Windows 10: Why you should NOT upgrade...

[kano]

Install Linux, and only run Windows with no Internet connection. That's how I'm doing it from here on out, now that mega-mystery patches are coming to Windows 7 and 8.1. Instead of providing you individual patches to choose from and install, from now on, there will be just one megapatch for the month with all the little patches rolled in.

 

And you just know it won't be long before Microsoft decides to be naughty again, as if labeling GWX as fixing issues in Windows, and slipping banner ads into an Internet Explorer security update weren't naughty enough before.

[Destined]

It helps to have Win10 Pro, as this has more possibilites regarding privacy. Apart from that I use Spybot Anti Beacon. This also seems to help.

[Bikerdude]

Let's say I buy a laptop with fresh W10 on it

Check the vender lets you downgrade it to win7/8 or atleast supplies drivers for them.

[stumpy]

those full page ads to upgrade windows 7/8/8.1 to windows 10 do have a button that says 'do not bother me again' but it so small and the same colour as the background that many people will miss it, plus it only seems to become clickable after about a minute or so of the ad appearing on the desktop. my dad kept having it appear on his computer and he thought it was a virus and just turned the computer off as it stopped him from doing any work on it.

[kano]

http://betanews.com/2015/08/10/users-are-unhappy-that-windows-10-automatically-sends-emails-about-child-account-activity/

 

Its amazing how there was barely a wimper in the press about this. It is really fucking creepy, especially being turned on by default. That just goes to show how bought off and paid for the press actually is.

[kano]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/02/windows_market_share_nov_2016/

 

 

The only reason for the "impressive rise" of Windows 10 was that Microsoft were strong arming grandmas to install it, via lack of a "no" button, mis-labeled updates that were described as fixing issues in Windows when they actually installed GWX, and then continuously installing these updates again even if the user somehow figured out that it was called KB3035583 and deleted them.

[woah]

So for a while I was using Netlimiter to block non-local traffic traffic coming from Windows 10 OS processes, but eventually Windows 10 started locking up every time I did this. Not only that, but Windows 10 wouldn't give me access to my local network if I blocked non-local traffic during the initial connection phase. Logging into the router I could see it assigning the computer an IP, but Windows would not give me as the windows user access to the network until I unblocked non-local traffic and let it talk to Microsoft's servers.

 

Enraged, I uninstalled Windows 10 and installed Windows 7 on a VM with the dedicated GPU, soundcard, PCI NIC, and a second USB controller passed through to the guest. Host is using the onboard GPU and audio and a USB NIC. I'm able to block everything with Netlimiter without the system locking up and performance is about 97% of native according to 3DMark benchmarks. VR games and everything work absolutely fine and there's no need to reboot into Windows anymore. And my kinesis advantage keyboard works through the VM even though the USB controller it's plugged into is being passed through to the guest. (this was my original reason to uninstall Windows 7)

 

So yeah, fuck Windows 10. Not looking back (or forward?)

Edited November 11, 2016 by woah

[esme]

@woah You probably know this but watch out for windows 7 updates, they've rolled the telemetry updates from win10 into them so I expect win7 to start phoning home as often as win10 soon and eventually refusing to allow you on your local network if you deny access to the slurp servers

[Oldjim]

Can you give a bit more info on that so I can check

[Destined]

I just saw a post on 9gag that also might fit into this forum.

Not sure if this might be an issue with Dishonored 2 and a reason why people have performance problems with it. I have also not checked myself, if I have this option turned on (I usually do not use the XBox app).

Edit: Just took a look at the app and I don't have an account there. So I hope that I do not have Game DVR enabled by default...

Edited November 11, 2016 by Destined

[esme]

Can you give a bit more info on that so I can check

I assume you mean me ?

 

here's one http://www.infoworld.com/article/2911609/operating-systems/kb-2952664-compatibility-update-for-win7-triggers-unexpected-daily-telemetry-run-may-be-snooping.html but you probably already know about it

 

However Microslurp now release all their updates in a single homogeneous monthly windows update rollup so you can no longer pick and choose what you want or avoid installing telemetry.

Edited November 11, 2016 by esme

[Oldjim]

Yup - and I didn't install it

 

 

"Each month, we will release a single update containing all of the non-security fixes for that month," said Microsoft.

all this means is that I won't install any of them

As it hasn't happened yet I wonder if driverr updates are included in this - I would suspect that they aren't

[esme]

they started with the roll up patches last month

[Oldjim]

Not according to the last updates I got - they were separate (at least many of them were) as from memory there were 5 security updates (it might have been seven)

[duzenko]

Aw Gawd

They broke dpi scaling again in the last update

TDM compiled on vs2010 won't go fullscreen w/o the compatibility flag

[Bikerdude]

Well on a positive note, looks like Windows server 2016 is the windows 10 we hoped for with all the shit removed including the telemetry code.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3gkh9k/windows_server_2016_is_amazing_for_gaming/

 

[Destined]

I had my first big Win10 problem with the latest update. It tried to update Windows Defender (which I don't even use, as I have other Anti Virus software). For some unknown reason the update failed and resulted in a constant 100% usage of my SSD slowing down my PC to a halt at times (and most likely drastically reducing the life span of my SSD). The only solution was to recover my system. Problem is, that (of course) you cannot disable updates, so the same crappy update is lined up again. I can only hope, that it does not screw up this time

[esme]

Just an idle thought regarding telemetry and updates.

 

If you successfully block these, Win10 then throws a hissy fit & eventually stops working.

 

How about setting up a "man in the middle" machine, initially it simply intercepts and then passes on whatever M$ are sending up and down the wire, but because it's under your control you can intercept & look at the data.

 

Now OK a lot is going to be encrypted, there's no reason why update requests should be, but even if they are you may still be able to fake a "no updates today" response from your man in the middle machine, also it may be that you can spot patterns in the telemetry handshake and fake that too without sending data to M$.

 

Lot of work, but it might allow you to schedule your updates & control telemetry while still using Win10.

 

Easier to just install L*nux though.

[Bikerdude]

Easier to just install L*nux though.

If I could simply install a flavour of linux (Mint maybe) and get ALL my windows games windows at the same speed as in windows then yeah I would agree totally.

[New Horizon]

Ubuntu Mate is the go to distro at the moment I think. It's pretty nice.

[stumpy]

windows 10 does have a program to stop hardware driver updates, you have to download it from microsoft, and use it to hide a hardware driver updates, it updated the HD4600 driver on my computer in the background didn't even mention the update anywhere and since the update I've been having random kernel power loss, error 41, they basically started when the update driver was added. I've got a 4th generation Intel cpu chip and windows updated it from 4th generation to 6th generation but the chip is still a 4th generation. so the drivers for 6th gen don't work on 4th gen chip set.

 

this is bad intel hd4600 driver, version 20.19.15.4531

 

this is one I previously had, version 20.19.15.4444

Edited November 17, 2016 by stumpy

[stumpy]

removing xbox app

 

open an administrator windows powershell

 

type

 

Get-AppxPackage *xboxapp* | Remove-AppxPackage

 

more here http://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-to-uninstall-windows-10s-built-in-apps-and-how-to-reinstall-them/

[esme]

How to kill Cortana without uninstalling it

 

Because I've heard reports that M$ will reinstall it if you do uninstall it, they really want it on your system.

 

NB this probably won't last forever & I believe it stops you searching for applications on your PC, it doesn't remove Cortana but it stops it being loaded & run

 

This is from memory, I found the instructions on the net somewhere, can't remember where.

 

1 - Locate the folder Cortana is run from, this should be something like C:\Windows\SystemApps & the folder is called something like Cortana_<randomstring>, the name may be different on each system but it will always start with Cortana_

 

2 - Rename this folder, say with a .BAK extension so you can put it back later if something you need breaks, this will fail as the process is running but you'll get a popup asking you if you want to retry.

 

3 - Leave the rename popup open, start the task manager, find the Cortana process & kill it, Cortana will respawn, but it takes a few seconds, so quickly switch back to the rename window and click yes, as Cortana isn't open yet the folder should rename, once it's renamed Cortana won't restart because the system can't find it.

 

You may need to take ownership of the Cortana folder to be allowed to rename it, don't think I had to.

 

This worked on a windows tablet that decided to load Cortana every time after an update from M$, the tablet still works ok Cortana hasn't reappeared.

[esme]

Windows event logs

 

You may or may not know but windows has an event logging system, on Win7 you can find the event viewer through

 

Control panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

 

Now originally, windows had 4 logs named something like Application, Security, Setup & System and this was fine it's perfectly adequate for a technical person to find problems with your system.

 

However around about Win7 Microsoft decided to expand this system dramatically and introduce a category called "Applications and Services Logs"

 

In the event viewer, open "Applications and Services Logs", you may see a few actual logs but you'll also see a folder called Microsoft, open that and you'll see a folder called Windows, open that & you get a list of about 50 different folders all of which contain different log files, some contain a single log, some contain several

 

Nearly all of these log files are active, quite a few have something in them and take up space on your system and I have never needed anything in them nor do I know anyone who has, the original set of 4 log files still being perfectly adequate

 

So if you have the patience open each of these folders, right click the log, select properties, clear the log without saving it & then disable logging, you'll free up a fair bit of space & reduce the amount of time your system spends writing to the disk

 

Alternatively if you know a way of wiping and disabling all of them in one pass I'd be forever in your debt

Edited November 17, 2016 by esme

[stumpy]

on windows 10, its right click on start (windows icon) select 'event viewer' from menu