Windows 10?

[lagerlout]

Originally Posted by Rick Danger

Many of you may have received an email from Microsoft outlining their updated Microsoft Services Agreement, due to go into effect September 15, 2016.

It makes for interesting, if not lengthy, reading.

For example, this clause: .....

Holy Crap

Most of this can't be legal

[Ernesto75]

My first reaction to the last post by Rick Danger is this:

1 - Microsoft reacted to the small case they recently lost and had to pay $ 10.000.

2 - In France (and in all the EU I think) some or all of it would be illegal:

Nobody can renounce in advance to exercise his rights and any legal clause which would say the contrary would be null.

So Satya Nadella thinks he has found a new way of shafting us.

[Rommelbommel]

Originally Posted by Rick Danger

"b. To the extent necessary to provide the Services to you and others, to protect you and the Services, and to improve Microsoft products and services, you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content, for example, to make copies of, retain, transmit, reformat, display, and distribute via communication tools Your Content on the Services."

Oh, Rick Danger is one of those guys

How else should Microsoft be able to offer cloud services, if you don't allow them to copy and share your content when you ask for it? As for all the rest, you'll find the same TOS everywhere else.

[m100]

here's a short summary of microsofts terms as outlined above:

"we will do what the hell we want with anything we can access in anyway whether it belongs to us or not now or in the future, deal with it suckers".

[Rick Danger]

You have to feel for Windows 10 users. The Anniversary update was looked upon to improve Windows 10 or to fix issues that some users may have been experiencing. Now this.

If you are running Windows 10, you may see some fixes today.


Woody on Windows

Windows 10 Anniversary Update woes continue
Problems with last week’s Anniversary Update keep piling up, and solutions remain elusive

By Woody Leonhard
InfoWorld | Aug 8, 2016

Late last week, I recommended that you actively block the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. The past few days have brought yet another wave of complaints. Here’s a sample.

Last week, I talked about the Reddit post from SoloWingX stating that Windows 10 freezes completely after the Anniversary Update. That thread is now up to 680 comments. SoloWingX has done yeoman work documenting dozens of potential solutions -- and none of them have been successful. He concludes with a TL;DR:

To all affected people, we haven't yet found a definite solution, so the only option to get a working PC at the moment is to roll back to a previous build in case you updated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/c...ersary_update/

As noted last week, you have only 10 days to roll back from the Anniversary Update (Win10 version 1607) to the Fall Update (version 1511).

Edge still has plenty of problems. I’ve hit situations where Edge will not close by clicking on the red X. Also, I can X out of the last open tab and Edge keeps running, when closing the only open tab should shut down the program as a whole. The problems seem to appear after visiting sites with lots of ads -- like the ones linked to from msn.com, for example. Once the problems start, they don’t go away. The only solution I’ve found is to reboot.

Two antivirus manufacturers have reported problems. McAfee states:

Do not [emphasis in the original] upgrade to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update without first verifying whether your McAfee product is compatible. This caution affects the products listed in the Environment section above... Microsoft intended to implement an upgrade and installation check to ensure that no incompatible McAfee product versions could be installed or present. Due to time constraints, Microsoft could not implement the intended version check in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update… Microsoft has indicated that a hotfix will be released some time after the Windows 10 Anniversary Update to implement the version check. The Microsoft hotfix will protect against installation of incompatible McAfee product versions; however, this hotfix cannot protect against upgrades to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update from nodes already running an incompatible McAfee product version on a previous build of Windows.

Avast has a similar warning:

On Tuesday, August 2, Microsoft released their latest version of Windows 10 -- the Anniversary Update -- via the Windows Update channel. While the majority of our users didn’t have a problem, certain HW configurations didn't mix well with the update… This occurred during upgrades to the Windows 10 Anniversary edition from previous versions of Windows, and during clean installations of Avast Antivirus on systems already running the Anniversary Update… Neither the Windows Insider program nor the Avast Antivirus Beta channel indicated any forewarning of such behavior.

By the way, to see an excellent example of a bug advisory, look at the Avast announcement -- very well done, clear, and thorough. Kudos! https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=189503.0

Sam Machkovech at Ars Technica reports Xbox One controllers and Windows 10 PCs: It’s all a mess right now:

Whether you use a new Bluetooth controller or you upgraded your old XB1 to this week's Windows 10 Anniversary edition, get ready for some road bumps… That being said, the primary compatibility issue is wreaking havoc on various PC games whose controller support used to work just fine. Some games no longer recognize when Xbox One controllers are connected via Bluetooth or through the official Xbox One wireless adapter. Other games, as well as Steam's Big Picture mode, think a single Xbox One controller is two controllers simultaneously… Windows 10's Anniversary update also broke current homebrew ways to get popular controllers, like Sony's DualShock 4, to play with Windows PCs.

The Ars angst for Xbox One controllers on Win10 Anniversary Update goes on for several pages.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/0...ess-right-now/

In the FUD zone, I’m still unclear about the ability to block crapware tiles. I wrote about the problem a couple of weeks ago: Admins can’t keep Microsoft from pushing crapware Live tiles onto Win10 Pro PCs because certain Group Policies don’t work in the Anniversary Update. My current Win10 Pro AU machine has tiles for Solitaire, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Pandora, Asphalt 8, Age of Empires Castle Siege, FarmVille 2, Minecraft, Twitter, and Get Office -- in other words, about half of my Start menu tiles are unabashed, Microsoft-installed crapware, all on a machine that’s been through the official “start fresh” regimen.

Now there’s a debate raging on AskWoody.com about those tiles and whether individual Win10 Pro customers can block them. Microsoft Engineer J. Decker, writing on TechNet, says:

On all Windows desktop editions, users can directly enable and disable Windows 10 tips, tricks, and suggestions and Windows Store suggestions. For example, users are able to select personal photos for the lock screen as opposed to the images provided by Microsoft, or turn off tips, tricks, or suggestions as they use Windows.

Some interpret Decker as saying “all advertising in the Anniversary Update can be turned off by the user.” I think that’s a great goal and would love to tell people how to do it. But in my experiments, I can’t get the crapware tiles turned off. If you know how, slap me upside the head on AskWoody.

I’m not saying that everyone’s having problems -- far from it. But I'm saying there are enough problems -- some of them severe -- floating around that installing the Win10 Anniversary Update at this point doesn’t make sense. Well-informed customers would be advised to wait until the bugs get ironed out.

I fully expect that Microsoft will include some fixes in this week’s Patch Tuesday. Likely we’ll have fixes for both version 1511 build 10586 (the old Fall Update) and version 1607 build 14393 (the new Anniversary Update) that will reduce problems with the upgrade from one to the other. Equally likely, we won’t see much -- if any -- documentation about the fixes. They’ll be rolled into cumulative updates.

Let’s wait until later this week to see if the complaint decibel level dies down.

[Rick Danger]

Once technology gets any more complex than a 60 watt lightbulb (and I actually have issues with CFL bulbs) than there are always issues, particularly with changes.

There is no technology platform I am aware of that is 100% error free, especially when changes are being made. Anyone who believes this is NOT the case is simply not being objective. This is why change should not be rushed into. Both technology providers and tech users must use due diligence. Between endless, costly testing and too rapid a deployment a happy medium must be met.

Smartphones are relatively simple technology compared to computers, laptops, or tablets. Automatic (or if you prefer, "forced") updates to phones are comparatively easy. But denying computer users the ability to control the update process, given the nearly infinite choices of hardware, software, peripherals and utilities available raises the risk to the user to an unacceptable level.

I'm still hoping that Microsoft modifies it's new update policy to restore full control of to Windows 10 users.


Apple iOS 9.3.4: Should You Upgrade?

Gordon Kelly, Contributor
Aug 8, 2016 @ 09:10 AM

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

When Apple (AAPL +0.41%) released iOS 9.3.3 it followed five betas and almost two months of public testing. It was also widely expected to be the final version of iOS 9 before iOS 10 launches in September. But suddenly iOS 9.3.4 is here with no warning, so should you upgrade to such a sudden and expected release? Let’s take a look…

Who Is iOS 9.3.4 For?
Like all iOS 9.x releases, iOS 9.3.4 is designed for the iPhone 4S or later, iPad 2 or later, iPad mini or later, iPad Pro range and the 5th generation iPod touch or later. Users will be automatically prompted to upgrade, but if that notification has not yet appeared for you it can be triggered manually by going to Settings > General > Software Update

As always, the size of iOS updates differ significantly depending on your device. In the case of iOS 9.3.4 you will typically find it weighing in between 20MB and 80MB.

The Deal Breakers
iOS 9.3.4 has one big concern that will affect a number of users: it patches the recent Pangu jailbreak.

For months the biggest jailbreaking players, Pangu and TaiG, have struggled to jailbreak iOS 9 with their last success coming with iOS 9.1. This changed when Pangu had a breakthrough with iOS 9.3.3 but Apple has quickly shut this down with iOS 9.3.4. In fact Apple, somewhat amusingly, even credits “Team TISI +% Pangu” as the source for this update in its official security notes.

Elsewhere Apple’s Support Communities forum does note some smaller issues such as the dictionary no longer working and problems with the battery widget freezing. So far these are isolated incidents, but I’ll update if this changes.

So What Do You Get?
According to Apple’s release notes iOS 9.3.4 is all about one vague thing: “iOS 9.3.4 provides an important security update for your iPhone or iPad and is recommended for all users.”

Dig deeper, however, and you learn more with Apple stating an IOMobileFrameBuffer issue could enable an app “to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges” – this is a potentially dangerous exploit. That said this is also the exploit Pangu uses for its jailbreaking.

Furthermore there’s nothing else included beyond this. No talk of general performance upgrades, any new features or refinements.

Apple iOS 9.3.4 Install Verdict: Only Upgrade If You Do Not Jailbreak
iOS 9.3.4 comes somewhat out of the blue and appears to be solely about patching Pangu’s recent jailbreak. If so, I believe this may be the first time Apple has updated iOS solely for this purpose and it shows how focused the company is only stamping down on an activity it used to begrudgingly tolerate for many years.

As such if you don’t jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch there’s little reason to avoid iOS 9.3.4. Especially as the potential exists for less benevolent hackers to exploit iOS 9.3.3 in the same way Pangu did.

That aside there are a couple of issues with reports regarding battery widget problems so, if this widget is important to you, steer clear for now as it is likely to be the last iOS update owners of the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPod 5th gen will receive.

The Road Ahead
With the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus release now just one month away, all focus is on iOS 10 and its major upgrades and new features. You can read more about them below.

[Rick Danger]

It is clear that Microsoft is pushing Windows 10, along with the Microsoft Store, Office 365, Xbox, Groove Music, et. al. as services that are tied to their cloud infrastructure.

Author David Linthicum views cloud services as the next oligarchy like cellphone carriers or cable TV. Wonderful.

Three weeks ago my cable provider dropped a dozen channels from my service. After getting the old run-around they stated that they conducted an "audit" and determined I was not entitled to those channels. This despite the fact that I'd had them for nearly two years since the day they installed the service. Of course, their solution for restoration of these channels was simple: just pay "a little" more. I refused. I asked them "what guarantee do I have that you won't delete some other channels next week that you decide I'm not entitled too?".

We've already seen Microsoft reverse themselves on providing "unlimited" storage under OneDrive. If as this article indicates the cloud marketplace shakes itself out there can be no doubt that consumers will be faced with rising prices and changes to their services.


Cloud Computing

AWS, Microsoft, Google, and IBM: 2 clouds won't survive
Today, four companies dominate IaaS -- but that could easily thin out in a few years

By David Linthicum
InfoWorld | Aug 5, 2016

Four firms control the cloud infrastructure market: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, and Google, according to a survey by market researcher Synergy. AWS held a 31 percent share in the second quarter, followed by Microsoft with 11 percent, IBM with 8 percent, and Google with 5 percent.

The market could not have evolved in any other way -- due to scale.

It takes many billions of dollars to build data centers and the technology infrastructure to support a public cloud. Only providers with deep pockets can play. In fact, dozens of smaller public cloud providers have hit the eject button because they didn't have the cash flow needed to keep up.

The fact of the matter is we may end up with only one or two major providers in a few short years, and the remaining providers will be determined more by spending ability than the quality of the technology. The more features they offer and the more points of presence they have will bring greater success than establishing a killer cloud service in and of itself. IaaS public clouds will be judged on size and reliability.

To play in public cloud infrastructure, you need the kind of money that a monopoly or oligarchy has -- think cellphone, cable TV, or even ERP providers.

Honestly, it's kind of scary that so few public cloud companies will control the market. The risk is they could jack up prices and/or deliver poor services, as we've seen with other monopolies and oligarchies.

The silver lining is there will always be one competitor if they fall down on the job: traditional on-premises systems. Let's all hope the alternative keeps the cloud oligarchs honest.

David S. Linthicum is a consultant at Cloud Technology Partners and an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader. Dave has authored 13 books on computing and also writes regularly for HPE Software's TechBeacon site.

[rlg118]

http://windowssecrets.com/newsletter...4913e81b0503aa

[buttsie]

I think there are some pretty valuable lessons to be learned from this episode


1. Never upgrade unless you have a back-up computer

Too many examples this time around showed the compatibility checking was nowhere near as useful or accurate as when people moved from XP / Vista to 7.

Updating drivers can be an absolute nightmare

2. Always have a 2nd way of connecting to the internet

Those cheap throwaway usb drives or modems with no expiry date are a perfect backup for when cable goes awol or offline


3. Dont get blinded by the word FREE

I got access to 7 & 8 (without the discs)years after their debut for a pittance
by buying 2 refurbished towers...the office 2010 software was worth more than the cost

Anonym zu https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/refurbishedpcs/

Worked out to the equivalent of renting a PC for 2 dollars a week.


Its the upgrading to better new hardware and not the Operating system
that is worth looking into if your looking for a worthwhile upgrade.


We can all wonder about MS motives given it is at its core a software company so presumably it would like nothing better than all previous versions to be binned so new software is required.

For mine old PCs which havent gone past their MS support date (W7-2020 W8 -2023) are better left intact and used as

1. Offline storage
2. Backup for when your main PC has hardware failure or a bad malware infection
3. A 2nd PC with its own seperate internet connection that you use only for things like online financial transactions , sensitive personal information - mixing this with general browsing is dangerous in this age of heightened malware attacks imho.
4. Kept for those unique pieces of software or games that are no longer supported by newer operating systems



For every new OS you start using

Get to your local library and borrow the Dummies or Annoyances Guides

Online this site is quite useful

http://www.howtogeek.com/

[Ernesto75]

Originally Posted by buttsie

Online this site is quite useful

http://www.howtogeek.com/

Thank you for this link. In this website we can find some interesting infos.