I Was Forced To Install Windows 10

[Shadow Wolf]

Also, Linux ****ing sucks (it doesn't load .exe files normally meaning programs from Windows are literally locked out).

Not true, as Linux will run them (like install files) and they're are ways to still get those without native support to run.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

I just bought a new smaller laptop that came with windows 10 pre-installed. By far my biggest issue is how integrated OneDrive is. I don't want my files in the cloud. If and when I do, I will put them there, thank you very much. This also messes up the directory system (why have my documents both under username/Documents and username/OneDrive/Documents????)

The one nice addition, in my mind, is that openssh is now available, which means I can remotely log into my system. That only gives a command line, but that's all that is required, right?

Anyway, I see up a dual boot with win10 and Linux Mint 19 and it works like a charm! I have a desktop with Linux Mint 17 (for any real gurus out there, I have issues with it booting into newer versions) and a larger laptop, again with Linux Mint.

And I run the Linux computers in the Math Department here.

You can strip out OneDrive entirely, and there are registry edits that even remove it from Windows File Exporer too.

I've disabled it, as I do not use cloud based stuff, except for game saves and chrome settings. Steam takes care of my games, and chrome takes care of itself.

That latter is a really nice feature, as my Chrome had become corrupted by accidentally straying into Dangerous Areas of the Intertubes... (it's what I get for clicking on "helpful" xian websites... it seems that most of these have zero security, and are helpfully pre-hacked for you)

But re-installing Chrome was so painless, that I now recommend it if anything goes wonky with it. Uninstall. Reboot. Delete several directories labeled either "Google" or "Chrome". Reboot again. Download a fresh install, and run. Sign in to Chrome. Wait. Within a minute? All your settings, bookmarks and what-not, "magically" restore themselves... including installed extensions.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Thanks for the advice. The only thing I changed to run like Win 7 is the format of the start menu.

View attachment 36034

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Look up Classic Shell program-- it's free.

 

[icehorse]

I wish I could. Linux is still just too hit and miss with compatibilit, and often miss with programs I need.

People complain that Macs are expensive. But I pay more for Macs because I put some value on my time. My Macs just run and run and run. No muss, no fuss.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

People complain that Macs are expensive. But I pay more for Macs because I put some value on my time. My Macs just run and run and run. No muss, no fuss.

Macs are stupid expensive and have people paying more for the name and feelings of smugness and have a iBorg Collective device.
I put value on my time as well. My windows machine, for example, is secure, still overall powerful enough, and nearing a decade old (it does need some hardware upgrades though).

 

[Thief]

Happened yesterday. Even though I was quite comfortable with Win 7 and didn't want to make the change, as of Jan 14 Microsoft will no longer support 7. So they forced my hand. Fortunately, I was able to scrap all the tiles on the Start menu and change it back to the Win 7 format. I lost my Outlook Express E-Mail host, and subsequently elected to use The Win 10 Mail system, which, while a bit strange, should be alright. So everything is going well except for one thing, which I'm hoping someone here can help me with. The letter size in both the horizontal Operation/Tab bar and drop-down Bookmark List is quite small. Anyone know how to enlarge it?

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View attachment 36032​

Thanks.
.

on my laptop.to the upper right hand corner.....
three dots ...

click and the option to enlarge will be there

 

[Aupmanyav]

No windows, but google and gmail are hard to leave. Of course, I make it a point to sign out as quickly as possible, but I am sure, Google even then follows. Well, I do not think Google gains anything from me.

 

[icehorse]

Macs are stupid expensive and have people paying more for the name and feelings of smugness and have a iBorg Collective device.
I put value on my time as well. My windows machine, for example, is secure, still overall powerful enough, and nearing a decade old (it does need some hardware upgrades though).

No smugness on my part. I'd be thrilled if I could - easily - get OS X running on non-Mac hardware. It's not the Macs so much that I rely on, it's OS X. And while OS X is not perfect, windoze is a joke.

 

[ChristineM]

I wish I could. Linux is still just too hit and miss with compatibilit, and often miss with programs I need.

We have (had) that problem, the CGI programs we used were windows only, the only ones available for linux were way behind?

There is a hack, Wine allows .exe files to be run in a shell

Once we got it sorted we wound up with the best of both worlds

Or you can run Windows 10 in a VirtualBox

 

[Shadow Wolf]

No smugness on my part. I'd be thrilled if I could - easily - get OS X running on non-Mac hardware. It's not the Macs so much that I rely on, it's OS X. And while OS X is not perfect, windoze is a joke.

Anything but Linux is a joke. Overpriced for the performance, Apple borgishly micromanages and even forces upgrades on people tough not as bad with the security issues, Windows has the compatibility, easy to upgrade, no Borg elements, but not the best for security and stability for average users. Linux hit-and-miss compatibly but typically free, very safe and secure, very stable, compatible with most hardware and even obsolete things the other two will not run, not even in the same machine.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Or you can run Windows 10 in a VirtualBox

That's probably what I'll do after I upgrade my desktop's processor. I basically need Word, want to play some games, but hate Windows and have not been able to get Wine to run some things.

 

[ChristineM]

That's probably what I'll do after I upgrade my desktop's processor. I basically need Word, want to play some games, but hate Windows and have not been able to get Wine to run some things.

Linux has some great word-processors, i think open office and libre office are better than word and they will read word files.

Dont do games so, i hear some are their own O/S so Wine may struggle, but running in a VirtualBix should not be a problem

 

[Samantha Rinne]

An important reason for upgrading to Windows 10 is security. There's been plenty of time to poke around in Windows 7. Even when vulnerabilities are found, Windows 10 is going to get patched a whole lot faster than Windows 7 would have, potentially compromising your data for longer - never mind now that it's not being supported.

This is nonsense though. My dad is on Windows 10, I'm on Windows 8.1. He routinely has issues with his computer not auto-logging in properly and internet going down, etc, etc, etc. I just run the antivirus every few months when it gets slow, and keep a few ad-blockers up so people can't give me bad ads (seems to be the most common source of viruses).

A Windows 10 computer is more likely to get hacked, a Windows 8.1 computer is more likely to have experienced patches to protect it (especially because Windows 10 seems to like to completely reinvent its own format every three months). In fact, since 8.1 lacks the space or the hardware of native Windows 10 computers, your machine will run worse by upgrading to a higher resource cost Windows 10, than just staying put.

I made a tutorial on how to block this behavior.

Windows 10 upgrade paths (Windows 10) - Windows Deployment
(This has since changed to redirect to a section telling how to update, ignore this link)

(For more info and options)

==BLOCK UPDATE==
---Computer Configuration----
To block the upgrade by using Computer Configuration, follow these steps:

Click Computer Configuration.
Click Policies.
Click Administrative Templates.
Click Windows Components.
Click Windows Update.
Double-click Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update.
Click Enable.

Policy path: Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update Policy
Setting: Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update


----Windows registry----
Important
Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

Win + R, type in regedit, then enter

To block the upgrade to Windows 10 through Windows Update, specify the following registry value:

Subkey: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
DWORD value: DisableOSUpgrade = 1

===HIDE NOTIFICATION====
Important
Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

For non-Enterprise versions of Windows, the notification icon can be suppressed through the Windows registry. To do this, set the following registry value:

Subkey: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx
DWORD value: DisableGwx = 1

Your best option is to use registry, but you can also write a batch file telling it to do this.

And here is how to downgrade using a disc.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15088/windows-10-create-installation-media

The hardest part of this is finding out the Product Key. I think they want to encourage you to buy one.

 

[Mindmaster]

Windows 10 is crap. Windows 7 was quite stable (and configurable) on the various computers I have had. On Windows 10 I have had a few lock-ups for no apparent reason. Hate it!

I've never had it lock up at least not enough for me to complain -- that's to say it's maybe happened once or twice since I've started using it. (Which is since release, basically.) Anyway, I've been using Windows since 3.11 and 10 is far more stable than anything else they've released -- it's also faster in every category than any previous version.

Stability is generally contingent on hardware on Windows 10 not the operating system itself. Questionable hardware will generally work fine in light use, but as soon as you start loading the system it'll freak out.

 

[Mindmaster]

Linux has some great word-processors, i think open office and libre office are better than word and they will read word files.

Dont do games so, i hear some are their own O/S so Wine may struggle, but running in a VirtualBix should not be a problem

Libre is available on Windows, so not a reason to switch your operating system.

 

[Mindmaster]

I made a tutorial on how to block this behavior.

Functionally, there is really no difference between 8 and 10 other than the patches come down faster for 10.

As far as slowdowns and other things, that comes down to the user's usage habits more than anything. If they download tons of crap without cleaning up or don't clear out browser caches and so one periodically they'll slow down no matter what you do and that remains the case even in Windows 10 or Linux or even on a Mac.

Unsupported means un-patched. Windows 7 and 8 also are much less secure under the hood -- I'd just move off them. If that takes a small amount of money for hardware so be it -- we're talking a ten year+ operating system as this point. You're missing a lot of features and improvements for saving a tiny amount of money. Windows 10 will run fine on anything north of a tablet computer and performance certainly isn't a problem.

 

[Mindmaster]

Virtualbox?

The real trick is to have both OSs native on the computer with both having access to the same home directory.

Chnaging between OSs on the fly is a completely different issue.

Linux runs just fine in about 10-20gb forever. It's probably more useful in a virtual machine than any other way. If you have Windows 10 pro you can do that without any additional software, but you can always run something like VirtualBox if you don't wanna pay. All my linux "machines" just run on a beefy server I got secondhand from ebay on the vmware's free server edition. I can neither manage to fill the 96gb of ram or peg the 32 cores no matter what I do, but I've tried.

You also can mount your Windows drives through the VirtualBox software as it bridges them. So all your data can be available to both "sessions". Anyway, there is no reason to really install Linux to your desktop as it runs just as fast in the virtual machine environment. I'm using most of my Linux boxes through a network and a virtual console and personally I don't really see the point of installing it locally even then.

 

[Skwim]

And HP. It was bloated and such a pain in the neck. With cups on Linux, it is so light and smooth.
Don't keep with things that are out-dated. Come 15th January and the bugs will get you. You will not get security upgrades. Pay to Allah (Microsoft) what is his due.

Just to be clear, the upgrade is free.

.

 

[Skwim]

Go get a Freebie program called Classic Shell. Install it. Select "Windows 7" as the default interface. Enjoy Win 10 looking and feeling like Win7.

That's what I did. See post 21.

.

 

[Mindmaster]

From my experience - of having had one Windows 7 PC for a long time without any upgrades whatsoever, and not having any problems (anti-virus installed) - they do nothing. That is, they might be beneficial, but if one is less than reckless as to what one consumes on the internet, then they are mostly not that necessary.

Re: Antiviruses

Windows 10 needs nothing but the default (provided) virus scanner and something to protect the internet (Malwarebytes is probably the best here...). Microsoft REALLY upgraded the internal security and there is really no effective difference between a commercial antivirus and the included at this point. It does really good scanning, but I still recommend Malwarebytes for heuristic (detection by exploit method not byte scanning), rootkit detection, and web protection.

If you're on Windows 7/8 then nothing is really better than Avast, but Avast doesn't play well with Malwarebytes and I do not consider Malwarebytes optional software. (Nothing does what it does as well and with the small amount of resources it uses.)