Have you claimed your free upgrade to Windows 10?

I'm curious.

 

Win 10 on both my machines, works great once the spyware and auto driver updates are disabled and windows photo viewer is enabled and back as default, It better than Win8/8.1

Ohh it took me a year to fix and sleep and shutdown problem, but everything is just sweet now.

John.

 

Upgraded and rolled back on my M6700, things weren't working quite right. I'm having some driver issues on my Elitebook 2760p which I didn't have after the upgrade, so I'm gonna clean install Windows 10 on it again.

XPS15 is on Windows 10 and no plan to downgrade so far.

 

Only on my Elitebook, and only because I'm curious about the new features from a programmer's POV.

Otherwise, my "serious" computer (I only really use my Elitebook for class notes) still runs on Windows 7.

 

So far 82% voting here aren't on Windows 10, so what's up with all the "Upgraded to Windows 10" growth numbers every month, are they exaggerated BS?

Does MS count installs that rolled back? If they rolled back from Windows 10, how do they get removed from the rising total count?

36%+ voting here have rolled back...off Windows 10 and back on to their original OS, either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Windows 10 is a loser in my view, failed drivers, crashes, sleep/hibernate not working, praise from adopters of Windows 10 that "it works great, but how do I get XXX to work again?".

It's not working if it's not working, please don't tell everyone it's working great if stuff isn't work on Windows 10 that was working previously.

I don't know what it is that makes people stick up for crap that doesn't work, you aren't helping anyone putting out a rosey cheeked view of something that's failing you.

Update: Some poor Windows 10 Victim (user) clicked the vote button, and screwed up the numbers again, come on you enlightened Windows 7/8.1 users, CLICK!!

 

The NBR crowd isn't representative of regular users, remember that. We have more power users and technically inclined members that participate in forums other than the WNSIB section than non technically inclined ones. As a result, some of us aren't too fond of certain "features" of Windows 10, especially telemetry. We are also more likely to notice if the system is acting up in a way that isn't obvious. I remember that my reverting to Windows 7 from 10 on my M6700 was due to something not working properly, but that something wouldn't have impacted my day to day activities on the laptop. I know a lot of people who would just cope with a minor issue than try to fix it even if it requires a full reinstall.

 

And, most "normal" people don't care to upgrade the Windows OS at all, if ever, as far as they are concerned it's working fine, why "fix it"?

Noone I have talked to wants Windows 10, even before I talk about why it's dangerous to our personal freedoms.

The only people that seem to want to upgrade are on NBR, they are clueless as to the consequences, they have upgrade fever - get newer, get "better", get something noone else has - FIRST!

Anyway, it's unbelieveable to me that MS has 10%+ marketshare on Windows 10, I would believe 2%, maybe.

 

My experience with the less tech inclined people is different. Pretty much everyone I know took that upgrade to Windows 10 when they could.

 

Why, what's their thinking? There is nothing in the new Windows 10 that they need on their current hardware.

No new features, no new performance improvements, only another take on the botched Start Menu / Tile Menu debacle.

Why would a non-technical person be eager to mess up their work flow with a new OS?

The first question I get from people is, will it make things better for me? Will it change the way I do things? I don't have time to do what I need to get done, what will relearning how to do what I do every day improve with upgrading the OS?

Those are the questions I heard moving to Windows 2000 days forward, but I don't hear anyone asking about that with Windows 10, noone is interested enough to even ask.

Instead, everyone that is on Windows 7/8.1 has asked for help in getting rid of the Windows 10 Upgrade nagging. It's pissing people off.

 

Microsoft has done a good job shoving the OS down everyone's throats. People who don't know any better get harassed by GWX and upgrade.

As for me, my desktop is on 10 but I haven't used it since September or October, my laptop has a dual boot with 7 but I haven't touched 10 since installing 7, and I am considering removing 10 from my laptop entirely and picking up another 7 Pro license for my desktop.

 

I would hazard a guess that they didn't think at all - there's an awful lot of people out there who just click "Yes" to every popup they come across without even bothering to read first.

The people who understand what "OS upgrade" means and what all the implications you listed are, are already above-average in terms of computer literacy.

 

It was offered, it was free basically. Plus given their usage the difference in UI hasn't been an issue.

Also, I have 10 on my XPS and to be completely honest, it has posed no impediment to my workflow. I did go through all the necessary privacy settings including disabling telemetry in group policy (Enterprise and Education versions only).

 

Windows 10 Worst Secret Spins Out Of Control - Feb 9th, 2016
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonk...-10-data-tracking-spying-levels/#47bb52f57aa9

"Blowing the lid on it this week is Voat user CheesusCrust whose extensive investigation claims Windows 10 contacts Microsoft to report data thousands of times per day. And the kicker? This happens after choosing a custom Windows 10 installation and disabling all three pages of tracking options which are all enabled by default."

"The raw numbers come out as follows: in an eight hour period Windows 10 tried to send data back to 51 different Microsoft IP addresses over 5500 times. After 30 hours of use, Windows 10 expanded that data reporting to 113 non-private IP addresses. Being non-private means there is the potential for hackers to intercept this data."

As far back as Nov 2015:
Microsoft Admits Windows 10 Automatic Spying Cannot Be Stopped
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonk...unstoppable-windows-10-tracking/#53aeaf322f4a

Due to the recent findings, Microsoft BS's again:

Microsoft Upgrades Windows 10 Powers Of Control - Feb 11, 2016
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/02/11/microsoft-makes-windows-10-u-turn/#3dbd9ae63974

"Earlier this week a Voat thread started something. It detailed extensive Windows 10 background telemetry making thousands of connections every hour to Microsoft servers. It did this with every accessible tracking option disabled and even a third party telemetry blocker installed. I took this data to Microsoft and it declined to comment, but now the company has had a change of heart.

Contacting me again a Microsoft spokesperson explained the company now wanted to speak about the issue. In short: Microsoft is taking action. It has decided to release updates “later this year” which will enable users to fully control all background telemetry and data tracking and, if desired, disable it completely. Microsoft also asked me to stress that disabling these background operations is something it would “strongly recommend against”."

MS said the same thing before, and their controls don't do anything to stop the telemetry, I am sure it will remain the same with the "updates".

MS's Windows 10 tenacity to still attempt connects after several layers of blocking on the PC and externally were applied, shows it will probably keep trying until it successfully transfers its payload of your private information.

But, I'm glad to hear you are trying to stop it by flipping the options MS provides. It shows you care about your privacy, and trust MS to heed your requests to disable it.

The one option MS doesn't want to provide is to completely uninstall the OS to stop the silliness.

I hope that method will work for you when you finally wake up and realize what is going on

Oh, yeah, CheesusCrust did the testing on the Windows 10 Enterprise edition.

 

I switched to 10 on release and have never looked back. I didn't like 7 like many seem to, and hated 8 just as much. I don't love 10, but hate it a little less than 7 and 8 at least.

If they peeve me off enough I will either go with linux, or just run a newer OS with no internet connection as I prefer single player, DRM free games anyway that never need an internet connection. I can use a dedicated machine for surfing only if I need to.

I'm like one of those doomsday preppers, except instead of food and ammo I am stockpiling DRM free games and already have enough to last me until I die

 

Don't forget to pre-rip all your Blu-ray disc's, those enablement codes will stop coming and expire after the internet stops distributing them for your software player.

 

that's what anydvd hd is for

 

This has already been debunked for the most part. Look at the other threads on this forum.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The server connections logged occurred, and the range of sites, and persistance of connection attempts are still true.

No debunking, only explanations as to identifying *some* of what was going on. There were connections continuing after blocking locally and at the perimeter routers, that's not how those services "debunked" should react.

Were there connections to MS that could have been unconfigured, yes, as I have done that myself. MS didn't provide the tools / interface to promote those services into the users view to control like the others.

MS responded by saying they will release controls to bring those services that can still be disabled, and connections to MS stopped, into additional control options in the existing Privacy controls.

"Contacting me again (Forbes reporter) a Microsoft spokesperson explained the company now wanted to speak about the issue. In short: Microsoft is taking action. It has decided to release updates “later this year” which will enable users to fully control all background telemetry and data tracking and, if desired, disable it completely. "

That's not debunking, that's finding connections back to Microsoft and disclosing it so MS is forced to respond and provide controls.

Was there stuff that should have been excluded from the data, maybe, but in my book I want to know all the connections going out to MS, so I can shut them down and redirect to sites I trust - or in most cases - stop the services completely.

 

Well it's funny this thread is here... As I said earlier I was thinking of reverting my machines to Windows 7 Pro... Well my roommate brought one of his coworkers over and he had me look at her laptop... It came with Windows 8 and was an absolute dog. Malwarebytes found 345 malware entries, I cleaned them up, went to remove the multiple security programs she had just to find out that Windows Installer was broken. Ran sfc /scannow and it found issues but couldn't fix them. Long story short, I used a Linux distribution to back up her files to my Google Drive and used the recovery partition to restore the machine to out of the box Toshiba factory... Well it was still a dog so I nuked all the partitions and decided to put 10 on it. Lo and behold, the system is actually usable. So I guess I am leaving 10 on here.

Also I just ordered Quantum Break for my Xbox One and I'm definitely going to want to see what DirectX 12 can do so I guess I'm keeping 10 on my laptop too.

 

You did disclose to your friend's coworker that MS is now tracking her activities on her laptop? So that she could make an informed decision about whether to open up her private life to MS's access?

You did try to upgrade to Windows 8.1, and see if that fixed the performance issues with Windows 8? It would have, and I think you were in too much of a hurry to take the time to follow through with making Windows 8.1 work for her.

I don't think you did her any favors, and if it was me, I'd be pretty pissed off once I figured it out.

You did say you nuked all the partitions, including her Windows 8 recovery partition, so she is stuck on Windows 10 now?

Did you at least use O&O ShutUp10 and Spybot Anti-beacon to stop some of the telemetry?

She would have been better served by you sharing your methods for browsing and downloading protections, and junk file and system maintenance so she doesn't get infected again. That was the #1 thing she needed from you

Instead you open her security up to MS's abuses? You reinfected her laptop all over again.

 

Don't assume that you know what I did and did not do. I have been working on the machine since 5:30PM and its now 1:31AM. She doesn't have the installation media and if you would have bothered to read the details of my post instead of just coming at me with your attitude problem, you would realize that with Windows Installer being broken, there was no salvaging that system for one even though I spent the time trying to do so anyway and two, Windows 8.1 has MORE background processes that run, not less, which would have hammered her crappy 1.4GHz dual core APU even harder and is the EXACT reason why I DO NOT LIKE WINDOWS 8.1!

Do not presume to know what I did and did not do - she uses the computer for Word, its not even a work computer. Yes I will tell her about the telemetry but she's an average computer user who won't care as long as Chrome and Word work again - if she was more knowledgeable about computers I would have put on Linux and installed Word on there for her and been done with it.

I've got 20 years working with hardware and software ranging everywhere from the 8088 to Haswell and DOS to OS/2 to Linux to Windows and everything inbetween and I built my first computer by myself at the age of 12. I don't need a lecture about what I should and shouldn't do when I'm offering my time and expertise as a free service - if she brought this thing to another tech, they would try to sell her another machine because this one never should have even come with Windows 8 in the first place with its 3.5 WEI......

 

That's why I dislike OEM recovery partitions. They can contain bloatware. I read a tutorial where you could create your own but it was complicated for me by that time.
P.S. Offtop: Does anyone knows about such one or can write one?

 

It will be interesting to see whether these privacy concerns prove to be grounded or whether they will be retrospectively proven to be exaggerated at best. I can certainly think of examples where a great amount of fuss was made over suspicions, which later proved to be nothing serious.

 

There is no point where you give up and erase the recovery media partition. You certainly don't give up and erase the partition just because you are having trouble figuring out how to use it.

You don't need to use the installer on the borked OS, you can back up the recovery partition, like this:

Creating Recovery Media for Windows 8
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/System...ting-Recovery-Media-for-Windows-8/ta-p/353090

There was no rush requiring you to give up and remove her ability to switch back and forth between Windows 10 and Windows 8, you yourself have bounced in and out of Windows 10 a number of times.

You didn't know if Windows 10 would support all of her hardware, I doubt it does, there have been lots of complaints about older hardware not being supported in Windows 10, and people rolling back so they could regain hardware functionality.

Toshiba Windows 10 Forum
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Windows-10/bd-p/brd_win10

When you get in over your head, stop and tell the user that you aren't prepared to help them to completion right now, and ask them to leave the laptop overnight - or for a few days, so you can do a complete job recovering her laptop.

You made a bad decision, in my opinion, and my reaction wasn't a bad attitude, it was chastising you for messing her laptop up.

You might not like it, but maybe if you think about it, you can recover her back onto Windows 8.0 and upgrade to 8.1, restore all of her drivers and Toshiba system applications, so she can be functional again.

It's too late now, but the correct action would have been to pull her drive to preserve her data and recovery partition - allowing you time to figure out how to use it, and install another 2.5" drive to install Windows 8.0 => Windows 8.1 upgrade, download the Toshiba drivers and applications, and restore her laptop with the OS with the best known support, Windows 8(.1).

I have done this many times. They are fine waiting. They are fine going to the store and picking up the disk drive you specify, giving them the link to the item / SKU. They are even fine ordering a part online and waiting for delivery.

They want their laptop to work like it did before, when it was performing well, and they don't mind waiting for you to do a good job.

What is your backup plan if she discovers things are not working on Windows 10?

 

That's funny, I was just thinking that. What if all that text in the EULA Microsoft makes you agree to to install Windows 10 was just a big joke, or a simple misunderstanding?

Their lawyers just sat around thinking, you know, I bet people would think it a hoot if we slipped in some sections about how we are going to access their personal files and folders on their computers, their keystroke activity, grab a few shots or complete videos made through their webcam, record their voice text and commands, and then store them in our datacenters with personal identifiers that can link back to them personally, and reserve the right to turn any and all of it over to 3rd parties or the government without notification to you.

Go ahead and read the actual text of the EULA you agreed to. You did read it before agreeing? You at least saved the EULA to a file for reading later?

In case you didn't here it is to read online at Microsoft, at least this version that was modified in Jan 2016:

Microsoft Privacy Statement
Last Updated: January 2016
https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/

They have changed some of the text. Before it read that they would access files and folders on your computer. Now it states the access will be on private files and folders on your Onedrive storage.

Already they are backing off of their "joke", and stepping away from your personal computer. I don't think that is really the case, I think they are not being sincere in their retraction(s).

If we all just shut up and let them run roughshod over us, they would have increased the access, not reduced it. That's how these things work. They try to take, and when they get slapped back, they pull back.

I don't trust them to not change it back again. And, if you agreed to the old EULA with the explicit statements about allowing access to the private files and folders on your computer, does that still apply?

It's not a joke, it's not funny, it's extremely serious, and MS has spent billions on new data centers and given away an operating system upgrade - to make money off of you and your personal information.

They aren't going to let this go lightly.

If it works out in the future such that we can laugh about this - it never happens, then we did that, together, not because MS decided on their own to do the right thing. It's our customer feedback.

The best feedback to give, is to not use that which puts your privacy at risk

https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/

"Changes to This Privacy Statement
Summary
We will update this privacy statement when necessary to reflect customer feedback and changes in our services. When we post changes to this statement, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of the statement. If there are material changes to the statement or in how Microsoft will use your personal data, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes before they take effect or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to learn how Microsoft is protecting your information."

We are protecting our information, they can change their minds how they access it any time they like, so we have to actively do it for ourselves, on our own, and together:

Windows7/8 - Updates to hide to prevent Windows 10 Upgrade / Disable Telemetry
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...grade-disable-telemetry.780476/#post-10199346

 

That's the gist of it really - speculation.

I don't trust them to do anything more or less than what advances their business. I'm not surprised that they use telemetry for advertising purposes,l since a lot of companies do so these days, to provide a 'free' service. I'm not thrilled at the concept but it seems to be the technological zeitgheist to sell data for advertising and provide a seemingly free service. Perhaps I'm naive but it would be simply impractical for MS to root through the contents of every Windows 10 user's system, even if they felt that way inclined or were even able to do so. You could convince me that rogue employees are a legitimate concern quite well but that's not the same thing as the institutionalised practice that you are implying. Extraordinary claims do require extraordinary evidence - and to imply institutional-level corruption and breaching of data, requires quite serious evidence to justify such an accusation. I haven't seen evidence that justifies such a claim but I will change my opinion on the matter when/if it emerges.

 

You're completely wrong in your assessment as everything does indeed work as it should (I've tested it) and the whole reason that she brought it over in the first place was because of how badly it was acting up. The way that it was acting, I'd say it got a rootkit and the easiest way to get rid of those is to nuke the drive and start over which is what I did. Anyway I'm not going to debate this with you. I made a judgment call and it was mine to make.

 

Yes, you are naive, I saw you taken in and respond as if it was real to a clearly scammer trap last night, did you click on the bait and go to their site?

Why did you respond to them, what convinced you it was real?

It was posted by a new account with 1 post, that post, as their only post. It was clearly a drive by SPAM.

A mod deleted the thread, and you don't accept PM's so I couldn't warn you.

You need to toughen up and get your head out of the clouds, there are bad people doing bad things to unsuspecting people.

When they clearly state what they are going to do with your data, believe them. They didn't write all that to not take action on it.

And, actually read the document, what they say they are going to do with your computer, data, actions and use, before you make any further assumptions.

You will be surprised to find they say they aren't gathering the data for only advertising purposes, and they will continue to collect it even if you opt out. You just won't get interest driven ad's, but the identifying data will still be collected:

"Because the data used for interest-based advertising is also used for other necessary purposes (including providing our services, analytics and fraud detection), opting out of interest-based advertising does not stop that data from being collected. (this is the transition that might make you think identifying data is not collect, it is, it just isn't visibly being acted on through ad's driven by that data) Nor does it mean you will stop getting ads or see fewer ads. However, if you do opt out, the ads you receive will no longer be interest-based and may be less relevant to your interests."

You have to read the text, several times, for comprehension, and to catch the implied but untrue assumptions that you and others have your attention drawn away toward. As with all legal speak, it's what is not said - or said between the lines - that tells what the motivations and goals of an action is.

Don't be a victim

 

If you are going to publicly state the details of a situation like that, you should expect to get called out on it.

The fact that you were saying you were laughing at the thread, and then going and doing something clearly naive and capricious as you did to someone you were saying you were helping clearly was wrong, and needed a response.

You didn't treat the subject or the person honestly and completely disclose what the effects you were doing would have. And, you didn't say that in your disclosure, so assumptions are going to be made, which did turn out to be the case. You didn't tell her.

You can't decide for them that they shouldn't use the OS that came with their computer, Windows 8, and instead force them on to Windows 10, that is MS's job - you seem to have been influenced by their program to force people to upgrade. You should have protected her interests and done what she needed instead of doing what you wanted.

Your assessment of Windows 8.1 is incorrect, and I don't know how you could arrive there given benchmarks show Windows 8.1 works fine, as fast as Windows 10/7. Any differences aren't large enough to be noticeable by an end user either way.

Except for memory usage, which is a problem in Windows 10:

Top 10 Ways to Fix High RAM/CPU Memory Usage after Windows 10 Update
Jan. 28, 2016
http://www.drivethelife.com/windows-10/fix-high-ram-cpu-memory-usage-after-windows-10-update.html

Your incorrect preconception clouded your judgement and kept her from getting the OS re-installed that she needed, and likely contributed to your capricious decision to blow away her Windows 8 recovery partition, and her personal data. That wasn't your call to make alone.

That is not how you treat people that come asking for help. I get that you think you were helping them, but you weren't. You need to involve them in the process and protect their interests if you take on that role.

I get people all the time telling me there is nothing of value on their computer, go ahead and blow it all away, they just want it to work again. You can't believe them. They are desperate and are willing to trade the loss of their data for a working computer in that moment.

You have to protect them by refusing to erase their disk. When I pull the drive and set it aside, build a working image that they can take home and start using immediately, they come back the next day after the panic moment has passed, and they have calmed down enough to remember what they had on the old disk, and they start asking if I can pull this or that off their old drive, they forgot they had it on there and need it restored.

Their family members or roommates come desperate for recovery of their data, on the shared computer. Husbands come desperate for recovery of their family photo's, etc etc. The wife/husband/child took it upon themselves to get the computer problem fixed before informing the family members, it happens.

Because I saved their drive, preserving their data, I can mount the drive in an external USB case and they can pull off their private files on their time and without another persons intervention. I don't need to see their stuff or coordinate my time recovering new items time and time again over the weeks as they remember what else they need to recover.

You can't erase someones hard drive in the moment they are desperately trying to get their computer working again.

If you don't want a response, then don't post the details in a public forum in the first place.

 

People get so het up about sharing data with M$. Fact is though so many people tell their whole lives though stupid websites like twitter and facebook already.

Privacy seems old fashioned. I for one never posted a photo of my child on faecesbook for example. Most people have no qualms doing so just like the users of win 10....

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

So far I've upgraded three of my laptops to 10. I'm doing it now to get the digital activation for all of them during the upgrade period.

At least I hope that activation stays stored, even if I decide to roll back to 7 for a while.

My gaming desktop has 8.1 enterprise, so I'd need to upgrade it with 10 enterprise... Too much hassle. Instead I might do a quick 7 install and run 10 upgrade then.

 

It's still critical to mind your privacy rights, even when others are clueless about it and are drawn into disclosing what shouldn't be disclosed publicly. If it wasn't anyone's business it still isn't.

Those services don't need to be defaulted to public disclosure, they are set up that way for their benefit, not yours.

There are many thousands of instances where that's already been proven to be the case. Innocent posting of personal events and situations have been spun to their detriment. Most they aren't even aware that they happened.

People lose jobs, careers, opportunities, which wouldn't have been the case if they hadn't disclosed those innocent events.

It's a boom time for those that derive value from your personal information and can use it to their benefit, profit, and amusement.

It's not ok, and it's not ok either because "everyone else is doing it".

There are people that are placed such that they think that they are immune from it's effects, that use the data themselves but think they are immune from having it turned on them, they are mistaken.

Protect your information, don't post it publicly, hold services that have access to your personal information to a high standard, and only give out what is absolutely required for the task, no more.

This is a critical time, where we can control the direction this is all going, every single person's action contributes, one way or the other.

Become informed and make the tough calls now, while it's still possible to have control over them.

MS doesn't need full access to everything you do on your computer, certainly not for advertising or product support, that's for sure. Deny them access now while you can.

 

You can't upgrade Enterprise edition.

 

You are extending the idea through to logical possibilities, and some may be true, but you are diluting the focus away from the collection in the first place.

There is no reason to collect the data. So why are they going through all that trouble, expense, and persistance to the task of collecting that data?

BigData, the indiscriminate collection of seemingly unrelated facts, details, measurements, with their collection including synchronized timing, is the key to extrapolation from seemingly no data to an actionable conclusion.

Your idea of "it would be simply impractical for MS to root through the contents of every Windows 10 user's system" is missing several steps leading up to the "root through the contents" stage. Nonone has said that MS is doing that to every computer, they don't need to right now / all the time.

The data collected gives them the ability to reduce the search size down to managable indices for future use. A base collection of indicators that can be used to isolate what they, or their partners want / need - for current and future use - for as long as they retain the data - and the meta data they generated from that original data can be retained as long as they like, it's not in your awareness or in your control.

The going through of your personal data can happen at any time, for any reason, without your knowledge, as stated in the EULA, the one you agreed to to install Windows 10.

Warrant required for access? Maybe. Laws change, situations change, invoking powers you and I don't have knowledge of or access to.

Not knowing now what will be in effect then doesn't allow us to judge what might constitute requirements for their access to our private computer, before the access.

MS built a backdoor(s) into Windows 10, and they have explicitly stated their intention to allow it to be used by them, 3rd party partners, the government, at any time - not of your choosing and not requiring further conscent from you, you have already given them permission by agreeing to the EULA.

Will it happen over the internet? Maybe, will it happen when your property is seized? Why not? The access is there, and only needs to be used.

Will it happen because you can't make payments on your mortgage? Will it happen because you have too many moving violations? Will it happen due to false accusations made against you? We don't know.

Will it happen for a reason we can't imagine now, but will be clear later. Yes.

You are their commodity. Whether compelled by the profit motive, or compelled by government edict, it doesn't matter. It can be done, and if someone can do it, it can happen to you and to others.

It's just a matter of time, the opportunity is now in place, and you all agreed to it, for a free operating system, and some cool new DX12 games

 

And yet you still presume to know what I did and didn't do. I backed up her data care of a Linux USB key so she didn't lose anything and whether you want to believe it or not, 10 works better on this machine. It was a last resort effort before asking her to pony up 20 bucks for a Windows 7 license and she happens to be fine with it being Windows 10 - in fact she is happy to have Cortana and doesn't care about Microsoft watching her apply for jobs. She also remarked that the computer has never been so fast on her own so take that as you will but the bottom line is that I made her more than happy in the end and she's especially happy that she doesn't have to worry about updating the machine anymore. I know it is difficult for you to accept that people are willing to make sacrifices for convenience but it was an easy decision for her and unlike you, who don't know her at all, I knew my client and I read everything that she wanted and I read it well.

Now I just wish I could do something about this atrocious processor...

 

Upgraded to Windows 10 for like a week and went back to Windows 8/8.1. Ran into many issues like bad drivers and didnt like how i didnt have full control of my laptop in the settings and especially with Windows updates. After i went back to Windows 8/8.1 i removed all of the windows updates that contain GWX and the telemery crap thanks to the guides here in NBR and i no longer receive any notifications to upgrade to 10. At the end of the day despite many of us here dont like Windows 10 nor would bother into installing it we dont have any control of other people of what they install on their PCs. If they're happy with Windows 10 then let them be happy with it. I still dont like Microsoft forcing Windows 7/8.1 users to upgrade to 10 when they clearly dont want to.

I wish more manufacturers does what HP does with their recovery partitions like adding a minimized recovery image option. This option wont install any bloatware whatsoever, it will only install the drivers and some essential software without the pain of installing every driver like a clean install.

 

Yeah, in the end, as much as you'd like to advocate why something is better if the client (or friend) just is resistant to changing for whatever reason, there is no point trying to push it. They'll just be unhappy about it and are likely to come back to you and ask you to do things as they'd like them done. The best solution for someone else is often the best one they'll accept. I've stopped trying to push selecting the updates you need vs the ones you don't need on Windows 7 and 8.1 and set the systems of non computer literate I reinstall Windows or setup their OS for on automatic important updates because they just don't want to go through the trouble of manually downloading/installing updates. It isn't ideal, but it's better than them not doing the updates at all and being a danger to themselves and others online.

Now, if someone asks me if they need to upgrade from 7 to 10 before doing it, I'd say why bother if your system is working perfectly fine. If they've already done it and are used to it, getting them to revert is going to be difficult and it's a battle that I've decided was not worth fighting.

 

"I know it is difficult for you to accept that people are willing to make sacrifices for convenience "

That was my point, you have to protect them from making bad decisions in the moment of panic, when they only want it to be working again, and are willing to sacrifice what they shouldn't and wouldn't given normal circumstance.

You can back up a copy of data on an external drive, but you don't know where to pull all the files/folders from, they won't remember in the heat of the moment - they want to move forward and get their computer working again, and you can never guess where a user is going to file stuff in the folder structure, it can be anywhere and everywhere.

You may think you know where to look, but there are exceptions in my experience that preclude doing anything else but preserving the disk(s) and/or doing a complete image backup.

The easiest for them to access later is the original disk in a form they are used to using, the Windows folder structure, as a clone or a write protected drive.

Your thinking is still being clouded by your rejection of her native laptop OS, Windows 8.

"It was a last resort effort before asking her to pony up 20 bucks for a Windows 7 license and she happens to be fine with it being Windows 10"

She didn't need to make a choice between Windows 7 or Windows 10, the laptop has a license for Windows 8, and you could have downloaded the OS install media for free.

You couched her decision between $20 and free, how would anyone that doesn't have the background to decide on the merits of the OS respond, FREE!!

You didn't give her the 3rd option, the normal default, install the original support OS, Windows 8. Upgrading to Windows 8.1 would have also been cool.

Windows 8 is free for her too, and that would have been the correct, quickest, and most responsible decision.

She doesn't know Windows 10, she doesn't know more than that you predisposed her to believe - hey, who cares what they are looking it, what are they going to do about it, find you a job?. Ha Ha.

If you couldn't get the OS that came with the computer to work correctly, then let her know that and have her take it to someone that can. Toshiba got it to work, so it will work, your failure to get it to work indicates you were doing something wrong.

Excuses like it was too slow, or had to much bundled crap beg the question, why didn't you uninstall the crap and tune her configuration for best performance?

When a computer is newly installed, upon first boot and for a time after that, many processes will be running that scan the disk, configuration, and index all the files on the computer. Sometimes multiple software packages will do that.

You have to wait it out or configure them to stop - disable indexing content in files, disable indexing media files - including cataloging them against online databases.

You should know these things...and that they are not excuses to ditch the restored recovery OS for another, and then wipe out their only copy of that recovery partition so they can't roll back, even if they later want/need to. And, that is an old laptop, they will have a hard time finding that recovery data from the vendor or elsewhere.

Anyway, that's enough on that

 

Yeah Windows 10 was not my first choice but I wasn't going to ask her to cough up the money for a license for 7 and the bloat that was in there for all of Toshiba's garbage to work in 8 (which works out of the box in 10 with the exception of the airplane mode) was seriously slowing the machine down. When a computer is sitting idle and you see 60+% CPU usage going to service host along with 1+GB of the precious 4GB of RAM the machine has, something isn't right and none of the security software I ran detected anything other than the initial Malwarebytes scan which caught over 300 items. In Windows 10 it idles at 5%

I couldn't even get the clean Windows 8 install to browse to a page in Chrome at all and IE took about 30 seconds before it would get moving anywhere. This is a tiny AMD E1-1200 APU machine, CPU cycles are precious...

@hmscott Seriously, just get off your high horse. You are making assumptions without having the facts. You're making up your own facts without actually being the one sitting in front of the machine.

Fact: I did a full restore using the recovery partition.
Fact: That restore was still unusable
Fact: You can not download recovery media using a Windows 8 non-retail CD key - you can purchase replacement media from Toshiba, however, complete with their bloatware.
Fact: Windows 10 is faster than Windows 8 because it doesn't have the bloatware and it was a free option
Fact: There was hardly anything on this machine and I went through and grabbed everything in a non-system folder as part of my backup process even though she only asked me to save what was on her desktop.
Fact: The vast majority of consumers really don't care about giving away their information and do so all the time.
Final fact - she is thrilled with it which is all that matters at the end of the day.

 

Have you ever tried yourself?

Dont tell my work computer that. I upgraded it from 8.1 ent to 10 just like that. Insert usb stick, double click .exe and wait 15 minutes.

 

My desktop is still on 8.1, my laptop got W10. I don't like all the spying going on, but who am I kidding? I use a Windows Phone, and if I didn't I'd get an Android, could even do with an Apple. No matter what, I can't do sh*t about those three companies spying. Yeah I can root the phone, use a dumbphone, find some rare OS to use... I guess I'm not that paranoid. Just annoyed.

The reason I'm not staying with W8.1 is all those updates since last summer that includes telemetry etc The same goes for W7.

A hardware firewall is one way to go, but hardly an ideal solution for a laptop.

 

Windows 10 has the added feature of the EULA agreement, where you give up your privacy allowing access to your computer activities.

Windows 7/8.1 predate all this silliness, and there are ways to block the telemetry, and good tools to accomplish it. Same for Windows 10, but less effective and there's that pesky EULA.

I use Destroy Windows Spying on Windows 8.1 to remove the KB's and block the hosts, adding these host / IP / IP Range blocks to an external firewall, and your 3rd party PC hosted firewall is a good idea too.

Destroy Windows Spying - DWS => Final version of this app build.
http://dws.wzor.net/
https://github.com/Nummer/Destroy-Windows-10-Spying

DWS development has stopped with this Final version, but Nummer the developer is taking design input for the next app.

DWS running on Windows 8.1 has been without problems for me. Windows 10 and Windows 7 are also supported.

Be aware if you have the Windows 7 SP1 update installed to uncheck it in the DWS tool before running. Or, after it uninstalls you will need to run Windows Update to install the unbundled updates manually. This applies only really old Windows 7 installations - newer ones roll up SP1 into SP2 and that's ok. Reported by one user.

On Windows 10 DWS may disable Windows Update completely - you can use Spybot Anti-Beacon Update enable/disable options to re-enable. Reported by one user.

O&O ShutUp10 is another app you can run instead of DWS on Windows 10 only.

O&O ShutUp10
Free antispy tool for Windows 10
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

The Windows command line entries in the source could be pulled out and run manually. You could also add the new KB's to block to the source and build it, or do them manually - which is how I am blocking the new ones.

NBR has a forum thread post #1 that has a list of KB's to not install / hide (block), and a script to run to uninstall them maintained by @Phoenix

Windows7/8 - Updates to hide to prevent Windows 10 Upgrade / Disable Telemetry
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...grade-disable-telemetry.780476/#post-10199346

GWX Control Panel can be used to stop / block Windows 10 Update's, clean out the downloaded files and folder for the Windows 10 Update, and uninstall the Windows 10 Update notification from the systray. There is also now a monitoring mode to run in the systray in case MS comes up with another method - changes to Update will be caught and GWX will notify you.

GWX Control Panel
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

Spybot Anti-Beacon is a tool that covers some of the items to block that others don't. It's a simple click to enable/disable security holes - telemetry beacons. Spybot Search and Destroy is also a good tool to use to install hosts blocks for malware sites.

Spybot Anti-Beacon
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
https://www.safer-networking.org/

Another site that maintains forums for this fun stuff. The site VOAT that hosted the recent monitoring of Windows 10 Workstation telemetry traffic hubbub and they have a forum to support the script Aegis that has similar blocking and background process stopping focus. It's good stuff, check it out:

Aegis for Windows 7/8.x - Block all known Microsoft spying and Windows 10 upgrade elements
https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/853510

"Block 145 bad hosts, change windows update to check/notify (do not download/install), disable automatic delivery of internet explorer via windows update, disable ceip/gwx/skydrive(aka onedrive)/spynet/telemetry/wifisense, disable remote registry, disable 31 scheduled tasks, disable windows 10 download directory, remove diagtrack, hide/uninstall 47 kb updates (see below)."

Phrozen Windows Privacy Tracker covers more items to block not covered by the other tools
https://www.phrozensoft.com/2015/09/windows-privacy-tweaker-4

There are other tools, these are the most used.

If you have any findings or questions for blocking on Windows 7/8 please post here:

Windows7/8 - Updates to hide to prevent Windows 10 Upgrade / Disable Telemetry
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...grade-disable-telemetry.780476/#post-10199346

 

I use ShutUp10, but have no idea of how effective it is. Basically I turn off everything, and then turn on the things I actually need, which isn't much.
I've seen the list of updates to avoid, but I haven't used them. The updates I avoid contains more than telemetry, which made me stop updating W8.1 completely, haha.

There are several ways to block data from being sent, and there are ways to test if it works. I have no idea how good these solutions work.
Measuring the number of connection attempts on a blocked system doesn't really say much if the attempts are being repeated, just because they're unsuccessful.

 

The number of connections is interesting, those timeouts must be slowing something up, I haven't installed Windows 10 since the release, and so I haven't seen first hand what Shutup10 does, but DWS and Aegis stop and disable background tasks and processes, which should stop any traffic coming from those telemetry.

I understand the Windows 8.1 update stoppage, I have too over the last few weeks. So far the updates aren't anything I use / need, so simply hiding them all has worked fine for me.

Spending a few minutes looking through the list on the thread here will get us going again

Windows7/8 - Updates to hide to prevent Windows 10 Upgrade / Disable Telemetry
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...grade-disable-telemetry.780476/#post-10199346

Read the latest posts that have links the articles with reviews of the recent patches, so we can be happy hiding some, and letting the rest install.

I did this for a friends Windows 7 machine yesterday, and will likely get around to clearing the blockage on mine this weekend

 

That abomination of desolation will never be my OS.

 

I'm sticking with Win 7 on my HP EliteBook. I had trouble when I tried to go to Windows 8.1 years ago; there wasn't proper driver support for the graphics card and some of the other devices, like the fingerprint reader. I generally only run operating systems that are officially supported by the computer manufacturer, in order to avoid things that could get in the way of my workflow.

Charles

 

No x3. And zero plans to do so. Am not seeing it as 'free', more like surrendering freedom.

But got a testpc with an activated 10 (out of an old unused 7 license), for learning purposes (that's learning how to implement privacy tools and take steps to control & tame MicroSpy :O)

 

I upgraded all my devices to W10, both personal and work.
The OS is stable enough for me, introduced features I like and it actually feels a bit faster on low-spec devices.

As for the privacy concernes - eh, there are already a bunch of "privacy leechers" out there we provide our info to every day, why not add another one.

 

My main tablet is still running 8.1, but will upgrade to 10 when I'm feeling adventurous enough; have installed 10 on second one, which came with 7 originally.

 

My laptop was dual boot (factory Win 8.1, Win 7) and since I really hate Win 8, or rather it's metro apps and metro interface, that keeps popping up on my screen over and over again, I finally decided to see how Win10 works to form my own opinion. And to tell the truth, so far I like it better than Win 8.1, since I haven't seen metro interface yet and I'm in the process of deleting all metro apps that I don't find useful (is it me or do they seem to work better now?). Hopefully we get the handle on telemetry and Win 10 may actually work OK. Either way Win 7 is my primary boot, I haven't used Win 8
for about 6 months, once I set Win 10 and play with it a little, I won't use it much either, so telemetry shouldn't be much issue for me, I could always cut down internet before booting Win 10 to play and use Win7 or Linux for Web. But it sucks we got to this point.