Latest Windows 10

[Wodrick]

I cannot vouch for the veracity of this but not good if true :

If you use Windows 10, and get a WELCOME TO WINDOWS screen at startup offering to set up various services, I recommend you do NOT accept this. Use the button in the lower left of the screen to SKIP FOR NOW.
If you accept this you are allowing the following
-Windows will force you to use a Outlook.com or hotmail.com email address and password to log in. If you don’t have one of these you will be directed to creating one. Your old login password or PIN may no longer work.
-Windows will start up to 32 background apps every time you turn on the device, slowing performance significantly.
-Microsoft will scan and save all your data, including all your emails from all email servers, all documents you create using Microsoft tools like Word and Excel, everything you save in the cloud and all communications apps text and voice data. You have literally given them permission to capture every keystroke you make! (More on this below)
-Microsoft will log and save your location history every time you startup. No, your VPN will not prevent this. Your computer knows where it is, it saves that info the instant you connect to your internet provider’s connection, before your VPN even has a chance to connect. Then once you get online through your VPN, your computer sends your true location to MS.
However, if you are a dedicated MS product user, with Gmail, Office 365, Google Cloud, Skype, etc., and you also want to share data between all your devices, then go ahead and do the MS registered login process.
Note: Microsoft has now admitted they are scanning and censoring all communications coming from Windows 10 computers. “Microsoft will ban ‘offensive language’ and ‘inappropriate content’ from Skype, Xbox, Office and other services on May 1, claiming it has the right to go through your private data to ‘investigate.”
Reference: https://www.csoonline.com/article/32646 ... vices.html

[G-CPTN]

So that's why my W10 laptop is so slow - it certainly seems like there's something going on every time I select something - I did wonder.

How to get out?

I normally leave my laptop switched-on 24/7 and there is always a music application running (Classic FM online), so touching the 'pad' revives the screen.
Laptop shut down and required that I sign-in my Hotmail account (including password).

[belfrybat]

How to get out?

Upgrade to Linux. I've used Mint these last couple of years, with no trouble at all. I did have a headscratcher setting up the display but after that it was smooth sailing. It has a look and feel similar to Windows so there's minimal cultural shock. The preferences manager is quite easy to set up as you prefer it. I haven't really felt like customizing anything.

It comes with all the usual office (Libre Office) and browsers already installed. You can opt out at installation if you prefer. The software manager connects to a searchable central repository where you can add whatever you fancy. All applications are peer reviewed before going to the repository and free to download. Some applications do need to be downloaded and installed separately. Instructions are easy to find.

No updates are shoved down your throat. In fact you need to remember to start up the update manager once in a while and select what you find interesting. Minor revisions can be skipped and I let the kernel stuff alone unless there's a pressing need for it. Make sure you have Timeshift (system backup) activated and take a snapshot beforehand.

No BSOD, if some application misbehaves the kernel just shuts it down. Should the kernel crash it reloads itself and keeps chugging along.

Best of all, it's all free.

[Boac]

However, if you are a dedicated MS product user, with Gmail, Office 365, Google Cloud, Skype, etc.,

Small correction to whoever wrote that, chaps and chapesses - Gmail and Google Cloud are not M$ products. Also I think there is still the option to return to 'normal' log in. Have a look at 'Start > Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options?

The article does smack of an element of tinfoil hats, however, and whoever wrote it obviously has no idea how much the national intelligence services are able to 'harvest!'

[jimtherev]

Latest fun contribution from Micro$haft: 'We regret that Cortana is not yet available in your language.'
1. This message pops up immediately I close a window... almost any window.
2. My language is English (British)
3. Don't like Cortana. Don't use Cortana. Don't want BL88DY Cortana. Shut up, or I'll delete windows altogether.

[G-CPTN]

A couple of laptops back (Windows 8?) I used to be able to selectively delete cookies according to the address - so, for example I could delete the cookie for the Telegraph.
Now (Windows 10) I only seem to be able to delete 'browsing data' and not specific cookies.

Am I right, or am I going to the wrong place?

The reason I ask is that one site is restricting my access to a certain number of 'views' - which I presume is regulated by cookies.

On reflection, I was probably using Firefox then and now I'm using Opera or Chrome.

[Boac]

Yes, it would have been FF. For Chrome:

On your computer, open Chrome.

At the top right, click More. Settings.

Under "Privacy and security," click Cookies and other site data.

Click See all cookies and site data.

At the top right, search for the website's name.

To the right of the site, click Remove.

If Opera try Googling.

[G-CPTN]

Thanks.

[OFSO]

Emotet, the malware campaign that has been causing havoc for computer systems all over the world, has reappeared with a new approach to infecting devices. An email attachment claiming to be from Windows Update and instructing users to upgrade Microsoft Word is now being used to lure unsuspecting victims into downloading the malicious software.

The malware works by first sending spam emails that contain either a Word document attachment or a download link. Victims will then be prompted to ‘Enable Content’ to allow macros to run on their device, which will install the Emotet Trojan.

The new document template being used to trick victims into downloading these macros takes the guise of a Windows Update message. ......

("Techradar," today)

[G-CPTN]

Don't Windows updates arrive through the Operating System? - and in some cases automatically?

[Wodrick]

W10 updates just arrive and you can select how they are installed, automatically which is the default, you can choose to examine them and install them manually, and even delay for upto 21 days IIRC. That way you can pick up the scuttlebutt on adverse effects or bugs and wait for the revised version.

[Boac]

Most decent av programmes will detect it. There is an open source programme which will check if your machine/s have the virus, but you will need to run something like Malwarebytes to eliminate it.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/getmirror/emocheck,1.html

[OFSO]

Or just keep running XP which does all that most people want.

[Boac]

XP will not stop that virus on its own.

[ribrash]

Or just keep running XP which does all that most people want.

+5

[G-CPTN]

The only reason why I now use W10 is that replacement laptops come with W10 installed.

Too difficult to revert to XP.

[Boac]

I do feel some of you have missed the message in OFSO's post #9 - this virus has nothing to do with Windows10 updates - his post refers to a virus which arrives in an EMAIL claiming to be about a Windows update. Running XP, 95 or 3.1 will not stop this email arriving. It has nothing to do with Windows10.

[jimtherev]

After my W10 update today I had a v. strange experience. Laser printer didn't work at all, got messages about something crashing in the spooler. Re-started the computer, tried again, same result. Thinks. Let's try and print something on me Canon inkjet: is that stuffed too? Document up. Select Canon. Print. OK. The laser, not the Canon, springs into action. Gibberish. about two lines per page. Inkjet has the right to remain silent and does so. Only wasted about 20 sheets before the laser responded to the off switch.
Uninstalled both printers. Threatened the whole b...y boiling in Anglo-Saxon. Reinstalled printers. Both now work.
I shall never have that half hour again.

Thank you Micro$haft. Another fine mess.

[Wodrick]

I haven't tried my printer, shure screwed up my audio settings though.

see what I did there ?

[PHXPhlyer]

If it was only a half hour, count yourself lucky.
I seem to have to restart printer about every other time I print.
Fortunately, I don't print that much.

PP