NoelC

Thanks for the additional insights. Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586] C:\TEMP>dir c:\windows\tasks Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 20A1-EC28 Directory of c:\windows\tasks 11/13/2015 08:50 PM <DIR> . 11/13/2015 08:50 PM <DIR> .. 07/29/2015 11:41 AM 918 GoogleUpdateTaskMachineCore.job 07/29/2015 11:41 AM 922 GoogleUpdateTaskMachineUA.job 2 File(s) 1,840 bytes 2 Dir(s) 33,522,401,280 bytes free C:\TEMP>dir c:\windows\system32\tasks Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 20A1-EC28 Directory of c:\windows\system32\tasks 11/13/2015 08:51 PM <DIR> . 11/13/2015 08:51 PM <DIR> .. 11/13/2015 08:50 PM 3,014 Adobe Acrobat Update Task 11/13/2015 08:50 PM 2,816 AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0-W10PVM-NoelC 11/15/2015 03:16 PM 2,482 Aero Glass 11/13/2015 08:50 PM 3,270 GoogleUpdateTaskMachineCore 11/13/2015 08:50 PM 3,494 GoogleUpdateTaskMachineUA 10/30/2015 02:24 AM <DIR> Microsoft 07/17/2015 05:19 AM <DIR> OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform 11/13/2015 08:50 PM 2,354 SpeechRuntimeTask 11/17/2015 09:24 AM 2,750 WizMouse 7 File(s) 20,180 bytes 4 Dir(s) 33,522,335,744 bytes free C:\TEMP>dir c:\windows\syswow64\tasks Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 20A1-EC28 Directory of c:\windows\syswow64\tasks 10/30/2015 02:24 AM <DIR> . 10/30/2015 02:24 AM <DIR> .. 10/30/2015 02:24 AM <DIR> Microsoft 0 File(s) 0 bytes 3 Dir(s) 33,522,335,744 bytes free -Noel

Yes. It's a full OS "in-place upgrade" install, not just a "cumulative update", and it takes a looong time even on a fast computer. Files, yeah, but not settings. Thing is, many settings ARE preserved, which implies it's technically possible - and that means the settings reverted are purposefully being changed by Microsoft. I wonder if it's the same in countries with laws that take privacy very seriously. -Noel

Oops, I'm sorry, it looks like I posted my 10586 report in the wrong thread - I didn't see that note because I haven't been reading here very carefully. Someone please move it over to the other thread, please. -Noel

FYI, your version 491 for build 10586 seems to work fine with a 10586 system recently upgraded from 10240. I seem to be losing the will to keep updating my theme atlas, though (for now I'm using your Win 10 RP atlas and just calling it a day). No doubt I could make my prior atlas graphic work with the proper .layout file, but even just taking the time to create that is turning out to be more work than I want to do. Microsoft's strategy to wear us down is working. The excitement about a new version of Windows is gone. -Noel

Yes, the Windows 10 build 10586 in-place upgrade to 10240 DOES: Revert many settings, including privacy settingsReinstall / re-enable features you have specifically removed or disabled, including Apps, services, scheduled tasks.Break selected 3rd party productivity or usability improving accessories. Anecdotally, when Aero Glass was young, I got great pleasure from creating my own theme atlas graphics, so I could have the shading of the title bars, the buttons, the borders, and the drop shadows just as I like them. All that's been reorganized AGAIN with 10586. I'm losing the will to continue making new graphics atlases to match and haven't bothered yet doing so. Keep in mind I'm only running Win 10 on a virtual machine without any significant purpose other than to test on. Meanwhile my 8.1 desktop has remained stable and usable all throughout this Win 10 madness. So let's see... Constant Win 10 upgrades that make you spend literally days or weeks to reconfigure and get just right, settings reversions you have to keep on top of, and nothing new or interesting to offset that pain; all the while the older operating systems just run and run stably. Yeah, let me get right on making Win 10 my chosen desktop system. NOT! -Noel

No, everyhing still is as it was after removing them all. Only thing I see reverting after I disable it is the real-time protection of Windows Defender. I suggest the System Restore is what put things back for you. Microsoft wouldn't miss an opportunity to restore the mighty Metro universe. And yes, it's much faster without all those processes running. Almost as fast as a well-tuned Win 7 system - but not quite. How many processes do you have running after booting up and just allowing the system to sit quietly for 10 minutes or so with nothing running? I'm seeing about 40, but 10 are things I've added to the system: aerohost.exe / conhost.exe - Beta Aero Glass for Win 8+ ClassicStartMenu.exe - Classic Shell ProcessHacker.exe - Program to list these processes ShellFolderFixUI.exe - Program to pre-position Explorer windows. TSVNCache.exe - Tortoise Subversion shell extension to Explorer vmtoolsd.exe x 2 - VMware tools daemons, for my username and SYSTEM Windows10FirewallService - Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control WizMouse.exe - Program that sends mouse events to whatever window is under the mouse -Noel

That looks like a nice tool. I'll give it a try. Thanks! -Noel

The system wouldn't allow it until following the instructions at intika's github site. -Noel

This was exactly the issue. IsInBox got reset back to 1 for Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.6.1.52_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy. So I went through it again, this time prepping some batch files to help me get the database files deleted then recopied very quickly. 3rd time was the charm! Now: PS C:\TEMP> Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Select Name Name ---- Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost windows.immersivecontrolpanel Microsoft.AccountsControl -Noel

That may not be actually true - it was just a guess, because what I see doesn't really look editable. Look for example in the Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Task Scheduler entry. In my Win 10 10586 test system, it's empty. Now look in registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Schedule \ TaskCache \ Tree \ Microsoft \ Windows \ TaskScheduler. There are sub-key entries there, e.g., Idle Maintenance, with a big SD value that is REG_BINARY and contains nothing readable. -Noel

WUDFHost.exe stopped after I disabled the Microsoft Visual Studio Location Simulator Sensor in the Device Manager. svchost.exe running UnistackSvcGroup doesn't start after Disabling UserDataSvc, UnistoreSvc, PimIndexMaintenanceSvc and OneSyncSvc. -Noel

Yes, here we are again with build 10586, which restored bunches of unwanted stuff, reset many preferences (especially in the realm of privacy), and re-enabled many Task Scheduler entries. O&O Shut Up 10 shows massive reversions. I'm looking at the following running processes in build 10586 at the moment, wondering once again how to send them to oblivion... ApplicationFrameHost.exe RuntimeBroker.exe SearchUI.exe ShellExperienceHost.exe sihost.exe svchost.exe running the UnistackSvcGroup SystemSettings.exe WUDFHost.exe Glad I posted this thread before; my notes are a bit weak on this subject. -Noel

Now that Task Scheduler entries are encrypted, I'd like to see the specifics for certain entries, yet some are "super-hidden" - i.e., they don't show even though they're there. Do you know of any tweak to make the Task Scheduler show these super-hidden entries? I'm sure the Microsoft people must be able to see them to set them up. -Noel

Do the things I list at the following thread and you'll be FAR less open to attack than Microsoft leaves you right out of the box, even with a fully "patched" machine. http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173660-anti-malware-suggestions/ -Noel

Yes, that's the exact output from the command shown. I can't say it works right yet, but I can log in and do stuff on the desktop. I haven't yet quieted it down from trying to talk online, primarily I think because of Cortana. I had her completely removed from the 10240 build. Edit O&O Shut Up 10 tool showed a LOT of privacy settings had been reverted. -Noel

That's just laughable... Microsoft's position is that "We originally built it to barely hang together, and when someone discovers yet another vulnerability you NEED us to swing into action to patch it or it'll fall down on you." Just think about that crap! Microsoft manages and leverages mediocrity better than any entity on the planet. -Noel

Here's what I've accomplished so far: PS C:\TEMP> Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name Name ---- Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost windows.immersivecontrolpanel Microsoft.AccountsControl Microsoft.Windows.Cortana PS C:\TEMP> DISM /Online /Get-ProvisionedAppxPackages Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.10586.0 Image Version: 10.0.10586.0 Getting the list of app packages (.appx or .appxbundle) in this image... The operation completed successfully. I am still working on getting rid of Cortana. Again. Oh, and the addresses to update things like the Windows Defender database all appear to have changed. -Noel

So what's the bottom line with the tools and best way to accomplish the removal of practically all components from Win 10 build 10586? So far, this is what I have been able to accomplish in just a few moments with a combo of the various above approaches: PS C:\TEMP> Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name Name ---- Microsoft.VCLibs.120.00 Microsoft.VCLibs.120.00 Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.1.1 Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.1.1 Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.1 Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.1 Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00 Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00 Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.1.0 Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.1.0 Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.0 Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.0 Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost windows.immersivecontrolpanel Microsoft.AccountsControl Microsoft.Windows.Cortana PS C:\TEMP> DISM /Online /Get-ProvisionedAppxPackages Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.10586.0 Image Version: 10.0.10586.0 Getting the list of app packages (.appx or .appxbundle) in this image... The operation completed successfully. Unfortunately, Cortana is still there... Apparently setting the IsInBox value to 0 isn't enough. PS C:\TEMP> Remove-AppxPackage -Package Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.6.1.52_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy Remove-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CFA, Removal failed. Please contact your software vendor. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80073CFA) error 0x80070032: AppX Deployment Remove operation on package Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.6.1.52_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy from: C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy failed. This app is part of Windows and cannot be uninstalled on a per-user basis. An administrator can attempt to remove the app from the computer using Turn Windows Features on or off. However, it may not be possible to uninstall the app. NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 2c339984-1edf-0007-53a8-332cdf1ed101 in the Event Log or use the command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 2c339984-1edf-0007-53a8-332cdf1ed101 At line:1 char:1 + Remove-AppxPackage -Package Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.6.1.52_neutra ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : WriteError: (Microsoft.Windo...l_cw5n1h2txyewy:String) [Remove-AppxPackage], IOException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.RemoveAppxPackageCommand Edit: Never mind. Apparently I didn't quite get the process of killing the services / processes right (given that they auto-restart now in 10586). Edit 2: Hm, Cortana has returned. PS C:\TEMP> Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name Name ---- Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost windows.immersivecontrolpanel Microsoft.AccountsControl Microsoft.Windows.Cortana PS C:\TEMP> DISM /Online /Get-ProvisionedAppxPackages Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.10586.0 Image Version: 10.0.10586.0 Getting the list of app packages (.appx or .appxbundle) in this image... The operation completed successfully. Cortana must die! -Noel

As has been mentioned, now how many re-themers are going to put in all the effort to re-theme Windows 10.10586 again, just to accomplish the same things? People are going to get tired quickly. I sense the culmination of Microsoft's stupid idea of rolling out in-place updates will seal the end of Windows 10, and especially for anyone thinking that "Windows as a service" might have any merit. Those using Windows for frivolity might be willing to bend a bit. Those considering using it for anything serious most likely hadn't even whipped build 10240 into shape yet. Business takes literally YEARS to roll out new OS builds, because things all have to WORK. The real shame is that all they'd have had to do to make it palatable is to provide all the configurability necessary to allow people to make it into what they want (and have that configuration persist). It's not like we're re-theming it and tweaking it to be something more or different than what it once was. -Noel

Nope, not unexpected at all. But disappointing to know we were so very right nonetheless. This is the same Microsoft that sends out the Windows Updates to older systems. You've long since disabled those entirely, right? -Noel P.S., Jorge, what did you find was broken with Classic Shell? It popped-up a "needs to reconfigure" dialog for me after the first logon, then seems to be working.

Build 10586 downloaded and installed on my Win 10 test VM this evening. All Apps that were de-provisioned have been restored. It's trying to talk to BingBot servers again. Many configuration tweaks that I had applied have been wiped out. It's early so I don't know if there's some combo of download and settings to restore Aero Glass for Win 8+ operation. All I know is the desktop now SUCKS, big time. Yep, pretty much everything expected has been undone and screwed up by Microsoft. MAN, am I glad this is not the desktop I have to be productive with tomorrow morning. -Noel

By the way, have you any idea how to accomplish this feat (removal of all Apps, including winstore) on Win 8.1? I'm just curious, as I was poking around to see what similarities there are and I found that there is no StateRepository-Machine.srd on that system. -Noel

Just for another perspective... For a programmer, Vista and newer DO offer a lot of new features that never were available in XP. Making code continue to work for XP is not trivial or free. There may be things that can't even be conceived without the APIs available for only systems newer than XP. Support in development tools for building for XP is waning too, though with some effort it can still be done. That won't keep forever. At the least continuing to support XP is more expensive, and at the worst it could block the ongoing development of new features the users want. As a software product developer myself, I have dropped XP support in my new products as of a few months ago. That's not a conspiracy, it's a recognition that products can actually work better on better systems. Projecting forward... If you want to list all the NEW features that systems newer than Vista have added that people can't live without. That's a smaller list for sure. Microsoft stopped improving Win32 quite a long time ago. -Noel

Good lord, 700,000 people a day are discovering Microsoft's loss of integrity. -Noel

Should be referred to as the "Hidden Cost Upgrade". -Noel