JorgeA

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Betanews blogger seemed to be implying that his defaults were getting changed even outside of an upgrade scenario, "just because" as it were. That would make things even worse! BTW, keep up the great work with the re-tweaker. Keep us posted on your progress. --JorgeA

DVR snaps stills from CCTV surveillance and sends them to China --JorgeA

Has Windows 10 reset your default apps back to Microsoft stock? Isn't there some B.S. language somewhere during Win10 Setup about "personalize your PC," "make it yours" and so on? Yeah, right. --JorgeA

I wonder for how long MSFT will permit something like the following to work: How to get total control over Windows 10's automatic updates --JorgeA

Cool! Enough of these types of programs created and installed, and maybe (?) Microsoft will finally get the hint that a lot of their customers don't want to be tracked or monitored or otherwise "helped" this way. --JorgeA

According to the documentation, it's only available currently in an i386 version, but certainly this is an intriguing start. --JorgeA

The Windows 10 Store still isn’t working out for Microsoft --JorgeA

I guess that in their infinite, telemetry-driven wisdom, the sages at Microsoft must have decided that people send out e-mail but don't read what they receive, and therefore that should be the default setting. --JorgeA

What a nightmare. If this were the Microsoft Insiders forum, at this point we'd have some clueless fanboi chiming in to say that everything's hunky-dory with his Win10 system and 7 wasn't perfect, so why are you complaining? --JorgeA

That's pretty cool! Did you create that animated chart, or does StatCounter offer it on their site? --JorgeA

10 reasons why I don't use Microsoft Edge, and one why I do An illustration of the progressive cretinization of all things Windows. --JorgeA

^^ Aaahhh, that is VERY interesting... Now I have another reason to stay away from Offfice 2016. --JorgeA

Not sure if the following fits the subject of this thread exactly, but for lack of a better location, here goes: Vizio's smart TVs are snitches, lawsuit alleges --JorgeA

BTW, what's the meaning of the seven lines and Nadella's pic in your signature? --JorgeA

I'd rather fight than switch: (source) --JorgeA

Nice discussion (and I did understand *almost* all of it -- uh-oh!). IIRC, you have disabled all or virtually all Windows Updates from your Win7 systems. So you would be running this same risk of new versions of software no longer running, is that right? --JorgeA

Yeah, I did eventually deal with that update using the hiding tool, as I think I reported up there. It was getting pretty annoying. The reason the notice in red comes up is that I used Group Policy Editor to set Windows Updates to "Notify for download and notify for install." Nothing undocumented or funky about that setting. If we were in a courtroom, I would lure the 'Softies into making all sort of wild claims about my "nonstandard" settings choice based on that notice, and then demonstrate to their embarrassment that this is one of their own offered settings, and in any event one that couldn't possibly cause the sort of problem that the video shows, since (as seen in the video) there aren't any more Updates to install (meaning, they've all been installed except for that one). And as far as that "need" to be able to do a full in-place upgrade every 4 months -- well, the last time they sent one of those out to me back in November, my Win10 installation got bricked and I ended up having to download Windows 10 and re-install it from scratch. Talk about "glitches." Yeah, real convenient, eh Microsoft? --JorgeA

My Vista system, too, is being offered 3118401 as an optional update. As soon as I saw the magic words "Universal" and "Windows 10" mentioned on the KB page, as per my personal policy I hid the update. Although Vista isn't eligible to downgrade to Windows 10, heaven knows what the update will really do. --JorgeA

Thanks for the tips, Drugwash. I've uploaded the screen capture to Vimeo and deleted the Dropbox link from my earlier post. --JorgeA

Thanks Drugwash, to what AV format should I convert the Expressions file? --JorgeA

Epic comment : Microsoft is definitely approaching the "outer limits" of one's tolerance... --JorgeA

I finally managed to get the following file into a form usable from MSFN. It's a screen capture of Windows 10 trying, over and over again, to download a driver for the laptop I use as my Win10 test system. Checking the update history revealed dozens of "installations" of this driver over a short span of time. The attempts continued repeatedly until I used the special tool to hide selected Windows Updates. Note, too, that at one point a notification pops out from the right saying that the installation failed, but when you click on it, nothing happens. Expected behavior here would be for the Settings app to appear when you clicked on the notification, otherwise what's the point of letting you click on it and having it visibly "bounce" when it's clicked? Looks like you'll need Flash Player for this (sorry). I'm open to suggestions as to how to make it more convenient to view -- it took me a while to 1) find a way to convert the file for viewing by a standard player; and 2) find a place to upload the file that would accept it (Imgur was my first choice, but the upload kept failing). For the screen capture, I used Microsoft's Expression Encoder, a reminder that there was a time when MSFT put out really useful and full-featured software. [link deleted] (Hmm, I thought there was a way to embed a video link into a post here, but I can't find the commands to do that.) --JorgeA EDIT: deleted link to video, new link not requiring Flash Player provided here.

Speaking of Windows 10 apps, even Paul Thurrott acknowledges their poor quality: So, not only are users getting set back forcibly to Universal apps, but the apps that they're getting set back to are vastly inferior to what they've been using. Hey 'Softies, this is not exactly a way to build enthusiasm for your new OS. Having to tediously reset all your defaults by hand to the way you want them three times a year will get really old really fast. The fact that the apps you're getting defaulted to basically s*ck, adds insult to injury. --JorgeA

I took another look at Terry Myerson's attempt to reassure Windows 10 users that the OS doesn't spy on them. Check out the following paragraph: [emphasis added] The lawyer in me says that the inclusion of the clause I've highlighted in the above sentence, leaves the window (so to speak) wide open for Microsoft software to scan the content of your e-mail or other communications or files, for any other purpose so long as it's not related to delivering targeted advertising. Speaking of lawyers, you can bet your bottom euro that Myerson's statement was thoroughly reviewed by the company's legal department, and so is crafted very carefully. --JorgeA

That's how they will keep users on the upgrade treadmill. Wonder how long before enough users get sick and tired of it to persuade Microsoft to back off and leave it alone already. --JorgeA