I have yet to get Firefox to function on my Surface(the only Win10 device I own), it locks up as soon as it loads and the entire tablet needs to be rebooted afterward,

Being a M$ product that is now over 3 years old I expect it to die soon and then be determined to be as expensive to repair as purchasing a new one.........whereupon I will investigate some of the new Android based tablets I've seen lately.

....ain't gonna visit Redmond no more........

Hi JE,

From the Micro$oft support website:

Q - My Windows 10 S PC won't install some apps. Is that normal?

A - If you have a Windows 10 PC running Windows 10 S (such as a Surface Laptop), you may notice that it won't install apps from outside the Microsoft Store. Don't worry—that's the way we designed it.

By exclusively running apps from the Microsoft Store, Windows 10 S helps keep your PC running fast and secure and provides peace of mind by removing the risks that come with downloading apps from other places.

Looks like Micro$oft wants to alienate users from installing ANY software NOT produced by them. "Apps from other places" are better than anything Micro$oft puts out, in my opinion that is. When Googling this I saw that there are procedure(s) for doing a "jailbreak" on a Surface to install apps NOT from the Micro$oft App Store. I just did a search for "third party apps on surface". If'n you want to "keep" your surface that is. I would not have one myself. ;) Windows 10 is the ONLY Micro$oft product I have a license to have in my possession. I don't "own it" you see, just a license to use it. That and the various Win 7 OSs I bought over the years.

Have a great day! :)

Siran

I suggest you reread the Win 7 LICENSE, you don't own it either.

As to M$$tore - looks like they are copying Apple. We get a cut no matter what!

-[ snip ]-

-[ snip ]-

-[ snip ]-

-[ snip ]-

I suggest you reread the Win 7 LICENSE, you don't own it either.

As to M$$tore - looks like they are copying Apple. We get a cut no matter what!

I don't NEED to re-read anything. Obviously you did not see the "That and..." when I mentioned Win 7. "That and" includes Win 7 in what I previously said about NOT owning.

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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

Looks like Micro$oft wants to alienate users from installing ANY software NOT produced by them. "Apps from other places" are better than anything Micro$oft puts out, in my opinion that is. When Googling this I saw that there are procedure(s) for doing a "jailbreak" on a Surface to install apps NOT from the Micro$oft App Store. I just did a search for "third party apps on surface". If'n you want to "keep" your surface that is. I would not have one myself. ;) Windows 10 is the ONLY Micro$oft product I have a license to have in my possession. I don't "own it" you see, just a license to use it. That and the various Win 7 OSs I bought over the years.

Have a great day! :)

Siran

Yeah, I know M$ has had a case of the A$$ with Mozilla since the days of Netscape(which I used extensively). Like I said before I hope the Android based stuff catches on generally there needs to be another viable choice for mainstreaming other than M$ and A$$LE....competition is good for everyone.

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

Looks like Micro$oft wants to alienate users from installing ANY software NOT produced by them. "Apps from other places" are better than anything Micro$oft puts out, in my opinion that is. When Googling this I saw that there are procedure(s) for doing a "jailbreak" on a Surface to install apps NOT from the Micro$oft App Store. I just did a search for "third party apps on surface". If'n you want to "keep" your surface that is. I would not have one myself. ;) Windows 10 is the ONLY Micro$oft product I have a license to have in my possession. I don't "own it" you see, just a license to use it. That and the various Win 7 OSs I bought over the years.

Have a great day! :)

Siran

Yeah, I know M$ has had a case of the A$$ with Mozilla since the days of Netscape(which I used extensively). Like I said before I hope the Android based stuff catches on generally there needs to be another viable choice for mainstreaming other than M$ and A$$LE....competition is good for everyone.

Hi JE,

I too used Netscape and before that Mosaic. When Mozilla came out with Firefox, I tried it and fell in love with it. I left Netscape behind. I tried others: Chrome, Safari, Opera, IE, and recently various Firefox knockoffs and none compare too well to Firefox. I refuse to use or even give Edge a try. I used it once way back in the early days of Windows 10 to see how it fared on my website. Actually I was impressed, it does better than IE ever will.

I have 2 Android tablets, 1 doing SETI Prime and Beta, the other for just general purpose use. I also have a Samsung Galaxy Android phone.

If'n they come out with an Android OS for PCs, I may just give it a try. I have tried Linux, many times, but have not successfully gotten it to run Windows software or games like World of Warcraft. Maybe some day, then I can ditch Micro$oft and their crappy OS for good. :)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

---

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

If'n they come out with an Android OS for PCs, I may just give it a try. I have tried Linux, many times, but have not successfully gotten it to run Windows software or games like World of Warcraft. Maybe some day, then I can ditch Micro$oft and their crappy OS for good. :)

Hi Siran, My point exactly, I could live with Ubuntu or Wine if there was content I currently use, particularly Quicken which I find heads, shoulders and navel above any personal financial software on any flavor of Linux. I already use Open Office and find it very good software, if someone does something similar that handles Quicken created files and backups I would probably dump M$ immediately.

Eye

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

If'n they come out with an Android OS for PCs, I may just give it a try. I have tried Linux, many times, but have not successfully gotten it to run Windows software or games like World of Warcraft. Maybe some day, then I can ditch Micro$oft and their crappy OS for good. :)

WINE on Linux is surprisingly capable. There's also Steam (and others) for playing the big games on Linux. Worth a look to see what is recently supported?...

And for Android on a PC, there are various emulators and VMs.

There is also this that natively boots into Android on your PC: Android-x86 Project - Run Android on Your PC

... I could live with Ubuntu or Wine if there was content I currently use, particularly Quicken which I find heads, shoulders and navel above any personal financial software on any flavor of Linux. I already use Open Office and find it very good software, if someone does something similar that handles Quicken created files and backups I would probably dump M$ immediately.

Various versions of Quicken run on WINE:

WineHQ - Category: Main Productivity Finance/Accounting/Project/CRM Quicken

There is also the Codeweavers version: Codeweavers Quicken and Codeweavers Quicken 2016


Good luck!

IT is what we make it :-)
Martin

---

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

If'n they come out with an Android OS for PCs, I may just give it a try. I have tried Linux, many times, but have not successfully gotten it to run Windows software or games like World of Warcraft. Maybe some day, then I can ditch Micro$oft and their crappy OS for good. :)

WINE on Linux is surprisingly capable. There's also Steam (and others) for playing the big games on Linux. Worth a look to see what is recently supported?...

And for Android on a PC, there are various emulators and VMs.

There is also this that natively boots into Android on your PC: Android-x86 Project - Run Android on Your PC

... I could live with Ubuntu or Wine if there was content I currently use, particularly Quicken which I find heads, shoulders and navel above any personal financial software on any flavor of Linux. I already use Open Office and find it very good software, if someone does something similar that handles Quicken created files and backups I would probably dump M$ immediately.

Various versions of Quicken run on WINE:

WineHQ - Category: Main Productivity Finance/Accounting/Project/CRM Quicken

There is also the Codeweavers version: Codeweavers Quicken and Codeweavers Quicken 2016


Good luck!

IT is what we make it :-)
Martin

Thank you Martin,
I will be doing that sooner than expected, I just booted my Surface to discover my favorite time waster Mahjong Solitaire now has a corrupted license after the latest 10 roll up/update and cannot be reloaded from the store...........THANKS Micosuck! Just making it easier and easier to leave!

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

If'n they come out with an Android OS for PCs, I may just give it a try. I have tried Linux, many times, but have not successfully gotten it to run Windows software or games like World of Warcraft. Maybe some day, then I can ditch Micro$oft and their crappy OS for good. :)

Hi Siran, My point exactly, I could live with Ubuntu or Wine if there was content I currently use, particularly Quicken which I find heads, shoulders and navel above any personal financial software on any flavor of Linux. I already use Open Office and find it very good software, if someone does something similar that handles Quicken created files and backups I would probably dump M$ immediately.

Eye

Did you ever try GnuCash for financial software? I moved from DOS based financial programs to Quicken and then to GnuCash. It has both Windows and Linux versions. I like double-entry ledgers so that is the reason I abandoned Quicken.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

If'n they come out with an Android OS for PCs, I may just give it a try. I have tried Linux, many times, but have not successfully gotten it to run Windows software or games like World of Warcraft. Maybe some day, then I can ditch Micro$oft and their crappy OS for good. :)

Hi Siran, My point exactly, I could live with Ubuntu or Wine if there was content I currently use, particularly Quicken which I find heads, shoulders and navel above any personal financial software on any flavor of Linux. I already use Open Office and find it very good software, if someone does something similar that handles Quicken created files and backups I would probably dump M$ immediately.

Eye

Did you ever try GnuCash for financial software? I moved from DOS based financial programs to Quicken and then to GnuCash. It has both Windows and Linux versions. I like double-entry ledgers so that is the reason I abandoned Quicken.

Gnucash was tried, and was unable to import the data from Quicken in a usable format. The program required one by one hand matching of fields that was too laborious for my tastes. I don't wish to spend what's left of my time on earth learning a new OS. Micro$uck has drained whatever goodwill I had towards software developers and I'm not willing to waste my time getting used to another system to just have it changed on a 'bright boy's' whim.

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

Well, would you believe it!

Can you believe it??

Is this believable???


... Issues Emphasize Microsoft's Update Problem

... Microsoft MFA Locks Customers Out ... Office 365 and Azure Active Directory customers were locked out of the services for 14 hours ... the issue was caused by a recent update...

Microsoft Customers Locked Out a Second Time ... engineers are restarting the authentication infrastructure...

... the company seems to have reduced its Q&A focus for Windows 10. The situation only seems to be getting worse. Security company Avecto released a study earlier this year showing that Windows 10, which is supposed to be Microsoft's most secure operating system, has had a drastic increase in critical vulnerabilities...


OneDrive is broken: Microsoft's cloudy storage drops from the sky for EU users

... that Microsoft has a wide variety of images to illustrate failure will be of little comfort to users that depend on the cloud storage system...

Microsoft's OneDrive support orifice spent the early part of the outage in denial, asking users to clear their browser cache and cookies...

[4 hours later into the Friday working day] It looks like OneDrive is slowly coming back to life, with some users reporting success in accessing their files. Microsoft reckons that a "networking issue" is to blame...


It's a patch bonanza as Microsoft showers its OS platforms with update love

Administrators really hate this one weird bug in Windows Server 2016, but MS plays nice with iCloud again...

... Tucked innocuously among a swathe of fixes ranging from dealing with Russian time zone changes to fixing wobbly Hyper-V servers is the text: "Addresses an issue in File Explorer that sometimes deletes the permissions of a shared parent folder when you delete the shared child folder."

Just think about that for a moment. Permission changes heading up[!!!] rather than down the folder structure.

The problem was reported back in February...

... Alas, the original poster in the TechNet forum, Rolf Berger, has reported that his issue "is still not solved", so your mileage may vary. We've contacted Microsoft for more information...

Patch once, patch often ... Two notable fixes in the release deal with the failure to reconnect mapped drives on login and the bug that stopped users setting Win32 app defaults...


Well, well, well, fancy that!

Good luck all!!


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

---

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

Linux has never needed patches?

Well I never.

Linux has never needed patches?

Well I never.

Not mandatory in most cases. There have been lots of patches this year because of the supposed Spectre/Meltdown etc vulnerabilities the researchers have identified. Same as in Windows.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Linux has never needed patches?

Well I never.

Not mandatory in most cases. There have been lots of patches this year because of the supposed Spectre/Meltdown etc vulnerabilities the researchers have identified. Same as in Windows.

And a few dozen more. IIRC there is another one out there involving CRC memory that some researchers mathematically posit can not be patched.

This does not surprise me, silicon was never intended to be run in a hostile environment and therefore was not designed to be resistant; instead it was designed to be efficient. These efficiency measures can be exploited to gather information about other processes.

At work I've been afflicted with the failure of MFA for some time now - the theory is fine, but the execution is not so good. And if ther's no mobile coverage (WiFi or cell) it's a PoP.

As for the problems M$ are having with OneDrive, given the nature of the beast I'm not too surprised, and the naivety of people who think "its on the cloud I don't have to worry". From where I'm sitting I can see a few clouds, and they are leaking, and I can't help thinking about cloud storage of business-critical data leaking in a similar manner (regardless as to who's cloud one is using).

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Hmm, the Cloud. A modern name for an old idea - online storage. Well Photobucket sure put paid to that idea.

Linux has never needed patches?

Well I never.

Linux is indeed continuously patched and developed further.

However, a big difference for Linux is that updates do not require a reboot or a multiple-hours long "update everything in big blobs". There also isn't the disruption of an update being forced upon you to yank your machine away into uselessness just as you're trying to give a business presentation...

However, we've known about the Windows updates overhead and suffered that for too long as is.


My incredulousness is for how Microsoft's latest updates and cloud operations now appear to have descended into ridiculousness.

The whole idea of, and the Marketing pushing, the world of Cloud services is that the cloud is better and more reliable than anything that can be done onsite... Supposedly.

The cloud now critically services many businesses and users. Any hiccup is a huge cost of disruption and costs for the users. The cloud infrastructure and associated client operating system(s) should be almost completely reliable due to that critical dependence and high costs of disruption. Yet...

We've now had multiple weeks of unbelievable failures that have 'switched off' large parts of the Microsoft world for multiple hours at a time... Also, we've had buggy updates that have done damage to user data which should be a complete "never do that!"... We've had updates that have disabled user devices... Repeatedly!

For providing IT services, that level of failure should be unheard of. Would it be any way to run a country where you could randomly lose your mains electricity supply for hours at a time, to be reduced to pen and paper and candlelight, because some operator has 'gone to lunch' ?... Indeed unbelievable.


So... What is happening and why?

And why can Microsoft survive such customer impacting outages and farce, repeatedly, and with such glib non-excuses?


Unfortunately, this brings down the whole world of IT into disrepute. So much so that users are reluctant to believe anything and 'IT Support' cannot be trusted, regardless of the true source of the farce.

Would you believe it!?


IT is what we make it... (And all that...)
Martin

---

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

One gotcha to watch out for those new to Microsoft's new-style 'crowdsourced' 'Q&A department' ?...


Why is my Windows 10 preview build ticking? Microsoft reminds users that previews have timebombs

While getting a release of a wobble-free Windows 10 is proving an impossible mission for Microsoft, the Windows Insider team are at pains to warn its army of unpaid testers that older preview builds will soon self-destruct...


There is 'free' as in to enjoy "freedoms". There is 'free' as in "of no monetary cost". And then there is 'free' as in "cheapskate and suffering a false economy"...

Which might it be for recent and ongoing Microsoft updates?

And who is it that then bears the consequent extra costs?

(Or is all that irrelevant for the sake of your free personalized pre-install of Candy Crush?! ;-) To be believed?!!)



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

---

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

(Or is all that irrelevant for the sake of your free personalized pre-install of Candy Crush?! ;-) To be believed?!!)

Just for the sake of a fun giggle...

Is this really the shape of the "New IT Support"?

answers.microsoft.com: CANDY CRUSH CRASHING

Hi Lisa
I am Wilfredo an Independent advisor And I'm here to help you!!
How you doing today?

Check this link [how ... to ... reinstall...] ...

... Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it

I hope it helps you, have a nice day!!!



Yikes! Hope I never sound like that on the phone!!! :-O

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

---

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

Does anyone have an opinion of running Android on a PC?

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It runs SETI@home and Einstein@home on my UleFone smart phone with Android 7.1.1.
Tullio

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