Bloody Windows 10 dammit

[SingedFingers]

MFT has to be locked per volume to write so all writes are sequential. That means write contention and decrease in throughput. Try checking out 145,000 small files from subversion on windows/NTFS and the same on Linux/ext4. Same kit, mid range SSD (Samsung 850 Pro). 12 minutes on Windows, 1m2s on Linux. The windows machine has had fsutil frigs to increase MFT allocation. Linux machine out of box (CentOS 7).

Arguments are only emotive if you spend all day with Microsoft giving you lemons and you don't want no stinking lemons and want them to stick the lemons back up the arse they came out of.

Oh and the Start Menu on my win10 has just entirely stopped responding to the keyboard.

[switchedmodepsu]

My dad just got himself a new laptop and it had win 10 on it.
Took about 30 minutes to boot the laptop to the desktop.
In 30 min i can put a full install of Win7, god dammit.
Bastard OS loads the CPU, bashes the HDD at 100% and eats 2gigs of RAM while it's at it on idle. 
I don't know a thing about Win10 but i don't think this is normal, this chewing 50% of RAM on idle thing.
Also when viewing YT video full screen the damn taskbar doesn't go away.
If Win10 was made to piss people off then Microsoft did a damn good job at it.

#1 Yes, Windows 10 is utter trash (I am on it now, and was an "Insider" - I tried most of the Betas) -

#2 I would "UPGRADE" that machine to Windows 7 ASAP!

>>> ONCE YOU HAVE INSTALLED WINDOWS 7, INSTALL "Never10" https://www.grc.com/never10.htm DO NOT SKIP! <<<

#3 You *NEED* to put an SSD in that machine, no ifs or buts, to NOT do so is inexcusable in 2017 - rotary spinning discs are the dark ages!

#3a - You need AT LEAST 8GB of RAM - if it doesn't have at least that, what on EARTH machine is that?!

#4 You neglected to mention the make/model of the machine; it could be a consumer-targeted device pre-bogged-down with a BOAT LOAD of junkware and "trials", "utilities" etc.

#5 The copy of Windows 10 on that machine WILL be activated and linked to the unique machine ID and tied to his Microsoft account (the official term from MS is a "digital entitlement" for Windows 10), so if he DOES stay with Windows 10 (his choice, clearly), it will auto-activate ANY TIME you reinstall Windows 10, fresh, from now on - then take a backup of the WHOLE LAPTOP DRIVE to an external drive, using "Aomei Backupper" or "CloneZilla" (advanced users only)

#6 Use "Double Driver" to take a copy of ALL the drivers on the current Windows 10 install: http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm and copy the driver backup to a safe place (USB key) - once you have done so and also have checked and double checked everything (and maybe made a SECOND backup of the ENTIRE DRIVE!) WIPE the drive, remove it, install that SSD (remember that SSD, right?) and then...

#7 Download the appropriate ISO that matches the architecture (64 bit, usually) and variant of Windows 10 which came with the machine.

#8 Using "Rufus" https://rufus.akeo.ie and a flash drive (recommend SanDisk), create a bootable Windows 10 installer from the ISO.

#9 Install Windows 10 FRESH from the installer from step #8

#10 Get online and activate it - YOU DO *NOT* NEED "ANTIVIRUS" - Microsoft's own, built-in "Windows Defender" is ALL you need - others are an utter mess and usually a placebo these days, see "Security Now" on http://twit.tv for more information (search around, you'll soon come up with affirmation.)

#11 Restore drivers from the "Double Driver" backup you took in step #6

#12 Listen to "The Tech Guy" and "Security Now" - these folks REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY know what they're on about, more than most "engineers" I've heard over the years, second to NONE! http://twit.tv - Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson, the rest are clueless hopefuls at BEST.

Enjoy a CLEAN install.

PS: I am running Windows 10 64 bit on a 7 YEAR OLD Lenovo ThinkPad R61, here, with 3GB RAM and a cheap SanDisk SSD
- it boots in 20 seconds and runs VERY well, and is only a Core 2 Duo. What saves it is the SSD!

[Sigmoid]

Oh come on people, let's put away the tinfoil hats.

First off, I really like Win7, but I wouldn't install it on new hardware - drivers are bound to be missing. Win10 isn't that bad - in fact it's a world of improvement over 8.1 (now THAT was the pure shite)...

As for the privacy stuff, getting educated is the best solution to paranoia. If you understand what is happening and how, you can make an informed decision whether to go with it or not. All the telemetry stuff on Win10 can be turned off - I suggest using the "professional" system operator UIs (like Group Policy Editor) for managing your Windows, even if an option is removed from Control Panel, it won't be removed from there.

[SingedFingers]

You can only turn it all off on enterprise edition...

[Sigmoid]

You can only turn it all off on enterprise edition...

What cannot be turned off on Professional? (BTW, you can use regedit even in Home...)

[Refrigerator]

well, my dad is a truck driver and i won't get my hands on the laptop for the next 6 weeks, so it will have to do for now.
And to anyone's who's interested the laptop has an i3-6100U processor.
We could have gone for a i3-7100U but since there's no real support for Win7 we decided not to.
And my dad bought the laptop right before he left so there was no time for messing around with the OS.
I'm already getting a to do list ready for that laptop.

[SingedFingers]

You can only turn it all off on enterprise edition...

What cannot be turned off on Professional? (BTW, you can use regedit even in Home...)

It's not what can be turned off, it's whether Microsoft respect that you have turned it off or not. For example Telemetry will only stay off in enterprise edition if you use a GPO. It will turn itself back on with Pro etc at the first available opportunity. Unless you fancy spending hours pissing around in scheduled tasks, regedit and then never apply another update to the system again which has limited gains.

Time to walk away for me at least.

[Yansi]

My dad just got himself a new laptop and it had win 10 on it.
Took about 30 minutes to boot the laptop to the desktop.
In 30 min i can put a full install of Win7, god dammit.
Bastard OS loads the CPU, bashes the HDD at 100% and eats 2gigs of RAM while it's at it on idle. 
I don't know a thing about Win10 but i don't think this is normal, this chewing 50% of RAM on idle thing.
Also when viewing YT video full screen the damn taskbar doesn't go away.
If Win10 was made to piss people off then Microsoft did a damn good job at it.

When will people learn: Windows is using 2 gig, beacuse that is the half of your RAM. The RAM is not doing anything if it is empty, so windows uses it to useful stuff, like speeding up processes and pre-loading stuff. If a program needs memory, windows releases it. Currently, my pc uses 5 gig of ram for actual stuff, 6 as cache, 5 as free.
It is not a bug. It is a feature.

It is a feature that for fucked snakes does NOT work right and is full of bugs.

After disabling superfetch, I can at least do some basic work on that damn machine.

[slicendice]

LOL, you guys are incredible.

Superfetch is a great feature. If your computer with Windows 10 does not work with this feature on then the problem is in your computer itself or in the user.

Windows telemetry reports is a good feature, it helps MS diagnose possible problems, recreate the problem, debug the problem and this way help the user solve the problem for you.

Windows 10 does have it's quirks still, but it is really getting a lot better. All Windows releases starting from old Windows 3.11 has it's quirks.

I would not go back to Windows 8.1 or 7 anymore. Windows 10 is fast and stable for most parts. And as noted before in this thread, if privacy is a concern, you can turn all of those features off.

If Group Policy Editor is too difficult to use, then maybe it would be better to study how Windows works, before making ridiculous claims that Windows 10 is crap. Just because some features are not directly in settings does not mean that you can't turn that feature on or off.

Privacy is not an issue, if you guys study the telemetry reports, you will see that no personal information will be sent, and now I fell like I am starting to repeat myself...if those reports bother you, then turn those features off.

If all this managing is too big of an headache, then maybe hire a professional to manage the computer for you.

[Sigmoid]

Windows telemetry reports is a good feature, it helps MS diagnose possible problems, recreate the problem, debug the problem and this way help the user solve the problem for you.

Well let's just posit that you're working on something illegal yet ethical (lots and lots of examples depending on nationality), a too high Telemetry setting grabs some evidence off of your hard drive in a crash report, and then Microsoft gets hit by a subpoena to hand over your private information to your government...

In short, you're fucked. And "don't do illegal stuff" is not the right response to this issue.

Yes, the "basic" telemetry setting is pretty much the exact same level of information that Windows Upgrade and Windows Activation has been collecting ever since Windows XP, so I'm not really against that (though I do find "list of installed applications to be at least problematic). However, defaulting to anything higher (well, even designing anything higher in the first place) IS an issue.

Windows 10 does have it's quirks still, but it is really getting a lot better. All Windows releases starting from old Windows 3.11 has it's quirks.

I would not go back to Windows 8.1 or 7 anymore. Windows 10 is fast and stable for most parts. And as noted before in this thread, if privacy is a concern, you can turn all of those features off.

With this I agree, but they could at least try to be less 'in your face', like jam all those fucking app suggestions in the Start Menu up their asses instead. (And yes I know it's easy to turn off, but why does it have to look like a fucking billboard by default.)

Privacy is not an issue, if you guys study the telemetry reports, you will see that no personal information will be sent, and now I fell like I am starting to repeat myself...if those reports bother you, then turn those features off.

IF you set it to Basic then you're right. You have to actively do that though, and it's not what Windows "recommends".

[jonovid]

just another product of microsoft corporation,    go figure

[slicendice]

Agree that Windows default Apps from the Store that gets installed are very annoying. Most users need maybe 1 of those, not 10-20.

But it's nothing Enterprise edition of Windows can't solve by default. By default EE does not install any extra apps. If you require that kind of privacy and lack of features by default, you already have EE installed. This also means you are not using Cortana, and your computer is not connected to a Microsoft account, your computer is not connected straight to a internet modem/router but instead to a switch or router that is connected to an AD server and the whole shebang managing every security concern and bit sent and received to/from the internet for you.

[slicendice]

It's simple really...

If you don't like it, then don't use it. Nowhere is it stated that you must use Windows or any Microsoft products.

Every OS today has their PROS and CONS, that is a fact. If you can't overcome the CONS then stop using that OS. If none of the OS satisfy you, then hire someone to write you the OS of your dreams.

Personally I rather use what MS has created and with a little bit of effort, make the experience my own.

[onesixright]

// format c: /quick
// reinstall linux? :-) or make a hakintosh

[rrinker]

 If you have an SSD, you should not be using Superfetch. And a few other things that are helpful when you still have a slow spinny disk. Dunno about others, but Samsung's Magician will recommend what features you should disable to optimal operation with the SSD.

 Must be something to say about building your own computers, my 3 desktop systems at home have not experienced a single one of the Win 10 update issues. One was an upgrade from 7, the other two got a bare install of 8.1 and updated until the free Win 10 offer came up (no software installed under 8.1). But then I of have this HP laptop from work which ALSO has not had a single one of the Win 10 update issues. None of my systems is in any of the fast track update rings, and neither should yours, unless it is a dedicated computer for testing purposes, because in all likelihood you WILL experience problems - getting advanced updates absolutely means you are live beta testing. You have to be some sort of glutton for punishment if you do this with your primary (or only) computer.

[switchedmodepsu]

To the paranoid fringe: Don't be so naive to assume Microsoft can't get into your pc and take a walk around ANY NUMBER of ways. This "telemetry" thing is just what the public have been TOLD about - do you seriously think they don't have more methods to get data in or out of your PC? It doesn't matter what you've "switched off" - this is binary code, so unless you're adept at reading 00011000100000000001111 strings then you'll just have to accept the fact that ANY right to total privacy was given up the first second you ever connected ANYTHING to the internet, period - you DO NOT know what's going in or out of your machine, you're not that informed.

Windows 10 is a complete mess, usability and aesthetically speaking, it  not a "New OS" at all, folks, it's the same old legacy baggage with a very amateurish slap of paint slapped all over it, nothing more. I do have to laugh HARD when I see people comparing it to macOS, and saying "they're NOT so different now" ... ermmm yeah, if you say so.

[slicendice]

To the paranoid fringe: Don't be so naive to assume Microsoft can't get into your pc and take a walk around ANY NUMBER of ways. This "telemetry" thing is just what the public have been TOLD about - do you seriously think they don't have more methods to get data in or out of your PC? It doesn't matter what you've "switched off" - this is binary code, so unless you're adept at reading 00011000100000000001111 strings then you'll just have to accept the fact that ANY right to total privacy was given up the first second you ever connected ANYTHING to the internet, period - you DO NOT know what's going in or out of your machine, you're not that informed.

There are reverse engineering tools out there that helps security experts to know what exactly Windows does. Also, network package capture is a good way to see what Windows has sent.
Technically, Intel ME can also see your secrets. Accept the facts -- the big brother is watching, and Windows is not the only tool.
Who knows if AMD has similar things in their hardware? Even if not, IPMI in server/WS boards can do similar thing.
The only way to stay completely secret is not to use Internet, or use Internet only after a trusted hardware firewall, or just build your own system completely upon open source hardware and software.

Windows 10 is a complete mess, usability and aesthetically speaking, it  not a "New OS" at all, folks, it's the same old legacy baggage with a very amateurish slap of paint slapped all over it, nothing more. I do have to laugh HARD when I see people comparing it to macOS, and saying "they're NOT so different now" ... ermmm yeah, if you say so.

Windows 10 was ugly, but once your get used to it, it's not that bad. Also, there were some controversies during Win10's debut such as the lack of Start menu, but these are not true anymore. Win10 can be configured to behave like Win7 if you wish.
OSX is also a nightmare. At least in Windows you can customize something with GUI tools like Regedit and GPedit. In OSX, many things, even those in Windows Control Panel, has to be changed by directly writing configuration file.

I totally agree with these statements made by blueskull.

People who claim their privacy is at risk and say it's only something happening in Windows, then prove it by testing and creating a full detailed report of what is going on.

If Windows was digging deep into your personal details, then they would have been caught a long time ago being illegal, and the whole Windows would have been shut down forever.

There are thousands of users who collect every single bit Windows changes every second, what comes in and what goes out. These people are used to reading HEX code, and would immediately notice if something was terribly wrong with the OS that put your privacy at risk.

[slicendice]

These same discussions were going on when Windows went from 3.11 to NT3.1, NT3.5, NT3.51, NT4.0, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and now 10. These are the same people complaining every time. And I am certain no matter what MS would do, the same people would still be complaining and never stop.

[james_s]

It's not so much the stuff I can turn off that bugs me, it's the fact that when I turn it off it "magically" turns itself back on. On my work laptop I have had my pdf default "app" set back to that &^%$#@! excuse for a browser, Edge at least 3 times. I've jumped through the hoops to delete the worthless calc app and replaced it with the one from XP or Vista that actually works, which again has reverted multiple times. Classic Shell has been inexplicably uninstalled twice, absolutely no warning or even a notification telling me it was being removed, just poof, logged in one day and it was gone. WTF? Advertising on the lock screen that I had to disable, promoted apps (advertisements) in the start menu, services like Onedrive that I don't use baked into the OS, the list goes on. With every major update they actively make it harder for me to customize and get rid of the cruft I don't want. I can no longer bypass the useless lock screen entirely (separate from the password entry screen), I can no longer completely kill Cortana without jumping through more hoops, what will come next? I have no doubt future updates will continue to display the same hostility and blatant disregard for my wishes.

Ok sure technically nobody is forcing me to use Windows, except that my employer uses MS Exchange and much of the corporate infrastructure runs Windows. I guess I could quit my job over it but then at home there is much legacy software that only works under Windows, so yeah I'm pretty much forced to use Windows, at least to some degree. I'm spending more and more of my time in Linux but I still need to use Windows too.

[SingedFingers]

There are thousands of users who collect every single bit Windows changes every second, what comes in and what goes out. These people are used to reading HEX code, and would immediately notice if something was terribly wrong with the OS that put your privacy at risk.

Bollocks. The people who are doing this are working for pen test companies to gain PR or are selling exploits. Also with respect to compiled code, forget it. It's pretty damn difficult to decipher compiled x86-64 binary code kicked out of an optimising compiler.

You literally have ZERO idea what over 5 gigabytes of compiled binaries are doing. Not one clue.

The only thing you can do is watch the wire. And they make that pretty difficult. Talks to multiple hosts, uses it's own DNS, uses pinned certs, PFS and signed binaries. You can't MITM it to find out what is on the wire without using a WinDBG session and reading the process buffers which is monumentally difficult.

Welcome to your snuggly privacy shitfest. There is NOTHING that implies trust. This is a control step, a step towards subscription and advertising supported businesses. There is NOTHING positive for the end user.

Watch it over the next 5 years. I have never been wrong on these matters. In fact I've made a shit ton of money predicting and riding industry trends.

Incidentally I do use Windows 10 for reference. I am just aware of what you gain and what you lose and the trade off is just about bearable at the moment.

[slicendice]

Here's a Registry Patch for both enabling and disabling Cortana. Make sure you reboot your computer after the patch is applied.

[james_s]

Sure, but give it a few months and "she" will probably magically become enabled again.

I've given up and been beaten into submission. I'll let Win10 do its thing and I just will not use it for anything I don't absolutely have to.

[slicendice]

Add the registry patch to a scheduled task that run each time you reboot or power off your computer and Cortana will never become enabled.

[james_s]

Doesn't that strike you as a lot of hoops to jump through? That's also only one issue out of many, and there's no reason Microsoft can't wipe my list of scheduled tasks. I'm tired of the uphill battle for control over my own PC.

[SingedFingers]

Duct tape solutions = bad solutions.