Windows 10?

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by a435843

Anyway, that Windows 10 article from TechRepublic was awful, no offense, RD.

None taken. After all, I didn't write the article. And I am trying to present all sides in the Windows 10 argument.

I don't knock Mark Kaelin either. I'm certain that "millions" have taken the "free update". I'm also certain that we will never know how many people actually downloaded Windows 10, how many cancelled their reservation, or how many uninstalled and went back to Windows 7 or 8.

That's exactly the point. If Microsoft had told people up front that there would be a subscription charge for Windows 10 at some future point in time, how many people would have taken them up on the "free" upgrade ? Microsoft couldn't even do the right thing and bury such information in the "fine print". I don't know too many companies these days that risk such conduct. Even the cable TV providers, long notorious for billing scams and poor customer service now err on the side of full disclosure - albeit having been forced by the FCC and other regulators.

Even if I could look past the technical weaknesses in Windows 10, I think in the long term it's Microsoft's new business model and their lack of candor with the public that will bring them to grief. I reserve my ire for the folks at Redmond.

Oh, and I've been holding off on this for a while.

Microsoft finds itself in this sorry state of affairs because of one man: Steve Ballmer. As far as "another CEO out on his ass" his ass fell on a pile of money worth (today) $22.7 billion. With that logic, if the captain of the Titanic had survived the White Star Lines would have paid him a bonus ! Under Ballmer's "leadership" we saw two failed Windows rollouts, bad initial rollouts of the Xbox and Surface product lines, failed forays into personal media players and smartphones, a crippling lack of technological vision, and a company with huge resources constantly being beaten to market by smaller, more creative competitors. And oh yes, the tanking of Microsoft's stock value.

Ballmer once said "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." Of course Microsoft then was forced to play catch up in the smartphone market, including the failed purchase of cell phone maker Nokia (which Ballmer railroaded through over the objections of key executives at the company). He once described Linux as a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches". He once derided Android phones, stating that "You don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone and you do to use an Android phone ... It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones." Brilliant insights.

Microsoft under Ballmer continued to play catch up, missing the boat on smartphones, tablet computing, and personal music players, then rolling out inferior products like the Surface 2 tablet and the Zune media player that further dragged on Microsoft's profitability. Despite the fact that Microsoft had many new technologies in their development pipeline Ballmer routinely squashed anything that he felt would drain resources away from his favorite cash cows, Windows and Office.

Ballmer guessed correctly about cloud services, helping to launch Microsoft's efforts in that technology segment. But Microsoft's share price stagnated during Ballmer's tenure. As a result, in May 2012, hedge fund manager David Einhorn called on Ballmer to step down as CEO of Microsoft. "His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft's stock," Einhorn said in reference to Ballmer. In a May 2012 column in Forbes magazine, Adam Hartung described Ballmer as "the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company", saying he had "steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets (mobile music, handsets and tablets)".

If current CEO Satya Nadella can succeed in saving Microsoft, he'll have earned his money.

Like I said in a prior posting: 25,000 laid off Microsoft employees and Windows 10 users will be paying for a litany of mistakes, most of which can be traced to Steve Ballmer's door.

[pigulici]

And the big mess about Win10 it is just started, I will take my popcorn and enjoy the show(from my Win 7 frozen and linux, dual boot pc):

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38459-m...atch-nightmare

[pigulici]

Another one :"Windows 10 can Disable Pirated Games and Unauthorized Hardware":

http://www.eteknix.com/windows-10-ca...ized-hardware/

[Staffsyeoman]

God Win 10 is iniquitous. Following advice here yesterday (gentlemen thank you) I deleted the "nagware" update and changed my update settings. For 12 hours Update tells me it cannot update. Ho hum think I. This morning it returns. Tells me two vital security updates for .Net framework. Select them. "Downloading Windows 10" NO thank you....

[9876543210]

a435843,

Jesus Christ! That isn't just a little bit scary. Thank heavens I don't have a mic or camera on this old machine.

[DTravel]

Jesus Christ! That isn't just a little bit scary. Thank heavens I don't have a mic or camera on this old machine.

That you know of.

Some years back there was a big reveal about some of those monitors and computers with built in cameras. It turned out that not only could users NOT turn them off (sure, you could flip the software switch to tell it to turn off but it didn't actually do anything) but they were built to use IR and other non-visible light frequencies to see thru tape, paper and other materials that more parano *ahem* savvy users might try to physically block the cameras with.

[pigulici]

For me that did it, I though that till Christmas I will put Win 10, but to not be able to stop Win10 to send data, NO, a big NO, now I know why is free update and work on low hardware, it look for me that I will keep Win7 longer than estimate(I have to use Win for Photoshop)...

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by a435843

Even if you turn all of the privacy settings to "off", MS still collects "telemetry" data, by which I mean, every key you press on the keyboard. Windows 10 is a key logger...... The original story, coming out of the Czech republic, and translated and annotated for English readers....

Several years ago (July 31st) I posted an item from Microsoft's Twitter feed related to this subject: http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/sho...&postcount=212

Mister DTravel went one better and recommended a website with a modified HOSTS file to help protect you:

Originally Posted by DTravel

As for the Hosts file, I made major changes to mine years ago to block spam, adware and misc nasties using this site: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

If you plug the following lines into your HOSTS file you will block the data collection processes that Mister a435843 detailed in his latest post:

#<Microsoft data collection>
#
# Block Microsoft data collection sites
# updated August 13 2015 @ 20:44
#
127.0.0.1 choice.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 choice.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 cs1.wpc.v0cdn.net
127.0.0.1 df.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 i1.services.social.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 i1.services.social.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 pre.footprintpredict.com
127.0.0.1 redir.metaservices.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 services.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 settings-sandbox.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 statsfe1.ws.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 telemetry.appex.bing.net
127.0.0.1 telemetry.appex.bing.net:443
127.0.0.1 telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 telemetry.urs.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 vortex-win.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 vortex.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.ppe.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
#
#</Microsoft data collection>
#
#</C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts>

Your version of Windows determines the location of your HOSTS file:

For Windows 9x and ME: C:\Windows\hosts
For NT, Win2K and XP: C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts or C:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
For Windows 7 and Vista: C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts or %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
For Windows 8: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

By associating a given host/website name with the IP address 127.0.0.1 you are causing any connection with that host to redirect or "loopback" to your own computer. Think of it as a outbound firewall. Of course you could do the same by plugging the information into any Internet security software that provides a firewall function - except if that software is from Microsoft. In fact if you are using Windows Defender you will need to tell it to ignore the path to your HOSTS file. Defender may interpret your modification as having been caused by malware. (See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2764944)

To edit the HOSTS file you may have to use Notepad in "Run as Administrator" mode.

Please note that the 127.0.0.1 redir.metaservices.microsoft.com entry will effectively prevent Windows Media Player from being able to search for updated information on any media files in your library.

OK, OK...."Czeching Microsoft's data collection" was a bad pun !

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by DTravel

Some years back there was a big reveal about some of those monitors and computers with built in cameras. It turned out that not only could users NOT turn them off (sure, you could flip the software switch to tell it to turn off but it didn't actually do anything) but they were built to use IR and other non-visible light frequencies to see thru tape, paper and other materials that more parano *ahem* savvy users might try to physically block the cameras with.

I have clip on LED lights on my laptop. I just clip one over the webcam lens.

"Us analog boys can defeat these digital toys !" (With apologizes to Erykah Badu !)

[pigulici]

another one : "Windows 10 will sink "pirated" software or hardware"

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38470-w...ffs-for-piracy