Windows 10 Free upgrade*

[mandru]

For a month now on my desktop rig there has been a non-removable icon for Windows 10 down in the active service field of the task bar.  I'm running Win 7 and for my gaming rig it has proven to be a reliable workhorse.  I have had no real significant complaints.

My over-sized Vaio tablet (which has never connected to the internet after its initial set up) that I use to keep my sheet music organized is loaded with Win 8.  I absolutely despise that OS and the fact that I have to waste a half minute or so of my access time opening up through the freaking App screen to get over to the desk top where everything I need to do is located and laid out in the icons that I need for this unit's sole function.  Once switched over to the Vaio's desktop even though it's hidden and I can't see it I know that the App menu is still functioning and like a blood sucking parasite leaching off my available CPU cycles slowing down everything else I need loaded and running.  ba$t@rd Apps constantly checking "Are we connected? Nope. Are we connected? Nope." Ad freaking infinitum! 

Then there's the fact that there's so much additional and yet irremovable bandwidth sucking, privacy invading Processes, Services and Apps and CPU cycle wasters like Touchscreen compatibility which I have no intention of ever using on my desk top computer.

From the screenshots I've seen of Win 10 it has kept the much hated and stinking App screen on boot up.  :D   I'm not going to get into the logistics of the number of days spent downloading this potential bandwidth hog.


Now about that Free Upgrade*.  >:((

Investigating I had to dig quite deeply through all the self-celebratory banners and fireworks announcing how wonderful and generous Win-Corp is being for delivering this spamtastic and vastly improved OS to find that it's only "Free for the first year".  They completely omitted any mention of the how much (cost wise) the slam will be that hits your credit every year to keep your device from becoming anything more than an expensive doorstop.

This is comparable to my happily owning a fully paid for, capable and well maintained car that while even though it's a few years old has potentially another few hundred thousand miles left in it and the auto manufacturer comes along and offers a years free lease of a larger more powerful vehicle that they have developed but it has the unfortunate downside of perpetually reeking of pig crap.

Maybe I would get used to the ongoing presence of that sustained stench but why should I force myself to do so?


It sucks that Windows has decided to copy the Apple products and business model when it was my preference for Windows that caused me to select them over Apple in the first place.

Before I allow Win 10 on my computer I will download Ubuntu set up a dual boot and block off all future Windows updates.  At least that's a lot smaller learning curve without putting up with all the pig crap.  \:/

Windows 10?  They can osculate my hirsute bifurcated posterior.  >:(

[fragger]

Now that's a rant :-D :-X

I too don't want anything to do with Resource Hog 10 and I'll be holding on to my 7 for as long as I possibly can.

The question is begged: How come the sequence went from 8 straight to 10? Was there a 9, and was it such a bitch of a thing that they gave up on it - or, is it still a bitch of a thing but since they decided it was time for a new Windows they stuck some more bells and whistles (read Useless Crap) on what they had and pushed it outside as the Next Big Thing?

I'm still pissed at Microsoft for making me sort through the stacked copies of my Poser directories in Virtual Store every time I create something of my own in Poser and then have to waste what little time I have left to me copying it all back over to the C: Poser directories it rightly belongs in. I'd like to meet the genius behind Virtual Store, tear him a shiny new red one and then store his old one where he can't find it

[mandru]

Thanks fragger, here's my take on a couple points you brought up.

#1 Where's win 9?

I guess they used up all the 9's in Windows 95 and 98.  The truth is Windows didn't want to use a number lower that Apples OS.  ;)

Some sources say there will be no higher versions of Windows forthcoming but you can sure expect lots of smaller and more frequent updates to keep Win 10 limping along.  ???



#2 The Cloud?

That simply means pissing away your time and IP bandwidth storing and back loading your vital data on some far flung industrial hard drive so that commercial and governmental interest backed snoops can pick through your data at their leisure for interesting tidbits.  8-X

[fragger]

No, it's not a cloud - at least I don't think it goes to a cloud. And I may have been unfair to Microsoft as it might not be their doing, it may be Poser's, but I was ticked and MS was a handy punching bag >:D Poser uses a series of directories for storing stuff like poses, props, lighting setups and a few other things, and these directories are located in the same master folder that Poser resides in under Program Files (x86). But for some arcane reason, when you save say a pose in a Poser in-program "Pose" library folder, it makes a copy of the folder in your <PCusername> AppData/Local/Virtual Store... and saves it there. It doesn't just store your stuff there but replicates the entire Poser directory structure to that point, which means to get to the pose files in Explorer you have to look through the whole path <PCusername>/AppData/Local/Virtual Store/e frontier/Poser/Runtime/Libraries/Pose/<your folder>/... This can get mighty tedious when you need to refer to something there frequently and are switching back and forth between it and other Poser files in Program Files for comparison purposes, especially when you may have dozens and dozens of folders in there like I do (every new product you buy and install for Poser gets its own set of folders. You can easily end up with hundreds over the span of a few years). I like to have everything together, so once I've made something I have to go through all those folders in Virtual Store and copy the files back over to the Program Files folders, while trying to keep track of what I've copied and what I haven't.

I suppose it does mean having a test environment away from Poser's main files, but it can be a major hassle for me sometimes, especially when something requires a do-over and I have to track down all existing files relating to it and delete them to avoid conflicts.

[mandru]

OK.  What you described was not a Win 10 thing.  But then again I'm pretty much of the opinion that all the cloud hype sucks too and I was on a roll fully ready to punch at just about anything that popped up.  >:D

Off topic but is there any way to create a master folder of shortcuts linking to those frequently used objects on your Desktop so you don't have to dig through the entire clickpath every time you need to retrieve them?

[Art Blade]

bookmarks.

[wobatt]

No Windows 9 because many older programs checked compatibility by looking for the name starting "Windows 9" to match both 95 and 98. It would be more trouble than it's worth, so they skipped it.

Also, Windows 10 will not be subscription based.

It seems there's still confusion. It is very clear from this post that for the first year it's available, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free if you have Windows 7 or 8. You will not pay for it. After that year is up, nothing will happen to your Windows 10 license. If you do not upgrade within that year, however, you will have to pay for an upgrade. The offer expires after a year, not the upgrade.

Source.
Another source.

I am going to wait a while to see how optional the 'Metro' UI is though. That crud has no place on a desktop PC.

[OWGKID]

I have Windows 10 on my laptop, but there is an issue which annoys me: WHERE IS MY SOUND???  >:(( :D

EDIT: I don't get any sound from my laptop after I updated to Windows 10 :'(

[Art Blade]

what? say again?  :-()


thanks for the info, wobatt  :) Hehe, the first time I saw w8 I thought I had a game of effin Tetris going. I don't want an OS that looks like a huge smart phone, I want a PC OS that looks like one, too. Not interested in w10.. They can shove those apps up their perforated rear ends.

[mandru]

Here's another possible strike against Win 10 specifically if you want to upgrade your hardware within the next year.

The following is a chat conversation with the Windows Answer Tech office and a concerned Win 10 user.

http://imgur.com/gallery/8OJ4t

????


Some of the comments by the Imgur members below the posted conversation may add clarification beyond what I was able to discern from the general tone of the Answer techie.

TL;DR (too long: didn't read) Windows Tech solidly asserts that adding RAM memory or changing graphics cards are considered hardware will void your Win 10 registration forcing you to repurchase Win 10.

[OWGKID]

According to the PCMR reddit thread, this is misleading. The comments claims that only the motherboard counts as the PC itself  ;) I highly doubt a GPU/CPU/RAM upgrade will void the license, but a motherboard switch will cause issues. It is also stated in the Windows EULA (since XP) that the keys are tied to the motherboard.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3fnz13/windows_10_needs_to_be_repurchased_for_hardware/

[mandru]

I agree that does make the most sense but that Windows' Tech was pretty adamant on the matter.  That is "adamant" as in unwavering and refusing to be swayed from his answer -not- the X-Men character Wolverine's claws and skeletal system.  ;)

But then I'm not fully so trusting in Windows that I would fool myself into thinking they are incapable of pulling something shady like that.

If I hit the point I need a new mother board it would mean a complete rebuild at the shop is needed anyway.  That process usually comes with whatever the most recent Win OS is installed by the builder.  As I mentioned earlier I would most likely have the shop download and set up a dual boot with Ubuntu or whatever the Unix-noob friendliest Linux flavor is at that time as the Primary boot and never start windows again. *shrugs*

[wobatt]

There's so much speculation and misinformation about now that I'm not entirely sure what to believe. I'm going to wait 6 months for the dust to settle then decide if I want the free upgrade.

[fragger]

That's probably a wise course of action wobatt, if you're thinking of taking on W10 :)

Booting up today, I noticed a big exclamation mark over the HP Support Assistant icon in my Systray (yes, it's a store-bought HP box, but I've been quite happy with it the last four years or so and it's done everything I've wanted). Hovering the pointer over the icon made a pop-up appear which informed me that there was a message about my PC which was of such great import that I had better jolly well look at it immediately, or words to that effect.

Clicking on the icon brought up the HP Support Assistant window (which I never use) and there was another exclamation mark under HP Messages with an "Important Message about your PC!" tag. Thinking that perhaps there was some urgent action that needed addressing or that something had gone seriously kablooie, I went in to reveal the message that was of such significant gravity that it warranted interrupting my morning routine:

"Get Ready for Windows 10!!!"

Gee, really? There's a Windows 10 coming out? And here I was thinking that the little Windows logo that's been sitting in my Systray all these weeks was just a nice little adornment to my desktop that MS had awarded me, like an achievement, and I was too dim to realize it was actually an icon which would inform me about the imminent arrival of the new OS if I'd had more IQ points than a barnacle and clicked on it.

Ay-yi-yi... :D

[PZ]

Ain't no such thing as a free lunch, especially when it comes to Microsoft and Apple.  The only "free" things I've seen so far are those that cost you in the end.

Of course, I am a pessimistic sort, but at the end of the day, I believe MS will try to stick it in our rear ends.  8-X

[Art Blade]

 ???  :-()

[mandru]

The following link reveals several unsettling security issues as well as temporary fixes.  As noted in the link every time one of the "Smaller but more frequent updates" occur it will resets all of your personal security settings to Default value.

Some fixes for these conditions are listed and source references are listed at the end of bottom of the original poster's submission.

That phrase "Smaller but more frequent updates" is a direct quote from MS' own words in their reserve your copy of Win 10 task bar sucker wart (when you follow out the link) that requires an MIT bachelor's degree in computer sciences to remove from your system.

http://imgur.com/gallery/I8u2G

In my limited understanding this is what I am getting from this link:

I'm going to call the Introduction panel "Panel Zero."

The first panel speaks of once a Update has posted to your computer you receive an additional packet of other peoples individualized internet address numbers (sorry I don't know the short word for that) and for a period of time (depending on the size of that list of addresses) after the download your system becomes a zombie bot that inserts itself into other strange computers streaming (torrenting?) the distribution of the mandatory updates to other Win 10 users so that Windows saves on their bandwidth by dumping it on yours.  There is no opting out of updates other than failing to pay your internet bill.  ::)

Second panel is pretty self explanatory as well as intimidating.  :o

Third panel says what we already know only at a factor bumped up to the power of ⁴ beyond our previous expectations. You got WIFI?  Someone walks past and the content of their emails and web searches on their personal device will probably start affecting the ads served to you as discussed in panel 4 and in panel 5

Fourth panel see panel 3

Fifth panel... Just read it for yourself.  Too much there for me to get my head completely around though I heavily suspect that in connection to the info provided in panel 3 & 4 as far as privacy goes Win 10 has the potential of reeking like a washtub of fresh baking-in-the-sun hog poop collected after they've had a week long all they could eat binge of spicy oyster kimchi stuffed beef and garbanzo bean burritos.

My take?  I'll let that last bit speak for itself.

[fragger]

Bloody hell... I've just been reading here and here about what I need to do to get rid of that damned W10 upgrade icon from my SysTray.

MS' helpful advice is to simply hide it. Which is fine for your current session. But next time you start Windows it'll be back like an annoying blowfly.

Basically it was installed with an update back in April and if you want it gone you need to find that update in your Windows Update list and terminate it with extreme prejudice. Which won't actually delete it entirely from your system, and will only really w@&k as long as you have automatic updating disabled, because if you don't, the blowfly will come buzzing back with some future update. So you have to take further action to really deal with it (covered in the above links) but it seems that even then, like The Blob you can't kill this insidious creature entirely - you can only freeze it to prevent it from oozing its way back into your SysTray.

Of course MS will make future attempts to re-invade your SysTray by sending more Blobs at you.

If all that fails, there's a registry hack you can employ to stop it showing its mug, but it's still like dropping the persistent damned thing into Antarctica instead of eliminating it completely.

What a flipping hassle! Sorry MS, but if you want to win my heart you ain't gonna do it by hijacking my SysTray and sticking a slimy little booger in it that I'm going to have to try to scour out with the software equivalent of a roto-rooter, if I'm so inclined.

Since I'm not so inclined, I've decided to just leave it there as a kind of reality check to the arrogant intrusiveness of this company. It may only be a little icon but it's what it represents that irks me. There are myriad ways that MS can take to advertise their new OS without invading my personal computer space and pasting a notice there with Super Glue. If I want their damned !@#$% OS I'll get it - I don't appreciate this insolent thrusting down of my throat.

That alone is enough to turn me off

[Art Blade]

maybe they're just testing out how to add ads to our task bar. Next we'll see porn sites advertising there, too. :-D

[PZ]

I formerly used Windows Journal for note taking, but MS has made it virtually useless due to "security" updates.  The only way I could make Journal w@&k without it crashing was to uninstall now two different security updates.  Talk about a passive/aggressive way to get people to stop using something.

mandru, if you right click the task bar in w8.1 and choose "Properties", you can go to the Navigation tab and select "When I sign in or close apps then go directly to the desktop instead of Start".  This will at least take you directly to the Windows desktop rather than the ridiculous start screen.

[mandru]

Thanks for the heads up on that PZ.  I'd love for that to be the case but I think my Vaio Tap20 all-in-one tablet may be Win 8.0 but I'll check it out.  +1  :)  :-X

[PZ]

Thanks, mandru - best of luck.  The menu choice might also be something like "Go to desktop instead of Start when I sign in" or words to that effect.  Anything in the Navigation tab that looks like that should be good to go.  Reboot and you should go directly to the desktop (keep fingers crossed)

[Binnatics]

Reading this topic makes me think Microsoft is killing the desktop PC slowly. Torturing it through the back troyan horse style. When I need a new OS (currently using Vista) I'm seriously concidering switching to another operating system. Maybe Ubuntu, or a Steam Machine. I'm tired of tyles and taskbars of said company

[PZ]

I've setup an old PC (too old to run Windows) with Ubuntu as a music server for my local network and it works great.  Boots up really fast, and has never let me down, plus, the OS is free.

[Art Blade]

problem is games for PC are basically always windows games. At least at first.