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Windows Hate.1
#399237 12/14/13 11:58 PM
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fredk Offline OP
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You must become a Microserf and create a live account so we can track you if you want to do anything useful on your computer?

Really??


Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
Re: Windows Hate.1
fredk #399239 12/15/13 03:15 AM
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everyones doing it fred. I get targeted adds from google based on my ip address for local companies, I get the same when I search at amazon. I recently reloaded windows 8 without my live account and it works just fine. I use Start 8 and run in desktop mode since I don't like the tile BS and don't have a touch screen. I hear ya though, its invasion of our privacy.


DOG is GOD spelled backwards.
What others think of me is none of my business.
M80 V3 MY GLOSS Cherry
Re: Windows Hate.1
Gr8_White_North #399241 12/15/13 04:14 AM
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fredk Offline OP
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Since it's my daughter's laptop, I'll let her decide. It may be possible to maintain a 'live' account to do limited things like downloading apps.

It sounds like a number of apps that make no use of live try to force you to log on as well though.

Slimy, slimy, slimy!


Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
Re: Windows Hate.1
fredk #399259 12/16/13 02:25 AM
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fredk Offline OP
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This is like the nightmare version of the Ginsu knife commercial.

But wait, there's more.

Want to connect to your network? No problem. Well, unless you are using WPA personal or tkip.

Its not there. Well, unless you are willing to go to the command shell and run netsh commands, cuz its still really there.

But wait, there's more...

Want to edit that network profile because its not working. Can't cuz there is no longer a Manage Wireless Networks interface. Well, unless you want to run netsh commands...

Gee, I bet my daughter is going to love doing this.

Time for a factory reset.


Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
Re: Windows Hate.1
fredk #399273 12/16/13 06:43 PM
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I just upgraded (??) from XP to Win7 (I didn't want Win8) in a brand new Asus parts computer.

It's going back to my excellent tech today for a re-install of Win7. Unending booting problems probably due to USB issues & USB Mouse/Keyboard glitches. Thankfully 'System Restore' & 'System Backup' gets me up & running but some features will not work & never have since day one.

IMHO, very mediocre, overly complicated & overtly automated OS trying to do do too much in the background & filling up the HDs with needless junk. No wonder computers slow down despite very powerful hardware.

So it will now be another 2 weeks of setting it up & tweaking again. I think that this will be my last Win machine.

Grrr...

TAM

Re: Windows Hate.1
exlabdriver #399281 12/16/13 11:12 PM
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The alternate to this computer had win7 pro on it. Unfortunately this one had a better screen, an upgraded cpu (i5) and a small ssd for fast boots all at $50 less, so my daughter is stuck with win8.

I started the rollback last night, well, this morning, before going to bed. I just found the registry edit to turn off the offensive update notices that force you to the MS store. I'll be applying that before I allow the computer to go online.

I'm surprised MS didn't open the wireless config tool and instruct me to connect to a network when it found that it could not phone home.

Tonight I'm hoping to be able to turn the interface into something resembling a desktop OS and to be able to turn off some of the annoying touch features (that I'm sure are very good if you have a touch tablet).

I think Microsoft finally realized a little late that it missed a revenue model shift to an environment where you can't overcharge for your OS. I wish them luck as my experience with Win8 has convinced me the tablet I will inevitably end up buying will not have an MS operating system on it.


Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
Re: Windows Hate.1
fredk #399291 12/17/13 01:07 PM
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I hear ya Fred.

I ran Windows 8 in virtual machine to try it out for a while which immediately overcame my usual desire to upgrade to the "latest thing." Without a touch screen, I didn't find a single new feature that made it worth the trouble. Maybe on a tablet but I'm happy enough with Android.

On another front, ever since I've taken the time to set up my home office PC to dual boot Win 7 and Ubuntu Linux, I found I almost never boot to windows anymore. Gaming is pretty much the only time I do it as once I loaded Wine to run in Linux's background, I can even run all of my windows apps (except some games) if I really have to (and I rarely have to.)

Libre Office, the free version of MS Office is so surprisingly feature filled compared to the real thing I don't even miss Office. It also works fine with and saves in Office format so there is no extra work with work files.

It's not a perfect OS for sure and there are some trade offs but nothing that sets me back. Also, I find I can't live without one of the add-ins now. Compiz 3-D Cube allows me to use 4 (or more) virtual screens at once. It's like having 4 monitors to flip back and forth to in a 3-d space on your screen. It's so much more intuitive to find things vs. Alt-Tabing through dozens of windows. It also works with my dual monitors giving me essentially 8 virtual monitors to play with.

You can go to 1:30 in the video below to see what I mean.
Other add ins plus Compiz 3-D Cube at 1:30


With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.
Re: Windows Hate.1
fredk #399355 12/18/13 07:53 PM
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My tech got my puter up & running with a MB BIOS upgrade - mine was 6 versions behind; however, Win7 Pro was still not fully happy so we did a 'parallel install' that saves most of your stuff in a 'Windows old' folder that can be deleted later. Good feature but a big HD is required.

My last 2 days have been spent trying to get my programs installed again & settings & options back to my preference. Much of these are frustratingly buried deep in the bowels of the OS. Over 200 Win updates from MS have been inundating me & when they are seemingly done, 40 more are required.

Automation runs rampant with almost constant polling the net for updates or whatever.

I just downloaded Adobe Reader & along with it came a bunch of unwelcome McAfee software that I didn't want & will never run. Within half an hour, McAfee (was never run) was trying to access the net - my Firewall intercepted it. I guess that's the price with getting stuff for free.

It doesn't matter how fast the hardware is, it gets bogged down running all of this needless crap in the background without the user's knowledge, especially without a firewall that triggers alerts. For example, 'Google Earth', even when not running, checks for updates every hour & is difficult to kill. Why every hour? Windows Media Player sends a burst of data somewhere whenever an audio or video clip is run. Why? That's why I don't use it anymore.

I suspect a lot of this stuff with many software providers (Java, Adobe, Google, MS & many more) is a guise for data mining & is quite unethical IMHO. Similarly, my Sony BDP sends data to 'Gracenote' after I've watched a DVD or BD. Why?

Then again, maybe I'm just paranoid...

TAM

Re: Windows Hate.1
Murph #399366 12/19/13 02:37 AM
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fredk Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: Murph

I ran Windows 8 in virtual machine to try it out for a while which immediately overcame my usual desire to upgrade to the "latest thing." Without a touch screen, I didn't find a single new feature that made it worth the trouble. Maybe on a tablet but I'm happy enough with Android.[/url]


It turns out its a lot easier to turn off the annoying stuff than I thought, but it took a lot of looking. Just turn off the windows store tile. Sigh...

I'm going to install a few flavours of linix in vms on the lab server at work to see what all the fuss is about. I've pretty much had it with Microsoft.

In the tablet and phone universe, you're pretty much locked into someones ecosystem. Apple and Google are no better.

Edit: Murph, is this one of those pull my finger jokes? Check out where your link took me. smile

Last edited by fredk; 12/19/13 02:39 AM.

Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
Re: Windows Hate.1
exlabdriver #399367 12/19/13 02:48 AM
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fredk Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: exlabdriver
...

Then again, maybe I'm just paranoid...

TAM

Nope. You are quite correct. The Internet Overlords are tripping over each other to model your behavior. I thought it quite funny when they got together to chastise the NSA.

I re-imagine their open letter as follows:

Dear NSA;

Quit spying on our spying.

Sincerely,

The Internet Overlords.

As for Adobe, they have me doing uninstalls at least once a week because someone did an upgrade and forgot to uncheck (opt out of) the Macafee install.

I regularly bring up the task manager to see what's running and occasionally look up processes on the internet. It helps me keep our systems at work relatively clean.


Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
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