JorgeA

Forgive my ignorance, but... what's a DC? All I can think of is "distributed computing" or "direct current," but obviously neither of those fits here. --JorgeA

This is a perfect illustration of why IT IS A VERY BAD IDEA to force-feed OS "up"grades on users. A Win8.1 user less technically savvy than ralcool, who received the fruit of Microsoft's generosity in, say, 2016, would have been up sh*t's creek. Multiply that by a few dozen (or hundred) million, and we see the magnitude of the mess that Microsoft is obliviously walking into. --JorgeA

Apparently, one key to NOT getting this Win8.1 sneak-upgrade is to hide the update KB2871389, as discussed in some of Formfiller's original links. Check out this discussion at bleepingcomputer.com. Keeping in mnd that the above discussion started in February, consider this prescient comment: Microsoft has now gone from at first making it impossible to move from Win8 to Win8.1 without having to enter the Windows Store, to running Win8.1 past users when they're not looking. Careening from one extreme to another. --JorgeA

^^ +1 Wonder how many of all those unsuspecting Win7 users will think that their PCs were taken over by malware, and start calling Microsoft, PC repair shops, and antivirus companies to fix their desktops. --JorgeA

Thanks for sharing the reasons for dropping Avast, NoelC. Makes sense to me. What are you using now instead? Umm, where have I previously heard this kind of attitude from a software vendor? Huh, that's an interesting analysis. Over the years I have noticed that downloading, say, Windows updates gets thumb-twiddingly slow on a system running any of the last several versions of Avast compared to other AV suites. That little sphere with the "a" in it starts turning and I know I can go grab a sandwich, it slows things down so much. By comparison, Norton (for example) has no noticeable effect on the speed of the downloading process. --JorgeA

Amen to that! Sometimes it's really tempting to open those attachments. Never mind the ones asking for your help getting $100 million out of a bank in some African country, the really dangerous ones are those that look plausible: they tell you that you have a FedEx package to pick up or that you didn't fulfill a customer's order. You really do need to stay on your toes at all times, and think before you click. --JorgeA

I've used Avast! Free on most of my non-production machines since version 4 for Windows 98. It seemed to be the most effective and comprehensive security suite of all the free ones out there. But then they Metrofied the UI starting with version 8, and -- worse -- I no longer saw some of the security functions that were visible in versions up to 7. Even if they did claim that the functions were still there, just merged together, I still didn't like or trust that I could no longer see them myself. On top of that, they added bloatware and a bunch of unserious cartoonish characters to the interface. I felt like I was back in kindergarten. I've gone back to version 7 and will keep using that one for as long as it works. Why did you walk away from Avast? --JorgeA

I'm curious: how is using webmail safer than using an e-mail client such as Outlook? If you click on an infected attachment, you're still in danger, no? --JorgeA

Here's additional information on a couple of those mystery Win10 push updates: [emphasis in original] Note the text I've highlighted in the following paragraph: Thoughts? Observations? All I can think of is those millions of Win7 users who trustingly set their Windows Updates to "Automatic" and will one day be suddenly presented with a hideous alien Desktop in place of their beautiful UI. Down n the comments section, the author is getting scorched: Wonder how long it'll be before MSFT requires these unwanted updates as a condition for receiving new future updates. --JorgeA

I just noticed something "interesting"... I went to the KB article for Windows update KB2952664 intending to give them a piece of my mind concerning the sneaky way they're pushing Windows 10 on unsuspecting Win7 users -- except that when I clicked on "Give feedback," nothing happened for a long time, as if the link were dead. Eventually the feedback box opened up, but I wonder how many people would give up before it appeared at long last. --JorgeA

^^ Unbelievable!! :angrym: If this is true, it shows a new abysmal level of regard by Microsoft (engineers and/or managers) toward their customers' preferences. Anybody else on 10056 see the same things? Is it even harder to create a local account in that build? How about unchangeable gray borders around desktop applications? --JorgeA

Microsoft turning Windows increasingly into a cr*tin's game box: Microsoft unlocks achievements with Windows 10 build 10056 I can just picture the monkeys going hunting for these "achievements," doing whatever their puppetmasters in Redmond direct them into doing... How sad. I thought an achievement was something difficult to accomplish that required some combination of insight, ingenuity, skill, and/or dedication to, er, achieve. Now it's down simply to nosing after a piece of Microsoft cheese on a stick. One commenter sums it up well: --JorgeA

Now this is a little strange. The URL that you gave in Channel 9 is not exactly the same as the one that Windows Update is taking me to when I click for "More information" on the listing for that update in the Windows Update applet. And when I clicked on the one you gave, eventually (not right away) I landed on that same second URL. The headline for that does read, "Update that supports you to upgrade from Windows 7 to a later version of Windows." The first sentence of the description says: Maybe the text for the KB article has been changed since you saw it? One thing in that KB article that IS clearly true and incontestable: [emphasis added] --JorgeA EDIT: typo

Oh yeah, that's very nice. There's just no comparison to the cluttered mess they've created for Win10. --JorgeA

Whoa, that's way beyond my pay grade! I'll visit deviantArt and see if anybody's come up yet with a "7 for 10" theme... ...and then there's also the good work being done by folks in the Windows 10 subforum. I'll go see what the general sense is about the possibilities for customizing Win10. --JorgeA

Thanks. Is there anything that I can do at my end to fix (or work around) this, in order to get a 7/Vista/Longhorn theme to work? Or does the solution require the theme's creator to adjust things to make it work in Win10? (Please forgive my ignorance...) --JorgeA

Huh, that's encouraging. I tried to install a Vista theme in build 9926 using UxStyle and it didn't seem to make any difference to what I saw on the screen. No 3-D taskbar, folder and system tray icons unchanged. The best I managed to do was the default Vista wallpaper (as you can see in my recent screenshots upthread). --JorgeA

Gallery: Changes in Settings App for Windows 10 build 10056 Check out slide 16, "Themes settings." Is that a ray of hope that users will be able to install Windows 7 or Vista or Longhorn themes in Windows 10? Or am I reading too much into this data bit? --JorgeA

Have you noticed how they're calling these various "new build" tracks by names such as "awesome" and "impressive"? Gotta wonder if they really believe they're coming up with awesome and impressive achievements, or if it's a case of trying to convince themselves by the power of labeling. --JorgeA The use of 'Awesome and Impressive' is just more of Microsoft's subliminal message crap to us, thinking that eventually we will all come around and think how 'Wonderful and Excellent' this latest Windows 10 O.S. build has become and how did we ever survive without it til now. ~DP You're right, I didn't consider that further possibility, that (some) people will come around to thinking Windows 10 is great simply because they've been told that so many times. --JorgeA

Yes, I think so. With the caveat that users will need to keep an eye out for these updates to magically pop back onto their list of available updates. --JorgeA

I've been thinking that myself - a lot. But the evidence is there. We'll see how this plays out. It's possible the Justice Department has less leverage since it's a "free update"... Those good guys at Microsoft trying to make everyone's computing life better for free? What could possibly be wrong about that? -Noel They almost got burned about 18 years ago over integtrating Internet Explorer (at no extra charge) into Windows 98. I'm *almost* hoping they try to sneak Win10 past hundreds of millions of Win7 users. Imagine the news reports and class-action lawsuits as people protest over getting their computers suddenly overhauled without effective consent. It'll be a well-deserved PR nightmare. --JorgeA

--JorgeA

UX pros weigh in on the problems with the current fashion for flatness: Beyond Blue Links: Making Clickable Elements Recognizable and: The whole article is well worth reading, a good resource to cite in discussions with flatlanders! --JorgeA

Upthread we were talking about Microsoft getting more and more aggressive, pushing Win10 on Windows 7 users. Well, this morning one of my Win7 systems told me it had some Windows Updates waiting to download. One of them, KB2952664, I had already hidden before and now it's popped up again with an April 7 release date. For the other update, KB2990214, clicking the link for more information takes you to the following page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-faq?ocid=client_wu. Thinking that maybe I'd clicked on the wrong link, I clicked again, and I landed on the same page. --JorgeA