I just found this on a news website. It's an interesting read. You may laugh, frown or snicker depending on your point of view.

Windows 10

Thanks oldmariner. Will take a look.

WOW. Thanks oldmariner. I am blown away. I'm using Win7 home 64 bit.
Thanks to Gameboomers I was able to stop the update to Win 10. I think we have 5 more years for support for Win 7. Hopefully Microsoft will have Win 10 sorted out,or produce a better OS.

Cathy

Coming from Breitbart, I knew enough to take it with an enormous quantity of salt - several pounds, in fact.

However, I actually agreed with several things. The privacy stuff is massively overblown and a non-issue in my opinion.

Whether you like it or not, this is it. Windows 10 is it. And it's not going away... I have a lot of criticisms of Windows 10 with the heavy handed refusal to allow us to play our older games that have certain forms of DRM being the first one. But overall, the more I use it, the more I like it.

I just installed it on 3 more computers for people who are all in their 70's and 80's. I told them it was up to them whether to install or not as they were either running Window 7 or Windows 8.1. So far every one absolutely loves it. The two who had Windows 7 are amazed at how it runs circles around Windows 7 and how fast their computers are now. I talked to a guy last night who writes code for some big company. He skipped Windows 8.1 completely, but is absolutely giddy with Windows 10. He is the biggest computer geek I've ever met and a tech whiz. A little weird, but then I think you HAVE to be a little weird to be like that!

I did chuckle at a couple of the comments about conservatives and Windows 10 though!

I have to use Windows 10 at community college and I hate it.
It is such a pain not to have a decent Start Menu and to have to look up the "new ways" of accessing computer controls. And according to the article oldmariner posted, Windows 10 "updates" can change what used to work on Windows 10 to something that doesn't.

Each time the procedure changes, it makes it more difficult to Google how to access things because what worked with Windows 10 last week no longer works and you get so many links for old information.

I do not think the privacy aspect is trivial. If nothing else, constantly accessing and sending things from the Internet is a waste of your bandwidth. It adds up. And if you do go out of your way to disable some information-sending/requesting feature, it should actually disable. The article at Arstechnica does a better job of explaining.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-tec...g-to-microsoft/
Some of what Windows 10 is doing by default looks like a good way to introduce virus.

Refusing to allow DRM that makes the system unstable is about the only thing I like about it. It's too bad we can't sue the copy "protection" companies that caused the issue.

Microsoft's trying to sneak a Windows 10 install onto your Windows 7 computer is a great reason to turn off automatic updates. Then you end up putting off installing them because it's such a nuisance to have to look up every single KB number to see if it is related to sneaking Windows 10 onto your computer.

Now THOSE I heartily agree with! However, I STILL want to play the games I've paid for. I've turned off auto-updates for two people who have chosen not to upgrade. Forcing the upgrade is one of the most awful things they've done.

And lying about it by labeling it as a security update.
It's virus-like activity.


I have to wonder if Windows 10 becomes MORE unstable than previous versions of Windows when the offensive disc-based DRM is installed. Windows 10 seems more unstable to start with -- at least at this point in time -- and the DRM was not made to work with Windows 10 so it may cause problems that didn't usually occur in Windows 7 or 8.

Oh, and who can forget #4 on the Hit Parade - forcing hardware updates? For some of these things, do they even THINK about the consequences?

That is something to consider about the DRM. I "think" I have at least one game that was installed before my upgrade that has SecuROM. I'll have to check.

Or, you can just take my approach - I don't purchase DRM (or limited activation) types anymore. My console collection is growing

As I said I found this article interesting. The title suggested it was written tongue in cheek. I found it a bit disturbing, though not surprising. The long and short of it is I resent the privacy intrusion and forced update if you have a prior OS. Perhaps it is me but the word "Free" always begs the question are you kidding nothing is free? Somebody has to pay for it. Then I consider the notion if it's so good why are you forcing it onto us? As of this moment I'll stay far, far away.

Inland, hubby would not appreciate the only TV we have being taken over by me!

I have a few handheld consoles as well They're great for RPG's.

Amen to this. I have Windows 7 and have had automatic updates turned off since I have had the computer, but I always chose to install the recommended updates. Now I view them all with suspicion and check out KB numbers carefully. It's a major pain.

I will be avoiding Win10 for as long as is humanly possible - or even longer !!

And thank you for that link, oldmariner, I enjoyed the visit

You are welcome Mad. I discovered a link to that story on another site which led me to Breitbart. It was the title that caught my attention. I'll qualify by saying I avoided Win 10 from the get go. There are two reasons for this. 1 It is free. 2 Microsoft dictates you will have it or else. The second told me that the first is anything but true. Deep down I know that there is a cost for everything. As the article reveals the loss of privacy is more than what I'm willing to pay. My present PC is two years old purchased from E-College without an operating system. Due to the fact Windows 8 was a botched attempt to replicate the notorious Win ME I purchased a retail Win 7 with multiple PC licenses. It is no big trick to install the os. The first thing I did was disable auto updates. I can't count the times Microsoft messed up my PC with an update. It is a pain to check each KB---etc one at a time but it saves a lot of grief. I'll continue along with Win 7 until MS gets it's act together. If they don't there are other options.

"I'll continue along with Win 7 until MS gets it's act together. If they don't there are other options."

My thoughts entirely, oldmariner

Here are some links to websites that have lists of potentially undesirable updates for Windows 7 and 8/8.1 along with KB numbers:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/list-of-windows-7-telemetry-updates-to-avoid.379151/page-2

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3g7hr0/removing_telemetry_from_windows_7_and_8x/

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/28/microsoft-intensifies-data-collection-on-windows-7-and-8-systems/

The reddit link has suggestions for services and task scheduling to turn off as well as KB's to remove.

Considering that a lot of this telemetry was originally created for Windows 10 and is being backported to Windows 7 and 8 when it wasn't originally part of them, it raises doubts about how useful this "telemetry" really is for the computer user. Microsoft doesn't want to support Windows 7 and 8 and is unlikely to use the information to "improve" them in any way -- not that everyone would be happy with any "improvements" they decided to make. Perhaps it's something to do with Microsoft's goal of making Windows an online-only OS that you continually pay for by subscription.

Thanks Jenny!

So, I went checking my system for these updates. Four of them are not installed but six of them are. Of those six, one of them is also in my "hidden" updates. That is KB2952664. I had this same thing happen with KB3035583. It was hidden but then installed anyway and I had to uninstall it again.

What is your suggestion/opinion on the updates listed in the links you posted Jenny? Should they all be uninstalled and hidden?