Windows 10

[mubs]

Way back in this thread when I was griping about W10's excessive use of the internet, Handruin posted some links which I used to tell it I was on a metered connection. Once you do this, it behaves, but the onus of downloading and installing updates is on you. If you want to do this and need additional help, holler. I did post a summary of the difficulties I faced doing this and how I got around them.

 

[sedrosken]

For what it's worth I haven't had an update forcibly take down my system since I applied the "fix" in GPEdit. It probably doesn't stop the "critical" updates but it does stop most of them.

 

[Howell]

I just finished the upgrade and have a Windows.old folder with creation date of this morning.

 

[Handruin]

I just got the Win10 Anniversary update this evening. I also have a new folder named $WINDOWS.~BT dated from today which weighs in around 4.5GB. This must be from the downloads related to the update.

 

[Handruin]

Also, I ran the Disk Cleanup utility after the update and when I check off all the boxes, it says it'll cleanup 31.3GB of data. Most of which comes from the temp windows install files at 4.4GB, the Previous Windows install at 22.7GB, and Device Driver packages at 3.4GB. That's a hefty amount of space to hold in reserve.

 

[snowhiker]

Am I the only one left in the "stone age" on Win7?

 

[Howell]

Yeah, I had that .bt folder too.
I forgot to mention, the update uninstalled a couple of Lenovo drivers/utilities that it claimed were incompatible. I'll wait to see if I care very much.

 

[Handruin]

I didn't get any warnings of incompatible devices after the update. The entire process took about 30-40 minutes and several reboots and then I was back up and running. The update did try to put the edge browser icon back on the task bar along with the windows store icon. The start menu looks a little different now also but other than that I can't tell what else has changed.

 

[Handruin]

Am I the only one left in the "stone age" on Win7?

Nah, you're probably one of the few sane ones left not dealing with Win10 shenanigans.

 

[Chewy509]

Am I the only one left in the "stone age" on Win7?

Not at all.

My wife refused to update to Win10 (I downgraded her laptop from Win8 to Win7 when we got it), and the kids laptops are still on Win7 as well (all downgraded from Win8.1 to Win7 when we got them).

 

[LunarMist]

Am I the only one left in the "stone age" on Win7?

No. Win 7 is about 47% compared to 23% for Win 10.

 

[sedrosken]

Most of the people at the college run 10 now. Including most of the professors! The college's own machines are all still running 7 though. Or, as a shockingly large amount are Macs, OS 10.whatever. I think a few are still running Snow Leopard in fact.

 

[CougTek]

Windows 10 build 1607 has been forced on my main computer. As expected, there's no setting in the GPO to disable Cortana.

I've uninstalled OneDrive using this guide. It's worth mentionning that Windows Explorer process needs to be stopped before removing the folders in %LocalAppData%.

Because of the time I took to disable and uninstall unwanted stuff on the new installation, my dinner burn. Another thing I can blame Microsoft for.

 

[CougTek]

Windows 10 build 1607 has been forced on my main computer. As expected, there's no setting in the GPO to disable Cortana.

Well, there's a place. It's moved since the last build (or the last time I cared to check).

I'm still pissed about my dinner though.

 

[LunarMist]

Well, there's a place. It's moved since the last build (or the last time I cared to check).

I'm still pissed about my dinner though.

Is MS doing that evil stuff in the Enterprise Windows 10 as well?

---

 

[sechs]

I'm not happy with the interface changes with the anniversary update. The start menu is even less useful now.

 

[sedrosken]

I'm not happy with the interface changes with the anniversary update. The start menu is even less useful now.

I don't think I'm the only one who kept using Classic Shell with 10...

 

[CougTek]

Is MS doing that evil stuff in the Enterprise Windows 10 as well?

---

Probably, but I don't have the Enterprise version anywhere, so I can't confirm.

 

[snowhiker]

I haven't even run WindowsUpdate in the last 4-5 months as I don't want Win10 forced upon me. Irrational fear perhaps, but I just don't want to deal with it. I guess I should just get a list of Win10 KB updates I shouldn't install and just manually uncheck those updates.

I don't have a lot of faith that "Win11" will be any better.

 

[mubs]

Windows 10 build 1607 has been forced on my main computer.

How? I read a news item that MS had stopped asking people to update and forcibly doing it because we are well past the deadline for the free upgrade.

 

[Mercutio]

My latest headache is some Windows 10 machines at my lab with a slow connection slurped updates from an Anniversary Update machine while it was on site. I had all the machines set up so updates weren't happening at all but now all of a sudden they're trying to get updates like any Windows 10 machine. The local GPOs I had in place to manage Windows Updates disappeared and their internet connection (256k-ish DSL) is no longer marked as metered on any of the machines.

I thought it was a solved problem for me but it clearly is not.

 

[sedrosken]

It's my personal opinion that MS really needs to start backpedaling on some of the decisions they've made, telemetry and draconian update policies chief among them.

Meanwhile my group policies seem to be holding firm. Thankfully. But I also only have one Windows machine to administer right now, so that makes things easier as well.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't expect telemetry to go away. Advertising is part of Microsoft's core business now.
Updates are architecturally different from the way they used to be, in that everything is a continuous rollup. Which is kind of OK, since I've been too busy to do more than glance at what updates do for years. I usually wait a week to see if there are reported issues and then approve them.

The combination of changes to my locally assigned update policies PLUS having a slow site grind to an absolute halt is really aggravating, as is discovering PCs with 120GB drives and two 10GB+ Windows.Old images. In general, I really like Windows 10, but this stuff is not OK.

 

[sedrosken]

In general, I really like Windows 10, but this stuff is not OK.

Absolutely, I should elaborate on what I meant -- I'm not saying they should stop the telemetry altogether, just be more transparent about what they're doing and offer easier ways of opting out.

 

[snowhiker]

Is there a Win10 version of this, the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack. Not that I'm moving to w10 anytime soon, but it seems the w7 version is dated 2014 and obviously has no support for the Nikon D810, D5, D500 etc.

 

[LunarMist]

Is there a Win10 version of this, the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack. Not that I'm moving to w10 anytime soon, but it seems the w7 version is dated 2014 and obviously has no support for the Nikon D810, D5, D500 etc.

The codecs are part of Win 10 updates. You can also use a third party codec like FastPictureViewer [http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/[/url

 

[snowhiker]

I just want to double-click a NEF (Nikon raw file) from windows explorer and have it open the same way you can double-click a JPG file and have it open in Windows Photo Viewer. Is this possible or am I missing something obvious?

 

[LunarMist]

I just want to double-click a NEF (Nikon raw file) from windows explorer and have it open the same way you can double-click a JPG file and have it open in Windows Photo Viewer. Is this possible or am I missing something obvious?

I disable those windows features, but keep in mind that you would be launching whatever jpeg viewer or raw converter software that is installed.
BreezeBrowser is good for batch renaming, correcting timestamps, adding keywords, GPS tagging, editing (choosing keeper images), etc. You can also use Nikon Capture NX-D, which also does raw conversions.

 

[Howell]

I just want to double-click a NEF (Nikon raw file) from windows explorer and have it open the same way you can double-click a JPG file and have it open in Windows Photo Viewer. Is this possible or am I missing something obvious?

Do you already have software installed to open the raw file? If so you might only need to create an association for the file type. Some software (eg irfanview) has a section in options to manage association replacement by check box.

 

[snowhiker]

Do you already have software installed to open the raw file? If so you might only need to create an association for the file type. Some software (eg irfanview) has a section in options to manage association replacement by check box.

It's not a huge deal, but I thought there might be a easy solution that didn't require an "external" NEF viewer, aka the "Microsoft Camera Codec Pack," but said solution doesn't seem to work for me and my Win7 install. Probably user error.

I'm also looking for a NON-Lightroom/Photoshop solution for editing my NEF files. Nikon's Capture NX-D is less than impressive.

 

[LunarMist]

It's not a huge deal, but I thought there might be a easy solution that didn't require an "external" NEF viewer, aka the "Microsoft Camera Codec Pack," but said solution doesn't seem to work for me and my Win7 install. Probably user error.

I'm also looking for a NON-Lightroom/Photoshop solution for editing my NEF files. Nikon's Capture NX-D is less than impressive.

Maybe this can be moved to the DSLR thread?

 

[Handruin]

Some of you may be interested in looking at TronScript with specifics about their stage 4 process. Their script does some work to scan and disable Windows 10 telemetry and some other measures to help improve the OS. I haven't actually tried using this yet but please read over all the information in their documentation before giving it a try. This utility kit does a lot of other stuff.

 

[Howell]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3003663

 

[Tannin]

Do people here regard Spybot Anti-beacon as a useful or sufficient tool for normal home usage?

(I don't run 10 myself; most of my machines run 8.1, with a few on 7 or XP, but I install Anti-beacon on customer machines as routine alongside the decent browsers, non-sucky PDF reader, shell fixes, decent media player, and so on.)

 

[sedrosken]

Do people here regard Spybot Anti-beacon as a useful or sufficient tool for normal home usage?

(I don't run 10 myself; most of my machines run 8.1, with a few on 7 or XP, but I install Anti-beacon on customer machines as routine alongside the decent browsers, non-sucky PDF reader, shell fixes, decent media player, and so on.)

I personally use Anti-Beacon on the Thinkpad. I haven't had any issues.

 

[snowhiker]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3003663

:scratch: That will work with Win7?

 

[Howell]

:scratch: That will work with Win7?

Oops, hard to keep track of all the variables.

 

[Howell]

Is there a Win10 version of this, the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack. Not that I'm moving to w10 anytime soon, but it seems the w7 version is dated 2014 and obviously has no support for the Nikon D810, D5, D500 etc.

Says it's compatible with many OSs old and new. Caveats on application compatibility.

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/170/NEF_Codec.html

If that doesn't do it I give up.

 

[snowhiker]

Is there a Win10 version of this, the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack. Not that I'm moving to w10 anytime soon, but it seems the w7 version is dated 2014 and obviously has no support for the Nikon D810, D5, D500 etc.

Says it's compatible with many OSs old and new. Caveats on application compatibility.

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/170/NEF_Codec.html

If that doesn't do it I give up.

Thanks Howell. That Nikon codec worked.

I guess Nikon software is just mostly shit and not complete shit. Installed the Nikon Codec, rebooted, then clicked a NEF file. Got the "don't know how to open file" error and simply associated NEF with Windows picture viewer and bam it worked. To be fair, I don't know if I did that last step for the MS codec so perhaps it was just (most likely) user error all along.

 

[LunarMist]

Thanks Howell. That Nikon codec worked.

I guess Nikon software is just mostly shit and not complete shit. Installed the Nikon Codec, rebooted, then clicked a NEF file. Got the "don't know how to open file" error and simply associated NEF with Windows picture viewer and bam it worked. To be fair, I don't know if I did that last step for the MS codec so perhaps it was just (most likely) user error all along.

Windows viewer doesn't really do anything with RAW files. It just shows the images processed with the camera settings at the time.
You want NX-D to actually do something to RAW files.