JorgeA

Ditto! I'm actually considering getting a Windows 8 license or machine as a little bit of a "future-proofing" measure. Never thought I'd say that, but then that's how bad things have gotten. --JorgeA

Yeah, it's amazing! Shows you that, for a lot of these people, the idea has less to do with taking a principled stand for or against a certain UI design philosophy, and more with blindly supporting whatever Microsoft decides to do. --JorgeA

That's a great simile, comparing Windows to the legendary sea monster. Very appropriate. It's disturbing, though, to hear that even uninstalling a Windows update did not undo the things that the update did. The guy installed a telemetry update, and yet some portion of that telemetry function persisted even after he got rid of the update via the normal, official means. Assuming it's not sheer programmer incompetence, this is deceptive conduct, bordering on the fraudulent. --JorgeA

That's a pretty cool graphic you came up with there, NoelC. One factor that concerns me, though, is that Microsoft is probably not nearly done pushing Windows 10 out to users of 7 and 8.1. AFAIK it was always going to be rolled out in stages, rather than all at once. So that line could keep climbing steadily until everyone has had the, ahem, opportunity to receive and install Win10. Let me know if I've missed something in the analysis above. (I hope I did!) --JorgeA EDIT: typo

Word keeps spreading... Amid Windows 10 controversy, Microsoft quietly releases privacy botching features to Windows 7 and 8 More interesting than the news item itself (which we already knew about) are the comments: And here's one for the network-savvy to look into: [emphasis added] --JorgeA

Is it just me, or did XP's share increase? Last time I checked it was around 11% Yup. Believe it or not, XP actually went up about 0.40 percentage points. Most likely it's a statistical artifact (margin of error and all that), but one would have thought that any difference from last month would have been downward. --JorgeA

ROFL Yeah. Even by their own accounting, Universal apps have actually been around since the first build of Windows 10, hence close to a year already. The OS hasn't changed that much such that something that worked in the initial Insiders build wouldn't work in the GA version. --JorgeA

Wow, if 10 leveled off at 10%, it would be a massive fail, considering as you said all the ways they've been pushing it. And a lot of credit would have to go to the hundreds of millions of supposed dummies out there, who some hoped and others feared wouldn't know or care enough to prevent Win10 from getting onto their computers. --JorgeA

This information might come in handy: Why is Windows 10 connecting to akamaitechnologies? --JorgeA

I'm afraid you're right. And indeed, this will present some big-time issues for small businesses. Wonder how lawyers' and doctors' offices will handle this. People joke about their having more money than God, but it seems to me even they would balk at having to shell out for an Enterprise license just to avoid the cr*p. At least the Pro version includes gpedit.msc, which seems to be able to mitigate the data collection. --JorgeA

Most of this we knew already, but it's good to learn that awareness of Win10's privacy issues continues to spread: Microsoft backports privacy-invading Windows 10 features to Windows 7, 8 --JorgeA

Thanks to @NoelC by way of @dencorso, a much classier avatar over there on the left panel. --JorgeA

Microsoft to treat most Windows users like mushrooms:* Consumers not in plans to get change lists for Windows 10 updates (*) that is, kept in the dark and fed bu!!$h/t --JorgeA

Looks like a teeny bit of user choice is being re-introduced with regard to updates: Windows 10 Home users can now toggle automatic app updates in Windows Store Stop automatic driver updates on Windows 10 Concerning the driver updates, the choices presented are way more inflexible than the historical set of options that includes "notify me but don't install" and even "download but let me decide whether to install." But I guess that individual choice is increasingly considered passé as we are marched toward the New Order: [source] (Say, isn't that the same background color as for the Windows 10 "PC Settings" app?) --JorgeA

If you confront the metrotards with this, they usually babble something about "Apple and Google". But that's such a dumb argument. People get new OSes there by buying a new device. It's the new iPhone they care about, not the new iOS. The version number of iOS or the automatic updates of it are not particulary cool for the crowd MS wants to target. No one will flock to MS tablets just because Windows is a moving target now (or whatever MS is doing this for - this W10 madness is still about tablets, right?! But wait, they de-emphasized this actually with the new start menu.. so what is this madness about at all?) Great point, and great question. Another argument to make against the metrotards is that, historically, Windows is mainly for productivity, whereas Apple and Google are mainly for entertainment. If Windows turns into the third toy OS full of cr*ppy little single-purpose apps, where will people go to get serious work done? As for your question, I'm starting to think that what the madness is really about, is building and storing user profiles that can then be provided to marketers and authorities as needed. Those of us who live in the U.S. may recall about 20 years ago when the government pressured the banks to "know your customer" and bank clerks started asking us all sorts of nosy impertinent questions when we simply wanted to deposit a check. --JorgeA

Love that last one. What a delicious pun! --JorgeA

For me, funnier are the reviews, or the ratio of satisfied customers in them... That screenshot of the reviews is quite an indictment. So, what was wrong with the DVD feature in Windows Media Player (let alone Windows Media Center)? Somebody had to actually spend time removing those lines of code from WMP. To what end, exactly? To save a few pennies per Windows license on codec rights? Was that worth the cost of annoying your customers? --JorgeA

There is weirdness and frustration floating around the question of the Windows 10 "up"grading process: First item: And: Second item (found as a link in the first item): Echoing something that's being said in this thread, the blogger concludes that --JorgeA

Minimal? Why are people (not you Jorge) so kind with words? Looking as seriously as humanly possible at ROI, the thing is actually a net loss. No one wants or needs Metro/Modern Apps - and this condition has persisted for YEARS now, so it's not just a matter of time. Though it's basically compatible, the desktop is uglier and offers NO new usability features over Windows 7 (sorry, but their best effort with Task Manager left me flat). Same stuff as Windows 8, which (clearly) the Windows 7 users in question didn't want. No one in their right mind wants MORE of their personal / sensitive business info sent to servers all over the world, yet that's what Win 10 does. No one wants to have to figure out what it's sending where in an ongoing fashion and try to outguess it. The continuous update model... Who really wants their OS to CHANGE every few months? Who wants their settings reset by Microsoft every few months? Sorry, but Microsoft has lost the plot entirely... It's not about running the OS, it's about USING the OS. The OS needs to be STABLE and USEFUL. -Noel Great roundup of the fundamental problems. The bit about being kind with words regarding Win10, I think has to do with the writer being, uh, diplomatic. --JorgeA

Maybe you should first work a bit on your logo :whistle:as it isn't - as is - particularly appealing to most cheese aficionados, particularly the "steam" . --JorgeA P.S. By the way, when I first saw that headline in Winbeta.org, I actually thought that maybe Microsoft was offering an apology for Windows 10, and explaining how that POS came to be.

Thirty-day Win10 experiment lasts only a week Wasn't it mainly driver issues that sank the introduction of Vista in 2006-7 and left it with an unshakeably bad reputation? This could potentially mean a heck of a lot of angry, dissatisfied users out there, crusading against Windows 10. Microsoft's campaign to get the new OS on as many computers as possible may end up backfiring on them, big time. The bottom line: --JorgeA

Wow, I didn't know hard drives were around in 1979 already! First time I came across a HDD was in 1984 ('85?), when my favorite computer store got a 5MB model for the IBM PC in their accounting office. --JorgeA

To reply to @NoelC's OP, based on the attention and care I've seen MSFT bigwigs give to the clamorings of users, my expectations for TH2 are zero, so in a sense I'm sure I won't be disappointed. [emphasis added] If they actually do provide "corner roundings" (as in, rounded window corners), I'll count that as literally visible progress. But I'm not holding my breath waiting to see it happen! --JorgeA

Another logic-free defense of Win10: So How Successful is 75 Million Windows 10 PCs? Sure , exploit the Windows Update settings that you've recommended to inexpert users to get hundreds of millions of them to automatically download your new OS. Combine that with a dollar-free "up"grade and a (mostly) working installation process, and why wouldn't you get tens of millions of new users within four weeks? Look Paul, I can set up a booth on Seventh Avenue in New York City and use a bullhorn to announce that I'm giving away free cheese. I can probably give away as much as I can get my hands on, the line will snake around for blocks. And if I get a bunch of bike messengers to deliver the cheese anywhere in the city, I'm sure I can distribute more cheese in NYC than they can make in Wisconsin. Does that mean that cheese is suddenly more desired by the public than it was yesterday? Does that make the cheese giveaway program a "success"? Hardly. All it means is that many people are lured by the word "free," and the easier you make it to get the freebie, the more you'll get to give away. BFD. Windows 7 was and remains a measurable success because customers were and are willing to pay for it. Unlike Windows 8, they didn't refrain from buying PCs (in the process kneecapping the PC market) just to avoid having to deal with the B.S. Rather, they went out and eagerly snapped it up. Comparing the demonstrated market value of Windows 7 to the push-tactics of "free" Windows 10 is absurd. --JorgeA

...and yet, that's the quandary that Microsoft has put us all in. Using Windows (10) is getting to be like living in a neighborhood infested by burglars and Peeping Toms: you need to be constantly checking your locks and (ahem) windows in order to stay safe. --JorgeA