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Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

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Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#401

Post by Terr_ »

inetknght wrote: post #270
capitalF wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better option is to open "gpedit.msc", then open "Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components" Then spend an afternoon going through each option, setting enabled/disabled for everything you don't want or don't recognize. You can easily disable entire subsystems like Cortana, tips, telemetry, camera, biometrics, error reporting, games, Homegroup, Defender, Window…

Unfortunately I've had Windows 10 turn OneDrive integration back on even after disabling it. That was literally the nail in the coffin for me; I've since uninstalled Windows 10. I'm still using Windows 7 for games. Anything else is done on Linux. When 7 goes end-of-life, I'll be 100% Linux.

I'm thinking of making my next desktop with a support for giving a virtual Windows machine access to a video card -- near native performance, but Linux for the host OS.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#402

Post by viridian »

supernovae wrote: post #387
mattnewton wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Linux or OSX upgrades without my consent, rebooting while I am using it, then I will scream about it too. Until then, I see no hypocrasy.

Again, this is configurable now.

So if I fill out the paperwork in advance Microsoft won't ruin my night? How generous of them. I'm really glad that linux gaming is increasing year over year, because gaming is about the only reason I still use windows at home.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#403

Post by CydeWeys »

supernovae wrote: post #397
CydeWeys wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows 10 is awesome.. the experiment with "ads" sucks but its all tweakable. I don't want to have to tweak my fucking operating system to remove ads!! Also, I think we're asking too much of the average user. It's not obvious how to do most of the tweaks, so your random older/casual user won't do them, or maybe even realize that such a thing might be possible and go off to look up how to do it. They're more likely…

THe "ads" are recommended apps. You can disable that.

Disabling it is tweaking. The default install of Windows 10 comes with ads and all sorts of other bullshit that doesn't benefit the user (in an operating system that you paid hundreds of dollars for, mind you). You have to go out of your way to opt out of it, and most users will not ever realize that such opting out is even possible.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#404

Post by supernovae »

jamie_ca wrote: post #388
novaleaf wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is the reason why most people (non tech savvy) look to turning off Windows Update. Most people don't know/care about Windows Update pushing features. However most people DO care when their computers spontaneously reboot themselves with no warning (sometimes even in the middle of "active hours"!) which is what msft has set by default (and indeed has/had no UI to modify in some versions of Win10)

"Active Hours" is such a stupid idea, too. I'm perfectly happy if my box has to reboot at 3am for updates, but I do actually make use of it in the morning as well as into the night, and as it shares some home-fileserver duties for the rest of my family, it gets used sporadically throughout the day. In its infinite wisdom Windows won't let me set "7am-11pm" as active hours - it caps it at either 10 or 12 hours. So no…

Upgrade to RS2 and select "pause updates" and just check for updates yourself as you're finishing up schedule it at your own time.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#405

Post by cartoonfoxes »

UK-AL wrote: post #370
cartoonfoxes wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to run batch operations, use the right product. Sorry, but this does come across as a bit asinine. What's the right product for running software written for Microsoft Windows, if not Microsoft Windows? "Users running their applications" isn't just Grandma on Facebook, or your little sister playing Candy Crush Saga. Microsoft's unquestionable strength has been it's support for enterprise, small-business…

Most of those are products that are not expected run over night in batching mode. You may get the need to have things to run overnight using engineering, simulation, rendering products with some sort of long running process. But these normally have server component that you install onto Windows Server, which the client offloads to.

> Most of those are products that are not expected run over night in batching mode.

I'll be sure to let them know that long-running computations deskside are now only an experimental feature /s

In all seriousness though, we've managed over a decade without the need for dedicated compute nodes along with the costs that would entail. The only case I can make for that right now is that current Windows now ships with unpredictable uptime.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#406

Post by supernovae »

CydeWeys wrote: post #403
supernovae wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THe "ads" are recommended apps. You can disable that.

Disabling it is tweaking. The default install of Windows 10 comes with ads and all sorts of other bullshit that doesn't benefit the user (in an operating system that you paid hundreds of dollars for , mind you). You have to go out of your way to opt out of it, and most users will not ever realize that such opting out is even possible.

Even the ads will ask you if you want to disable them.. "click here to disable future notifications" or if you open notification center you can "click here to disable future notifications".

I am slightly bemused we're making excuses for people not trying anything.. especially when computers these days are all about "Expressing yourself" and "identity"..

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#407

Post by signal11 »

jamie_ca wrote: post #388
novaleaf wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is the reason why most people (non tech savvy) look to turning off Windows Update. Most people don't know/care about Windows Update pushing features. However most people DO care when their computers spontaneously reboot themselves with no warning (sometimes even in the middle of "active hours"!) which is what msft has set by default (and indeed has/had no UI to modify in some versions of Win10)

"Active Hours" is such a stupid idea, too. I'm perfectly happy if my box has to reboot at 3am for updates, but I do actually make use of it in the morning as well as into the night, and as it shares some home-fileserver duties for the rest of my family, it gets used sporadically throughout the day. In its infinite wisdom Windows won't let me set "7am-11pm" as active hours - it caps it at either 10 or 12 hours. So no…

Seriously. Active Hours was such a terrible idea, how did it move past the design stage?

There were some hilarious hacks to disable the Update Orchestrator and prevent the reboots. They work well, although allegedly you should not need them any more with the new Creators Update OS refresh.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#408

Post by Qwertious »

setq wrote: post #23
zouhair wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope your car doesn't stop randomly against your will so it can get a refill.

Not yet. Only when you run out of gas. However in a few years, are people going to get pissed off when their Tesla has enough of their shit and drives itself to a charging point because the owner is too incompetent to heed the warnings?

In the long term, I'd hope that charged batteries are just driven to the car to be swapped in, when the car is in use, instead of the car having to stop and spend time charging itself when you want to be driving.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#409

Post by erk__ »

coding123 wrote: post #343

I'm totally clueless at this point in history. How are people still getting infected with shit when you give them these two rules: 1. Don't use a public IP on your laptop on the internet. 2. Don't run shit or use IE. Bypass 2 if you're a developer and you are experienced in this stuff. Seriously, I genuinely want to know, because the people that just got this, are going to continue to get shit in the future.

Don't use an outdated system with smb1 activated.

Re: Don't tell people to turn off Windows Update

#410

Post by tetraodonpuffer »

digi_owl wrote: post #298
sangnoir wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> The basic problem of our world is that it is ruled by 20-sometings that loath working on "old" tech.

disagree completely, it's not the 20-somethings that come to you and say "the budget we have is limited, and we have to prioritize, feature X might get us more exposure, so work on that and it doesn't matter if it breaks backwards compatibility, users will adapt"

If upper mgmt goes after "oh shiny" there's not you can do at the individual contributor level, and if you know you are in a "oh shiny" management situation there is also no incentive whatsoever in spending time making sure you think about the future when developing, since you're going to have to throw everything away anyways in a few months or a year at the most.

It's all about "being nimble" and "velocity" and "being innovative", where all of them are more or less shorthands for "churn things quickly until something sticks". Stable, reliable, dependable software is unsexy, if the company you work for is large enough you might be able to find a team that works along those lines and be happy, otherwise it's fighting fires all the time.

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