Message boards :
Number crunching :
Windows 10 - Yea or Nay?
Message board moderation
Previous · 1 . . . 98 · 99 · 100 · 101 · 102 · 103 · 104 . . . 160 · Next
Author | Message |
---|---|
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 23 May 99 Posts: 7381 Credit: 44,181,323 RAC: 238 ![]() ![]() |
I suspect that it will not be toooo much longer before there won't be any option but to either be assimilated, or just turn updates off entirely. All the signs are pointing toward one of those two outcomes. Greetings Cosmic, In July last year, I gave Window$ 10 a whirl just to check it out. There were many things I liked about it, but there were many more things I did not like. For one thing, I hated that I no longer had control of MY PC. Then after about 3 weeks something really nasty peeved me off and I did the "role back" thingy to my trusty ol' Win7 Pro 64bit. That sucked! There were things that no longer worked in Win7 that did before Window$ 10. And here's where things started going really south. I downloaded the Win7 Pro 64bit w/SP1 ISO. I did the MD5 check and found the file to be intact. I burned it to disc and began the clean install. I started doing the updates from after SP1. What a nightmare that was. It would take eons for them to download at 10 at a time. I wiped the HDD... I grabbed my OEM Win7 Pro 64bit disc and did the clean install again. Things were going just fine. I grabbed the SP1 file from M$ and installed it. I started the updates, again 10 at a time. I made sure the when I was getting close to March 2015 updates I was doing them selectively. I stopped when I got to May 2015 which is when the Window$ 10 crap really started hitting. I turned Windows Updates completely off and, other than a BSoD episode because of RAM going south, my PC is MY PC again. The moral of the story is as you say: "... until the spying crap is removed and guaranteed to be gone." and WE have control of our PCs through the OS meaning we control if and when updates get installed, Window$ 10 will not see this PC, period. Keep on BOINCing...! :) CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\// Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker "Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 31186 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 ![]() ![]() |
I smell a world class action suit coming on...Why would a trump nominated judge ever see a contract of adhesion? The courts of today see the consumer has no rights and refuse to enforce any. There may be a suit, but it will get dismissed very quickly. ![]() |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 30 Jul 15 Posts: 268 Credit: 1,735,966 RAC: 0 ![]() |
[quote]Question #1 I assume you have a shortcut (probably on the desktop) for GWX? If so, press (and hold) ctrl, click (and hold) the shortcut, drag it to the start menu > all programs > startup and release the mouse and then ctrl. This will put the shortcut to launch GWX control panel at logon. This assumes that you go straight to the desktop when you boot up (without having to type in a password). If you don't have automatic logon, this won't really help to make sure it is running at all times, but it will automate that one and make one less step to go through every time you log in. (see below for more related info) Hi Cosmic Guy! Thank you for your kind response to my 2 questions. :) In regard the above, I do not have a GWX 'shortcut' on my desktop. I did the 'quickie non-install' type install. How do I get a 'shortcut' to try dragging? I do go straight to my desktop on boot and there are no other Users, only me, the winsome 'Administrator.' :) I noticed that, if I click Start, and type GWX in Search programs and files, I see a GWX icon. If I right-click it, I see an option to Pin to Start Menu. If I did the 'pin' would THIS make GWX re-start automatically on a re-boot? On my Question #2. In my post I tried to clearly say what I see now on my update page, after unchecking menu boxes maybe I should not have. :( Given that, will I STILL receive updates to view and decide if I want to install them? Thank you, and huggs! River Song (aka Linda Latte on planet Earth) "Happy I-Phone girl on the GO GO GO" |
Sleepy ![]() Send message Joined: 21 May 99 Posts: 219 Credit: 98,947,784 RAC: 28,360 ![]() ![]() |
This, for now, is the best safeguard you have to stay in control of YOUR computer. Nothing will be downloaded OR installed unless you specifically give it permission to do so. Only problem is that it has happened to me several times in the last months to have the PC automatically rebooted after a MS update (also putting some havoc on some services and some SETI related tweaks that I prefer to start manually). What update since I am since the begin of the world strictly in an "only notifying of new updates" condition? Simply, without me touch anything, the settings had been reverted by some magic hand to "download and update automatically". Therefore, it this gets triggered to happen in the right moment to have the system automagically updated to Win10, there you go... Fingers crossed. Sleepy |
![]() Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 15184 Credit: 4,362,181 RAC: 3 ![]() |
Hi Rick, The problem with this is that there is a bug in the Windows Update client that causes the slowdowns of the downloads to happen (some call it a bug, others call it sabotage). This bug is fixed in the Windows Update client of October 2015. That version does not add Windows 10 nagware, something that all Windows Update clients afterwards do add. Download these two updates before starting the installation process: KB3083710 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3083710 and KB3102810 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3102810 The first is said update of the Windows Update client. The second is an update that fixes that searching and installing updates is slow due to the process constantly taking up a full CPU core. (Of course, if you want to keep using Cosmic's list of no no's you'll see 3102810 is on there, but he only added it because it was an update added during the Windows 10 nagware updates. It does really fix the slow searching for updates and downloading them, I just tested that on my system. I haven't yet been assimilated. And besides, these days you only need 3035583 installed on your system for Windows 10 to install itself fully automated.) Copy these executables to a USB flash drive. Next install Windows 7 with SP1 and leave the network cable disconnected. Install those two updates from the flash drive before connecting to the network and running Windows Update for the first time, and you can cut that horrendous delay down to a matter of a few minutes. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 16 Jun 01 Posts: 6325 Credit: 106,370,077 RAC: 121 ![]() ![]() |
|
Sleepy ![]() Send message Joined: 21 May 99 Posts: 219 Credit: 98,947,784 RAC: 28,360 ![]() ![]() |
I am experiencing lately a strange intermittent high activity of svchost, with huge memory usage, up to 2 GB. Of course this causes many problems, especially in a PC which is not beefed up with 32 GB RAM, but only has 4 GB physical RAM. I am on Win7. I made a search and in several forums this behaviour is ascribed to a Windows Update bug, which should be cured by KB3135445. Which is in the red list related to W10. I am totally adhering to the list and not wanting to risk the update or data sniffing W10-wise. Only, these forums also seem W10 aware and people writing there seem not to like W10 as much as we do not. See for instance: http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/390995-svchost-exe-crazy-high-cpu-usage-crazy-high-memory-usage-2.html http://forums.majorgeeks.com/index.php?threads/svchost-exe-high-memory-usage.297165/ Any hint/suggestion/comment on this particular matter? Thank you! Sleepy |
Sirius B ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Dec 00 Posts: 24927 Credit: 3,081,182 RAC: 7 ![]() |
Evaluate this one instead... Just have & 1 word - dismal. Have tried much better live cd's. They need to improve theirs immensely. No programs or web browser. Not even any network connections detected. |
Cosmic_Ocean ![]() Send message Joined: 23 Dec 00 Posts: 3027 Credit: 13,516,867 RAC: 13 ![]() ![]() |
This post answers several questions and replies to several posts since my last one, so there's something for several of you in what is below. re: checking for updates uses lots of memory and CPU I do recall one of those updates for the Update Client saying something about high CPU usage and high memory usage, but I look at it as one of those catch-22 situations. Yes, it fixes the problem of needing more memory than it should and maxing out a whole CPU core.. but at what cost? It's very similar to that "when a security update is not a security update" one, where there are benefits from it.. but there are also drawbacks as well. It isn't specifically stated anywhere that the October 2015 Client does not do nefarious things in the background, when some google searches for the September 2015 update returned a few research pages on google that said there was some evidence or very strong speculation that it does. I look at it like this: better safe than sorry. I just inherently don't trust any of the new Update Clients released after the release of 10 (which are all included in my list). I have noticed that the one instance of svchost.exe does use a lot of memory and CPU time, but on my main machine, I have 16gb of RAM and 6 cores--it is a non-issue. My laptop is only dual-core and has 4gb--that gets a little sluggish, but that only lasts for a few minutes until checking for updates has finished, so I can live with it. re: updates taking forever when you do a clean vanilla install I know the feeling. I've described this before in this thread, but when you get updates directly from MS, checking for updates takes forever, and then downloading them does, as well. This is because you only end up downloading fractional portions of each update--only the files that you need. Example: Say... update A contains 10 updated files inside of it. You need all 10 of those from update A. But then there's update B that also contains 10 updated files (in reference to the vanilla, RTM versions), but only three of them are changed from what was contained with A. That means, you only need to download 7 of the files from A, and only 3 of the files from B. That takes a lot of CPU time, and disk access (and if you watch task manager, you'll see a lot of makecab.exe instances come and go in the process). However, on my main machine, I have it connected to my WSUS machine. When you get updates from WSUS, it does not do partial downloads of updates--you get the entire update and it installs everything for every update. This sounds like it would take longer, but it is actually over an hour faster from a vanilla install all the way up to current day. It is an hour faster largely because it only takes about two minutes to be told that you need 94 updates, and then you "download" them from the WSUS machine over gigabit. They begin installing, and that takes about 30 minutes. Then you restart, get SP1 the same way, that takes about 20 minutes to install, restart. Then there's just over 300 updates after SP1. Those take about 30 seconds to download over gigabit from WSUS machine, and it takes about 4 hours to install those. re: lack of control in 10 If it came down to it for 10, I could deal with the lack of control with the updates, because I would just use WSUS, which lets me pick and choose updates to approve or decline, so that isn't particularly an issue for me--it's the data-mining and spying that I don't trust. re: shortcut for GWX Control Panel As was stated by someone else, it already has the ability to always run on its own. As was stated right after my earlier reply: Enabling/Disabling Monitor Mode for all users (recommended): That should work even with the stand-alone version (doesn't need to be installed, just a simple EXE that you double-click to run). Linux laptop: record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up) |
kittyman ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51525 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 ![]() ![]() |
10 is simply a pox and/or hoax on the entire computing community. I am writing this on my daily driver, which is locked on 7 and has updates permanently on forever hold. I don't intend to allow them ever again unless I am forced to by something that will not allow it to function properly. And all my crunch-only rigs are still on XP. Performing flawlessly I might add. Couple are 64 bit and the others are all 32 bit. I have not had to reboot ONE of them in months, except for a hardware issue now rectified. I only updated my daily driver to 7 because of some browser issues that necessitated my doing so. I am very much old school, and will remain so until I cannot do otherwise. At that point, I suppose I might consider Linux...but for now that learning curve is far too great for me to address. "Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once." ![]() |
![]() Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 15184 Credit: 4,362,181 RAC: 3 ![]() |
re: checking for updates uses lots of memory and CPU From this Sevenforums thread: As far as I can work out it's an upgrade for Windows Update Client that enables you to block Windows 10 upgrade updates via group policy. That's no good on your machine as Home Premium doesn't have Group Policy Editor. So I suggest not installing KB3083710 for that reason. Other users with higher versions of Windows 7 might find it useful. So really, it even helps against Windows 10. It allows you to enable the DisableOSUpgrade key in the registry through the group policy editor (on Windows Pro and Ultimate versions, Home and Basic need to do it through the registry). The only thing that it does do is override your hidden packages setting and show them back in the updates list, and perhaps adjust the "Get recommended updates the same way as important updates" back to on. But that's no problem, that's just set all that back off and you're done. I look at it like this: better safe than sorry. I just inherently don't trust any of the new Update Clients released after the release of 10 (which are all included in my list). I have 16GB of RAM on my i5-2500K and when I don't have these two updates installed, Windows Update takes a minimum of 30 minutes to check for updates each time, then a further minimum of 3 hours to download any updates and install those, and all at a cost of a sluggish machine that's almost unusable. For comparisons, my i3-540 with 8GB of RAM (hyperthreading turned off, so only 2 cores) with those updates installed has always -no matter how many updates it would have to check for and download- done all that in 20 minutes, at no cost of interference. It also has DisableOSUPgrade enabled in the registry, it's the one machine that has had an old KB3035583 installed for absolute ages to test if said registry key worked. It's still got Windows 7, no nags towards Windows 10. Just reiterating that even while there's all these updates with Windows 10 stuff integrated around, that Microsoft may err and release genuine updates that fix trouble, and only that. It's not comparable to KB3139929 in that it doesn't secretly download and/or install another update in the background that you cannot uninstall without uninstalling its parent. |
Cosmic_Ocean ![]() Send message Joined: 23 Dec 00 Posts: 3027 Credit: 13,516,867 RAC: 13 ![]() ![]() |
To each their own. I'm not at all an authority on this, nor am I pushing anyone by making decisions for them. I'm just trying to provide information to let everyone make their own more-informed choices. Some have chosen to just turn updates off entirely, others follow my list adamantly, whilst others do their own thing. That's the beauty of having a choice. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/17/microsoft_windows_10_upgrade_gwx_vs_humanity/ Microsoft uses techniques similar to aggressive malware to promote its “Get Windows 10†offer. I found this to be an interesting article. Especially the part where it's not enough to just simply uninstall the (apparently) one instance of 2664 or 5583--if you don't get every mention and reference to it removed, they'll just come right back. Linux laptop: record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up) |
![]() Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 15184 Credit: 4,362,181 RAC: 3 ![]() |
Bring Your Own Dilemma: OEM Laptops and Windows 10 Security Late last year, Duo Labs, the security research team of Duo Security, purchased a stack of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) laptops to see how secure they were. Some problems immediately jumped out at us, like the eDellRoot issue, but a few other issues took a bit more sorting through. The main takeaways include: ** Network protocol-related security issues affected all laptops, starting from as soon as the laptop appeared on the network during initial boot. ** After Patch Tuesday updates, many privacy settings that were adjusted were reset to their default settings - without any notification to the end user. ** One particular finding: McAfee is using web bugs that can be used to track and serve advertising to users. In our opinion, this is the only purpose these web bugs serve. In addition, it is against security best practices to trust third party sites and allow them to load content. It puts users at risk and benefits only the vendor and advertisers. Default laptop settings and protocols make it easier for an attacker to sniff, grab, view and redirect the unsuspecting laptop user’s traffic for illicit purposes. Attackers can steal online bank account passwords, view company data and more due to default firewall settings and services that are exposed on the network. Default Settings Compromise Privacy There are a lot of new features in Windows 8 and 10 that collect data about the user and laptop. Some of that data is uploaded to Microsoft and OEM vendor servers. On Windows 8, there are five screens of privacy settings, and on Windows 10 there are thirteen. All of them are on by default. Many of the applications and services connected to these privacy settings start phoning home as soon as the laptop is connected to a network, before you are logged in. For anyone concerned about privacy, it would be ideal to have a chance to opt out - particularly when it’s not obvious that the collection and uploading of data is even happening. Turning them off seems like it would be a straight-forward process, but in some cases it requires either a service to be disabled or registry keys created/adjusted. So, an average user either wouldn’t know how to do it, wouldn’t think to do it, or both. Additionally, when some of these applications and services get updated on Patch Tuesday, they resort to their default settings - without warning. This means every Patch Tuesday you will have to be in the habit of checking those privacy settings to ensure they stay off. Data Collection Privacy Concerns Encrypted network traffic was not examined, although after some investigation it was possible to tell at least the type of data being transmitted back to a Microsoft or OEM vendor server. It might give one comfort to know that virtually all privacy-related data was encrypted before transmission, but the data is still being collected nonetheless. I understand the desire of the vendors to collect data to improve their products, I would just prefer to not be opted in without consent, particularly after I’ve adjusted the privacy settings with the explicit intent to stop data collection. Their full technical paper (PDF) advises: * Remove McAfee and set up Windows Defender * Adjust firewalls to stop the transmission of data * Disable settings for Windows privacy * Disable and delete OEM apps that gather data And how to configure advanced security settings, including: * Disable Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR), Smart Multi-Homed Name Resolution, Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD), Teredo Tunneling and Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP) since all are on by default (!) * Other low-level privacy setting adjustments |
kittyman ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51525 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 ![]() ![]() |
I run block stock 7. All updates disabled. I never even tried to download any service packages. It still works. It works really well. It is getting harder to find pristine versions of it online, so I have the CD available at all times. Not that it is easily corrupted, but just in case. "Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once." ![]() |
AMDave Send message Joined: 9 Mar 01 Posts: 234 Credit: 11,671,730 RAC: 0 ![]() |
Unlike what M$ has stated, business users are also adversely affected. From that same article How Microsoft copied malware techniques to make Get Windows 10 the world's PC pest "Our resident sysadmin blogger Trevor Pott advises network administrators to take three steps. Firstly, push the registry change via a Group Policy Object (GPO). Secondly, make sure that the GWX patches are not installed. Thirdly, block them in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)." "Microsoft’s official position is this. The company told us: For IT administrators, it is possible to disable the upgrade using Group Policy settings or by using the DisableUpgrade registry key." <not my emphasis> The author follows that up with this ominous fact: "But that is far from the full picture. The advice doesn’t address the fact that GWX mutates and removing those updates ultimately fails to prevent GWX reappearing." <my emphasis> "Mutates", isn't that the purview of malware? For those who know that they will be re-installing Win7, 8, or 8.1, or even for those who just want to be prepared, take a look at NTLite. I've used this to slipstream XP. The upside is that it will reduce the CPU and RAM constraints from updating. The downside is that you will need to manually download each update. However, you will have the choice to not install everything. For example, if you don't want IE installed, you can check that off. You are afforded options that the Win install disc doesn't provide. Here is an article on gaining more control on Automatic Updates. It covers Win10 through Vista. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 15 May 99 Posts: 3841 Credit: 1,114,826,392 RAC: 3,319 ![]() ![]() |
I suppose I might consider Linux...but for now that learning curve is far too great for me to address. Linux was quite difficult for while, but it's a doddle these days with the graphic desktops. I found it easier to install than Windows (the fact that I installed it on six different boards with four different WLAN devices and it flawlessly got both the wired/wireless networking, and audio, running on all of them was a deciding factor.) You can solve 90% or more of any issues you may have with a quick Google, and it's well-known for having a very helpful online community if you're really stuck. Come to the Dark Side... we have cookies. :^) ![]() |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 9 Mar 06 Posts: 21140 Credit: 33,933,039 RAC: 23 ![]() ![]() |
I suppose I might consider Linux...but for now that learning curve is far too great for me to address. I'm glad that you "easily" made the switch to Linux; I STILL have misgivings about Linux!!! The fact remains, that if you want Apache OpenOffice over LibreOffice; you MUST use 30 Command Lines to remove LibreOffice, and another 30 Command Lines to Install OpenOffice!!! I KNOW, I've DONE IT!!! I'm NOT happy that it took 30 Command Lines to do this!!! :-( UNTIL Linux, (ALL Flavors and Distributions), standardize and use Double Click to Install 3rd Party Programs I AM NOT switching to Linux!!! I DO; however, HIGHLY recommend MAC OS X as an alternative! They use Double Click to Install ALL Apps and Programs!!! Whether done through Hackintosh; or, if money permits, buying a real MAC, GET OS X and begin LIVING FREE!!!!! :-) TL TimeLord04 Have TARDIS, will travel... Come along K-9! Join Calm Chaos |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 8 Jan 01 Posts: 108 Credit: 188,578,766 RAC: 0 ![]() |
I keep things simple and get about 90% of my software from Mint's Software Manager. Search > double-click > installed. I'm curious - why did you want to run OpenOffice over LibreOffice? It's my understanding that OpenOffice is practically a dead product. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2913764/openoffice-development-is-looking-grim-as-developers-flock-to-libreoffice.html I'm glad that you "easily" made the switch to Linux; I STILL have misgivings about Linux!!! The fact remains, that if you want Apache OpenOffice over LibreOffice; you MUST use 30 Command Lines to remove LibreOffice, and another 30 Command Lines to Install OpenOffice!!! I KNOW, I've DONE IT!!! I'm NOT happy that it took 30 Command Lines to do this!!! :-( |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 9 Mar 06 Posts: 21140 Credit: 33,933,039 RAC: 23 ![]() ![]() |
I keep things simple and get about 90% of my software from Mint's Software Manager. Search > double-click > installed. Because, at the time that I NEEDED to do this, LibreOffice DID NOT have "Save as: .doc" as an option for documents. It does now; but, NOT when I was using Ubuntu 12.04... So, I chose OpenOffice; which DID, and STILL DOES, "Save as: .doc" LibreOffice would open a .doc file; but, WOULD NOT save as .doc. Further; since you mention Software Manager, I DARE you to try Upgrading BOINC via Software Manager... In Ubuntu, 12.04 and 14.04 I tried; it took another 30 Command Lines, (that Juha helped me with), to alter Software Manager to be able to even see that there were BOINC versions ABOVE 7.0.65 for Linux!!! I HATE COMMAND LINE!!!! MAC OS X does NOT require the average user to know ANY command line. EVERYTHING is done via GUI and Double Click! NOT Linux!!! TL TimeLord04 Have TARDIS, will travel... Come along K-9! Join Calm Chaos |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 14 May 99 Posts: 4438 Credit: 55,006,323 RAC: 0 ![]() |
|
©2025 University of California
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.