Windows 8 and 10 have File History that backs up your data files automatically to an SD card, USB or network drive. Few people know it exists.
Data files only? That's like OS X's HFS+ File Journaling, only not as fine-grained. Time Machine backs up EVERYTHING.
In fact, you can literally take a bare, unformatted drive, boot an OS X Install disc/USB Stick, choose "Restore From Time Machine Backup", and in a couple of hours (depending on drive size), you will be EXACTLY back to where you were. I did it with a friend's iMac, and both of us were mightily impressed...
In general, this is current for how to make 7 and 8 safe for now. Remember that future kbs may bundle these or otherwise list then as required, or may have different telemetry. You must manually vet every kb to some extent that you install onto Windows from here on out, to make sure it doesn't add telemetry.
Thanks for putting that into the Thread. Easier for me to go back and find
Ewwww! Right...
So, I can't simply scan-for/remove these "Updates" and then turn my Windows Update Service back on? Sigh.
And people around here think Apple is Teh Evilz...
Too bad I work writing software for a place that writes Windows Applications. At least they humor me and let me keep my WIn 7 laptop...
At your own risk: ""My attempt to roll it back to Windows 7 resulted in the blue screen of death and a dead PC. I now have to reinstall my home computer from scratch because of this so-called 'free' upgrade."
Actually, though, System Restore Points used to be great but now are completely useless as they hose your system beyond repair.
Not to start a Platform War; but it's actually too bad Windows doesn't intrinsically have something like OS X's Time Machine.
Yes, you have to be using it; but you can completely restore an OS X system to a point in time with pretty fine granularity (every hour), even across an OS Upgrade. Several OS X users who were displeased with the latest El Capitan Update were able to "uninstall" it through Time Machine. Some even opted to go back to the previous OS version. In fact, long story, but I had a friend that reverted his El Capitan install back to Snow Leopard last weekend using Time Machine. Worked perfectly. Then he was able to move forward to the OS version he wanted to upgrade-to in the first place (Yosemite).
With your nic you might be forgiven for thinking that a "System Restore Point" actually did something along those lines.
The Rest of Us know better.
Thanks for the snarky, but uninformative, response.
And I am (rather obviously) no friend of Microsoft; but isn't there an "uninstall upgrade" that is offered for some sort of limited time, like 30 days?
Thanks for NOTHING, smartass. You were so proud of yourself riffing on my username that you completely ignored my question (Can you roll-back from Windows 10).
This is common across the ad industry now. Either a fake "X", that takes you to some shitty app or website, or the "close" button brings up AdChoices's "is this ad bad?" menu. This started back in the days of Bonzi Buddy, and is a common trick. Ad blocking extensions have stopped that problem on the desktop, but it is a chronic thing on iOS.
Might be one of the reasons why Apple is stopping iAd.
Nah...Going after the Windows 10 team would be about as effective as taking down the street thug running a loansharking op. The mob just pulled in more muscle from the streets of Queens, Brooklyn, Chicago...or Sicily if need be. MS would do about the same, albeit skipping the local streets and getting their thug muscle from India. Fighting the symptom but not doing a thing against the disease. A better bet would be using something like RICO to take out Nadella in about the same way they brought down the Gambino family.
Ok, howabout a nice Grand Jury subpoena for Satya and whoever is head of the "Windows Experience" team? THAT might turn a few heads...
Agreed. Fuck you, Microsoft. I had already trained my 9yo son to press the X to close the upgrade window whenever he might see it (he uses my computer more than I). Saturday morning, Windows 10 was installed. Goddamn it.
Doesn't Windows auto-generate a System Restore Point when you do an "Upgrade"/"Update"?
If so, I would imagine you can change your mind pretty easily.
It installs several background services without consent and even if you uninstall iTns, it leaves it there. It reports back to a central server the files on your computer and in some cases deletes your music. It occupies 100+MB for a glorified content downloader and often makes Windows more unstable.
I can see where he's coming from, even if it's filled with hyperbole.
If you count all the software that installs Services (which are "background" pretty much by definition; so your characterization is unnecessary and redundant), you would likely be surprised. I believe that in the case of iTunes, it is two Services: One that checks to see if you have plugged-in an iPod, and the other to check for Software Updates for iTunes, QuickTime and (when it was relevant) Safari.
That's not "several" it is "two". The Apple Software Update remains because QuickTime (and maybe Safari) remains. If iTunes Helper remains, then I will concede that is an Uninstaller-Script error, or perhaps a Windows Permissions Error.
It only reports your music files if you have turned on the "Genius" function, or if you have "iTunes Match" on. And it is very clear about that in iTunes Preferences. Plus you can disable "Genius" and not participate in "Match", and avoid the intrusion/data-leak.
It deletes your files: Well, the jury is still out on that.
Last I heard, Apple actually sent two iTunes Dev. people out into the field to study the computer and user-habits of the person who allegedly lost 122 GB of music files to iTunes (which by the way, they actually had a backup-of, so nothing was actually lost). One of the things they did was bring along a version of iTunes that had some extra debugging/logging built-in, so they can see what happens, if/when it happens again. So, if it is indeed happening, it CERTAINLY isn't Apple's intent, and they are treating the complaint as serious.
Oh, and iTunes is much more than simply a "Glorified Content Downloader". And I can't say that it has ever made any WIndows system I have had it on, some all the way back to XP SP1, "unstable" in any way. I have NEVER seen iTunes cause a "lockup" and certainly never a BSOD. I'm not saying it CAN'T happen; just that I haven't personally seen that with my iTunes-on-Windows, or with my Windows-saddled iTunes-using friends.
What's worse, so many things that it SHOULD be able to do, it can't because you have to unlock it first, defeating much of the purpose of using the digital "assistant," and there doesn't seem to be a way to change that in the options or settings.
Believe that most of your concerns have been addressed with iOS 9 and the iPhone 6s and SE.
Time marches on. Things (usually) improve. Do try to keep up.
Open API? Not good enough. I want to be able to have completely open Infrastructure under my direct control. Mycroft is the only AI that I'm probably going to build and rely on to operate my home. Why? Because if I'm going to have an assistant in my house, it's not going to be a closed box that someone else has the keys to with ownership over the hardware processing my information system. If I'm going to have an AI assistant, I'm going to be in sole control of the Hardware (on premisis), network infrastructure, and any APIs that operate the system. At least now I might have a use for my Tesla cluster that's been collecting dust (no I didn't pay nearly that much for the three of those).
So, that will be fine for you; but most people lack the time and/or the skills to make that a reality, even if they cared.
The summary didn't once mention the tech giant Google and their recent unveiling of Google Home.
The summary does mention Google Home. But this Apple announcement is way more interesting than the Google Home because it will have an open API. That will make a huge difference. A voice activated API opens up a world of possibilities. Google Home offers nothing new over the Amazon Echo.
Yes it does. Data mining.
Start talking about "new cars" around the Google Home "hockey puck", and I'll bet a ZILLION dollars that you will start seeing new car ads appear in web pages.
Apple won't do that. In fact, they have completely disbanded their only foray into that sphere, iAd; proving that they see absolutely no value in coming anywhere near the stinky business of making their Customers their Product. But with Google (and to an extent, Amazon), that is really their ONLY business.
Jonny Ive isn't Tim Cook's lover. That would be Eddy Cue. He even hinted at same at a Keynote, when he said that "Eddy wouldn't let me buy" a new set of Beats headphones. If you're gonna hate, at least try to make it "informed".
Sad to say that at Apple Inc. Cuper-town Infinite Loop Basement Bunker, there is no one who understands Lisp, let alone C.
You're not actually serious, are you?
So, the place that writes nearly EVERYTHING in a variant of C (Objective-C) doesn't have ANYONE who understands C? Is that REALLY your position? As for Lisp, I would bet there are some old-timers that have Lisp experience, and if not, Apple can have a team of Lisp-experts there with resumes in-hand in an hour.
It wasn't the UI. It was the DATA ORGANIZATION. Ya know, Artist/Album/Genre? That COMPLETELY UNIQUE method of Organization that NOBODY ELSE thought of?
MP3 Players were also fairly inexpensive, and you didn't need to have a Mac with firewire, and install malware to load your music onto them.
WTF?
FireWire I'll give you, sort of. But once Apple opened-up iTunes to Windows, they dropped the FireWire-Only interface, and of course the Mac requirement. Before that, it was a moot point, since EVERY Mac came equipped with FIreWire. Next!
But "Malware"? I know a lot of people don't particularly like iTunes; but calling it "Malware" is a bit over-the-top, don'tcha think, even for you?
Precisely. MP3 players were quite common, and Apple loved the UI of the Creative player, so they made their own and ripped off the UI. And then slickly marketed it!
Yeah, because organizing music by Artist, Album and Genre was SOOOO Unique and NON-OBVIOUS. I just can't IMAGINE how Creative thought of that, and I agree that PROVES that Apple ripped-off Creative. (Rolls eyes)
That was a bad court decision then, and simply parroting a bad decision doesn't make it better.
it took 6 tries, for siri to reconigize my voice, and give me a result.
One thing you didn't mention: What was the ambient environment like, audio-wise?
Speech recognition in the "real world" is QUITE a different problem than it is with a headset, or with your mouth a couple of inches away from the microphone in a relatively quiet room.
My feeling is that you had the iPhone/iPad sitting on the kitchen counter (itself being a pretty acoustically-reflective surface), and you weren't exactly close to, or "on axis" with, the microphone. Add to that that kitchens often have a relatively high ambient noise level, with "white noise masking" coming from exhaust fans, faucets with aerators, etc. Add to that the fact that most kitchens are HIGHLY echoic, with hard-surfaced walls, ceilings and floors, and you begin to see the problem. It all sounds like a big mish-mash by the time that Siri gets the audio.
Ever recorded a conference or meeting with a voice recorder? Notice how "reverberant" even what seems to be a fairly "dead" room is on the recording? Ever notice how much harder it is to pick-out what is being said on said recording, than it was when you were listening in person?
Well, THAT's what Siri is forced to "work with", ALL THE TIME.
Quite frankly, I'm often very amazed at how well it DOES do, given the audio soup it has to parse.
Next time, try bending down closer to the microphone and see if the recognition-factor doesn't go up dramatically.
By the way, these issues apply to ALL speech recognition, not just Siri.
Another nice feature would be to recognize individual voices of household members, so if my daughter says "play some music" it plays something she likes, and if I say "play some music" it knows I prefer Willie Nelson over Taylor Swift.
That's a move AWAY from "speaker independence", which has been one of the great breakthroughs in natural-language speech recognition. No thank you.
Not to defend Echo; but is it REALLY too hard to ask it to "Play some Willie Nelson"
Honestly, speech recognition is getting damned good; but CONTEXTUAL recognition is almost as hard, and an entirely different problem.
Slashdot Mirror
FIFYz! Lockz themz motherfuckerz!
Why, aren't you l33t?
Grow up.
I suppose one could make a page with a step by step screenshot if this isn't enough detail for you.
Don't bother. Other, more helpful Slashdotters were kind enough to do that already.
If you had bothered to read the whole thread before you posted your snarky response, you would have seen that.
Windows 8 and 10 have File History that backs up your data files automatically to an SD card, USB or network drive. Few people know it exists.
Data files only? That's like OS X's HFS+ File Journaling, only not as fine-grained. Time Machine backs up EVERYTHING.
In fact, you can literally take a bare, unformatted drive, boot an OS X Install disc/USB Stick, choose "Restore From Time Machine Backup", and in a couple of hours (depending on drive size), you will be EXACTLY back to where you were. I did it with a friend's iMac, and both of us were mightily impressed...
In general, this is current for how to make 7 and 8 safe for now. Remember that future kbs may bundle these or otherwise list then as required, or may have different telemetry. You must manually vet every kb to some extent that you install onto Windows from here on out, to make sure it doesn't add telemetry.
Thanks for putting that into the Thread. Easier for me to go back and find
Ewwww! Right...
So, I can't simply scan-for/remove these "Updates" and then turn my Windows Update Service back on? Sigh.
And people around here think Apple is Teh Evilz...
Too bad I work writing software for a place that writes Windows Applications. At least they humor me and let me keep my WIn 7 laptop...
At your own risk: ""My attempt to roll it back to Windows 7 resulted in the blue screen of death and a dead PC. I now have to reinstall my home computer from scratch because of this so-called 'free' upgrade."
Nice. Thanks, Microsoft!!!
Unlike with Windows 10, with Windows 7 you actually can remove the spyware. Check out this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmas...
THANKS!!!
Now was that so hard, guys?!?
So, if I don't have any of those "KB" files, then I never was infected with Telemetry?
Actually, though, System Restore Points used to be great but now are completely useless as they hose your system beyond repair.
Not to start a Platform War; but it's actually too bad Windows doesn't intrinsically have something like OS X's Time Machine.
Yes, you have to be using it; but you can completely restore an OS X system to a point in time with pretty fine granularity (every hour), even across an OS Upgrade. Several OS X users who were displeased with the latest El Capitan Update were able to "uninstall" it through Time Machine. Some even opted to go back to the previous OS version. In fact, long story, but I had a friend that reverted his El Capitan install back to Snow Leopard last weekend using Time Machine. Worked perfectly. Then he was able to move forward to the OS version he wanted to upgrade-to in the first place (Yosemite).
https://github.com/WindowsLies/BlockWindows https://blockwindows.wordpress...
Wow! Has everyone on here taken STUPID PILLS today?!?
I want to know if I have ALREADY BEEN INFECTED in my WINDOWS 7 INSTALLATION with the TELEMETRY MALWARE, NOT, repeat NOT HOW TO STOP IT!
FFS.
Does your system run any MS OSes newer than DOS? Then you have Windows Malware.
I was hoping that, in the context of the current discussion, you would understand that I meant the "Telemetry" malware that comes from MICROSOFT.
With your nic you might be forgiven for thinking that a "System Restore Point" actually did something along those lines.
The Rest of Us know better.
Thanks for the snarky, but uninformative, response.
And I am (rather obviously) no friend of Microsoft; but isn't there an "uninstall upgrade" that is offered for some sort of limited time, like 30 days?
Ah yes, here it is.
Thanks for NOTHING, smartass. You were so proud of yourself riffing on my username that you completely ignored my question (Can you roll-back from Windows 10).
Good Job!
This is common across the ad industry now. Either a fake "X", that takes you to some shitty app or website, or the "close" button brings up AdChoices's "is this ad bad?" menu. This started back in the days of Bonzi Buddy, and is a common trick. Ad blocking extensions have stopped that problem on the desktop, but it is a chronic thing on iOS.
Might be one of the reasons why Apple is stopping iAd.
Nah...Going after the Windows 10 team would be about as effective as taking down the street thug running a loansharking op. The mob just pulled in more muscle from the streets of Queens, Brooklyn, Chicago...or Sicily if need be. MS would do about the same, albeit skipping the local streets and getting their thug muscle from India. Fighting the symptom but not doing a thing against the disease. A better bet would be using something like RICO to take out Nadella in about the same way they brought down the Gambino family.
Ok, howabout a nice Grand Jury subpoena for Satya and whoever is head of the "Windows Experience" team? THAT might turn a few heads...
Microsoft retrofitted much of its Win 10 spyware into Windows 7 updates a while back.
How can I check to see if I was infected with this Windows Malware in my Win 7 system?
And second, if it did do that, is there any way to throw the genie out of the bottle? (Get rid of the spyware?)
Agreed. Fuck you, Microsoft. I had already trained my 9yo son to press the X to close the upgrade window whenever he might see it (he uses my computer more than I). Saturday morning, Windows 10 was installed. Goddamn it.
Doesn't Windows auto-generate a System Restore Point when you do an "Upgrade"/"Update"?
If so, I would imagine you can change your mind pretty easily.
It installs several background services without consent and even if you uninstall iTns, it leaves it there. It reports back to a central server the files on your computer and in some cases deletes your music. It occupies 100+MB for a glorified content downloader and often makes Windows more unstable.
I can see where he's coming from, even if it's filled with hyperbole.
If you count all the software that installs Services (which are "background" pretty much by definition; so your characterization is unnecessary and redundant), you would likely be surprised. I believe that in the case of iTunes, it is two Services: One that checks to see if you have plugged-in an iPod, and the other to check for Software Updates for iTunes, QuickTime and (when it was relevant) Safari.
That's not "several" it is "two". The Apple Software Update remains because QuickTime (and maybe Safari) remains. If iTunes Helper remains, then I will concede that is an Uninstaller-Script error, or perhaps a Windows Permissions Error.
It only reports your music files if you have turned on the "Genius" function, or if you have "iTunes Match" on. And it is very clear about that in iTunes Preferences. Plus you can disable "Genius" and not participate in "Match", and avoid the intrusion/data-leak.
It deletes your files: Well, the jury is still out on that.
Last I heard, Apple actually sent two iTunes Dev. people out into the field to study the computer and user-habits of the person who allegedly lost 122 GB of music files to iTunes (which by the way, they actually had a backup-of, so nothing was actually lost). One of the things they did was bring along a version of iTunes that had some extra debugging/logging built-in, so they can see what happens, if/when it happens again. So, if it is indeed happening, it CERTAINLY isn't Apple's intent, and they are treating the complaint as serious.
Oh, and iTunes is much more than simply a "Glorified Content Downloader". And I can't say that it has ever made any WIndows system I have had it on, some all the way back to XP SP1, "unstable" in any way. I have NEVER seen iTunes cause a "lockup" and certainly never a BSOD. I'm not saying it CAN'T happen; just that I haven't personally seen that with my iTunes-on-Windows, or with my Windows-saddled iTunes-using friends.
What's worse, so many things that it SHOULD be able to do, it can't because you have to unlock it first, defeating much of the purpose of using the digital "assistant," and there doesn't seem to be a way to change that in the options or settings.
Believe that most of your concerns have been addressed with iOS 9 and the iPhone 6s and SE.
Time marches on. Things (usually) improve. Do try to keep up.
Open API? Not good enough. I want to be able to have completely open Infrastructure under my direct control. Mycroft is the only AI that I'm probably going to build and rely on to operate my home. Why? Because if I'm going to have an assistant in my house, it's not going to be a closed box that someone else has the keys to with ownership over the hardware processing my information system. If I'm going to have an AI assistant, I'm going to be in sole control of the Hardware (on premisis), network infrastructure, and any APIs that operate the system. At least now I might have a use for my Tesla cluster that's been collecting dust (no I didn't pay nearly that much for the three of those).
So, that will be fine for you; but most people lack the time and/or the skills to make that a reality, even if they cared.
The summary didn't once mention the tech giant Google and their recent unveiling of Google Home.
The summary does mention Google Home. But this Apple announcement is way more interesting than the Google Home because it will have an open API. That will make a huge difference. A voice activated API opens up a world of possibilities. Google Home offers nothing new over the Amazon Echo.
Yes it does. Data mining.
Start talking about "new cars" around the Google Home "hockey puck", and I'll bet a ZILLION dollars that you will start seeing new car ads appear in web pages.
Apple won't do that. In fact, they have completely disbanded their only foray into that sphere, iAd; proving that they see absolutely no value in coming anywhere near the stinky business of making their Customers their Product. But with Google (and to an extent, Amazon), that is really their ONLY business.
The summary didn't once mention the tech giant Google and their recent unveiling of Google Home.
Oh, you mean their "Me too" "HomeKit", which Apple has had for a year or two now?
Timmy (and his Gay Lover Jonathan Ive)
Jonny Ive isn't Tim Cook's lover. That would be Eddy Cue. He even hinted at same at a Keynote, when he said that "Eddy wouldn't let me buy" a new set of Beats headphones. If you're gonna hate, at least try to make it "informed".
Sad to say that at Apple Inc. Cuper-town Infinite Loop Basement Bunker, there is no one who understands Lisp, let alone C.
You're not actually serious, are you?
So, the place that writes nearly EVERYTHING in a variant of C (Objective-C) doesn't have ANYONE who understands C? Is that REALLY your position? As for Lisp, I would bet there are some old-timers that have Lisp experience, and if not, Apple can have a team of Lisp-experts there with resumes in-hand in an hour.
Sometimes you Haters just crack me up...
Yes, a shitty UI. That's why Apple paid Creative $100 million for the rights to use that UI. Shitty, indeed!
It wasn't the UI. It was the DATA ORGANIZATION. Ya know, Artist/Album/Genre? That COMPLETELY UNIQUE method of Organization that NOBODY ELSE thought of?
Fucking idiot.
MP3 Players were also fairly inexpensive, and you didn't need to have a Mac with firewire, and install malware to load your music onto them.
WTF?
FireWire I'll give you, sort of. But once Apple opened-up iTunes to Windows, they dropped the FireWire-Only interface, and of course the Mac requirement. Before that, it was a moot point, since EVERY Mac came equipped with FIreWire. Next!
But "Malware"? I know a lot of people don't particularly like iTunes; but calling it "Malware" is a bit over-the-top, don'tcha think, even for you?
Precisely. MP3 players were quite common, and Apple loved the UI of the Creative player, so they made their own and ripped off the UI. And then slickly marketed it!
Yeah, because organizing music by Artist, Album and Genre was SOOOO Unique and NON-OBVIOUS. I just can't IMAGINE how Creative thought of that, and I agree that PROVES that Apple ripped-off Creative. (Rolls eyes)
That was a bad court decision then, and simply parroting a bad decision doesn't make it better.
it took 6 tries, for siri to reconigize my voice, and give me a result.
One thing you didn't mention: What was the ambient environment like, audio-wise?
Speech recognition in the "real world" is QUITE a different problem than it is with a headset, or with your mouth a couple of inches away from the microphone in a relatively quiet room.
My feeling is that you had the iPhone/iPad sitting on the kitchen counter (itself being a pretty acoustically-reflective surface), and you weren't exactly close to, or "on axis" with, the microphone. Add to that that kitchens often have a relatively high ambient noise level, with "white noise masking" coming from exhaust fans, faucets with aerators, etc. Add to that the fact that most kitchens are HIGHLY echoic, with hard-surfaced walls, ceilings and floors, and you begin to see the problem. It all sounds like a big mish-mash by the time that Siri gets the audio.
Ever recorded a conference or meeting with a voice recorder? Notice how "reverberant" even what seems to be a fairly "dead" room is on the recording? Ever notice how much harder it is to pick-out what is being said on said recording, than it was when you were listening in person?
Well, THAT's what Siri is forced to "work with", ALL THE TIME.
Quite frankly, I'm often very amazed at how well it DOES do, given the audio soup it has to parse.
Next time, try bending down closer to the microphone and see if the recognition-factor doesn't go up dramatically.
By the way, these issues apply to ALL speech recognition, not just Siri.
Another nice feature would be to recognize individual voices of household members, so if my daughter says "play some music" it plays something she likes, and if I say "play some music" it knows I prefer Willie Nelson over Taylor Swift.
That's a move AWAY from "speaker independence", which has been one of the great breakthroughs in natural-language speech recognition. No thank you.
Not to defend Echo; but is it REALLY too hard to ask it to "Play some Willie Nelson"
Honestly, speech recognition is getting damned good; but CONTEXTUAL recognition is almost as hard, and an entirely different problem.