Windows 10?

[EsotericKnave]

Originally Posted by Misrule

For those of you considering dumping MS and moving to Linux, the learning curve is steeper than you might expect. If you are steeped in MS, there are lots of things you take for granted e.g. where/how to find files, drive names, etc., that are different on Linux.
I am working to install Mint 18 as a dual boot with Windows and am having to spend a lot of time at it. Just so you know

Not to mention problems with your favorite software. I gave W10 one last long consideration at the end of July...couldn't do it

[LiamA]

With all the problems Microsoft started by forcing people to upgrade to Windows 10 just doesn't make me trust them anymore when it comes to updates for computers.

[buttsie]

MS-DEFCON 3: Get Windows patched, gingerly

It’s time to get caught up on your patching. We have a few outstanding major problems with the latest round of Windows patches. The worst is an ongoing bug in double printing, introduced by security patch MS 16-098, which has only been fixed in one version of Windows 10. I don’t know of any significant problems with outstanding Office patches – although, with dozens of non-security patches, you can expect some odd bug to crop up eventually.

Microsoft’s gradually changing to a cumulative update approach for fixing Windows 7 and 8.1. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, but there we are. Supposedly security and non-security updates will come out in different blobs, but Microsoft’s already playing fast and loose with the distinction: For example KB 3179573, the Aug. non-security update rollup for Win7, contains at least one fix for a June security patch; KB 3179574, the analogous non-security rollup for Win 8.1, contains at least one fix for a July security patch. Microsoft’s been playing whack-a-mole with the fix for the MS16-098 bug.

We’re at something of a crossroads with Windows 7, 8.1, and to a lesser extent Vista. In October, the whole patching applecart is in for a major upending. At this point, I don’t know exactly how it’s going to shake out.

With that as prolog, this is what I recommend:

86 comments to date

In depth recommendations & Instructions for W7,8.1 & 10.
https://www.askwoody.com/2016/ms-def...ched-gingerly/

It really is like a minefield now
The less software the better

The fact that security fixes are turning up in optional updates is just absurd
especially given how you need to be a detective to actually work out what any KB is for

[Ernesto75]

For those who need to have Windows installed on their machine (for example if you are an accountant and your tools need windows to run) there is another alternative:
- with an Apple machine;
- if you have an Apple machine and if it is relatively recent (not necessarily too recent), on your system you have a tool which allows you to altern from Apple to Microsoft and vice-versa: it is named Boot Camp;
- with Boot Camp you can install Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or even Windows 10);
- once it is installed you switch from Apple System to Windows System; you just need to reboot each time.

Of course there are drawbacks:
- you need a version of Windows; nowadays you still can acquire one for 180 € on the market (you do not buy it directly from Microsoft but once you have the key you still can download an iso file from Microsoft).
- for 180 € you have a key towards Windows 7, for Windows 10 it is less expensive (around 120 €);
- before launching all this I recommend you check the compability or your pilots;
- I also recommend a backup or 2.

[Ernesto75]

One thing I forgot to tell you:
If you are on a machine which runs an iOs it is easier to do, that is to add Windows as a secondary system, but if you are on a machine under Windows you have to create a supplementary partition to install the Apple system and so on.

But that should be still possible.

[Stroking_it]

Just checked through and downloaded all the "important" and "security" updates for Windows 7 since I switched off automatic downloading back in July. Took about 15 minutes to check the notes for each update and about 30 minutes to install. Nothing is broken, everything still works, its not using my porn collection as a screen saver and somehow I still miraculously haven't been upgraded to Windows 10 without my consent.

Still not seeing what a lot of the fuss is about here - other than just continued whining about Microsoft. If you don't need to upgrade, then don't.

[Ernesto75]

Originally Posted by Stroking_it

Just checked through and downloaded all the "important" and "security" updates for Windows 7 since I switched off automatic downloading back in July. Took about 15 minutes to check the notes for each update and about 30 minutes to install. Nothing is broken, everything still works, its not using my porn collection as a screen saver and somehow I still miraculously haven't been upgraded to Windows 10 without my consent.

Still not seeing what a lot of the fuss is about here - other than just continued whining about Microsoft. If you don't need to upgrade, then don't.

There is no whining about Microsoft.
This is essentiallly about helping users who are victims of Microsoft (not to say who are trying to know what's to do after all the annoucements from Microsoft).
We are here to help not to whine.

Perhaps you are better informed?

We are listening to everything and everyone who can give a good advice.
This is a free website.

Or perhaps are you in the employ of Satya Nadella?

[buttsie]

Professional whining by Woody Leonhard

A near-perfect storm of patches made Wednesday a banner day for updating,
but many high points weren't hit

There's a lengthy list of changes on the official Windows 10 update history page. You can wallow around in the details,

Windows 10 update history
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...update-history

but here's what hasn't been fixed:

PowerShell DSC is still broken. If you need to use DSC, don't install Anniversary Update.

The camera protocol problem that breaks Skype is still there.

Plugging a Kindle into an Anniversary Update machine still triggers a blue screen.
(Paul Thurrott has the definitive description of Kindlegate on thurrott.com.)

Kindle Can Crash Your PC After You Install the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Paul Thurrott in Windows 10

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/win...versary-update

In addition, the double-print bug introduced by MS16-08/KB 3177725 may or may not be fixed by the update. It isn't mentioned in the changelog notes, at any rate. Seagull Scientific, proprietors of a package that was broken by Microsoft's buggy security patch, has not yet confirmed that this specific patch works, but they're looking at it.

I continue to recommend that you avoid installing the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

The other comprehensible patch is the latest version of the Windows 10 "RS2" beta, now up to version 143915 for the beta Fast Ring only. You can see the details on the Windows blog, but the only significant change I could find involves Delivery Optimization -- the torrent-like ability to share patches. Starting with this beta build, Delivery Optimization is enabled by default. Gregg Keizer has the details on Computerworld.

Now for the utterly confusing stuff.

KB 3186988, titled "Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1511: August 30, 2016," is in the Microsoft Update Catalog, but it hasn't been released. I think Microsoft has posted it in the Update Catalog as a way to emulate the Preview Ring for Win10 Fall Update.

KB 3187022, the patch that fixes the aforementioned double-print bug has appeared in two incarnations. Last Wednesday, it was released for Win7, 8.1, and analogous servers. On Tuesday, Aug. 30, it was released for Vista and Server 2008. Apparently it's the same patch, but you can only get it through the Update Catalog.

Seagull Scientific also says that the double-print bug fixes "for previous versions of Windows should be available on Windows Update in mid-September."

A reminder: You can use Firefox or Chrome to get into the Update Catalog by going through the associated RSS feed.

Also, it's worth noting that while MS16-098/KB 3177725 is identified by Microsoft as a security patch, KB 3187022 is not, at least at this point. That means if Microsoft broke your system with a security patch, you may have to apply a non-security patch in order to fix it. We'll know more as mid-September rolls around.

If you're confused by all of the rings within rings and little side-deals with unannounced Release Previews, believe me, you ain't the only one.



InfoWorld | Aug 31, 2016

http://www.infoworld.com/article/311...ing-fixes.html

[Ernesto75]

After attentively reading Microsoft's explanations, I can only conclude:
- the last updates are only "quality improvements" according to Microsoft's textology, and not security;
- the only interesting point is in KB3176938 : it includes the system files (NTFS);
- but considering all that was said and considering my current distrust of Microsoft, I prefer to wait before taking the risk.

If it isn't broken don't try to redo just to improve.

[Stroking_it]

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

There is no whining about Microsoft.

There is, though isn't there? Posting up a giant image of the BSOD isn't informative, nor does it help anyone solve a problem. Its just pointing and laughing and saying "Ha ha, Microsoft. I told you how silly they are". Pretty funny, though. I saw a BSOD on a Tesco self scanner a few days back, which made me chuckle.

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

This is essentially about helping users who are victims of Microsoft (not to say who are trying to know what's to do after all the announcements from Microsoft).

Victims of Microsoft? Victims?? Microsoft offered Windows 10 as a free upgrade. They didn't put a gun to anyone's head, they offered an incentive, and a free OS these days is a pretty big incentive. However that doesn't absolve anyone of their responsibility to really have a good hard think about whether they really should upgrade.

OK, the marketing was bloody pushy, I'll admit that. The nag screen was annoying until people learned how to disable it and at times MS did appear to be deliberately targetting the less PC literate to accidentally upgrade, but I don't buy any of these stories about machines upgrading to W10 all on their own at all. Not for one second.

I ran MS-Dos until I absolutely had to upgrade to Windows 3.1. I literally could not see the point in having a flashy GUI cluttering up my disk and hogging my resources. As I recall I only upgraded to Windows 95 when I got given a free PC from my workplace. Upgrading to XP was something I thought even longer and harder about, and I practically had a nervous breakdown over moving to Windows 7. And these are mature OS's I am talking about - not early betas or even SP1 in the case of XP.

Why all the trepidation? Because despite that fact that until a few years ago I stored nothing more complicated than letters, spreadsheets and some porn on my PC, I really didn't want to lose it. Any of it. So before I made any changes I made damn sure that if things didn't go the way I planned, I could get back to how things were before, even if that meant wiping the lot and re installing from scratch, and anyone who upgraded their OS without doing this is crazy.

Updating without backing up your data? Crazy.
Updating without having a valid install disk and code for your previous OS that you can roll back to? Crazy.
Updating your one and only business PC that you absolutely rely on to make money without having some kind of disaster recovery plan or backup PC? Absolutely double crazy with a cherry on.

Anyone who got bitten by the actual upgrade and lost data isn't a victim of anything other than their own poor data management. Same goes for if you upgraded and then found that the programs you rely on don't work. Maybe you should have checked that out before..?

Maybe, even after you did your homework and backed up your data and checked with the software vendors that everything would still work, you upgraded in good faith and found that - damn - someone lied or made a mistake and something got broke. But, PC users have been living with software and driver incompatibility issues for decades now, so you must have at least suspected this might happen? Either find a new solution that does work, or roll back.

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

Perhaps you are better informed?

I am not better informed - just more level headed. And I don't subscribe to the general paranoia about Microsoft's business practises. I didn't go crazy when I read the EULA for a certain well known messenger which can send geotagged pictures to my friends on social media and found that it wanted access to my address book, my camera and my GPS, for example.

In case you hadn't noticed, people want computers to be easier to use. The iPhone didn't become the global success that it was because it was a great smartphone. It was successful because it was the first smartphone that looked sexy and you didn't have to be a total nerd to use. I had been using a smartphone for maybe three years before the first iPhone went on sale and it took me a long while to grasp how suddenly the notion of limiting choice in how you configured the thing, and having lots of little programmes (that you paid for separately and had to buy from just one place!!) to do each individual task rather than, say, Office Mobile, made things so much more attractive to the end user who just wanted to use the damn thing. For me, part of the "thrill" from the tech was learning how to turn it into something that eventually made my life easier. Yes, I was a nerd and I just didn't get the iPhone. But I get it now, or at least the concept.

Like it or not, this is the way computers are going to go. Just like Google can already usually guess what you are searching for before you finish typing it, computers are going to get more and more intuitive, and that means they have to start to learn about you and the way you do things, and in order to make this simpler they are going to have to start limiting your choices until the processing capability catches up.

I get the reasons for the paranoia - I really do. We are from a generation that had to learn about what our PCs were doing behind the scenes in order to make the best of them. "Power users" if you will. However we are now being told that if we want to play with the newest toys ware going to have to trust that someone knows better than we do about what is best for us. Its like being a child again, living at home and filtering our life choices through our parents. But, like me with my first generation smartphone, do you ultimately want to be typing a reminder into your calendar when everyone else is looking at their phone and saying "Hey, next time I am in Sainsbury's remind me to buy some toilet paper".

The times, they are a-changin'. If you don't like it, then just stay with an OS you feel happy with (like I am - at least for now).

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

We are listening to everything and everyone who can give a good advice.
This is a free website.

OK, so you won't object to me posting the counter argument and telling people that as long as they read the small print its still OK to apply Windows 7 updates? I mean, you've basically just said that you've done a similar thing and also come to the conclusion that it all should be OK, but you are still not going to simply because you don't trust Microsoft any more?

Most of the stuff in this thread is CTRL-C CTRL-V from other websites, anyway. And it is the same few names thanking each other on most of the posts. I wouldn't overestimate how many people go looking for computer advice on a porn forum This thread could contain good advice if it hadn't just degenerated into a steady trickle of "look what the evil people at Microsoft are doing now" posts.

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

Or perhaps are you in the employ of Satya Nadella?

Well, now you're just being nasty...