Category Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

Windows 10 anniversary edition

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Despite my extreme disappointment with Microsoft’s decision to prevent disabling advertising and privacy-compromising features in the Pro version of Windows 10, I am still running it on my test PC – for now. I don’t need to be running Windows 10 to talk about it, so I’ll be switching my test PC back to Windows 7 or 8.1 in the near future.

The anniversary update, which could fairly be described as Windows 10 Service Pack 1, has arrived. If you’re in the Windows 10 Insider Preview program, you’ve already seen all the changes that come with this update. For those of you not in the Insider program, here’s what the anniversary update includes: Windows Ink, a doodling program for tablets; improvements to the Start page, Start menu, notification center, taskbar, and other user interface elements; Cortana improvements; plus extensions and other improvements for Edge.

If you’re running Windows 10, you can get the anniversary update from Windows Update. You can also clean install it from an ISO image available from Microsoft.

Once the anniversary update is installed, Windows 10 will identify its version as Version 1607; OS Build 14393.10.

I haven’t encountered any new problems since my test PC upgraded itself to the anniversary version.

Before I remove Windows 10 forever from my test PC, I’m going to spend a bit of time looking into the new Pro version restrictions. There’s a small chance that some smart person will find a way around them; if so, I’ll post about it on this site.

Information from Microsoft:

Microsoft, Things that are bad, Windows 10

New restrictions for Windows 10 Pro version

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When it became clear that Microsoft intended Windows 10 to be an advertising platform, I wondered how they would sell it to business and education customers (see my Windows 10 review). I doubted that anyone would allow Windows 10 into the workplace unless the advertising and related privacy-compromising instrumentation could be disabled.

It wasn’t long before we started seeing tools and techniques for turning off these undesirable features, and Microsoft even provided some of their own, in the form of Group Policy settings.

The Group Policy editor is included with all versions of Windows 10 except Home. It makes the job of managing Windows settings easier for system administrators, since the alternative is editing the Windows registry.

So the answer to my question about disabling unwanted Windows 10 features for business customers would be Group Policy. Which is okay, but doesn’t help anyone using the Home version. Which is one reason why I tell people to avoid Windows 10 Home. Unless you’re on a tight budget, and don’t mind seeing advertising in your O/S, Windows 10 Professional is highly recommended for personal use.

So: get Windows 10 Pro, disable all the unwanted advertising and privacy-related settings, and you’re good to go, right? Not so fast.

The folks over at GHacks recently confirmed that Microsoft will lock down Group Policy in the Pro version of Windows 10 with the upcoming anniversary update. Many of the more annoying features will still have visible settings in the Group Policy editor, but changing them will have no effect. Even changing the corresponding settings in the registry apparently won’t work.

Microsoft’s message to the world seems to be “Okay, you don’t want us to advertise and track your users in Windows 10 in the workplace, so we’ll give you some tools to turn those features off. But we’ll be damned if we’ll let anyone else (i.e. Home and Pro users) turn that stuff off.”

To which my response is: “Dear Microsoft: Screw you. I won’t buy Windows 10. I won’t use Windows 10. I will tell anyone who cares to listen that they should avoid Windows 10 like they would Ebola. I will use Windows 7 and 8.1 until you abandon them, and then switch to Linux.”

There’s more over at BetaNews.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14393

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According to the announcement, Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14393 consists of bug fixes and reliability improvements. Which is a good thing, because according to several sources, build 14393 is what Microsoft will use for the Windows 10 anniversary update.

The anniversary update will become available on August 2, and will be available for free for anyone already running Windows 10 or on the Insider Preview program. If you want it for free and you’re not yet running Windows 10, you have until tomorrow (July 29) to upgrade your Windows 7 or 8.1 computer.

Ars Technica: Windows 10 Anniversary Update is ready to go and free for just a few more days

The Verge: Windows 10 Anniversary Update: the 10 best new features

Microsoft, Windows 10

Free Windows 10 upgrade offer ending soon

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If you want to take advantage of Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade offer for Windows 7 and 8.1, time is running out. The offer will end on July 29.

Of course, there’s nothing particularly compelling about Windows 10. Unless you’re excited by the idea of seeing advertising in Windows. Or happy that (by default) Microsoft will track your Windows 10 activity.

Both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are still excellent operating systems. Windows 7 will be supported by Microsoft until January 14, 2020. Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023. That means Microsoft will continue to develop (and make publicly available) security updates until 2020 for Windows 7 and 2023 for Windows 8.1.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

More Windows 10 Insider Preview Builds

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The rapid pace of Windows 10 Preview builds being delivered to my test PC continues. I guess that’s what Microsoft meant when it described this release channel as ‘Fast’.

In the last week or so, my test PC has been updated four times, to Windows 10 preview builds 14383, 14385, 14388, and 14390.

Given that each of these new builds is effectively a new install of Windows 10, they are surprisingly non-intrusive. The downloads are of course large, so there’s a bandwidth consideration. But the downloads happen in the background, and the installs and subsequent restarts happen during off hours (at night). Often I don’t notice the change until I start copying files and notice that Explorer’s copy dialog has once again reverted to its default, simple view.

Note: the Windows 10 version number is no longer visible on the desktop. Microsoft says “the desktop watermark is now gone. This is because we’re beginning to check in final code in preparation for releasing the Windows 10 Anniversary Update”. I’m not sure I follow the logic there, but at least it’s somewhat consistent. The watermark stops appearing when a release is imminent.

Build 14383

Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Build 14385

Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Build 14388

Bug fixes; reliability and performance improvements.

Build 14390

Bug fixes.

Adobe, Flash, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for July 2016

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It’s a relatively light month for Microsoft patches: only eleven this time. The updates address security issues in the usual suspects, namely Windows, Internet Explorer, Edge, Office, and the Flash code that’s embedded in IE 10, IE 11, and Edge. Six of the updates are flagged as Critical. A total of fifty vulnerabilities are addressed.

Adobe joins in the fun again this month, with updates for Flash and Reader/Acrobat. The Flash update fixes a whopping fifty-two vulnerabilities, while the Reader update fixes thirty vulnerabilities. Update: an announcement for the Flash update appeared on July 14th, despite being dated July 12th.

Update 2016Jul17: Ars Technica points out that one of the Microsoft updates addresses a critical security hole in a Windows printer driver installation mechanism that dates back to Windows 95. The vulnerability was not actually closed by the update; instead, a warning was added to the driver installation process.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

Windows 10 anniversary update coming August 2nd

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Microsoft is planning a big update for Windows 10 on its release anniversary. The update is planned for August 2, 2016, but that date may shift as we get closer.

The anniversary update will include the new Windows Ink, Edge browser extensions, and numerous performance and stability improvements. In other words, all the changes we’ve already seen as part of the Windows Insider program.

The update will be free to install on any computer already running Windows 10. After July 29, upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.1 will no longer be free, and is expected to cost $119 USD.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

More Windows 10 Preview Builds

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Microsoft is pushing out new Windows 10 Preview Builds with somewhat alarming rapidity recently. Alarming, because it seems my test PC is always either downloading one of the massive updates, or installing one.

My test PC is now running Build 14379, and I haven’t noticed any changes of interest, good or bad. Let’s look at the release notes to see what’s different in the new builds.

Build 14371

A new Activation Troubleshooter helps to resolve problems encountered by users after changing hardware such as hard drives and motherboards.

This build also includes improvements to accessibility, and easier to understand Edge download displays. Some tweaks were made to a few display settings, and more display settings will now be maintained between builds.

Build 14372

According to the release notes, Build 14372 has “a handful of fixes to [improve] overall performance and reliability.”

Build 14376

Performance and reliability fixes for Windows Store, various display fixes, a fix for a specific Edge/Explorer crash, and a fix for an authentication error related to Terminal Services.

Build 14379

More display fixes and crash fixes.

Crapware, Hardware, Microsoft, Security, Things that are bad, Windows 10

Pre-installed crapware still a problem

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A recent report from Duo Security shows that pre-assembled, ready-to-run computers purchased from major vendors almost always include pre-installed software that often makes those computers much less secure. That’s in addition to being unnecessary, unstable, resource-hungry, and often serving primarily as advertising conduits.

If you purchase a pre-assembled computer, you should uninstall all unnecessary software as soon as possible after powering it up. Before even connecting it to a network. It can be difficult to identify exactly which software should be removed, but a good starting point is to remove anything that shows the manufacturer’s name as the Publisher. PC World has a helpful guide.

And now the good news, at least for some of us: Microsoft now provides a tool that allows a user with a valid license to reinstall Windows 10 from scratch at any time. Minus all the crapware that the manufacturer originally installed.

Microsoft, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8.x

Microsoft now less sneaky about Windows 10 upgrades

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Now that their free Windows 10 upgrade offer is almost over, Microsoft thought this would be a good time to reduce some of the more devious tricks they’ve employed to fool users into upgrading from Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10.

One incredibly annoying behaviour of at least one of the previous upgrade dialogs was that closing the dialog by clicking the ‘X’ button at the top right corner was actually interpreted by Microsoft as approval to proceed with the upgrade.

But it’s too little, too late for some users, many of whom encountered serious problems after their computers were upgraded to Windows 10 without their approval.

Techdirt has an amusing look at this issue.

Update 2016Jul04: Apparently Microsoft is making one final big push to get people to upgrade. The Verge reports on new, screen-filling upgrade prompts that are starting to appear on Windows 7 and 8.1 computers.