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Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions


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Woody Leonhard describes his troubles with forced Windows Updates:

 

On the road to Windows 10: Problems with forced updates and KB 3073930

 

In the past, Microsoft has drawn a very firm distinction between security patches and other updates of various kinds. For example, the Software Update Services list at KB 894199 puts "security content" and "non-security content" in completely separate sections.

 

In the final stretches of the build 10240 beta, though, that distinction has been thrown to the wind; the five "Security Updates for Microsoft Windows" all include patches to build 10240 itself. I can't find details about any of the patches in KB 3074663, 3074661, 3074665, 3074667, or 3074674 -- we have to take Microsoft's word for it.

 

Whether the melding of security and non-security patches is a permanent fixture or merely a marriage of beta convenience remains to be seen. But the lack of distinction is troubling.

 

Woody goes on to discuss the "troubleshooter" that Microsoft has provided which we are using in lieu of a real capability to pick and choose which updates we will allow, and then reports his experiences with it. The first use wasn't exactly a confidence builder

 

I started by removing the oldest security patch on my system, KB 3074663. Before running wushowhide, I rebooted. When Windows 10 came back up for air, KB 3074663 was nowhere to be found -- it didn't appear after clicking on Check for updates, and when I went into Uninstall updates, it wasn't there either. I'm still looking, and I can't find KB 3074663 anywhere, except at the bottom of the "View your update history" list.

 

 

There's no way I can find to manually install KB 3074663, either. The KB article says:

This update is available through Windows Update. When you turn on automatic updating, this update will be downloaded and installed automatically. For more information about how to turn on automatic updating, see 
.

Which is wrong in so many different ways that it's hard to list them all.

 

Good-bye, KB 3074663. We hardly knew ye.

 

--JorgeA

 

 

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Woody polishes his crystal ball and issues a prediction for

 

The first 6 changes Microsoft will make to Windows 10

 

Speaking of forced updates, here's No. 3:

 

 

Windows 10 prediction No. 3: Microsoft will figure out how to let everyone block updates (at least drivers) before they're installed

The current situation is silly. Obviously nobody thought this one through. The only alternative on offer is convoluted, unwieldy, and basically broken. Microsoft clearly needs to give everyone -- whether they're attached to a server, whether they're running Pro or Home -- a way to block bad driver updates. Whether it gives us a more general blocking ability depends a lot on how the patches go over the next few months.

 

Number 5 is that MSFT will make it easier to switch search engines on the new Edge browser:

 

I don't know what possessed Microsoft to make the selection of a search engine so obscure. Perhaps the EU antitrust lessons no longer apply? Or maybe somebody decided that the penalty (such as the €561 million fine for "forgetting" to put browser choice in Win7 SP1) isn't worth the effort.

 

Well, I can think of at least one plausible reason for making it so hard: Microsoft wants people to use and stay on Bing. In combination with the Microsoft Account that they're also pushing for vigorously, it enables them to track users and to "learn" about them. It doesn't require a tinfoil hat to surmise this. :rolleyes:

 

One other assessment by Woody that will be interesting to see whether it pans out:

 

I also don't think there's a snowball's chance in Bing of Microsoft ever divulging how many people signed up for the Win10 upgrade, how many actually performed the upgrade, and how many rolled it back.

 

--JorgeA

 

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With all due respect to Woody and others (and I do think Woody has his head screwed on straight; I really like his writings), why would anyone think Microsoft will change their direction now?

 

  • They clearly have a master multi-year plan that does not include the kind of computing freedom we once had.
  • They haven't shown any tendency to veer off course from any prior "bad ideas", however bad.
  • They're not failing, business-wise.

 

-Noel

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I just wish dx11 was going to windows 7 as well..

It really makes no sense why its not, other than forcing ppl to update

 

you mean 12, win7 comes with 11

and 12 should be able to be ported over, as WDM and kernel aren't that different comparing to XP

but, they will probably block it out just like Service Pack 2 was

Edited by vinifera
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And so it begins...

 

Windows 10 cumulative update causes 'reboot loop' havoc for some users

 

 

If it stopped there things wouldn't be too bad, but because Microsoft now forces updates onto Windows 10 users, the OS kept trying - and failing - to install the update, which in turn placed the system into a periodic crash/reboot loop that put quite a dent in my productivity.

Edited by rn10950
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Cybersecurity specialist Brian Krebs weighs in on that new Wi-Fi Sense feature in Windows 10:

 

Windows 10 Shares Your Wi-Fi With Contacts

 

The company says your contacts will only be able to share your network access, and that Wi-Fi Sense will block those users from accessing any other shared resources on your network, including computers, file shares or other devices. But these words of assurance probably ring hollow for anyone who’s been paying attention to security trends over the past few years: Given the myriad ways in which social networks and associated applications share and intertwine personal connections and contacts, it’s doubtful that most people are aware of who exactly all of their social network followers really are from one day to the next.

 

And then he describes a method Microsoft suggests to prevent all of this from happening automatically:

 

Microsoft’s solution for those concerned requires users to change the name (a.k.a. “SSID“) of their Wi-Fi network to include the text “_optout” somewhere in the network name (for example, “oldnetworknamehere_optout”).

 

Trouble is, Google has been actively detecting private Wi-Fi networks and adding them to its index. That, too, can be stopped by tacking "_nomap" at the end of the network name, but there is a question as to whether you can do "_optout" AND "_nomap" at the same time -- it may not be possible to thwart the designs of BOTH sets of privacy raiders.

 

A lot of perceptive comments down at the bottom. Here's one:

 

If I understand this feature correctly, Microsoft will have a database of users’ wifi passwords. They will be encrypted, to whatever extent MSFT chooses. MSFT will have the encryption key.

 

Is anyone concerned that this db will be quite a prize for any hacker?

 

Based upon the 55-page EULA and Privacy Policy, Microsoft may use these passwords. I don’t see a restriction of looking at files accessible on the home network. Each user gives explicit permission to allow MSFT to read files and email stored in the MSFT cloud, for example. That permission to peek clause is not restricted on location. Putting the two sections together leads to a bad conclusion. MSFT also has permission to sell/rent/give this data to whomever it wants.

 

Has anyone thought about which agencies would be interested in getting this information without 4th Amendment concerns? “Your honor, we didn’t need a warrant. We had permission to use that data from Microsoft, which had permission from the user. We simply drove up in front of the house and accessed it. It’s the defendant’s fault for not locking down their home network with encryption or strong security.”

 

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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Trouble is, Google has been actively detecting private Wi-Fi networks and adding them to its index. That, too, can be stopped by tacking "_nomap" at the end of the network name, but there is a question as to whether you can do "_optout" AND "_nomap" at the same time -- it may not be possible to thwart the designs of BOTH sets of privacy raiders.

 

Actually the troubles may be with the length of the name.

A SSID should be 32 characters or less (and some firmware needs a null terminated string, reducing it to 31).

by appending _optout_nomap you loose 13 characters and you are left with "only" 19 "meaningful" ones, besides forcefully limiting the fantasy of Wi-Fi naming artists:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/no-more-free-wifi

 

jaclaz

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The problems with "up"grading to Win10 keep rolling in:

 

Upgrades from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Cause Office Document Errors

 

If you've performed the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (not reported for Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 upgrades), you may be experiencing an issue where Office 2013 documents will error when you try to open them. Apparently, this problem has been reported enough that Microsoft is investigating a proper fix.

 

Note the completely useless error popup:

 

sorry.jpg

 

 

If I experienced this issue, I think I might be angrier at the worthless error message than at the problem itself. The complete lack of information about what's going on strikes me as patronizing and insulting. Not even an error code for the customer to look up, let alone a description of what the issue could be.

 

--JorgeA

 

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Trouble is, Google has been actively detecting private Wi-Fi networks and adding them to its index. That, too, can be stopped by tacking "_nomap" at the end of the network name, but there is a question as to whether you can do "_optout" AND "_nomap" at the same time -- it may not be possible to thwart the designs of BOTH sets of privacy raiders.

 

Actually the troubles may be with the length of the name.

A SSID should be 32 characters or less (and some firmware needs a null terminated string, reducing it to 31).

by appending _optout_nomap you loose 13 characters and you are left with "only" 19 "meaningful" ones, besides forcefully limiting the fantasy of Wi-Fi naming artists:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/no-more-free-wifi

 

jaclaz

 

 

:lol:

 

I like the top listing in #5.

 

--JorgeA

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...  you may be experiencing an issue where Office 2013 documents will error when you try to open them.

 

 

If I experienced this issue, I think I might be angrier at the worthless error message than at the problem itself. The complete lack of information about what's going on strikes me as patronizing and insulting. Not even an error code for the customer to look up, let alone a description of what the issue could be.

 

 

OT (but not much) also Office 365 3641/2 had a few issues lately, JFYI:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/06/parliament_microsoft_office_365_outage_cause/

Of course it is not connected :no:, but if the "communication style" inside MS is as described for this issue :ph34r: I guess there is or will be more problems:

"The issue in June was caused by a technical change made by Microsoft to part of Microsoft's Office 365 Exchange environment," said the PDS in its FoI reply. "The change introduced an issue which prevented some users connecting to the Office365 service through Outlook and/or ActiveSync."

"Microsoft's UK Premier support team had not known about the change, the issue, nor the resolution at the time, and only discovered the root cause retrospectively," it added.

 

 

 

jaclaz

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This will probably come as no surprise, but here goes anyway:

 

Not Just OS Updates, App Updates Also Mandatory for Windows 10 Home Edition

 

Maybe it's because the same updating mechanism is used for both, but according to a thread in the Microsoft answers forums, those running Windows 10 Home will get Windows Store app updates in addition to regular Windows updates without the ability to turn either of them off.

 

--JorgeA

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