I'm currently on Windows 7 and don't want to accidentally install Windows 10. Turning off updates seems to be the only reliable way to do this.
You can try never10: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm
Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
291–300 of 567 posts
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#292I'm currently on Windows 7 and don't want to accidentally install Windows 10. Turning off updates seems to be the only reliable way to do this.
...and once you are on Windows 10, you will need a degree in Computer Science to disable updates :). I was forced into Windows 10. To turn off updates, I had to disable the Windows Update service. There is no user friendly option to turn them off.
There is one but it is not included with windows. You have to download a piece of freeware dedicated to customizing your windows.
Sorry i don't have the name of this in mind.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a mistranslation of the above post. The poster intended to say that Microsoft's updates can be legitimately harmful whereas modern vaccines aren't.
Thanks for pointing it out. It's one of the downsides of autism that understanding the intent of other people can be hard or impossible, so I'm always grateful for hints like that.
[deleted]
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#294I love the way he's compared the people who tell you to turn off auto-updates with anti-vaxxers; it's quite an apt analogy. Microsoft shares part of the blame here for pushing features that the user clearly doesn't want through updates (especially to the major OS version). Look at the recent ads in Windows file explorer for one example. A lot of the advice to turn Windows Update off is a misguided response to Microso…
No. "Some of the blame"? Try "all of the blame." Windows Updates used to be pro-user. Now they're pro-Microsoft (pushing things Microsoft wants) and anti-user (routinely pushing 'features' no one wants or asked for). I disabled it a long time ago and haven't looked back. Get back to me when MS starts remembering their customers are human beings again.
"pro user" is an interesting way to put it. If I remember correctly it was heavily integrated with IE in the past to push browser share. Want to update your system? Open buggy old IE5/6. Want to get rid of IE? What antitrust? IE is part of essential Windows functionality after all, we can't get rid of it.
> Get back to me when MS starts remembering their customers are human beings again.
Oh, they know. Their whole abusive process is build around milking that fact for all it is worth.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your last paragraph is confusing. It seems those people rely on your support. Are you really saying you'd rather deal with potential results of them not upgrading than with the upgrade failures? I'm assuming that if they come to you with one, the also do with the other.
Well it's just that one position is more comfortable than the other. If they don't update and have an issue then it's on them. If I insist they turn on Windows update and then something goes wrong then it's on me. It's a bit cowardly but as a Linux/BSD guy I just can't stand doing Windows support anymore. Every version is worse than the last, everything is dumbed down to the max and when something goes wrong you're s…
> If my friends want support they'll run Linux, otherwise I'll let them deal with Microsoft's support or whatever.
Dealing with Microsoft's support is quite an experience, I think I would be better off talking to some indian "anti-malware" "security experts" that would install remote controlling software and would tell you some fancy tech words that you could listen to while they're at it.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#296In recent years, Microsoft has been pushing automatic updates more and more. At the same time, the updating experience just hasn't gotten any better. My Linux install never urges me to update. Updates come out many times a day, and I can ignore them entirely for as long as I want. My Windows install continually urges me to update. It makes them increasingly hard to ignore, to make sure I install them. The idea behind…
> Browsers these days install updates without even asking the user, and complaints about that are rare. Until the browser decide to break something you used (see firefox and alsa support on linux, or firefox and australis, or firefox the upcoming drop of non web extension extensions, ...). Automatic update should be limited to critical security and not significantly alter or break user experience. > Meanwhile, every…
Thankfully Firefox still offer a LTS variant.
I jumped on that train when they moved to GTK3, but said train seems to be running out of track.
As of late, Mozilla have done a whole lot to alienate long time _nix users in their attempt at catching Chrome's tail.
And you bring up a good point about tightly coupled versions.
_nix was in part adopted because things were loosely coupled. But in the pursuit of attention the DEs and various other big projects have steadily pushed for more tight coupling so that they can deliver a certain "commercial" UX.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#297I don't understand why they dont just do what macOS does -- you can keep peoples computer up to date without force restarting at insane times and downloading a ton of junk. "Security" does not excuse microsofts customer abuse.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#298I love the way he's compared the people who tell you to turn off auto-updates with anti-vaxxers; it's quite an apt analogy. Microsoft shares part of the blame here for pushing features that the user clearly doesn't want through updates (especially to the major OS version). Look at the recent ads in Windows file explorer for one example. A lot of the advice to turn Windows Update off is a misguided response to Microso…
> Microsoft shares part of the blame here for pushing features that the user clearly doesn't want through updates (especially to the major OS version). Look at the recent ads in Windows file explorer for one example. A lot of the advice to turn Windows Update off is a misguided response to Microsoft's own bone-headed moves in recent years to install bullshit that the user doesn't want. Vaccinations are awesome, but M…
Sadly MS is hardly the first to have done something like that, but they are the biggest and most prominent name right now.
People avoid doing firmware updates on various devices for the same reason, as there is no indication what will change or go missing (never mind that it likely will reset the device, and thus require a full reconfigure before being useful again).
The basic problem of our world is that it is ruled by 20-sometings that loath working on "old" tech. The epitome of this is the FOSS world that goes through a wrenching rewrite churn every 5 years or so as new heads take over "old" projects.
For all their antics, one reason MS is still top dog is that they support APIs and ABIs first introduced with Windows 95 (or even older, if you manage to do a 32-bit install).
Never mind that MS did offer XP updates, for a price. One reason the NHS got hit hard was that some penny pinching bureaucrat decided they could not afford to pay said price.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if Microsoft instead fixed the need to restart for almost every update?
MacOS handles this perfectly. It clearly notifies you when an update will be installed if you restart.
Yeah, the important one it offers is "Not Now". If you tell it "Not Now", it will not install that update, period. Windows 10, by default, will install those updates automatically and pick a random time or immediately reboot.
If I'm out of town for 2 weeks, I cannot have my Windows 10 machine reboot, it runs the software for my security cameras and that can't start until I log back in. Thankfully, I set up Windows Update to not install updates automatically(Win10 Pro) way back when it came out and it has continued to stick. Major updates are a constant worry that they will finally break this forever when it shouldn't even be a concern in the first place.
Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taskbar > Context menu > Cortana > ( Hidden / Show icon / Show search box )
Or the free O&O ShutUp10 tool provides a nice GUI to edit a lot of these settings (no more Cortana integration is one)... https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
After having mainlined Linux for so long i kinda forget how closed source platforms keep producing these seemingly magical utilities for tweaking all manner of things.
But then i get myself thinking of Gnome, and how i have seen similar tools sprout for tweaking it in recent years...