Linux is the answer for which there was no question....

LightStar

reply 12

Nothing will ever beat Windows 7, period. End of story. 

I totally agree, LightStar.  I wish Microsoft had simply tightened up security for Windows 7.  I loved Windows 7 and, as I mentioned before, I purchased it before it was released.  I did some beta testing on Windows 7 and loved it right from the start.  Windows 10 has been an adventure.  One can only hope things start to smooth out.  There is a big announcement coming on Oct 26th and it appears to be about Windows 10. I am hoping they are not going to mess with the kernel again.  If they do, I will need to make a difficult decision.    

Here is a link to the Microsoft article: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/microsofts-next-event-on-windows-10-not-hardware-is-in-nyc-on-october-26/

Having said that, I now have a Windows 10 phone.  I was using a pricey LG G4 (Android) and I couldn't stand the bloat anymore.  Google kept dumping "updates" aka more junk on it all the time and the phone's battery life was awful because of that - and you can disable the apps but you cannot uninstall them.  I found a refurbished Nokia Lumia 735 on eBay from a reputable seller and grabbed it for $89.95 (much better than $600.00 for the G4).  It came with Windows 8.1 which wasn't bad. As soon as I got it up and running, it upgraded to Windows 10.  

I actually like Windows 10 on the Nokia phone much better than I do on my PC.  It works well and has none of the bloat like I had with the G4. The Lumia 735 got middling reviews with Windows 8.1 but it's getting very good reviews running Windows 10. It's not a fancy phone but the darned thing works and I am getting a better signal and much better battery life. You can order a brand new Lumia 735 from Verizon (not sure who else has them) for $120.00.  BTW Nokia has announced that they will be building phones again.  They will be built by Foxconn who makes the Apple phones.  It sounds as though they will be Android but fingers crossed that they will do some Windows phones in the future.  

In case some of you haven't heard, the Google Play store has approx 400 apps that contain malware.  I am sure they are working on the problem but if you have installed games, etc. you might want to make sure they are clean.  Ars Technica has a good article on the issue.  Ironically, the article came out right after I got the Lumia 735.  My G4 is clean though. 

Concerning my previous post about turning off Windows 10 updates, I decided to change them to "manual" instead.  The screen shows updates as "triggered." That means I have to check for updates which is fine.  Please note that I do not know for sure if it will actually work.  Patch Tuesday is coming up so I will let everyone know how that goes.  

 

When I log off for the night I shut my internet down before Scheduled Maintenance is due to start at 3.00am, which seems to work.  Well I've seen no changes that I didn't know about.  I too hope for a registry edit or a 3rd-party app to fix the issue properly.  It would save having to reboot my modem/router every morning.  Some people may think that's paranoid and going overboard, but after MS totally borked my machine 3 times with unwanted, unnecessary and flawed updates, it makes sense to me to take every precaution to safeguard MY machine. 

The last time they messed it up I couldn't get into anything... no Windows, no recovery options.  Apart from the BIOS, everything was frozen, all because of an overnight update I neither scheduled or gave permissions for.  I took me hours to recover my machine, but not until I was forced to reformat the drive and perform a clean install of Win 10, meaning I lost everything from the previous installation.  Luckily I keep nothing of importance on it, so no major loss, just a huge, huge inconvenience.  The same thing happened to mrs_starkers machine, so I'm out a day because MS feched up. 

No, users should not have to go to such extremes to safeguard their machines and wrest back some control, but MS forced the issue with some shoddy decisions and shonky software/updates.  Win 10 could have been a great OS, and it would have been if MS hadn't assassinated it well before it came out of the box for users to try.

Instead of shutting down your internet, look into your routers settings. You should find a section in there for turning off access to that computer by using a time schedule. 

Thanks for that, I'll have a look at it after I've gotten a bit of shuteye and feel more refreshed. 

Took the WIn10 plunge for free, am not impressed with it. Using Windows Ultimate Tweaker 4 combined with Ashampoo's WinOptimizer 14 I've pretty much taken over control of my update process. I've turned it off and only allow updates once I've read about them. I also use Stardock's WindowBlinds and Start10 to make things look more to my liking.

Starker's, one other option you have other than mucking around with your router/modem and its' settings is to use a program like Network Activity Indicator (http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/network_activity_indicator_for_windows_7.html) which gives back the old Win7 network graphic, all I do before shutting off my computer is just turn off my network connection. Right click on the icon in the notification area and click on "Network Connections" and then just disable it. Re-enable it when you want to go online. I do this all the time throughout my day. I only enable it when I actually want to go online... Yes, paranoid is my middle name.

Thanks for the tip , I had thought about checking Majorgeeks for some such tool to just cut the connection to my HP 2-in-1

Anyway, downloaded, installed and ready to take effect when I'm ready for bed... in about 20 mins, I hope.

starkers

reply 28

Thanks for the tip , I had thought about checking Majorgeeks for some such tool to just cut the connection to my HP 2-in-1

 

Anyway, downloaded, installed and ready to take effect when I'm ready for bed... in about 20 mins, I hope.

Pleasure, mate. Hope it helps you and your situation.

I checked for updates today and they installed without a problem.  My Windows phone got updates too.  Setting the updates to "manual" worked just as I hoped it would.  I thought some of you might be interested in the article below.  Krebs on Security is one of my favorite sites.  I've learned a lot from him.  Hope you like it too.  

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/10/microsoft-no-more-pick-and-choose-patching/  

Glad to hear it! Enjoy.

I am paranoid too.  There's a lot of really bad stuff out there. 

Yeah, sometimes I debate whether I want to leave the house in the morning...

If I were a little green muppet from a bad Science Fiction I'd likely stay home too...

Jafo

reply 33

If I were a little green muppet from a bad Science Fiction I'd likely stay home too...

Who you callin' a little green muppet!?! Guards!

Avatar137

reply 34

Quoting Jafo,

reply 33

If I were a little green muppet from a bad Science Fiction I'd likely stay home too...

 

Who you callin' a little green muppet!?! Guards!

Shouldn't that be: Who a little green muppet calling you are? {sounds of light saber being drawn}

Hide all the breakables!

Strange feature in Windows 10 worth knowing about: Auto-compression of wallpapers.

http://www.askvg.com/tip-disable-automatic-compression-of-desktop-wallpaper-in-windows-10/

Especially if you have a nice screen you probably want your wallpaper in full glory.

Uvah

reply 36

Hide all the breakables!

And beware of low blows... put on yer nut protectors.

The latest with Windows 10.  Here is an upcoming build 14951 (Redstone 2) which has been released to the Fast Track insiders.  I am on the Slow Track so haven't had to deal with it yet, thank goodness.  This build may not install correctly (or fail) on computer using third party antivirus software.  That would be me.  Hopefully, temporarily disabling Kaspersky will be enough to allow it to install. 

The estimated date for full release is in January so I may see it in December.  If you see my avatar with flames, you will know it didn't go well.   I've included a link to the upcoming build below.  This way we will know what is heading our way as Microsoft is not very forthcoming.  

http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/windows-10-redstone-2-build-tracker-pcs#slide-0-field_images-77191

If anyone here is on the Fast Track, I would love to hear your thoughts. 

Windows ten is not working right.