Get Windows 10

[irneb]

I have been running Windows on my Macbook Pro since June last year (via Parallels), and I haven't experienced the pain that you've described - in fact, it's been a doddle.

That's the difference. The programs are extremely heavy 3d graphics, and uses a minimum of 8GB ram (actually preferred 16GB or more, it will not even install on anything with less than 4GB). So a VM on a laptop with only 8GB ram isn't a good idea for this purpose.

Thus it is done through Bootcamp, not Parallels. And that is the niggly bits (Apple actually says their Bootcamp drivers are not yet ready for W10, they recommend you not install anything newer than W8.1 until they've released their W10 drivers). Firstly the WiFi didn't work, so I couldn't connect it to download drivers (even the LAN cable didn't want to work). Fortunately the USB did, so I was able to download manually from another PC and then plug in a stick. After that it went more smoothly.

The right-click tweaks only work once the drivers are finally fixed. You don't have OSX running, so you need windows to read that what you mean by pressing two fingers / holding down a key while pressing / whatever you set your tweak to is actually a right-click.

[tec0]

Well according to some "gossip" it is said that Windows 10 will be a mandatory upgrade soon. I am yet to confirm this, but it sounds like something Microsoft will do as there quest to dominate our private information is turning into a race between Microsoft and android. With the new international laws making data collection mandatory will also be a driving factor. And the copyright crazies are all joining in, in hopes to stop any form of what they conciser unfair use... So pressure is now coming from multitude directions.

Now if you do a search the idea is to access your computer and all of its files remotely without notifying you or without getting a warrant "Show to be reasonable or provide adequate ground for" yea... Now this will make it impossible for the media-news to function because stories can be stopped before it ever see the light of day. Also anyone watching YouTube will notice that the copyright crazies are slowly killing both the creative media aspect and ability "to give fair review" on products services and especially the gaming world. They are simply destroying the little guy.

So this will become our future as well. This is basically going after a bug with an h-bomb...

Now in the end this will mean that you will keep a nice old computer around and basically air-gap it. and that is exactly what will happen soon. There are also companies developing instant message encryption software for mobile phones. Basically what will soon be available to us, will be a watered down OS with basically only the "basics" running on it, to avoid keylogging and your communication "via SMS MMS and E-mail" will be encrypted.

The thing that is scary to me is that 500 million people's data suddenly became a small number! And that systems can effectively scan every word you type in seconds and that software can flag you without any human having a part in it.

[Mike C]

My favourite article on the internet:

http://www.howtogeek.com/218856/how-do-you-disable-the-get-windows-10-icon-shown-in-the-notification-tray/

I have to hide the update from clients until I am ready to update.

Have done this and to my surprise it re-appeared a month later - even though I had marked the update "hide". I very quickly removed it again, but when I googled it I see that microsoft keep on sending the update out as "revised" which makes it load again. One article said that they have done this 6 times already.

[James R]

When Microsoft kills windows 7 like they did XP i will be going over to a linux based OS.

[bones]

When Microsoft kills windows 7 like they did XP i will be going over to a linux based OS.

it is not easy been trying to get all my printers to work
but was unable so we setup a win7 system and the only
update it gets is my antivirus we tried windows 10
found that half of my old stuff like printers and there
software failed to install

[bones]

network printers work ok with win10
and my wifes Genius drawing pad
also works well.

[irneb]

Yet another Microsoft fooze-up: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonke...-begins-again/

[tec0]

Yet another Microsoft fooze-up: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonke...-begins-again/

Yes and no... Look you can disable it all you want if you leave it on long enough and capture enough packets you find that some of them are encrypted and is send on idle meaning no meaningful process is taking place and it is not just to keep the connection alive because the headers is just not confirming it. You cannot turn tracking off... Even if you think it is off it is never off.

i am 100% sure a backdoor exist and yes i cannot find it BUT it doesn't mean it is not there. Truth is ghost packets don't just happen. And ok i will even give Microsoft the benefit and say OK MAYBE it is third party or some other software doing it... "MAYBE" But you don't see it on Win7... And that brings this into perspective. However THAT SAID your free antivirus be very careful... Some actually do send packets and it is not for updates it is for advertisement. And since it is a TSR in the memory "no idea what the new generation calls TSR" chances are it can run other scripts while idling.

Also between windows 8 , 8.1 and 10 the hidden partition size grew a little "depending on what version you are running" There is another clue as to what gets stored "dumped from the RAM" What gets send on and what doesn't. It has to be a passive dump because an active dump will slow gaming systems down because logically while playing a new video game that needs 16Gb of memory there will be very little time to sneak a keylog dump without glitching unless some memory is dedicated to capture on startup. and if that is true then it probably run directly from your registry skipping services and yes the 100MB+ hidden partition can handle reasonable keyboard dumps.

Now how big a file do you need? well 1kb can store half a page worth of data "depending on compression" and if you ave a algorithm running or not. 1Mb "that is small in today's 3G and even GPRS speeds can hold 500 pages of information so that hidden partition has the potential to store about 50000 pages of text... and since it exports and clear "with the dump being send and new one created old one deleted" that is a lot of text.... a hell of a lot... "of potential spying space" that just shows you how higher speeds made us more open to spying then ever before. even a simple 250kb connection with 50kb up and 20kb down can send 500 pages with ease if it has a hidden protocol or pipe piping the data directly to a high speed server.

Stuff from here on in gets scary fast.

[irneb]

Yes and no...

I was actually trying to show the BS that MS tries to hoodwink into Jo-Slow.

I.e. at first, deny everything. Then after too much evidence shows you're lying, admit it, but downplay it as "nothing to worry about". Then after the evidence shows that there IS IN FACT A LOT TO WORRY ABOUT, admit that you'll be removing said spy-ware portion in your next update. Then when the update comes, simply rename said spyware to something else. Then we can start the whole process over again.

[tec0]

I was actually trying to show the BS that MS tries to hoodwink into Jo-Slow.

I.e. at first, deny everything. Then after too much evidence shows you're lying, admit it, but downplay it as "nothing to worry about". Then after the evidence shows that there IS IN FACT A LOT TO WORRY ABOUT, admit that you'll be removing said spy-ware portion in your next update. Then when the update comes, simply rename said spyware to something else. Then we can start the whole process over again.

LOL i totally agree with you on every aspect "the yes and no bit" was yes you can disable the existing spy but the new one is already running inside the memory. But seriously i Totally agree with you. But this i think you will find interesting... The Ghost packets i tracked totaled about 750kb per 1 hour of 3G use. But twice a day the ghost packets double to 1.4Mb of data... Creepy right

[irneb]

The Ghost packets i tracked totaled about 750kb per 1 hour of 3G use. But twice a day the ghost packets double to 1.4Mb of data... Creepy right

Could you find out how much of that is uploads, and how much are downloads/control signals?

I'm guessing there's some timer event which uploads certain information at certain times of the day. But I wouldn't be surprised if some backdoor implementation from MS listens to an "instruction" from some server to tell it to upload certain "other" info also.

Just wondering if something like Comodo Firewall would stop this in its tracks. Not that I'd ever install that (again), talk about a resource hog, even AVs like Norton / AVG could learn from Comodo about how to use up all RAM and CPU cycles such that the computer truly becomes useless. Only it was the most complete 3rd party firewall I've yet found on Windows - basically everything is stopped unless you specifically allow each individually (I always joked that it did this through not allowing anything else to actually "run"). Though that was still on XP, haven't used it again for several years now. But then it would even stop stuff like Windows's Update checks. Reading a later review it seems they've "toned down the behaviour blocking", so I'm guessing it wouldn't do much about W10's theft of data: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414835,00.asp

Not that I'm advocating any such 3rd party firewall to keep W10 from stealing your files, I'd really advise anyone I come across to rather use anything else. But I guess if you're stuck with it (i.e. you have no choice but to go W10) you have 2nd best choice: either allow MS to do whatever the hell they want with ALL of your files / passwords / connection histories / etc. and never actually save anything personal, sensitive, "secret" or allow yourself to type-in any sort of password (or other credentials), basically don't use your PC for the reasons you actually bought it. Or try to block them from doing so, because simply put, no matter what or how many time you tell Windows DON'T STEAL FROM ME, it will just go ahead an steal anyway.

[tec0]

Could you find out how much of that is uploads, and how much are downloads/control signals?

I'm guessing there's some timer event which uploads certain information at certain times of the day. But I wouldn't be surprised if some backdoor implementation from MS listens to an "instruction" from some server to tell it to upload certain "other" info also.

Just wondering if something like Comodo Firewall would stop this in its tracks. Not that I'd ever install that (again), talk about a resource hog, even AVs like Norton / AVG could learn from Comodo about how to use up all RAM and CPU cycles such that the computer truly becomes useless. Only it was the most complete 3rd party firewall I've yet found on Windows - basically everything is stopped unless you specifically allow each individually (I always joked that it did this through not allowing anything else to actually "run"). Though that was still on XP, haven't used it again for several years now. But then it would even stop stuff like Windows's Update checks. Reading a later review it seems they've "toned down the behaviour blocking", so I'm guessing it wouldn't do much about W10's theft of data: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414835,00.asp

Not that I'm advocating any such 3rd party firewall to keep W10 from stealing your files, I'd really advise anyone I come across to rather use anything else. But I guess if you're stuck with it (i.e. you have no choice but to go W10) you have 2nd best choice: either allow MS to do whatever the hell they want with ALL of your files / passwords / connection histories / etc. and never actually save anything personal, sensitive, "secret" or allow yourself to type-in any sort of password (or other credentials), basically don't use your PC for the reasons you actually bought it. Or try to block them from doing so, because simply put, no matter what or how many time you tell Windows DON'T STEAL FROM ME, it will just go ahead an steal anyway.

When you mentioned it i started to think about BlackICE firewall that thing always worked but its not free. Tell you what I will setup a test computer this weekend again and do a clean install of win10 "no antivirus nothing" and just connect to the net and let it idle and see what packets i capture. I will disable "everything" and see if there are any ghost packets apart from your average idle packets. I also want to find a way to access the hidden partition in real time and see what gets cashed to it if possible and if any.

this is going to be fun

[tec0]

What i did;

Installed OS without any other software including drivers. Disabled updates left system to idol.

Day 1 4 hour idol while connected to the internet > 2mb up 300kb down packets was encrypted (rounded numbers)
Day 2 4 hour idol while connected to the internet > 1mb up 150kb down packets was encrypted (rounded numbers)
Day 3 4 hour idol while connected to the internet > 0 data up 0 data down "only connection packets was found"

Conclusion with updates disabled something is stalking and it wasn't any 3rd party software "not even a antivirus"

[Mike C]

Came across this handy little utility that others might find helpful in removing the Windows 10 update irritation. It also features a monitor facility that warns when Microsoft tries to renew its efforts.

http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html

Update: Ran the utility this morning and everything seemed to work fine. This afternoon had a blue-screen crash. Not too sure that it was related to the utility or not, but just thought that I would issue a warning.

[KelleyJames12]

Please don't upgrade a Sony Vaio running windows 8.1 to Windows 10 as it comprehensively bricks it!.. Warnings on the Sony Vaio web site say do not upgrade.