New concern re 10

I believe it is very sensitive which makes it buggy in my view,
Just drivers from asus has been a hit and miss adventure then I get to NVidia drivers... and it's just so much more unstable than 7 is
Just too early still I suppose
I'm not quite ready to make constant system images yet
Possibly in a week or two when I get my other hdd's delivered I can restore in inches rather than from scratch every time I can't seem to uninstall something.

Just drivers from asus has been a hit and miss adventure then I get to NVidia drivers... and it's just so much more unstable than 7 is

Hmm that is a worry as most of my gear is Asus - boards and on board gear - NVidia to boot.

Anyway I shall just try again if only to find out what I need turned on or off - not real keen on the features I have only vaguely heard about ie the Cortana?? one, and anything that off machine storage.

Yep well I would say some drivers like corsair link just isn't ready for 10 yet might never be it is one of the utilities I could not uninstall
10 system restore sucks of course besides starting from scratch that is which is the most fun :/

Other stuff usb3.... is sketchy at best still have Unknown devices
So getting everything up and running is a chore for me anyway
I suppose 10 is take it like it is and be happy who knows the more I add the more frustrating 10 becomes
Also can be said for the more I restrict in group policy the weirder 10 gets
Seems more irritating than anything.

Odd thing is I believe I had fewer issues on my Acer board and it's supposedly not compatible

Hmm Mike looks like I have something to look forward to when I eventually get round to it.

I don't know much about programming or such but it seems to me some have not put in much forethought to say the least.

Alejandro85 said:

There is NO way MS can ever force you into downgrading to Win10, even though they're very aggressive about it and many attacks have been launched from Windows Update. The fundamental thing to understand is that MS (or anyone else, for the matter) have no control over your computer, there is no magical button they touch and the whole world becomes infected with Win10. They rely on the backdoors they install to "phone home" and get instructions, but ultimate it's software running on our computers what put Win10 all over the place.

There is an excellent article related to this security issue: Ten Immutable Laws Of Security (ironically enough, from MS). Of particular importance here are the first two "laws":

Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not solely your computer anymore.
Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

Thanks for the link...

The content is pretty much on spot, but the title of "Ten Immutable Laws of Security (Version 2.0)" made me laugh. Immutable and Version 2.0!? Contradicting terms it seems...

The "bad guy" reference in Law #1 and #2 is misleading in my view. It should be replaced by "any guy" that seems more suitable for these laws. In which case, the laws are applicable to Microsoft, among other software companies as well.

Alejandro85 said:

The thing is, a bad guy must install something on your computer to take over it, and MS already did that. Since many months ago Windows Update has been used to infect users with the GWX malware. Without it, MS has NO WAY to touch anything in your computer, unless the user does a blunder and somehow installs anything dangerous.
Keep GWX at bay and Win10 will never knock your door. Fundamentally, that means avoiding "Win10-related" updates like the plague, or if you've already been hit, deleting, blocking, or otherwise preventing its execution will minimize any risks of finding your computer taken over. After all, we have Windows Firewall, AppLocker, Software Restriction Policies, File system permissions built-in, and loads of external security tools to protect from it, plus a reasonable amount of information about how the infection behaves. Tame GWX and Win10 is history, plain and simple.
(of course, here I'm assuming it's the only malware MS deployed without consent, assumption that can easily be wrong)

While most of you in this thread are sticking to Windows 7 and 8.x, instead of updating to Windows 10, both versions had been retrofitted with the data collection updates and they pretty much do the same as Windows 10 does. For that matter, Office 2013 had been retrofitted with Office 2016 data collection code. GWX is the only visible update for the end users, other data collection updates have no end user interface.

Yes, one can prevent installing the data collection updates, or uninstall them if they slipped by (too little too late). Most people don't have the time or knowledge to do that. As such, only the minority of the end users complain about these updates, mainly techies. That's a relatively small percentage of the end users and as such, Microsoft will continue with the data collection in Windows 7 and later versions, weather we like it or not.

There had been what, about 200 million installation of Windows in its first five month; that's about 40 million installs per month. Microsoft's goal of one billion installs of Windows 10 in three years is at least on schedule, or most likely will be completed earlier.

Yeah, no... "taming GWX" does not make Windows 10 history. Not to mention that Microsoft could just issue a hidden GWX that upgrades previous versions of Windows at the next time time the system is rebooted. That's pretty much had been stated in the article, quote:

From next year Windows 10 will automatically begin installing on most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines.

Users will still need to confirm the installation manually for it to continue. However, if they choose not to proceed it's unclear if they can cancel it altogether, with Jeremy Korst, general manager of the Windows and Devices team at Microsoft, saying only that "the customer will have the ability to delay it for some period".

In another word, prepare for the inevitable... much sooner than the EoL support for Windows 7 and 8.1...

Sounds more and more like W10 is still in Beta release, strictly my opinion.

My best hope is that after July, 2016 MS will leave me alone to enjoy W7 to it's EOL. In 4 years my systems will be 7 and 5 years old and I'll be 74. I'll decide what to do then if I'm still able to remember how to turn a computer on and why I did. Until then I refuse to be assimilated. I've had enough of MS since they went so aggressively to the dark side, again strictly my opinion.

I will be strongly considering the possibility of a Mac if for no other reason then to give Apple the opportunity to tick me off for my remaining years or maybe I'll just turn the TV back on and give up on computers altogether.

On Edit: If it's not against the rules of the forum.. Can I get some advice on how to completely block MS in all shape and form?

ICIT2LOL said:

Hmm Mike looks like I have something to look forward to when I eventually get round to it.

I don't know much about programming or such but it seems to me some have not put in much forethought to say the least.

Yea I'm not sure what or how well it would go for a laptop if that's what you have or would upgrade ?
It's just been trial and error for me which is why I stopped until I get my back up system setup
All I'm doing now is spinning my wheels.

scr said:

Sounds more and more like W10 is still in Beta release, strictly my opinion.

My best hope is that after July, 2016 MS will leave me alone to enjoy W7 to it's EOL. In 4 years my systems will be 7 and 5 years old and I'll be 74. I'll decide what to do then if I'm still able to remember how to turn a computer on and why I did. Until then I refuse to be assimilated. I've had enough of MS since they went so aggressively to the dark side, again strictly my opinion.

I will be strongly considering the possibility of a Mac if for no other reason then to give Apple the opportunity to tick me off for my remaining years or maybe I'll just turn the TV back on and give up on computers altogether.

On Edit: If it's not against the rules of the forum.. Can I get some advice on how to completely block MS in all shape and form?

You can go into the Control Panel under Windows Update and not accept any Updates from Microsoft. I would not advise that. Most of the Updates that you receive will be for Windows 7.

scr said:

Sounds more and more like W10 is still in Beta release, strictly my opinion.

My best hope is that after July, 2016 MS will leave me alone to enjoy W7 to it's EOL. In 4 years my systems will be 7 and 5 years old and I'll be 74. I'll decide what to do then if I'm still able to remember how to turn a computer on and why I did. Until then I refuse to be assimilated. I've had enough of MS since they went so aggressively to the dark side, again strictly my opinion.

I will be strongly considering the possibility of a Mac if for no other reason then to give Apple the opportunity to tick me off for my remaining years or maybe I'll just turn the TV back on and give up on computers altogether.

On Edit: If it's not against the rules of the forum.. Can I get some advice on how to completely block MS in all shape and form?*

*-Emphasis mine...

The only way to completely block MS is, well, don't install MS software. It's as simple as that...

The chances are that you were looking for how make MS leave alone your Windows 7 now. If that's the case, you can find it in the tutorial at this forum here. I doubt that discussing this is against the forum rules....