JorgeA

Windows 10 won't be the operating system I was hoping for --JorgeA

... but you had to reduce background p0rn downloading and totally unneeded lolcat browsing, so it is actually a good thing as with a reduced bandwidth you are more prone to better focus on your priorities , we at Microsoft are working hard to better your experience when connected to the internet... jaclaz Ssshhhh... quiet! --JorgeA

Check this out (the full article may be hidden behind a paywall): Hmm... what's the technical term for software companies that try to change your homepage and reset your search engine, and that push programs you may not desire with the "accept" box already checked? --JorgeA

MSFN was down this afternoon: --JorgeA

Build 10041 downloaded and installed today (automatically, of course -- hogging my bandwidth in the middle of the day while I was trying to get some Web research done on another PC in my network :angrym: ). The new build broke one of my Windows Gadgets, the network meter: Next thing I tried was to change the Windows Updates settings to what we discussed upthread. I set it to 2, to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them." After a reboot to make the registry change stick, when I checked manually for updates, it nonetheless started downloading them at once without letting me choose, and at the end I had to reboot. The PC Settings crapp tells me that I have Updates set to "Notify to download." --JorgeA

There is this possibility in 9926, but I don't know if it works in 10041. Now, the thing is, IIRC what we have in the TP is a "Pro" version of the OS. Would this registry tweak even be possible in "Home" versions once Win10 is released? --JorgeA

Opinions are all over the place on this -- about eight hundred comments the last time I looked. Wonder if a "fringe benefit" of the new policy will be to make things harder for privacy OSes such as Tails. As in, some Linux distros will get approved for installation, while "selected" ones won't. Anyway, probably the truest observation down in the comments section is this: --JorgeA

^ ^ --JorgeA

It is never a good idea to install driver updates from Windows Update. And yet of course, as NoelC pointed out that foolish policy is exactly what MSFT is now expecting its users to adopt! There's been talk of tweaking the new Windows Updates process so that you can decline driver updates. But that's not the only source of danger. Just a couple of months ago there was an update for Windows itself that broke DRM for Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. You'd think that with all this evidence of the hazards involved, the folks at Microsoft would adopt a more cautious approach to pushing updates on their customers. Looks like it's going to take a major disaster involving hundreds of millions of users and crashing their stock price, before they wise up. "Pride goeth before a fall." --JorgeA

Paul Thurrott has a flash of clarity: --JorgeA

Here we go again, antother rebranding -- Universal Apps Will Be Branded as Windows Apps First it was Metro, then it was Modern, next it was Universal, at some point it was Windows Store apps, and now it's Windows Apps. A t*rd by any other name... I propose we go with @jaclaz's original moniker of NCI. (Look up what it stands for in the Win8 Deeper Impressions thread. ) Soon, though, the right name for them might become Nobody Cares Apps. --JorgeA

The less Microsoft cares about my preferences (along with those of so many others), the less I (and so many others) care about Microsoft. It may be tolerable having SkyDrive stealing my CPU cycles, so long as I don't actually have to store anything on it. But in combination with what's shaping up to be unavoidable Windows Updates, plus the ongoing hostility toward Aero Glass and a real Start Menu, the decision looks to be clear. BTW the trend toward making it harder to avoid updates isn't limited to MSFT. My wife just "upgraded" to Adobe Reader XI on her PC, and now instead of nagging you during every update installation to select the automatic option, you have to drill several menus down into the program itself to reset it away from automatic. Updating Acrobat Reader isn't as trivial an issue as one might think. A few years ago they had an infamous update that broke the Search function, and they took months to fix it. --JorgeA

OneDrive will be integrated with Windows 10 rather than as an app The question naturally then becomes whether users will have a way to disable this feature without having to jump through a lot of hoops. There doesn't seem to be a clear answer yet. --JorgeA

One small improvement amid all the wreckage and madness: Windows 10: Jump Lists make a return to the Start Menu --JorgeA

@Formfiller: Fabulous summary all around. The way they've been handling Windows Updates is fast becoming a major sticking point with me. Who in their right mind would just push updates willy-nilly to the users, without letting them select the ones they want to install first, or later, or not at all? Last night my Win10TP test machine received a touchpad driver update. Silly me, I thought I'd get the chance to decide when to install it. (I'd already given up on the idea of deciding whether to install it, let alone download it.) But nooooo -- at some point overnight, the machine rebooted all on its own. What if I'd been in the middle of a large download, a program compilation, or some other lengthy operation? I keep thinking/hoping that this is merely a function of Win10's still being at the beta stage, but I don't remember seeing any indication that Microsoft intends to bring back user choice with respect to when and whether to install updates. This is the opposite of user-friendly: it's user-hostile. --JorgeA

An interesting (and, sadly, probably right on the money) assessment of the new Start Menu over in the TP forums: --JorgeA

Microsoft has clarified the report of users of pirated copies of Windows being able to upgrade (if that's the correct word ) to Win10. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that all that means is that if you're now using pirated Windows 7, you will be able to use pirated Windows 10. Maybe they hope to make it up in app sales. Unless being "non-Genuine" means that you're not allowed into the Windows Store. --JorgeA

This inability to use characters with diacritical marks, it's gonna go over really well with international users. :angrym: Even users of English versions of Windows may want to use such characters in their account names; why limit their options? --JorgeA

I'm in the slow lane. Is 10041 the newest public build? Great to know that Aero Glass still works there, but it's disturbing to learn that performance is actually worse than before. Haven't they been telling us all along that the whole purpose of eliminating Glass and simplifying visual elements was supposedly to improve performance? --JorgeA P.S. Considering where they're headed, it might not be such a bad thing if Windows Update were now completely broken and beyond repair.

You talkin' to me? FWIW, I'm still on 9926. --JorgeA

I ran across this tidbit while reading a web post on the future of Internet Explorer: [emphasis added] Hmm... So, if I'm willing to accept the somewhat decreased security that this represents, then I can be completely free of Metro stupidity? Only trouble is, maybe the Settings crapp would stop working too. Gotta try this on my TP. --JorgeA UPDATE: Tried the registry LUA fix. The pseudo-Start Menu doesn't do anything when you click on it (of course you can install a real Start Menu replacement). The Notifications thingy doesn't respond either. But the Settings app still opens and works fine. (As a precaution, I had pinned Settings to the Taskbar since the Start Menu might not work and I on the fly I couldn't think of any other non-Metro way to access Settings.)

Yup. And because users will no longer be the main source of Microsoft's OS revenue, the company feels freer to ignore our choices and preferences. As the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune, and starting with Win10 it's no longer us who are paying the piper. --JorgeA

Windows 10: Microsoft wants the Control Panel gone, will be subsumed by the Settings app Apart from the bad news contained in the headline, here's a critique of the Settings crapp down in the comments section. It's so good, I have to quote it in full: --JorgeA

All good questions. The common thread, I suspect, is that Microsoft envisions having everyone on mobile devices with mediocre specs, and people will simply throw out a malfunctioning device instead of trying to fix it. No need anymore to repair the drive or restore the OS, your files are in the cloud and you can just buy a new phone or tablet and get back to your screen swiping. So I would say that Microsoft is taking the position that our questions will soon be irrelevant. --JorgeA

Here's a new data point that seems to support the idea that the whole purpose is to bring users into the Microsoft Store: They're so eager to turn users into buyers of Metro/Modern/Unviersal crapps that they're willing to forgive and forget OS piracy. --JorgeA