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Windows 8 To Include Built-in Reset, Refresh
MrSeb writes "Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, will provide push-button Reset and Refresh in Windows 8. Reset will restore a Windows 8 PC to its stock, fresh-from-the-factory state; Refresh will reinstall Windows 8, but keep your documents and installed Metro apps in tact. For the power users, Windows 8 will include a new tool called recimg.exe, which allows you to create a hard drive image that Refresh will use (you can install all of your Desktop apps, tweak all your settings, run recimg.exe... and then, when you Refresh, you'll be handed a clean, ready-to-go computer). Reset and Refresh are obviously tablety features that Windows 8 will need to compete against iOS and Android — but considering Windows' malware magnetism and the number of times I've had to schlep over to my mother's house with a Windows CD... these features should be very welcome on the desktop, too."
"these features should be very welcome on the desktop, too."
Yeah, until someone writes a malware which cracks open the stored image file and inserts itself. You can reset your infection with the rest of Windows!
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
...with one line of bash script. On my XP machine, there are three partitions: for Windows, software, and documents (Think /bin, /usr, /home) The Linux side has a zip archive of the windows partition. When I want to restore WIndows, I boot into Linux and run unzip and just overwrite the whole partition.
What I'd like to see is OS on a chip.
Two stages - Core OS chip so is need to absolutely 100% load a factory image, that is it. No ability to write to this chip at all.
Secondary chip - More like a bios chip. Can be modified to load patches kernels etc. So if you've "updated" windows, it flashes it with the updates which load ontop of the core chip. Still could be very fast.
Then your hard drive loads all third party software / addons / documents.
I think it'd be exceptionally fast, not perfect but a much more secure setup (As you can flash the modded update chip or reset it to factor using the core chip)
and a marvel in technology.
Finally, a valid complaint on this topic, instead of an "It is made by MS, so I'm gonna bitch!"
My first thought reading the article was "If I were writing malware, my first goal would to be infect those files!"
Actually, I've had the same issue with install partitions that many vendors use on their computers - what will keep malware vendors from mucking those up, and screwing up future installs?
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Sounds exactly like what he was just saying about general purpose computing ....
Can't there be a viable middle-ground though? Why is it always framed as a free and open "general purpose" system, vs. a walled-garden model?
All many of us desire is a full-blown mainstream OS that's hardened enough against malware and virus threats so things like "clicking the wrong ad banner" on some website aren't enough to take the system down.
If users flock to walled gardens with locked down boot-loaders, it's not really the fault of the "computer-savvy user" who cast blame on them, so much as it's a failure of the developers of said mainstream OS's to succeed in meeting these requirements.