NoelC

Edge just needs to be REMOVED entirely. The wretched thing can't possibly start after THAT! It's a bit geeky to manage it, but all you need to know to uninstall it (and any number of other packages that aren't wanted) is at the following link. The key is turning off the IsInbox flag in the StateRepository-Machine.srd database file, then removing the packages using a highly privileged CMD window. http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174344-uninstall-cortana-from-windows-10/page-2#entry1111151 Microsoft needs to get a clue: No one wants or needs another half-baked browser! Implementation excellence is the ONLY thing they can do to save their company. IMO they're only building it to try to convince people there's going to be no way to browse on a Win 10 system other than using the stupid Metro/Modern/Universal/XAML hodgepodge. -Noel

Jaclaz, I have a pretty free-associative mind but even labeling it "Off Topic" at the 100%+ level makes posting a blurb about Apple programmers trying to be "too helpful" (and not surprisingly being unable to manage it technically) a bit odd in a thread about Windows. Are you trying to connect this disjointed info somehow to this thread by pointing out that "being as helpful as possible and more" is what Microsoft is trying to do for (to?) all the masses of er, ah, technically challenged people on the planet with the big-font, dumbed-down Windows 10 implementation? I am imagining that OS programmers are becoming mixed up with Application programmers in today's oversimplified world. Only the cream of the cream of the crop can actually write good OS software in reality, but that's not stopping them. What's funny is that we have been through the "one separate device for each task" era (i.e., anything before roughly 1980). I guess it proves that since almost all humans can't multitask, they really can't conceive of an OS that multitasks. -Noel

That sounds really nice - thanks for reporting it, dhjohns. Finally Microsoft seems to be leaving the UI alone under the covers so that Big Muscle's software can just work! Hm, they only used to release symbols for Slow Ring builds. Unfortunately a check for promotion to the Slow Ring didn't turn up anything. I was hoping to be able to install it via an ISO. -Noel

THIS is the fundamental, core problem. Microsoft wants to make running Windows primarily about running Windows. What could be more important than downloading a Windows Update? Oh, I know - anything the user might want to do! -Noel

I see no reason you can't forward people to this thread. It really works. -Noel

There is a thread on this forum here that describes how to do it. The key post is 26. I went through several iterations where I tried to use DISM as described in the first posts in that thread, but in the end it was the altering of the InInbox field in the sql database file StateRepository-Machine.srd that helped push me over the edge to success. The two remaining App packages are all that seem required to run the Settings App and to have the Notification / Action Center slide-out work. -Noel

The 3rd party customizers, while their very existence may imply Big Muscle could have some more work to do to polish HIS version, have traditionally just messed things up more than they've helped. Some of them sought to crack the software as well. I don't know where this particular one here fell in that spectrum, but such software has generally not been welcome here. -Noel

Just to be clear, if you're using UAC, you're expected to use the properties of the shortcut to run CMD as administrator. That's assumed here, and is apparently what makes CMD in Win 10 ignore the default directory you've set in the Start in field. -Noel

What's ironic is, because of the way I have monitors arranged (I have two side monitors as "ears" turned up sideways, so they're 1200 x 1600 pixels), I tend to browse in windows that are more vertical than horizontal. That's meaningful in the context of this particular site because - in the fashion of "modern" self-rearranging windows - that poll doesn't show at all, anywhere on the page, unless I make the window wider than will fit in 1200 pixels. Tall and narrow (the norm for me). Note, no scrollbar, no evidence whatsoever that there's anything more that could be seen out there. Just the kind of good, modern design that Windows 10 espouses. If I make it wider (e.g., on my big central monitor, on which I usually don't run browsers), look what shows up! Yep, ya gotta love them modern design concepts. Scroll bars are SOOOO outdated! -Noel Edit: Okay, with a tall, narrow window the Windows poll actually IS visible - it's wayyyyyy down at the bottom, under the comments. Now ask yourself: Do you ever scroll down and look BELOW the comments on a blog page?

It didn't work for you? You mean you pasted the command line I showed you above into a shortcut and it didn't actually CD to the folder you specified? You do have that folder already in existence, right? -Noel

It's not a big deal in itself, except that it works around a limitation that Microsoft put in - that an elevated command prompt won't open in the folder you program in the shortcut. Up through Win 8.1 with UAC disabled one could just set the "Start In" folder to where you want the CMD prompt to start, and voila, it starts there. We all work in different ways. I happen to like to work in my TEMP folder so I can drop files (e.g., from filter commands and such) so that I can do other things with them. I haven't found much use for "Start CMD prompt here" type functionality, but I do integrate a lot of other things (like "Send to Clipboard As Name", specifically) into Explorer, so maybe that's influenced the way I work. -Noel P.S., and no, I don't want to return to C:\Windows\System32 under any conditions.

I keep UAC off, so every CMD prompt wants to open in C:\Windows\System32 - arguably the WORST place possible to do things like copy files, drop temporary files, etc. With a tiny bit of command line magic you can get an elevated CMD prompt to start in whatever folder you want. I personally prefer: C:\TEMP Set your shortcut up with this command line: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k cd \temp&verIt executes a cd command to send it to the folder you want (it could even be a cd /d command if you'd like to be on a drive other than the system drive), then puts the familiar version string up. I suppose you could mock up the Copyright message normally shown as well, but I have no love of seeing that, so... -Noel

Man, wow, I kept wondering if that was a post I'd written. But it wasn't. Just another brother in spirit. -Noel

The question keeps arising... Who are we supposed to feel secure from? I agree with TELVM, don't bother turning it back on. Just practice conscientious computing (and I already think you adopted some of my ideas about blocking badware websites). You'll be fine. You've already said you make backups, so you can be confident too. -Noel

OK, so perhaps I'm not *quite* as stupid and ignorant as I thought. Thanks for the additional info. I wouldn't make a good modern scientist. I try too hard to test theory against observed phenomenon. Nor marketer... I have an overriding tendency to consider the real world the reference. -Noel

Having myself bought a new desktop system (Dell PowerEdge T20) last April, I immediately saw that in the setup screens I was able to choose "BIOS" over "Secure Boot"... I forget the exact wording, but I was able to opt out of having to do anything having to do with restricted bootup. Unfortunately I didn't shoot a photo of the screen. This was a new, 2015 model I'm talking about. Do some systems now just not provide that choice? Laptops? If not, when are secure-boot-only systems slated to arrive? Or is the FUD being spread to increase paranoia, so that everyone will believe they MUST use Secure Boot? I'm demonstrating my ignorance of the market here, but being forced to do something implies lack of choice, and I GOT the choice. I should think it's to all motherboard designers' advantage (i.e. to sell more boards) to offer a choice. After all, there isn't just one OS out there. -Noel

Note: DNS logs here (my LAN is a NON-domain environment with Win 7, 8.1, and 10 systems and some Apple hardware as well) for some days now show no evidence of the name wpad being requested for resolution. -Noel

Don't be too sure. Look up what's possible with UEFI BIOS, TPM, and Secure Boot. I have very little specific knowledge in this area, but it seems to me I've read that an OS vendor could download firmware that could block other operating systems from being run. Jaclaz posted some info on that in this forum at one point, and I recall that at the time it made me glad I don't have (or enable) that technology in my systems. -Noel

I'd always prefer a separate thread. Otherwise discussion tends to go off on tangents not having to do with the overall thread subject. But it's entirely up to you. -Noel

There's a thread around here, something like "How to remove Cortana". Basically most Apps can be removed with Remove-AppxPackage and Remove-AppxProvisioned Package. Then it's a matter of getting geeky and circumventing some interlocks. Ah, here it is: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174344-uninstall-cortana-from-windows-10/ A forum member, intika, in post 26, has published a web page on uninstalling the ones that won't go quietly. Here's what I have left: -Noel

Perhaps you misinterpreted my comment - *I'M* not going to act in an untrustworthy way. I think trust is important. I was speaking hypothetically as an employee of Microsoft Might think. They have clearly has gotten over a "threshold" and have redefined "the new normal". Now the "malware-like behavior" is spreading. As if things needed to get worse. -Noel

You too? We should hang out. -Noel

A corollary to that, from Microsoft's perspective: Trust, once lost, means we no longer have to act in a trustworthy way, and that opens up all KINDS of possibilities. -Noel

WINE is not an emulator but it does allow running Windows applications on a Linux system. Regarding running Metro/Modern/Universal Apps... Why bother? There's already a web browser. -Noel

Keep in mind that if you change system files on disk you're very likely breaking system protection (i.e., the system will no longer pass an SFC check), and that there's a fair bit of automatic recovery logic (scan through all the Microsoft entries in the Task Scheduler some time). You might just find that the system has restored the file on its own. I fully understand that you want to remove all that store junk - I have the same desire - but this might be a case where we need to learn to just ignore that entry in the context menu. The cure may be worse than the disease if the goal is to have a stable, maintainable platform for long-term serious work. That being said, I've removed as much of the Metro/Modern/Universal componentry I can (while still having the system pass SFC checks), and so far it seems to hang together. -Noel