Windows 10?

[Rick Danger]

"Wolf in Sheep's clothing?"

It just struck me. The statement concerning GWX is "This update installs the Get Windows 10 app, which helps users understand their Windows 10 upgrade options and device readiness.". But GWX was the downloader for the Windows 10 install, not just some benign program providing preparatory information.

So, has GWX been changed, or is this more deception on Redmond's part? I'm not risking my systems to find out!

So, I turned to Mr. Leonhard for the answer. This is a NEW version of GWX, but it exhibits the same bad habits of the previous releases.................

Woody on Windows
By Woody Leonhard

Get Windows 10 patch KB 3035583 suddenly reappears on Win7/8.1 PCs
The 10th version of the Microsoft's much-maligned malware rolled out Tuesday afternoon with no warning or mention

InfoWorld | Feb 24, 2016

Around noon Pacific time on Tuesday, I started receiving notices from Windows 7 and 8.1 users that the old, dreaded Get Windows 10 patch KB 3035583 had returned. As of early Wednesday morning, neither the official Windows Update list nor the KB article itself mention a new release. It appears Microsoft simply shipped it out again and didn't bother to tell anybody.

No doubt you recall KB 3035583 -- a patch better described as adware, or a "potentially unwanted program." It first appeared last March, titled "Update enables additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1." We didn't figure out until a week later that it was in fact dropping the Get Windows 10 (GWX) installation subsystem.

GWX has drawn nearly universal condemnation. It has a complex installer that puts hooks into various and sundry parts of Windows 7 and 8.1, all of which are designed to convince you to upgrade to Windows 10.

GWX has been associated with all manner of ills, including the following:

Nagging and misleading upgrade messages (including one message that only listed "Upgrade now" or "Upgrade tonight" as options)

Forced download of 3GB to 5GB of unwanted installation files

Automatic launching of the upgrade program -- a "mistake," per Microsoft

Scheduled tasks and trigger programs that won't go away even if you uninstall the patch.

Even the KB article that was supposed to explain how to bypass GWX's excesses was wrong, until research forced Microsoft to fix it. Of course, GWX doesn't give you an opportunity to simply say, "Go away and stop bothering me."

Thanks to more than 100 respondents on AskWoody.com, Twitter, and AskWoody on Facebook, I've been able to piece together the information that Microsoft somehow neglected to give us.

It looks like most Windows 7 and 8.1 Home and Pro PCs received the patch in Windows Update on Tuesday afternoon. (Enterprise didn't get it, as before.) Some systems have it listed among the Optional patches in Windows Update and others as Important -- with no clear reason for the distinction. The description of the patch (in the right pane if you click on the Windows Update entry) says it's a "Recommended Update."

For those who have the Windows Update settings box marked "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" unchecked, the entry in Windows Update appears italicized. (I always wondered what turned the WU entries italicized.)

I've seen only rare reports that the patch in Windows Update is "checked" -- that is, KB 3035583 will install for those who have "Install updates automatically (recommended)" or "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" chosen as the Important updates installation option.

Josh Mayfield, the developer behind GWX Control Panel, wrote to me and said:

I installed it and didn't see any problematic differences. Still honors DisableGwx and didn't install any new background tasks. I did notice that the GWX "version" value changed from 5 to 6, but I'm not seeing any new symptoms/behaviors.

As I explained in January, running KB 3035583 creates a new GWX folder with five programs in it, and it starts seven processes in Task Scheduler. The DisableGWX entry only prevents the Get Windows 10 icon from appearing in the system folder; it doesn't disable GWX in any other way.

Uninstalling KB 3035583 doesn't uninstall the GWX subsystem, nor does it delete any files that Microsoft may have preloaded on your PC.

Then, as now, the only reasonable way to wipe out the Get Windows 10 subsystem is by running Mayfield's GWX Control Panel.

More stealthy programs dropped on paying customers' PCs -- how could anyone trust Microsoft after this GWX debacle?

[Rick Danger]

"Always, what guides us is a customer-first approach [and a] commitment to all of our Windows customers.” Credit: Microsoft Corporation

No surprise here. Microsoft will continue to support Windows Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2 on Skylake processors. But it's original announcement that they are yanking support for Windows 7 and 8.x on Skylake PCs in eighteen months still stands.

Of course, the level of vitriol over Microsoft's blatant violation of it's THIRTY ONE YEAR policy of honoring it's own published support schedule for Windows may have had something to do with this. Or perhaps the number of corporate customers and their lawyers calling Redmond may also have been a factor? Microsoft's management team may be stupid, but they aren't insane.

Maybe....................

http://www.computerworld.com/article...windows-7.html

[Rick Danger]

Bill Gates Announces Plans to Reduce Population via Free Windows 10
Installing the "no-cost" Windows 10 upgrade might lead to your demise.

By Loretta Splitair

Redmond, WA — In what should not be a surprise for those that follow and study the secret Enlightenment-era society known as the Illuminati, Bill Gates admitted in a Microsoft memo that the reducing of world population is linked to Microsoft’s free copy of Windows 10. The free copy of Windows 10 has been widely criticized by privacy experts for peering into the computer habits of its users.

"I love free anything," said smug Pete Johnson of Cedar Ridge. "If it's free, I'm there. If there’s a free soda pop refill. I get one. So who cares if Windows 10 is spying on us in order to kill us? All I care about is if it works or not.”

The free, or as Microsoft prefers to call it, the “no-cost” Windows 10 upgrade started off as a voluntary program that only required that customers consent to downloading it. Also, consumers agree to give up every last morsel of personal privacy to corporate America. And if you find yourself in the “if I’m not doing anything wrong/I ain’t got nothing to worry about” crowd, Microsoft can disable any pirated applications over even the entire operating system if they detect any illegal or pirated software.

However, the most concerning part of this no-cost upgrade is the built-in “bloatware” designed to eliminate as much as 98% of the planet’s population. The apps, which have diabolical names such as extermMay.exe and prepbeds.exe were recently discovered by a Ukrainian hacker Alex Melnychuk and released via WikiLeaks this past month. Following the release of these reverse-engineered Windows 10 applications, Mr. Melnychuk has gone missing after telling his family he was going for a 30 minute bicycle ride.

“This is all a part of the plan to reduce populations to more sustainable levels,” said Microsoft spokeswoman Geneva K. Abrantes reading from a prepared statement. “It should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention that both Microsoft and the Gates Foundation have been working closely with our Bavarian headquarters to cut population stress on the planet. And what better ways to accomplish these goals than with the Gates Foundation’s extensive vaccination program, and a free copy of Windows 10?”

Microsoft spokeswoman Geneva K. Abrantes counting off the ways one might or might not die with Windows 10.

Not everyone will be eligible for the free upgrade, and there’s a reason for that.

“Of course not everyone is getting their upgrade for at no-cost,” continued Ms. Abrantes during the press conference following the announcement. “If a consumer doesn’t receive the invitation to upgrade, it can mean a few things.”

At this point Ms. Abrantes raised her right hand to the press corps and pointed towards the ceiling with her index finger.

“One. You’re a Mac User. Now I know what you’re thinking. That Apple Fans are safe from the depopulation program. That’s not true, I’m here to report, in fact, you’re in the first round.

Two. You are one of the surviving 2% of Earth’s human population. No need to upgrade. You will receive instructions shortly after the population program has completed.

Three. You don’t have automatic updates turned on, in which case your computer is probably a steaming pile of virus-infected goo. You will be eligible for a no-cost Windows 10 upgrade.

Four. You don’t have a computer, in which case, please purchase one and you’ll be all set for your no-cost Windows upgrade.”

As for what consumer should expect from their no-cost Windows 10 upgrade and their demise? Ms. Abrantes had this to say.

“We know there is a lot of anxiety about this change,” continued Ms. Abrantes, “but it’s a complete turn-key situation. First you get the upgrade and install it. Then you’ll spend 27 minutes trying to figure out how to disable the Windows Metro tile interface. Then shortly after that, you’ll die. Please follow the onscreen instructions.”

[9876543210]

a435843,

Originally Posted by a435843

So the reality of the situation, as embodied by the MS brownshirts, is that MS is saying that consumers can just go f themselves.

Which is what they've been telling us for how long now?

[pigulici]

So, I have win10 for almost a month,it come with the new laptop(I can't put 7 on it, but I put a linux in dual boot), not sure because of new hardware(not a big differnce on cpu/ram side), but it almost 20% better as performance than the older laptop, the downside:
- still not enough mature, but it is working ok
- if you want to install a new font, the firewall service must be on(if it is off, will give you a generic error, that the file it is corupt
- some errors on metada and memory check, can be resoved with regedit
- I closed updates for drivers and all telemetry from options(soon I will use a tool for hidden parts)
- still not real shutdown , until you put the option in power settings
- look like new interface for settings/option it is only at surface, if you want to set something in more depth, you will get the old win 7 tools/interface
- task manager it is better than for 7
- a lot of win processes try to reach som servers on internet, even after give off to telemetry , from options/settings
- if make a fresh install, win will do it only if the partion it is GPT, so if it is mbr, bye to all data from hdd
- a lot of red errors in event viewer, almost all because I block the processes of win to connect to M$, from comodo firewall

As a person that I have to use win 10, like it or not(for now), it is mostly a positive experience as a performance/stability side, the privacy side it is not so visible for now, but I don't like it.
As I see now, the people in charge of our privacy(gov, agency, etc), don't see any problems that we have no way to manage our privacy, for them, now, it is like guns in USA, it is only a matter to regulate with laws, who will use and how our private data, for them it is already a fact that we don't have privacy anymore...these days , it is almost impossible to have a life with privacy, so the next step for us will be to mask, to lie them, to deceive them that we are other person, not easy to do it if need to be everyday...

[9876543210]

a435843,

Originally Posted by a435843

The one I point to was Windows 98...

Sure you're not talking about ME?

I think 98 was pretty good for its time. Used it for quite a while. And then ME came out and, IIRC, they made this offer that 98 users could get ME for about $50 for a limited time. So I did. And that was the last time I took MS up on any offer. The second or third time I fell for one of Bill's shady deals.

Talk about buggy! Up until Win 10, I thought ME was the biggest piece of crap I'd ever seen. I remember taking ME off of quite a few machines and putting 98 back on. Luckily, it didn't last for long (a year or less?) before XP was introduced. And I know I didn't install that until SP1.

So was just thinking you were misremembering ME.

[9876543210]

pigulici,

Originally Posted by pigulici

So, I have win10 for almost a month,it come with the new laptop(I can't put 7 on it, but I put a linux in dual boot),

I have read that, at least on some machines, it is possible to put Win 7 on new computers. But it seems kind of hit and miss and the problems invariably revolve around drivers.

First, you have to have pretty good experience installing an OS onto a system. And then you must have access to a bunch of drivers from the part manufacturer and/or computer builder. A process not for the faint of heart. Lastly, the time to do it. Oh, and hopefully you won't void your warranty.

It sounds like you might have the capability so, if you are really ticked at Win 10, it might be worth a shot.

[pigulici]

9876543210 : I think I can install and make to work ok win 7 if I have 2-3 days to spare(for now, only sunday it is a free day for me), the problem it is the same reason I passed from XP to 7, last versions of Photoshop it is heavy optimized for last Windows (10 for now), and (because at this, at least) it is starting to work poorly on win 7, as a guy who work 1/2 day with Photoshop(6 days per week) and 2/3 of month income come from this work, I must have a good tool to work with it...if wasn't for this, win 7 and linux nested in my laptop...also, yesterday I discovered that a old rts game I like to play, work only partial in Win10, so I have to discard that game too(The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth)...

[beutelwolf]

Originally Posted by a435843

I wasn't aware that the PS rental version runs like crap on anything other than Windows 10. What a nightmare...having gotten to an advanced level of skill on GIMP, I've started to see where that product falls short, primarily in the lacking of needed features, which require repetitive tasks in GIMP but are quickly accomplished in PS. One would think that, therefore, these features would be theoretically easily scripted in GIMP...but no.

I can well believe that picture editors are one of the main reasons people get locked into Windows. I'm using Paintshop Pro, non-professionally, which probably falls a few steps short of PS, but I find it still much more pleasant to use than GIMP. This is partly because GIMP has some odd behaviours that are thoroughly unwanted (like the autocrop after a perspective correction that chops off part of your image; it's probably switchoffable somewhere, but where and why is it there in the first place?), a lack of fine-grained control (can I please zoom in and adjust the knobs before committing to a trafo?), and - yes - scripting. That is all the more disappointing because these things are full of bloated features nobody ever uses (Spiky Halo Effect anyone?), so getting the basics right should have had more priority.

Another photo-editing feature (not part of Paintshop Pro) I would miss outside Windows is automatic stitching. I'm using MS's Image Composite Editor for that - apparently this is such a hard thing to realise well that general purpose photo editors do not provide the feature. I haven't come across anything that would do this outside Windows.

I'm not going to buy a WX machine any time soon and instead get next a Linux-pre-install, but if the picture editing situation does not greatly improve I would keep a Windows machine just for that purpose alone, eventually taking it offline when MS support for its OS ceases.

[pigulici]

Most of my clients want the source files, as psd, and the Gimp export as psd, don't work great...at pc shop I work with Gimp, because there I need medium editing and the output it is jpg/tiff; there, it is a windows pc just because the financial software work only on win, so yes , are situation when only for 1 little software you must have a windows pc, even with 10...