Windows 10

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Windows 10

Postby PMC » Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:09 am

There is alot of material relating to this OS release. The Guardian piece below is a clipping of the meat covering the user agreement, the app advertising, and privacy while being targeted.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... t-settings

Hundreds of commenters on sites such as Hacker News and Reddit have criticised default settings that send personal information to Microsoft, use bandwidth to upload data to other computers running the operating system, share Wi-Fi passwords with online friends and remove the ability to opt out of security updates.

Many of the complaints relate to the new personalised adverts embedded in Windows 10. When the OS is installed, Microsoft assigns the user a unique advertising ID, which it ties to the email address registered with the company. That email address is also associated with a raft of other services, such as the company’s productivity and communication programs, as well as app downloads and cloud-storage uploads.

Using that information, Microsoft is able to personalise ads to the user, during both web surfing and, for newer apps downloaded from the Windows Store, app usage. Microsoft itself is leading the way on that front, even turning the in-built version of Solitaire (the card game that has been a staple of Windows installations since 1990’s Windows 3.0) into a freemium game, complete with unskippable video adverts.

Elsewhere, Windows 10 also harvests user information in order to teach the built-in personal digital assistant Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri. To enable Cortana, the company says, it “collects and uses various types of data, such as your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device”.

Users are given the option to opt out of most of the data collection, but critics say that that isn’t enough. Alec Meer, of gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun, says: “Microsoft simply aren’t making it clear enough that they’re doing this, how it might affect you and how to opt out – despite chest-thumping, we’re-all-chums-here talk about how ‘real transparency starts with straightforward terms and policies that people can clearly understand’.

“There is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different Settings screens and an external website constitutes ‘real transparency’.”
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Re: Windows 10

Postby slowhand » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:19 pm

People have been complaining about Windows 8 and 10 for years now. Listen carefully and all I ever hear is people complaining about the lack of the old Windows start button.

I've installed this Windows 7 style Start button for myself and some friends and family to make the complaints vanish. http://www.stardock.com/products/start10/download.asp
If you already bought Start8, you can click to get Start10 for $3.99. Otherwise, it is $4.99 with a 30 day free trial. American Money.
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Re: Windows 10

Postby Jack Bennest » Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:04 pm

Despite the above concerns

I think most people want a good OS but more importantly a function desktop that does what you want it to and does not have a mind of
of its own

I think I will change this computer over soon. Will check one more time to see if there are cautions.
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Re: Windows 10

Postby jon » Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:44 pm

The trouble most of us folks who get stuck fixing the problems after we make recommendations have with recommending anything other than Windows for the desktop or laptop is that almost all software and hardware, no matter how obscure, runs on Windows, but often won't elsewhere.

The opposite is true for smartphones: many apps are not supported on Windows Phone, and most of the ones that are "don't quite work properly". Even the touch keyboard is a lot more error-prone on Windows Phone. Android is a much better choice for a smartphone operating system.

My only tablet experience is second-hand (family members), but Android seems to be the best choice there, too. Especially for those with previous experience using an Android smartphone.

Apple, of course, is a viable option for both smartphones and desktop/laptops. Again, I just don't have any personal experience there, other than being scared away by the cost of most Apple products.
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Re: Windows 10

Postby xwdcatvb » Thu Aug 13, 2015 5:35 pm

slowhand wrote:People have been complaining about Windows 8 and 10 for years now.


Complaining about Win 10 fer years?
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Re: Windows 10

Postby slowhand » Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:37 pm

Well, it seems like the Windows 10 Beta has been out for years. Truth is that People have been complaining about Windows 8 or 10 for years now. just didn't sound right to me.
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Re: Windows 10

Postby PMC » Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:30 pm

Jack Bennest wrote:Despite the above concerns

I think most people want a good OS but more importantly a function desktop that does what you want it to and does not have a mind of
of its own

I think I will change this computer over soon. Will check one more time to see if there are cautions.


CAVEATE EMPTOR !!!
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Re: Windows 10

Postby Jack Bennest » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:42 pm

Windows 98 ?
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Re: Windows 10

Postby Tom Jeffries » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:57 pm

Now you know why I dumped Windoze and bought a MAC.
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Re: Windows 10

Postby skyvalleyradio » Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:06 pm

PMC - belated thanks for your original post on this which has given me food for thought: I had been considering picking up a used/refurbished Win 7 laptop & then download installing & config Windows 10 to get a handle on it. I'm not prepared to spend hours figuring out how to toggle OFF all the personal privacy issues, including data mining & personalized adware on a new, unfamiliar OS. In addition, my warped brain is thinking that MS may well have some embedded access to this data for use by CSIS, the NSA & GCHQ. Ya just gotta wonder about some of those mysterious *.exe files that reside in Windows System32 folder or better yet the totally bizarre "Registry"?? Just what IS some of that stuff?? :neutral:
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Re: Windows 10

Postby kal » Sun Aug 16, 2015 5:30 pm

Some here might be able to benefit from a Chromebook. I've been using Chromebooks for three years and for the last two years almost exclusively. I've stopped using my MacBook Air (when I had to return to it for a single file a year ago I had to sit through 2 hours of updates before I could get at that file). I've also stopped using the iPad in favour of the Chromebook. I still use Windows boxes when I have to but for the most part the Chromeboxes are so fast and reliable that they have become the default machine for me. And since nothing is stored in the Chromebox units there is no worry about losing a unit or damaging it. Each Chromebook comes with 100 GB of cloud storage (for a year, and after a year it reverts to 15 GB with a hundred gigs running $2/month).
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Re: Windows 10

Postby PMC » Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:48 pm

skyvalleyradio wrote:PMC - belated thanks for your original post on this which has given me food for thought: I had been considering picking up a used/refurbished Win 7 laptop & then download installing & config Windows 10 to get a handle on it. I'm not prepared to spend hours figuring out how to toggle OFF all the personal privacy issues, including data mining & personalized adware on a new, unfamiliar OS. In addition, my warped brain is thinking that MS may well have some embedded access to this data for use by CSIS, the NSA & GCHQ. Ya just gotta wonder about some of those mysterious *.exe files that reside in Windows System32 folder or better yet the totally bizarre "Registry"?? Just what IS some of that stuff?? :neutral:



The only ‘real transparency’ is that of the user profile... all the techie fascists :bag: should be rounded up, defragged, and then reprogrammed with human intelligence !
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Re: Windows 10

Postby skyvalleyradio » Sun Aug 16, 2015 7:18 pm

...you forgot to do a reboot, PMC :rockon:
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Re: Windows 10

Postby PMC » Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:11 am

skyvalleyradio wrote:...you forgot to do a reboot, PMC :rockon:


Scrapping c-51 would be a better start. The software is created for the need. Who asked for it, and who is directing it. Somebody thinks we all want to be minions.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside- ... -1.1930322
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Re: Windows 10

Postby Dave L » Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:29 pm

Tom Jeffries wrote:Now you know why I dumped Windoze and bought a MAC.


In doing so, you've forgone opting out entirely. MAC users are a data miner's mother lode.
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