JorgeA Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 Well, stopping your PC from being automagically updated to Windows 10 sounds fairly simple at this point.Build a cheapo-pc or a VM, install a Server OS on it. Make a DC, join your clients to the domain. Forgive my ignorance, but... what's a DC? All I can think of is "distributed computing" or "direct current," but obviously neither of those fits here. --JorgeA
JorgeA Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 Aha, NuMicrosoft being at it again: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2911704/microsoft-windows/ie-11-patch-kb-3038314-blocks-adding-search-providers-install-may-fail-with-error-80092004.html We don't know the full extent of the problem yet, but it appears the latest Internet Explorer patch prevents Internet Explorer 11 -- and possibly other versions of IE -- from installing Google and other search engines. And the problem may go beyond Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 Update 1 PCs. This company is plain predatory now. Way worse than the 90s "monopoly"-MS. I'm taking odds on whether the effect of this Internet Explorer update is a bug, or a deliberate decision. --JorgeA
JorgeA Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 The last couple of Windows Updates have automatically rebooted my Win10 test laptop, without asking first. Now it's true that I don't stay at that computer all the time, but tonight I happened to be in my office when the little jingle announcing availability of an update sounded. It was a "Synaptics driver update for Synaptics SMBus TouchPad." I have Win10 set to tell me when an update is available and to let me decide when to download and install it. So I told it to proceed. It must have been an enormous file, as the progress bar was moving very slowly. (Thanks to Microsoft's infinite wisdom, I was not told just how large the download is.) About a half-hour later, next thing I know the laptop has rebooted! There was no offer to do it now or to wait any amount of time; it just went ahead without my participation, permission, or even knowledge. There was no warning or indication anywhere that a reboot might be needed, let alone immediately. What a PITA. But more than that: what a POS. --JorgeA
NoelC Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 Forgive my ignorance, but... what's a DC? A Domain Controller. A close look at that script implies it will skip advertising the free "upgrade" to Windows Enterprise editions and systems connected to a domain (on the theory that enterprises often use non-Enterprise versions and connect them to their domains). -Noel 1
JorgeA Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 Thanks, NoelC. That would be an incentive to learn about this aspect of computing, assuming that in Windows 10 Enterprise you can indeed still pick and choose the updates you want to install or ignore. --JorgeA
NoelC Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 Just to be clear I don't see evidence (up through 10049) that you can pick and choose updates to apply or ignore, but that there's just slightly more control given to the user. It's a hard read, but I'm sensing the Windows Update process is unfinished. We'd all like to think Microsoft is executing to a fully vetted design, but the fact that things just get moved around and features come and go between these preview releases supports my theory that Microsoft is - more than ever - just throwing code up against the wall to see what sticks. -Noel
JorgeA Posted April 26, 2015 Posted April 26, 2015 Can't open Win32 apps from the Start Menu in Windows 10 build 10061? Here's why As I tested out the Windows 10 Technical Preview build 10061 for the first time, I noticed a slight problem. When I tried to open Windows applications (Win32) like Microsoft Office, which I use a lot, it simply would not open. The first couple times I thought it was something wrong with my PC or I was missing something, so I tried to open other Win32 desktop apps, to no avail. So I tried the newer apps that came out with Windows 10, like Mail and Calendar and they opened up just fine. So I started to wonder what was going on until I read up on the write-up by Gabe Aul on Windows 10 build 10061. Aul details new improvements and features, and finally I get to the part where there are know issues and bugs. I stopped dead in my tracks. And now for the money quote: Aul states:"We know this one will be a bit painful but there is a bug with this build in which Win32 (desktop) apps won’t launch from the Start menu. The workaround is to use search to find and launch these apps and pin them to your taskbar for quick access." [emphasis added] Hah -- how much you wanna bet that this is no accident, but rather a deliberate trial to see how much public outcry there would be (1) if the Start Menu were rendered useless, and/or (2) if Windows stopped supporting Win32 applications? Wonder how long it'll be before this "bug" is turned into a "feature" of Windows 10. --JorgeA
NoelC Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 Microsoft seems to be completely out of control. I can imagine they all feel the pressure is off since users aren't going to be charged money to upgrade to this turkey. But don't worry, even the facebook/twitter public just won't use a system which is that bad - even for free - and the advertisers won't pay Microsoft to show their ads to only the few people who don't know better. -Noel
jaclaz Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 Well, no . That is NOT a "bug". A bug is something that by definition is small and thus not immediately evident, that is an essential, basic, fundamental, requisite of a graphical OS, being capable to start a program from the UI part designed to start programs, heck, it is called "Start menu", that is a LARGE (PINK) ELEPHANT! not something that would go unnoticed... jaclaz
NoelC Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 I don't see this issue as fundamentally different than the rest of the stuff they've done to Windows, which also logically doesn't work. You CAN start things with the new Start Menu - that's Jorge's point - just not the things Microsoft doesn't make money selling you. Microsoft themselves have said, "just start those old, skeuomorphically ugly, boring applications some other way". There are idiots and irrational optimists out there saying, "okay, let's do that". Then they will exclaim how the new look is fabulous. WE are at the other end of the spectrum, and frankly, WE no longer matter to Microsoft. We're just too hard to please. I've been fond of saying I could turn Win 10 into something usable by tweaking and augmentation, but I'm really starting to feel like they're screwing up too many things for that to be the case at the time of release. This business of removing things, or more recently replacing things with code that is worse than not having it at all, is leading to not just failure, but epic failure. Pink elephants are simply no longer special when Microsoft's world consists of pink elephants on parade. Hangover's comin' baby! -Noel
jaclaz Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 Sure , I was just highlighting how things should be called with their name, IF that is a bug, it is a "tree lobster":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis jaclaz
JorgeA Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 Well, no . That is NOT a "bug". [...] not something that would go unnoticed... jaclaz So then, would you lean toward thinking that Win32 applications not launching from the Start Menu is something that was intended? I've been thinking about this, and it seems inconceivable to me that the internal testers would miss something so big before offering 10061 beyond company walls. Either they do intend to do away with Win32 applications, or these applications are so unimportant to Microsoft's vision of the future that they didn't even think to try opening one from the revamped Start Menu. One other question that came to mind: I'm nt sure I understand the technical reason why a link to a program in the Start Menu wouldn't work, but a link to the same program in File Explorer or the Taskbar would work. A link is a link is a link, no? --JorgeA
JorgeA Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 Check out this excerpt from Windows Weekly 403. Talking about Microsoft's fortunes in and plans for the smartphone market, Neowin's Brad Sams said: Brad: They entered arguably one of the most competitive markets to ever exist, at least in technology. They entered late, and then they tried to buy their way in, they tried to buy apps, they tried to buy hardware, and it doesn't really work because they never had that organic growth. They had this sort of artificial here is all of this sweet stuff that we paid for. Then it kind of just sat there. Look at Instagram for example. They touted that app when it came out like it was the second coming of Christ. They were like here is Instagram, and I've got a post ready for the 22nd of this month that it has not been updated in a year. Sums it up pretty well, don't you think? And to think that they wrecked Windows for this. A little later, Sams explains what could be the way Microsoft sees thing developing in coming years: Brad: I was going to say, that with these things, when I look at Windows Phone, other than them paying billions of dollars for hardware that's not selling, that makes sense in their strategic play, and I think that we can agree to this, that in the next 10 years you are not going to carry a laptop, you are not going to have a desktop, it's all going to be in your phone. Your phone is just going to plug into a screen and you are going to have a keyboard and a mouse. To me that is the path that eventually I see them taking with this hardware is saying okay, we know that eventually is where the market is going to go. Nokia was talking about leaving. We need to definitely be in that space. At that point then they lose the desktop and laptop share. Leo: Oh, that's a good point. Brad: This could be like Bing 7 years ago, or however many years ago. They could say we are going to keep throwing money into this because we know that eventually the market is going to adopt cell phones as their laptops, and if we don't have something we are done. So they are just saying, okay, just keep throwing money at it, and just keep incremental, and just kind of keep chipping along until we get to that point and then we can make the play that says, here's Windows 10, here's your phone, here's USB to HDMI with Spec 3 or whatever Spec we are at by then, here is your foldable keyboard, and here is your laptop. --JorgeA
jaclaz Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 So then, would you lean toward thinking that Win32 applications not launching from the Start Menu is something that was intended? I've been thinking about this, and it seems inconceivable to me that the internal testers would miss something so big before offering 10061 beyond company walls. Internal testers?WHAT internal testers?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072431/quotes?item=qt0484668 More seriously, I don't think it is intentional, I believe that the level of internal testing (if any) is so low that such a big tree lobster could go unnoticed, most probably the "internal testing" (again if any at all) is surely focused to LOLz and Facebook and Bing and not to actually "working". I mean, if - say - a lesser known program like (in the US) TurboTax doesn't start, it is a bug, if their own Office suite programs don't it means the NO productivity program has been tested. But a mistake can happen to everyone , I have nothing against the good MS guys that were involved in the (completely failed) testing, what I am saying that Gabe Aul calling this "a bug" is totally inappropriate , any senceful "project manager" would have HALTED the release instead. Imagine - say - Ford selling the Pinto knowing that it was dangerous in case of accidents ....NO, wait, I got the wrong example :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Allegations_and_lawsuitsbut anyway that happened some 40 years ago, maybe something has changed for the better in the meantime... jaclaz
Recommended Posts