NotHereToPlayGames

Win7 required a registry hack to power down the USB port when the device connected to that port was "removed" via built-in removal. Google it, hundreds of articles on it. Here is but one of them -- https://winaero.com/fix-usb-device-remains-active-after-you-safely-eject-it-in-windows-7-or-windows-8/ Here is another -- https://www.groovypost.com/howto/windows-safely-remove-usb-devices-power-off/

I do not, nor ever have, used any "preload" functions. It's just a fancy way of saying "We are spying on you and trying to predict your next click, we will load our prediction in the background so that when you do make that click, we have half that page already loaded." Think about it, that means that if the "algorithm" made a WRONG PREDICTION, then the algorithm made a connection to a web site that you yourself never actually visited.

I did. I went from XP to 10. But still use ALL of my XP programs. No new programs other than now I use Ungoogled Chromium v114 as my web browser. Re: desktop shortcut -- https://superuser.com/questions/443162/remove-usb-device-from-command-line

Unsure if that is what the OP wants or not. But I do know that is why I do NOT use Windows built-in removal function ever since using Win7 on machines at work (removing USB-based Optical Inspection cameras forced machines to reset if removed while still POWERED). This was never an issue with Embedded XP. It IS an issue with Win7 and various versions of KDE (Linux). I cannot speak to whether Microsoft fixed this DESIGN FLAW with Vista/8/8.1/10/11.

Thanks. I personally disable WU and will also now be disabling these CTL updates. "My computer, my preference."

Intriguing. I'll see if I can find anything this evening. I'd be flagged by IT in three different countries if I so much as downloaded Supermium or Thorium here at work. Irony there is they've never noticed my 360Chrome 1030 but they did "slap my hand" when I tried 2044.

I have tried Privoxy. Hated it! May work for other's needs, but not mine.

Agreed! SNAKE OIL

Not a bug, it's a design flaw. That's how Windows 7 ejects a USB flash drive. That's how KDE (Linux) ejects a USB flash drive. XP will power down on eject without any third-party apps. Unsure on 10 as I migrated my USB Safely Remove from XP installations.

I use "USB Safely Remove" because I had it when I ran XP which was right up to just a month ago. It's a "must" for me because the built-in modern Windows USB eject does not power down the USB device first, the built-in will halt all read/write activity but it forces you to remove the USB device WHILE POWERED.

Why open any window at all? And why minimize anything you have open in order to access a desktop shortcut? What you want is a utility that sits in your systray next to the clock. Hover over the icon, eject USB. Takes two seconds with no windows at all and only one mouse click. Zentimo xStorage Manager is one such utility. I'm sure that others exist as well.

If it's a site you use all the time, a simple css replacement in something like Stylus is a very easy solution.

Email servers and communication protocols are "above my paygrade". My mantra is that if you are ONLINE, then your privacy is compromised. "End of story." We each, every one of us, has to decide just where to draw the line. On one extreme, you live in a hill, no phone service, no electricity, no running water, in a house weaved together from small tree limbs. On the other extreme, you're on FACEBOOK or TIKTOK but cite privacy or security "concerns" on web sites like MSFN.

Sending on a postcard is hilarious. Secure is secure only if all the players follow the rules. The last three "certified" letters I received via United States Postal Service were left at my house without so much as a SIGNATURE acknowledging receipt. H3ll, one of those three was left on my front door step where any light breeze could have sent it flying.

Bingo! I once had an ONLINE bank account try to DENY me an account because I *refused* to give them an email address for them to SOLICIT. I had to include THEIR corporate lawyers - it is ILLEGAL to conduct FINANCIAL BUSINESS over email, therefore you do NOT "need" my email address. NONE of my bank accounts have an email address!!! NONE of them. I do not need three emails telling me my statement is ready, four emails to confirm/verify a transfer between accounts, seven emails to solicit me into an account type I did not ask for, et cetera.

It's not just your e-mail address. It's also your phone number. Whenver I try to so much as get a haircut, they ask for my phone number. When I tell them "zero" they get all offensive so I tell them, I do not own a phone, so that makes my phone number ZERO.

AGREED! I remember telling DOZENS of mobile phone users that were begging for their landline number to be trasnferred to their mobile that they are not thinking through the consequences.

What do you drive? I drive an "Ungoogled Jeep with Chrome rims."

Very true. I only cite Proxomitron's POWER because if people want to STAY on XP, they can NOT do this just with polyfills alone. They will also need a way to do things that Proxomitron and Proxomitron ALONE can do. Two such examples that I required when still on XP + 360Chrome is the ability to "degrade" a CSS Level 4 :not() to a Level 3 :not() and the ability to "defuse" a CSS :where(). https://caniuse.com/?search=%3Anot()%20level%204 https://caniuse.com/?search=%3Awhere And only only ONLY with Proxomitron can you take a javascript section of code that is 150 pages long and rip 50 of those pages completely out and only send 100 pages to the browser. They are ripped out before the browser ever sees them, before uBO ever sees them, before NoScript ever sees them, before uMatrix ever sees them, et cetera. And they don't have to be 50 consecutive "pages", you can rip out page 2, page 12, pages, 20 thru 25, page 56, you name it. You can keep page 75 and the 200 words on page 75, but you can change 10 of those 200 words - before the browser ever sees them, before uBO ever sees them, et cetera.

POSReady2009 would be my guess. Perhaps KB4501226?

I "resemble" that remark. waka waka waka

not difficult to explain to me... i own a '55 Dodge and a '61 Studebaker...

Agreed. Here is today's Browser Irony - we have a lot of folks that polyfill old browsers to perform new tricks, myself included. This is mainly the XP Crowd though the Vista Crowd isn't much far behind in this regard - "keep old at all costs" (without any "cost analysis" that doing this COSTS MORE (both in personal time and CPU/RAM usage) then UPGRADING). But now that I'm on Win10 + Ungoogled Chromium v114, I've actually found myself intentionally doing the OPPOSITE - tracking down what javascript functions run in v114 or newer and BREAKING THEM so that they do NOT "execute".

There are 10 types of people. Those that understand binary and those that do not.

That's exactly why I use Proxomitron but it is "too complex" for most people to "learn", they want something like uBO where "lists" are put together for them. Instead of teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime, web browser users just want that one fish to be fed to them one at a time, they have no interest in "learning how to fish". For example, the very MSFN page we are on right now has FIFTY scripts. My Proxomitron blocks 13 of them before the web browser even sees them (also why I do not need 20/30/60 uBO lists and my FIVE do just fine. I guarantee that my FIVE uBO lists coupled with my Proxomitron config is blocking way way wwaayyy more than those 20/30/60 uBO "spoon-fed" lists. ps - Proxomitron counts actual physical scripts, inline and fetched, unlike uMatrix or uBO which only counts fetched files.