Now I just don't know what it's doing. Earlier it was downloading the updates, but it's stopped doing that. The last 4 reboots nothing has installed either. Shrug.

Perhaps go do dinner first, and figure this out later. :)

In my experience, when you get updates from MS's servers, you'll end up with 100% CPU on just one core, and probably a lot of disk activity for upwards of an hour or two before updates will even begin downloading the first update, and then it does that again for every update that follows.

Pretty sure what it is doing is verifying the checksums and versions of every file that the update will change, to see if that file is needed. When you get updates directly from MS through Windows Update, it will do partial downloads of every update, depending on what files you need from it. It saves on bandwidth, but at the cost of not being very fast.

When I use WSUS though, none of that processing and overhead happens--the computers connected to WSUS get the full, complete update and there as very little CPU load or disk activity (until the actual installation of the updates).

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

In my experience, when you get updates from MS's servers, you'll end up with 100% CPU on just one core, and probably a lot of disk activity for upwards of an hour or two before updates will even begin downloading the first update, and then it does that again for every update that follows.

AFAIK that is the .NET installation, running from under a svchost.exe process. It's done that for an hour and a half. And will do that again in a bit because it gets 25+ updates in. Insecure much?

But I fixed the downloads... apparently they were in already, but I then changed the preferences to "I want to decide when to install them", which it didn't like. I put it back onto Automatic and all 157 important updates are now installing.

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Agreed. .NET updates take forever to install. I was pretty disappointed when I first got my SSD, because driver installations were blazing fast, and most of my programs and software installed so fast that it didn't have time to even display the progress bar at all.

But then I started doing updates and even with a SSD, it was just dragging-on and being ridiculously slow. It turns out that about 75% of the total time for Windows updates is entirely CPU-bound, to one single core. That other 25% that is disk activity is mostly negligible with a SSD--except when it comes to .NET. Those ones still take entirely too long to install.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

That (.NET updates) is pretty much what retired my last Single core p4 Northwood, which was the workhorse involved in porting the AKv8 applications from Mac to Windows back in the day. Naturally 100% core use on a single core machine was never going to be pretty, and it certainly wasn't. RIP single core p4 with no hyperthreadinng, lol

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

RIP single core p4 with no hyperthreading, lol

Or, for $20, if you're socket 775 and have an 800Mhz FSB, you could always do this.
Worked very nicely for me, gives you hyperthreading and it will also support 64-bit (EM64T). Turned my old Foxconn 925XE into a Win10x64 Pro box quite nicely. Cooler upgrade also, those old P4s run hot.

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Great. Installed Bitdefender AVP16, rebooted and was looking at my two black screens. Explorer.exe was immediately crashing again. Managed to uninstall it in Safe Mode.

Have complained already about this on their forums.
Really thinking of asking my money back, even though it works fine on the other two systems.

That did mean I had reboot 19 and 20 of the day. Been reinstalling Windows 14 hours now. Am installing the next 45 updates. So far no GWX updates. :)

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Very strange. Switched to Bitdefender (free edition) not too long ago, and it's been good so far. Will watch if you figure out and post about what's going on there.

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

57 times the following error in 24 minutes:

Faulting application name: Explorer.EXE, version: 6.1.7601.17514, time stamp: 0x4ce7a144
Faulting module name: verifier.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5be081
Exception code: 0x80000003
Fault offset: 0x000000000000ae03
Faulting process id: 0xb4c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d16dcf289bc415
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\verifier.dll
Report Id: 6b99e212-d9c2-11e5-9e75-bc5ff419f74a

Oops, sorry for being heavily off-topic here. Kisses Cliff's feet. :)

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That's the application verifier isn't it ? OS may need root certificate updates first ? (just a theory)

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

I've managed to cull it down a little. Still have the crashing explorer.exe, but not as much as it used to. Before I would go to Control Panel and immediately upon clicking anything there explorer would crash. Now it does so once every 5 times or so.

I've disabled all non-Microsoft context handlers which appear in the right-click menu on the Windows Explorer, and things stabilized a little as soon as I took TortoiseSVN out. Trouble is, now most of my right-click options haven't returned, even though I re-enabled them in ShellExView.

So something else seems to be broken.
I'm looking for a good program with which I can compare two registry backups with each other. Anyone know of anything? Already tried the top ones on Google, as far as they can be found (Windiff for instance isn't). Regshot and Regdiff didn't work for me. Am going to try RegMerge next.

Edit: meanwhilst, if you're a user of a wireless mouse, know that it's vulnerable and that it can theoretically be used to remotely add rootkits to your computer: https://threatpost.com/mousejack-attacks-abuse-vulnerable-wireless-keyboard-mouse-dongles/116402/.

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57 times the following error in 24 minutes:

This sounds very much like a hardware problem.
Did you check your memory?

I've always had the problem with explorer.exe crashing on this system, from the day that I built it. I've run a lot of memory- and other test&benchmark&burn-in programs in between then (19 July 2010) and now. Can attest that all's fine.

That there may be something wrong with hardware in my system isn't something I disagree with. But the memory it ain't. :)

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I see KB3035583 was re-re-re-re-re-re-released yesterday, probably after getting a fresh coat of paint....or whitewash.

Ya know, after that initial unsatisfactory experiment with Win10 on one of my boxes back at the beginning of August, i figured I'd just wait six months and maybe try again, assuming that the initial uproar would've induced M$ to alter their approach and clean up their act. Boy, did I figure that wrong. I can't really think of a single positive change in M$'s direction in all that time. Oh, well. I guess I'll just continue with Win XP/Vista/7/8.1 on my various boxes for the foreseeable future.

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Windows 10 lock screen ads begin with Rise of the Tomb Raider push.

Full-screen ads invade the Windows 10 lock screen, but you can turn them off.

With more than 200 million systems running Windows 10—many of them having upgraded from an earlier version for free—Microsoft has decided it’s time to monetize the lock screen.

Over the past few days, Windows 10 users have reported having their lock screens taken over by advertisements for Rise of the Tomb Raider. Microsoft started selling the game through the Windows Store last month, in what might be the start of a much bigger push into PC gaming.

Microsoft hasn’t hid its intentions to use the Windows 10 lock screen as a commercial billboard, having first discussed its plans during last year’s Build developers conference. Now, Microsoft appears to be making good on those promises, with How-To Geek’s Chris Stobing and at least one Reddit user having seen the Rise of the Tomb Raider ads themselves.

Fortunately, the ads are easy enough to disable. Just head to Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen and uncheck the box that reads “Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen.”

Keep in mind that the option to disable the ads only shows up if you have selected Picture or Slideshow under the Background section of lock screen settings. If you’re using Windows Spotlight, which routinely refreshes the lock screen with images from Bing, ads are presumably part of the deal.

Why this matters: The lock screen is one of several ways that Windows 10 isn’t exactly free. From Start menu promotions to subscription-based games to personalized ads in Bing and the Edge browser, Microsoft has plenty of money-making hooks built into its latest OS. Most of these can be avoided or disabled, including the new lock screen promos, but with hundreds of millions of users upgrading to Windows 10 (whether they intended to or not), Microsoft is banking on the notion that most people won’t be so proactive.

Read in a deep voice: and so it begins, muwahahahahaha.

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Cleaners ought to be clean (and clear)

There are many programs that purport to clean up and optimize system performance. While Microsoft does not endorse the use of these tools with Windows, we do not view them as unwanted or malicious.

Many programs in this category have a practice of providing a free version of their software that scans your system, presents the number of errors it found, and offers you to purchase the full version to remove these errors.

However, some programs run on your system and display only an aggregated sum number of errors, without disclosing to you what the errors are, which items they stem from, and what benefit will you get as a result of correcting them. This lack of disclosure deprives you of the clarity and transparency you need to determine the validity of what is being called out as errors, and of the value you can expect from the action the program is proposing to be taken.

This becomes even more accentuated when a free version of a program calls out errors and warnings, doesn’t provide you with any clarity as to what is wrong, and offers you to buy a premium version in order to fix the errors the free version found on your machine – albeit not letting you know with clear specificity what value you can expect from the purchase of the premium version of the program. This makes your purchasing decision arbitrary, and fear-based, rather than rational.

Another example of an unwanted behavior is when system cleaner/optimizer programs present Windows-created prefetch files (.pf) as errors, or encourage you to remove them. Prefetch files are created by the Windows operating system to improve its performance by reducing the load times of programs. They are not errors (or ‘junk’ as some cleaner/optimizer programs refer to them). Such programs should neither mislead you to think these are errors or junk files, nor should they encourage you to remove these operating system created files from your system.

Our criteria states that you must be able to expect that the actions a system maintenance or optimization program takes towards system performance are actually beneficial. Unwanted behaviors include displaying exaggerated claims about the system’s health.

Accordingly, to be compliant with our objective criteria, programs must provide details that back up their claims, so that you have the ability to assess what the program found and deems to be errors, and determine if you’d like to take the program’s recommended actions.

Microsoft security products, such as Windows Defender for Windows 10, will continue to classify optimization programs that do not provide details as unwanted software, detect and remove them.

Barak Shein
MMPC

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What the -BLEEP- is the U.S. Government thinking????

Defense Department to put Windows 10 on 4M computers

Well that says it all . Somehow I knew M$ had done a deal with the U.S defence department .

It's so Bleeding obvious you would have to be blind not to have work that out

Microsoft and the U.S Defence Dept. can kiss my rear end . Linux here we come

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This may be old news for some...


Windows 10 now a 'recommended' update for unsuspecting PCs

You. Will. Upgrade. You Will. Upgrade

... Windows Update will start making the upgrade to version 10 of the operating system a recommended update, rather than an optional one, a spokesperson for the software giant confirmed. So if you've got automatic updates set up on your computer, expect to download and install a few gigabytes of code for the move to Windows 10.

Also be aware that if you have switched to manual updates you still may end up downloading the new OS anyway. Windows Update is automatically preselecting the optional download as desired, so there's no need to click on the box to get it...


And then there is this example on another widely used OS:


FTC: Duo bought rights to Android game – then turned it into ad-slinging junkware in an update

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled its case against a pair of developers accused of purchasing an Android game and turning it into an adware faucet...


And then in quick succession there is for Windows 10:


Ads pop up on Windows 10 lock screen, and it's not malware: Microsoft put them there

Microsoft recently stuck an ad in the lock screen of Windows 10, meaning many of the ... users who upgraded from previous versions were greeted by an advertisement...

... Then uncheck the option that says “Get fun tips tricks and more...

... The question is whether most users will care; there is an option to disable the ads, after all. It will be interesting to see how users react, especially if such ads become more common.



To my tiny little mind and personal opinion, the "Get fun tips tricks and more" is a fantastic Marketing euphemism. The question really is, do the users care?

(Or are Windows 10 users already dead meat to be chopped up by Microsoft and approved partners?)


IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

7 is not dead meat.
I am using it as we speak.

Updates are as dead a a doornail here.
Turned off, kaputsky.

They cannot get through the door.

And anything else that happens to be a result of that has not happened just yet.

And is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Just call me 'stable with 7'.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

My hardware here will stay Win7 until at least 2021 (unless something drastic happens).

That being said, I've been building new PC's for old age people as well as gamers and they're all very happy with Win10 so go figure (in the end, if they're happy then so am I). ;-)

Cheers.

My hardware here will stay Win7 until at least 2021 (unless something drastic happens).

That being said, I've been building new PC's for old age people as well as gamers and they're all very happy with Win10 so go figure (in the end, if they're happy then so am I). ;-)

Cheers.

It is a very simple interface to learn, especially if you've used a smartphone. Which is probably M$'s intention, to unify it's O$ across platforms much as Apple and the Iphone/Mac relationship.

A VERY different take however on the privacy portion of the comparison.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>