Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions

[dencorso]

Uninstalling and hiding that update is the wrong way to disable GWX, so of course it is not effective long term.  The correct way is to disable it via the registry while leaving it installed.

With all due respect, I disagree. Uninstalling and hiding that update is effective and clean. And one can still add also the registry keys MS divulged to disable GWX, just to be double-sure. But there's no reason in the world to keep GWX in the machine, if not to help MS backstab one somehow...

[Kelsenellenelvian]

How about setting the keys to begin with and never letting it even on your pc?

[NoelC]

Build 10586 downloaded and installed on my Win 10 test VM this evening.

 

• All Apps that were de-provisioned have been restored.
   
• It's trying to talk to BingBot servers again.
   
• Many configuration tweaks that I had applied have been wiped out.
   
• It's early so I don't know if there's some combo of download and settings to restore Aero Glass for Win 8+ operation.  All I know is the desktop now SUCKS, big time.

 

Yep, pretty much everything expected has been undone and screwed up by Microsoft.  MAN, am I glad this is not the desktop I have to be productive with tomorrow morning.

 

-Noel

Edited November 14, 2015 by NoelC

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Lol and your suprised at all?

[dencorso]

Build 10586 downloaded and installed on my Win 10 test VM this evening.

<snickt>

Yep, pretty much everything expected has been undone and screwed up by Microsoft.

 

Lol and your suprised at all?

No. I'm sure NoelC is not surprised. Nor am I. I've drawn my personal line at 7SP1... he's more adventuresome and drew his own at 8.1... but anyway it's becoming clear as a summer day that 10 is unusable.

[rn10950]

Downloaded and installed build 10586 last night. Here are some Deeper Impressions:

 

* Five applications got broken: bigmuscle's AeroGlass, 8GadgetPack, Classic Shell, Spybot Search & Destroy 1.6.2.46, and Heimdal Free. The Gadget Pack and Classic Shell repaired themselves, but Spybot was declared incompatible with Win10 and got removed from the Start Menu and its Desktop icon disappeared, while Heimdal issued a message saying that the "connection to service failed." The nice theme I had set up with Aero Glass and 3D Vista/7-style buttons is back to flat buttons and no window borders, although there is some translucency left (but this may be due to a native Win10 setting).

 

 

The Spybot thing is uncalled for. Since when can the OS determine when a program is incompatible with it? Maybe give a warning or something, but removing it from the Taskbar and Desktop? Really? I think that is going a bit too far.

 

Regarding Aero Glass and Classic Shell, I expected this. I expect MS to continue to break every customization option created in the name of "brand identity". This is exactly why this rolling release model is so dangerous. I am interested in seeing a screenshot of that Vista/7 theme you created if you have one though.

 

 

* A number of privacy settings were changed from the way I had put them prior to the installation of 10586. In particular, every switch in "background apps" under Settings, every one of which I had set to OFF, was now turned ON. As Windows 10 spreads among the user base (like an infection), no doubt there will be a certain number of users who'll trust that, like their document files, their settings will remain unaffected by the installation of the new build, and won't think to verify that they didn't get changed. Microsoft is disrespecting users' explicit preferences.

* The "Get Office 365" app, which in 10240 had been annoying me with its notifications to the point where I uninstalled it, is now back with 10586. I flipped a switch to turn it off (rather than uninstalling it); we'll see if that works and for how long.

--JorgeA

 

 

Now THIS. This is just wrong. Settings set by a GUI preference being reverted. Really? I honestly don't know what to say to this.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

I stopped at win 7 also.

[dencorso]

IMO, that's the way to go. The 10 fail is still ongoing, and if push comes to shove, 7 is mature enough to allow stopping udates altogether, if need be.

[NoelC]

Nope, not unexpected at all.  But disappointing to know we were so very right nonetheless.

 

This is the same Microsoft that sends out the Windows Updates to older systems.  You've long since disabled those entirely, right?

 

-Noel

 

 

P.S., Jorge, what did you find was broken with Classic Shell?  It popped-up a "needs to reconfigure" dialog for me after the first logon, then seems to be working.

Edited November 14, 2015 by NoelC

[dencorso]

Nope, not unexpected at all.  But disappointing to know we were so very right nonetheless.

+1

This is the same Microsoft that sends out the Windows Updates to older systems. You've long since disabled those entirely, right?

I currently have two 7SP1 setups each in one of 2 different machines (all others are XPSP3). I have full image backup libraries of each bootable partition, going back more than one year (at least 4 per month).

One of the 7SP1 is not being updated for a while already. The other receives only those updates I vet, but I'm confident if I make a mistake, my backups are sound enough for me to recover. It's not a VM, but it can be seen as a test setup, because the work OS on that machine is currently XPSP3, and the machine is a multiboot setup.

[JorgeA]

 

 

 

And if you hide the notification, it will magically reappear just like so many other updates have been lately. The official reason for their popping back up seems to be that some change was made to the update, so that technically it's no longer "the same" file. Well, since we're told that Win10 will be an ongoing project, it will never be finished and it will always be changing -- and so Win7 users will always keep getting "invited" to download it no matter how many times they hide it.

 

    Uninstalling and hiding that update is the wrong way to disable GWX, so of course it is not effective long term.  The correct way is to disable it via the registry while leaving it installed.  Here's a batch file I made that will do this for you:

 

 

I suggest posting that script far and wide.

 

The GWX invite hasn't come back for me since I hid the update (that I remember), but my understanding is that it could return anytime, apparently depending on whether the file was changed.

 

Beyond that, I'm not qualified to opine on whether your method or dencorso's is preferable. Let the experts talk it out.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Nope, not unexpected at all.  But disappointing to know we were so very right nonetheless.

 

This is the same Microsoft that sends out the Windows Updates to older systems.  You've long since disabled those entirely, right?

 

-Noel

 

 

P.S., Jorge, what did you find was broken with Classic Shell?  It popped-up a "needs to reconfigure" dialog for me after the first logon, then seems to be working.

 

The first time 10586 booted up, I got a series of notifications about problem applications, in quick succession. One of them had to do with Classic Shell. Fortunately, CS then offered to repair itself, and it's now working great.

 

If there is a log somewhere to look up what that notification said exactly about CS, I can go in and retrieve it to post here.

 

--JorgeA

[rn10950]

Nope, not unexpected at all.  But disappointing to know we were so very right nonetheless.

 

This is the same Microsoft that sends out the Windows Updates to older systems.  You've long since disabled those entirely, right?

 

-Noel

 

 

P.S., Jorge, what did you find was broken with Classic Shell?  It popped-up a "needs to reconfigure" dialog for me after the first logon, then seems to be working.

 

Yep, I'm currently very happy with my Windows 2003 and XP Professional x64 (both NT 5.2) installs and their lack of Windows updates. Managing family Windows 7 PCs has been like whack-a-mole lately, as we all know.

[JorgeA]

 

Regarding Aero Glass and Classic Shell, I expected this. I expect MS to continue to break every customization option created in the name of "brand identity". This is exactly why this rolling release model is so dangerous. I am interested in seeing a screenshot of that Vista/7 theme you created if you have one though.

 

I can't claim credit for creating the Vista theme myself, I got it from deviantArt (IIRC it was this one). In build 10240, it worked fairly well in combination with bigmuscle's Aero Glass -- not perfect, but good enough for a test system. Here are a couple of screenshots that I'd captured for other purposes; taking the two together, you can get a sense of how the theme looked in 10240.

 

 

Now in 10586, of course, at least for the time being there's no Aero Glass and no clearly evident window borders. The distinctive Vista 3D Taskbar is no longer possible in later Win10 builds.

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

As has been mentioned, now how many re-themers are going to put in all the effort to re-theme Windows 10.10586 again, just to accomplish the same things?

 

People are going to get tired quickly.

 

I sense the culmination of Microsoft's stupid idea of rolling out in-place updates will seal the end of Windows 10, and especially for anyone thinking that "Windows as a service" might have any merit.  Those using Windows for frivolity might be willing to bend a bit. 

 

Those considering using it for anything serious most likely hadn't even whipped build 10240 into shape yet.  Business takes literally YEARS to roll out new OS builds, because things all have to WORK.

 

The real shame is that all they'd have had to do to make it palatable is to provide all the configurability necessary to allow people to make it into what they want (and have that configuration persist).  It's not like we're re-theming it and tweaking it to be something more or different than what it once was.

 

-Noel