JorgeA

Out of curiosity, I tried to duplicate in Vista below what you did up there in XP. How does it compare? --JorgeA

I never did like the "My Documents" pseudo-directory, which for me only led to confusion and hair-pulling on those occasions when I needed to know where the file REALLY was stored. IIRC, the "My Documents" misdirection already existed in Windows 3.1, and certainly in Windows 98. Good point about the Up button. --JorgeA

Good point -- merely one more drop in the ocean of defects and annoyances. --JorgeA

Thanks for the info. Does pre-SP3 XP get the monthly MRT and the Defender definitions? --JorgeA

LOL, good one! There CAN be such a thing as too much automation. I remember when the phone company started offering Speed Dial -- you could program the individual numbers on the phone to stand for a full-length phone number, so that you could dial just 1 (for example) to call your mom. I thought it would be a time-saver and programmed several important numbers into my phone (landline; back then, cell phones were rare and the size of bricks). Over time, though, I realized that I was forgetting the full phone numbers and that if I ever needed to call family or friends from anywhere other than home, I would be unable to! So I stopped using Speed Dial. Technology can be helpful, but it can also make us dumber and leave us helpless. --JorgeA

This afternoon I found someone else complaining about something that's bothered me about Win10: I find it hard to believe that so few people have viewed this as a practical UX problem. Last time I checked, no one had even replied to the post. --JorgeA

Microsoft could argue that they're still maintaining the XP code for POS systems and (IIRC) for a few customers who are willing to pay big money for specialized support. The fact that XP users can still get the MRT and Windows Defender updates may also be enough for MSFT to say that they haven't in fact "abandoned" XP. (I don't know, however, if users of pre-SP3 XP can still get these.) Of course, that's little consolation for someone on XP, but from a legal perspective it probably holds water. --JorgeA

http://www.wsj.com/articles/smart-tampon-the-internet-of-every-single-thing-must-be-stopped-1464198157?mod=ST1 The article gets better and better from there. It was tailor-made for jaclaz's IoT thread. and: (One quick, slightly OT thought: do you really have to take your phone with you everywhere you go in the house? ) Finally, --JorgeA

To be fair, in the rest of this week's "Patch Watch" column Susan does a lot more than rebuke Microsoft for its latest sins. Other sections include: Coping with Win7's broken updating system Microsoft's new updating model for Win7/8.1 Patching Microsoft's Surface devices Other (mostly Office) nonsecurity updates Regularly updated problem-patch chart [this and the previous section consist of her advice on which updates are safe to install or should be delayed due to possible problems] The last two sections are regular parts of her column and are a major reason that I give Windows Secrets my credit-card number to get past the paywall. Tthat may be changing soon, though, as their new owners have made some unwelcome changes to WS. Anybody know of another (free or paid) website that systematically reports on the safety of installing each new set of Windows and other Microsoft updates? --JorgeA

The annoying Windows 10 upgrade offer gets personified in manga form --JorgeA

In her latest post for Windows Secrets, Susan Bradley confirms our worst fears and strikes the hardest blows I've read yet against Microsoft's Win10 dirty tricks: Getting ready (or not) for Windows 10 The rest of the column sits behind a paywall, but she confirms that one of her Windows 7 systems showed the upgrade notice with no option to cancel and that it began the Win10 installation without her approval. Later in the piece, much excellent commentary by Susan about the company's seeming lack of concern about breaking people's stuff and about the MSFT developers who approved the new window-closing behavior. She does recommend the GWX Control Panel or Never10 to prevent the nonsense. --JorgeA

^^ I've had success (mostly) with Softmaker Office, it's the most MS Office-compatible suite that I've come across. The full-featured suite is s not free (though they do offer a free, slightly limited version), but it does cost a lot less than Office -- and you're not giving your money to Microsoft, but rather helping to keep an alternative alive. The only compatibility issue I've run into with Softmaker Office has to do with a somewhat obscure function in Word: the formula editor for showing complex mathematical expressions. Even though it has its own formula editor, Textmaker (the Softmaker word processor) doesn't interpret correctly what Word does. --JorgeA

Wow, reading through that Wikipedia article solved a small three-year-old mystery for me. The "See also" section at the end includes a link to materials that someone who participated for a while in our Windows 8 Deeper Impressions thread had used as part of their MSFN nickname. The name of @HalloweenDocument12 never meant anything or made sense to me, until today when I saw that. Very clever name choice! --JorgeA

Microsoft continues to get thrashed for its "up"grade tactics: Even if you like Windows 10, you should be angry at Microsoft The blogger, Wayne Williams, makes an interesting analogy: Well, the window man would of course respond that, by closing your door in his face, you were actually agreeing to the installation. It's all part of his "windows as a service" model. Microsoft to tweak its sneaky Windows 10 popup, but it's far from a u-turn Microsoft gives the appearance of giving in to customer demands, but there's less than meets the eye. --JorgeA

We did say last year that the 3x-a-year release schedule was too onerous: Microsoft dials back Windows 10 upgrades to 2X a year Now the company pledges to keep to a release schedule no more obnoxious than that of Linux. --JorgeA

Nice graphic, now fully applicable to MSFT. @jaclaz : you know it's big news when it makes the BBC! Here's another prominent tech voice speaking up against Microsoft's sleazy campaign, with a number of interesting details: Microsoft has been conning Windows users for two months How many Windows 7/8.1 users could possibly have been aware of the existence of this document?? --JorgeA

The Windows blogosphere, including some pretty big names, is up in arms over Microsoft's devious tactics to push Win10: Upgradegate: Microsoft’s Upgrade Deceptions Are Undermining Windows 10 How Microsoft's tricky new Windows 10 pop-up deceives you into upgrading WINDOWS 10 AND THE FORCED RELEASE

I read it the same way -- the idea applies to all tablets and not just iPads. Glad to see that people are discovering, from experience, how useless these touch devices are when you're trying to do serious work. --JorgeA

Microsoft's campaign to move everybody to Windows 10 is not exactly a forced march. It's more like a "Pied Piper" march, where tons of people are lured or tricked into going along. Check out this anecdote: It may not be new, but Microsoft scheduling unwanted Windows 10 upgrades is still scummy behavior This is how it ended: As the blogger says, --JorgeA

Yeah, that's much better than what they ended up with on the final Win8 release. I still have all the preview versions on one machine, and by booting to each one in turn you can trace the degeneration development of the flat, opaque theme. I just can't imagine the testers of these previews clamoring with Microsoft to remove the 3D and the translucency, so in a sense the value of THAT beta-testing program (in addition to the current one) also comes into question. --JorgeA

Whoops, sorry!! What happened is that I saw KB3123862 available on my Win7 system -- bearing the date "5/17/2016". Then, figuring that it was a brand-new update, I came here to see if anybody had reported it since May 17. Noticing that the last post was from May 6, I concluded that the update had not yet been announced in the thread and so went ahead and posted. Next time, I'll make sure to also check the first post in case the work has already been done. --JorgeA

A new Windows Update to add to the verboten list: Updated capabilities to upgrade Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 --JorgeA

This is the best comment in the Win10 Insiders Feedback app that I've seen in a long time: And check out the little notice at the bottom about using this feedback to improve our experience. Yeah, right. --JorgeA

"Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." I don't get the impression that the powers-that-be at Microsoft are particularly thoughtful or introspective. Smart no doubt, but definitely unwise. --JorgeA

Sounds to me like there's (somewhat) less than meets the eye, as Microsoft is only selling off its "feature phone" business and says it will continue to make the Lumia line. Still, the future of Windows Mobile looks grim, as the sales figures and market share collapse indicate. But speaking of "Windows" phones, check this out... --JorgeA