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Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions


xper

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"Though, as PCWorld notes the update is only functional in the systems that participate in Microsoft's Customer Experience Improvement Program. ", - wrong. I'm not in program, but after installing update, my firewall catched diagtrackrunner.exe trying to send data home. Blocked, terminated, uninstalled, - just because bastards wasn't asking me.

[emphasis added]

 

Even people who can't use the word "caught" or "weren't" know how to keep their data private.  I guess we know what's important!  Good for them!

 

Regarding the concept...  Most folks naively think that just a setting or two needs to be thrown and all's well.  Not true!  One needs to attack the Kraken on multiple overlapping fronts - sure, disable all the privacy settings, BUT ALSO disable services that implement "phone home" behavior, block known telemetry server names from being resolved, block known IP addresses from being contacted, and implement a "whitelist" deny by default strategy for the parts of the system known to offend.

 

I'm here to tell you, after having been continually refining my "whitelist" strategy now for a couple of weeks, that no one measure kills it all.  Software has gotten THAT complex, and Microsoft has had a long time to try to out-think us.  They don't just try a little bit and give up!  I see multiple different services trying repeatedly to phone home to the same addresses on a system where every privacy setting is thrown, where every known privacy-invading service is blocked, where a big list of server names is redirected to 0.0.0.0, and where the firewall blocks things not specifically allowed by me.  Frankly, it's ******* ridiculous!  I can't believe I trusted Windows so implicitly all these years.

 

-Noel

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That's a great simile, comparing Windows to the legendary sea monster. Very appropriate.

 

It's disturbing, though, to hear that even uninstalling a Windows update did not undo the things that the update did. The guy installed a telemetry update, and yet some portion of that telemetry function persisted even after he got rid of the update via the normal, official means. Assuming it's not sheer programmer incompetence, this is deceptive conduct, bordering on the fraudulent.

 

--JorgeA

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LOL, the same metrotards who declared the start menu to be worthless are fawning over it now with Windows 10:

 

http://betanews.com/2015/09/01/amid-windows-10-controversy-microsoft-quietly-releases-privacy-botching-features-to-windows-7-and-8/#comment-2230554138

 

Yeah, it's amazing! :no:

 

Shows you that, for a lot of these people, the idea has less to do with taking a principled stand for or against a certain UI design philosophy, and more with blindly supporting whatever Microsoft decides to do.

 

--JorgeA

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The guy installed a telemetry update, and yet some portion of that telemetry function persisted even after he got rid of the update via the normal, official means. Assuming it's not sheer programmer incompetence, this is deceptive conduct, bordering on the fraudulent.

 

Maybe he's just detecting the level of telemetry that was operational before he ever installed the update, which increases the telemetry gathering.  I've never installed that update and I see plenty of attempts to connect.  This isn't a new issue.

 

What's new - not to put too fine a point on it - is that we no longer TRUST Microsoft to do what's good for us.

 

-Noel

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The guy installed a telemetry update, and yet some portion of that telemetry function persisted even after he got rid of the update via the normal, official means. Assuming it's not sheer programmer incompetence, this is deceptive conduct, bordering on the fraudulent.

 

Maybe he's just detecting the level of telemetry that was operational before he ever installed the update, which increases the telemetry gathering.  I've never installed that update and I see plenty of attempts to connect.  This isn't a new issue.

 

What's new - not to put too fine a point on it - is that we no longer TRUST Microsoft to do what's good for us.

 

-Noel

 

 

I misread the guy's report to mean that diagtrackrunner.exe was (still) operating after he uninstalled that update, :blushing:

 

But it was still disturbing that his firewall caught it even though he's not in the CEIP and it's supposed to work only if the user participates in that program. Presumably, if diagtrackrunner.exe were already running before the update, his firewall would have caught it. (Maybe it was and he never noticed it.)

 

--JorgeA

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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:

 

FirewallLog.png

 

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

Edited by NoelC
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A design expert takes Apple to task for an excessively minimalist UI:

 

Apple's products are getting harder to use because they ignore principles of design.

 

Today, the products are beautiful, but for many of us, confusing. The fonts are pleasant to the eye, but difficult to read. The principle of "discoverability" has been lost. The only way to know what to do in many situations is to have memorized the action. The screens offer no assistance in remembering whether one should swipe left or right, up or down, one finger or two. Or three. One tap or two. I frequently have to "re-read the manual," which means going back to the control panel to review the multiple finger swipes -- which are not even the same for all devices: the magic mouse is different from the trackpad which is different from the iPad.
 
Inscrutable icons litter the face of the devices even though the research community has long demonstrated that people cannot remember the meaning of more than a small number of icons. Icon plus label is superior to icon alone or label alone. Who can remember what each icon means? Not me.
 
The modern gesture devices lack feedback, they lack "undo." Menus were banished, evidently because they might detract from the lovely minimalist appearance, despite the conflict between that minimalism and the essential prompts and signifiers that simplify the person's ability to use and understand the product.

 

Norman notes that, "Google has caught the same disease in its Android designs"; the same of course can be said of Microsoft with its "Universal" apps.
 
--JorgeA
 

 

 

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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

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A design expert takes Apple to task for an excessively minimalist UI:

 

Apple's products are getting harder to use because they ignore principles of design.

 

Today, the products are beautiful, but for many of us, confusing. The fonts are pleasant to the eye, but difficult to read. The principle of "discoverability" has been lost. The only way to know what to do in many situations is to have memorized the action. The screens offer no assistance in remembering whether one should swipe left or right, up or down, one finger or two. Or three. One tap or two. I frequently have to "re-read the manual," which means going back to the control panel to review the multiple finger swipes -- which are not even the same for all devices: the magic mouse is different from the trackpad which is different from the iPad.
 
Inscrutable icons litter the face of the devices even though the research community has long demonstrated that people cannot remember the meaning of more than a small number of icons. Icon plus label is superior to icon alone or label alone. Who can remember what each icon means? Not me.
 
The modern gesture devices lack feedback, they lack "undo." Menus were banished, evidently because they might detract from the lovely minimalist appearance, despite the conflict between that minimalism and the essential prompts and signifiers that simplify the person's ability to use and understand the product.

 

Norman notes that, "Google has caught the same disease in its Android designs"; the same of course can be said of Microsoft with its "Universal" apps.
 
--JorgeA

 

 

This. I had to use a Mac with Yosemite for the first time yesterday (I've used Snow Leopard many times before) and the thing that irritated me the most is their "natural scrolling". If you have a trackpad it kind of makes sense, but I was using a regular USB PC mouse. If you don't already know "natural scrolling" is when Apple decided to invert the direction of the scroll wheel to make it more like iOS. I can't describe the amount of hatred I have for this "feature". (I had a limited account that can't revert the setting to enable real scrolling)

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Innit interesting how of all the tweets put out by Gabe during the insider program- not one mentions bolting all this new telemetry gathering.

 

It was/is a perfect bait and switch, the lure of 'new and improved', yet i can only see a lick of white wash paint.

 

The real Windows 10 isn't a refined insider honed operating system- its a megaphone shouting your every move. Every app you run, how often. Devices you connect or disconnect.. its utterly outragous, and us lemmings are finally learning this goes back years already.

 

Privacy may be at the heart of the issue for some, but I even question the purpose of this gathering. Does it help M$ to know that "Hey, telemetry shows that a certain app or program has been installed/run a bilion times- maybe we should buy them out or block them if they are competition"?

 

Should I be suprised that the Win8.0 (or 7) machine is able to operate on data capped internet okay, but the Win10 machine crawls.

 

I feel violated.

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