Windows 10

@TANWare @Mr. Fox @Papusan @bloodhawk @toughasnails

I know this is what you all were NOT waiting for.......

Microsoft removes policies from Windows 10 Pro

 

^^^ And thought things couldn't get any worse...

 

^^^

 

"Closing Words
The changes take away functionality that was previously a part of the Windows 10 Pro edition. It is without doubt an annoyance, considering that Pro users have no option anymore to disable third-party applications, links or Store apps in general on Windows 10 once the Anniversary Update is installed.

Considering that many Pro users won't be able to get Enterprise or Education versions of Windows 10, it is anything but customer friendly."

It could be argued that removing the Group Policy / Registry controls is far more devastating than MS locking in Cortana and Bing in as the only System / Network search system, and locking out Google / Firefox / Chrome from use as default System Search / Browsers, but it's probably related to the Group Policy realm as well.

MS is going to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and you can't do anything about it in the long term, MS is going to lock out all tweaks and tuning hooks.

It's just a matter of time.

 

The w10 upgrade....

 

M$ is looking at my direct files, communications, work products, work flow etc. etc.. M$ is monitoring my computer use not just 100% of the time but even before and during the use of those other systems. Even if you totally avoid those other systems, now there is less of an option to avoid M$.

 

****.

 

Things gets uglier and uglier for every updates that is released. /GG

 

That would be pretty stupid if they get rid of it in Pro.

The main reason to get Pro is the ability to join Domains.
What the heck is the point of it if you can't enforce policies on those system beside denying them?

It like that dumb Allow Telemetry Policy can't be set in Pro unless it is enforced though a Domain Group Policy.

 

Although I hate / bash the whole Win Crap X...!! You must use this very ugly pastel colored trash because of the problematic NVMe support with Win 7 and also if you want ok score In 3DM Suite bencmarks!! We all have a reason to really hate the new pastel colored trash from the Redmond Mafia. Everything is crippled with this OS. We try as best we can to tweak the **** of this Os so it is almost can be usable(all tricks in the book). Not with good heart you use this colored junk. Same with Win 8 and 8.1!!! You need to tweak the **** off this Os if you shall use it. Everything M$ Morons touch will be more and mot Crippled now!!! Gone is the happy day's!!

 

I am waiting on the new release but from what I can see my plans have to change. I wanted to convert to W10 on most of my machines with being able to limit on spying. With the new changes this may not be possible. So I am guessing I will have to go back to Windows 7 for now. I can't even get Linux on my new Nextbook so that will become essentially a new tablet.

I would have loved to go as close to 100% Linux as possible. M$ is truly breaking the last straw here. If I would have known the hammer was going to drop so soon after the free update ended there is no way I would have considered W10!

 

And that is why small companies will have to choose to buy more expensive Enterprise Editions instead of cheaper Pro.

 

It is a huge price difference between an Enterprise and Pro license.

Small companies are low volume, they have to purchase both since they can't get it directly from M$.

 

It Is done! Don't you just love the feeling of a fresh non-10 OS ???

I'm truly appreciating the snappier/fast SSD boot with Windows 8 compared to 10 (9 seconds compared to 27)
How I'm seeing the situation back at HQ

 

My Windows 7 cold boots to login screen in 17 seconds. I will just keep using 7, thanks.

 

Wait, people still bother how fast OS loads?

 

It does matter to me, when it takes ~27 seconds cold-booting windows 10 (with an SSD for God's sake) something is not right. My HDD WD Black boots in 33 seconds.

 

Looking at your specs, I blame that you still have a mechanical drive connected.

It would be much faster had you disconnected it or replace with an ssd.

The boot up would be much faster if you had no mechanical drives and disabled csm/usb/network initialization support.

When I mean usb and network ... it just you lose the ability to use it to edit your bios settings or update firmware from network, etc

Not completely lose them in the OS.

 

That is the first time I have EVER timed it.

 

He said he has an SSD, or did you miss that? Most everyone uses a mechanical drive for their data, until costs come down on the larger 1tb and up SSD's.

 

I did see that he has a ssd.

However, most bios still waits for the hdd to spin up before moving on the post.

The more hdd connected, the more it waits.

Also, don't understand the bickering about this.
Anyone who seriously cared about bootup time, uses S3 mode anyways

 

Yep.

Many systems will deliberately spin up drives one at a time to reduce load, so the total time wasted on spin up increases proportionally with HDD count.

Only time the process from OS kernel load to a usable interface in those discussions. One can't blame the OS if it's not loaded yet.

 

Are you saying the network port supports out of band management? i.e. like a DRAC.

From what I thought, disabling the network boot in the bios would just stop you from using it as a thin client.

Am I wrong in this thinking?

 

Was not bickering at all. Besides, I could not care less about 8 to 12 seconds of boot time. It is a highly overrated statistic, that has no impact on performance.

 

Just like synthetic benchmarks.
Each to their own.

----
@ Chronokiller
It will prevent PXE boot via UEFI (Never tested that or can confirm this but most likely). But won't stop PXE boot via CSM unless you disabled CSM Support.

Sadly, I can't say about DRAC. I seen it but never used it.
More likely it is separate device as in it has its own bios.

 

Thanks, that was my impression as well.

 

Agree... it's a fluffy metric that adds no real value. It seems to be exceptionally important to certain types of computer users. I could be wrong, but the group that seems most obsessed with blazing fast boot times are those with machines that cannot complete with performance at the hardware level.

Back on the subject of Windoze OS X cancer OS...

If you have the unlocked @Prema BIOS you can disable PXE boot with CSM enabled. On the CSM Support menu disable network boot and that disables the PXE boot garbage. You can also disable that functionality on the BBS menus. I disable it in both places. The only thing I enable in the BBS menu is the OS drive... all the other boot options I have disabled. I also have UEFI boot functionality disabled and all of my drives are configured as MBR. W10 seems to be happier that way on my systems, just as W7 and W8.X did.

 

If you add 10% to 10 seconds boot time it's nothing. If you add 10% to 45 sec it's the exact time you will be 99% to blow up in a rage after you went to the kitchen, made a tea, took cookies, came back to the PC and still have to wait 5 seconds more looking at desparately slow black-to-blue-to-desktop-to-logon sound and finally to refreshed icons which means you can act now.

 

Same here.

15 seconds from pushing the power button to being able to type my password in.

 

The 'anniversary' update with more nicely packaged "enhanced customer experience" coming our way, here's what it looks like :O)



Will be interesting to see how my modified 10 install (all apps, cortana etc etc deleted from os\hd, reg edits, shutup10 etc) will cope, everything will probably be reset, have to start from scratch again.

 

Good news guys !
There's going to be an LTSB release of RS1 / 1607 / Build 14393 / Anniversary update, Soon enough.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...current-branch-for-business-servicing-option/

Seems like Windows Server 2016 coming too, Also an option for those who are willing to go an extra 3 gigs space for similar granular control like LTSB, Plus Defender can be directly uninstalled.

 

I just upgraded to 14393 and opted out of Insider Preview. Now to see what Microsoft has messed up now...

I noticed something interesting too... In activation, it says that Windows 10 Pro is activated using a license linked to my Microsoft account. I thought that was just an Insider thing but its remained after I dropped out of the program. It doesn't say digital entitlement anymore like it used to. Anyone else have this?



Looking at my settings, Cortana is still disabled... I wonder if it leaves alone all your settings if you already configured them?

I just ran winver to double check and I'm on 1607 which is where mandatory Cortana is supposed to come into play...

 

Still on 1511 here, no option yet to do the upgrade. I only have the home version though.

 

I never logged in with a Micro$h4ft account, here is what mine says on build 10586.494

 

I haven't been on that build for a LONG time now, maybe they changed it somewhere along the way.

 

Enterprise LTSB is the only appropriate Win10 distributive, IMO. It doesn't have Cortana and possibly Store too. Also it only should get security fixes and bugfixes.
BUT:
- So called security fixes may have nothing to MY private security. These updates may mean anything microsoft wants.
- I am not against Cortana if I could block spying and set it to use Firefox/Google.
- The price of Enterprise version.

This is actually better because microsoft introduced new feature. If you make an upgrade which makes your OS believe that it is no more old computer and become deactivated you can always sign in to your ms account and fix this providing information what you upgraded so you get license back.

 

Enterprise does have the Store.

 

Will your existing GP domain settings override and remove the Store with Enterprise?

With the new Anniversary edition for Enterprise changes, will the GP tuning you have been using work and function the same?

It's probably too early to tell

 

I went through my settings and it kept everything, even Cortana being completely disabled (I verified this with ShutUp 10), so apparently most of the changes appear to affect new installs, not upgrades.

 

Did you reboot after the update, or does that happen automatically?

Maybe it schedules some changes later?

Seems odd that Microsoft sent out a warning, and then nothing happened.

A new MS "mind game"

 

I rebooted immediately after so that I could drop out of the Insider program.



You can only leave the Insider program one of two ways - nuking your install or moving your Insider status to Current Branch and updating then leaving.

 

I think It was mentioned here that upgraded machines are not affected
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/28/windows-10-version-1607-driver-signing-changes/

Even though Enterprise or LTSB is the best option for power users.

 

I wasn't referring to the drivers, I was referring to being unable to turn off Cortana, something that I massively loathed the idea of.

But it appears to have not have affected any of my settings at all. Everything is still just how I left it.

 

Weird, MS must really like the bad press, they get a double serving this time, scaring everyone and then "disappointing" everyone

 

Their own software engineers don't even know what's going on... there was a tweet last night that 14393.10 was going to the fast ring but it hit all of the rings including production (its the Anniversary update otherwise I'd still be stuck as an Insider).

 

This guys experience is more like what I expected to hear:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ld-1607-cant-skip-lock-screen-anymore.794513/

Maybe your insider build swap timing changed the behavior?

 

Well I just noticed that my nVidia drivers were pushed to 368.20 AGAIN so it definitely did stuff I didn't want it to.

I never tried disabling the lockscreen. Since I use a PIN, I just hit the space bar and type and it flies right through.

My total boot time is 14 seconds from power on to PIN finished and desktop loaded and I kind of like seeing my lock screen wallpaper anyway lol.

 

So my thread that's linked to in the previous couple of posts, it makes me wonder. If my group policy and registry edits for no lock screen no longer work. Will this mean my group policy and registry edits for no auto-update rebooting when logged in no longer work too? If so, I think I'm going to have a conniption over the fact MS took away features from the Pro version with 1607.

 

I'm pretty sure that MS broke those but only time will tell.

 

#OT This Redstone sounds similar to Treadstone, not only that internals too...