Watch out for Windows 10

[AccessBlaster]

Consequently, it would make a lot of $$ sense for government agencies and even private business to use selective free open source software such as "Writer" and "Calc" since that would satisfy the office productivity needs of many office workers. It is unfortunate that Microsoft has been successful in locking people into using their expensive products.

In a school district setting, Microsoft is everywhere. To say we have 60-70 thousand licensing agreements would be putting it on the conservative side.

As far a cost goes, many of these costs are "grants" that are passed on to the public one way or the other. So having office suites that are underutilized is not a big concern. Oops did I say that out loud.

There is a move however towards Chromebooks for testing purposes. Chromebooks are basically smartphones. By that I mean you need Wi-Fi to run, they are somewhat a single purpose device not made for intense computing. More like surfing the web or answering questions. But for now that will not replace the many computer labs that run traditional computer towers and suites.

 

[adrianscotter]

Microsoft is the heroin of our generation. Until I retire or my work stop using it (HA), I have to stay up to date regarding office and windows version...xxxx.

At work we use the enterprise versions, with most of the staff set to a lower admin user. We have little control how these images are configured.

At home I try not to give away all my personal info by going into the settings and turning off everything that is outbound. Camera, mic, locations etc. There are services you can disable, some of which are controversial would be key logger type services. Be vigilant.

When you upgrade don't be lazy and select the express settings. This is where most of your privacy goes out the Window(s) pardon the pun.

like Gizmo said nothing free, except the cheese in the TRAP.

I don't know if this will help but...

I did find this by accident and use it on all of my machines that have Windows 10: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

So far it seems to work for me, none of the adverts that appear are for anything I've looked at before (good), Microsoft aren't forever trying to sell me things (good) but Google still seem to be able to target me with adverts! (Bad). One of the most pervasive things I found during the Windows 10 setup was the ability to 'Log onto my friends from my contact list without asking or the need for a password! Are they mad! Most of my friends spend their time on sites of dubious origins and I wouldn't thank you for an automatic connection to their network.

 

[AccessBlaster]

I don't know if this will help but...

I did find this by accident and use it on all of my machines that have Windows 10: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

So far it seems to work for me, none of the adverts that appear are for anything I've looked at before (good), Microsoft aren't forever trying to sell me things (good) but Google still seem to be able to target me with adverts! (Bad). One of the most pervasive things I found during the Windows 10 setup was the ability to 'Log onto my friends from my contact list without asking or the need for a password! Are they mad! Most of my friends spend their time on sites of dubious origins and I wouldn't thank you for an automatic connection to their network.

During the clean install setup, I choose the custom configuration and not the express setup. At this point, I turn all the toggle switches to no. Then after windows is finished, I go back to the setting and privacy pages and turn most of those toggles to no.

Just to be clear, you need to upgrade to windows 10 before you can perform a clean install.
http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=1477704&postcount=36

 

[Steve R.]

Surprise, one of my computer decided to upgrade itself to Windows 10. Actually, that may not be quite accurate. Over a month ago I was doing my taxes, which requires a Windows computer, and I was nagged with a "Do you want to upgrade?" message. I clicked yes, but nothing happened over the course of a month. I forgot about it.

Today, I booted into Window to check alternative tax stuff scenarios, and the computer, by itself went into upgrade mode, which wiped-out my work. That was a bit jarring. Not to make the story any longer, the good news is that the upgrade went smoothly and did not affect my Linux install. Everything looked OK with the Windows 10 install based on a cursory examination.

 

[adrianscotter]

Hi SteveR, I've now upgraded well over 100 machines and not a single one has 'lost' any data, no data has been moved or 'hidden' where I didn't expect to find it. I've done it on machines with multi boot partitions, dual boot with Linux too and never any data loss. I just ensure I run the Windows 10 shutup from OO as previously mentioned.

 

[Steve R.]

Hi SteveR, I've now upgraded well over 100 machines and not a single one has 'lost' any data, no data has been moved or 'hidden' where I didn't expect to find it. ...

My primary concern with upgrading Windows was the potential havoc Microsoft might cause to a dual boot computer. Microsoft is not known for playing nice. This potential scenario did not happen.

For example, I did a Motherboard BIOS upgrade a few years ago, Windows would not boot, but Linux did. Went back to the prior BIOS version. One of these days I may revisit the BIOS upgrade.

The upgrade, went well (as far as I can tell). The data lose that I experienced was not (directly) the fault of Windows, it was just a simple disruption to ongoing work similar to having the power cord pulled. However, I don't recall seeing any warning message to save your work prior to the upgrade process being initiated. Oh well.

I do have a nit-pick with backing up Windows data files. Never, got it to work on a reliable basis when backing-up to external storage media. Since I am now using Linux, I have a Linux based back-up program to save my Windows and Linux data files to an external hard drive. So there would have been no issue had the upgrade process somehow screwed things up.

So to the extent that I can, I complement Microsoft for making a painless upgrade. One computer left to upgrade!

 

[adrianscotter]

I found an amazing piece of free backup software some years ago called Cobian Backup. I love it, you can change all of the parameters at will, tell it to shut down when it's done if it's a big backup and you want to go to bed. There are various different versions as it's been developed and I use it for all sorts, both personally and for clients. I backup to 2nd hard disk in the same machine, removable hard disk and USB flash drive, my Synology NAS and to FTP. Just Google 'Cobian Backup' - no quote marks. As for continuing ongoing backup, I use Google Drive. I love that too

 

[Steve R.]

I took a quick look at Cobian Backup. They wrote "Cobian Backup doesn't use any proprietary format and doesn't need a special recovery function. Just copy/unzip your files back. ... " The avoidance of a proprietary approach is a big plus. Proprietary based back-up programs are a horror. Good that you found that back-up program.

 

[adrianscotter]

Or as 'they' say, "It just does as it says on the tin". I like things like me, SIMPLE...