Windows 10?

[Oh hi Mark!]

I did a clean install of Windows 10 last night, and it couldn't be activated. I found out that you have to re-install Windows 7/8, upgrade to Windows 10, then do a re-install so it comes up genuine. I think that's ridiculous. At least installation was faster, my initial go around was filled with frozen screens, which I think is because of the GPU drivers.

EDIT: something else came up involving my keyboard. Seemingly out of nowhere, the keyboard stopped working as far as typing, instead as a device where most buttons is a windows shortcut. As if the start button on the keyboard was held down. I checked under the keys, nothing underneath, and it took hitting one start button, then another, and it's back to normal.

[fredbloggs]

Originally Posted by Oh hi Mark!

I did a clean install of Windows 10 last night, and it couldn't be activated. I found out that you have to re-install Windows 7/8, upgrade to Windows 10, then do a re-install so it comes up genuine. I think that's ridiculous.

When you upgrade to W10, the key changes. So before you can perform a clean install you need the new key. The produkey utility from here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Will allow you to read and record it, then when you start the W10 install when a key is requested you use that one.

I've done it on two machines that way and it worked each time.

[spicoli]

Originally Posted by Rick Danger

Went over to visit my ex-daughter-in-law (I still love her), my granddaughter and her cute, if overly active little brother.

Finally someone who took the "free" Windows 10 upgrade. I was anxious to question her.

Her overall impression is: NOTHING has changed.

What about Windows 10 overhyped new features ? She's a devoted Chrome user, so Edge holds no interest for her. She hasn't tried Cortana. She has been a devoted iPhone user for years, so Windows Phone integration is also a non-starter. She and her husband don't own an Xbox, so Xbox integration is not an item of interest either.

Lord, I haven't heard so much yawning since the last time I tried to talk to the wife about college football !

One new 'feature' did get a rise out of her. She is not happy about the forced updates. Here's a woman who works full time, is studying for her MBA, runs the local Girl Scout troop and totals about eighty hours a week with the Scouts and other volunteer work. She really doesn't appreciate Windows Update cutting into her homework time.............................

Why did she bother ? "Because it was free".

Her new husband is a Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq and has a Purple Heart to show for it. But most importantly, he's a good man and is great with my granddaughter. Semper Fidelis.

This post interests me because I would use W10 as she does. I let W7 update as it wishes but at 4 A.M.. I have had no trouble with W7 Pro and I have it running on 7 PC's total between work and home.

I went to a MSFT store yesterday and asked when SP1 is coming out for W10 and was told November 2015. I might install W10 on one machine after SP1 comes out and see what happens.

I know this comment goes against the grain of this thread - I tend to discount the perceived threat of MSFT gathering information about us. I don't really care because I think that the information gathered would be used to tailor ads to us etc. - in other words to make money for MSFT.

I use MSN as my home page in Chrome and after an I search intensively for information about Power Washers for example I get a week or two of ads and links to Power Washer sites. This doesn't bother me - you are going to get ads anyway so why not get ads that have some meaning to me.

[pigulici]

I don't think the people are upset about targeted ads, the problem it is who and how your "privat" info will be used, think about at a job interview, you have 2 guys for job, one who in past haved alchool problems(or was at rehab 5yrs ago), and one with not such problem, guess who will get the job; today because the company still not knew all about us so easy, you can get the job, but in the future you will not get the second chance if you are not like the rules they want, so for an ex-rehab person, it is not only hard the present but will knew the future will be harder...will all do mistakes, the question it is when we pay for them and for how long...before facebook era, some yrs ago, was a big scandal in Germany, because a big company payed particular detectives to obtain moral info about their top CEOs, to see if that persons have a good morals after the job time(good by their standards), today they will almost not need that to obtain most of that infos(btw the company get away with that, was privat, was writen in contract of job, and money for CEOs was too big , so those don't complained about it)...

[EsotericKnave]

It just occurred to me that now when I receive windows update notifications, before installing them I visit a porn board to make sure they're safe

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by a435843

Just a quick warning: you probably received an "important" Windows Update today, KB 3083324...go ahead and hide that one for now....

Woody on Windows
By Woody Leonhard
InfoWorld | Sep 4, 2015

Don’t check that box! Windows 7 patch KB 3083324 sneaks in
If you woke up this morning to a barely described Windows 7 patch, you aren’t alone

People all over the world are waking up this morning to a little present in their Windows 7 (and Server 2008 R2) Windows Update boxes: KB 3083324, which describes itself as “Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: September 2015.”

Here’s what the KB article says:

This article describes an update that contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

That’s it. If there’s any further description, I can’t find it. In particular, as of this writing anyway, it isn’t even listed in the official Windows Update catalog.

There’s some conjecture that the patch may fix the intolerably long wait some people are experiencing when checking for updates in Win7.

Fortunately, the patch is optional -- it appears in the Windows Update list as an unchecked item in the Optional list.

Are you feeling lucky? Want to beta test a Windows Update update? Enjoy the feeling of exhilaration when Microsoft releases yet another stealthy patch? Oh boy.

My advice: Don’t check that box. Wait and see if we get any documentation about it.

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by Spicoli

I know this comment goes against the grain of this thread - I tend to discount the perceived threat of MSFT gathering information about us. I don't really care because I think that the information gathered would be used to tailor ads to us etc. - in other words to make money for MSFT.

Not at all. Your comment carries as much weight as anyone else's. Like I said, the nature of personal computing is that it is not "one size fits all". Some of us choose to use Windows - whatever flavor tickles your fancy. Some use Macs, some use Linux, some use Chromebooks.

I am not overly paranoid about the security "intrusions", but on the other hand I don't take them lightly. For example, Verizon was exposed a few years ago for the use of so called "supercookies", which would track your activities on your smartphone's web browser and then upload them to Verizon's strategic marketing partners. These "supercookies" of course contained your cell phone number. So even if your number was listed in the United States "Do Not Call" registry there was now a way to get around this law. And very few smartphone owners were aware of this practice.

In years past when you signed up for Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail you were given an "opt in" to offers and advertising from their partners. I liked this feature. Today, you have to "opt out". That's if the service even admits to collecting your information.

Yes, shareware apps have advertising. Ever use uTorrent ? Ads run in the client for the whole time uTorrent is downloading the file you've requested. I can understand this, since the ads help pay for this application. If Windows 10 remains free I think some advertising would be acceptable. But I would still insist on complete transparency and an opt out that did not require a subscription.

I'm spending some time researching how to block Microsoft's data collection and it's implications. One thing that Windows users should be concerned about is that some of the telemetry being collected has to do with problem reporting. So blocking telemetry may block remote diagnostic routines from running, effectively disabling self help features.

As I said in a prior post, I am weary of advertising. If I am paying for a service, whether it be cable TV, cell phone, or Windows, I don't want advertising. I acknowledge that ads will be present, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I also don't think it's OK for the service providers to sell my personal information. Microsoft, Verizon, Comcast are some of the most profitable companies in America, if not the world. How much more money do they need to make off me ?

[9876543210]

OK, have a question for everyone.

Picked up something in the last few days which really slowed down my browsing. Both in Win 7 Pale Moon and Ubuntu. Both just slowed to a crawl. So I repartitioned my OS HD and first installed Win 7, SP 1 and drivers. Also installed PaleMoon but uninstalled it as Adblock + and Ghostery no longer work with Pale Moon. So now using Firefox 40 something. Anybody have a recommendation for a Pale Moon alternative?

So, right now, thats all thats on this machine and its back to its speedy self. But before anything else goes on I usually install Win Updates. I will make a list of the Win 7 updates to avoid but I'm just wondering if there is an easier way to make sure I don't install these deviant updates? Or should I just install them all (maybe several hundred updates as I remember) and then uninstall the bad ones?

Will check back in a little while. I'll get started with the early updates (I hope).

Edit: Found an old version of Mint (Cinnamon) and thinking of installing it instead of Ubuntu. Any ideas on that?

[spicoli]

Originally Posted by Rick Danger

Not at all. Your comment carries as much weight as anyone else's. Like I said, the nature of personal computing is that it is not "one size fits all". Some of us choose to use Windows - whatever flavor tickles your fancy. Some use Macs, some use Linux, some use Chromebooks.


As I said in a prior post, I am weary of advertising. If I am paying for a service, whether it be cable TV, cell phone, or Windows, I don't want advertising. I acknowledge that ads will be present, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I also don't think it's OK for the service providers to sell my personal information. Microsoft, Verizon, Comcast are some of the most profitable companies in America, if not the world. How much more money do they need to make off me ?

There is no "enough" profit. It's what the market will bear, Never expect that some company will sacrifice profit for anything that is legal.

[9876543210]

a435843,

Interesting afternoon. Not sure if any of this is really relevant.

I posted my question shortly before 4:00 p.m. C.D.T and, probably by 4:00 I'd started with the Windows Updates. Only got the first one. The next update should be a whole series of updates (maybe 180 or so) and couldn't get even one. Win Update failed the first time but from then on it just sat there and spun. Until around 6:30 when I quit. Anyone think that the Win 7 update servers are really that busy right now?

Will try later tonight to see if things change.

Originally Posted by a435843

That's been a big stink for the last couple of weeks in Pale Moon-land. There was an underlying change in the add-on engine in Pale Moon, different from Firefox, so ABP doesn't work anymore. The Pale Moon folks are suggesting their own add-on, Adblock Latitude, but this whole unnecessary change from FF doesn't inspire confidence. Pale Moon should simply keep the good parts of FF and strip out the crap, Australis, Hello, etc. Ghostery doesn't have an alternative, but I'm not convinced that Ghostery doesn't block anything that a full ABP blocking list of rule sets doesn't already block.

Yeah, found out about the Pale Moon problem. Would probably stay with Pale Moon as I like it but when at least two of your primary security apps are no longer compliant then its time to move on. So I'm back on Firefox which I did use for a real long time. I'll see how it goes.

I can't guarantee Ghostery blocks everything but I've been using it for years and have had no complaints. So, for now, its one of the apps I feel is really necessary for locking down these idiot machines.

But, something got by all my security measures.

I have no idea why Pale Moon stopped to a crawl, perhaps this new version is having other issues. I'm currently not using Pale Moon, on either platform as I'm sticking to FF on Windows 7 and FF & Midori for Ubuntu browsing right now, but that changes. I wish that Chromium didn't require an alternative Flash engine, PepperFlash. I just don't know how robust it is, but the lack of testing theoretically means a lack of hacking attacks, Security By Obscurity, as it were.

I will, periodically, download something I shouldn't so its not a real big surprise something got through. What does surprise me is that whatever did get past also affected my Ubuntu install (on another whole partition). At least the Ubuntu Firefox was also really slow. At first, I thought it had to be the ISP (Comcast ), but then tried a tablet and it was working fine. So something must have gotten through.

After checking for Windows 7 updates, I would just manually check the list for the bad KB numbers from my previous post, and uncheck those, though that would take some time. However, less time than the possibly difficult task of ripping out unwanted updates. In either case, dependencies should still work.

OK, will try that.

Linux Mint is good, but I tried it, and while the similarities with XP & 7 were nice, the UI was too oversimplified, as there were too few Control Panel settings for the UI and for the OS in general. I also really missed the Ubuntu Software Center, as I find Synaptic too hard to use for installation and uninstallation of software, though it's OK for package refreshing. I don't get bent out of shape with differing UI elements like windows & bars, like many who don't like Ubuntu's UI do. I'd rather have a lot of software and settings easily and quickly available, without using the terminal, though Unity Dash lacks a lot in the software-launching respect.

Ahhh, had forgotten about the Software Center being missing from Mint. Will have to check it out. And you're right about installing in Linux, it can be a bit of a pain. I pretty much remember all of the old DOS commands but not really sure if I feel like learning another whole system.

I think this might be a live DVD so I'll have to play with it for awhile. Also found Lubuntu and one other so maybe I'll just play with each for a while.