NoelC

Agreed. Further definition of the "new normal" that everyone is supposed to just accept. -Noel

Yes and no.There is a precedent (which may be seen both as of little relevance of the uttermost one ) where windows did not respect the user settings to have NO automatic updates and Windows Update was triggered nonetheless: http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/microsoft-updates-windows-without-users-consent/ http://www.informationweek.com/microsoft-updates-windows-without-user-permission-apologizes/d/d-id/1059183? http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-news-digest/microsoft-admits-to-stealth-updates/ Ah, that's right. Thanks for bringing that up. Though interesting, and no doubt used to justify more recent decisions, updating the updater in stealth fashion is still pretty different from updating a major version of the OS itself. Notably Microsoft deemed the act needy of apology then, even though the justification was of course that it was done purely for the good of the users ("That result would not only fail to meet customer expectations but even worse, would lead users to believe that they were secure even though there was no installation and/or notification of upgrades.") Which, of course, sidesteps the real question of "Why not just tell people they need it then do the update the way all the others had been done?" Aren't we lucky to have the whole of Microsoft watching out for us, covering up its own bugs before someone co-opts them into doing bad things? It's like having a cat that takes that little bit of extra time in the litter box after its business is done... -Noel

One need only find the site on the net and hit the [buy Now] buttons to see your localized prices. For reference, I did that and came up with these US prices: Free edition: Free Basic edition: USD $14.95 Plus edition: USD $24.95 Network/Cloud edition (the one I ended up with): USD $39.95 At this point, given where we're going with the newest systems and that we have to start protecting ourselves from the OS vendor, I'd recommend the Network/Cloud edition. It's keeping my private data off the net! -Noel

There isn't a very good way to achieve a deep color and still retain a lot of translucency (i.e., so as to look more like deeply colored glass). Do you have any flexibility in the algorithm you use to color glass areas? There was the start of a discussion some weeks ago about multiplying colors (vs. averaging them) but I'm not sure it got off the ground. See also the first part of this post... http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173827-feature-requests/#entry1098999 -Noel

Could the difference in countries be explained by the fact that Microsoft themselves have a large presence in the US? Maybe they have to keep an older system in order to get the work of developing Windows 10 done... >Windows 10 has been adopted in the first month by more people than Windows 7 No other system to date corrupted Windows Update in order to trick its users into adopting the new version. The difference is akin to whether a shopper will part with currency in a store vs. give up their wallet/purse out front at gunpoint while being mugged. Call up the Period July 2009 to February 2010 and note the shape of the Windows 7 curve. It's not curved! THAT's where the real story lies. And XP lost initially to Windows 7. But there were some bumps in the curves. We shall see. Will Microsoft release something in the next couple of months that people will think is genuine innovation? That they will crave? That's got to be the idea. Keep boosting those adoption curves. Can they pull it off? -Noel

Cool. Poke around a bit on this site; see how it's cross-linked. Look at the links near the tops and bottoms of pages. There's a lot of good info here you may be missing. -Noel

Unfortunately, for those in the know the story just isn't so bright. The integration that was once there is just gone - now desktop applications and Apps look like they're from two different systems entirely. Big fonts, small fonts, links in the Settings App to remnants of old Control Panel applets. The quality of the Apps is such that it's barely possible to find any use in them and the store is just littered with junkware. Multimedia functionality is removed. The Start menu isn't nearly as efficient or functional as 3rd party software for organizing things. The desktop lacks configurability and elegance. Cortana sounds like a cool idea for about 30 seconds then you find out how bad it actually works in practice. And as far as integration with the Internet goes... Ignorance is bliss. You have no idea how much data your computer is sending out. What's even more amazing is what they've failed to do at Microsoft. -Noel

Yeah, maybe I should have called this a "sub-forum". In short, start here: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/180-aero-glass-for-windows-8/ -Noel

A lot of those came in with the high-end version. And yes, I see justification in having every one of them. I don't know whether the configuration from one variant of the software can be loaded into another variant - and I understand that one person's choices don't always reflect another's needs - but I'm willing to go into specifics and share my approach and settings if there's interest. -Noel

You didn't see this very thread appear, pinned right at the top of the forum? I'm not being critical, I'm just wondering how you would suggest he should announce a new version if not this way. -Noel

Isn't that what this thread is? An announcement of the availability of the new version? Or are you thinking of eMail? It's actually fairly difficult to eMail a large number of people. It's easy to get blocked and labeled as a spammer. -Noel

Ah, I think you mean the visual difference because of the slight light colored gradient at the top of the title bar. -Noel

Sure, here you go (the whole thing). There are probably a few duplicates; I don't try to rid it of them, since that would make merging new data from various sources harder. http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/Win81/hosts.zip Note that the September MVPS hosts file hasn't yet been released, but should be in a few days. -Noel

Hm, didn't seem to help much. I can try to cut yet another row of pixels off. I'll post back when I have done so. -Noel

Thanks to the recommendation of xpclient I've bought a firewall management product for use on my Win 8.1 system et. al. called: Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control Yes, it works with Win 8.1. It has Win 10 in the name because I guess they feel the need for it to sound current. I think it was originally called Windows Vista Firewall Control. It's effective. Here's a review. Background A few weeks ago I decided I'd take more control of my system security. Over the years I had already made many system changes to enhance privacy and maximize security. These involved: Deconfiguring all "participate in Customer Experience Improvement Program" settings. Using only a local account. De-installing software (e.g. OneDrive, Windows Store stuff, etc.), disabling services that intrude, disabling scheduled jobs that send data into Microsoft. Not running any Metro/Modern Apps. I simply don't need 'em. Adding tens of thousands of lines to my "hosts" file to locally resolve server names known for providing badware and for snooping to 0.0.0.0 (i.e., to have network accesses to them by name fail). De-configuring Internet Explorer's ability to run ActiveX and let scripts run wild. De-configuring Windows Update from doing anything without my initiating it. My goals are fairly simple Allow anything initiated by me that I know needs to communicate online, while minimizing the risk of extra privacy-invading communications, and completely eliminating spurious communications not initiated by me. I wasn't sure it was possible. Would (my legitimately licensed) Windows 8.1 deactivate itself if it can't regularly contact the mothership? Would Windows Update stop working? Would the level of communications be so high that I would never be able to ferret-out what needs to be allowed and what needs to be blocked? I'm here to say that the Sphinx software does allow enough control and management capability to accomplish these goals. It does seem possible to shut the system the hell up and have it do only what *I* want! Recent History Unfortunately, looking over the amount network traffic my system was generating, I found it was still way too chatty. Not like what we're hearing about Windows 10, mind you, but still WAY too promiscuous online. Even Task Manager tallied up megabytes of data traffic overnight when I wasn't doing anything. The dreaded telemetry? Sending of my personal data to Microsoft to "help them make Windows better"? I decided to see if it was possible to institute a "deny by default" outgoing firewall strategy that was 1) doable and 2) manageable long-term. In another thread recently I outlined my initial attempts at this, which were somewhat successful but lacked the reporting and organizational capacity for me to be able to manage the process in an ongoing way. Enter Sphinx. Again, thanks to xpclient for the recommendation. I started by evaluating the base edition in a VM. Basically, download, install, and wonder what to do next - the standard stuff. After a little while, looking over the package and reading the manual, the realization began to dawn how this firewall manager views the world: 1. It denies all communications by default. 2. It defines Zones - basically groups of rules that accomplish something, such as "allow typical web browsing" or "allow LAN-only communications". 3. It facilitates your defininition and management of a list of Programs. Basically, an entry in this list says "let Program xxxxxxxx do what's in the Zone that's assigned to it". 4. It does NOT attempt to control anything you've already set up in the Windows Advanced Firewall. It works completely separately, even though it uses the underlying security engine provided by Windows. As an example, you might set up Internet Explorer to be in the WebBrowser zone, then make sure the WebBrowser zone allows only the communications you want web browsers to be able to do. By crafty creation of Zones (and/or modification of the Zones provided, which are pretty good), one can build up a set of rules that allows what you define to be essential communications and nothing else. The base version provides a few pre-defined Zones. It turns out the more expensive editions have more (and more detailed) pre-defined zones. The program pops up a notification if it spots a Program it doesn't already have an entry trying to communicate online. THAT access was denied, but using the pop-up you can define a new Program entry, so you can allow the next one - if you want to. Thus you can build up the list of Programs that try to do network access by doing the things you normally do, then make informed decisions about whether to allow them to communicate online. The program also provides, besides the above pop-ups, a small one or two line status pop-up in the corner of the monitor that shows what's just happened, and an Events page where you can see a list of all networking activities attempted (blocked or allowed). It's possible to get a pretty good feel for what's happening with this software. Over time, just by using the system it becomes possible to build a list of just what you want to allow, and to either continue to log messages on the screen and in the Event log or hide the messages entirely from either place. You can, for example, once you're confident in your WebBrowserZone settings, just hide the activity of your web browser from the Events tab and from popping up. That way you can more easily concentrate on what's left. I reduced the rule set in the Windows Advanced Firewall to nothing. Only the Sphinx setup now governs my entire system. Which edition As I mentioned above, Initially I installed the base version. However, after evaluating that variant in a VM and seeing what I could do with it, I chose to buy the "Plus" edition, and with that achieved a pretty good configuration in which very little was getting out. But I craved more control and asked the author (on their forum) whether it's possible to get more granularity (e.g., WHICH service is trying to communicate?). They noted that their "Network/Cloud" edition gives more control and allowed me to upgrade the license for an incremental price. Since the Network/Cloud edition allows you to set up firewalls on your main system and 3 additional "slave" systems, I've decided to set up my whole stable of systems and VMs with this software. At this point I've found a minor glitch with the control setup (adding "Agents") and they're working on a bugfix. -Noel

Nobody gets it. Microsoft may simply be struggling to do all they can with who they have on staff. -Noel

Hater! You're supposed to enjoy the fact that you've had the privilege of using something new! -Noel

I had to reboot to install something, and now I can confirm that the "lock screen breakup while sliding up" problem is fixed in 1.4.1. -Noel

Principles are for old guys! Besides, marketing people are in charge, and they need to reset the clock so there can be a whole new run up of successes as their engineers "improve" things. Again. -Noel

True. The Internet of Things is getting rather intrusive. Perhaps a mountain man then. Hah? What trouble? -Noel

Privacy is a very real and valid concern. As an example, with everything I have been able to deconfigure via settings, block via a hosts file, and tweak in my registry, my Win 8.1 system STILL tried last night to contact (and was blocked from contacting, note the red arrows) these external addresses: Note the large repeat counts. It doesn't give up! I get a kick out of some of the server names. I haven't yet achieved an optimal configuration of my Win 10 setup yet. I'm waiting on an update to the firewall management/control software before I can accomplish that. -Noel

I hear you. I'm glad I bought a big workstation when I did. It might be good enough for a few more years. After that maybe I'll retire and take up farming. -Noel

After a few more days I see I am still dead-on w/regard to the projected Win 10 adoption curve, though Win 7 may have dropped a bit more than I predicted. But... Amazingly - if anything Win 8.1 usage appears to have started to level off MORE than I predicted. People must like even Win 8.1 better than 10 (I know I do). -Noel

@Gatharian, I'm starting to believe that if you spent half the time learning how to edit a theme atlas that you are spending asking over and over for a one pixel fix you'd have fixed it yourself by now. At this point you've wasted everyone's time by reading through so many copies of the same post that you owe to all of us to make the fix and post the result. C'mon, you're capable of adding a balloon window with a drop shadow to an image. You're clearly no stranger to image editing. This is how you get things for yourself that satisfy your desires. What image editor are you using? Does it represent transparency? Can you figure out which are the button fills when you open the Theme Atlas? What happens when you delete a row of pixels from the top of each (making them transparent)? -Noel

@Tripredacus, the only UDP I see that goes outside is an occasional time sync request to 191.233.81.105:123. There are multicasts but they're link-local and/or not getting outside my router (nor is IPv6 going anywhere outside my LAN). I am presently waiting for an update to the Sphinx Windows Firewall Control software to solve a minor issue I've encountered in using it to manage multiple systems. @TELVM, I agree, blow that SmartScreen garbage away! Near as I can tell Microsoft has not yet corrupted their own firewall by building a path around it. This is one of the reasons I like the Sphinx Windows Firewall Control software. It's just a management interface to the system firewall, which is quite effective. -Noel