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Sorry for the (partially) offtopic reply, but I just saw your question about Trusted Network Connect here.

I haven't been hearing much new news about Trusted Computing or Trusted Network Connect recently. Ordinarily I'd consider that a good sign that it wasn't moving forwards, however it's looking more like a successful slow-quiet-rollout strategy. Both Microsoft and Google make the Trust chip mandatory on phones, and Microsoft has declared that it's mandatory on all desktops and other devices in a few months. all new devices and computers must implement TPM 2.0 and ship with TPM support enabled , starting one year after the Win10 release. (Apparently August of this year.) The whole design of Win10 is to force rolling updates. It could get ugly if Microsoft simply pushes out all sorts of Trusted Computing crap as non-declinable "routine updates".

The phone lockdowns are definitely leading the way. Microsoft says phone manufacturers must prohibit users from turning off secureboot, and it looks like Google is also enforcing enforcing secure boot which (so far) permitting you to then drop to an eternal-nag non-Trusted mode. Sigh. Not good. I wouldn't be surprised if desktops also use a transition step of enforcing an eternal-nag-mode if you try to opt-out of Trusted Computing. At some point support can simply be ended for the nag-mode option. Then there's no opt-out at all.

-

As a matter of fact, this can be done with Win 8(.1) too these days, even though I only did once: The laptop I am typing this on. Came with OEM Win 8, but I didn't want to use it, so I installed Ubuntu without making a backup of anything. Now, in order to secure the 10 license, I did a dd of the disk, installed Win 8 from the installation media I got from Microsoft and then upgraded to 10. After that, I did a dd in order to restore it to the original configuration. This way, should I want to give it away or sell it in a few years, I can give the future owner what they might want: Windows 10.

To get back to my point: Windows now provides usable installation media. No need for restore media, or hoping you find a OEM disk that works with your machine and key... There is now an official way, and that is the only positive thing that Windows 10 brought us.

Your Envy can be reinstalled from scratch if you are inclined to do so. Get the ISO here. Now, my personal opinion is that you're better off with staying with Linux, but don't kid yourself. You *can* have a clean Windows installation these days.

As a matter of fact, this can be done with Win 8(.1) too these days, even though I only did once: The laptop I am typing this on. Came with OEM Win 8, but I didn't want to use it, so I installed Ubuntu without making a backup of anything. Now, in order to secure the 10 license, I did a dd of the disk, installed Win 8 from the installation media I got from Microsoft and then upgraded to 10. After that, I did a dd in order to restore it to the original configuration. This way, should I want to give it away or sell it in a few years, I can give the future owner what they might want: Windows 10.

To get back to my point: Windows now provides usable installation media. No need for restore media, or hoping you find a OEM disk that works with your machine and key... There is now an official way, and that is the only positive thing that Windows 10 brought us.

Your Envy can be reinstalled from scratch if you are inclined to do so. Get the ISO here. Now, my personal opinion is that you're better off with staying with Linux, but don't kid yourself. You *can* have a clean Windows installation these days.

> They don't touch your personal files and they don't know what you do inside apps.

Ok, so first of all, here's the Windows 10 Eula. It points you to the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

And here's the document it's talking about:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

So, lets go into this a bit. First, do they know what you do inside apps?

"The data we collect depends on the services and features you use, and includes the following..... ...Interests and favorites. We collect data about your interests and favorites, such as the teams you follow in a sports app, the stocks you track in a finance app, or the favorite cities you add to a weather app. In addition to those you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites may also be inferred or derived from other data we collect. "

Ok, so AS EXAMPLES, they mention how they monitor and track what you do inside apps. THE STOCKS YOU FUCKING TRACK IN A FINANCE APP. That's their goddamned EXAMPLE! Like that's the least offensive thing they could come up with, or something.

It is unambiguous that they know what you do inside apps.

Ok, next point, and this one is harder. Do they "touch your personal files"? Lets look:

Well, if you don't turn off "Input Personalization", then we KNOW it grabs everything you type, write, and say. But lets assume you DO turn that off.

Under Telemetry, we find this (it's pretty big):

---"
Usage and connectivity data. Microsoft regularly collects basic information about your Windows device including usage data, app compatibility data, and network and connectivity information. This data is transmitted to Microsoft and stored with one or more unique identifiers that can help us recognize an individual user on an individual device and understand the device's service issues and use patterns. The data we collect includes:

Configuration data, including the manufacturer of your device, model, number of processors, display size and resolution, date, region and language settings, and other data about the capabilities of the device.
The software (including drivers and firmware supplied by device manufacturers), installed on the device.
Performance and reliability data, such as how quickly programs respond to input, how many problems you experience with an app or device, or how quickly information is sent or received over a network connection.
App use data for apps that run on Windows (including Microsoft and third party apps), such as how frequently and for how long you use apps, which app features you use most often, how often you use Windows Help and Support, which services you use to sign into apps, and how many folders you typically create on your desktop.
Network and connection data, such as the device's IP address, number of network connections in use, and data about the networks you connect to, such as mobile networks, Bluetooth, and identifiers (BSSID and SSID), connection requirements and speed of Wi-Fi networks you connect to.
Other hardware devices connected to the device.
"---

Hrm, that sounds like some personal files would be in there, but it's not quite clear.

There's this part:

---"
Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails in Outlook.com, or files in private folders on OneDrive), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to:

- comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;
- protect our customers, for example to prev

> They don't touch your personal files and they don't know what you do inside apps.

Ok, so first of all, here's the Windows 10 Eula. It points you to the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

And here's the document it's talking about:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

So, lets go into this a bit. First, do they know what you do inside apps?

"The data we collect depends on the services and features you use, and includes the following..... ...Interests and favorites. We collect data about your interests and favorites, such as the teams you follow in a sports app, the stocks you track in a finance app, or the favorite cities you add to a weather app. In addition to those you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites may also be inferred or derived from other data we collect. "

Ok, so AS EXAMPLES, they mention how they monitor and track what you do inside apps. THE STOCKS YOU FUCKING TRACK IN A FINANCE APP. That's their goddamned EXAMPLE! Like that's the least offensive thing they could come up with, or something.

It is unambiguous that they know what you do inside apps.

Ok, next point, and this one is harder. Do they "touch your personal files"? Lets look:

Well, if you don't turn off "Input Personalization", then we KNOW it grabs everything you type, write, and say. But lets assume you DO turn that off.

Under Telemetry, we find this (it's pretty big):

---"
Usage and connectivity data. Microsoft regularly collects basic information about your Windows device including usage data, app compatibility data, and network and connectivity information. This data is transmitted to Microsoft and stored with one or more unique identifiers that can help us recognize an individual user on an individual device and understand the device's service issues and use patterns. The data we collect includes:

Configuration data, including the manufacturer of your device, model, number of processors, display size and resolution, date, region and language settings, and other data about the capabilities of the device.
The software (including drivers and firmware supplied by device manufacturers), installed on the device.
Performance and reliability data, such as how quickly programs respond to input, how many problems you experience with an app or device, or how quickly information is sent or received over a network connection.
App use data for apps that run on Windows (including Microsoft and third party apps), such as how frequently and for how long you use apps, which app features you use most often, how often you use Windows Help and Support, which services you use to sign into apps, and how many folders you typically create on your desktop.
Network and connection data, such as the device's IP address, number of network connections in use, and data about the networks you connect to, such as mobile networks, Bluetooth, and identifiers (BSSID and SSID), connection requirements and speed of Wi-Fi networks you connect to.
Other hardware devices connected to the device.
"---

Hrm, that sounds like some personal files would be in there, but it's not quite clear.

There's this part:

---"
Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails in Outlook.com, or files in private folders on OneDrive), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to:

- comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;
- protect our customers, for example to prev

That's cuz you're not doing it right. Having dual 10GbE ports on each end will let you run SMB3 Multichannel for network transfer speeds that will outpace anything but the fastest RAID arrays. We're seeing real-world file transfer speeds of over 1.3 gigabytes (not gigabits) / second over copper Ethernet. I'm seldom a Microsoft advocate but it is awesome.

Microsoft already allows this capability, you need to search better. Here are the instructions, although I prefer these.

http://windows.microsoft.com/e... disagrees with you. Windows 8 is supported until 2023, as long as you have the Windows 8.1 Update

Microsoft marketing. Try checking the actually methods they use to track their operating system and you'll see the truth.

http://windows.microsoft.com/e... disagrees with you.
Windows 8 is supported until 2023, as long as you have the Windows 8.1 Update

Have you tried adding an account yet? I installed and couldn't add accounts. Ended up buggering it and had to reinstall Windows 8 and upgrade to 8.8 -- not that I'm thrilled about the Windows 8.1 GUI though certainly way better than Windows 8. There's a long thread about the problem in the Microsoft Community forums http://answers.microsoft.com/t...

You addressed the "no longer works" in your original post. They unhide it. I just replied without realizing you specifically mentioned it. So it's really no permanent fix. Especially if you want to hide/block all of the evil that is Windows 10:

KB3035583 – pitches the free Windows 10 upgrade
KB2952664 – is the Windows 7 nagware patch that touts the Windows 10 upgrade.
KB2990214 – update that supports you to upgrade to a later version of Windows Win7
KB2977759 – prepares system for upgrade to Windows 10, installs telemetry
KB3021917 – prepares system for upgrade to Windows 10 in Windows 7 Service Pack 1
KB3022345 – installs diagnostic/usage tracking service,
KB3068708 – installs telemetry service, prepares system for upgrade to Windows 10
KB3015249 – Telemetry, reports UAC prompt choices when making changes to the system
KB3075249 – Telemetry, reports UAC prompts to Microsoft
KB3080149 – Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry, CEIP

Source: http://answers.microsoft.com/e...

My guess is that it will use BITS to download in the background.

You can find this out using the BITSAdmin tool

End of extended support for Win7 is January 2020; Win8 in 2023. No one needs to be nagged for five years.

Except that MS wants to start gathering all your data *now* and Windows 10 does that.

ut if you do run an older version of Windows - one that's going to stop being updated - it's going to remind you regularly to upgrade to the current version.

End of extended support for Win7 is January 2020; Win8 in 2023. No one needs to be nagged for five years.

A different ORACLE_SID indicates a different instance. It's not because you use the same binaries that you're actually running two databases in the same instance. You can also install 2 instances of SQL Server on the same machine (few people do it since it's useless), and if you use the same version they will share binaries, but with SQL Server each instance can host many databases. Same for MySQL, Postgresql and others. One database engine, one service instance, multiple databases.

What Oracle is bragging about in 12c, it's been there in SQL Server and others for decades. The fact that it's "pluggable" means nothing.

Look at the docs for SQL 2005 (can't find link for older):

The data and transaction log files of a database can be detached and then reattached to the same or another instance of SQL Server. Detaching and attaching a database is useful if you want to change the database to a different instance of SQL Server on the same computer or to move the database.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

And now for Oracle 12 (PDB = the database, CDB = the instance):

By design, you can quickly plug a PDB into a CDB, unplug the PDB from the CDB, and then plug this PDB into a different CDB. The implementation technique for plugging and unplugging is similar to the transportable tablespace technique.

https://docs.oracle.com/databa...

They just use "plug" instead of "attach/detach" to make it easier for their bullshit marketing people to make it look like innovation.

C# is not worse than Java. Your two points are not shortcomings, they are benefits.

The dynamically typed var are not a problem, it is a solution. It isn't required to use. If you don't like it, don't use it. But dynamic variables are quite nice for two reasons:
1. The code is much easier to read with var than with overly long variables. Look at these two equivalent lines. The second is obviously easier to read.

                Dictionary> dictionary = new Dictionary>()
                var dictionary = new Dictionary>()

2. It allows for anonymous types, which is extremely useful in linq and makes creating a simply object easy without the hassle of having to create an maintain an object with two properties in source to be used once inside a single method.

Also, having to declare what exceptions a method throws is obnoxious and useless. In the end, it is time consuming with little benefit and a lot of maintenance time. Not to mention figuring out what exception will might be thrown by a delegate passed in has not been solved yet.

C# allows you to document exceptions with a standard comment. Comments are where this belongs, not in the code.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

But if you are an expert at Java, then C# only sucks because of one reason: It is not the language you are an expert at. ;-)

But it does not work the way you describe at all in regards to offline/online. Outlook simply shows you one years worth of email with this setting, period.

This is annoyingly useless for any user who even occasionally needs to look at older emails. To view older mail, you have to change the cache settings [...]

I don't experience this. When looking at the mail items in a folder (or a set of search results), you should see a link that reads "There are more items in this folder on the server Click here to to view more on Microsoft Exchange". A single click should redirect your search to the Exchange server and give you results across your entire email history. Microsoft knowledge base article describing this

Windows update error 9c48

https://social.technet.microso...>

Dealing with different versions but you should be able to modify the instructions.

What is actually happening is:

"Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates. Please visit the Internet Explorer Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ here http://support.microsoft.com/g... for list of supported operating systems and browser combinations."

So if you are running Vista SP2, which supports only up to IE9, you are still OK, it is still supported, as shown at the Internet Explorer Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ link above. Running Server 2012 (Not R2), then IE10 is still supported. Yes the article is valid for the operating systems they are referring to, but it doesn't paint a complete picture of what is going on for all of Microsoft's operating systems. Older IEs are supported for some operating systems, just not the two mentioned in the article.

Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical supports and security updates.

This would mean that IE9 will remain supported on Vista. According to Windows lifecycle fact sheet, Vista's support doesn't end until April 2017, and IE9 is the most current version of Internet Explorer available for Vista.

Nah, here's directions for Outlook 2k3 which is, S/MIME and I'm pretty sure it was available before that?
http://windowsitpro.com/window...

I didn't bump into it until later then you. Sometime in the late 1990s with some email app named something about a bat or something called Eudora (I think?) or something similar. I'd never seen it before but it was also in Outlook. Years ago, I used to participate and was an MS MVP in IE/OE, Shell, and for a couple of years, Office (which includes Outlook) which is why I sort of remember - except we also used it at the office and I had it configured in OE at some point back around those years.

Ah! Heh...

Here it is in Outlook 2000...
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

I thought I remembered it from at least that early - it may have even been in an update to an earlier version but I'll be damned if I'm gonna go dig it out.

I heard it stated by Microsoft's CMO Chris Capossela in the last Windows Weekly podcast.

As for Linux. Microsoft Azure officially supports several different Linux distributions.

"Applications can steal focus, so you can be full-screen gaming, and find yourself back on the desktop for no apparent reason."

Or **worse** you are composing and email/document at full touch-typing speed and a modal dialog suddenly appears (spawned by some other running program) and you will click "ENTER" before you can read it and have no idea what you just did, or where it came from.

Sure, if you type slow and only ever use one program at a time this won't happen to you.

The other major problem, which you allude to but don't quite address, is that the file Explorer is royally rogered and has major async/refresh issues. Here, here, and here.

See here (for those of you NOT familiar w/ it in code) provided it is a program that is (I haven't "RTFA" yet, lol).

* Extending myself "out on a limb" here as I haven't read it but I have messed around w/ it on job before & it works pretty much like what you'd HAVE to do for detecting fill switches etc.!

(No 'expert' here though - I didn't write Photoshop, you know?)

APK

P.S.=> It's got to be. I mean, bitmapped fonts are just pictures & this tech works on EXACTLY that detecting changes in color etc. or being populated etc. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-... ... apk

This has been the case since Windows 8 if you used BitLocker while logging into your PC using a Microsoft Account. It's not one of the newly deployed 'features' either, I looked into it when I was going to purchase a Surface Pro 2 a couple of years ago. The simplest solution is to log in with a local account.

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

See "How can I get my BitLocker recovery key".

Not the poster but it looks like Windows 10 still has the keylogger from the beta running which means ANYTHING you type, including with the virtual keyboard? Is sent home to the mothership, along with samples of your voice and your webcam. Which of course means using a MSFT account means nothing, as once you type your key and/or passwords they have them and can then sell them or do as they see fit.

Until someone shows a toll that can REALLY and truly remove the insane amount of spying, which as you can see from this partial list from MSFT is a couple exits past batshit levels? I'm advising my customers to treat Windows 10 like the only other software I deal with that phones home without user control...malware.

Fun fact: telemetry cannot be disabled in the Enterprise version either.
Set it to "disabled" and it goes to the "Security" level. Source:
https://technet.microsoft.com/library/mt577208%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

The only thing they should fix in Perl is support for unicode filenames in Windows platforms.

In the past, I could work it around using the Win32::OLE (with CP_UTF8) and the host scripting interfaces.

But if I recall correctly, with Strawberry Perl, in couple of cases, I had no problems with the unicode file names.

Or are we going to claim that every person who connects to a Windows server is a Windows user?

Can you imagine the extra licensing costs if companies like Microsoft or Oracle started counting users this way? We would have the world's first trillion dollar companies.

I assume you are being facetious? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/client-access-license.aspx

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Loss leaders to generate service revenue. Direct revenue from hardware sales is a drop in the bucket. That bucket is growing quarter over quarter, but so too is cost of revenue. Profit margins are low in hardware. But more importantly, and far more relevant to the "forced upgrade" argument: they do not sell PC's or server hardware that would be affected by killing SHA-1.

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

When MS shuts off SHA-1 on July 1st, Windows 10 will still be free.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

But with $15 billion invested in PaaS, there is nowhere to expand except by cannibalizing existing Windows Server revenue.

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Loss leaders to generate service revenue. Direct revenue from hardware sales is a drop in the bucket. That bucket is growing quarter over quarter, but so too is cost of revenue. Profit margins are low in hardware. But more importantly, and far more relevant to the "forced upgrade" argument: they do not sell PC's or server hardware that would be affected by killing SHA-1.

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

When MS shuts off SHA-1 on July 1st, Windows 10 will still be free.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

But with $15 billion invested in PaaS, there is nowhere to expand except by cannibalizing existing Windows Server revenue.

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Loss leaders to generate service revenue. Direct revenue from hardware sales is a drop in the bucket. That bucket is growing quarter over quarter, but so too is cost of revenue. Profit margins are low in hardware. But more importantly, and far more relevant to the "forced upgrade" argument: they do not sell PC's or server hardware that would be affected by killing SHA-1.

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

When MS shuts off SHA-1 on July 1st, Windows 10 will still be free.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

But with $15 billion invested in PaaS, there is nowhere to expand except by cannibalizing existing Windows Server revenue.

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Loss leaders to generate service revenue. Direct revenue from hardware sales is a drop in the bucket. That bucket is growing quarter over quarter, but so too is cost of revenue. Profit margins are low in hardware. But more importantly, and far more relevant to the "forced upgrade" argument: they do not sell PC's or server hardware that would be affected by killing SHA-1.

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

When MS shuts off SHA-1 on July 1st, Windows 10 will still be free.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

But with $15 billion invested in PaaS, there is nowhere to expand except by cannibalizing existing Windows Server revenue.

Considering MS is not in the hardware business

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

Considering MS is not in the hardware business

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

Considering MS is not in the hardware business

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

Considering MS is not in the hardware business

So they make phones, tablets, consoles, their own laptop, fitness bands and keyboards and mice but they aren't in the hardware business?

Windows 10 was free,

For one year and only for consumers.

and MS is betting its future revenue on cloud services instead of Windows Server licenses.

And yet those licenses are still a big portion of their revenue and revenue from that grew 6% just their last quarter.

Kind of like Continuum?
http://windows.microsoft.com/e...

Windows Live Mail is a surprisingly feature-rich and lightweight free mail client for Windows. I used it for several years before switching permanently to webmail. It's written by Microsoft and supports multiple mailboxes. It may even import your mail history depending on your export options.

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

To me, the most important feature of Firefox is the add-ons. I like Session Manager, for example.

Question about Firefox: Microsoft's Process Explorer shows that Firefox uses the CPU while no Firefox windows are in the foreground. Why? Firefox's CPU use is especially intense when many windows and tabs are open. Also Process Explorer shows that often Firefox continually adds memory to its "Private Bytes" and "Working Set", even when there is no Again, why?

Someone above mentioned Pale Moon. Pale Moon has a 64-bit edition.

Joke:
Instead of browser.pocket.enabled = false in Firefox, try:
browser.adult.supervision.enabled = true in Pale Moon. (Not a real Pale Moon choice, of course.)

Pale Moon has tools for backup and migration. Adblock Latitude blocks ads. There are other Pale Moon ad-ons, and usually Firefox add-ons work perfectly.

"Pale Moon Commander ... provides a user-friendly interface to advanced preferences that would otherwise require manual editing of parameters, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming to do."

It depends on what you mean by "Windows" (client? server?) and "by default". You can generate a mail CA certificate using Windows Server and then sneakernet that certificate to the machines of your communication partners. In an era of compromised X.509 certificate authorities and compromised participants in the PGP web of trust, nothing short of sneakernet is provably free of MITM. By "by default" do you mean that Outlook should default to showing a Big Scary Warning when sending or receiving messages to or from anyone with whom you have not already performed such an out-of-band key exchange?

http://answers.microsoft.com/e...

If his computer was made by a manufacturer which is still around, he can get a recovery DVD from the company for a small fee.

If not, see the section of the page titled "What to do if you cannot get recovery media from your manufacturer". Basically, you take a retail copy of the OS in question and delete a .cfg file. That will allow you to install the OS using an OEM key. This is actually a lot easier if you use a thumb drive to install the OS rather than a DVD, since with a thumb drive your can just delete (or rename) the ei.cfg file.

Windows users can download EMET to do this.
It's from MS and it's free. It lets you force a bunch of shit (like ASLR), lets you set up certificate pinning for websites (trust only certain certs or block specific certs), etc.
https://technet.microsoft.com/...

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

Windows 10 is Malware. "Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user." Will Microsoft top managers be the targets of a court case? Other spyware makers have been convicted. Will there be an anti-trust case against Microsoft's virtual monopoly?

Apparently Microsoft is moving towards these arrangements: With Windows 10, Microsoft has complete control over any computer connected to the internet, so Microsoft can use its spyware, which it calls "telemetry", to gather personal information to be sold to advertisers. Eventually there may be monthy payments to use Windows, as with Microsoft Office-365. Apparently Microsoft is paid by secret agencies of governments to steal personal information.

As many people have said, putting spyware into Windows 10, and not allowing people to know the purpose of "updates", will obviously be bad for Microsoft, eventually. So, why is Microsoft becoming even more offensive? It seems that the company is amazingly badly managed. For example, the cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (now replaced) with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

Articles about Microsoft abusing customers:

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying" (But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to avoid blocking.)

Warning, they are trying to sneak in yet another update to chuck Windows 10 down your throat. KB3112343 enables support for additional upgrade scenarios from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

Look for yourself. There's plenty. They all work great on mobile and desktop. I used the facebook, Netflix, Kodi remote, games...

Bunch of stuff that works great for touch and non touch.

It has nothing to do with Metro.

With antivirus you can almost always opt out,

First off they made a mistake as quoted: "this was a mistake and we are removing the check".
The only systems I've seen this happen on is the systems for which I had registered. I could not find anything confirming my finding other than my own experience with 5 PCs.

From the article:

Our own testing shows that, yes, the optional update is getting chosen by default, and that's not supposed to happen to optional updates.

For those not wanting to make the switch to Windows 10 just yet, all is not lost; the installer does require human intervention to actually proceed

So sounds like most here are crying over spilled milk since it didn't actually install automatically. People miss understand "push" with "force update".

For Windows, doing nothing was the right approach when the only alternative they came up with was to ignore the users and go full steam ahead with their smartphone like operating system

False, they used tones of user feedback as well as a voting system to decide what features to add, improve and remove. User feedback was a huge part of MS's success with Windows 10.

Microsoft has a very long history of removing options from users, each new release has less customization ability.

Also wrong. MS has been known to support legacy software and hardware for a very long time IMO to their own detriment. 16 bit apps are still supported in the 32 bit version of their OS and 32 bit in the 64 bit. There are banks and retail chains that run on 25 year old on Windows 7. So you claims of cancelling support is far fetched to say the least.

I've never seen any hint that they are willing to work with users except in the case of a major publicity backlash

It's ok that you aren't aware of the large support MS has gotten from it's users during Windows 10 BETA. This is where you get involved with any of their product. http://connect.microsoft.com/

They know that there is nothing useful in Windows 10 that anyone on Windows 7 or 8.1 would want (Cortana? Give me a break), so they are resorting to unusual marketing tactics

Better H/W support, better usage of h/w resources, better performance, much faster start time, integrated app store, Edge, IE support (for legacy), removal of the infernal Metro interface (available for those who like it or use a touch device). The list is actually very large. They finally removed Media Center and floppy drive support.

I don't mean to be rude but you appear ill informed on Windows 10. It's ok for you to hate it but at least don't make it blind hatred.

"They are getting the unintended consequences that any rational person should have seen coming a mile away. This is not going to go well for MS, and it would not surprise me if it ended up in court."

Will Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella go to prison? Other spyware makers have been convicted.

Will there be an anti-trust case against Microsoft's virtual monopoly?

Articles about Microsoft abusing customers:

Microsoft's Software is Malware. Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user.

How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again?

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

Microsoft Gave the NSA Direct Backdoor Access to Outlook, Skype

Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way.

Leaks show that Microsoft writes release notes, so why can't it publish them? The lack of documentation of Windows' updates is a baffling move on Microsoft's part.

Microsoft [lack of] Privacy Statement

Here's how to Block Windows 10 "Spying"

Removing the telemetry in Windows 7 and 8.1 is possible if you know what you're doing (unlike Windows 10, at least so far). See here: https://gist.github.com/xvital...

Thanks for the link. The recommendation to use IE9 maximum on Win7 is going to create some challenges once Microsoft officially drops support for IE9 in Win7 come January: https://support.microsoft.com/...