8.1 should be around for a while. Does it do anything for your needs that 7 doesn't?
Windows 10
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
8.1 should be around for a while. Does it do anything for your needs that 7 doesn't?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Sed, those backports are already out in the field...
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3068708
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3g7hr0/removing_telemetry_from_windows_7_and_8x/
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Tim & Sed: Too many things happening in life right now; can't afford the time and the patience for the learning curve.
No, but it's support cycle is longer because it came out after Win 7.
ddrueding
Fixture
If you aren't on a metered connection, and aren't bothered too much by yet another company having a bunch of data on you, 10 isn't a bad experience. Quicker, cleaner UI, great hardware support.
Stereodude
Not really a
UASP perhaps?
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
I am on a metered connection. And I hate invasions of privacy, putting up with the minimum I have to so I don't have to live in the hills.
??
Stereodude
Not really a
ddrueding
Fixture
I can't imagine having to live on a metered link, but I can think of all the crazy things I'd do to avoid being on one.
If a normal life involves using credit cards regularly, using a smartphone, using any mainstream search engine, and keeping up with people on Facebook, it is hard to imagine what information isn't already out there.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Win 8.1 castrated (removing MS' spy features - there are some guides /scripts out there) makes even more sense now.
It is sorta unlimited; I get 60GB per month, then speed drops from 8mbps to 512 kbps. The latter is so slow it makes checking web mail or net banking excruciating. We do hit the speed slowdown from time to time; say if I download a few of TED talks occasionally, or missed soap operas for the wife. The chief consumer is the kid, glued to the laptop and Youtube and whatnot. My needs are more modest than hers. Some years ago, if one exceeded the bandwidth, charges climbed steeply; for instance, if your monthly plan was for say, $30 a month, and if you had Wi-Fi, or even if you didn't and used a hardwired connection, you would get a bill for $1k or $1.5k. This actually happened to my sis in another city. There were big time wars between ISPs and consumers when this happened. Some consumers proved they had to be downloading 24x7 at speeds triple or quadruple of the plan speed to hit those bandwidth targets, and we're talking plan speeds of 1 mbps those days. The ISPs have gotten wiser now and just throttle speed when they decide the bandwidth limit has been hit. Charges stay flat for the month.
I use credit cards extensively, use an Android smartphone (but don't install anything that is a spying risk, like Whatsapp, Uber, etc), use Firefox's Privacy window + DuckDuckGo for "sensitive" searches on the desktop (otherwise G) and don't have an account on Facebook. Data access in my mobile (Wi-fi or mobile) is turned on as needed for a specific purpose then immediately turned off and not left permanently connected. Where I live, data mining isn't as bad as in the US, and I maintain a low profile always. Heck, when I lived and worked in the US, googling my name would get no hits for me, but turn up someone else with my name; even better to have a red herring than have no hits at all!
I realize I'm fighting a losing battle, but I'll keep fighting till the end. I'd rather forego some "conveniences" than bare all. To contradict what I said earlier, there is a chain of sporting goods stores here that is really good. There's one walking distance from my home and we checked it out. I bought a set of cheap ping-pong balls for our cats to play with, with the idea of coming back later in my car to buy some weights and other stuff. At check out, they asked for my mobile # which I refused to provide. He said he couldn't bill without it. I told them to keep the balls and walked out. Needless to say I haven't been back there.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Okay, there's something seriously wrong there. Having to have your mobile number for billing is complete bullcrap, no other store in existence that I know of does that.
sedrosken
Florida Man
I would think the operative phrase here is 'used to'. Hopefully they realized how off-putting it was to consumers and stopped that stuff right in it's tracks.
Multiple US companies have learned through class action suits.
sedrosken
Florida Man
And thanks to the EULA, you can't join a class action lawsuit against Microsoft. Great. So they'll just get away with all of this, then?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Be aware that depending on your local laws, conditions in the EULA can be invalid and non-enforceable...
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
It's not so much that they realized it as much as they went bankrupt.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
They ask for mobile # because they spam with text messages and tie it to their loyalty programs. I couldn't care less. F them.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
I usually just make up a phone number when asked.
The ass wipe that really pissed me off is the one who wanted the security code off the back of the card, even though I had just swiped it in the card reader. I walked out of the store without what I wanted to buy, called the customer number on the back of the card, and told them what happened. I don't know what the card people did, but 20 minutes later there were three employees at the register trying to get it to work. Made my day.
The ass wipe that really pissed me off is the one who wanted the security code off the back of the card, even though I had just swiped it in the card reader. I walked out of the store without what I wanted to buy, called the customer number on the back of the card, and told them what happened. I don't know what the card people did, but 20 minutes later there were three employees at the register trying to get it to work. Made my day.
Tea
Storage? I am Storage!
That would be attempted fraud by the checkout person, Bozo. Can't imagine what else it could be. Do you reckon the card people called the police? I shouldn't be surprised. Possibly the three people were trying to figure out what else had been stolen.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
By what Bozo was saying, I assumed they were after the CVV number... which having can lead to all sorts of misuse.
Australia no longer accepted signature only on CC transactions 1-Aug last year, requiring all CC transactions to use a PIN to stop CC fraud... We also now have Pay-Wave and Pay-Pass systems as well now...
As for what the bank did? Now if the store's bank and Bozo's bank are one in the same, the bank has the authority to stop all electronic transactions from the stores eftpos pinpads or POS systems (effectively marking the stores systems as compromised within the banking system, which blocks all transactions via eftpos). Fraud investigation from the bank would then normally commence, following by calls to FBI... Banks don't tend to muck around with CC fraud - it costs them big money each year.
PS. eftpos = electronic fund transfer point of sale (for those that may not understand the acronym).
Australia no longer accepted signature only on CC transactions 1-Aug last year, requiring all CC transactions to use a PIN to stop CC fraud... We also now have Pay-Wave and Pay-Pass systems as well now...
As for what the bank did? Now if the store's bank and Bozo's bank are one in the same, the bank has the authority to stop all electronic transactions from the stores eftpos pinpads or POS systems (effectively marking the stores systems as compromised within the banking system, which blocks all transactions via eftpos). Fraud investigation from the bank would then normally commence, following by calls to FBI... Banks don't tend to muck around with CC fraud - it costs them big money each year.
PS. eftpos = electronic fund transfer point of sale (for those that may not understand the acronym).
Tea
Storage? I am Storage!
That's numbers on the FRONT of the card, Lunar. According to Bozo, in this case they were asking for the CCV numbers on the BACK of the card, which are reserved for card-not-present transactions, usually by telephone or Internet. Asking for a CCV during an in-person transaction sounds like a five alarm fire to me.
ddrueding
Fixture
Only AMEX keeps the CVV number on the front (theirs are also 4-digits to everyone else's 3). Visa and Mastercard still have them on the back at the end of the signature line.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Just ran a script I downloaded to rid my Win 7 of the "telemetry" crap. It removes the concerned installed KBs, hides them so Win Update doesn't offer them, etc.
May decide to just stay with W7 unless MS relents and backs off from tall the spying. Meanwhile Linux can only get better.
May decide to just stay with W7 unless MS relents and backs off from tall the spying. Meanwhile Linux can only get better.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Linux is great, especially if you don't have any hard-coded demands to run any specific Windows application. It's the same internet no matter what tool you're using to access it.
I love Linux also but I do find that the graphical components are not as refined as windows. More-specifically, using something like firefox or other browsers just doesn't feel the same in terms of graphical performance and also font quality. Moving and dragging windows is choppier and the readability of the text is not up to the quality of windows or even OSX. I should disclose that my experiences of this have been under a couple forks of Debian (Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Mint) and a few of Redhat varieties (Redhat/fedora/CentOS). More recently I notice this under Mint with my GTX780 and recent drivers. I realize it could be the video carg, the driver, or some complication of those with the OS.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I really don't notice any issues, but I only run Linux, so I have nothing to compare it to.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
You could always try something like Enlightenment to see if the eyecandy improvements are more to your liking. Font handling is an odd case. It's substantially better on Windows now than on OSX. I can see how it would drive some people nuts because thing do look just a little bit different no matter what you try to do about it.
It's not really eyecandy I'm looking for I just like the fluidness and performance that the windows UI provides. It's much better than most other OSs I've used.
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm hearing reports that all of Win10 is being downloaded to eligible computers even if you haven't signed up for it. Apparently just having automatic updates is enough. Ugh.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...ading-windows-10-to-your-machine-just-in-case
Thoughts?
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...ading-windows-10-to-your-machine-just-in-case
Thoughts?
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
Can you share?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
< insert lots of NSFW language >
But what do I care... I'm already over on the Dark Side (aka Linux user).
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I thought I mentioned this several weeks ago. I've been bitching about it for a while. Why do you think the internet was so slow on July 29th and during the following days? Same thing happened during August's patch Tuesday.
Windows 10 is a curse for almost every network administrators on the planet.
Tea
Storage? I am Storage!
Me too please!
sdbardwick
Storage is cool
Here's one removal script for Win7/8.1 (I haven't used or tested): GitHub Gist
Edit: This one goes a bit further; edits the HOSTS file, kills scheduled tasks, and removes services.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Oh, this is a special kind of effed up. Microsoft seems to have seriously screwed the pooch this time. Initial instability can be fixed, but rebuilding trust after fiascos like this is going to take a long time. I think they're banking on most people not even noticing what's going on, and that's a very cynical assumption to make since I (and I assume many others) am now telling anyone that will listen about the breaches of privacy they're commiting.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Here's the script I downloaded and used.
Instructions: Download, unzip, right click on aegis.cmd, click "run as administrator", follow on-screen instructions.
I got the link from a tech newsletter, article in a tech journal (ARS Technica?) or some such.
I went through all of the unzipped files except the .exe, and it all looked kosher to me with my limited knowledge.
The linked page lists the KBs that will be downloaded. It's supposed to work on both Win-7 and Win-8.
The script also removes the "Upgrade to Win 10" four-distorted-squares icon in the notification are in the bottom right of the screen because it uninstalls the associated KBs and also all KBs associated with upgrading Win 7. I guess for those that have a change of heart later, they can always go to the MS website and ask to download Win-10.
It's a lot easier to run this script than to individually find two-dozen KBs to uninstall and then hide them.
Instructions: Download, unzip, right click on aegis.cmd, click "run as administrator", follow on-screen instructions.
I got the link from a tech newsletter, article in a tech journal (ARS Technica?) or some such.
I went through all of the unzipped files except the .exe, and it all looked kosher to me with my limited knowledge.
The linked page lists the KBs that will be downloaded. It's supposed to work on both Win-7 and Win-8.
The script also removes the "Upgrade to Win 10" four-distorted-squares icon in the notification are in the bottom right of the screen because it uninstalls the associated KBs and also all KBs associated with upgrading Win 7. I guess for those that have a change of heart later, they can always go to the MS website and ask to download Win-10.
It's a lot easier to run this script than to individually find two-dozen KBs to uninstall and then hide them.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Only if they have unmanaged clients that aren't getting updates through WSUS in the first place.
The Windows 10 updates are basically the ONLY update I've every blocked from sites using WSUS, though. It's nominally the Windows Admin's job to look and see what the updates are for and what they do, but in this case it's really hard to tell from Microsoft's descriptions, so I wouldn't exactly blame a small shop Admin for letting some of the objectionable optional updates through.