Not interested in installing Windows 10 on your computer after reading news reports indicating Microsoft will track your online behavior and save your search queries, private emails and contents of private folders, including photos?
Too bad. You may not be given much of a choice.
Microsoft’s Windows 10 is preparing to automatically download onto computers currently installed with Windows 7 or 8 – without the computer users’ knowledge, London’s Guardian reported.
According to the report, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will become a “recommended update” in 2016, and anyone who has automatic updates activated will have the new program installed automatically on their PC.
After it has downloaded, the Windows 10 installer will begin. At that point, users will need to actively cancel Windows 10.
That is, if they aren’t in the habit of just hitting “OK” when presented with a prompt, as many users often do.
In the meantime, until 2016, the Windows 10 upgrade will be considered “optional” and could still be downloaded if a user has the computer set to install automatic updates, which can be disabled.
“If you choose to upgrade (our recommendation!), then you will have 31 days to roll back to your previous version if you don’t love it,” said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group.
Had updates already disabled on my tablet running windoze 8.1, it only has a 32gb HDD and the previous updates just totally ate all the free space left on that tiny hdd... Can't imagine what windoze 10 would do!
Found it suspicious that they were offering a free upgrade, microsoft are not in the business of just giving away free and newly released OS. Sticking to Windoze 7 for my pc.
I went to do the Disk Cleanup option recommended there and elsewhere, but under downloaded program files it said 0 bytes, and this thing wasn't on the list? And it didn't give me a “view files” option on other categories. “Total amount of space you can gain = 733 MG” most of it apparently under System Error Memory Dump Files.
As usual I want to take recommended advice but get lost in how to. I tried deleting the abomination via Ransack which usually works but it says I need Administrator permission. Another picnic I'm sure...... THIS STINKING BUSINESS IS JUST LIKE WHEN THEY FORCED US TO COMBINE GOOGLE AND YOUTUBE!!!
Sorry, trying to Auto Link all this even with HREF was a disaster.
For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade.
Unless you've blocked auto-updating on your device(s), it WILL happen.
Unless you've blocked auto-updating on your device(s), it WILL happen.
I say it WILL happen eventually no matter what you do. All you can do is delay the inevitable, or leave windows behind for good. Maybe you could hang on for a year continually blocking and stuff but eventually, if you want your PC to be fully functional, you'll just have to let the latest MS stuff do what it wants to do.
It's kinda like when the "Know your Customer" stuff first came out. It was soundly rejected by the population, after which it was mandated and is now par for the course.
Will it happen even if we use Mint/Cinnamon on top of 7?
MS Will get it's way, eventually. It's simply something that can't be prevented indefinitely, except by leaving Windows behind.
But yes, you can run Linux on top of Windows7, as if Linux were a windows application. That's also a good option for trying out linux. You can do that with vmware player. See VMWare.com.
I have that and use it to run Windows on my Linux PC, as an application, for those rare times when I need a native windows environment.
VMWare has good advantages when it comes to security.
It doesn't change the fact that your windows setup can be infected the same way it can when it's installed natively on the PC. But it does mean the damage is usually limited. What you can do is right after you install windows into Vmware, you can shut windows down and make a backup of the files in linux that contain the entire "world" of that windows installation.
Then if the Windows install gets contaminated, all you need to do is close the windows session running in vmware, then close vmware, then in linux, delete the files that define that entire "world" of windows and restore the copies of the files you made in your backups, then restart vmware and windows. You'll be back with a brand new fresh and uncontaminated version of windows.
It doesn't require a painful and time consuming reinstall of windows. It's as easy as restoring a few (ok large) files from backup.
The only thing is you can share a folder in windows with one in linux, and that's a pontential way for a virus to escape the virtual world it's otherwise locked into. But Linux is generally immune to any viruses that are geared toward windows, and if you rarely share those folders then....
Of course you can also make periodic backups of your windows files, so if you do have lots of things setup in windows, then any restore will only set you back to whatever point it was at when you did the last backup.
Whew -- complicated. I've been blessed with fantastic computer docs, cheap or free, most of my internet years -- but they're gone with the wind. What we did was install VMW on a working Windows computer, not the other way around.
Would you mind evaluating this solution -- or is there simply no way around Win 10?