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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."
Next step is to have Windows 8.5 just auto-refresh every few months since Microsoft seems to assume you'll be doing it any how.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
How long until viruses inject themselves into this recovery image and get "refreshed" onto the new install?
Geeks don't grock information, they grep it.
"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.
Once malware developers get their hands on this, they'll be sure to find a way to infect the process such that their stuff gets "reset" and "refreshed" along with everything else.
I doubt it will be that useful to evade the really nasty malware, but at least it will provide an easy way for someone to "go back to step 1" with their computer after they ruined it all by themselves... or even someone who wishes to give it to a friend/family member/goodwill for recycling.
I suspect one of the main reason people throw away computers after they buy a new one, rather than recycle it, is because they're afraid someone else will see all their porn and/or "sensitive documents" that might still be hidden on the machine.
...about the innate instability of an OS, that they need buttons to reset everything back to bare metal
I have an idea. It's a little complicated, so stay with me now: if you use GRUB, don't hit the fucking button.
Could the submission be any snarkier? Malware is already a big problem on Android. I also think people underestimate Windows 8--as Google starts offering its own phones and tablets, angered Android licensees may be swayed toward putting Windows 8 on their devices. I just think you should never dismiss Microsoft.
"Sufferin' succotash."
...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.
instead of fixing the relevant issue it gets built in backup/snapshot ?
Sounds useful, as I currently keep them in old mayonnaise jars.
will reinstall Windows 8, but keep your documents and installed Metro apps in tact
I've traced almost all of my Windows desktop performance problems back to the registry getting out of tact.
Are there any actual human editors involved in the publishing process, here?
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
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.
... when you design your OS to require frequent re-installation.
After all, the only reason people buy a new PC these days is when the old one runs so slow from bloatware, adware, and crapware the user usually installs?
You might argue that Microsoft is set to destroy the entire tech industry if people won't buy new PC's.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
A button like that on Linux probably wouldn't be that big of a deal as it could just work on all the partitions except for /home.
Indeed. Reinstalling Ubuntu on my home systems means installing from the DVD, installing any updates and then copying over about a dozen plain-text config files... job done.
When my laptop drive started getting bad sectors and I replaced it, reinstalling Ubuntu and getting it back to the pre-failure state took about half an hour, whereas reinstalling Windows took three hours just to get to the bare-bones state _before_ I could install all the updates and reinstall all the applications.
Then its subject to corruption/infection. Also when your drive dies, you are still up the creek without recovery disks.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Everything that would be in "Home/" for a normal *nix install is in "Documents and Settings" or "Users" folder, depending on Windows version.
Except all the crap in the registry and in 'Program Files' and in... well, every other weird place Windows apps stuff their data.
It would be cool if Linux could read the restore partition, identify the hardware from the stored data, configure it self with the parameters that windows has stored in the refresh image, then build a custom refresh image from the data.
Then we have one button refresh to a Linux based system! No muss, no fuss, simple install at the push of a button.
But I bet Microsoft designs the image in such a way as to encrypt it so that Linux can not do it.
Yeah, I was going to say /var but also /etc and /usr/local and /opt...
I'm a Linux user. I'm a Linux fan. I'm a Linux supporter. I'm a Linux enthusiast. But I saw it too.
What's worse, I have seen where some apps want to install into /usr and places like that. And how does it work when you want to add and remove services and programs from your original distro?
One area or means of implementation that would make sense would be to essentially make a "live cd" of the OS layout and be done with it because that's what we're talking about. The OS can look for "updated configs" in certain places, but "if !(exist(config_file)) config_file=default_config_file" you know? Also, at boot time, "load default_configuration_database -> system_ram_disk; if (exist(updated_configuration_database)) merge updated_configuration_database, system_ram_disk.default_configuration_database;"
To make these things work, architectural changes would have to be made. But Linux is FAR more capable to those changes than Windows. Windows is getting better at that, but ... not yet. WinPE works though right?
schlep over to my mother's house with a Windows CD... these features should be very welcome on the desktop
I feel your pain. I quit having to schlep over to my mother's house every few months to reload/clean Windows when I installed Ubuntu on her computer 3 or so years ago. She even upgrades the thing herself now. I still have to schlep over there once in a blue moon but no where near every 3 months to re-image her computer every time she clicks on some stupid scam online. She did call me once after I installed Ubuntu to tell me her computer was infected but it was a Windows Exporer window that popped up "how can that be?" She don't have Windows Exporer. It was simply a flash video of an exporer window showing a fake virus scan in her Firefox on Ubuntu. She tried to click the download now button and the exe downloaded but failed to run on Ubuntu.
'Cause I hate it when my Metro apps get out of tact.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
The registry, outside of hives hiding in the folders I mentioned, are system settings, and the equivalent of what you find in the '/etc/' and '/usr/local/etc' directories, and therefore would also not be preserved with a *nix method of preserving "home"
Uh, no. The registry is full of user-crap, and it's thoroughly filled with app-crap which will require you to reinstall all the apps after reinstalling the OS... and unlike Linux that's not a simple matter of running apt-get, it probably involves finding CDs or downloaded installers and CD keys and activation keys and...
Likewise with "Program Files", the parallel to that stuff typically goes to */bin, */sbin, */lib, etc.
Steam puts most of my user configuration in Program Files. Pretty much any old game puts a ton of user config in Program Files. Heck, most pre-XP apps put all their config in either Windows or Program Files.
So, sorry, your argument really doesn't work.
So long as you live in a fantasy world where no-one runs old or poorly-written apps.
will never allow a consumer to Reset their computer to 'factory settings' unless it is their factory settings, will all the shovelware and 30-day trial bullshit reinstalled.
Given that, other than pushing a button instead of throwing a Dell/HP/Gateway restore disc in the drive, this 'Reset' feature is not a dimes worth of difference.
Dell, in its "infinite wisdom", have been providing both of these restore options for years now on a separate recovery partition. I am only personally familiar with Dell's, but I'm sure that other makers offer something similar. I still prefer a physical CD/DVD rather than a recovery partition approach... but other than that, I haven't heard much complaining over the past few years about this kind of functionality.
Microsoft takes an established third-party utility, and bundles something similar within Windows itself (as they do with practically every release)... and NOW this is suddenly a horrible idea and everyone is full of complaints? Hey, I'm hardly a Microsoft fanboy, but this is just childish. Where have the posts and the complaints about Dell been for the past few years?
without all the crapware? Now that would actually be useful.
As another poster pointed out, windows built in tools are total crap.
The first thing I did, when I got my new hp laptop, about about a year ago, was try to make an image with those built-in tools. It ran for hours, and I got all kinds of error.
Even if things seemed to go smoothly, how do you know if tyou have a good image? If you try to install the image, and something goes wrong, you are completely SOL. For that reason, I doubt many people try their new image until they really need it. If it doesn't work, you are completely screwed.
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.
How long it will be before this gets exploited like System Restore does.
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