JorgeA

This one sentence sums up all you need to know about the subject: --JorgeA

Edge's share of Windows 10 browsers continues slide Looks like Microsoft has come up with another real winner. So far, anyway. I would speculate that each uptick comes after a special push by Microsoft to foist Windows 10 on users, by hook or by crook.. Since Edge is the default browser, usage would rise after that push. But then Edge usage drops again as people decide they like their previous browser better and switch the default back to it. --JorgeA

It is purely and simply a coincidence. Take off your tinfoil hat. --JorgeA

I didn't get a chance to see what the text looked like earlier today, but right now it doesn't look noticeably darker than it did two days ago. Also, FWIW I'm writing this post in Pale Moon, which of course is a Firefox fork. --JorgeA

'I thought my daughter clicked on ransomware – it was the d*mn Windows 10 installer' --JorgeA

Souns like The Next Big Thing That's Going to Take Windows Into the FutureTM is not quite ready for prime time: Windows Continuum: What happened when I used a Windows 10 phone as my PC The bottom line: --JorgeA

Is Windows 10 Going to Reach 1 Billion Devices on Time? Well well, what an amazing coincidence: [emphasis added] Wouldn't it be a remarkable illustration of Microsoft's planning excellence, for Windows 10 to reach the stated goal on precisely that date? Bow down ye servants to the Mighty Microsoft, who knoweth all! Figures like these make one skeptical of all their OS stats. --JorgeA

I will be more surprised if this sort of thing does NOT keep happening, than if it does. Whether the result is intentional or unintentional is not relevant... --JorgeA

Six times today, I got the following error message: It happened under a variety of circumstances, including submitting a new post; navigating to a new subforum; and moving to a new page in a thread. One time it happened after I had spent a while composing a post, which I then lost. Never did manage to reconstruct it completely. A few years ago, during a previous period of forum software instability, I resorted to putting each new post in the clipboard before submitting it to the board. Looks like I may have to bring that practice back again. --JorgeA

Windows 10 update brings unwelcome end to pro gamer's 9-hour Twitch livestream You've GOT to see the video on the NeoWin page. And the fanbois down below are blaming HIM. They miss the point, which is that this could not happen if Windows 10 users were permitted to make heir own decisions as to when and whether to install updates and builds. --JorgeA

Beats me. I don't get it, either. What I do understand is that, for whatever reason, there are people out there who are what we might call "aggressively conformist." We've seen them over in the Windows Insiders forum. Not only do they seem to actually prefer being told what their OS will do in terms of telemetry and forced updates (the "conformist" part), but they get snarky and sarcastic with anyone who dislikes it (the "aggressive" part). As to why they would be like that, that's something for psychologists to explore. --JorgeA

One less reason to use Outlook.com... Using Windows Live Mail 2012 with Outlook.com? Time to update your email application! ...unless you actually like being force-marched. New, certainly. Exciting? That's for the user to decide, not you, señor Soltero. Such evaluative adjectives are the language of marketing; as NoelC points out, the marketers have taken over in Redmond. It used to be that Microsoft products basically sold themselves, on the strength of their usefulness and quality. Now, company vice presidents such as Mr. Soltero need to pitch Microsoft's current offerings. And the rest of us need to be corralled into using them by making it impossible to use the earlier products. --JorgeA

A post on Woody's website leads to this TechNet paper. The .DOCX provides some details on what Microsoft is collecting. For example, in the "basic" telemetry setting MSFT collects "Basic device information, including: quality-related data, app compatibility, app usage data, and data from the Security level." In the next busybody level, "Enhanced," they collect "Additional insights, including: how the OS, System Center, and apps are used, how they perform, advanced reliability data, and data from both the Basic and Security levels." And the "app usage data" involves gathering the following information: "how an app is used, including how long an app is used for, when the app has focus, and when the app is started." More generally, the paper says that Finally, the author delivers one kick in the stomach to their hundreds of millions of individual and small-business users: The rest of us, we're expected to just bend over and take it. Our privacy isn't as important. Others who are more familiar with the ins and outs of Windows may be able to glean further useful insights from the TechNet paper, with respect either to Microsoft's policies or to what users might do to "enhance" their own privacy relative to MSFT. See anything else in there? --JorgeA

Huh, so the feature has existed for some years (I didn't see it on my Win7 system), but now they made it the default. Still, it's nice. --JorgeA

Nice find. That does seem to suggest the direction they're headed in, doesn't it? --JorgeA

OK, I have one positive thing to say about Windows 10. The other day I was troubleshooting the PC of a neighbor who'd made the transition to Win10, and while trying to follow some complicated directions I inadvertently scrolled the mouse over an inactive window. Surprisingly, I was actually scrolling up and down the Web page in the inactive window. That could turn out to be a handy feature. --JorgeA

Microsoft no longer allows administrators to block Windows Store access in Windows 10 Pro Microsoft is increasing the divide between big organizations (corporations, governments) on the one hand, and individuals and small businesses on the other -- handicapping the latter further, relative to the former. Now if you run a doctor's office or an Internet startup you have one more thing to think about, monitoring your employees for playing game apps downloaded from the Windows Store. It just gets worse and worse with every new report in the Windows news. --JorgeA

IIRC, during the Microsoft antitrust trial Bill Gates on the witness stand offered the analogy that IE was like a car's radio, and asked why you would want to remove it. My reaction at the time was something like -- no, Bill, the car still works if you take the radio out. You've rigged Windows so that my car won't start if I try to replace the factory radio with something that I like better. --JorgeA

There's a remarkable discussion of Microsoft's Win10 pushiness on Windows Weekly. For the first time that I can remember, Leo, Mary Jo, and Paul are all outraged over what the company's doing to Win7 users, such as Win10 popping up on the PCs of people who never agreed to install it. The conversation starts at 6:18. Except for a brief detour where Paul decries what he calls the "FUD" about privacy in Windows 10, they're remarkably critical of Microsoft's insistent attempts to foist the new OS on customers. Too long to transcribe, but too juicy to pass up. Well worth a listen. --JorgeA

Huh, I didn't know you could set your phone's browser to report itself as non-mobile. Time to drill down into the Android settings. More generally though, while the uncertainties in the stats are undeniable, it may be useful to observe the trends. --JorgeA

I imagine that they have some threshold percentage, below which all the also-rans get lumped together. One of the market share reporting websites (I forget which one) used to provide a table with the breakdown of all the OSes that it detected. IIRC, up until a few years ago it would show Windows ME usage at like 0.01%. --JorgeA

Windows drops below 90% market share for the first time in years; Windows 7 falls below 50% The Windows 7 drop was not unexpected -- after all, Microsoft IS pushing hard for Windows 10. What's surprising is the first half of the headline. Also worthy of note: Is it possible that the bulk of people who are ready to replace their Win7 systems are defecting to Apple? The January-to-April percentage drop in Win7 is very close to the gain recorded for OS X in the same period. --JorgeA

Hedging their bets against a Windows 10 collapse, maybe? --JorgeA

[OT}(silly new board software, it doesn't show you what jaclaz wrote in the proper context)[/OT] Pretty funny quote selection there. There is a question as to what MSFT's latest figure of 275 million actually represents. I read somewhere that they call it something like MAU for "Monthly Active Users", whatever that means. One other thing about requiring Cortana searches to be done with Bing and Edge: what exactly is it about Edge that it, and it alone, is qualified to perform searches? Why not Internet Explorer? What is Edge doing in the background with our information that you're not telling us, Ryan Gavin? OK then, keep me in control: let me turn off Web search completely when I use the search function. Don't tell me which search engine I must use when I click on that magnifying glass. Don't tell me which browser these searches will take place in. While you're at it, if the idea is to keep me in control -- then let me turn off the telemetry, let me use Aero Glass, and let me decide which Windows Updates will get installed on my PC. If you have no intention of allowing any of this, then stop the B.S. about keeping me in control. --JorgeA

Woody Leonhard has been cranking out a lot of good stuff in recent weeks. Here's his latest assessment: If you ever wondered about Windows Phone… --JorgeA