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The MS lawyers would have tried to stop this. This will absolutely lead to a class action lawsuit [ ... ]

Uh, no. Microsoft's lawyers already have this base covered:

10. Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver if You Live in (or if a Business Your Principal Place of Business is in) the United States.

We hope we never have a dispute, but if we do, you and we agree to try for 60 days to resolve it informally. If we can't, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration before the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), and not to sue in court in front of a judge or jury. Instead, a neutral arbitrator will decide and the arbitrator's decision will be final except for a limited right of appeal under the FAA. Class action lawsuits, class-wide arbitrations, private attorney-general actions, and any other proceeding where someone acts in a representative capacity aren't allowed. Nor is combining individual proceedings without the consent of all parties. "We," "our," and "us" includes Microsoft, the device manufacturer, and software installer. [emphasis in original]

-- Windows 10 license "agreement"

Per Microsoft, Win7 isn't outdated until 2020.

http://windows.microsoft.com/e...

Your 2 cents aren't worth the copper they're made from.

you could arrange a form in seconds, and then double-clicking any element and you could program quickly against it

So you're trying to tell me that VS doesn't still do code-generation to build a UI, and that you can't quickly interact with that code generator to stub-in event handlers? So what the hell is VS doing when I double-click a UI element and it takes me to the event handler code for it? Is that somehow different? No? GTFO.

ODBC integration was "drop a database control on the form"

And it still is, except you're not stuck with just VB, but you can choose from any of several languages. VB is still available for those that like it, but that functionality is open to C# and F# developers too. Try it. Get VS2015 Community Edition, create a new WinForms project, and drop the DataGridView and BindingNavigator on the form. This is literally the latest version of the exact same ADO data control you remember from the VB3/4/5/6 days. Now double-click each of them. The DataGridView will generate a CellContentClick event handler and the BindingNavigator will generate a RefreshItems event handler in a related code file.

my first intro to in-execution debugging. The VB debugger looked like magic when it first came out, because we couldn't previously afford tools like that.

It's getting to be a tired refrain, but it still does that. It also does that for C# and F#.

And a manual that reminded me of those early computer manuals that told you EVERY SINGLE COMMAND in the language, full syntax, restrictions, examples, etc. It was great just reading through it and thinking "Woah, I can use that".

https://msdn.microsoft.com/library - It's far too much to print on paper anymore.

These things haven't gone away in the last 15 years. They've only gotten better. There are just a few vocal whiners that don't like change. Ignore them.

Seriously?
https://www.microsoft.com/inve...

More than 10 years ago, I reported the Firefox memory-hogging bug. That still hasn't been fixed. It's amazing to see Firefox taking more and more memory, even though nothing is being done with it. If a lot of windows and tabs are open in Firefox, Firefox becomes unstable and crashes.

Use the free Process Explorer to see the memory hogging. Mark Russinovich, the author of many free SysInternals tools, is one of the very few excellent programmers to work for Microsoft, IMO. (Another is the designer of the NTFS file system.) You can tell Process Explorer to replace the Windows Task Manager; that's a menu choice.

I followed the link because I thought it had information. Can an OSX or Linux computer connect to figure out what's in an update or not? I can't connect to any http://catalog.update.microsof... site, which is what the article pointed to, or even to update.microsoft.com.

As soon as you re-install W7 SP1, go and grab the latest WU agent-
https://support.microsoft.com/...

It takes away much of the pain in getting WU to even work on a fresh install. I mean ~2.3 GB of RAM just running WU?

WhyTF wasn't there a Windows 7 SP2 already?

Because they are required to provide support based on the release of the last service pack. If they called this a "Service Pack" they would be required to extend the End of Life date on Windows 7 which they obviously don't want to do.

We are going to get the non-security updates force-fed to us. It is all or nothing. You don't want Windows 10, but you will get the bad practices of it anyway.

https://blogs.technet.microsof...

" Also today we are announcing that non-security updates for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 (as well as Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2) will be available as a monthly rollup (fixes rolled up together into a single update). Each month, we will release a single update containing all of the non-security fixes for that month. We are making this change â" shifting to rollup updates, to improve the reliability and quality of our updates.

These fixes will be available through Windows Update, WSUS, and SCCM as well as the Microsoft Update catalog. We hope this monthly rollup update simplifies your process of keeping Windows 7, and 8.1 up-to-date."

Also note the part (not quoted above) where Microsoft states that updates will no longer be available from the Download Center, but only from the Microsoft Update Catalog. The Internet Explorer / Active-X only abomination.

Where did you find this?

I found a list of KB's _NOT_ included, and a .XLS list of the files in the update, but those were the actual files of the updates, not the KB-update packages listed here: https://support.microsoft.com/...

Took me 5 seconds to find how to do it! https://social.technet.microso...

Kindle fire has ads on its lock screen to subsidise the cost of the device so maybe windows 10 will only cost $50? (hahahahaha)

Using microsoft's windows only tool you can get a windows 10 iso from microsoft for free https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

It activates without question on bios keyed hardware.
Although it should still have the key printed on the label.

I still don't like it though looks too much windows 8 and a variety of features I use has been removed and one of the selling points cortana requires login to do anything.

In other words, the people who are going to get stung by this are the ones who have auto-updates on anyway. Since that's one of the major reasons not to move to Windows 10 if you're not happy to accept whatever Microsoft decides you should have, the people who feel that way probably won't have auto-install turned on for earlier Windows versions anyway and should be OK here.

Win10 on an Acer aspire switch 10 (keyboard detaches for tablet).
Only option is to set the update download time, when logging out the options are update and shutdown, update and something else, and sleep.

  I run a script that deletes the update files before shutting down (%windir%\softwaredistribution\download) problem solved.
The script I use is modified a bit from the one found here http://answers.microsoft.com/e...

I'm going to use Xeoron's advice above and go with GRC.com, Gibson has taken care of me for long time now (Shields up, DNS benchmark, and articles).

Oh ya, note: after I get a 3TB internal hard drive handled Linux KDE will be installed on my main system to dual with Windows 7.

Something is wrong with this story, because the above makes no sense. More likely you have an infected computer or someone else played with it or you don't know what you're doing. Windows 7/8 upgrades to 10 don't change or insert passwords.

If I recall correctly there's a feature to log on automatically, so if Windows 10 reverts to asking for that password you set once long, long ago when you installed it that might be practically equivalent to being locked out.

I'm more interested to know how the article writer and the 'editor' both managed to somehow think that there are four months between May 15th and July 29th.

(it's why IE always has to move files when its done downloading - the file save dialog is done by a higher integrity process, and the file is downloaded to a temporary location first (the only writable area a low integrity process has) and moved by the higher integrity process.

Do you have any links on that? That is interesting. I'm running process explorer now to try and see how that works...

The developer documentation on low integrity IE is at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

More details on process explorer seeing IE - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

It's not perfect - there are known escape mechanisms, but the idea is pretty sound.

https://www.blackhat.com/docs/...

https://www.blackhat.com/docs/...

I believe Chrome also uses this mechanism when available (for Chrome, now always since XP support is dropped).

(it's why IE always has to move files when its done downloading - the file save dialog is done by a higher integrity process, and the file is downloaded to a temporary location first (the only writable area a low integrity process has) and moved by the higher integrity process.

Do you have any links on that? That is interesting. I'm running process explorer now to try and see how that works...

The developer documentation on low integrity IE is at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

More details on process explorer seeing IE - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

It's not perfect - there are known escape mechanisms, but the idea is pretty sound.

https://www.blackhat.com/docs/...

https://www.blackhat.com/docs/...

I believe Chrome also uses this mechanism when available (for Chrome, now always since XP support is dropped).

Did you complain about the so-called telemetry in Vista, 7, or 8?

HELLLLL YES.

Do you complain about it Android?

There is nothing to complain about. Android is open source and does not have built in spyware. (Google play services != Android)

Or are you just focusing on it because Microsoft was the ONLY corporation that reworded their legal liability notices so they were written in plain English?

I don't think anyone gives a shit honestly.

I'm not defending them, I'm not saying it's an acceptable thing, but the fact of that matter is that this level of data reporting has been included in the three prior versions of Windows, AND is done in many other products in on the market (some to far greater extents).

Then what are you saying? That two wrongs make a right? That because someone else does it then it must be ok? What is your point?

The only reason people have this incorrect belief that Windows 10 is particularly bad (hint: it's not) is because Microsoft was up front about it.

I think the belief stems from reading Microsoft's own documentation about what the software does and reading their own privacy policies about what they grant themselves the right to do and simply objecting to both assertions and behavior as completely unacceptable.

One of the more comical examples. Microsoft Installs and enables a remote access Trojan by default with Windows 10 enabling MS to exfiltrate whatever data (e.g. content) they want from your system without your consent or knowledge. This seems so over the top that "particularly bad" does not quite do justice.

https://technet.microsoft.com/...

Well, that, and the fact that the outrage allowed a lot of "news" outlets to get away with blatantly lying about the extent to which Microsoft is capturing your data.

A more accurate characterization Microsoft's insanity reached a high enough level to make the news.

*UWP, sorry, Microsoft calls it UWP.

Windows 10 Enterprise Edition is merely a licensing SKU - it's never been immune, and is merely Win 10 + Certain additional features licensed. Enterprise gets features / updates in the same frequency as other windows licensing SKUs.

However, there are additional options. One also can choose the servicing frequency. Other than insider preview versions, there is the mainline release.

There is also CB4B (Current Branch for Business) which is only available on Pro and Enterprise, and it's merely Windows 10 lagging behind the mainline W10 release by about four months.

There's also the LTSB (Long Term Serving Branch) which is Enterprise-only. That one will be very slowly evolved and refreshed manually (annual or semi annually.) But LTSB will have a minimum feature set (e.g., LTSB doesn't have Edge browser.)

Here for more.

Doing this naively is going to fail. Assuming this is a full retail version, because technically you're not allowed to do what you want on a OEM or SystemBuilder version. "Techncially". So I am assuming a full retail version of 7.

What you want is using sysprep to generalize your system before moving the disk/image:

sysprep.exe /generalize /shutdown

When it's done with that, image and/or move the disk. You *will* have to activate.

Good luck

Actually, to my surprise, none of that was required on a Windows 8.1 system with a retail license. Replaced the 2007 era motherboard and processor with a current model and accidentally booted the system. The OS did the digital equivalent of "WTF?" and then started downloading the right drivers all by itself. Didn't even ask for reactivation. I was greatly impressed.

I'll image the Windows 7 installation I currently have and move that over to the new system.

Doing this naively is going to fail. Assuming this is a full retail version, because technically you're not allowed to do what you want on a OEM or SystemBuilder version. "Techncially". So I am assuming a full retail version of 7.

What you want is using sysprep to generalize your system before moving the disk/image:

sysprep.exe /generalize /shutdown

When it's done with that, image and/or move the disk. You *will* have to activate.

Good luck

Good news everyone! Downgrading your OEM install of Windows 10 Professional to Windows 8 Professional or Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate is still free! And will still be free after 29 July 2016.

https://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/what_to_do_downgrade_rights.aspx

https://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/downgrade_rights.aspx

Good news everyone! Downgrading your OEM install of Windows 10 Professional to Windows 8 Professional or Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate is still free! And will still be free after 29 July 2016.

https://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/what_to_do_downgrade_rights.aspx

https://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/downgrade_rights.aspx

It was a part of Windows Live, which contained a group of programs that were better than the ones built into Windows, that was upgraded to Windows Live 2011 and finally to Windows Essentials 2012, which you can still download and install today at http://windows.microsoft.com/e... . The 2012 version was pretty nice. Our shop used to install it on all the Windows 8 PC's that we sold. With webmail so popular we only load it when customers still on XP ask us to move Outlook Express over. Windows Live Mail imports the .wab contacts and the Identities email folders perfectly. Now, Microsoft had to go and break something else. They seem to be hell bent on moving casual consumers away from Windows. It really is odd behavior.

I will concede that Microsoft only support 8.1 (which is a service pack for 8.0), however mainstream support for 8.1 is January 9, 2018 (as per the Microsoft web site). I did not explain it properly however I did provide the URL for the Microsoft support information site. Even if you still had MS Win 8 you can still get a free upgrade to 8.1 see here so even though I was technically wrong in stating Win 8 was mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 there is no associated cost with upgrading to Win 8.1 and getting free "mainstream support" at least until January 9, 2018.

There are two types of support Microsoft provides for their operating systems, they are "mainstream support" which is free while "extended support" requires you to pay for it and somehow I doubt most home PC users would pay for this service.

No, that's still wrong.

17. How long do you provide security updates for your products?

Security updates will be available through the duration of the product’s support lifecycle (5 years of Mainstream Support or 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer, and 5 years Extended Support or 2 years after the second successor product (N+2) is released, whichever is longer) at no additional cost for most products.

"Desktop Operating Systems" falls into this category, and it doesn't matter if it's Home, Pro, or Enterprise.
Remember that Windows XP Home users continued to get security fixes until just a couple years ago.

I will concede that Microsoft only support 8.1 (which is a service pack for 8.0), however mainstream support for 8.1 is January 9, 2018 (as per the Microsoft web site). I did not explain it properly however I did provide the URL for the Microsoft support information site. Even if you still had MS Win 8 you can still get a free upgrade to 8.1 see here so even though I was technically wrong in stating Win 8 was mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 there is no associated cost with upgrading to Win 8.1 and getting free "mainstream support" at least until January 9, 2018.

There are two types of support Microsoft provides for their operating systems, they are "mainstream support" which is free while "extended support" requires you to pay for it and somehow I doubt most home PC users would pay for this service.

No, that's still wrong.

17. How long do you provide security updates for your products?

Security updates will be available through the duration of the product’s support lifecycle (5 years of Mainstream Support or 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer, and 5 years Extended Support or 2 years after the second successor product (N+2) is released, whichever is longer) at no additional cost for most products.

"Desktop Operating Systems" falls into this category, and it doesn't matter if it's Home, Pro, or Enterprise.
Remember that Windows XP Home users continued to get security fixes until just a couple years ago.

I hate to bust your bubble here but Microsoft only has mainstream support for Windows 8 (8.1 is a service pack) as well as Windows 10. Take a look here and Win 8 is only mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 which is not that far away. Sure you can get extended support for Vista, Win 7 and even Win 8 but you will be paying for that.

Actually, you're the one who has it wrong. Microsoft preempted the original Windows 8 release with the 8.1 release. They no longer support 8.0 and the 8.1, Update 1 release is the one being supported through 2023.

Think of if like Windows 98 vs 98SE.

I will concede that Microsoft only support 8.1 (which is a service pack for 8.0), however mainstream support for 8.1 is January 9, 2018 (as per the Microsoft web site). I did not explain it properly however I did provide the URL for the Microsoft support information site. Even if you still had MS Win 8 you can still get a free upgrade to 8.1 see here so even though I was technically wrong in stating Win 8 was mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 there is no associated cost with upgrading to Win 8.1 and getting free "mainstream support" at least until January 9, 2018.

There are two types of support Microsoft provides for their operating systems, they are "mainstream support" which is free while "extended support" requires you to pay for it and somehow I doubt most home PC users would pay for this service.

I hate to bust your bubble here but Microsoft only has mainstream support for Windows 8 (8.1 is a service pack) as well as Windows 10. Take a look here and Win 8 is only mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 which is not that far away. Sure you can get extended support for Vista, Win 7 and even Win 8 but you will be paying for that.

Actually, you're the one who has it wrong. Microsoft preempted the original Windows 8 release with the 8.1 release. They no longer support 8.0 and the 8.1, Update 1 release is the one being supported through 2023.

Think of if like Windows 98 vs 98SE.

I will concede that Microsoft only support 8.1 (which is a service pack for 8.0), however mainstream support for 8.1 is January 9, 2018 (as per the Microsoft web site). I did not explain it properly however I did provide the URL for the Microsoft support information site. Even if you still had MS Win 8 you can still get a free upgrade to 8.1 see here so even though I was technically wrong in stating Win 8 was mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 there is no associated cost with upgrading to Win 8.1 and getting free "mainstream support" at least until January 9, 2018.

There are two types of support Microsoft provides for their operating systems, they are "mainstream support" which is free while "extended support" requires you to pay for it and somehow I doubt most home PC users would pay for this service.

I hate to bust your bubble here but Microsoft only has mainstream support for Windows 8 (8.1 is a service pack) as well as Windows 10. Take a look here and Win 8 is only mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 which is not that far away. Sure you can get extended support for Vista, Win 7 and even Win 8 but you will be paying for that.

Actually, you're the one who has it wrong. Microsoft preempted the original Windows 8 release with the 8.1 release. They no longer support 8.0 and the 8.1, Update 1 release is the one being supported through 2023.

Think of if like Windows 98 vs 98SE.

Because people paid for those operating systems and expect full support for them for the listed amount of time. Give me a break, Windows 8.1 is essentially brand new and Windows 10 has no features worth mentioning that differentiate it from a Windows 8.1 service pack. Should they list their support as "supported until 2023 or until we change our mind"?

I hate to bust your bubble here but Microsoft only has mainstream support for Windows 8 (8.1 is a service pack) as well as Windows 10. Take a look here and Win 8 is only mainstream supported till January 9, 2018 which is not that far away. Sure you can get extended support for Vista, Win 7 and even Win 8 but you will be paying for that.

If you are a PC gamer then you either upgrade or you will not be able to play DirectX 12 games since that suit of API's is only supported on Windows 10.

Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 are competitors to Windows 10 which costs them more to maintain and with fewer monetization/expansion options, why would they do anything but encourage you to move to the new great future they believe they have created?

Would you rather have them try to update four operating systems, or just one?

Actually except for Windows 8 (8.1 is a service pack) all other versions of MS Windows are not mainstream supported unless you subscribe to extended support. You can check out which Microsoft operating systems are supported here . Even mainstream Windows 8 will be unsupported come January 9, 2018. So basically Microsoft is really only supporting one other OS version beside MS Windows 10 and that is MS Windows 8

Like it or not you will have to go to Windows 10 unless you give Microsoft the middle finger and install a Linux distribution or spend the money buying an Apple PC. Another reason to get MS Windows 10 is the fact that DirectX 12 only runs on MS Windows 10 so if you are an avid gamer then you either make the move or you won''t be able to play the latest DX12 based games.

Unfortunately the majority of PC users will either just upgrade to Win 10 or go out an buy a new PC which will come with (you guessed it) MS Windows 10 rather than install any Linux distribution. Of course those who build their own PC still have the option of purchasing Win 10 usually by "green parrot" delivery or by installing a Linux distribution.

What have I got? Well I built my own with the latest Intel Skylake architecture which is Z170 motherboard, Core i7, and DDR memory all with a Fedora 23 operating system and I don't miss any Microsoft centric software. I even have Android, Mint and SteamOS virtual machines.

It will be nice to not have to worry about my Windows 7 development machines not being turned over to the Dark Side.

Yes it is, however are you aware of Windows 7 support by Microsoft actually expired on January 13, 2015 and unless you have extended support which expires January 14, 2020 you are effectively running on an unsupported operating system. That may be fine for home PC users however it may not be all that good for commercial businesses. Actually just on curiosity what are you developing for since Windows 7 is not longer mainstream supported?

Take a look here for more information.

If you are an avid gamer then you will have to shift to Windows 10 since DirectX 12 is only supported on this operating system unless you don't want to play the latest MS Windows centric games.

...Because Office 365 hasn't colossally fucked ANY organization recently!!!

https://support.microsoft.com/...

And no Windows 10 isn't spying on you. It's been demonstrated numerous times that if you turn off analytics it's not sending home any data.

You can't turn it off. There is no off button.

https://technet.microsoft.com/...

There was one report where a moron saw his network card's repeated DNS requests and went all tin-foil-hat that they were nefarious. Sorry but that's how networking works.

There was one report where Microsoft said they will install a Remote Access Trojan on your computer by default and use it to download whatever data they felt like from you without your KNOWLEDGE or CONSENT.

https://technet.microsoft.com/...

But ignore all that... those documents were written by morons and are obviously are not credible.

It's not an evil scheme to steal your personal info.

Nag screens, forced updates, telemetry/spyware shit. Microsoft has literally become the Internet malware our friends call and ask us to uninstall from their computers.

And no Windows 10 isn't spying on you. It's been demonstrated numerous times that if you turn off analytics it's not sending home any data.

You can't turn it off. There is no off button.

https://technet.microsoft.com/...

There was one report where a moron saw his network card's repeated DNS requests and went all tin-foil-hat that they were nefarious. Sorry but that's how networking works.

There was one report where Microsoft said they will install a Remote Access Trojan on your computer by default and use it to download whatever data they felt like from you without your KNOWLEDGE or CONSENT.

https://technet.microsoft.com/...

But ignore all that... those documents were written by morons and are obviously are not credible.

It's not an evil scheme to steal your personal info.

Nag screens, forced updates, telemetry/spyware shit. Microsoft has literally become the Internet malware our friends call and ask us to uninstall from their computers.

Like this. Note that to change the registry key, you need to first take its ownership and then give yourself permission to edit it, while running regedit as Administrator. No more updates. Poof!

You are welcome.

It's easy and it works!
Google (Gmail)
Yahoo
Microsoft (Hotmail)

Click on the Support FAQ link and get a 404: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-...

What about AllowOSUpgrade in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade ?
This was the original, official way to control it. They then decided to ignore anyone who set AllowOSUpgrade to 0.

Then they put out the second piece you mention.
The registry location for this is DisableOSUpgrade in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate .
However the client needs a specific update installed for the setting to actually do anything. This update is not pushed out to WSUS servers, and thus is not pushed out to the majority of clients in a managed domain. It's only available via regular ass Windows Update. Further, there are no complete ADMX/ADML files available containing this definition so you can't set it via Group Policy Editor. They reluctantly put out updated ADMX/ADML files containing the definitions, but they were older, incomplete files. You have to take your existing policy definitions and manually merge the DisableOSUpgrade pieces into them.

<string id="DisableOSUpgrade_Title">Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update</string>
<string id="DisableOSUpgrade_Help">Enables or disables the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update.

If you enable this setting, Windows Update will not offer you an upgrade to the latest version of Windows.

If you disable or do not configure this setting, Windows Update might offer an upgrade to the latest version of Windows.</string>

<policy name="DisableOSUpgrade_Title" class="Machine" displayName="$(string.DisableOSUpgrade_Title)" explainText="$(string.DisableOSUpgrade_Help)" key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" valueName="DisableOSUpgrade">
<parentCategory ref="WindowsUpdateCat" />
<supportedOn ref="WU_SUPPORTED_Windows7_Or_Win81Update" />
<enabledValue>
<decimal value="1" />
</enabledValue>
<disabledValue>
<decimal value="0" />
</disabledValue>
</policy>

If you already have one of the GWX updates installed you're fucked. DisableOSUpgrade didn't come about until hundreds of millions of machines had already been infected with GWX.

The DisableGWX piece you mention is the official way to suppress the GWX dialog. It does NOT remove GWX, it merely hides the popup. Anyone who has GWX still has it, and likely still has Windows 10 downloaded. The upgrade procedure can be initiated without the GWX dialog.

On top of all this, they bundled Windows 10 ads into an IE security update. The ads allow users to initiate the update process, regardless of DisableGWX, DisableOSUpgrade, or AllowOSUpgrade. The only thing saving you here is making sure users do not have the privileges to run the EXE located at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us... . I believe this installer will look for the Windows 10 installer in the default download location that GWX uses the same way the official "Media Creation Tool" for clean installation does.

This means that if a machine had GWX at one point (and most Windows 7 machines have had it), it likely already downloaded Windows 10. Nothing you mentioned removes GWX or the Windows 10 download. A privileged user running IE will see a Windows 10 ad. In 3 clicks and just a few seconds, they can install Windows 10.

Yo

In principle, the state of USB power delivery is such that this should be doable(with an external dongle of some kind, if the phone has just one USB-C port and the headphones don't have a power plug you obviously need some additional hardware just to have somewhere to plug in the power); the ugly detail is that nobody actually seems to obey those specs yet(as the Google guy on a Quixotic crusade against dodgy USB-C peripherals has discovered you can't even trust a cable to not kill your device on occasion); and when it comes to something more complex like "connect to a phone's USB-C port, accept a DC input and pass through USB-C audio" your mileage will vary, probably enough to make shopping a giant PITA. Until that settles down, odds are that we'll see a lot of enthusiastic cashing in from phone OEMs on the fact that(while nominally 'standardized'/'standards-based') the market is unpredictable and untrustworthy enough that anyone without a moderately techie understanding of USB-C and a masochistic desire to shop by trial and error will basically have to purchase the accessory from whoever they bought their phone from in order to have a reasonable expectation of it actually working.

In the noble world of theory, USB-C can actually be used to do some really cool stuff(something like Microsoft's Lumia dock, while not known to actually be supported on anything except select models of Windows Phones, apparently doesn't require doing anything freaky and nonstandard over the USB-C connector); but the quality varies so widely, and the number of possible combinations is unpredictable enough, that it's hard to make use of the potential without getting burned by crap or sticking exclusively to first-party accessories.

*cough*Bullshit*cough*.

The entire reason for device and user CAL's is so that you don't have to buy both. Microsoft's own website even says so. They provide a handy "CAL tool" to calculate what you need.

https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/CalTool/

It plainly says that a user CAL "permits one user, using any device, to access licensed servers" (emphasis mine). "Any" device isn't the same as "any licensed device".

It also says that a device CAL "permits one device... used by any user, to access licensed servers" (emphasis mine). And again, "any" user isn't "any licensed user", or it would've said that instead.

You need either a user CAL or a device CAL to cover any accesses to a given licensed server at any time. If you have 10 accesses from 10 users, and you have 5 user CAL's and 5 device CAL's, you should be good to go.

The GP's company got screwed by people that don't know how CAL's work having to face-off against salesmen that know exactly how CAL's work and, more importantly, how people who don't know how CAL's work can be coerced into dropping huge sums of money to get out of what looks like potential legal action. But when was the last time a sales team actually brought legal action against a potential client? If you push back, they'll back off. They know it's bad for business to push too hard, but it's also their job to find out how hard is "too hard".

http://www.dshield.org/diary/W...
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/forgery...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/R...
http://www.microsoft.com/techn...
http://www.microsoft.com/techn...
https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/a...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/D...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/N...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/U...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/M...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/D...
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

APK

P.S.=> Next is GLibC faults, DNSAPI.DLL alteration attack, FastFlux/DynDNS attacks, DNS misconfiguration, DNS DDoS attacks, DNS amp attacks, DNSSEC fails, OpenDNS resolver problems, DNS IP spoofing, Ghost Domains due to DNS, router DNS issues, Rogue DNS servers abused, DNS serving up malware + SO MUCH MORE it will finish your DNS BS w/ ease - then it's onto Antivirus!

http://www.dshield.org/diary/W...
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/forgery...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/R...
http://www.microsoft.com/techn...
http://www.microsoft.com/techn...
https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/a...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/D...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/N...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/U...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/M...
http://www.dshield.org/diary/D...
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

APK

P.S.=> Next is GLibC faults, DNSAPI.DLL alteration attack, FastFlux/DynDNS attacks, DNS misconfiguration, DNS DDoS attacks, DNS amp attacks, DNSSEC fails, OpenDNS resolver problems, DNS IP spoofing, Ghost Domains due to DNS, router DNS issues, Rogue DNS servers abused, DNS serving up malware + SO MUCH MORE it will finish your DNS BS w/ ease - then it's onto Antivirus!

Since they took over for Nokia, their phones have just gotten uglier, too. I really liked the look of the 532, wish they'd bring that back.

"What, seeing the file disappear from one folder and reappear in another not enough visual feedback for you?"

If the operation is not instant then yes, it is insufficient.

"No, it was not. Hover over your selection, the information window pops up. Oh, look, length, file size, type, resolution if an image/video, etc."

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I was talking about having information reported on the selection, not individual files, which is what the tooltip will show. Information about the selection is shown in the "Status Bar" at the bottom of the window, yet in Win7 this is hidden by default. There is some more information about this issue here. It would be nice if there was information about multiple folders. Currently there is no way to learn the size of a selection of multiple folders in the Windows File Explorer. The only way to do it is to make a new folder, move your folders of interest into it, and then right click on that new folder and choose "Properties".

"Their file explorer GUI is absolutely incredible, for instance."

You're taking the piss right?

The file explorer is as simple and bare-bones as it can get, and yet it still has massive problems. These may not affect all users, but the forums are "full enough" to justify a fix.

File explorer refresh bug.

File explorer "finding items" bug.

File explorer slow to create or delete a folder.

These are really basic operations. The most frustrating is the refresh bug, and second to this is the slow response to move or delete a folder: it should be instant to write the inode and tell the filesystem that the folder is in a new location.

On top of these major issues, here is a list of features that would be really nice in a file explorer, and while we may disagree, I don't think these are power-user items:

1) Allow a copy/move operation to be paused.
2) Allow a move operation to be undone with visual feedback (hitting CTRL+Z will undo a move, but it's a silent operation)
3) Stack concurrent move/copy operations based on disk IO: in other words, if I am already moving data from a USB drive and then start a second operation, queue it rather than start it immediately.
4) When a copy/move operation encounters an error DO NOT FAIL SILENTLY. Anyone who has left a large network transfer to finish, and returned to no dialog and assumed that it finished, when really it failed and only some of the data was moved/copied, knows the pain of which I speak.
5) When making a selection, show some useful information about the selection, such as how many items are selected and how large the selection is. This used to be shown in the status strip in XP, but was removed in Vista/Win7.
6) Any kind of tool for mass manipulation of names.

OK, fine, some of these are better in Win 10 than they ever were before, but I think my point stands, the Windows File Explorer is just the simplest bare-bones GUI for manipulating files. And even then, it's not as bug free as one would expect. My understanding is that they fucked it in Vista with a new asynchronous model, which probably made heaps of sense from a code structure point of view, and probably improved network browsing no end...yet they fucked it, as per the infamous "refresh bug" linked to above.

Just so I understand Microsoft has a full blown remote access trojan baked into their goddamn operating system enabled by default to exfiltrate whatever MS feels like from you without your permission or knowledge.

https://technet.microsoft.com/...

They force updates and collect data from you without any ability to opt out but hey at least you can now doodle all over your screens.

Thank god we are starting to see a real uptick in people bailing on MS. They deserve nothing less than bankruptcy.

regsvr32 does not understand DLLs. scrobj.dll does... the contents of the /i switch are passed in to the DLL. Looks like the DLL is the one with the problem.Documentation

I expect most admins can simply block or remove the DLL with little impact on their system unless they are running some obscure program that requires it. Or, as another user suggested, firewall regsvr32 so it can't download files.

So basically the guy hat wrote the article had not read the TechNet article that Microsoft wrote about AppLocker's restrictions.
https://technet.microsoft.com/...

AppLocker rules either allow or prevent an application from launching. AppLocker does not control the behavior of applications after they are launched. Applications could contain flags passed to functions that signal AppLocker to circumvent the rules and allow another .exe or .dll to be loaded. In practice, an application that is allowed by AppLocker could use these flags to bypass AppLocker rules and launch child processes. You must thoroughly examine each application before allowing them to run by using AppLocker rules.