difficult time -- I had that problem with Skype, I had that problem with one of the [unintelligible] companies that we use... where I send a video to you and the video freezes, so I have to toggle it on an off. I explain this to them and they go, "I don't have this problem." But you don't use it with Skype, of course you don't have that problem!
PT: Your inability to see a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. This is a frequent feedback loop that I get on Twitter especially, where you complain about something. "Well, that doesn't happen to me!" I wrote about when you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 your computer [unintelligible] registered on this cloud database so that if later you do a clean install, it will automatically activate. I have heard from dozens and dozens of people, and I have myself now twice experienced, the fact that this doesn't always work. When I write about stuff like that, I hear from -- one guy said, "I updated a hundred machines in a lab, I never had that problem." That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. People assume that their anecdotal information is evidence of something -- you know, that "because this happened to me, it happens to everyone." And that's just people; when Microsoft does it institutionally, that's a class-action lawsuit. What they're doing is patently wrong. It's just wrong.
[emphasis in original]
--JorgeA
0 -
The trouble is, gathering and reporting on the news requires having people who do it for a living. It takes time to develop not only a website, but also the knowledge of the industry and (crucially) the variety of sources who'll share what they know, on and off the record. A reporter needs to know both what to ask and whom to ask it of. Developing this knowledge, these contacts and these skills is a job. And that requires having a source of income deriving from that work in order to justify continuing to do it.
The newspapers and news magazines are in a deepening crisis because readers have flocked to the Web for their news and fewer of them are paying for print editions. If news organizations can't find a way to make a living from what they put out on the Web, then they will go the way of the farrier and the player-piano roll maker.
The same goes for tech news sites. We can't reasonably expect someone to spend their days and nights benchmarking hardware or pumping people for information at zero pay: were they foolish enough to persist in such a project, they would soon starve to death.
I can hear the cynical cracks already: so what, we're being fed B.S. anyway, who believes them in any case, etc. etc. That's all well and good, but imagine how abysmal our ignorance would truly be if we had to rely for our news on the tweets and press releases of companies and politicians.
--JorgeA
0 -
If Web users are not willing to enter into periodic (e.g., annual) subscriptions to support the websites they visit; and if they are not going to provide micro-payments for when they do visit websites; and if in addition they block the ads that the websites display in order to defray their costs -- then how are websites going to stay afloat long-term?
--JorgeA
0 -
3 hours ago, Tripredacus said:
From the nested quote that the forum software left out: 25% of users install an app and only use it once. I wonder, what percentage of those users are doing so not because they don't like the app, but because another app gave them incentive to try it? I personally use very few apps on my phone, but one of them has microtransactions. The in-game currency is coins. You can get these coins by signing in every day, winning contests, buying them, watching ads or trying some other app. I doubt that this is uncommon. So I wonder how many people are just doing the bare minimum required (it varies) in order to get the coins or whatever they need for the game they are playing.
That's a very good question, the answer to which I wish I knew.
It doesn't speak very well for the marketing strategy (or for the UWP apps) if people are enticed this way to try them but then never go back to them.
BTW I suspect that microtransactions are the way that the Web ultimately will solve the issue of how to support websites. Instead of subscribing for $25 a year or whatever to a news site, and instead of putting up with obnoxious ads, maybe the solution lies in a workable system for paying pennies or even fractions of a penny for each time you read an article.
--JorgeA
0 -
On Sunday, June 19, 2016 at 6:39 AM, xpclient said:
Because starting and stopping the WU service is one more headache. I don't want to manage the updates service. Why should I have to do that? In earlier versions like Win7, a balloon told me updates were available. When I felt like it, I went to WU which was pinned to my Start menu, installed them and forgot about it. In Windows 10, I get a hideously ugly annoying notification which overlays all other windows and says "Requires updates need to be downloaded". It opens WU even if I press Esc or Alt+F4 on it.
It's undeniably true that getting to run Windows 10 the way that XP, Vista, or 7 run is a lot of work -- see the enormous effort that NoelC has put into tamping down the Win10 telemetry. And in the end you still end up with a number of drawbacks, including the Settings app that spaces out the category labels as if screen real estate were cheap.
Other than simply accepting whatever the Lords of Microsoft choose to dispense to us peasants, there are three different ways we can approach the situation:
- Hang on to a previous version of Windows and fortify it against emerging threats as well as we can for as long as we can;
- Migrate to a different OS family altogether;
- Mitigate the unacceptable aspects of Windows 10 as best we can.
In this thread we've covered all three strategies. Use of the Windows Update MiniTool would fall under #3. A user adopting that approach would install Classic Shell and Aero Glass; disable or uninstall UWP apps; implement NoelC's advice regarding firewalls and the hosts file; and now (possibly) use the WUMT, all in the attempt to preserve as much as possible the Windows experience as we know it. And there has been considerable interest in this third approach, as the success of Classic Shell and the length of the Aero Glass threads here on MSFN attest.
Microsoft could probably destroy #3 anytime they wanted by removing from Windows the bits that make those mitigations possible, and then those who went that route would have some hard choices to make. But in the meantime, #3 is one way to try to make staying in your home tolerable enough without digging a moat or going into exile.
--JorgeA
3 -
On Sunday, June 19, 2016 at 6:50 AM, zolotron said:
I've been using Win Update MiniTool updates for a few months and so far it's working very well. I'm able to hide updates, install offline and select what I want on a pro x64 and yes I do disable updates in between and can't understand why people on various forums get so excited about new updates as well as new betas coming out on the various rings. It's like they forget the OS should be working for them so once set and running it's just used to do the needed work be it surfing or much more complex stuff but Win 10 forever needs to be worked on and modified and when you finish it's updated again and the whole thing restarts. Kind of why bother to use it for anything more than maybe entertainment while the real work is done on 7 or 8.1 or Linux. Win 10 is like being a slave to satisfying Microsoft rather than a tool for work
[emphasis added]
Fantastic observations!
--JorgeA
1 -
From a vigorous Win10 defender, an interesting tidbit about the perceived value of mobile apps -- and, by extension, about the value of the whole Windows 10 model. Discussion starts at 30:42:
QuoteInteresting little stat about mobile apps: I've seen something like this before but this one popped back up last week in a new study, but they say 25 percent of people abandon a mobile app after just one use. So a lot of apps might get downloaded, but 25 percent don't ever go back to that app again, and that's a large chunk of people...
All this talk about apps... I forget the stats that I read before, but it was something like after two or three months, 65-70 percent of users never go back to those apps that they used on a regular basis at that point either...
--JorgeA
1 -
8 minutes ago, xpclient said:
In my opinion, WU MiniTool doesn't work that well in Windows 10 Pro or Home because these editions are super-annoying since the default WU behavior is to always download updates automatically. While WU MiniTool can stop it, unless you use the WU MiniTool GUI to control WU, the OS behaves like a b***h and always tries to download updates on its own unless you disable the WU service completely which is not what you want.
Funny you should mention that, your post came in while I was composing my comment to Glenn9999 about the need to keep Windows Update disabled.
If the idea is to better control Win10 patching, why wouldn't you want to keep that service disabled except for when you (and not Win10) are good and ready to see what's available?
--JorgeA
P.S. I'm not sure about the Home edition, but in Win10 Pro you can set it to notify without automatically installing the patches (yet). So, thinking more about it (it's been several weeks since I've booted up my copy of Win10
), in theory maybe you could leave WU enabled, and then when the OS tells you there's something available, you could run the MiniTool (or possibly Glenn's tool) and select the updates you want.
0 -
10 minutes ago, Glenn9999 said:
It appears this tool simply uses the WU API interface, and works similarly to mine , which was more designed to simply download updates to be used offline from WU. That said I wonder how well mine works in Windows 10, especially since I haven't upgraded. If it all works fine, I wonder how fruitful it would be to throw together a simple control panel style applet to expose these settings?
That sounds interesting, I wasn't aware of it!
For Win10 purposes, the key is whether the tool can be utilized by the user to pick and choose the updates he will put on his machine.
Also, the user would need to keep the Windows Update service disabled at all times other than when using the tool, so that Win10 couldn't find and install the patches itself.
--JorgeA
0 -
6 hours ago, BudwS said:
Yup. Just as if I closed the Settings app. 14366 fixed it.
It's curious that it would be changing or even trying to view the privacy settings that would cause the Settings app to crash...
--JorgeA
0 -
3
-
2 hours ago, TELVM said:
I saw a doctor yesterday and noticed that they were using Windows 10. At the end of my visit, I asked how he liked it. He said that he kept getting notices to upgrade to Windows 10 over and over and over again, and that he kept hitting "no" every time. And then one morning he came into the office and he couldn't use his PC for hours because it was installing Windows 10.
--JorgeA
0 -
The mystery of the missing "never check for updates" option in Windows Update appears to have been solved.
The person reporting this remembered that he had used a program called Windows Update MiniTool. He writes,
QuoteFeeling more than a little embarrassed because late last night I suddenly remembered something that could be relevant to this discussion, and I *think* it may be the answer to what caused the problem.[...]
I’d never used Windows Update MiniTool until a couple of days before I noticed the change in Windows Update, but I did run it then (version 12.05.2016) – only on my computer – after reading about it, just to see all the updates that were installed on my computer. Didn’t make any changes to anything though; well, not intentionally at least.
This would fit with the fact that the Windows Update settings changed on my computer, but not on my wife’s, which is otherwise identical to mine.
There seems to be general agreement that this tool is the cause of the missing option, although further testing might be necessary. Early versions of the WUMT are acknowledged to "lock" the Update settings (see here). "JT" reports that he was using version 12.05.2016 of the program, yet the locking of Updates settings was supposedly already fixed in version 25.12.2015.
At any rate, though, the program is described as:
Quotejust an advanced frontend for WU, anything that could changed/updated is caused by WU
...so it's not entirely clear what was going on with JT's computer.
All that said, this WUMT could turn out to be quite a development for Win10 users:
QuoteCan you pick and choose installing one update like Portable Update?
...Yes...
[source]
I have not tried out this program, but from the looks of it it would seem that the program makes it possible for Windows 10 users to pick and choose the Windows Updates they want to install, rather than having to accept them and all as a bundle. That could potentially take care of one of the "Big Three" issues with Win10 (UI, telemetry, forced updates).
--JorgeA
1 -
10 hours ago, BudwS said:
Let the games begin: Win 10 Fast Insider: [10 year old MacBook versus 10 year old Dell Laptop] : Update: Both computers experienced the same problem when trying to use Settings-Privacy (Settings terminated) under 14361. Both computers experienced a correction to this issue under 14366. Score this inning: 0-0. [The crowds at the Win 10 event were subdued] Smiles all around.
Do you mean that when you would go into the Settings app and tried to view or change the privacy settings there, the Settings app would crash?
--JorgeA
0
Which model is it?
and Windows 10 specifically 
:
How to avoid being "upgraded to Win 10" against your will:
in Windows 8
Posted
I tried it on my Win10 test system. It seems to have worked fine without any issues, but then I didn't perform comparative monitoring/testing of outgoing connections before and after installing it.
--JorgeA