More Windows bloatware

[Drew Stephenson]

And you don't need deep insight to know that the Chinese regime would never allow for such an investigation to take place.
No-one is saying China is all bad anymore than they are saying the west is all good.
But I think I'll follow Mike at this point.

[MOF]

From what I've seen in reality cop shows, if you've turned your phone off in the UK, you're probably hiding a body.

Or run out of juice?

[shufflebeat]

...I think I'll follow Mike at this point.

Oh no, not that old one! Name your Mike, Dynamic or Stranks.

(Worse than bloody Johnson with that slippery side-talk).

by the way.

[Dynamic Mike]

For what it's worth I don't really recognise the rest of this description either. The millenials and gen Z I work with are no less educated, intelligent, articulate or astute than the boomers and gen X I work with.

What they are though, in a way I don't remember my peers being, is cynical, jaded and bitter about being lectured by a generation who've taken advantage of a host of benefits (free university education, final salary pensions, free dental care, a realistic minimum wage) that they've then whipped away from their children and grand-children. And I can't say I blame them for that, especially when you lob in the climate crisis (that they didn't create but will have to live with) as well.

I'm willing to accept my apparaisal may not be applied universally but it's based on my personal observations. Just short of 90% of long term sickness I have to manage is for people aged 20-40, not one of whom has a physical illness. They may well be educated, intelligent, articulate, astute but they haven't been taught resilience because they're not exposed to it. The current social & education systems don't give people effective tools to deal with disappointment and failure. I have genuinely had med certs from GP's submitted for 'sadness' & 'tiredness'. Meanwhile the majority of older staff turn up day after day, no matter how crap they feel, no matter what personal stress they're suffering, and not only put a full shift in but try to cover the workload of those who haven't turned up. YMMV, & I'm happy for you if it does.

Every generation blames the one before. We may have had free university education, but the trade off was only a tiny percentage of us got one. Final salary pensions have disappeared for pretty much anyone under 60. Dental care is free (or part-funded if you're earning) & dentists are no longer paid a tariff to fill perfectly good teeth. If you grew up in the 70's & have a mouth full of fillings, go figure. Even an unrealistic minimum wage is one step better than we had in 80's. A guy I knew in the early 80's raised a health & safety issue at work & was told if he looked over his shoulder he'd see 3.5 million unemployed people willing to take his place. It was hardly a bed of roses, a zero hours contract is bad but still better than no contract at all.

The climate crisis was likely triggered by the industrial revolution, I won't be holding my hands up to that one. And for those of us who lived through the cold war recycling wasn't always our major concern. I think the anxiety caused by being taught in school how to deal with a four minute warning of a nuclear strike probably trumps that caused by not getting enough facebook 'likes'.

[Eddy Deegan]

I think this is has developed into an interesting conversation but it's rather off-topic now. Might it be better to spawn a dedicated thread for matters Chinese in the lounge as opposed to continuing it in the Windows Music forum?

In other words, please restrict further additions to this thread such that they relate to the original topic.

Thank you!

[Drew Stephenson]

Sorry Eddy!

[Dynamic Mike]

Sorry. I forgot this was visible to all

[Guest]

All I know is that it is the bloody Americans who added that weather icon.

[OneWorld]

All I know is that it is the bloody Americans who added that weather icon.

Yes they might have done but it’s still China’s fault, because Trump said so.

And there endeth the lesson, as suggested, might be more appropriate to have this discussion on the Lounge Forum

[OneWorld]

I think this is has developed into an interesting conversation but it's rather off-topic now. Might it be better to spawn a dedicated thread for matters Chinese in the lounge as opposed to continuing it in the Windows Music forum?

In other words, please restrict further additions to this thread such that they relate to the original topic.

Thank you!

I think that is a good idea. And it is somewhat ironic that a topic pertaining to the issue of Windows Bloatware has morphed into an issue where the hot topic the new Cold War LOL

[miN2]

I don't have these problems with Windows. Like glitches, bloatware, etc., i just don't have it. I don't mean it doesn't bother me, i mean i don't have it. For example, that news and interests option in the Taskbar context menu isn't there for me.

I don't know what option i've checked to prevent all these annoyances but i'm thinking it must exist because i don't experience any of them. Like, none. Honestly.

I did check/uncheck a whole host of stuff ages ago when basically nosing around Win 10 deciding whether that makes sense or not, but for any specific option to enable/disable a particular feature i have no idea.

I know i did turn off/uninstall/delete everything to do with tiles, and considering 'News' is part of their live tile stuff maybe it has something to do with that?

Same goes for 'weather', and all the other apps and notifications of that ilk.

My Windows is up to date. I run no 3rd party software to control/prevent anything to do with the OS.

[Drew Stephenson]

Ssssh! Don't let them know!

[adrian_k]

I know i did turn off/uninstall/delete everything to do with tiles,

I’ve never seen these tiles of which you speak and don’t remember disabling anything.
Same on my wife’s laptop. But we did get the news thing. I’m frankly baffled by w10.

[Guest]

I particularly like the Windows 10 feature on my surface pro where when I am using remote desktop to it and I close the cover it asks me if I want to enter tablet mode!

I now wonder if it always does this but you can’t see it as the cover is closed.

[Dynamic Mike]

The latest 'update' either removed or corrupted the drivers for my Logik wireless keyboard which meant I couldn't get past the password screen! Fortunately I found an old wired Dell keyboard, plugged it in & re-installed the Logik drivers.

[qizzy]

FWIW, there are plenty of good options for taking back control of the Windows 10 'package' that we are delivered as consumers. It's worth bearing in mind that Windows 10 itself is used by professionals in many sensitive and demanding environments - this is only possible because Windows' design allows Network Admins to configure and manage every aspect of the OS deployment centrally.

Microsoft's attitude to consumers, even those who buy the 'professional' package, is somewhat different. Everyone is signed up to the full consumer exploitation ecosystem business model by default - the reasoning being that if it means enough to you, you will figure out how to remove the intrusive cruft and bloat. Or employ an IT department to do it for you.

Fortunately the Windows enthusiast and administrator community overlaps, and that means there are solutions for the rest of us that don't require deep knowledge of Powershell, Windows Component Servicing and Group/User Policy.

https://github.com/farag2/Sophia-Script-for-Windows

is very powerful, and not unapproachable.

The easiest and safest option for most however would likely be O&O Shutup10.

Personally, I wrangle the image before installating afresh every so often.

Take the product key, get the appropriate ISO & updates from https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php, and then use https://forums.mydigitallife.net/thread ... 019.80038/ on it.

Re:Updates: The advice generally is strongly in favour of allowing all updates for any machine that isn't 'airgapped'... but you can easily justify limiting Windows to informing you when updates are available, and allowing you to download and install them at a safe time for you.

Finally, I'd say that Windows is fundamentally shifting towards virtualisation, and starting to overlap with Linux. The community is embracing open source methods. It's a good time to look into these things. As the PC continues to dominate studio practise, it'd be advisable to have some very basic knowledge of powershell, virtual machines and so forth. Engineers who have thus far satisfied their needs as consumers of MS's product might want to mix with the admin/enthusiast community before they are locked into a second class experience.