A Word of Warning prior to updating your Windows Operating System to Version 10

[JohnS]

Microsoft, as many of you know, decided to re-vamp their graphical interface a few years ago to Version 8. It proved so popular, Microsoft decided to release a free Version 8.1 3.62 gb update so people could enjoy Microsoft Windows with a desktop! Many of you were not impressed at the time as the following thread demonstrated...

http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=114546

Version 10 is a free update for Windows if you are running Windows 7 or 8. It's about a 2.7 gb download. Be aware that you need to know a few things prior to upgrading...

1) Free up about 20 gb on your C drive or it won't upgrade.

2) You need 3 or 4 hours for the upgrade to finish.

3) When you are at the very end and you are ready to customise your settings prior to logging into Windows do not choose the express settings option. If you are like me and you prefer other default apps other than Microsoft ones, choose the customise settings option.

4) You may find your Antivirus and/or Firewall uninstalled. I wasn't happy about this because I paid for a 2-year licence to use Kaspersky Internet Security in February 2015 and I wasn't about to give up that purchase to use Microsoft's default antivirus/firewall/malware product/s. I re-installed Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 without re-activating the product as this was saved on my system. I also didn't need to apply any antivirus updates upon re-installing.

The good news is that Windows 10 will free up space on your hard drive and runs quicker. So far I'm happy. I'll post back when I am not!

[Duxnutz]

I'm amazed people still use computers!

[First Lady]

I am up for a New Laptop and not happy as I HATE Microsoft 8 so I damn hope Microsoft 10 is better otherwise I will be dirty I hate Microsoft as much as I hate my Samsung Table which is a piece of crap.... okay end of Rant.... Apple all the way

[Optic101]

Moved to Apple about 6 years ago and still very happy with it.

For sure it is not perfect and has his own problems from time to time which is, at least for me, nothing compare to the "challenges" I had with Microsoft.

[KGM]

And don't forget to read the 45 page privacy policy where they tell you they are collecting all your data and sharing with their partners and the government...

Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: 1.comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; 2.protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone; 3.operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or 4.protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the 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.

http://bgr.com/2015/07/31/windows-10-upgrade-spying-how-to-opt-out/

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/
https://jonathan.porta.codes/2015/07/30/windows-10-seems-to-have-some-scary-privacy-defaults/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/31/windows-10-microsoft-faces-criticism-over-privacy-default-settings

My understanding is you can turn off / opt out of most of this (maybe all?). So I would highly recommend taking the time to read the many articles about disabling Microsoft's prying eyes. I hear Win10 is pretty impressive so far, but as always with Windows OS's, I'll be waiting until SP1.

[KGM]

Wow. I didn't realize how east Microsoft was making it to keep your data/activity to yourself...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3f38ed/guide_how_to_disable_data_logging_in_w10

Holy *!&$*^@_)!*$!)$ Hell!

There's been a lot of commotion over W10's privacy terms. I'm sure these methods can change/improve at any time, but here's a guide which should hopefully give you a relatively more private, safe experience, however at the risk of not being able to enjoy some of W10's features.

Before/During Installation

• Do not use Express Settings. Hit Customize, and make sure everything is turned off.
• It's strongly preferred that you use a local account with Windows 10.

After Installation

• Head to Settings > Privacy, and disable everything, unless there are some things you really need.
• While within the Privacy page, go to Feedback, select Never in the first box, and Basic in the second box.
• Head to Settings > Update and Security > Advanced Options > Choose how updates are delivered, and turn the first switch off.
• Disable Cortana by clicking the Search bar/icon.
• (Optional) Disable web search in Search by going to Settings, and turning off Search online and include web results.
• Change the name of your PC by going to Start (or hitting the Windows key), typing About PC, and clicking Rename PC.

Slightly Complex

• Open up the Command Prompt by launching cmd as an administrator, and enter the following:

sc delete DiagTrack

sc delete dmwappushservice

echo "" > C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl

• Open up the Group Policy Editor by launching gpedit.msc as an administrator. Go through Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds. Double click Telemetry, hit Disabled, then apply. NOTE: This only truly works in the Enterprise edition, but the final step provides a decent enough workaround for Pro users.

• While still in the Group Policy Editor, go through Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive, double click Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage, hit Enabled, then apply.

• While still in the Group Policy Editor, go through Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender, double click Turn Off Windows Defender, hit Enabled, then apply.

• Open up the Registry Editor by launching regedit as an administrator. Go through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\DataCollection, select AllowTelemetry, change its value to 0, then apply.

• First, download the Take Ownership tweak and enable it. Then, head to the Hosts File by going through C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc, take ownership of the hosts file, and add all of the IPs from this page into the file.

Up To You

• Replace Microsoft Edge/Internet Explorer with Firefox, Chromium, or any forks/variations of them.
• Replace Windows Media Player with VLC or MPC-HC
• Replace Groove Music with Foobar2000, Winamp, or MusicBee.
• Replace Photos/Windows Photo Viewer with ImageGlass or IrfanView.

Yeah, when this PC dies I may be going back to Slack or OSX. That's insane.

[KGM]

And one last piece for those who prefer visual learning...

http://i.imgur.com/9DoVoix.jpg

FYI, no Win10 devices allowed on my network!

[subport]

Ms vista was my last one. It was crap as the millenium was back in days. Happy os x user since. Never looked back.

[NCPANTHERZFAN]

I am an Apple guy myself, but I did purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro for work. It's like the best of both worlds. Full laptop functionality (Microsoft office) as well as touch screen capability like an iPad. It is also very helpful (and does a really good job) with being able to actually write on it legibly. I do not care for the tile format, but for a great replacement of a laptop and the touchscreen ability of an IPad (except larger) it does a sound job.

[oliverdst]

Lol. Apple bwoys are everywhere.

[Dara]

Using a Mac, my fondest memories of windows are of solitaire which no longer comes installed free with windows 10.....I can see that pissing off a lot of home users!

[perkinke]

Thanks for the warnings and help, I'm going to download it to my spare laptop and play with W10. And if anyone thinks Apple isn't doing all of the same shenanigans with your data then please let me introduce you to my friend the Nigerian prince...

[elco69]

Hey all.....I have been running Windows 10 since October of last year and so far it has been great. Another thing you should do before the upgrade is to backup your data, you should do this on the regular, but double make sure you do before the upgrade.

To me Windows 10 is what 8/8.1 should have been.

[dangolf18]

I upgraded from windows 7 professional to 10 on one of my laptops. I'm really pleased so far actually. Cortana is a lot smarter than Siri lol. Upgrade only took 25 minutes to install.

[Rushman]

I've been a MacBook Air user for four or more years. Recent change to new company resulted in a new windows 8 touch screen laptop. It's a nice laptop but the docking station is very nice. I still work half my day from my Mac as everything we do is cloud based.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[KGM]

Thanks for the warnings and help, I'm going to download it to my spare laptop and play with W10. And if anyone thinks Apple isn't doing all of the same shenanigans with your data then please let me introduce you to my friend the Nigerian prince...

No offense, but if Apple were doing this, people would know about it. This isn't something you can keep secret. So tell your friend the prince we know he's not wearing any clothes. I have no love for Apple, but dismissing the massive invasion of privacy Win10 reportedly represents is rather appaling.

Let me just reiterate something here...

Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders)...

You don't find this disconcerting in the least? This sentence basically says they will take ALL of your data. That doesn't bother you?

[perkinke]

Oh I'm quite sure if you peruse the apple terms of service, particularly for iTunes and iCloud you will find similar provisions but not necessarily as explicitly stated. All of the tech companies have or are storing tons of "private" data, didn't google have a flap over that a couple years ago? As for whether I'm appalled by it? Eh, not my biggest concern, but I work for the public sector so I'm used to having substantial parts of my life open to the public for the asking.

[KGM]

Oh I'm quite sure if you peruse the apple terms of service, particularly for iTunes and iCloud you will find similar provisions but not necessarily as explicitly stated. All of the tech companies have or are storing tons of "private" data, didn't google have a flap over that a couple years ago? As for whether I'm appalled by it? Eh, not my biggest concern, but I work for the public sector so I'm used to having substantial parts of my life open to the public for the asking.

Oh they definitely do. But they also "claim" to anonymize it. And it is limited.

Microsoft is laying claim to ALL your data, in a way that they can and will track you.

Gmail's flap was that they were permitted to read your inbox to specifically target you for ads. Yeah, that was shitty. Not a fan, and I bitched about it then. Gmail does not have access to my private files on my computer. Microsoft does. This is ALL of your data. Think about it. How much digital information do you have that does not pass through your PC?

I understand public sector. I understand clearances. What's on your PC is more than what's in your SF-86, although I'm guessing anyone that used eQIP made a digital copy so they don't have to go looking for that stuff every 5 years. OMB just gave that info about you to ~China~, and now you're giving it to Microsoft. Personally, I'd rather China have my data.

[khomeinist]

I am currently preferring Debian on my machines. I use Fedora and some lightweight distros as well.

Windoze and McApple good for the lolz.

[khamy]

Moved to Apple about 6 years ago and still very happy with it.

For sure it is not perfect and has his own problems from time to time which is, at least for me, nothing compare to the "challenges" I had with Microsoft.

Same here but do miss playing games so may look into having a windows laptop again if win10 is reasonably stable,

[ptrthgr8]

The NSA already has all of our info anyhow. LOL Microsoft *wishes* they had that level of data collection. We've been dog fooding Win10 at work for a while now and it's been fine. But, yeah, likely won't install it on my personal machine at home until there's more info about how it works for gaming.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[cigcars]

Using a Mac, my fondest memories of windows are of solitaire which no longer comes installed free with windows 10.....I can see that pissing off a lot of home users!

WHAT!!!???? Oh no - I HAVE to have my accessories available Solitaire games!!! Guess I'll be keeping my Windows 7 Professional for a little while longer! Plus, the tech experts who've been upgrading and tending to my own desktop advise against getting Windows 10 too soon anyway. They figure I should wait until all the kinks and bugs that may occur have time to get worked out first.

[KGM]

The NSA already has all of our info anyhow. LOL Microsoft *wishes* they had that level of data collection. We've been dog fooding Win10 at work for a while now and it's been fine. But, yeah, likely won't install it on my personal machine at home until there's more info about how it works for gaming.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I'm not saying skip Win10, especially in the work environment as Enterprise version gives you a whole lot more control. Although I expect 50% of all installations will likely end up sending PII, proprietary, sensitive, etc to Mircosoft.

Even for home users it can be OK. I'm just saying that your average user better take the time to understand what it is they are giving up, and take the time to configure their boxes safely. Two things your Joe User doesn't normally do, especially when Microsoft is waving the "free" flag.

Again, hyperbole about shadow agencies or other federal entities already having our data is, in this context, disingenous and incredibly dangerous. The NSA does not have the contents of your HDD. Yet. You know what they will do when they want that data? They'll call Microsoft. Using NSL's from that retarded Act that nobody read or understood but loved because it protected them. Much like a 45 page privacy policy no one will read. Because FREE.

[egoo33]

http://lifehacker.com/what-windows-10s-privacy-nightmare-settings-actually-1722267229

[JohnS]

I still use XP pro as this is as good as microsoft will ever be!

Yes, it does seem like yesterday. Windows XP Pro was a massive improve over the FAT32 Operating Systems such as Win 95/98/ME.