Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

Finally got to install the Anniversary Update over the weekend. The 8GadgetPack needed to be "repaired" in order to work on the new version of Windows 10, and Classic Shell needed to be reinstalled so that I could use the real Start Menu.

Windows 10 AU declared two applications to be "incompatible": the Microsoft Network Monitor (version 3.4) and... Classic Shell. This time it went so far as to open the browser to a Microsoft Web page that declared,

Quote

The app you're trying to use was blocked from opening because it might damage your PC or result in loss of data. This is because some apps that worked with a previous version of Windows might not work in the same way with Windows 10.

Well yes, Classic Shell could be viewed as a danger -- that is, to Microsoft's total control of users' PCs, not to those PCs themselves. 

Now here's a couple of oddities. The MS Network Monitor was not uninstalled, its icon was still there on the Desktop, and clicking on it brought up the program in what seemed to be a perfectly normal way. And clicking on the Classic Shell setup file didn't do anything. However, renaming the file to something other than "ClassicShell" made it possible to launch the setup and get Classic Shell back. All of my CS settings from before the AU were still as I had put them.

I'm running Windows 10 Pro under the Windows Insider Program. Installing the AU required going through the privacy settings all over again; while most of the settings were left as I had set them, there were a few new ones to deal with. And of course I had to run through the UWP crapps, eliminating as many as I could. This time around, it looks like it's possible to uninstall fewer of them than before. The good news, though, is that I'm still getting local-only search in the Cortana search bar. This was a little surprising, as I thought I'd read somewhere that you can no longer disable Web search in Cortana.

One other immediate impression: the blinding whiteness continues to spread. For example, in the Settings app that's replacing many Control Panel functions, the background used to be a dingy gray and now it's white.

More observations if and as I come across them.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

After months and years of official denials, the path for Microsoft to change Windows to a subscription basis is coming out of the fog. Revealed by none less than the most prominent MSFT apologist in cyberspace:

Microsoft's new business model for Windows 10: Pay to play
 

Quote

The upshot of all these changes is to push and prod people who might previously have been happy with Home edition to move up to Pro, and to encourage a similar upgrade option for Pro users to move to Enterprise.

Just be prepared to pay.

The idea seems to be to make the Home and Pro editions so limited and restricted that customers will feel compelled to fork over more $$$ to get the new $7/month Enterprise version, just to reclaim the features and the level of control over their own PCs that we previously enjoyed on those less-expensive editions. This of course allows Microsoft to deny that they're actually turning Windows into a subscription service: they're simply going to make it so annoying to run "free" Windows that people will gladly pay a monthly fee to get rid of the annoyances.

--JorgeA

[cc333]

47 minutes ago, JorgeA said:

This of course allows Microsoft to deny that they're actually turning Windows into a subscription service: they're simply going to make it so annoying to run "free" Windows that people will gladly pay a monthly fee to get rid of the annoyances.

I hate this! I don't want to pay a subscription for everything. What happens if you don't pay? They'll shut down your computer and Windows will refuse to boot again until you pay up for the month (plus a late fee, to add insult to injury).

Sounds like the beginnings of ransomware-like behavior to me.

c

Edited September 6, 2016 by cc333

[NoelC]

1 hour ago, JorgeA said:

clicking on the Classic Shell setup file didn't do anything. However, renaming the file to something other than "ClassicShell" made it possible to launch the setup and get Classic Shell back. All of my CS settings from before the AU were still as I had put them.

Did you install the latest release?  I don't recall that installer behaving that way.  For me it went right in and, like you, my Classic Shell configuration was maintained.  And of course it works perfectly in Windows 10 - not incompatible in any way (except incompatible with Microsoft's idiotic dumbing-down of everything in order to herd sheep).

Quote

One other immediate impression: the blinding whiteness continues to spread. For example, in the Settings app that's replacing many Control Panel functions, the background used to be a dingy gray and now it's white.

There's a setting that can turn the App universe black.  I find it preferable for Settings, which is the only App I run.

-Noel

Edited September 6, 2016 by NoelC

[rn10950]

8 hours ago, NoelC said:

There's a setting that can turn the App universe black.  I find it preferable for Settings, which is the only App I run.

I'm curious: does this dark mode setting have any effect on win32 applications like the old DESK.CPL did?

[NoelC]

No, not that I can see.  It only seems to affect Apps.

-Noel

[cc333]

Has anyone figured out how to run the old DESK.CPL (or, indeed, any .CPL from XP or 2000) on Vista and newer with their native interfaces relatively intact?

I ask because I don't like the "webby" control panels tremendously. They're OK, and they're certainly better than Windows 10 in my opinion, I just want to see if I can somehow get some of the tried-and-true interfaces back.

c

[vinifera]

its all tied to shell explorer user32 and whatnot

[cc333]

Ah, I see. Could one redirect all calls to their proper XP versions instead of the WinVista/7/8/8.1 ones, for example: redirect calls from to user32.dll to, say, user32_xp.dll? And have it work??

It might be worth trying on something innocuous, like DESK.CPL. Couldn't hurt to try.

It'd likely be useless, but whatever. It *could* be modified to seek display/appearance settings in their proper Vista/7/etc places instead of the expected 2000/XP ones, but I'm not certain how trivial that would be.

c

Edited September 8, 2016 by cc333
Fixed some typos

[Agorima]

On martedì 6 settembre 2016 at 6:15 PM, JorgeA said:

Windows 10 AU declared two applications to be "incompatible": the Microsoft Network Monitor (version 3.4) and... Classic Shell. This time it went so far as to open the browser to a Microsoft Web page that declared,

Well yes, Classic Shell could be viewed as a danger -- that is, to Microsoft's total control of users' PCs, not to those PCs themselves. 

Now here's a couple of oddities. The MS Network Monitor was not uninstalled, its icon was still there on the Desktop, and clicking on it brought up the program in what seemed to be a perfectly normal way. And clicking on the Classic Shell setup file didn't do anything. However, renaming the file to something other than "ClassicShell" made it possible to launch the setup and get Classic Shell back. All of my CS settings from before the AU were still as I had put them.

Also Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and 2007 are deemed to be incompatible by Windows 10

"Virtual PC 2007 SP1 doesn't work with this version of Windows"

But after renaming "Setup.exe" and "Virtual PC.exe", it will runs fine.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Agorima
adjusting post

[jaclaz]

So does that mean that windows 10 "blacklists" executable based on filename + *something else* (let's say a CRC or similar checksum)? 

jaclaz
 

[NoelC]

Might be just the filename.  That's the same kind of "incompatibility" one used to see with the Classic Shell installer until renaming it.

But even more fundamentally...  What business does an operating system have in refusing to try to run something?

The gear needs to obey the human.  Unconditionally.  Imagine you're in your car, in the middle of passing someone on a 2 lane road, and need to mash the accelerator pedal and go a bit faster in order to complete the pass and get back into your lane safely before a collision...  Then your car just out of the blue reports "Going faster is incompatible at this time".

-Noel

Edited September 9, 2016 by NoelC

[xpclient]

When I ran Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 8.1/10, the VM Console opened but as soon as I started a Virtual Machine, vmm.sys caused a BSoD. There's a good reason probably why they blocked it. There are some workarounds posted by people to install Windows Phone/Mobile 10 emulator which installs an updated version of vmm.sys, then replace the older vmm.sys and reboot. Maybe that might work.

Not that I support how they killed VPC. They just expect everyone to move on to Hyper-V which is absolutely wrong. Virtual PC should be revived and updated to work with Windows 10. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer cares, so we'll now have to use VirtualBox.

Edited September 9, 2016 by xpclient

[jaclaz]

9 minutes ago, NoelC said:

Might be just the filename.

Allow me to doubt they can have blacklisted "Setup.exe" by filename ONLY.

jaclaz

[NoelC]

Good point... 

Anyone here running VMware on a Win 10 host?  I've only run Win 10 as a guest.  I suspect it must work but I have no experience...  Speaking of which, I skipped version 12.  I suppose VMware version 13, er, 12.5 ought to be out soon.

-Noel

Edited September 9, 2016 by NoelC