Windows 10

[Santilli]

Yes, noticed the slow connection to updates.
I finally got into MSFT, and then checked the updates for 7.
I hit the button to download updates, and I start downloading Windows 10.
I hit cancel.
Go back.
Windows 10 is not checked.
So far, I'm unable to download updates.
It auto downloads 10, even though I don't want anything to do with it.
If I had set my machine to autoupdate, would I now have 10 on my system, without wanting it?

 

[Santilli]

Wait time on a call is 310 minutes.
Chat isn't working.
Sounds like I'm not the only one that is lit up.;-)

 

[Santilli]

Oddly enough the Dell downstairs does not show as eligible for being upgraded to 10. I might try it on that...

 

[LunarMist]

Uninstall the offending update?

 

[Santilli]

Everytime I try and install the updates for 7, 10 starts downloading.

Going to try it on the Dell first.

 

[Howell]

Codeplex was very slow to load for about an hour as well.

 

[Stereodude]

This article says you can clean install Windows 10 without even installing the online upgrade first and have it activate fine. It's at the bottom of the article.

 

[Mercutio]

My understanding is that if get it for free you have no choice but to accept the updates. If you are a part of a corporate agreement or are joined to a domain you have a choice. At least that is my understanding. MS has not been completely clear and even contradictory.

I set a security policy to on lab machines that are on an extremely slow link (128 or 160kbps DSL) to not use Windows updates. So far, they don't appear to be updating, but they've only been on 10 for a week-ish. I'm not sure if that will be respected or not. I'll deploy WSUS there if I have to but I can't have 24 PCs downloading hundreds of megabytes of updates every time I reset them at that location.

 

[Howell]

I agree, It would be nice if we knew the rules and could design to them.

 

[Santilli]

I don't like 10. 8.1 is enough of a pain to find simple things like background, etc.
10 seems to add another layer of searching, much like Vista did from XP.

7 to 11 for me...

 

[Mercutio]

The only thing I really don't like about 10 is Cortana, which seems to prioritize finding things with Bing over being actually useful. Win-X still brings up the mini-menu of tools you'll actually use and the All Programs list still contains what it normally does, and Classic Start can still be used if you like it better. At this point I really think 10 is generally superior to 7, but if you like the older version of Start or just want quick access to Control Panel tools, you have options.

Spotlight - specifically the version for Mountain Lion and not the crappy Yosemite one - is one of the only things I like about OSX. How I wish Windows could just handle search that way, because it's so much better at finding stuff that I almost can't stand it.

 

[mubs]

Leaky Win10. Privacy issues, and constant bandwidth use, both big worries for me.

Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

 

[ddrueding]

Leaky Win10. Privacy issues, and constant bandwidth use, both big worries for me.

Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

Interesting. Anyone know how OSX, Android, and iOS compare to similar scrutiny?

 

[LunarMist]

Interesting. Anyone know how OSX, Android, and iOS compare to similar scrutiny?

Wouldn't OSX be the direct comparison? The others are for the mobile devices.

 

[Mercutio]

El Capitan has some forthcoming issues of its own, as Apple has decided to disable OS features that previously allowed for a lot of UI customization through third party tools.
Non-rooted Android really does talk to Google a lot more than it needs to, especially if you have location services turned on. Rooted Android makes that yet another behavior you can control if you care to.

But as far as the privacy settings go, if you customize settings you can turn off most of the seriously objectionable things. You don't have to make a Microsoft or give it any extra information about yourself. You don't have to use its tools to do anything. Bandwidth and updates a somewhat different subject and I'm not sure what to say about that. There ARE people who still have dialup and sub-100kbps connections and others who have 200MB monthly data transfer caps. I can't believe some of those behaviors aren't tunable but right now they don't seem to be.

 

[ddrueding]

I'd imagine WSUS will become much more popular.

 

[Chewy509]

I'd imagine WSUS will become much more popular.

Actually, I suspect Enterprise versions and the move to volume licenses (VL) to have a higher uptake due the flexibility the Enterprise edn's give over the regular Pro edn's. Particularly in regard to auto-updates (with better/more refined WSUS integration), tunables related to search and Cortana, etc...

As it stands, a lot in Win10 Pro can not be tuned to meet a lot of the privacy policies that companies enforce, not to mention all the government enforced policies as well...

How many SMBs will be shocked to hear that Win10 Pro shares a LOT of information with MS, and that can only be turned off if they migrate to the Enterprise edn's and have to use VL to do so...

Without putting my tin-hat on, is that what MS are after... ensuring all businesses move to VLs to ensure income stream for MS?

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting point, Chewy. As an extension to that, will VLs go to the subscription model? Will the minimum purchase decrease sufficiently?

 

[Mercutio]

It's my experience that pricing on enterprise licensing is out of the question for the size of organizations I deal with. I'm not sure what volume one has to have to qualify for a substantial pricing discount, but if I price out ~30 seats of Windows + Office, it's usually around 3x the cost of buying OEM licenses.

 

[Mercutio]

The Windows 10 upgrade seems to make my tablet-style devices work a lot more. Both my Surface Pro 2 and my Dell Venue get quite a lot warmer now. :/

 

[Chewy509]

Interesting point, Chewy. As an extension to that, will VLs go to the subscription model? Will the minimum purchase decrease sufficiently?

Aren't they already if you have Software Assurance membership tied to your VL?

 

[Chewy509]

It's my experience that pricing on enterprise licensing is out of the question for the size of organizations I deal with. I'm not sure what volume one has to have to qualify for a substantial pricing discount, but if I price out ~30 seats of Windows + Office, it's usually around 3x the cost of buying OEM licenses.

And that's a problem for MS? The thing is, a lot of desktops/laptops already come with OEM license (at least for Win) and then you add VL on top and then add SA (software assurance) and it's a nice cash cow for MS.

Certainly not saying that's the case, but I don't see it as too far fetched...

Either MS get to mine your data (via all the integration services) if you go OEM only, or pay extra to have the additional controls and privacy options (which may also be mandated by government regulation, forcing you to pay the extra)...

 

[Handruin]

I updated to windows 10 today from windows 8.1. The process took about 25-30 minutes and went fine. The one small issue I noticed was when I first kicked off the process later last night and the in-windows dialog said it was preparing for upgrade. i let it go until mid-day today and it seemed stuck. After rebooting and trying the process again everything went fine.

I've updated some drivers at my own desire to get them up to Windows 10 compliance but I don't think it was required. So far everything seems about the same in terms of performance. I haven't encountered any stability issues yet with my setup but I also updated my motherboard bios since it was many revision behind. That went ok also but was after windows 10 upgraded.

I removed min Start8 menu system and now the UI looks a little better. The huge search bar was easily shrunk after looking around for a minute and changing it from a bar to an icon.

 

[sedrosken]

I have read in a few spots online that, according to the new EULA for Windows 10, MS can now search your computer for pirated software and disable it, and automatically install applications of their own choosing, etc.

I don't really know if this is true, and I'm not saying that's a bad idea from a legal standpoint... after all, we all agreed to it via the EULA that I really must start reading... but I cannot say that I am comfortable with MS having this much control over my computer. It's not even so much about privacy either. I don't really take preventative measures to keep the "man" out of my stuff because I know that if they really want to get into my stuff they'd be knee-deep in it in a heartbeat and I generally have nothing to hide. I just find the idea of an external company dictating what can be, cannot be, is, or isn't installed on MY machine directly very invasive and inherently wrong. It's like they're telling me how to live my life and I do not like that one bit.

It is for that reason that I may actually finally make the jump to a completely MS-free computer and use Linux exclusively on my machine(s). I will wait for MS to try and do some damage control on their end and clarify what this is actually meant to do, otherwise I will assume the worst.

Maybe I will also revisit this at a time when I am not sleep-deprived. I woke up about a half-hour ago at the time of writing (4:38 AM) and I have gotten all of maybe five hours of sleep. I get kind of paranoid when I haven't slept much.

 

[sedrosken]

Well, it looks like my fears have been disproven.

Still, them being able to cut you off from their key services with no warning is kind of scary... if you care at all about their services.

 

[Mercutio]

People have been worried about Microsoft looking through their computers for pirated software since before you were born, sed. Seriously, there was a gigantic bitch fest over the fact that Windows 98's upgrade process looked for a specific list of about 400 installed applications.

Today, I've come to bitch some more about Cortana. If I type "winword" or "iexplore" or even "cmd" in the search box, something that worked very well in every previous Windows release from Vista to 8.1, Windows would find those things and open them. If I do the same search on Windows 10 with Cortana, I get several minutes of a spinning circle while nothing happens. This is why Cortana is actively terrible, easily the worst part of the new OS.

 

[ddrueding]

Today, I've come to bitch some more about Cortana. If I type "winword" or "iexplore" or even "cmd" in the search box, something that worked very well in every previous Windows release from Vista to 8.1, Windows would find those things and open them. If I do the same search on Windows 10 with Cortana, I get several minutes of a spinning circle while nothing happens. This is why Cortana is actively terrible, easily the worst part of the new OS.

Are you talking about the search box near the start button? All three of those worked for me. In fact, I only had to go as far as "winw", "ie", and "cm" before the right one was brought up immediately.

 

[Handruin]

I have to agree with one of your earlier comments Mercutio about Apple's Spotlight. I've found it to be very helpful and accurate when it comes to finding things on my system and easy to access with the command button + spacebar. The downside is I need to use it because navigating to find things in Finder is a pain in the ass.

 

[Mercutio]

Are you talking about the search box near the start button? All three of those worked for me. In fact, I only had to go as far as "winw", "ie", and "cm" before the right one was brought up immediately.

None of those searches work for me on any Windows 10 device. Even if it's an account-based setting, how completely fucked does the search index have to be to lose applications like calc and mspaint?

 

[Howell]

When it is not working do you have an active internet connection?

 

[Mercutio]

Never, internet connection or no. I'd say that it might be an artifact of upgrading, except that it doesn't work right on a fresh install either.

 

[Mercutio]

This Powershell cmdlet is supposed to help with local search isues. It didn't in my case, but maybe it would work for someone else:

Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

 

[LunarMist]

Does the classic shell or other similar app progide any relief? There shouldn't be a need to search for obvious items.

 

[Santilli]

Merc:
I had similar search issues, where programs that were easy to find in 7 or 8 were very difficult to get to in 10.
Changing the desktop background was a real pain as well.

Hence, 10 no longer.

 

[Handruin]

I've had pretty good luck with the search bar so far. I've also been pleased with Windows 10 in general. There is a minor learning curve for a few things that have changed. one thing I haven't solved was keyboard shortcut assignments for things like the calculator. For many years I've always mapped ctrl + alt + c to open calculator but now there is a new calculator app which doesn't seem to allow for keyboard shortcuts that I've yet to find.

As for the search bar, I've disabled all internet-related search functionality from the search box and it works good for local content. It looks much simpler too...

 

[time]

For many years I've always mapped ctrl + alt + c to open calculator but now there is a new calculator app which doesn't seem to allow for keyboard shortcuts that I've yet to find.

Whoa! That's been a basic setup step for me since I can't remember when, regardless of where the PC is.

The Ctrl-Alt keyboard shortcuts are a Windows feature - nothing to do with the application - so that's really bad. Humans still have fingers.

 

[Handruin]

I haven't done a ton of research to figure it out so it's likely there may still be a way but I just haven't found it yet.

 

[Howell]

I just inherited a ThinkPad yoga with 8.1 on it. Frankly I'd rather move on to Windows 10 and learn it rather than take this intermediate stop. I got stuff to do.

 

[Bozo]

I would like to know how to change the size of the desktop Icon and change the spacing between them. I would also like to change the font and be able to regulate its size.
I also would like to get a little more contrast on screens like File Manager ( which sucks Donkey balls ) It looks like the print is floating in an off white or grey window. No lines dividing anything.
I tried some of the high contrast settings but they are ugly and garish. Like the old Hotdog desktop.
In windows 7 you could add ( /n, /r, c:\ ) to the path and when you opened Windows Explorer it went right to the 'C' drive and expanded it. You can't do anything to the path because there is no path that I can find.
When you open File Manager, the left pane ( which is a pain ) is polluted with a lot of garbage. And you cannot find a way to change it.
When I buy an operating system I want to be able to customize to my needs and wants. I don't want something MS wants or thinks I need.

( if you have to dig in the registry to customize the operating system, then that proves just how lame Microsoft and Windows 10 really are )

 

[Chewy509]

Certainly interesting the MS is now no longer providing full descriptions for non-security related Windows 10 updates...

http://arstechnica.com/information-...no-plans-to-tell-us-whats-in-windows-patches/

From one of the comments on the article:

So the KB that Highly Recommends Skype as a Windows Update will do away with a description all together and just install Skype onto my computer without permission?

Oh, right. You can't opt out of any Windows Updates in Win10 to begin with. Microsoft decides what lives on the computer instead of the user.

As a power user, this is unacceptable. I control the computer. I control the OS. I will bend Windows 10 to my will. And if they make that impossible, I will stay with Windows 7 until these issues are resolved.