JorgeA

@bigmuscle's Aero Glass makes it onto a major tech website: How to change the look of Windows 10's desktop with native settings or Aero Glass --JorgeA

An observation on something in Ed MicroBott's post: [emphasis added] Leave it to Microsoft to tie telemetry to Windows's security components. The idea must be to make it as risky and onerous as possible to do without the snooping. --JorgeA

Thanks for the report, 351837. Summary: Guys posts are deleted and he disappeared from site. Archived posts: https://archive.is/QFL8e and https://archive.is/9rQi1 Nice find! It would be interesting to learn just what sort of "action" Microsoft took. Curiously. the guy on Voat disappeared right after that. (Even his non-computer posts were deleted, although oddly enough the thread discussions remain online.) --JorgeA

You know, Ed MicroBott has this easygoing, laid-back manner about him when he's on a podcast, but in reality he's a fierce apologist for all things Microsoft. Someone should publish a comprehensive, comparative analysis of Windows 7 vs. Windows 10 chattiness and throw it in his face, see what he has to say then. Maybe @NoelC can forward some of his results to Gordon Kelly for a rebuttal. --JorgeA

jaclaz Sounds outrageous, but I'm thinking that if (say) Microsoft, Google, and Apple were to adopt this type of clause in their user agreements, it might put the brakes on the whole cloud/IoT trend. --JorgeA

Hackers take control of a TOILET For the life of me, I can't figure out why you'd want to control a toilet with your smartphone, but there you go... Merely the thought of installing an operating system on a commode just boggles the mind. Imagine the possibilities if it were Windows 10 IoT Core, phoning home. Do we really want to be that connected? Your toilet needs some updates and needs to restart.We've scheduled a time we think is convenient for you.--JorgeA

Woody's been on a roll lately. Here he explains the importance of being able to pick and choose the Windows Updates you install: Why Windows 10 users should care about the Azerbaijani Manat Picture a world where Windows 10 has won completely and no one is left who's still using Windows 7 or even 8.1. Then this huge cumulative update arrives and breaks users' applications. How are users supposed to know (and report) that it's the Manat symbol update that's messing things up?? Under the "let me choose updates" model, it's possible for users to pinpoint the particular problem patch. That's impossible under the "forced and cumulative updates" model. --JorgeA

We may not be very far from that idea. All that's needed is to apply it to a different part of the body... --JorgeA

That's just what I was thinking! --JorgeA

In the March 2016 issue of MaximumPC, online managine editor Jimmy Thang writes: [emphasis added] Serious software rules!!! Maybe Win32 applications aren't going the way of the dodo after all, the breezy predictions of some folks notwithstanding. --JorgeA P.S. Note, too, the reference to tablets as a "dying market."

I'm finally getting around to upgrading from IE8 to IE9 on my Vista system, but before I pull the trigger, I have a question: I know that the upgrade process is supposed to keep the Favorites, but I have a lot of customized settings under the various tabs in Internet Options (Security, Privacy, etc.). If I install IE9 over IE8 (or, for that matter, IE11 over IE9 in Windows 7), will these settings carry over to the new browser version, or will I have to re-do them all over again? How about the IE toolbars and extensions (TPL, Adobe PDF Creator, etc.) -- will they need to be reinstalled, or does the upgrade process preserve them? Thanks for any info on this! --JorgeA

Good list, xpclient. Windows Media Center was definitely killed, but I don't know if they've tried to replace it with anything UWP. Some Xbox app, maybe? --JorgeA

Norton/Symantec joins the Pushy Updates bandwagon: Last week I downloaded the Norton Security Check as a backup scanner for the dimly regarded Windows Defender default AV. A couple of days later, I went back to the laptop to find the above notice on my screen. Needless to say, I didn't ask for this, umm, invitation -- all I intended for Norton to do was to run the Security Check, so I could compare it to Defender's results. Note how (just like the latest version of Microsoft's "Get Windows 10" thingy) Norton isn't offering any obvious way to decline the NIS installation. If you click on "Install Options," you get a new window where the ONLY option is to tell it where (not whether) to install NIS. You can (and I did) hit the X button on the upper right, but we gotta wonder how many people in this situation will be confused into installing something that they didn't necessarily want. Sleazy, sleazy. --JorgeA

Maybe he likes having fewer choices and being told how to run his computer, but is too embarrassed to admit it. --JorgeA

Sadly, yes. --JorgeA

Microsoft Needs a Store That’s as Good as Windows 10 My reaction to the above headline was: "But the Windows Store is already as good as Windows 10." --JorgeA

So THAT'S why it's called Windows~BT, it's all making sense now. --JorgeA

Windows 10 is Microsoft's Elephant Man [WARNING: possibly disturbing images and language at the link] --JorgeA

What's your view of .NET Framework 4.6.1? It was offered to my Win7 system last week (have yet to download it). --JorgeA

10 hurdles to Windows 10 adoption A lot of good points in there, but possibly the best ones, and the most threatening to Microsoft's new vision for Windows, are made in slide #9: Also check out this insightful commenter on Woody's own blog: --JorgeA

Yup, exactly! --JorgeA

Quite true. Man my blood boils whenever some shill pukes out something like 'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' in the best gestapo tradition. I like the graphic. Wonder how long it'll be before anything other than the latest Windows version is disallowed on the 'Net, "for our own good" of course. --JorgeA

Nice work! To get the word out, you might want to notify various sympathetic websites and bloggers. Heaven knows non-techie Windows customers could use something like this. --JorgeA

^^ from Woody's post: I hid that update as soon as I read the words "upgraded capabilities to upgrade Windows," but beyond that: why is it necessary to replace explorer.exe and shell32.dll in order to "learn about Windows 10"?? The whole thing sounds fishy to me. --JorgeA

Well, those are the true choices, because they are truly different kernels, so the difference is where it matters. Of course, all accept GNU utilities and various desktop interfaces, like gnome, KDE and the other contemporary ones, like Xfce, and also good old CDE (it's been resurrected, and now is open!), for the old-fashioned. FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD are truly old timers, and really time-proven, too. Apparently, the most up-to-date representative of Illumos is OpenIndiana. Thanks, den. The OpenIndiana screenshot has a definite Windows 98 "look" to it. I'll look around, download some live CDs, play around and get a feel for them. --JorgeA