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Windows 10


alt3rn1ty

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If you do not want the upgrade for any reason :
 
If you are on Win 7 or 8 / 8.1 - Just use Never10
 

Have a listen to the video here https://twit.tv/show...autostart=false

 

Go to 1:08:25 ish ( or go to 1:17:50 to skip the history of how it came about ), and listen .. Theres a bit more to this than just setting a registry key.

 

Dont be surprised if you run Never10, click a button, and thats it. He programs in assembler, so these kind of tools he does occasionally are small and very quick at what they do. Never10 first ensures the necessary windows update is in place, if not it gets a windows update package to download and install, and then sets a couple of necessary registry keys, then sets privileges on them so that only Never10 can undo the change ( even windows will be prevented from altering them afterwards ).

 

Never10 is a far better way of preventing Win 10 happening ( than the old suggestions of preventing some windows updates ). If GWX sees these changes and has already downloaded 3gb of Windows files for the pending update .. GWX honours the settings and deletes the now redundant 3gb of files, so you clear up some HD space being hogged too.

 

BUT ALSO NOTE : WINDOWS FREE UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10 ENDS 30th JULY 2016. YOU CAN DELAY IT INDEFINITELY WITH NEVER10, BUT REMEMBER AFTER THAT DATE SHOULD YOU WISH TO UPGRADE THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. SO IF YOU WISH TO TAKE YOUR WINDOWS 7 UP TO ITS END OF LIFE ( CIRCA 2020 ) WHEN MICROSOFT DROP SUPPORTING THAT OS, THEN YOU WOULD HAVE TO BUY A NEW WINDOWS SETUP.

 
 
If you have Win 10 - More info since Win 10 released
 
A lot of the following is about Privacy - But dont go to sleep yet ..
 
Performance of your machine will benefit greatly aswell
 
 
Just been having a good look at the How-To-Geek site, and see what he has covered so far ..
.. Its pretty good :
 
When installing Windows 10
 
Highly recommend NOT accepting windows Express settings when Win 10 installs, use Custom instead
 
Dont enter or create a Microsoft account, you will be offered to use a Local account instead
It's strongly recommended to use a local account with Windows 10.
You can do it while the "Make it yours" screen appears by clicking "Skip this step". After that it's safe to follow instructions.
For creating Local accounts after installation ( for other users of the same machine ) :
 
Something many people never look into, but with the new OS you are well advised to
 
Maybe you have noticed your internet slowed down a little since installing Win 10
A lot of the above are going to affect that, but also ...
 
A few more tips along the same lines as the above :
 
Right click your Start Button
Now you can select the old Control Panel which has a lot more options to look into especially in classic mode
Such as the new Flash Player settings manager ( and I think going through the old control panel is the only way you will be able to access this )
 
Theres a whole heap of stuff the Right click menu opens, have fun being nosy
 
The following will stop cloud services .. And it would have to be restarted via the Services manager ( type Services.msc in Start Menu / All Apps / Windows System / Run ) - If you are happy with that :
In the SysTray ( bottom right hand side of windows near the clock ) click the arrow to open up the hidden systray Apps
OneDrive - Right click it, choose settings, go to the first tab and untick it from starting up with windows. Apply and Close the settings.
Then right click the OneDrive systray App again and choose exit
 
Also - Those flip-flopping start menu Apps, like weather and news etc - They are using bandwidth too - Right click it, "Turn Live Tile Off", then right click and "Unpin from Start" to remove it. Rinse and repeat for all of them and then go to All Apps and drag n drop some useful programs onto the tiles instead like Calculator, Run and Task Manager for example.
 

All of the above settings are reversible - My advice is to set everything to off, initially so that the horse does not bolt through the gate as soon as windows gets internet connection ( pretty much straight after installation ) .. Then you can allow things at your leisure as required and after you have had time to think about them.

People who upgraded from Win 7 or 8 will be worst affected by the data grab initially, because all of your accumulated data from the old OS including all your documents, internet history, email content etc will be uploaded to the cloud and scrutinised for advertising purposes gathering information about you, your habits, and your friends associations / influences with you. Nothing we havent seen before with various other things like facebook, but now its at the OS level so potentially a lot more personal.

 

If you are admin, on a machine with multiple users - Rinse and repeat all the above for each account .. Yes I know its a huge PITA, I just had to do the same on our family machine.
 
 
Reference all the Telemetry going on in Windows 10 ( and being back ported to Win 7 / 8 )

 

An old trusty name has popped up recently with a new tool :

 

Click >> Spybot Anti-Beacon << Click

 

Turns off the following ..

 

 


Spybot Anti-Beacon for Windows 10 is a small utility designed to block and stop the various tracking (aka telemetry) issues that come with Windows 10. Seeing the bunch of incomplete or broken scripts to disable tracking in Windows 10, and the tools that install adware or worse in exchange for their function, we wrapped disabling tracking up in a small tool that’s free and clean. With the upcoming news about telemetry in Windows 7 and 8.1, Spybot Anti-Beacon has added support for those as well.

Supported OS: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
 

 

 

Carrying out all the above will benefit performance of the machine.
( Yes, even in comparison to Windows 7 which I thought was pretty good, get Win 10 tamed and it performs really well )
 
Dont forget to install Win 10 compatible graphics drivers, more than likely your old ones became disabled and a generic windows one will be in use instead.
 
 
Edit : Found another site which includes a lot of the above, and will be getting updates as more info is found, it also has a section near the end reference configuring Edge out of its default state settings ..
 
Fix Windows 10 Privacy - https://fix10.isleaked.com/
 
--------------------------------
 
 
If you consider Adobe Flash to be a Security / Privacy threat
 
By default Windows ( Since Windows 8 ) installs Adobe Flash
 
Windows 10 Privacy options make no mention of this whatsoever, which is surprising considering how intrusive adobes spyware is, and how vulnerable it has made operating systems to browser attacks .. Historically Flash has been the number 1 vector quite often for malware to abuse and infiltrate peoples computers ( quite often competing neck-and-neck with the java browser plugin which java runtime used to install by default ), there was one zero day exploit quite recently which had been for sale to anyone who wanted a hook into peoples systems for over four years before adobe got around to fixing it.
 
Have a read of the following article on various methods needed to disable it
 
 
The only off switch in Windows 10 is in Windows Edge advanced settings, but that setting obviously is only for the Edge browser.
If you want to permanently disable this software from being installed by Microsoft :
 
1. Its in a protected system folder, so you will need to be at least on an Admin account
2. Even with an Admin account you will need to take ownership of a folder and its contents ..
 
C: \ Windows \ System32 \ Macromed \ Flash \  <<-- This folder
C: \ Windows \ SysWOW32 \ Macromed \ Flash \  <<-- And this folder
 
What we need to do is :
Take ownership of all files in the flash folder
Then delete them
Then delete the flash folder
Then create a FILE called flash ( so that a folder cannot be recreated, the file MUST NOT have a dot three letter extension )
 
So to do all the above, make a .bat file with Notepad, which contains the following
# take ownership
takeown /f C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\*.*
takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\*.*
 
# extend access
cacls C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\*.* /E /T /G %UserDomain%\%UserName%:F
cacls C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\*.* /E /T /G %UserDomain%\%UserName%:F
 
# delete
del C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\*.* /Q
del C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\*.* /Q
rd C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
rd C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
 
# create flash file, so that flash folder cannot be remade
copy /Y NUL > C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
copy /Y NUL > C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
attrib +s +r C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
attrib +s +r C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
 
Save it somewhere as PermanentlyDisableWin10Flash.bat
 
Now right click it, and choose "Run as administrator"
 
If you now go have a look in both Macromed folders, you should find a file called flash ( the folder flash and its contents are now gone, and windows will not be able to make a flash folder in future, so any re-install of flash will always fail )
 
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Wow. I wonder if that's why my system got super pissed when I pulled KB3035583 out. The other one is probably still in there lurking and I bet they need each other :P

 

Also they are damned determined to piss people off with this whole nagware thing. Never thought I'd see the day, but in the end not surprised either. Kinda makes me wonder how long it'll be before Windows 10 turns into a subscription model. Yes yes, I know. They keep saying this won't happen. Their behavior doesn't match their words.

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:) I have my Win 7 OS Disks will be on standby for the aftermath .. Kind of expecting something similar to the steam client, but desktop wide ads in your face with lots of opportunity for default installations at the touch of a green button seemingly offering something innocent with obfuscated descriptions.

 

They have played this kind of trick a few times in the past, when Flash was dominant and MS wanted a slice of that pie .. Silverlight was pushed as an Important update to windows - Even when you hid the update, forever after you could still get a reminder push, all they do is increment the update version, and it no longer matches the update you hid, so another instance of an important update pops up for the same software.

 

Skype ( The NSA / GCHQ paedos window on your kids bedroom ) has recenlty started getting pushed on windows updates too

 

Free OS = Watch your back for how they make money out of you in future, and who they allow into your home via machine installed devices ( webcam / microphone ).

 

I'm installing it to learn how to get rid of the crap my family will not want on their machines.

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Heh, well they can't spy on me since I have no mic or webcam to spy with. :P

 

But yeah, this whole adware/nagware thing is getting ridiculous. If you're gonna offer it for free, just offer it for free. Don't stick a bunch of crazy stuff in there to try and extract money. All that's gonna do is artificially extend the life of Windows 7, which is exactly what they don't want happening.

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I had positive feelings for win 10, but that nagware really is a low blow. I tried to hide the icon in the tray, but no dice. It resets itself to show on top after each relaunch. This indeed doesn't bode well for the final product and it's design philosophy.

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That nagware ticked me off enough that it ruled out any remote chance there was of me installing Windows 10 when it is released. Not really a good way to kickoff the upcoming release of a new operating system from a business standpoint either. I suspect that I will most likely be sticking with Windows 7 until 2020 when it loses support and will decide what to do when that time approaches. Nothing I'm seeing or hearing is very impressive and the interface looks awful (in my personal opinion).

 

And yes, I'm well aware it's supposedly only free for the first year which makes me suspect that M$ has something that they haven't told us yet (or don't plan to tell us) that is not going to be popular. This may come across as being paranoid or stubborn to some people, but so be it.  :troll:

 

 

 

If you do not want it for any reason :

Apparently there are 2 updates you need to uninstall to kill it, not just one : KB3035583 / KB2952664

Thanks for that information. I only killed KB3035583 and didn't know about the other one. It will die in :fire: now too because I really hate nagware, adware, spyware, or any type of annoying-ware.  :troll:

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I had positive feelings for win 10, but that nagware really is a low blow. I tried to hide the icon in the tray, but no dice. It resets itself to show on top after each relaunch. This indeed doesn't bode well for the final product and it's design philosophy.

^ THIS! So much this! If they're this damned determined to make people get it, I want nothing to do with it. It sends up all sorts of red flags for me about the possibility of unstoppable adware and nagware showing up in Windows 10 itself. Free? No. There's ALWAYS a catch. ALWAYS.

 

I think I'm with Pete at this point. I'll just bypass this like I did 8. As far as I'm concerned they've just violated their odd/even versions law. Butt ugly UI combined with all this crap you'd expect to deal with on a smartphone? No way in hell.

 

If it's possible to snag the ISO and sit on that during the free period that's likely what I'll do. Grab it and sit on it until forced to use it. Or maybe it'll finally be time to go linux and not look back.

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The way I understand it this free update is going to be the last Windows OS.

 

Windows 10, once you have it by whatever means ( new machine / exisitng 7 or 8 owners / bought ), will be the last full OS upgrade.

 

Thereafter it will be rolling updates via windows update forever after. There will not be a Windows 11 etc.

 


One other thing I have seen somewhere .. I think MS have been considering clamping down on the boot sequence, so much so that between the BIOS kicking the machine to life, every stage of software loading would be signed and encrypted, in a chain that would not allow for another OS being included in a dual boot setup. Basicly, if windows was installed, forget having Linux dual boot on the same machine, you would need another machine or just Linux and dump windows.

 

The idea being that at no stage during the machine booting would any other kind of software be able to get a foothold ( like rootkits before the kernel )

 

I do not know what the eventual decision on that will be.

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Just found out another not so welcome bit of news regarding Win 10

 

Ref : Features Windows 10 will remove when you upgrade

 

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/3881/here-are-the-features-windows-10-will-remove-when-you-upgrade

 

Note that last one ..

 

 


Windows Updates. This is the most interesting one. In previous Windows versions, you could control how updates were installed. But those with Windows 10 Home will have updates from Windows Update made available automatically. Only Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will be able to defer updates.

 

So no Important plus Optional and you get options to decide how things install .. MS decides completely what gets installed, no uncheck it and hide the ones you dont want in the updates, unless you have Pro or Enterprise MS has complete control over the updates .. And of course updates will be anything MS decides is an update to windows ( even though like Silverlight and the NSA / GCHQ security bypassing paedo viewer Skype they may not actually be updates to the OS )

True Colours of a "free" Win 10 starting to show here I think.

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It's so regular Joe User and grandma don't forget to run Windows Update and get the latest security fixes. MS knows that there will be holes in the software and this is their attempt to make the OS more secure for users that don't have the time or inclination to learn about things like we do.

 

I see mostly rumors and speculation in this thread and the links therein. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here that's actually been using W10. Instead of whining and guessing about every little thing, maybe you should try it (the system restore to previous OS works, I've done it twice) and see how things actually work. Just a thought.

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All well and good Mael, but seeing how Microsoft is handling this NOW, before 10 becomes widely available, is a serious turn off to any serious computer user. Their current behavior is sending up all sorts of red flags about what their future behavior is going to be like. I don't like where this is going ONE BIT. I don't need to be using 10 to know that nagware installed on 7 designed to force my hand is something I don't want.

 

Everything I'm seeing them actually do is just driving me even further away than I already was. It's basically turning into a case of sticking with Windows 7 until it dies, and then getting the hell away from Microsoft entirely if they haven't been called out by the time 2020 rolls around. I can't imagine they won't get called out before then.

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Hey Mael, since you did two up and downgrades already, i've got a question i never see a very clear answer for online. Is the update supposed to keep all our installed software, so we don't need to reinstall them? I've still got a bunch of software from university, that i may use as long as this PC works, but i may no longer reinstall it. If so, how good does it work? Also, redoing my skyrim install would be a nightmare?

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Even though it's probably not for everyone, I personally prefer using Linux exclusively. The distribution I've been using since early 2007 is Arch Linux; with it, I feel like I'm in control of my computer instead of feeling like I'm renting my computer. This is sorta the reason why I use my smartphone very little and why I'm personally not really into consoles. Something else I like about Arch (and is a popular trait of Gentoo as well) is that it initially only installs the minimal/base OS, then I can install further software/components and do further configuration to craft it into whatever kind of environment I want it to be. There is a bit of a steeper learning curve for people going directly from Windows to a distribution like Arch, but Arch is a great OS for learning generic Linux and the commandline.

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@Samson -- I consider myself a pretty serious computer user and I don't see a lot of what you think you're going to see. And I'm using the software now... Although I was going to update my desktop to see if it would give me the nagware and I forgot, so I'll have to do that.

 

@Gruftlord -- I lost nothing in the up, nor in the downgrades. All of my software was still installed, all settings were maintained, and all of my data was exactly as it was. I have no idea how they accomplish this magical thing, but if I had to guess, I'd say newer registry tools allow for direct swapping from one to the other. I'm probably wrong. :P

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you want a mainstream computer compatible with any kind of unneeded and sometimes unwanted junk? ... go windows.

 

you want a safe computer that puts the dress in the drawer and does as its told but isnt mainstream enough to have all games available for it? ... go unix.

 

 

edit: "a nerd's eternal struggle" in a nutshell <3

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Getting OneDrive D/L to work for larger files would be an improvement.

Just curious: Has anyone here successfully setup a dual boot for W8-, or even W7 with Linux or other?

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Win 7 x32 with Linux ( havent tried on the desktop with Win 7 x64, nor have I tried on our Win 8 x64 machine yet ) - Here's a forum and tool which may help if you have not seen it before - EasyBCD

 

Edit : This topic will also apply for Win 10 aswell as 8 ( note to self for when 10 installs )

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Just curious: Has anyone here successfully setup a dual boot for W8-, or even W7 with Linux or other?

 

I've installed Arch alongside Vista, 7 32-bit, and 7 64-bit; dual-booting with GRUB. Also, I've installed Ubuntu alongside 7 (32-bit I think). Almost always I partition drive and install Linux first before re-installing Windows.

 

Haven't even used 8, 8.1, or 10, much less dual-booted Linux with them. Though from what I've read, it seems possible to dual-boot with 8.

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Man, so much paranoia here. The "serious" computer user usually turns on Windows Update and leaves it running if they don't work in a corporate environment.

 

 

One other thing I have seen somewhere .. I think MS have been considering clamping down on the boot sequence, so much so that between the BIOS kicking the machine to life, every stage of software loading would be signed and encrypted, in a chain that would not allow for another OS being included in a dual boot setup. Basicly, if windows was installed, forget having Linux dual boot on the same machine, you would need another machine or just Linux and dump windows.

 

The idea being that at no stage during the machine booting would any other kind of software be able to get a foothold ( like rootkits before the kernel )

 

There's some malware that infects during the UEFI loop. Securing it is actually a good idea - it guarantees the base level of the OS is not corrupted.

 

 

Skype ( The NSA / GCHQ paedos window on your kids bedroom ) has recenlty started getting pushed on windows updates too

 

Free OS = Watch your back for how they make money out of you in future, and who they allow into your home via machine installed devices ( webcam / microphone ).

 

.. Microsoft sells internationally, you know. This is actually not something they want. As for nagware,  do you know how many people DON'T update even when advertised? It's annoying, but it's easily ignorable.

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Man, so much paranoia here. The "serious" computer user usually turns on Windows Update and leaves it running if they don't work in a corporate environment.

It's not paranoia when the company is actually doing the things people are talking about.

Plus, any serious PC user wants to know what's being installed. Blindly trusting Windows Update has proven to be a bad idea on several occasions. No serious user would be caught dead letting unattended updates get installed without their knowledge.

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After Edward Snowden Paranoia = Healthy Suspicion, dont try to play down what we know as fact these days by trying to make someone look like they just walked out of a mental institute, that corporate cleanup method on forums does not wash these days. Piss off back to your masters.

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After Edward Snowden Paranoia = Healthy Suspicion, dont try to play down what we know as fact these days by trying to make someone look like they just walked out of a mental institute, that corporate cleanup method on forums does not wash these days. Piss off back to your masters.

..yes, because I'm paid to clean up on a forum that has a readership of 40. This doesn't even pass the *giggle* test. (I also don't even work for a software company!) As for healthy suspicion - no, this is paranoia.

 

Plus, any serious PC user wants to know what's being installed. Blindly trusting Windows Update has proven to be a bad idea on several occasions. No serious user would be caught dead letting unattended updates get installed without their knowledge.

 

I actually do. Granted, it's bit me once or twice, but considering how frequently it updates, that's within what I'd expect.

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I think our readership is probably much larger than 40 :P

 

Let's not start sniping at each other over this either, ok? It's certainly not worth getting into a flamewar over something Microsoft did.

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