JorgeA
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Posts posted by JorgeA
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The biggest Windows news of the year: the Windows 10 update model is being ported to Windows 7 and 8.1:
Win7 and 8.1 to get cumulative updates – you no longer control your Win7 or 8.1 machine
QuoteBased on your feedback, today we’re announcing some new changes for servicing Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1. These changes also apply to Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2…
Based on whose feedback, exactly? I have seen NO groundswell of people clamoring to lose the ability to decline or ignore Windows Updates that could wreak havoc on their machines. Especially in light of Microsoft's increasingly erratic performance with respect to the monthly patches, this decision is incomprehensible.
The notice, as reported by Woody, is itself confusing. In one paragraph it states that there will be a monthly rollup including both security and reliability issues, and then just three paragraphs later it says that there will "also" be a "single Security-only update." So which is it -- security+reliability, or security only? A single rollup, or two "single" rollups?
September may be the last month that my Windows 7 systems are allowed to get updates from Microsoft.
Maybe, just maybe, my Vista and XP POSReady systems will be spared this insanity.
--JorgeA
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How to lock down Windows 10 Anniversary Update’s privacy settings
Not much that we didn't already know in the main article, but the comments section has a number of hard-hitting observations:
QuoteI absolutely HATE how they're forcing web searches on you now. Without web searches, local searches were INSTANT. Now not only is the search much slower, and not only do I get 5+ other things at the top I care nothing about, when trying to look for a local file, but when you lack Internet connection, it doesn't search for ANYTHING. How stupid is that?
Anniversary Update is what convinced me to give up Windows 10 and move back to Windows 8. Nadella continues to make terrible after terrible decisions for Windows 10. All he cares about is the bottomline, not the users.
QuoteAll the how-to's up there make me think about how FaceBook 'Gives the User Control'....without really giving you REAL control. Not that I expect TRUE control of my Facebook Acct. It's on Facebook's Website.
But My PC? It's on MY Desk. I PAID for it, dammit.
Instead of Windows 10 giving me a fast, efficient Machine that will help me do MY work, Windows 10 is an efficient and DEEPLY configured interface that works efficiently for Advertisers who'll buy information from Microsoft.
And STILL, folks, assume you spend ALL THAT TIME trying to lock your privacy down in ALL those disparate WIndows 10 Toggles (I won't deign to call these things CONTROLS-- They Really Aren't CONTROLS) there is no guarantee that the Next Automatic Windows Update won't just RESET them to Microsoft Defaults.
And then, one that I had not heard of before. It sounds like Microsoft has done away with the dedicated Windows Help pages:
QuoteRelatedly, have you noticed what Microsoft has done to Windows Help? It's the biggest untold story of Windows 10 in my opinion. If you click on the Help button (the question mark) in numerous Windows contexts like File Explorer it:
1. Opens a browser.
2. Goes to Bing.
3. Runs a Bing search on a hard-coded, long natural language phrase like "get help with file explorer in Windows 10" (without quotes)
4. Dumps you onto whatever the results of that search are that dayIt's the most insane thing I've seen Microsoft do in decades as a Windows user. In the history of computing, no one has ever done this to their users. When you click on help, they're dumping onto a useless web search results page instead of, you know, displaying help content.
It would be bad enough if they made you go to a Microsoft website for what used to be built-in, offline help content. But they're not even doing that. They're dumping users on a web search results page and letting them fend for themselves. Most of the results are not even Microsoft websites, and they're different from one day to the next.
Predicably, scammy sites are SEOing the heck out of the hard-coded phrases. All the results use the exact phrase as their title. And some of them are malware vectors - BitDefender blocked one of the sites on the first page of the search. All this from clicking on Help in Windows....
Microsoft is a very confused company if they think this is an acceptable thing to do when people click on help. They seem to have profound conflicts of interest between building a good OS and generating traffic for Bing. At least with Apple, you know they would never do anything like this to their users. Microsoft needs to fire some people.
Finally, there is this intriguing idea for shutting Cortana down:
QuoteYou can disable Cortana permanently by: Open services, locate Cortana, right click and Open file location, now (try) rename the folder where Cortana is located, when you get the message about file being in use just leave it open, go back to services and end the Cortana task and quickly click try rename again (renaming window). Problem solved for me.
--JorgeA
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Personalization Settings Set Back to Default in Windows 10 Anniversary Update
QuoteAccording to a Microsoft spokesman, Uttam Yadav, in the company’s web-based forums, it’s possible those users were simply affected by a “bug” that reset certain personalization features back to their original defaults. Here’s what might have been changed…
Golly gee whiz, it must be purely by coincidence
that these so-called "bugs" that keep cropping up, just happen to set Windows the way Microsoft -- and not the user -- wants it.
How about giving us a "bug" that brings back Aero Glass by mistake, or that unintentionally turns off all telemetry and monitoring?
--JorgeA
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North American businesses reluctant to adopt Windows 10
QuoteA year on from the release of Windows 10 most businesses are still reluctant to adopt the OS, according to research by solutions and managed services company Softchoice.
Based on an evaluation of more than 400,000 Windows-based computing devices between January and May this year, across 169 organizations in the US and Canada using the TechCheck asset management solution, the study reveals less than one percent were running Windows 10.
It finds the vast majority of North American businesses adopted Windows 7 as the corporate platform-of-choice since moving away from Windows XP, and have yet to move in significant quantities to newer versions Windows 8 or 10.
--JorgeA
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7 hours ago, jaclaz said:
Nice joke. He should give me US$42/year (at a discounted price) to have me read his misinformation and absurdities (though witnessing his several 180 degrees turns lately has been actually entertaining).
--JorgeA
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On Friday, August 12, 2016 at 7:47 AM, TELVM said:
So much for "security":
One highlight:
QuoteThe researchers reportedly informed Microsoft of their findings between March and April this year. The Redmond giant originally declined to fix the issue, at which point the duo started an analysis and compiling proof-of-concept (PoC) evidence.
--JorgeA
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On Friday, August 12, 2016 at 3:43 PM, jaclaz said:
... meanwhile in Redmond ...
A very well worded backtracking ...
https://blogs.windows.com/business/2016/08/11/updates-to-silicon-support-policy-for-windows/
Notwithstanding the great success ...
... we are developing "plan B" ...
jaclaz
That's the best Windows-related news I've heard in months.
Thanks for sharing it.
Well, MSFT does seem to listen to at least some customers.
--JorgeA
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On Friday, August 12, 2016 at 3:03 AM, cc333 said:
So, that means, in non-smart-aleck terms, that it is a good thing?
I'm a bit confused, but okay. You have almost 500 of them, and you haven't been banned, so I guess they're good!
c
EDIT: Just gave you a reputation!
p.s. Thank you for bearing with me here, as I'm new to this "reputation" feature (which, I surmise, is akin to the "Like" button which exists in Facebook and such).
Thanks very much!!
You're getting the hang of it.
For a couple of years, before the forum software was updated, people started commenting on posts sometimes by typing "+1" and nothing else. Took me a while to catch on that this was a borrowing from the Like function in social media.
--JorgeA
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The Great Windows Phone App Exodus of 2016
Paul's website now features a paywall
but the first paragraph is enough to get the idea across:
QuoteWindows phone fans have suffered countless indignities in the year since Microsoft surrendered the smartphone market to Android and iPhone. But none are as hard to bear as the growing exodus of apps from the platform.
And, as I keep saying, mobile is pretty much the whole reason that Microsoft wrecked the Windows UI. Which means there is no reason anymore to persist on the sorry mess that is Metro/Modern/Universal. Make" apps" for Android if you must, and then let us import their data into real applications in Windows. Preferably via a local (Ethernet/WiFi) and not a cloud connection.
--JorgeA
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10 hours ago, cc333 said:
I've given up. After Windows Defender decided to spontaneously demolish some of my files (coincidentally, the ones which were meant to make Windows 10 more sane), I wiped the drive clean and installed XP on my Compaq Presario CQ-62-219WM instead
Whoa, WD attacked the files that you were using to improve Windows 10?
What programs or files got demolished?
--JorgeA
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44 minutes ago, cc333 said:
p.s. What does "reputation" mean on these forums? Is it a good thing??
I was going to be a smart-aleck and warn you that, No! You need to keep that reputation number down as low as possible!!
But instead, I'll play it straight.
The reputation number builds up as readers of the thread click on the green box with the white arrow inside, over on the right. Every time somebody clicks on that for a particular MSFN member's post, both the gray box with the heart and the member's reputation go up by 1.
Hope that helps.
--JorgeA
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Developer: Microsoft Undermined Windows 10 Mobile and Our App
Quote“I was in Redmond in early November (few weeks before our launch) and demoed AppRaisin to a bunch of Microsoft employees among others,” he writes. “Everyone seemed to like it, but when I tried to discuss possibilities of being featured, their facial expressions changed. The responses ranged from ‘Hmm. I’m not sure they would want to feature you’ to ‘No chance in hell they would ever feature you’. The reason? As far as I understand, and as insane as it may sound the first time you hear it: Microsoft wants to control Windows Store app merchandising.”
[emphasis in original]
--JorgeA
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6 hours ago, helpdesk98 said:
MS has to innovate! The phrase if it is not broken don't try and fix it means nothing to them
Ahhh yes, the cult of Novelty For Its Own Sake.
--JorgeA
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8 hours ago, NoelC said:
Has anyone figured out, in Version 1607 (Anniversary Update), why Application Frame Host tries to contact msdl.microsoft.com? I see it do so not long after Win 10 bootup. Could this be some form of advertising check?
I block it (firewall), and see no apparent side effects so far from blocking it, but if there's no good reason for doing so on a system that has absolutely no need for Metro/Modern/UWP/tiles/etc. (and has all those things removed), I'd rather configure whatever's necessary to not have it even try. ANY attempt to contact Microsoft without good reason is a privacy invasion and frankly, unacceptable.
-Noel
Curiously, here we are a week out from the Anniversary Update, and my Win10 test system hasn't even found (let alone downloaded) the AU bits yet.
--JorgeA
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14 hours ago, glnz said:
Hey, secret society - are today's Win 7 updates all good? Are we out of the woods, finally?
I always wait for the green light (or not) from Susan Bradley at Windows Secrets. Woody Leonhard also provides good info, but Susan seems to cover each month's updates more systematically. There's now a paywall for Susan's Patch
Watch column, but IMO it's well worth the $25 a year.14 hours ago, glnz said:If yes, what will we DO with the rest of our lives?
--JorgeA
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Windows 10 Anniversary Update causing big problems for many users
QuoteI’ve personally experienced a weird problem whereby after playing a video Windows becomes much less responsive, to the point where a reboot is the only solution, and users on Reddit are reporting various issues with their PCs freezing and Windows 10 failing to respond.
Given the new Windows Updates model, I wonder for how long Windows Home and Pro users will put up with serving as unpaid testers for Enterprise customers.
--JorgeA
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More than 60 percent of Windows users would switch to Mac for more privacy
QuoteConcerns over Windows 10 and the amount of data it collects via the Windows Store could prompt users to switch to Mac according to a new survey.
The study conducted by OnePoll on behalf of security and privacy advice and comparison website Comparitech.com finds that 61 percent of the US public who regularly use Windows would at least consider switching to Mac.
In the UK the figure is even higher at 67 percent, with 15 percent saying they would definitely consider swapping. Only 33 percent in the UK and 39 percent in the US say that they would not contemplate switching operating systems.
It's kind of ironic that people would switch to Apple over privacy concerns, of all things, but still the point is made.
--JorgeA
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22 minutes ago, rn10950 said:
It is possible that it would work out that way, but I find it extremely unlikely. XP, Vista, and 7 are built on Windows NT, which 8 and 10 are also built on, so the OSes share much of the same or similar core code. Once an exploit is found in windows 10 and is made known, it can be applied back to XP, hell even all the way to NT4, easily. There are issues being patched now that date all the way back to 1997, and in some cases, earlier. The difference with the situation with Windows 98 is that Win95/98/Me was built on the Windows 9x/DOS kernel, so when an exploit was found in XP, there was a greater chance that it didn't apply to Windows 98.
Yes, that makes sense... unfortunately.
Looks like, unless Microsoft fixes Windows 10 or its successor, the only viable choice will be to move to another OS.
And speaking of moving to another OS, see the next post...
---JorgeA
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We are way OT here
but...
I happily used WordStar for many years until customers started sending me (and asking for) documents in Word (.DOC) format and I had to bite the bullet.
--JorgeA
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In my line of work, we sometimes use section breaks. They're useful if you have, say, part of a page in double-column format, sandwiched between parts that are in the standard single column. As for styles, I only remember ever using them once, to help a customer prepare a book for publication. Otherwise we simply format each title or header individually as needed: it's easier to remember a title's format than to remember to apply its specific style.
But I can see how either of these features could wreak havoc if files are being passed around among a variety of people.
For me, the main annoyance is the Ribbon menus. Been using Office 2007 for going on eight years, and I'm still hunting around for the commands I need. The drop-down menus in Word 2000 (and 2003) were so much easier to use.
As a result, I've been considering switching to the SoftMaker office suite, which uses traditional menus and is like 99% compatible with Office files; the only trouble I've had in my tryouts is with the mathematical formula editor, an obscure feature. I'll probably stay on Office 2007 until it becomes incompatible with emerging file formats, and then switch over to the current version of SoftMaker.
--JorgeA
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On Saturday, August 06, 2016 at 8:24 AM, cc333 said:
This sort of news makes me even more inclined to stay away from Windows 10. Probably forever.
Windows 7 was the last truly decent Windows OS I think, and I'm going to stay with it for the rest of all time.
Of course, when support ends for 7, it won't make any difference if I run it or XP or 2000, since they'd all be in the same boat, and they'd all be equally as unsafe due to lack of updates (save for any unofficial ones that come along).
c
For a while, it was said of Windows 98 that it had actually become safer to use online than more recent versions of Windows, the theory being that so few people were using it that it the bad guys didn't bother writing malware for it.
Assuming that that was true, maybe the same thing will happen eventually with XP, Vista, and 7.
--JorgeA
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1 hour ago, glnz said:
Well, anxious friends, we've all saved Win 7 from GWX and most here are also still saving XP (thanks to jaclaz, dencorso and others in the XP POS thread).
I'm a commercial real estate lawyer; I only pretend to be a geek. Win 7 doesn't bother me so much - it's OK even if not as good as XP.
What really stinks is MS Word. For the legal profession, it's a wrongly conceived, badly designed piece of garbage that would never have been adopted but for its MS monopoly push onto the world's PCs. (In the early 2000's, all our clients stopped paying additional to keep WordPerfect, a far better program.) And Word gets tangibly worse with each new version.
For me, Word's the real horror, and one I have to face every day. If you ever see a picture of Bill Gates with a black eye, you'll know I finally had a a chance to thank him.
What aspect of Word do you dislike? (Not being argumentative, but genuinely curious as there are some things about Word that I don't like.)
BTW it's too late to say that you only pretend to be a geek. By virtue of having found MSFN, you're already a geek.
--JorgeA
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On 8/6/2016 at 0:08 AM, dencorso said:
¿Eble мы habeamus muitos più πολύγλωσσα Mitglieder chez MSFN dan you presupune, verdad?
Took a bit of effort, but once I figured it out...
--JorgeA
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Per Woody, Windows 10 goes from bad...
Avoid the Windows 10 Anniversary Update for now
...to worse:
I recommend that you actively block the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
The case against Windows 10 Anniversary Update grows
QuoteGiven the massive testing and repeated refinement that brought us Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you’d think the rollout would proceed with few debilitating problems. But you’d be wrong. From common installation problems to minor irritants to significant data destruction, reports of problems are mounting up.
[...]
Everyone who's been paying attention to Windows 10 updates expected installation problems. Microsoft hasn’t yet delivered a Cumulative Update that installs on all machines, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Anniversary Update installs trigger a wide variety of failures, rollbacks, flakey Universal Windows programs, and error codes such as 0x80070020.
[...]
There are very credible reports that the Anniversary Update is making entire volumes/drives invisible, prompting a reformat. The newest version of Win10 refuses to see some drives, identifying them as RAW, and prompting for an NTFS reformat. It’s easy to accidentally reformat the drive.
[...]
There are more credible reports about Win10 locking up completely after the Anniversary Update. Redditor KuruQan found out that running a clean install fixes the problem. There are many different solutions proposed, but nothing official from Microsoft. We don’t even have official acknowledgment that the problem exists.
What a mess. More gory details in the full article and in the comments to Woody's blog posts.
QuoteThere’s one conclusion that rings out loud and clear: Windows 10 desperately needs a way to control forced updates.
Amen.
--JorgeA
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that these so-called "bugs" that keep cropping up, just happen to set Windows the way Microsoft -- and not the user -- wants it.
Thanks for sharing it.
but the first paragraph is enough to get the idea across:
What programs or files got demolished?
The reputation number builds up as readers of the thread click on the green box with the white arrow inside, over on the right. Every time somebody clicks on that for a particular MSFN member's post, both the gray box with the heart and the member's reputation go up by 1.
Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions
in Windows 10
Posted · Edited by JorgeA
wording improved
Strictly speaking, this is about Windows 7 and not 10, but now that MSFT is grafting the Win10 update model onto Win7, I have to give an illustration of the "process," such as it is.
Tonight my main Win7 PC got offered a new update, KB3179573. Needless to say, before letting it install I wanted to get more information on it, so I clicked on the "More information" link in the WU applet. It led me to the following page:
OK, so I jumped through the first hoop and didn't get any actual information about the update. But I noticed that the page had a hyperlink over the phrase where MSFT claimed the update includes some new "improvements and fixes." Maybe now I will learn something about this update? So I clicked on that link, which took me to the following page:
Well well, still no actual information about the update, but merely a further promise that This Time Really We'll Tell You What's In The Update And What It Does. So, wearily, I clicked on yet another link taking me to yet another page, and providing the final insult:
Hey 'Softies, that's not exactly the way to build trust in your intentions, or confidence in your abilities...
--JorgeA