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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps On My PC Without Asking (howtogeek.com)
Chris Hoffman, writing for How To Geek: I'm getting sick of Windows 10's auto-installing apps. Apps like Facebook are now showing up out of nowhere, and even displaying notifications begging for me to use them. I didn't install the Facebook app, I didn't give it permission to show notifications, and I've never even used it. So why is it bugging me? Windows 10 has always been a little annoying about these apps, but it wasn't always this bad. Microsoft went from "we pinned a few tiles, but the apps aren't installed until you click them" to "the apps are now automatically installed on your PC" to "the automatically installed apps are now sending you notifications." It's ridiculous.
I'm sure its there, in the EULA we don't read.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If you are still using Microsoft Windows... I feel sorry for you.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
I left Microsoft for Ubuntu in 2006. I have never regretted it.
Download - Linux Mint
It UNINSTALLS programs without asking. About 3 months ago an update rolled out that Win10 said Quickbooks "Conflicted" with. So, without user interaction or ANY way short of pulling the plug to stop it, it Uninstalled Quickbooks from the users PC. Then did it to 3 more... Win10 Between the Spying "Metrics" it collects, and the Forced Auto-installs, and now it appears forced Installs, is by far the most "In your way" OS that Microsoft has ever produced. A STARK contrast to Even the Annoyances of Win7 and Win8.1.
Stop installing Facebook on my phone without me agreeing with that.
But you know what? You can uninstall Facebook app from Windows. Hell, you can uninstall Windows altogether from your PC and still have a usable PC. But I can't uninstall Facebook from my Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) and I sure as hell can't uninstall Android from it.
So who's the greater evil?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I haven't noticed this behavior yet and don't use any apps on my new machine. (Since it's new, it comes with Win 10. Of course, I'm using Linux for work.)
Do the apps run in the background if I never open them and use Classic menu? Do they show notifications if I turn notifications off?
I have the Pro version of Windows 10 and I haven't seen any apps appearing anywhere as of yet. I would notice if facebook suddenly showed up as I have never used it and never want to use it.
When you install Windows on a computer, it becomes a Microsoft managed computer.
You simply pay for the bandwidth, pay for the hardware, pay for the software, and Microsoft controls 100% of their computer that you simply lease, and use whatever Microsoft gives you permissions to use.
There is a reason Microsoft went from "My Computer" to "Computer", and it wasn't about people getting confused.
Thats why "your" files are in the Microsoft owned cloud, on a Microsoft owned hardware. You are just using a dumb terminal, and granted permission by Microsoft to use it.
The main issue here is that there are few repercussions for Microsoft doing this. With no suitable alternative in the marketplace for running Windows binaries (WINE is very hit or miss, OS/2 eComStation hasn't seen improvements in years), you're stuck eating whatever Microsoft wants to feed you.
We really need to update our consumer protection laws so that we can opt-out of shovelware. Even better, require us to opt-in. I've lost track of how many hours I've spent over the years removing sketchy apps from laptops and smartphones. Not to mention the extraordinary efforts I've sometimes been forced to take to do so.
What a crapshow this OS has become. I'm running enterprise and blocked windows update, but it still sucks. I loved win7, but if you want to play the latest games, and run the latest CPUs youre screwed.
Only apps can app apps, and Appsoft apping apps while apping other apps just makes Appdows 10 even appier! Only LUDDITES hate apps, because they're too stupid to know how to app apps while apping other apps!
Apps!
How do you mean? "Your Computer"?!? You misunderstand, if you run Windows 10 it isn't your computer. It's a machine you may be allowed to use, perhaps, and only the way Microsoft likes it.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I agree that auto installing or uninstalling apps is completely unacceptable. However, I've been using Windows 10 for about a year now and this has never happened to me once. Is there some hidden "stop being an arsehole" option which needs to be set?
What sort of "geek" is it, that installs Windows in the first place?
And, after they do, "blogs" about it?
And what sort of a "news for nerds" web-site publicizes such nonsense?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
On the bright side, its still not illegal to uninstall them... For now...
its not your computer it belongs to Microsoft, if lack of privacy and personal choice bothers you try a free OS...
A lot of people aren't paying for it. Loads of gamer types who build their own PC are using unactivated Windows 10, something they would have had to use hacks to be able to do with XP.
So MS have loosened up the rules on paying for the OS but at the same time monetized app auto installs. Consider. If you buy a PC it comes with a load of crapware preinstalled - Norton Internet Security, Anti virus and so on. Most of those are trials - after a month or so they prompt you for a credit card to get a subscription. Now some percentage of PC users will dumbly hand over their credit card, and some percentage will work out they can uninstall it and use Windows Defender instead.
So each machine with trial software on it will generate a certain amount of revenue for the software vendor. Which means the software vendor can pay PC vendors to install trial software.
People have argued that the price of the trial ware knocked off a significant percentage of the cost of a Windows licence in volume. The problem from MS's perspective is that all the cash went to the vendor and WIndows got poor reputation for performance because things like Norton Internet Security absolutely killed performance.
Now with WIndows 10 and push installs MS have a chance to get in on the act. Some software vendor can do a deal where they pay MS to push install their software.
PC vendors probably won't get to install Windows for free though - there's no reason for MS to allow that and it would kill their revenue. However people building their own machines will probably get to use unactivated windows for free. Possibly MS will segregate things so that unactivated windows will get software pushed while corporate machines where the company pays a per seat license will not. I.e. 'free' windows can be monetized in a way that doesn't require the users pay a fee.
Or maybe they'll sell Microsoft Insecticide
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
that you are owned by corporations, that's a fact and it's great that you complain about it but it is also useless.
Corporate goons are programmed to implement this kind of shit and the one's having to deal with complaints fear for their jobs if they miss-behave and criticize what is corporate culture if they are even aware of it.
Often they work out of sweatshop calling centers in far away countries and are not familiar with laws and regulations in "here" countries and need the income to get by.
What would be a fix? Change the school systems to foster critical thinking, but that would cut into the fingers the ruling force.... pretty hopeless that the current trend of increasing abuse would change.
And this time, don't check the "Enable Windows Customer Experience" box without knowing what it does. In fact, don't check any box you don't understand.
Yep, it's 2018 and 2 years and a half after release I still haven't heard or read one bit of info or news story about W10 that makes it seem like a good idea to upgrade.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent]
"DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures"=dword:00000001
"You should start your own cattle farm and slaughtering plant if you don't like antibiotics, growth hormones, rat feces, and rat poison in your meat."
"You should start your own automobile company if you don't like cars designed to fail at 150,000 Km."
"You should start your own pharmaceutical company if you don't like drugs with undisclosed side effects."
"You should start your own power company if you don't like the current rate structure or the polluting generation methods they use."
"You should write your own mobile and desktop OS if you don't like what's on the market today."
Sure, let me dig up a few billion dollars in loose change so I can go out and create those alternatives. Oh wait, I don't have that.
[libertarian-lifeguard-on-duty-swimmers-facedown.jpg]
This has been going on since the release of Win 10. There are various ways to prevent this for Pro and Home versions, but as soon as a service pack is released, BOOM, more ads, apps, and shitty games. (I mean, MS even fucked up solitaire.)
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
I tried installing Win10 on a blank computer yesterday and the BS mobile app game crap installed at the same time as windows update, there seemed to be an app indexing conflict on the app list, and when I rebooted the start menu wouldn't open. Even the app reset script couldn't fix it. I had to reinstall Windows and it happened again.
I play games all the time and noticed that Linux already has more than a lifetime of games. If you quit your job, eat no-doz for every meal and play games (and do nothing but play games) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you will die of old age before you finish playing games on Linux. Games are made for Linux faster than you can play them, and Linux isn't even the leading platform yet.
Worse, that's only desktop-style Linux distros, like Ubuntu. If you also have an Android tablet or phone, then you are truly fucked and have absolutely no chance of ever living another free hour of gameless life, ever.
I set a PC up for someone at work a week or two ago, the next day it put an update on and reset the entire Start menu tile configuration I'd spent about 15 minutes sorting out, so I had to set it all up again.
A couple of days later my Dad said "I don't know what happened to this laptop. All my programs have gone and I have to manually search for everything now." Yes, it had deleted all his Start menu, too. What a total F#'#'*&$£ pile of $#!t3. This should be illegal. If I went into someone's house and re-arranged their rooms without asking I'd expect the police to be knocking on my door.
I only moved to Win 7 because of the end of life with XP, but I can't see me moving off Win 7, ever.
Microsoft: You're still using our products in spite of a host of better alternatives, so we're going to cut costs by not buying lube anymore.
dump windows, and use Linux
just as soon as I can get Linux to be stable on this brand new hardware i am wiping windows 10 off and running Linux exclusively, i agree with you on windows, i find myself hating it more & more and especially since it has turned in to a platform to spam you with crap you dont want
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
A lot of people aren't paying for it. Loads of gamer types who build their own PC are using unactivated Windows 10, something they would have had to use hacks to be able to do with XP.
Microsoft is actually offering an incentive for some not to purchase Windows 10 since forced updates don't occur when you don't activate.
So the support will probably be better than for macOS.
But yeah. Still nowhere close to Windows.
But then again, that is not that bad, given all the demands that would have to be fulfilled, for that to happen.
Like basically Eternal-November-ing Linux. Ruining it for users who aren't clueless and need power and freedom. (See: Ubuntu.)
And like including a full digital restrictions management stack. From the hardware to the kernel to ffmpeg et al to the DE.
Remember that that entire "it is not your computer/device anymore" thing came from and was pushed by the media industry, to keep up the imaginary artificial scarcity monopoly that enables them to basically forever keep raking in their cocaine money without working for it. Even though *we* actually had to work for each of those dollars, and their employees also got paid only once for each hour they put in.
It does seem incongruous that MS has tried everything possible to get people to move from Windows 7 down to Windows 10, but then they do things like this which degrade the customer experience.
To everyone calling bullshit:
This really happens, but it is assumed that Microsoft is doing some kind of A/B testing, similar to when they roll out updates:
I've never seen it happen on my PC (besides Candy Crush, which I could easily delete), but on two completely fresh / no MS Account Windows 10 Installs at my in-laws. The following games kept getting downloaded and reinstalled. It was really without user intervention on a completely fresh machine.
https://i.redd.it/5uvjgiyc7l50...
It amounted to roughly 1,2GB traffic on a 4mbit connection. Only disabling cloud content via registry allowed this to stop. Uninstall led to reinstall.
"You should start your own cattle farm and slaughtering plant if you don't like antibiotics, growth hormones, rat feces, and rat poison in your meat."
Or buy from a company that doesn't do those things. There are plenty of organic food sellers out there.
"You should start your own automobile company if you don't like cars designed to fail at 150,000 Km."
Or do your research and buy a car that doesn't fail at 150,000 Km.
"You should start your own pharmaceutical company if you don't like drugs with undisclosed side effects."
Or you could just not take the drugs.
"You should start your own power company if you don't like the current rate structure or the polluting generation methods they use."
Or use alternative energy sources like wind & solar.
"You should write your own mobile and desktop OS if you don't like what's on the market today."
Or use a flip phone, or don't have a phone.
Any of these suggestions will yield better results than having the government interfere & probably end up making things worse. I realize though it's easier for some people to get someone else to force others to do what they want.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I just uninstalled the Windows Store in Power Shell and that fixed it for me, but then I had no intention of every use it.
Indeed. When the observable behaviour of your legitimate software is becoming indistinguishable from the observable behaviour of malware, at some point you have to look in the mirror and say maybe you're the problem.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Windows Bonzi Buddy Edition, aka Win10, is a slow-moving corporate suicide by Microsoft.
Some players find that particular aspects of some games reduce the player's enjoyment unless and until the game is modded. Of PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4, which PlayStation console supports community-maintained game mods? I wasn't aware of any.
Malware exploits for profit. Windows 10 exploits for profit and charges for the privilege. Malware writers, take note.
maybe you're the problem.
No, you're the product.
This type of thing is exactly why Microsoft did everything possible to get people to move to Win10. They intended to monetize it in other ways that would give them a steadier/larger stream of income going forward.
As operating systems get more stable there are fewer reasons for the consumer to upgrade while Microsoft still has the task of keeping up security updates, etc. Eventually this would lead to declining revenues and the inability to support future development, not to mention allow Linux to make inroads. By restructuring to a walled garden where they're in control of your system they can monetize the hell out of you, EULA away your privacy rights, and be laughing well into the future.
If Linux development can ever get it's head out of it's ass and focus on how to make it easier for users to recover from problems without resetting everything they'd probably have a shot at taking away a big chunk of users who don't want to deal with MS' new direction.
Thing is, the a11y hardware and software I require only runs on Windows.
Try this workaround: Ask an Apple representative what comparable a11y hardware and software is recommended for macOS. If you have done so, what was the reply?
If Apple refuses to accommodate your disability at a price, find a lawyer, as residents of some countries with a disability like yours may have a remedy at law against things like Apple's iOS Developer Program. Disability discrimination regulations vary from country to country. Some have stronger regulations than those of the United States, others weaker.
Indeed. When Microsoft downloaded 6.5 gigabytes of Windows 10 without even asking me first, that was when I said "no". When they re-enabled the GWX "update" (it was a "new version", so it ignored my previous "don't install this update"), I said "hell no." I now run Win7 (for games only) with updates turned the hell off. So far it seems I have made the right decision.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I tried that with Windows 2000; it didn't work so well when Microsoft took 2000 support out of VS. But now the alternatives (8, 8.1, 10) don't look so good. I'm sticking with 7 as long as I can, even if it means I have to look for used computers with a W7Pro license sticker.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Hell, you can uninstall Windows altogether from your PC and still have a usable PC.
That's true of select PCs. But good luck getting usable suspend on something like a ASUS Transformer Book T100TA after installing a competing operating system. From that page: "Closing the lid triggers automatic suspend to RAM, which causes a full freeze."
Or you could just not take the drugs.
That would be tantamount to suicide for many.
Or use alternative energy sources like wind & solar.
And what during a calm night?
Or use a flip phone, or don't have a phone.
The decline of payphone coverage in the United States makes only the former, not the latter, tenable.
Win 10 Pro on two Surface Books, and I've never seen a game or social media app appear, let alone send me a notification. I see a small handful of preloaded apps, that's it. My apps may have followed me from an older computer, but the OP is saying every new device goes through this, and in the last almost year I've certainly not had any unrequested apps drop in.
Most all those users have all been taken away already, by Apple.
Sure, theirs is also a walled garden, but at least the experience is user-friendly and not user-hostile.
Once again I've had big updates like that on my machines. At home I run Windows Pro and at work Windows Education and neither have ever done this. The annoyance for me is if I have left something running in the Windows Linux subsystem the job gets killed if the update reboots the machine. However, it has never installed any new apps or uninstalled old ones. Indeed in my experience the update procedure for Win 10 has been a lot less hassle than it was for my previous mac which would fail the update a good fraction of the time when told to do it at night.
It is called "Suggested Apps", and with one tic inside of settings, it is entirely disabled. Do we need an entire bitchfest for a simple optional OS feature that is easily disabled?
https://www.groovypost.com/how...
Is anyone sure this isn't some kind of worm or virus? has Microsoft admitted to it?
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
Any of these suggestions will yield better results than having the government interfere & probably end up making things worse. I realize though it's easier for some people to get someone else to force others to do what they want.
Not necessarily. Some of your recommendations can introduce issues of their own. Depending on a person's requirements, location, or income, they might not be feasible choices at all.
I'm sure there were butchers that sold top quality meat in 1905 before Congress and Teddy Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act. But how many of them operated in poor urban neighborhoods? What was the price premium due to their boutique nature and loss of economies of scale? How could you be sure that they sold person X the same product as person Y? The free market is not an infallible system.
There is a workable balance between regulation and free market solutions. It is naive to state that one is automatically inferior to the other. One has to weigh the pros and cons of each. I look to history and some of the crazy stuff that is happening in China to be glad that our regulation system has attained the balance that it has, even if it isn't perfect.
Have gnu, will travel.
This has been known since ~2016:
https://winaero.com/blog/fix-w...
TL;DR:
If a vendor wants to promote an app, then they pay Microsoft to push it to all Windows PCs.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
I shouldn't have to do this, but I run a powershell script on all of my new Windows 10 PCs to remove the bloatware. I'm sure this isn't a complete list, but it should get the vast majority of it.
(tip, to list all apps, use the powershell command: Get-AppxPackage | Out-File Apps.txt )
Here's what I run to remove obvious bloatware / crapware:
Get-AppxPackage *Minecraft* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *DrawboardPDF* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *FarmVille2CountryEscape* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Asphalt8Airborne* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *PandoraMediaInc* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *CandyCrushSodaSaga* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftSolitaireCollection* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Twitter* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *bingsports* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *bingfinance* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *officehub* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *BingNews* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *windowsphone* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *HolographicFirstRun* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Netflix* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft3DViewer* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *ZuneVideo* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *3dbuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Facebook* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.SkypeApp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *SkypeApp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Appconnector* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Wallet* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Office.Sway* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Zune* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Viber* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *MusicMakerJam* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *USATODAY* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Enpass* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Flipboard* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *TheNewYorkTimes* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *3DBuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Xbox* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *WindowsFeedbackHub* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Drawboard* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *king.com* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *MarchofEmpires* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *SurfaceHub* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *SketchBook* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *WinZip* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *WindowsMaps* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft3DViewer* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Print3D* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Disney* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *PicsArt* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Spotify* | Remove-AppxPackage
640YB ought to be enough for anybody.
Most all those users have all been taken away already, by Apple.
Sure, theirs is also a walled garden, but at least the experience is user-friendly and not user-hostile.
Microsoft is not aiming for the Apple market. Apple charges a premium and it's customers are the people who buy their products. Apple still does some lock in by making Apple products work best with other Apple products but the purchasers of its hardware are still its primary customer. Microsoft is aiming for a completely different market. Microsoft is trying to change to the android/facebook/google business model where it gives its product away for free. The end user is no longer their customer. Their customer is the advertisers, the developers, and the purchasers of things like Office 360. They have decided that there is not enough profit margin on the OS to bother charging for it and it's better to get the money from businesses than cash strapped consumers.
The only real problem with switching away from Windows is that the Linux community is almost as full of c^cksuckers as the men's room at the Republican National Convention.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yes. Not only is the behavior of Microsoftware just as unacceptable as the more typical malware, but it also teaches ordinary users to just click through and accept malware because it acts just like Microsoftware does. Microsoft is training users that malware behavior is normal.
I just don't get this. I keep reading (and hearing) people saying all these things that Windows 10 does without permission, like change settings, install Apps, etcetc... WTF are you people doing? Because I've been running Win10 for 2 years now and.. it never does anything I didn't tell it to. Ever. I don't understand, how are people getting it to do weirdness? I'm genuinely curious! Does Microsoft just 'sense' I'm a poweruser by what I have installed and leaves my system alone?
Or you could just not take the drugs.
That would be tantamount to suicide for many.
Aren't you taking your chances either way? If so, don't complain about drug side-effects.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
EOL Windows 7 RIP
Not necessarily. Some of your recommendations can introduce issues of their own. Depending on a person's requirements, location, or income, they might not be feasible choices at all.
That's always been the case, and always will be. Utopia's not an option. By and large, the market produces more and better options and reacts more quickly to consumer demands than the government.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Microsoft is not aiming for the Apple market. Apple charges a premium and it's customers are the people who buy their products. Apple still does some lock in by making Apple products work best with other Apple products but the purchasers of its hardware are still its primary customer.
Apple's products are pricey, but in many cases no pricier than equivalent alternatives. Just because a Lexus RC-F is expensive doesn't mean it's priced at a premium compared to a Honda. If all you're looking to do is fulfill a set of requirements met by the Honda, then the Lexus isn't targeted at you and would seem to be priced at a premium.
Microsoft is aiming for a completely different market. Microsoft is trying to change to the android/facebook/google business model where it gives its product away for free. The end user is no longer their customer. Their customer is the advertisers, the developers, and the purchasers of things like Office 360. They have decided that there is not enough profit margin on the OS to bother charging for it and it's better to get the money from businesses than cash strapped consumers.
Microsoft is reeling from losing its monopoly grip on the whole computer experience. They lost the server market to linux, they lost the phone market to Apple and Google, they lost the web market to Firefox (and then nails in the coffin with the mobile market needing to be served) and they lost the ability of Office to leverage lockin because of the mobile market being bigger and more useful to customers than the desktop market and their business clients basically laid down the gauntlet - work with my mobile device or else. Tie all that together, and MS is looking for a way to continue its current revenue sources even if it has to lower prices rather than lose everything to Apple/Linux/Google, which they were well on their way to doing.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Just think about it, twice a year we'll be getting these new and improved versions that are major O/S upgrades. I'm really done with Win 10, it's time to relegate it to a VM for those things that absolutely require Windows, everything else is on Linux including Host O/S that doesn't necessitate this twice yearly PITA.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
When the person having the problem only has two tools in their toolbox: reboot and reinstall.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
My wife’s primary computer is an iMac, but we have Windows 7 installed in a VM (Parallels) so she can run her sewing and pattern-making software. Given she doesn’t actually browse the web* or read email inside of Windows... I wonder if there’d be any harm in just keeping that VM on Windows 7 after 2020-01-14?
* She downloads her patterns and even software from the Mac side of things.
#DeleteChrome
Which btw are also very much resorted to by Windows users...
Regedit:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager
Set SilentInstalledAppsEnabled to 0
Done.
I had spent a bunch of time setting up the tiles for different applications to be organized in the start tiles. A while later, after a windows update, the whole start thing is back to default icons. All the work I did was wasted effort. It is not worth my time to set up the categories and pin the apps back to where I like them if it will all be undone again. At this point I would rather not have the start menu at all if it keeps being reset. I won't ever use the default crap, and stuff I want to use won't stay there after Windows decides to clear it out. So what exactly is the point of these great new features if they are not usable?
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Linux does make it remarkably easy to get into trouble that a lot more effort is needed to get out of.
1. A general example is GUI utilities which make modifications that cannot be undone with those same utilities. As in, distro-default config files have certain settings necessary to work with the distro, that are removed or overwritten silently by a distro-agnostic GUI utility.
2. A specific example is a mistaken chmod command. Everyone hopefully is careful with rm -rf * in the root directory, but less so about chmod. Someone who "innocently" chmod -777 -R's the / directory will have a fantastic number of broken commands as this wipes out the setuid bits of key system commands (including important ones like sudo, su, and the like... and I don't think logging in even worked except for root from the console). Yes someone has done this at my workplace, I had to restore to the previous night's backup. Fortunately the only person who's work was lost was the dumbass who did it.
Get over it, you don't get to control something that you only have a license to barely use.
just stop installing windows , plenty of better OS's out there
I hate to blame the victim... but you did it to yourself by continuing to use Windows after all this time and after all the abuse and after so many warnings. You really need to either stop complaining or switch to an OS that doesn't do crappy things to you like advertise to you on your desktop.
If Linux development can ever get it's head out of it's ass and focus on how to make it easier for users to recover from problems without resetting everything they'd probably have a shot at taking away a big chunk of users who don't want to deal with MS' new direction.
I have been lurking in a Windows 10 support group and ironically the most common solution to recover from an update that goes sideways is to completely reinstall the OS. That's on top of their feature updates every 6 months that practically make you reinstall. At least in Linux the problem usually can be isolated and remedied without even a reboot. With systemd however they are making inroads to be more like Microsoft.
I moved to Linux Ubuntu about 8 years ago, and have moved to Linux Mint when Ubuntu tried to force Unity on us.
All rather than suffer through the struggle of who "OWNS" my computer. I Win !!!!
Open Powershell as Administrator
Then run the best command ever
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
This is why MS was giving 10 away for free, often without asking. It's not an OS, but a Spam Engine, with an OS in it.
Table-ized A.I.
Where's the belly laugh smiley when you need it?
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
Apple's products are pricey, but in many cases no pricier than equivalent alternatives. Just because a Lexus RC-F is expensive doesn't mean it's priced at a premium compared to a Honda. If all you're looking to do is fulfill a set of requirements met by the Honda, then the Lexus isn't targeted at you and would seem to be priced at a premium.
Except it's actually a Honda with a Lexus logo on it. The gas and brake pedals and other controls have been swapped. The built-in stereo only plays music you subscribe to from the manufacturer. The industry standard butt interface (seat) has been courageously removed. You can buy an adapter or a wireless seat that doesn't attach. Each model year is a little bit thinner, so it's hard to get into it, and the gas tank gets smaller, so it can't go very far.
...then they do things like this which degrade the customer experience.
You're confusing "customer" and "user".
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
You seem to be arguing for less control of the system by the user. I disagree with most of that argument. Microsoft OS has many tools that can forshwangle a system if used sloppily, including trashing disks and registries, and files and settings. I'll give you NTFS is nice and stable for the most part, even compared to ext4. But the registry, the constant hassle , the constant cleanup operations and never-ending diarreah of security breaches of Windows has no comparison with any other major OS. period. For the USAF to boldly declare they are moving to the most attack-able and most attacked and most unstable proprietary Privately-owned desktop OS a major FUBAR for them. Long ago the Military should have made their own OS instead of relying on vendors to secure the nations military info infrastructure with buggy-ass consumer hacked up spaghetti-lasagna-meatloaf surprise for the blue-screen special.
So move to another OS like Mac, Linux, etc.?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
It's never been that way, you can almost always repair a linux installation without having to reinstall - and it's much easier to do so than repairing a similarly broken windows installation.
In both cases obviously you need to understand how the system works, which is also much easier in linux as you can read all the scripts and configs.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
And I suppose you buy all your performance parts at the local dealer?
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Not arguing for less control at all (especially if you read my first point). The difference is it's easier for a novice to royally screw something up. The Windows equivalent of my chmod command can also be done, but it requires clicking through a large number of hurdles before it will allow it to happen, any one of which will help the user realize "shit I thought I was just changing permissions on my documents, not all the system shit, lemme cancel out of this...".
In Windows (hell even the Server variants) it's a lot harder to click yourself into a hole you can't get out of without simply reversing course. In Linux it is easy to click into a hole that requires command line to get out of. A good example is the simple Nvidia utility that will rewrite your xorg.conf. Sometimes whatever it spits out can result in a system where GUI will not start. Or the GUI starts but the mouse doesn't work right. For a Linux novice this is game over, time to reinstall. Nowadays simply deleting xorg.conf results in somewhat of a safe mode for X, but this temporary remedy isn't nearly as obvious as the basic, plain as day "safe mode" prompt which appears after you frustratingly hard power cycle your PC.
As for security, the biggest mistake a Linux admin can make is thinking they can't get hacked. I've seen it happen, because Middleware folk never update their part of the stack because the process is more complicated on Linux than their brains can handle. Our Windows servers get hacked *less*, because the userland software on it actually gets updated, because the process is easier and less likely to break a working application. Part of that is the fault of companies like ...BM and ...racle. 0patch sucks on Windows but is a downright nightmare on Linux.
nuf sed
Table-ized A.I.
Use Linux.
aaaaaaa
But you can use such Hondux to get to anti-child-labour rally!
What is best in life? Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.
You remind me of a conversations I had with a friend several days after installing Linux on her laptop:
Her: "HoMM III keeps hanging every few hours!"
Me: "Didn't you have some problems with it on Windows too?"
Her: "Well, I couldn't start it..."
Later:
Her: "Why do I have to search for programs in this manager thing? Can't I just install them normally?"
Me: "And how did you install them normally?"
Her: "Well, normally! I search for them on Google, download them, and just, you know, install!"
Linux will never catch on for the masses, because if users are forced to do stuff like they do it in Windows they find it unacceptable, because it's too much work, and if they have to do it differently they find it unacceptable because they are trained to handle it Windows way. So - Morton's fork.
What is best in life? Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.
You know your OS sucks when your users need to go to support groups.
"Hello, my name is Steve..."
"Hello Steve!"
"I have been using Windows for 10 years... No... I am sorry, I can't make it, maybe later..."
"It's ok, Steve, thank you for trying. Admitting to yourself that you have a problem is the first step to recovery. We are all very proud of you, please let us all give Steve a warm round of applause!"
What is best in life? Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.
Most all those users have all been taken away already, by Apple.
Sure, theirs is also a walled garden, but at least the experience is user-friendly and not user-hostile.
Apple is selling the experience as much as anything else.
It's a culture. Or, rather, just a cult.
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
(Lexus is Toyota and Acura is Honda and Infiniti is Nissan)
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
Most windows users think Sudo is a precursor for making meth. They've never seen a command line and think the recycle bin is just as good a place to store stuff as "My Documents."
The typical windows user doesn't know what a "Web Browser" actually is, they just think they get on "The Internet" by using "The Winderz" and think it's normal for their stack of toolbars to extend halfway down the screen.
The typical mac user doesn't know much more than that either but they feel smarter because they paid more to get on "The Internet."
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
*raises hand*
I had to install a few packages on Debian to build a Javascript app with Babel and NodeJS. The build went fine, other than me having to install NodeJS Legacy instead of the regular package for some idiotic reason. A few weeks later, I updated the OS, and the project wouldn't build anymore since there were package version conflicts. I spent more than a day trying to update all the packages required for the build and... eventually everything was so massively broken, with conflicts and errors everywhere that I had no choice but to wipe out the OS, reinstall everything from scratch, install all the packages again and try again. Then everything worked.
Being only a casual Linux guy who runs the OS in a VM when I need it, I didn't bother spending hours trying to figure out what went wrong. 15 years of trying various distros has always left me running back to Windows because of crap like this (the kind of crap Linux people insist doesn't exist / is no longer an issue).
BTW, I'd really like to know why the Debian people decided to rename NodeJS to just Node. It took me quite a while to figure out why NodeJS didn't exist after having installed the package. Renaming the main executable for no damn reason will do that!
Most all those users have all been taken away already, by Apple.
Sure, theirs is also a walled garden, but at least the experience is user-friendly and not user-hostile.
Ahh, never used an Apple product then.
If there is a company that is more user-hostile than Microsoft, it's Apple. With Windows you can get shit done, it may not be pretty, but it gets done. With Apple you cant, especially if it violates Apple's idea of a perfect user. With Apple products, you're fighting Apple to get stuff done when Apple has not expressly permitted you to do it and they dont permit you to do much.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Ahh, never used an Apple product then.
If there is a company that is more user-hostile than Microsoft, it's Apple. With Windows you can get shit done, it may not be pretty, but it gets done. With Apple you cant, especially if it violates Apple's idea of a perfect user. With Apple products, you're fighting Apple to get stuff done when Apple has not expressly permitted you to do it and they dont permit you to do much.
This comes as news to me, having used Apple exclusively at home in our household for more than 5 years. We have no trouble getting anything done that we've ever tried to get done.
Can you switch to Linux?
For last 12 years I have been living in a parallel universe where Microsoft exists but not as a developer of an operating system.
...also, sun rising in the morning and water can make you wet. More at 11!
Let's see, so if a drug is keeping me alive I shouldn't complain about side effects? As in there are only two states, "not dead yet" and "dead", and the only important thing is what state you're in?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Is that like a "program?"
BTW, I'd really like to know why the Debian people decided to rename NodeJS to just Node. It took me quite a while to figure out why NodeJS didn't exist after having installed the package. Renaming the main executable for no damn reason will do that!
The Node.js folks also call the executable node, so, um, maybe they use Debian too?
Now, why is it I haven't upgraded to Windows 10? Oh, yeah, stuff like this.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
Actually the reason you can't really control Windows is because Windows is proprietary software. No amount of registry changes, config file changes, or changing one's practices with Windows will place Windows under the user's control. That's the same for any variant of Windows no matter how much one pays or if the software bears the name "enterprise".
Microsoft has a universal backdoor in Windows. Even disconnecting the Windows computer from the network won't place that computer under the owner's control. What the article complains about isn't new: tricking and forcibly pushing users into switching to Windows 10, privacy controls that ignore the user's settings and rat on the user regardless, and dropping support for processors Microsoft doesn't want to support instead of letting the users do the work are all part of the same theme—this is what non-free software can do.
Digital Citizen
Just let her google the program, download it and install it. It's pretty common for many Linux apps to have a downloadable installer. She might even come across installation instructions and read them. Why are you sabatoging your friend? You could have explained why an app manager is better, because, you're supposed to fucking show her some shit, not throw her in the deep end and fuck off.
What do you mean "let her"? There was no way I could have stopped her from doing that if she wanted to. Except she assumes, that if you need to read an instruction it's impossible and she doesn't even try.
And yes I did explain manger to her exactly as you suggest. Her only argument against it is that it's not "normal".
What is best in life? Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.
Thanks. I was wondering how long it would be until one of the c^cksuckers I was talking about put in an appearance. You sure didn't disappoint!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
i hate when these companies just go ahead and "decide" to do to you whatever they want. Anything to make a buck. Farcebook is just as bad...