NoelC

Yes, as a FU to their customers. They need to change the culture in order to take fleecing to the next level. This involves ruining every current expectation, so that people are happy to pay for excrement. -Noel

Fanboys would say we "grumpy old guys" have failed to keep pace. We grumpy old guys, while we don't always agree with one another either, might say that keeping pace with lower life forms who insist on running the race backwards is just silly, and we are now wise enough to avoid being influenced by fashion and peer pressure. Bottom line is this: At various points we've chosen to jump off the bandwagon. It's because the band insists on playing only kazoos and the wheels are wobbly. Microsoft doesn't realize how much they need the wise, smart people supporting them. They will. -Noel

Heh, NOW there's a new Crimson 15.11.1 beta dated November 30 that replaces the Catalyst 15.11.1 beta dated November 14. I wonder whose bright idea it was to reuse the version number. Definitely "wait and see" time. They're clearly scrambling with no real plan. -Noel

No worries, I gathered it was tongue-in-cheek, and I hope I didn't sound harsh toward you. Microsoft calling Windows 10 an operating system is a joke. I suspect your cat wouldn't have sat long enough to open anywhere near that many Calculator Apps, even if there were enough resources. -Noel

Assuming you mean Calculator Apps, speak for yourself. And just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I think of it as tazing yourself in the groin with multiple tazers at once. Sure, you could, but... What's ironic is that before I expunged that crapware from my system, Microsoft wouldn't let me even try to run it with UAC turned off. Assuming that's an indication that Microsoft doesn't trust it's own Metro/Modern/Universal/XAML Apps... Why? Maybe because at some point it could deliver adware? I'll bet no one who's actually capable of any sort of real engineering would actually work on Apps at Microsoft, even under pain of losing their jobs. -Noel

4 months. They've promised full OS reinstall releases every 4 months. -Noel

Thanks. Yeah, I also heard about that 20% fan claim. One person on the ATI forum reported yesterday that his video card was somehow damaged by the new driver, and I think that was before the 20% fan thing came out. It's hard to know what to take seriously. -Noel

It is my opinion that running applications with reduced privileges does little to keep malware out. What, specifically, are you proposing protecting against? Can you suggest a specific scenario where what you've described would block malware? To me these seem to be the main vectors for infection: Scenario 1: User downloads "the greatest game ever" and goes to install it. That user, being slightly irresponsible and assuming they want more than anything else to play it, is DEFINITELY going to answer [Allow] to any UAC prompt. Scenario 2: User visits web site with ads that download an ActiveX control that contains malware. Let's say it gets past the active AV software (which they often do). 2a: It "does its business on the computer by taking advantage of a browser vulnerability or whatever, and never causes a UAC prompt. End result: Infection. 2b: Even if it DOES cause a UAC elevation prompt, users typically just "click through" because they're interested in browsing, not in taking an active role in preventing malware from coming in the back door. Doesn't the concept of running things you already have on your computer with reduced privileges - and somehow then expect that to protect you - assume you have malware-laden software already on your hard drive? Attempting to block bad things at that point seems akin to inviting all the homeless people in your town into your home, then trying to watch over them to make sure they don't take the silverware, the fine china, the candlesticks, your TV, etc. UAC is - in my opinion - a poor implementation of an idea with no merit to start with. I'm willing to debate that further - or not, whatever you like. A FAR more effective strategy is to keep the malware out to begin with. See this for my suggested approach on that: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173660-anti-malware-suggestions/ -Noel

An alternative some folks are taking is to resurrect Aero Glass via: http://www.glass8.eu/ There is not a released version that works yet with build 10586, though there is a beta - but it's pretty geeky and kind of requires having followed the development through several stages to get all the components. The development is done by a member of this forum. See this subforum dedicated to the subject: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/180-aero-glass-for-windows-8/ It doesn't fix the flat, lifeless controls (e.g., buttons, scroll bars, etc.) and it doesn't really help with the Taskbar, but it can facilitate improving desktop usability and make it seem a bit more elegant. As an example... -Noel

A quick glance through your CBS.log file doesn't really turn up any serious problems, except what looks like directory ownership issues, which on a fresh new installation seems to imply a servicing database problem rather than a real system problem. Have you tried to repair it with one of the following commands? SFC /SCANNOW DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth -Noel

Yeah, that's pretty much the strongest reason for upgrading, though I have implemented my software strictly to standards (not to mention having provided several alternative settings, the same way Photoshop does), and so far all ATI, nVidia, and Intel systems support my software nicely. What I *don't* have the luxury of having is a huge lab full of all the different computer systems and video cards, so not having my one workstation updated with the latest ATI driver isn't really a fundamental issue. -Noel

Don't kid yourself. Windows 8 is pretty chatty, and hasn't been the benefit of all the scrutiny that Windows 10 has had, which led to the creation of things like O&O ShutUp 10 and similar products. HarryTri, you may choose to ignore Microsoft's programming of Windows to send your info far and wide while you're not looking, but for those seriously concerned with privacy and security, it's a real issue. And history has shown that information WILL be exploited. I'd prefer for them to have less of mine than everyone else's. -Noel

They removed the Windows Backup UI from Windows 8.1 for that reason. They stated only 6% of people use it. "Only". What's that, tens of millions of people? Pfft, not something Microsoft feels it's important to even worry about. Now I noticed it's back in Windows 10 as "Windows 7 Backup". Apparently they wanted to remove all barriers people could identify to prevent an "upgrade" from Windows 7. Telemetry is something Marketing and Managers should not have access to, since it just ends up like the old joke ending where the statistician responds "What would YOU like the answer to be?" -Noel

Just at a glance, that article doesn't mention reconfiguring Windows Defender and the Malicious Software Removal Tool to avert sending data to Microsoft spynet. I have also removed all Apps and App/Store oriented features as I have no need for them. I use a block-by-default firewall setup for outgoing connections (which does take more effort to maintain), and even with all the reconfiguration I've done I have not been able to quiet Windows 8.1 completely down, per the firewall logs. Services still occasionally try to contact Microsoft or CDN servers online - a few times a day. Since Microsoft uses CDN servers, and doesn't always access things by name resolution (for example, by having hard-coded internal lists of IP addresses or indirectly after requests to go.microsoft.com) you cannot really develop a rigorous blacklist. My current hosts file, which I update every month, blocks some 27,000 URLs, vs. the 50 or so seen listed in the linked article, but again bear in mind it's not enough to just block the names. Microsoft considered Windows 8 a cloud-integrated OS, which means it IS going to try to communicate online. It gets to a point where it becomes impractical to know whether some service is checking online for legitimate updates (e.g., to certificate information) or trying to spill your beans and disrupt your privacy. So far my system is running perfectly without being allowed to communicate freely by default. Initially it took more effort, but now I put a few minutes a day into reviewing what was blocked and refining my firewall configuration. -Noel

ATI has just released a new display driver version called "Crimson" (which is really just a rebranded Catalyst version 15.11 release with some UI changes). I'm presently running Catalyst 15.9.1, 2 months old and which was a "beta" version - though it works perfectly. My workstation, running Windows 8.1, has been running 24/7 on its current bootup since October (over 30 days now). I use it every day, usually quite heavily, to do software engineering and business management. It's been glitch-free, and is showing no signs of instability as time goes on. I couldn't be happier with the performance and reliability of this system. It's what I always hoped to achieve with Windows 8.1. Since I am no longer applying Windows Updates, on the general principle that Microsoft can't or won't do anything good to improve Windows 8.1 from now on, I'm not forced to reboot it every so often. Hence the long run time since a reboot. AMD claims performance improvements in Crimson, along with a new UI, though to be brutally honest everything I do with the version I have already happens virtually instantaneously, and in all cases in the past claims of performance improvements haven't affected basic desktop operations for me (I always do benchmarks after updates). Some additional considerations: ATI is no doubt focusing more on making their drivers work well with Windows 10 and 7 than Windows 8.1, which is now used by only 12% or so of users worldwide. I do need to keep abreast of what's happening in the Windows driver realm because I do write commercial OpenGL-based software to sell to the Windows world. It would be good to know if the latest ATI release breaks something. I haven't received any problem reports from my existing customers, some of which have no doubt upgraded to Crimson already. I don't use my system for gaming, so game-oriented performance improvements - which is primarily what ATI driver development is about - aren't interesting to me. Stability is of prime importance to me since it allows me to concentrate on my work. Even if they were to somehow make something noticeably faster (and I'm not sure that's possible) if the new version were to introduce instability I would rather have the old "slower and reliable" version. There are not a lot of "screams of anguish" on forums coming from other users who have already updated to Crimson 15.11, so it's probably not a bad release. On the other hand, the number of folks reporting problems is not zero either. ATI quite often releases a .1 release shortly after a major version release, and as there IS a 15.11.1 beta already in the works. There is some evidence that a feature I use - that of being able to save a preset that's automatically loaded at login - may be missing or reduced in functionality. I'm still trying to get more info on that (notably no one answered my direct question on the ATI forum). Long gone are the days when how a piece of software works is documented thoroughly in a manual. I'm quite confident that I would be able to roll back to a working configuration if the new version breaks something. I dislike the current trend in dumbing-down user interfaces, and I don't feel I need performance improvements in the old Catalyst UI. It comes up quickly enough. So... Do I resist the urge to get the "latest and greatest" display driver and just keep what I've got? Or do I just install Crimson and see what happens? Perhaps I should take the former approach until the decision is more clear. -Noel

Did the definition of "crappy internet" change while we weren't looking? I have really great internet speeds, but I'm lucky I can get a fiber optic connection here. Someone still limited by necessity to *ONLY* single digit megabit speeds would be hard pressed to download upwards of 4 gigabytes of data at under 1 megabyte per second. And I'm all for moving into the future, having been an early adopter all my life - but there actually has to be movement. Win 10 just takes a lot more work to get back to where we were already, and closes off the options for dealing with issues such as Internet speed limitations ourselves. So what's the advantage that offsets all that? The ability to run a Weather App? Pfft. -Noel

I cannot technically abandon you since I'm just another user like you. I wish I could help more but I don't know what I could do for you. I have ATI hardware, not Intel. From my own experience with my own applications Intel is the worst of the three big names with regard to developing robust display drivers. I certainly don't plan to experiment with an Aero Glass version from some other site. -Noel

I looked at http://i65.tinypic.com/23qrde.png Other than an errant entry in the .layout file that goes with a theme atlas (which have said you have unchecked, so there really should be none), I don't know what could cause that. When you use the SquareCorners10586.png and SquareCorners10586.png.layout file I have provided here, what does it look like? Are the buttons fully formed, just small or short? What happens if you try right-clicking the desktop, choosing Display settings from the context menu, move the slider away from your current resolution, then back again? That seems to reset the desktop metrics that govern the relative sizes of things. -Noel

I have an on-topic question having to do with the current beta. I believe the answer is yes, but I want to be sure: If I have a perfectly working setup on a Windows 8.1 system with the released Aero Glass for Win 8+ version 1.4.1.240. Is the latest beta also expected to run on Windows 8.1, or should I just stay with the version that works? I ask because I haven't actually tested it on Windows 8.1 yet. -Noel

Might it help to think of glass8.eu as a Christmas gift, with bigmuscle filling the role of St. Nick, seeing to it that the nicest toys get to the GOOD little boys and girls, while avoiding the Grinch and his lawyers? So leave him some milk and cookies. -Noel

Yes, you're missing something, as are we all: Actual advancement in operating system design. All the cloud-integration BS hasn't yet been compromised in a widely-publicized way - mostly because the payoff of infecting only a small percentage of Windows Users (about equal to that of Mac users) is still small. Who here thinks that peer to peer Windows Update sharing will ultimately become a vector for spreading malware (assuming you don't already think Windows 10 itself is malware, which many do)? More complex things are always more secure, right? -Noel

Disable it. It's no good anyway, because it doesn't give you a true bootup, but rather continues your session from before. You probably have a driver that's not able to navigate the power state changes. -Noel

Windows 7 or 8.1 run great on modern computers with lots of resources - lots of RAM, good (e.g., SSD) disk I/O, good GPU... You'd expect a NEWER system to run slower on the same hardware because it brings more functionality, more features. Trouble is, Windows 10 apparently has neither, yet still brings the loss in efficiency. Microsoft would say that to run an entirely different application framework is the reason for the additional slowness, but I don't buy it. It's not like Metro/Modern/Universal brings anything new to the party. All of what it does could be done before, and in fact many applications did much more. And it's not like the Universal/XAML environment amazingly better at making programmers productive - if it were, wouldn't we have utterly AMAZING Apps from Microsoft (and many others) by now? Instead they're all just also-rans, and so inefficient as to make even the most modern computers lag. If I've missed a killer, must-have App someone please point it out. OK, perhaps you might suggest that Windows 10 is more stable than Windows 8.1 or 7 and the slowness is because of additional error checking or layering of operations so that crashes can be averted. Yet is it? I have a Win 8.1 system (on which I'm typing this) that has been running continuously, with daily and nightly hard use, for over 27 days. I have a Windows 7 system in the same room that's just pushed past 31 days of uptime. It's hard to be more stable than perfectly stable. In short, we've had reliability and stability for a while now. Actually, with regard to stability in drivers, Windows 10 has all the growing pains of a whole new OS and will continue to have them every 4 months. Is it possible that Windows 10 is more secure maybe? Immune from the malware that plagues so many Windows systems? Great idea, but where's the reality? Have you heard of an actual reduction in malware infections? Have people been saying Windows 10 has been making their data safe where it was virtually swinging in the wind before? Even Microsoft themselves barely mention security, citing things like PIN number entry to replace passwords as a big deal. After all, they wouldn't want us all thinking we could stop doing Windows Updates to cover up the problems they've left in. Better UI? Nope, not hardly. It's f**king lifeless (not to mention borderless). OK, maybe in some ways it's no worse than the butt-ugly Windows 8 - though one could actually re-theme the important parts of Windows 8. Now... The bland, blank Taskbar is the bland, blank Taskbar with any theme. Bland and blank are supposed to be good, right? Skeuomorphism (what an ugly disease) is supposed to be bad... Show of hands, how many think so really? Or do you think Aero Glass is still better? One of the major new features spurring the November "in-place OS reinstall" was... Wait for it... COLORED TITLE BARS! What will they think of next?!? Is this ALL the thousands of engineers working at Microsoft could do in 4 months? How many here think they personally, working alone, could have made more substantial changes? Oh, but wait, window dressing aside, that was a mere 4 months of build 10240 before we had to reinstall the whole stupid 10586 OS, only to find settings reverted, Apps reinstalled, some software incompatible, and additional online chattiness? For those running it, how many days did YOU have to spend to restore it to what you need it to be? I worked a full week to figure out what had to be re-done. And remember up above when I was talking about stability? Does anyone really think an OS that's gone through one or more in-place "upgrades" will be more stable than one that's installed afresh? Where's the 10586 ISO image? Do you know how to make your own from the .ESD file? How do you recover if 10586 becomes "unresponsive and unable to run your programs"? No, Microsoft has lost the plot about 11 ways from Sunday with Windows 10. They've clearly shown they're no longer a viable operating system company, and IMO anyone who continues to partner with them and takes whatever they're shoveling whenever they feel like it is simply being naïve and unreasonably optimistic. -Noel

I have run it on 3 monitors (a central 2560 x 1600 display and two 1600 x 1200 displays on the sides, turned up 90 degrees). So far, I've not seen a problem with this particular configuration, but it's a given I don't have the same hardware setup you have, nor do I use Nexus. Notably all my monitors are set to the same scale. As a bit of a stress test just now, since you asked, I opened up quite a few windows, and moved them all around on the 3 monitors without any problems... -Noel

Yes, but even if it runs perfectly (I haven't seen any problems on my test systems) it's simply not as good as several of its predecessors. It's not faster, it isn't easier to use, it doesn't bring new capability, it doesn't make ongoing maintenance easier, and the manufacturer is less trustworthy than ever. So why bother? Yes, I have done in-depth thinking, ROI analyses based on testing fully configured Windows 10 systems, and have even considered carefully the intangible value of "keeping current". The numbers keep coming out negative. Try to see the bigger picture, and ask yourself, what is Windows 10 doing for me? Oh, and try not to worry about all the personal data it's automatically sending to Microsoft while you're not looking... You DID review all the privacy settings, right? You DID download one or more privacy enhancing programs, right? -Noel