NoelC

I think it must have been deemed spam by the mods. It was a guy trying to sell a disk compression solution. If you'd like to talk about improving Windows performance, please start a thread. It's a subject that interests me greatly. -Noel

Not very many phones, from what I hear. -Noel

So far, with all the cumulative updates that have been delivered for build 10240, the answer has been no. I still have only one AppxPackage left: Microsoft.Appconnector. -Noel

Well, "underneath it all it's still Windows" is actually a Good Thing. I can still run stuff from the 1990s. 20 years is an eternity. The real problem is that the "new" stuff isn't as functional as that stuff from the 1990s. And a whole helluva lot of people in the world are too stupid to see it (recalling that graph that shows upwards of 100 million people now running Windows 10). I'd like to hope they're all running it like I am - as a test in a VM - but I know that's not the case. 100 million people (!!) duped into believing Microsoft is innovating. 100 million people who STILL think Microsoft is trustworthy. 100 million people swayed by fashion over function. 100 million people buying stuff at the App Store. -Noel

But of course! That's why I left you slot 72 to do just that. In all seriousness, it has crossed my mind that it is more than irritating that there would be some who would call that a success. Optimism is fine for people, but for companies it strikes me more as Marketing trying (yet again) to mislead the public. I so fondly remember when hard work was the way to success. -Noel

Interesting that something deemed not good enough for Vista is now a banner feature, eh? I've yet to think of a practical use for multiple desktops on my workstation, though I'm quite familiar with the idea of separate desktops - I use virtual machines and RDP all the time. But the point with those is not to have a desktop hidden somewhere, it's to bring them on the same screen with other things, and do stuff like copy from one, paste to the other... -Noel

FYI, my test system made it through the night (with the Windows Update service Disabled) without trying to contact a single outside server. However, during the day today, without a configuration change but with some desktop activity by me, it DID contact several systems that are whitelisted for Windows Update. Was that an activation check? A check for certificate validity/revocation? Not sure. -Noel

Sorry, I meant to include a link. You can see the legend here: http://gs.statcounter.com/#desktop-os-ww-daily-20150701-20150930 Blue is Windows XP.Purple is OS X.The dotted one is "other". -Noel

I tried disabling the AppModel StateRepository Service, eliminating one more svchost.exe process. The system still booted up okay, but unfortunately no longer was it possible to open the Notification / Action Center pull-out. I did notice that, for the first time, it did NOT log the System Error normally seen complaining that DCOM Server: CortanaUI is unavailable. Looks like a connection there. I wish they wouldn't have made such a hodgepodge combo out of these oil and water systems. How they could even imagine a way to release such a half-baked setup... Sigh... Any normal project designer would have created a whole new shell. I tried running Win 10 for a little while without taskhostw.exe (having terminated it manually) and didn't see any obvious problems, but that wasn't a controlled test. A longer, more controlled test of that is next. -Noel

Win 10 surges ahead - though it's still touching the pixels of my ORIGINAL prediction, now a month old. Looks like Win 7 usage might actually be recovering. -Noel

FYI, with the Windows Update service completely disabled, my Windows 10 test VM didn't contact anyone last night, though it DID make several contacts today (23.14.84.57:80, 23.14.84.48:80, 93.184.215.200:80). This represents a reduction - but notably NOT elimination - of online chattiness. -Noel

Better'n'better. I'm going to have to get a good Linux setup running in a VM and start setting it up to optimize my work, to see what I can and can't do. There are a few tools I use heavily under Windows and I need to be sure there's an equivalent in Linux... Most everything else I can run in a virtual machine. Off the top of my head, those that I will need to find a just-as-good equivalent to... Tortoise SVNScooter Software's Beyond CompareVisual StudiogrepWin (system searches)I use several text editors now, and one really great one would be nice.Some kind of Outlook emulator.A PDF viewer, Word file editor Looking forward to a reasonable scripting language. Hm, this is kind of dredging up that old excitement I used to feel about new operating systems...

Can you run Visual Studio Community Edition under WINE? -Noel

Sure, right up until they deactivate your Windows installation. Good luck getting your money back. -Noel

By the way, no one's mentioned the "Multiple Desktop" feature so far. I've not found a desire for it personally as I have multiple monitors and lots of desktop space. Even without that somehow I feel as though I'd still prefer to have one integrated desktop layout. I think positionally, and if something (e.g., my icon to start Visual Studio) weren't where I expected it because I was on a different desktop I believe I'd find that frustrating. Anyone using the Multiple Desktop feature? Can you describe using it briefly, as a play by play, and how it's useful to you? -Noel

I think that's correct, with the exception that if you joined the insider program early on you got a pre-release build that could ultimately be upgraded to the released version and remain activated. Microsoft made some noise that if you didn't STAY on the insider track this license "would eventually expire", though I haven't seen it do so yet. I've often wondered whether, if you were to have a Windows 7 or 8 virtual machine, clone it, then upgrade the clone to Windows 10 would you continue to be able to run both. I've not tried this as my Win 10 VM was achieved per plan A above. -Noel

1. Firewall management is not for everyone; I'd say it's master mechanic level material, based on the effort I'm putting into it and the skillsets I have to rely upon - especially the initial effort. And it's not the kind of thing that can be fully generalized... Everyone's system is different. The overall strategy for blocking by default and allowing just the addresses required of the right system entities might be somewhat portable, but I'm guessing that the lists of "whitelist" addresses I've developed might be good for my neighbor, but less good for someone in a different part of the world. Just as an example, one must decide the right thing to do when the firewall reports: "Blocked Host Process for Windows Services (NetworkServices) from accessing 123.45.67.89:443"... Do I allow it in the future or was this an attempt to spill beans I don't want spilled?Who owns that address? What does the particular port number imply? What's not working in the system because that was blocked? Were errors logged? Ideally I'd want to find the root cause of it trying in the first place to make that contact. Is it Windows Update trying to do a secret update in the background? A service that needs to be Disabled by default? Some of these take more than I know, and I have to guess and see what happens. 2. If someone were to publish a program what would provide a turnkey setup to block everything, soup to nuts (thinking, for example, of a super duper ShutUp10), and which effectively cuts off what Microsoft wants to collect - desperately wants - then I imagine Microsoft's legal team might swing into action and squash them. All the users DID sign a contract that says "Microsoft is allowed to collect..." 3. My goals aren't others' goals. I have no current interest whatsoever in Metro/Modern/Universal Apps, for example. That makes things I choose to do not applicable to those who DO want to run such Apps. I don't have enough time left in my life to generalize the task into something everyone could live with. And we can't ignore that in the next 4 months Microsoft IS going to change the system, making things I've done possibly obsolete. Make that probably. FYI, I'm already having to do much of the same stuff with Win 8.1. Win 7, not so much, though Microsoft is striving to change that through Windows Update. My best advice for now would be to run O & O ShutUp10 for the biggest privacy gain. Tonight, by the way, I have disabled the Windows Update service entirely - something I didn't want to have to do because it makes it that much more difficult to actually DO a Windows Update operation (which will involve Enabling and Starting the service first). I will leave the monitor pointed to the Win 10 VM tonight see if it tries to contact anyone it shouldn't. So far, in about half an hour I haven't seen the firewall block anything, so this a hopeful step. -Noel

Just installed the latest cumulative update, KB3093266... Re-ran the latest O & O ShutUp10 and saw a few new entries I wanted to change, but surprisingly the update didn't undo any of the changes from before. I did just change the Windows Update service to Disabled to see if it really shuts up the nightly attempts to contact servers all over the place. Of course I'll manually enable it and run Windows Update occasionally... Sigh, we're such a long way from where we ought to be, where we can just have it run on automatic and accept Windows Updates. At least it still passes an SFC check. Anyway, I mention all this because it means now I need to check for regressions and to get familiar with everything that's running for a while. I see the "Windows Connect Now Config Registrar" is running where it wasn't before... Sigh... Thanks for the additional info, maxXPsoft. I haven't yet had much time to research ubpm.dll in any great detail. -Noel

--JorgeA Emphasis mine. Except it's not "or", it's "and". Look at the list of servers Windows 10 tried to contact last night with ALL of the above done and NO applications running. These are the things I have done to this system: Note that one of the requests actually got through the firewall (noting the green arrow), because it's an address required to successfully do a Windows Update. My next step: Disabling the Windows Update service, then selectively enabling / starting it ONLY when I want to check for updates. I believe that should cut down on the above. We'll see. Thing is, Microsoft has already stated that a system that's not regularly in contact with Windows Update will ultimately be excluded from eligibility to receive updates entirely. Should we have to rely on our last line of defense (firewall) to protect ourselves from the OS maker? Would a system with so many built-in bugs be any good without staying current with Windows Update? What positives are there that would offset all of this ongoing effort (to manage the firewall and to jump through hoops to do updates)? -Noel

As were many of us. But they skipped 9 - which would have been the "good" one. They're clearly incapable of doing it any more, which evokes the deepest sadness. We have seen the golden age of computing come and go. Welcome to MSFN, where there is an uncommonly high percentage of people with common sense. -Noel Didn't Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde used to be considered a monster? To be avoided at all costs if you valued your life and health?

I think it's a "self sufficiency" test. ;-) -Noel

Some new info: Setting the Tile Data model server service to Disabled stops quite a few processes from starting at the expense of it maybe taking a few extra seconds to log in (I didn't do an objective measurement). Consider this list of processes, after having booted and logged into the system, then let it settle without any applications running: Without the several processes that are unique to my setup the list of running processes would be in the mid 30s, and I see about 1 GB of RAM used. Not terribly different from a tweaked, lean Win 7 system. I guess I've been pretty successful here... Note that nowhere in the above list do we see, from my original post in this thread: InstallAgent.exeRuntimeBroker.exeSettingSyncHost.exeShellExperienceHost.exesvchost running UnistackSvcGroup But bear in mind that with the Tile Data model server service set to Disabled some apparently necessary services from the above list DO auto-start if I open the Notifications slide-out or start the Settings App. The bad news is that once they've started they don't seem to ever want to self-exit. But still, once you have a system fairly completely set up, you might not visit the Settings App nor need to open the Notifications slide-out. I'm not sure whether just having a notification pop up on the corner of the screen would start those services. Now I need to use the system like this for a while to see what if anything doesn't work right. Edit: An odd side effect of not running the Tile Data model server... The only Modern App I run, Settings, no longer shows up in Alt - Tab listings - yet I can start it (e.g., by the little icon in the corner of the Notifications slide-out) and interact with it. This tells me that the architecture - if you can call it that - of Windows 10 is a real mess. I still haven't found out what starts taskhostw.exe. -Noel

And that's actually a good reason - if gaming is important to you. It illustrates my point: Microsoft clearly wants as many people as possible to adopt Windows 10. Gamers have the DirectX 12 thing to incentivize them.Phone / tablet users presumably have the Modern / Universal Apps to attract them.Serious / business computer users have... Crickets Who didn't get the memo to make the new Must Have features for business users? -Noel

Yes, because I know exactly how it works and the security model - while not set up well out of the box - is arguably the best of all the browsers when reconfigured to be much less promiscuous. I have been using IE since the beginning. For me it's been and still is the best choice. It shows me what I want to see online very quickly, and I've never had an infection. Is there something not to like? I'm not seeing it. -Noel

Which windows? I ask because the white blur behind the text for ribbon-enabled windows is achieved a different way than for other windows. Big Muscle's Aero Glass Configuration GUI Tool can be used to set the title glow up generally, though your theme atlas may need some work to supply the right colored / density glow. Big Muscle's UxThemeSignatureBypass contains something to help restore the title glow to Explorer, WordPad, and other ribbon-enabled windows. Big Muscle's ModernFrame helps make Modern App window chrome look like the theme, and thus support title glow. -Noel