Everything Windows 10 | General Discussion

@aljowen

Yeah, it's a lot better than Windows 8, and it is essentially bringing everything people loved about Windows 7 and updating it for 2015.

@TheAdmeister;

Absolutely these things are optional; if they weren't I would be angry about them being forced upon me.

My point is that everything that differentiates Windows 10 from Windows 7 I don't need. So then what's the point of having Windows 10 when I have a Windows 7 disk right next to me?

It's certainly a nice OS, but as I said before, it's not for me.

 

It has an awesome ui, considerable performance increase, great task manager and some really good window and window snapping features as well as loads of other stuff. I'd say its worth getting but that's just me.

I didn't leave windows 7 until a week ago acctually and 10 really is so much better imo.

 

Ahh yes, the task manager. I'll see about stealing it from my laptop and running it on my desktop.

 

Yeah honestly the task manager is the best bit, not even kidding

 

for the not activated, that's because for the microsoft activation server's to give your pc a valid windows 10 key you have to upgrade FIRST, then do a clean install

basically meaning if you're unable to upgrade for some reason, you have to buy windows 10 (well, that or "arr arr" it)

for cortana, have you actually tried any of the assistants? because even with my shitty 3.5mm no-name headset with quality that makes me sound nothing like myself, cortana still hears me perfectly (as does google now, i'm just plain not an apple person so can't speak for siri)

dx12 well, it was only just released to the public a week ago

for office, microsoft has never given a free copy of office with an OS upgrade, only ever trials, i don't see why windows 10 would be any different

bing can actually be fixed sort of if you use chrome or firefox as a default browser, use a bing to google addon:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bing-google-1/?src=cb-dl-created

or for chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...t-bing/kaicbfmipfpfpjmlbpejaoaflfdnabnc?hl=en

 

Yes, you're correct about all the points... it's just that I don't have the time or patient to change all these things.

But about virtual assistants: they have no difficulty understanding me, it's just that they are essentially a speech-to-text engine with a few sassy pre-scripted responses. Honestly, it takes longer to summon said virtual assistant, talk out loud to my computer, the assistant to think about it, and then bring up results that about 50% are pertinent to the question, which I then click on the link to see more about something/proceed with action. I could just open chrome and type; done. Or just click a button on the taskbar.

Virtual assistants are neat and all, but they're rather novel, no much unlike motion controls for a computer; sure, waving your hand dismissively to close something is neat, orrrrrr you could click the X.

I had an iPhone 4S for about 3 years, and I probably used Siri... monthly? Bi-monthly? And when I did ask a complex question, it would just pull up results from the front page of Bing. Yeah, thanks. I suppose Cortana might be a little more advanced but I really CBA to go through all the trouble of upgrading and changing Windows 10 to essentially be Windows 7

 

I find the voice stuff works best in situations like when i am cooking and want to set a timer. All i need to do is unlock my phone and then ask it to set a timer meaning i can get on with the whole cooking thing. Personally i use Google now and have disabled cortana, she was competent but my phone is with me more often and usually gives better results, my phone also seems to spend a lot less time talking than cortana since it does what i ask rather than trying converse with me in the process.

But i did go through most of the pre scripted things just to have a bit of fun with her before disabling her. She did say that i could kill her by turning her off and never turning her back on, so that is what i did

 

Apperently, Cortana isn't avaible in AUSSIE ENGLISH. I tried switching to the US, but still said that it won't work :| I was really looking foward to using Cortana, oh well.

I use Google Chromes voice search... a lot, I mainly use it to be my spelling teacher, don't know how to spell a word but you know how to pronouce it? just say it to google and it'll type it out nicely for you

 

So, just going to pop in as a Windows 7 user holding off on Windows 10 with plans on eventually upgrading:

Is anyone aware of the status of Microsoft's data mining systems in W10 and how well people have dug them out and disabled them so far?
I have been told by reliable sources that Cortana and also the Edge browser both have extensive data mining vectors built into them by default, and I was never planning on using either anyway, however I have also heard information about core OS components that leak data back to Microsoft.
Combine this with Microsoft's Windows 10 privacy policy:

And you get a bit of serious concern about data security.
For those who don't do legalese, Microsoft's "privacy" policy basically says "We can do whatever we want with your data and give it to whoever we want if we feel like it."
In the interest of keeping my personal data un-mined for unscrupulous corporate evil purposes, I'd prefer not to allow any analytical information being sneakily collected by my OS to fall under that poor joke of a privacy agreement.

 

I have no idea. But i imagine that most of the bundked apps do. By default the touch screen keyboard keylogs unless you disable it, but then it also disables spelling correction if you do, ges wich i optiun i tok.
I have almost everything disabled in the privacy section but who knows if that is all that it does at the moment. But if it isnt i hope microsoft is ready to do battle with the EU since they will be all over that.

 

That "give it to whoever" is a massive problem for my mother, who is a home health nurse and has patient records on her laptop.

 

No concern whatsoever if you actually read it.

"With your consent". That's why you opt out of it all when you're setting the OS up. It's presented to you pretty obviously, it's not like they're conning people into it.

 

how to fix start button?
upgraded, didn't work
rebooted, didn't work
tried a powershell fix, didn't work

 

UGH. The privacy stuff is so bullshit. Setting in the privacy tab:

Only options are Full, Advanced and Basic. In descending order. Can't turn it off. Well, I'm sure you can, if you don't mind not having internet.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement/default.aspx

If cookies and error reporting data and info retrieved from cookies is a deal breaker for you, it's not Windows that's your problem. Almost every single program you use phones home with diagnostic data in some way, it's basically automatic surveying that allows them to come up with fixes even if they aren't manually reported.

 

"Finally, we may access, disclose and preserve your personal information, including your private content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have good faith believe that doing so is necessary to:
1. comply with applicable law of respond to valid legal process from competent authorities, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;
[...]
3. operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop and attack on our computer systems or networks; or
4. protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of services — however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement."

In short, if they choose to define something as necessary to maintaining the security of their services, they can do whatever they wish with your sensitive personal information, entirely regardless of your consent.
They will also cough up data to any state agency that asks, which includes the NSA and the frankly disgusting operations going on in the British government right now.

Besides this, I honestly do not trust Microsoft in any way to add user options to disable all of their data mining BS. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear that, even with everything turned "off", they were still dipping into your personal data for analytics reasons.

 

Seals the deal for me. Sticking with Windows 7 until.... well, there's not going to be another Windows version. Oh well, the only thing I'm missing out on in DX12, which I'm sure somebody will find a way to install on Windows 7.

 

Well, I don't consider this something that will keep me from upgrading to W10 from W7, it just means that I'll need to wait until the bright boys and girls with more technical know-how than I have dig up all the nasty bits and chop them out.

 

The key part of that section that you didn't include is once again "with your consent". If you don't consent right from the start, they have no information to even give to other parties.

But if paranoia is your thing, I've found similar subjects from the Windows 7 Privacy Statement.

That's to other companies, nevermind law enforcement/governments during investigation.

If privacy like this is such a big deal to you - despite being on the internet, where there is virtually no privacy - then you shouldn't be using Windows at all. I can guarantee you that any modern, internet-focused version has similar statements. Going back to Windows 7 isn't some privacy safe haven.

 

The clauses regarding data use that I highlighted are independent of the "with your consent" statement. The section that states "with your consent" is not a blanket inclusive for the entire policy.
Also, Windows 7 does include similar terms holes. Windows 7 does not, however, contain data mining and reporting systems built into its core feature base by default. The W10 privacy policy isn't going to change, the factor that's of concern is if their data mining code can be snuffed out.

Also, when it comes to things like online security and privacy, look up such things as a VPN and encrypted cloud storage.