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Bad news: NSA Approved: Windows 10 Cleared for “Classified Use”

smaragdus wrote:Windows 10 Creators Update: block Win32 program installation

The main thing that catches me is that Windows has -- over the years -- maintained remarkable compatibility with programs written for previous operating systems. I've had ongoing problems with Mac breaking programs made just year or two previous and I think it's one of the reasons the freeware selection for Mac is crap. That Microsoft increasingly wants to break a capability that I always thought was an asset? It feels like a very different company than just a few years ago.

That said, a lot of users that just use a handful of programs would benefit from this by preventing installation of old (and bad) software. I might enable that on a family member's device who doesn't really dig very far.

I agree. But findings like the one recently reported by Ghacks make a strong case for security by lockdown...

• Report: Non-admin accounts mitigate 94% of critical Windows vulnerabilities
  http://www.ghacks.net/2017/02/23/non-ad ... abilities/

OTOH, people like EFF activist and BoingBoing founder Cory Doctorow have long been warning such trends are part of an all out war on open multi-purpose computing devices.

• The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing
  http://boingboing.net/2012/08/23/civilwar.html

webfork wrote:

smaragdus wrote:Windows 10 Creators Update: block Win32 program installation

The main thing that catches me is that Windows has -- over the years -- maintained remarkable compatibility with programs written for previous operating systems. I've had ongoing problems with Mac breaking programs made just year or two previous and I think it's one of the reasons the freeware selection for Mac is crap. That Microsoft increasingly wants to break a capability that I always thought was an asset? It feels like a very different company than just a few years ago.

That said, a lot of users that just use a handful of programs would benefit from this by preventing installation of old (and bad) software. I might enable that on a family member's device who doesn't really dig very far.

It's very unlikely that Microsoft would ever enable that preference by default. Compared with win32 programs, there are a very low number of UWP programs out there. The prompt would be unlikely to get people to install programs from Windows Store since there is barely anything there. Enabling the prompt by default would only annoy users.

I imagine the preference being used mostly in companies.

SYSTEM wrote:Compared with win32 programs, there are a very low number of UWP programs out there.

True. It's got to be at least 50:1. And probably 200:1 that actually utilize the full 64-bit instruction set for speed optimization.

SYSTEM wrote:The prompt would be unlikely to get people to install programs from Windows Store since there is barely anything there.

Some of the article comments seem to suggest that.

SYSTEM wrote:I imagine the preference being used mostly in companies.

Agreed.

Microsoft has announced that the upcoming Creators Update will allow automatic reboots after updates to be delayed, even for Windows 10 Home users.

The article below also has a tip on how to disable automatic reboots with the Task Scheduler until then.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/02 ... 0_reboots/

Playable ads coming to Windows 10

Quick note that Ghacks.net has updated resources for download of official ISO images, superseeding those already mentioned in the topic.

• Download Windows and Office ISO images
  http://www.ghacks.net/2017/03/13/adguar ... so-images/

SYSTEM wrote:

SYSTEM wrote:https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperi ... nnovation/

Terry Myerson wrote:

• Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support. This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon. For example, Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming “Kaby Lake” silicon, Qualcomm’s upcoming “8996” silicon, and AMD’s upcoming “Bristol Ridge” silicon.
• Through July 17, 2017, Skylake devices on the supported list will also be supported with Windows 7 and 8.1. During the 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends. After July 2017, the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for these configurations, and will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices.

The most important part of this announcement is that, on computers which have a processor based on Intel's latest Skylake microarchitecture (in particular, the Core i5-6000 and Core i7-6000 series), Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 won't receive all security updates after July 2017. People who have such computers will have to upgrade to Windows 10.

Microsoft reverted that decision for Skylake. In the end, computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on Skylake will receive security updates as long as the operating systems themselves are supported.

https://blogs.windows.com/business/2016 ... r-windows/

Shad Larsen wrote: 6th Gen Intel Core devices on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be supported with all applicable security updates until the end of support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Microsoft has now actually done it. What's more, they blocked Kaby Lake / Ryzen systems from getting any updates at all for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5 ... d_windows/

An overly aggressive move from their part...

Microsoft has finally published a summary of what kind of telemetry data Windows 10 sends.

And it's a lot of data.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/0 ... rs_update/
https://technet.microsoft.com/itpro/win ... ostic-data

Just Installed the Creators Update. The upgrade experience is a little better compared to the previous big updates. Privacy settings is pretty much front and center when you first go through the update setup. It seems most of my previous settings were untouched so much less tweaking required.

Custom colors for themes is nice but has restrictions for dark colors so I still need to use my registry tweaks. Start Menu tile folders which works like smartphone launcher app folders makes everything neat and compact.

I think the best thing for me though is alt+tabbing between desktop and fullscreen game is much faster now. Its almost like borderless windowed fast. Framerates seem smoother. Might have something to do with game mode or WDDM 2.2.

Also Windows Store Apps can be finally accessed even with UAC disabled. For someone like me who snoops around system files a lot this is a welcome change. UAC prompts is a major nuisance to me.

SYSTEM wrote:Microsoft has now actually done it. What's more, they blocked Kaby Lake / Ryzen systems from getting any updates at all for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5 ... d_windows/

An overly aggressive move from their part...

There is now a patch to bypass the check: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/1 ... _new_cpus/

Another source for bypassing the hardware detection bug -- it can't be a feature, can it?

• How to bypass Microsoft's next-gen processor update block on Windows 7 and 8.1
  https://betanews.com/2017/04/18/how-to- ... 7-and-8-1/

And can we agree that such ham-handed Mircosoft moves will only result in more news like this?

• Windows XP more popular than Windows 10 with businesses
  https://betanews.com/2017/04/03/windows ... -business/

An article that I think illustrates some of my frustration with Windows 10 -- it's just not a company priority.

On a related note, if this project (Windows S) takes off it would not be good for Windows portable users.