UKC

I was prompted earlier today to do an update, so I obliged.

Later on this evening I decided to fire up the Windows Media Centre to watch a bit of telly on my computer.

Guess what?

There is no trace of Windows Media Centre on my computer. However Cortana is back along with other stuff I specifically removed.

Who the Fek gave Microsoft the power to choose what does and does not go onto my computer.

Bast@@rds.

Windows 7 is going back onto my computer tomorrow.

I shall have as little to do with this evil new all invasive Windows 10.

In reply to The Lemming:

Windows Media Centre disappeared in about 2009, and has never been available with Windows 10 (or 8 really). I'd suggest you stick with Windows 95.

In reply to The Lemming:

I'm hating the updates. In the middle of an important work call, with pressing deadlines and laptop suddenly started Windows update with no warning. I lost 2 hours that working day.

I was livid. Piece of utter sh!t.

In reply to The Lemming:
I m lying on the sofa looking at ukc ( amongst other things ) on my quite old iPad , I m steadfastly ignoring the fact that I have to open a couple of email attachments on the Windows 10 laptop that I have been avoiding turning on all weekend . The iPad for some reason won't open them . The email client on the laptop is hateful . Every time I have to use it for anything I want to calm walk up stairs and put it in the bath.

In reply to The Lemming:

If only some loose collection of altruistic programmers would produce a stable operating system that could be packaged up in slightly different ways so you could choose the distribution that suited you best, that you could configure exactly how you wanted it and with a choice of graphical front ends and loads of free programs available... and then give it away for free. Then we wouldn't all be at the mercy of Micro$oft™®.

In reply to The Lemming:

I am happy user of Ubuntu for years. I have Windows 10 at work and I hate them

In reply to The Lemming:

Why people use Windows on home computers is beyond me.

It's been a pain in the @rse for years and years.

In reply to jezb1:

I dont, I use a mac

In reply to The Lemming:

Three tablets and two laptops all running Windows 10 here. No problems after the recent upgrades.

Ducks under the shower of incoming dislikes and runs for cover...

In reply to AndyC:



What also floats?

In reply to icnoble:
Mac's are not perfect.I have one and I find it annoying that it does not have a delete button(I seem to remember that you can use 2-3 keystrokes to do the same thing,but cannot remember what). The file system is more awkward, I find, to sort downloads with, and there are a bunch of other niggles as well. Not forgetting that Apple are trying to control everything, even putting software on my PC..

I have an old Samsung which I got someone else to copy onto a new Dell with Windows 10 on it, so that I can still use windows 7 on the old machined. Yet I can learn the new stuff with Windows 10 on the new machine.
I still have to get the new Windows 10 out of the packaging again though..

In reply to veteye:


Factually incorrect. Several years ago they added a button you have to click if the developer isn't verified. Since then there have been precisely zero attempts to control your ability to press that button.

In reply to The Lemming:

Windows 10 is brilliant, it works perfectly for me; the features and interface are brilliant. If you like legacy software maybe you could find a Commodore Pet on ebay?

In reply to wintertree:

I had a separate version of iTunes on there, just for my old iPod,which may be where the hassle has come from.Nevertheless I did not expect an Apple window opening every time I started the old machine.

In reply to The Lemming:
10 works perfect for me. I have win 7 too on dualboot for a few bits of kit I have that refuse to release a compatible version

In reply to kevin stephens:



Just because some software is a few years old and meets my requirements, why the need to buy something with a 2016 price tag?

What else can I use to watch live TV and have a fully working programme guide always up to date?

I knew that Windows 10 had the ability to remove software at will, but this never bothered me till it affected me.

I thought only governments censored stuff.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I gave Win10 a go.

It kept installing updates every time I booted it, leading it to take ages to get into.

It installed programs I didn't want, but couldn't delete, even with all the tricks on the internet.

It looked like the windowing systems available for my old Sinclair QL.

It was a pain to work with my MyCloud NAS.

Having given it a go, I was about to revert to win7 pro, when it told me about AR. So I thought I'd give that a go. Of course, it re-installed all the crap I'd fought so hard to remove, and didn't seem to improve anything.

So I decided to revert to my win7. Oh; that option isn't available in AR, despite being within the 30 say trial period.

So I rolled back to the original Win10 install. The win7 revert option was there. But the Win7 image had been destroyed by the AR update, so it couldn't revert.

Fortunately, I had been wise enough to take a system image and store it on my NAS.

Win7 is back, under my control, doing what I want it to do. I expect it to continue to do so for a number of years. Works fine on my HP desktop and little ViewSonic Atom-based all-in-one.

We are still using XP at work, and migrating to win7. I've only very recently moved from an XP desktop to Win7, prompted by my good experience with the £50 2nd hand ViewSonic. The HP came from a skip...

In reply to The Lemming:


Then you are very confused and have missed quite a few news headlines. Although I am not sure what removing a feature has to do with censorship.

In reply to The Lemming:

If anyone works out how to purge Cortana please let me know. I've switched her off everywhere but she still likes to appear out of nowhere to offer me helpful paperclip stylee suggestions. P*ss off please Cortana!

In reply to captain paranoia:

I have given Windows 10 a fair crack of the whip and like it.

But that was until today when Microsoft deliberately removed software from my computer.

I chose what to install or remove, not somebody from a remote location.

What's to stop Microsoft putting sinister stuff on my computer to do their, or a government's bidding?

That is just wrong on so many levels.

My Window's 7 image goes back on tomorrow.

The laptop is quite happy running Linux mint.

In reply to EddInaBox:


I really accepted an Ubuntu LTS update. BIG mistake. It appeared to have shifted loads of files and stuff around. Every time I tried to run something, it would give me some OpenMPI error. I'm not a massively computery person but that's some pretty basic, commonly used stuff right? More or less completely broke my project. Fortunately I managed to find a back up I could restore my installation from.

Windows 8 was fantastic. Windows 10 is a pile of shite. Wish I hadn't accepted the update.

In reply to The Lemming:

I do everything on my phone (android of course). If I have a need to type something over 1000 words I borrow a friend's and email myself the doc. Works for me. Just glad to be rid of the bloody things.

In reply to The Lemming:


From the tone of people on here it's as if someone has stolen their child or something important. Computers are just computers not David bloody Attenborough, and you expect them to be crap.




And what's to stop them doing that via 7?

In reply to mike123:


More fun, and makes a better noise, throwing it out of an upstairs window....

In reply to felt:

Yes, it is just a computer. So folk want the OS to just work, not get in the road, and not f*** about with your applications. w10 has rendered my scanner obsolete , lost the contacts lists I used on my email provider, and messed up my interface with photoshop elements.

I had to update because my XP was (badly) broken, and gave regretted it ever since. Now you can't seem to buy a new machine without W10.

Pile if cr*p, or instrument of beelzebub if you ask me.

In reply to The Lemming:

I like Windows 10. Try Plex Media Server and all will be well.

In reply to veteye:

fn+delete. Not that tricky - on a mac laptop it's the bottom left key and delete.

cheers

b

In reply to Trevers:

Can you blame window 10 for the ubuntu update? Isn't this update written by the ubuntu authors?

Windows 8 was universally thought of as a downgrade from 7. The lack of a start menu being one reason.

I'm running 10 at work and home. I think it's great better than 7 or 8. It's definitely more user friendly than 7 and better laid out than 8. .It's also more efficient than 8.

In reply to The Lemming:

Totally agree. I finally gave in to work IT and put 10 on. I did a clean install to be safe. After a day or so of dicking about I got it all working nicely, and was quite happy with it. Then this huge update arrived and totally fooked my laptop. It's unusably slow. Disabling Cortana completely helped a lot, but it's still awful compared to pre update. I don't see how they can do so much damage with a service pack.

In reply to Bobling:
After the update, the only way is via group policy, or by adding this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows SearchAllowCortana=0

Worked for me.
Edit - It appears you can't post a backslash on UKC, so you'll have to work out where they go. Or Google "disable Cortana registry"

Out if curiosity, what do you find is better than 7? Obviously anything is better than 8, but after using 10 for a while I can't think of a single way it is any better than 7. I only installed it because we are using software that only works on 10.

In reply to The Lemming:


You, when you downloaded and installed it.

In reply to EddInaBox:


If only it also ran the programs you actually wanted to use. (I appreciate that this is down to program developers, but still...)

In reply to Hooo:

Its better set up for various things. For example its much less bother getting SSD's to use the TRIM feature etc. Its also better optimised at the hardware level although benchmarks don't seem to shown consistent significant advantages.

I also saw it as a way of future proofing my laptop (I already upgraded to a fast large SSD and more memory). So for most of my uses I think it will last me the best part of a decade now. I think in general its easier for the average user to manage then windows 7 also.

I also personally like the built in anti virus, fire wall and anti spyware. I know some reviews don't but we are all using it at my work and we've had no problems at all with it and it seems to run efficiently with no annoying pop ups.

In reply to Trevers:

I am a long-time Ubuntu user and I have to admit this is one of by few bugbears with the system. I have given up accepting updates to the OS. Now I always back up everything I need and do a clean install of a new OS, which is more hassle up front but seems to lead to fewer problems afterwards. Note, this is only OS updates, e.g. changing from 14.04 to 16.04 I am talking about - interim updates work great.

In reply to The Lemming:

Who the Fek gave Microsoft the power to choose what does and does not go onto my computer.

You did. As I have been trying to explain to certain serial malware* downloading relatives, as soon as you run malicious software it isn't your computer any more.

*Latest offense: Mrs B downloading some dodgy software to convert an open office document to pdf and getting pwned for her trouble rather than looking at the file menu and using the "Export as PDF" option.

In reply to plyometrics:

You can prevent updates. Do a google search for changing your internet connection to a 'metered connection'. It's a change to one registry value (takes about 2 minutes to do) and change an internet connection setting. The PC then thinks it's on a mobile data network and won't download any updates unless you tell it to.

In reply to NottsRich:


Isn't that a bad thing because updates do include security patches also?

In reply to The Lemming:

On my 2008 system, I went from W7 to W10 and didn't regret it. Everything seemed to just work, and I carried on.

However, once I got into working with large amounts of data, I found that my 32 bit system and 2 GB ram were a serious limitation. I also got the impression that Windows whatever.whatever was making things more complicated for me than Unix whatever.whatever and blocking me from things I wanted to do. I thought of going Linux, but around that time, having bought a Raspberry Pi and got stuck on Page 10 or something of Linux 101, I decided to lash out £1400 on a 16 GB ram MacBook Pro. I haven't had any problems since and have not regretted it. I would expect a lot from a £1400 home laptop of any type, but this one does just work, for me.

In reply to colinakmc:
To be fair thats your scanner manufacturer for not updating their drivers.

In reply to mbh:


Thats not exactly the fault of windows though. If your pc was capable you could have switched up to 64 bit for nowt.
Owning both I find myself getting more irate with macs rather than windows. Have had to bring up the command line a few times to persuade it to do something just slightly outside its preset choices.

In reply to Mike-W-99:


No it isn't; it's Microsoft's fault for not providing a driver subsystem that is backward compatible with their previous operating system, thus making previously perfectly good drivers unusable.

If people continue to take your attitude, Microsoft will continue to get away with shit like this. Apple likewise.

In reply to captain paranoia:

I have just installed IOS Sierra and have had no problems with peripheral drivers. In fact for the last 3 years since I have had a MacBook I have never had a problem, I plug it in and it works.

In reply to colinakmc:


It did that to my printer.
There were no official drivers post XP, because they were included in Windows. Then Windows dropped the printer with 10. That wasn't very helpful.
But, I found a way round it. Install the XP driver and it works! Might be worth a go with your scanner.

In reply to felt:


i guess you don't want your nice sony desktop i've got working with win7 then?

In reply to captain paranoia:


I'm sure the scanner manufacturer is very happy with Microsoft in this regard though. They just love their products being made obsolete, so their customers have to buy a new one.

In reply to malk:

Ah, glad you could, well done!

In reply to icnoble:

You don't have a NAS, then? El Cap and Sierra have both caused problems.

In reply to captain paranoia:

Ah good, is the most mind numbingly dull topic in the universe getting hijacked by something climbing relevant?
Is NAS a particular Nose style?

In reply to ben b:


Thank you for helping, but I realised that you meant fn+backspace in order to delete, which seems to work.So I am happy that I have learned a little.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Oh, Robert. We can be so much more dull.

We could argue about grades, for instance...

In reply to captain paranoia:


But grades can be interesting because their application relates to how we experience climbing - potentially fascinating.

In reply to Robert Durran:

But usually incredibly tedious.

In reply to captain paranoia:

>


Climbing?

Seriously. You want to flame with a Climbing reference?

How vary dare you