Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

8 hours ago, xpclient said:

I am not particularly concerned if Linux looks like Windows (although it certainly doesn't hurt) as long as it works like Windows. Windows made everything easier and productive before they started making it too dumb and oversimplified. I am not in favor of too much and unnecessary complexity which Linux has at the moment vs Windows which now has too much simplicity (and mediocrity). I could send you a big long never ending list of usability issues with Linux GUIs but what good would that be if they can't be fixed by anyone? I would rather tell them to Ivo to make Windows work better since he can develop software to address the awful limitations that Microsoft is intentionally building into Windows. Linux might be better than Windows since it gives more control but I am not sure I need that level of complexity.

+1

IMHO Linux usability would improve if someone expert enough were to create an application launcher that was organized like the Vista/7 Start Menu. I've never warmed to the category structure that's featured in the various Linux "start menus" out there.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

On Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 0:02 AM, dhjohns said:

I am running build 14361 as my main drive, on bare metal.  When I decide it is better to clean install rather than upgrade, I run a batch file in a portable folder which installs every program I run.  Some are portable, some are silent install, and some are not silent install.  Keys I need are copied to the desktop.  All my registry edits, registry ownerships, file ownerships, themes, and customizations are automatically taken care of.  I integrate all my up-to-date drivers into the ISO before I clean install, and create a bootable USB drive using diskpart.  So after the 15 minutes it takes for installation, I just right-click and run the batch file as administrator.  Then I sit back and watch.  When all is done, and my system has rebooted, I install Windows Media Center with a special theme, and the ability to mount DVD ISOs, and play MKVs.  Then I clean out windows.old, and run a few registry cleanup programs, and I am done. 

That's very impressive!

What criteria do you use in deciding whether to upgrade to a new build or to do a clean install?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Check out this comment from Woody's blog. Byron might be on to something:
 

Quote

MS let everyone get all worked up over telemetry and eventually let their mouthpieces in the tech press debunk the idea that telemetry was spying on everyone. This was all a ruse to divert attention from the real virus: CORTANA.

They are really pushing Cortana and encouraging people to use it. That’s the one doing the spying and loading of all your personal data back to the mothership. They made it “built-in” to the OS and nearly impossible to stop unless you have system admin or programmer level skills. Even if you turn off the slider to disable it, it’s still running in the background. If you try to end the task, it will regenerate itself like a good virus should.

No way do I allow this thing to run on my laptop. If a future update makes it impossible to stop Cortana, then it will be impossible for me to allow Windows to remain. It’s already a dual-boot system with Linux Mint. It would only take about an hour for me to backup data files and wipe a partition clean.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

And speaking of telemetry...

It's not just Windows 10 that has telemetry issues -- Microsoft has done the same with Visual Studio 2015 C++ compiler

Quote

Coders have expressed concerns that Microsoft appears to be inserting calls to its telemetry service into binaries as they are compiled. Calls to telemetry_main_invoke_trigger and telemetry_main_return_trigger raised a few eyebrows having been found in both debug and release versions of the software. The good news -- maybe -- is that telemetry can be disabled.

[...]

Innocent or not, users were spooked by the fact that the existence of the functions was not referenced in any documentation.

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

Thank you for passing that on, Jorge.  I had not seen it before, and I'm about to make a software release.  I haven't caught my software trying to phone the Microsoft mothership, but that doesn't mean it won't / can't.  I have a lot of anti-telemetry settings on my own development system.  I sure as hell don't want to be seen as someone who's on board with Microsoft's telemetry initiative.  Sheesh!

What roasts my nuggets is that besides apologizing that they accidentally included it and didn't document it, Microsoft downplays it at every turn, with statements like...

Quote

...The event data can only be interpreted if a customer gives us symbol information (i.e. PDBs) so this data is only applicable to customers that are actively seeking help from us and are willing to share these PDBs as part of their investigation...

...as though blocks of telemetry data could not possibly be intrusive of user privacy in any way without a roadmap of how to interpret what's being sent by Microsoft's own software.

Now that I know to seek out the term "telemetry", lo and behold seen in my product map (which means it's linked into the product)... 

.
.
.
 0001:00000000       ?TraceLoggingRegister@__vcrt_trace_logging_provider@@YAJPEBU_TlgProvider_t@1@PEBU_GUID@@P6AX1KE_K2PEAU_EVENT_FILTER_DESCRIPTOR@@PEAX@Z4@Z 0000000180001000 f i libvcruntime:telemetry.obj
 0001:0000007c       ?_TlgEnableCallback@__vcrt_trace_logging_provider@@YAXPEBU_GUID@@KE_K1PEAU_EVENT_FILTER_DESCRIPTOR@@PEAX@Z 000000018000107c f i libvcruntime:telemetry.obj
 0001:00000140       ?_TlgWrite@__vcrt_trace_logging_provider@@YAJPEBU_TlgProvider_t@1@PEFBXPEBU_GUID@@2IPEAU_EVENT_DATA_DESCRIPTOR@@@Z 0000000180001140 f i libvcruntime:telemetry.obj
.
.
.

Off to add notelemetry.obj to my projects...  Of course, does one TRUST that advice?  Or should one invent one's own __vcrt_initialize_telemetry_provider stub?

Thank you again for that heads-up, Jorge!

-Noel

Edited June 13, 2016 by NoelC

[BudwS]

Clandestine Impression:  Made a post to MS Insider forum a day ago.  Got one of the scam phone calls saying that my laptop sent an error message and MS Support was responding to fix the laptop.

Is it possible or probable that the MS insider Forum is being data mined or hacked by the alleged scammers to gather personal information?  Yup, probably just being ultra cautious and a little off the deep end.  However, has anyone heard of anything like this?

[NoelC]

<sarcasm>

WHAT???  Are you implying that Microsoft could possibly lose control of your private data?  Or sell it to someone?!?

Perish the thought!  This is MICROSOFT we're talking about, now, not some malware company.  No one ever worked for Microsoft who was less than perfectly trustworthy, who was not infinitely more capable than any hacker in the world, or who would not in a heartbeat do the right thing instead of something that would make a quick buck.

</sarcasm>

-Noel

Edited June 13, 2016 by NoelC

[JorgeA]

4 hours ago, NoelC said:

Thank you for passing that on, Jorge.

You're welcome, Noel. I'm glad I was able to make a positive contribution to your work.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

3 hours ago, BudwS said:

Clandestine Impression:  Made a post to MS Insider forum a day ago.  Got one of the scam phone calls saying that my laptop sent an error message and MS Support was responding to fix the laptop.

Is it possible or probable that the MS insider Forum is being data mined or hacked by the alleged scammers to gather personal information?  Yup, probably just being ultra cautious and a little off the deep end.  However, has anyone heard of anything like this?

That's a weird coincidence. I wouldn't put it beyond the realm of possibility.

One thing is for sure, though: the very fact that Microsoft is known to be tracking people's computers, can only make these scams sound more credible:

"Yes, when you clicked OK on the Windows 10 license agreement, you agreed to let Microsoft monitor how your PC was doing. We're just doing our jobs here to help keep your computer safe."

--JorgeA

[helpdesk98]

remember a good while back Insiders got a survey email from a 3ed party (at least it seemed like a 3ed party to me)? could that have been something I remember filling it out with a dummy account and it seemed odd. any thoughts on that?

[Tripredacus]

30 minutes ago, helpdesk98 said:

remember a good while back Insiders got a survey email from a 3ed party (at least it seemed like a 3ed party to me)? could that have been something I remember filling it out with a dummy account and it seemed odd. any thoughts on that?

MS has been using third (second?) parties to manage surveys for years.

[NoelC]

Doesn't seem too surprising that Microsoft would - on purpose - change their software so that you have to be cloud-connected to use it.

Is it beyond reason to imagine them sitting around dreaming up changes to each and every component of the system to further their goals of world domination?

-Noel

[vinifera]

office 2003 has telemetry init
win7 has telemetry agent (natively), kudos to devs actually calling the service "telemetry"

dunno if XP had anything
 

but those were more so small things, comparing to winblows 10 what is doing...
 

[helpdesk98]

2 hours ago, vinifera said:

but those were more so small things, comparing to winblows 10 what is doing...
 

Windows 10 is now entering Beast Mode!

[BudwS]

4 hours ago, JorgeA said:

That's a weird coincidence. I wouldn't put it beyond the realm of possibility.

One thing is for sure, though: the very fact that Microsoft is known to be tracking people's computers, can only make these scams sound more credible:

"Yes, when you clicked OK on the Windows 10 license agreement, you agreed to let Microsoft monitor how your PC was doing. We're just doing our jobs here to help keep your computer safe."

--JorgeA

I thought back to when I first received one of the scam calls.  It was a month after I entered the Insider program.  The caller always identified themselves as MS Tech Support.  Later on the "Red Flag" was that they were receiving error reports on their remote computer the last couple of days so that  they called to fix the problem remotely.  However, that happened to be at a time that none of the MS PCs had been turned on for 2 weeks?  They still insisted that the error messages were coming in.  They hung up when I asked for their MS phone number and location.  Something to ponder in this fun world of computing.