DonDamm

but, but,.... nobody reads them!!! (and being a nobody, you know I do, yes?) Truly, most of the folks I help can't install a program without messing it up, much less actually read the EULA. That's why there's so much crapware that's entirely legal because the folks clicked "OK". Sigh. :^)

Using host file entries from something like someonewhocares.org which now has a partial list of MS telemetry sites at the end goes a long way to bringing some sanity back into W10. I'm still using a modded W7 on my main rig because it has been soo stable for the last 7+ years or so, but I've found that those telemetry blocking entries have some side benefits like making Skype usable, too!! they block the ads there. Whew! What a relief! The longer term question is why should we have to go to such convoluted lengths to use our own machines? Part of the answers lies in other fundamental parts of US law. Such as, who owns your personal data? Europe has a Data Protection Act that pretty much works, though it's not perfect. The US on the other hand has none, and I'm pretty sure AustralAsia also have none. A first step in rectifying all this nonsense is to clearly define that an individual's data belongs to the individual and that any keepers of it, even with permission, are held liable for breach. That's why you can give your bank account number to someone for payment in Europe because your account is safe and the bank is liable. Not so in the US. they don't use 2-factor or transactional authentication and allow unsecured third party access to supposedly secure login and account pages (check chase with ~9 unsecure servers connecting!). Etc,etc. I won't go into more detail here, but this lack of data protection has given us unbridled arrogance of an increasing number of corporations, local and global. The entire SmartMeter programs of gas and electric companies across the US are a sham. Not the idea, but the implementation and liability issues. PG&E in California now makes users pay $10 to have their meters read (which they were compensated for long ago in rate schedules). It is insane, but there it is. As long as the fundamental issues are not addressed, we will continue to struggle against the onslaught on our privacy and control. And we will pay for it. Think TPM! They want to control access to all you do! lol :^)

@NoelC the addys you mentioned above belong to the following 104.73.38.54:443 Alex Xu, 1578 Virginia Road, San Marino, CA; Defense.Net, Inc, Jacksonville FL 157.55.240.220:443 Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA 157.56.96.58:443 Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA 172.224.177.145:443 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 172.224.178.197:443 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 172.224.180.140:443 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 178.255.83.1:80 Comodoca, Unit 7, Campus Road, Listerhills Science Park, Bradford, BD7 1HR, United Kingdom 178.255.83.2:80 Comodoca, Unit 7, Campus Road, Listerhills Science Park, Bradford, BD7 1HR, United Kingdom 192.116.242.20:80 Srartcom Ltd, Petach-Tikva,Israel www.startssl.com 23.15.5.197:80 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 23.15.5.213:80 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 23.4.37.163:80 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 23.4.43.27:80 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 23.74.2.58:80 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 23.74.2.88:80 Akamai Technologies, Inc., Cambridge, MA 64.4.54.116:443 Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA 65.55.44.108:443 Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA 66.119.114.157:443 NITNETWORK, 3867 SE Evans Terrace, Stuart, FL It is interesting to note that they are all through port 80 (http) or 443 (https). Akamai is a major player and is involved in both good and bad stuff. I've never heard of NITNE or NitNetwork. :^)

On a side note, I recently got a query about the asterisk in Notepad indicating a change in file content. On checking I found that in all the versions I checked, XP, W7, W8, and W8.1 the native notepad.exe had NO asterisk! Apparently, Ms finally learned that folks like that and added it to W10! My friend had been using a modded XP which I'd substituted Notepad2 for the original many many years ago. Both Notepad2 and Notepad++ sport that asterisk. I prefer Notepad++ for just about everything, though I have't played with many others like EditPlus, MetaPad, or AkelPad, though I've used and like TextPad. :^) Drugwash, let us know if you code an editor, okay?

The Internet of Things reminds me of the myriad ID 10T problems so many of us run into... lol :^)

Guess we're going to find out soon enough. The little icons tjo update to 10 showed up last night on my 8.1 rig and various others with Win7 and 8 I've seen so far today. I'm not ready to offer my working notebook to it just yet, though. Curious to see the build number offered! :^)

Jorge, the short answer is yes you can just copy the pst file and use it in another computer. I do it all the time because I carry a copy with me when I travel. You can even interchange the pst files of Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 which wasn;t possible with earlier versions. So, you could use Outlook 2010 on your new machine with no problem. Now, to use it in the new machine is fairly simple, too. Set up the Outlook and create an account. Then go to your Outlook.pst file (the new one) and either delete it or as I do, just change the name by adding a .orig to the extension (Outlook.pst.orig). Now open Outlook. It will complain and complain that it can't find the file. It will ask you where it is and you then point it to the old pst file from the old machine which you copied and presumably put in its own folder (maybe on a drive D:?? - good idea!). Now close Outlook and restart it again. It will now show the old pst file as your default. :^) Note: while they did increase the allowed size of the pst file beyond the old 2GB limit, I don't recommend allowing the file to get larger than 500-900MB. When it gets that large things tend to slow down loading and finding anything. Either archive everything before a certain date or create another pst file and move everything before a certain date into it. You can always open a second pst file if you need something or want to move stuff to it. You can also use the import/export feature to accomplish basically the same thing. I just think it's foolish to keep important data on the C: drive. That drive should be for the OS and installed programs only. This is even more important with an solid state drive. I use one of 128GB for that and everything else is on either Drive D: or E: internally ( I use E for backup images), or an array of other external drives which I power up when I need them. That way if I get a nasty virus or the OS fails for another reason, I don't lose any data or emails and even if I have to put in a new disk and load an image, I'm up and running in a very short time with no data loss. Mirroring you pst file to an external disk will also protect you if that internal disk D: dies. Good luck with it! :^)

@colore, I'd probably recommend Server 2008 R2 as it comes with nothing turned on. That means you only turn on what you need to use. Like any OS, it depends on what you use it for and how you use it as to whether you'll need to reboot, etc. I'm building a new machine and am seriously considering using Ubuntu Server and then running all other OSs in a VM. That may be the stablest configuration around!! lol There are some advantages to running in a VM as you can take "snapshots" and easily reset while the underlying OS is less vulnerable to current nasties. The latest spate of Windows nasties tend to install rootkits with abandon and often require redoing the MBR among other things to get rid of them. some even survive a reinstall! That's why running in a VM can be advantageous. Seriously, if you configure an OS properly and on proper hardware XP, Vista (yes even Vista), and 7 can all be "stable". Even Win98 SE could be considered stable if you don't ask too much of it. Why are you asking the question? What are you trying to accomplish? What role is the OS you want to install going to play? Is it a gaming platform? a server? a rendering platform as hardrockRam uses it? a fixit box? a main workstation? a test machine? None of these would be configured the same way, so it helps if you are a bit more specific.

Hmm. I was very fond of Server 2003. I would run it for months and months without needing to reboot because of a crash or hang. Various flavors of linux have been extremely stable, too. I've run Ubuntu for a while and am extremely pleased with it over all. The latest version will even load up on a new Macd Book Pro!! Tey it. Go to an Apple Store and ask if it will load directly onto a Mac Book Pro. I did it in Vienna and they told me it wouldn't work. I said let's try it and slipped in the disk and rebooted. It took a bit, but finally it came up! It found all the hardware and everything just worked. It ws a hoot! :^) I can't tell much difference between Server 2008 R2 and Win 7, though. Except for the function, the stability seems about the same.

However, you can force Google to access given servers. When I was in Austria the default was to google.at, but there was always the option to go to google.com presented at the bottom. there were times I used google.co.uk and google.de or google.it when I needed to. Changing the default language for this can help.

Hmm. Because you mentioned it, I looked for and found progman.exe in the system32 folder of my server 2003 install!!! ??? Odd, eh?

Like you, I've installed 7 on amchine with different graphics cards, both ATI and nVidia. Also both x86 and x64. Just fielded a phone call today from a friend with 7 x64 and he likes the taskbar on top. He's lost his Quick Launch bar again. I think it is a definite bug and one they probably won't fix. They'll figure that 93.7% of all their users keep the taskbar on the bottom and only a fraction of the rest are interested in using the Quick Launch bar. I'm thinking of writing a hack to include the item in the toolbar list. As for the reordering of the list, the only solution is to number each item with a 01, 02, 03, ... etc. That is and keep the Aero transparency. I will have to try unchecking the desktop composition and using Autohide and see if that works. Still, they're all workarounds and kluges. Definitely a bug.

Yes, that is true. If you are using a reg file to remove or replace something. However, I use it directly in the registry to not delete a key but inactivate it. That allows me to reactivate it later if wanted without having to maintain a group of reg files or a list of the keys and values because it is all there as original - just with a slightly different name. When writing a reg file to remove a key, of course, you would place a minus sign in front of the whole key as noted. I should add that I tried the method as explained above and found that it does not work on the x64 installation I have on a quad core machine.

One very simple method for registry changes that is very easy to reverse is to just put a minus sign in front of the key name. That means for the above the {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} becomes -{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} When you want to reverse it you just remove the minus sign. You could also export the key and create a reg file to do the same thing for on and off. I do this all the time for Shared folders and the extra virtual User's folders in XP.

Hmm. The machines I've noticed the behavior on sport a range of graphics chips from Intel to nVidia to ATI Radeon cards. Though, I have heard that a conflict with some nVidia chipsets could be the cause of some wireless networking problems I've also been having. Seems the module is unstable after a time and reverts to a 169.x.x.x address. When it does this, it is impossible to disable or otherwise make changes in the wireless config. Even the system shutdown hangs and requires a hard reboot.

Well said, Zxian. It seems clear that there are individual preferences and those are driven by different things including habit, experience and need. while I find that overall I need to click about 20-30% more in Vista and W7 than I do in Server 2003 to get the same amount of work done (this includes Office 2007), the average user who doesn't access the Network Center and items in the Contorl Panel is very happy. Every single one of my customers for whom I've set up in Vista over the last couple of years is very happy still with the performance and operation. Of course, I tweaked them and added on various userful utilities to make life easier. W7 goes one better for all that. The Start Menu for most folks is a mess. Most seem to really hate nested folders and cascading menus preferring a long unwieldy list. I've tried helping folks organize into logical folders, but when I see the machine maybe six months later the Start Menu has grown to unwieldy proportions. Guess it is just human nature. Personally, I hardly ever use the thing! I use the Quick Launch bar on the right near the System tray and put the Taskbar at the top (where all program have their menus and such!). I have 30-40 shortcuts there on the dropdown list which is easier to access. By the way, you can put folder there which will expand just like in the Start Menu (though I don't do that). My major beef about new OSs is when they remove functionality that they don't have to. In XP they allowed folks to choose between the new look and the old. I may not like the old cascading "classic" menu, but it is not hard to make it available. The P in PC stands for Personal and sometimes I think they forget that. As advanced users we often find ourselves not catered to and that is a shame as we drive a huge amount of the general usage out there and folks rely on us to give good advice. I am annoyed that MS didn't give us more shortcut functionality in 2008 R2.

I don't have an answer, but have also noticed some unreliable behavior of the Taskbar. I run the Taskbar at the top so I don't have to move my mouse as much. I would use auto-hide and even liked it, but unfortunately MS ignored my suggestion to desensitize the first 2+ inches on the right and left. I can become annoying otherwise and is why many many people don't use it. The problem: the Quick Launch bar (this can be set manually in W7) just doesn't seem to want to stay. After a one or more reboots it just disappears and requires restting. this is majorly annoying particularly when it is on a client's machine. the problem seems confined to x86 versions as my x64 version displays no such instability. I've observed this behavior on some five other machines running x86 so far, both in English and German, pre-installed and installed by me. Further, when reset it alphabetizes and so reorders the thing - another supreme annoyance. On one machine I added a 01, 02, 03, ... etc to maiintain the order and that seemed to help the other problem for a while, but did not cure it - only delayed it. That I've seen this on several machine both purchased and self-built leads me to believe it is a genuine bug and probably related to your problem, steve17.

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@awergh and dencorso Yes, Alt, Enter is always a possibility and that is what I do now, but it requires either my using the mouse in my left hand (which I did for a number of years, but prefer my right), or taking my hand off the mouse to hit the Enter key (I use the one on the number pad). Again it is an interuppting motion that slows things down. I'm fairly adept at the keyboard, but not a speed demon or whiz by any stretch. As time goes by I add ever more keyboard shorcuts to my repertoire, but it still requires a judicious use of mouse and keyboard strokes to be efficient. My point still stands that they removed useful functionality that causes me to do more work and take more time. That is why for most of my customers I've set them up with a backup known good image with everything the way like it. When they call with a virus problem or the like, instead of spending hours scanning, cleaning, and rescanning "just to be sure", I find it saves immense amounts of my time as well as the customer's to just slap on that known good image. They're up and running within 15 miniutes or so. I get paid the same, so it works in my favor. :^)

You can access those from a true Administrator account. the user/administrator is really just a User dressed up a bit to make people feel better (I'm the administrator!) So, you need Super Administrator status to do many things. To get there, you need to activate the account first. then it will appear on the welcome page and you can get in. Activate using either group policy editor or a Command box (run as Admin) using net user Administrator /active:yes , then logoff.

The test results on Security Suites are pretty enlightening. They all fail miserably somewhere. So, use one of the best AVs and one of the best firewalls and you will be better off. Avira is consistently tops in the AV world, though the support is weak and the interface is so-so. I like NOD32 overall and especially for their good heuristic and non false positive scores. For firewalls, check out Matousec (www.matousec.com) as they are pretty definitive when it comes to firewalls and firewall testing.

All the clients for whom I've setup Vista boxes are all quite happy. Of course they all have had 2-3GB of RAM and well spec'd machines (some of which I built!). My personal beef with Vista and W7, too, is that when I need to configure a box I find I need to click about 30% more to get the same jobs done. Networking is a good example. It takes two or three more clicks to get to the same dialog boxes like Status than it does in XP. Throw in a UAC click through or two and the number of clicks balloons. If I have th box on my bench, I'll use the super admin account, but at a client location I don't normally do this and work straight from the normal account. for some things this saves checking if it works after I've set it up in the admin acc't. Another thing that irks me is the little inconsistencies from version to version. Vista introduced an improvement in new folder creation and file renaming. The renaming included by default only the name, not the extension. Good enough. When a new folder is created Vista intelligently opens that folder for you when click outside the name field. That was good as it saved an extra click quite often, so it was useful. Now, in Win7 it has been changed! Not only does it no longer open after creation, it iinconveniently moves because of the automatic reordering and alphabetization which means in a folder with many subfolders you may have to search for the thing to open it. That wastes my time when I'm trying to download and save a file. Niggling maybe, but when you perform hundreds of the same type of operations over a couple of hours, it can be very very tedious and annoying because it doesn't have to be that way. Why MS couldn't accommodate us admins by giving us the option of cliccking on something like an Advanced Mode, maybe like in NOD32 where you don't have to click through wads of googa to get something done. Yes, both Vista and W7 are pretty and there are many little niceties, but help with configuring isn't one of them! I use the Properties dialog a lot and in XP I just put the button on the Explorer bar and presto - one click. Now, I have to highlight file, right click scroll down and then click Properties. Fine if you only need to do it once. But did they remove what was useful functionality? (Like the menu in Explorer which at least you can restore). Now add in the obscene tendency to grow ever larger as security "fixes" come in. A standard 6GB install grows to over 10GB in no time. Whatever for?? Well, I did find out that a lot of the "bloat" in Vista and W7 is due to what appears to be space used that is not. If you query Explorer on the amount of used space you will get a false reading, but they don't tell you or explain this very well. It turns out that a large portion of the files in WinSxS are hardlinked which means they show up in two places even though they are only one file. so many files get counted twice. Brilliant, eh? the weird part is that many imaging tools etc don't read the hardlink part so end up copying the file twice. I'd say this is pretty dumb even if it is smart tech. The next thing has to do with whose machine is it anyways? Try and alter a few things in Program Data or Program Files and you'll likely run into the "You don't have permission" stuff. Oh yeah, you can take ownership of the file, change the permissions, then back out and rename that folder or file or whatever. But what a monumental pain if you know what you want to do and you don't want to waste time doing it! How about giving us a way to elevate our position level so that we can truly administer our own machines! Is that so bleeping difficult? I don't think so. Sheeeesh! Okay, so enough of the rant. The point is that for a normal user Vista is very usable and quite pleasant when set up properly with unneccessary services turned off, and unnecessary stuff turned off at start up. IE set to expunge Temp files on exit and so forth. I also include a small batch file to delete temp files at startup and a few things like that. So far I haven't had a callback on any of the Vista machines I've setup for folks. W7 is Vista redux and they've removed some stuff and moved it to Live Essentials (ha). It runs better on older machines and even in 1GB without much of a problem.

This could be very handy. I've been fighting with a basic installation of W7 and noticed the Quick Launch Bar seems to disappear every few boots. What a pain! It may have something to do with the automatic alphabetizing and reordering that goes on. Any idea on how to turn that off as well? I ended up numbering each item so the order would stay. A kluge at best.

Glad to know that about v2009. I used to just get fed up DK and it's silly hype. Vopt was always reliable and safe and did the job. Perfect Disk while sometimes slower in some modes, has different strengths, so I've always like the pair. The fact is that we should have to deal with it hardly at all. If you think I'm kidding just look for a degragger for linux or unix. You find there basically isn't a demand for one because the file system takes care of it by itself by trying to put files into contiguous space to begin with. Check out the specs on ext2 or ext3 and you'll see what I mean. I curious as to how the stillborn WinFS would've handled fragmentation issues.

Well, that's true unless you take ownership of the files...., but good point. Scheduler is a very handy applet that's rarely used or noticed. I forgot, but I use it for many things like running batch files to clean out cookies and temp files and whatnot.