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And this particular sysadmin-for-my-family will no longer allow windows to be installed on any of our computers whenever they are in need of a reinstall. Windo

And this particular sysadmin-for-my-family will no longer allow windows to be installed on any of our computers whenever they are in need of a reinstall. Windows is becoming more and more like Facebook. Too many users changed a setting you don't agree with? Just block access to that setting or call it something else to confuse enough people to the point that the numbers are "good enough" for management. Almost every time I visit my parents, my mother's Windows 10 laptop has reverted at least one of the changes I have made. I used to keep a copy of Windows available via dualboot on all of my laptops, just in case I needed to print something in a remote location where whichever flavor of linux I was using didn't support. Not anymore. Linux Mint serves that requirement just fine.

seanp2k2 10y ago
Yeah, at a time when their market share is declining and real solid alternatives exist for gamers, productivity, browsing, entertainment, etc you'd think they'd do everything in their power to make their platform more inviting, flexible, affordable, etc. Burning people with stuff like this will only eat up any remaining goodwill they had with consumers, and they'll be left with corporate customers and a dumbed-down product that no one wants to administrate.
- keithpeter 10y ago
  At work I use Windows 10 for Education and it runs nicely on hardware (Atom dual core with basic integrated graphics and 2G of RAM with spinning rust + some virtualised applications) that Windows 7 found problematic. I'm just wondering: why the hassle? Just release a 'stand alone' win10 client without all the gunge. The clue is in the name - it is a client to services currently based on Microsoft software.
cm2187 10y ago
One thing that windows 10 absolutely hates users changing is firewall rules. I regularly see my custom rules disappearing. This is unacceptable.
- eumoria 10y ago
  Are you modifying existing rules or creating entirely new ones?
  - cm2187 10y ago
    Creating new rules to open a specific port. I have seen them deleted twice in a year.
- eumoria 10y ago
  Are you modifying existing rules or creating entirely new ones?
- mjevans 10y ago
  I've seen this with file associations too. I feel like there MUST be some way of... 1) Asking 'correctly' now... 2) Automating this from a .cmd script or something so I don't have to manually hunt through the GIANT, UNSERACHABLE (it is now sort-able thankfully), REFRESHING on EVERY CHANGE list of file associations. Unfortunately I haven't actually looked in to how to do this... but if new versions of open source applications that I use aren't doing this automatically that sort of indicates that such a search might not be the best use of my time.
- manigandham 10y ago
  The windows firewall is also tied into pretty much everything in the system, disabling that service messes with lots of stuff, like installing fonts: http://superuser.com/questions/957907/unable-to-install-fonts-on-windows-10 http://superuser.com/questions/957907/unable-to-install-font...
  - userbinator 10y ago
    That sort of completely insane dependency deserves a specially enunciated WTF!?!? I would not be surprised if somehow installing or opening a font was tied into some sort of telemetry system (or maybe DRM-ish licensing crap) that requires Internet access in some way or another. Unbelievably scary and deeply disturbing.
vacri 10y ago
> my mother's Windows 10 laptop has reverted at least one of the changes I have made. So, having moved house recently, I had no internet for my win10 gaming PC, not even the cable plugged in. Most days it'd be turned on for a bit of a play. After about a week of this, Win10 then told me it had updates to install, and took me through the install process!
barbs 10y ago
> Too many users changed a setting you don't agree with? Just block access to that setting or call it something else to confuse enough people to the point that the numbers are "good enough" for management. Ergh, agreed. Ever try to change the default search engine in Edge to something other than Bing? Hoops galore.
- AckSyn 10y ago
  How is it a hoop to go to https://www.google.com https://www.google.com and click your mouse a few times? You make it sound like a chore!
  - barbs 10y ago
    It's a hoop because it's an unnecessarily complicated process for something which should be so simple, but we're forced to do it because Microsoft deems it so. Also, that process is not immediately obvious and certainly not intuitive. I can definitely imagine many people just giving up and using Bing.

seanp2k2 10y ago

Yeah, at a time when their market share is declining and real solid alternatives exist for gamers, productivity, browsing, entertainment, etc you'd think they'd do everything in their power to make their platform more inviting, flexible, affordable, etc. Burning people with stuff like this will only eat up any remaining goodwill they had with consumers, and they'll be left with corporate customers and a dumbed-down product that no one wants to administrate.

keithpeter 10y ago
At work I use Windows 10 for Education and it runs nicely on hardware (Atom dual core with basic integrated graphics and 2G of RAM with spinning rust + some virtualised applications) that Windows 7 found problematic. I'm just wondering: why the hassle? Just release a 'stand alone' win10 client without all the gunge. The clue is in the name - it is a client to services currently based on Microsoft software.

cm2187 10y ago

One thing that windows 10 absolutely hates users changing is firewall rules. I regularly see my custom rules disappearing. This is unacceptable.

eumoria 10y ago
Are you modifying existing rules or creating entirely new ones?
- cm2187 10y ago
  Creating new rules to open a specific port. I have seen them deleted twice in a year.
eumoria 10y ago
Are you modifying existing rules or creating entirely new ones?
mjevans 10y ago
I've seen this with file associations too. I feel like there MUST be some way of... 1) Asking 'correctly' now... 2) Automating this from a .cmd script or something so I don't have to manually hunt through the GIANT, UNSERACHABLE (it is now sort-able thankfully), REFRESHING on EVERY CHANGE list of file associations. Unfortunately I haven't actually looked in to how to do this... but if new versions of open source applications that I use aren't doing this automatically that sort of indicates that such a search might not be the best use of my time.
manigandham 10y ago
The windows firewall is also tied into pretty much everything in the system, disabling that service messes with lots of stuff, like installing fonts: http://superuser.com/questions/957907/unable-to-install-fonts-on-windows-10 http://superuser.com/questions/957907/unable-to-install-font...
- userbinator 10y ago
  That sort of completely insane dependency deserves a specially enunciated WTF!?!? I would not be surprised if somehow installing or opening a font was tied into some sort of telemetry system (or maybe DRM-ish licensing crap) that requires Internet access in some way or another. Unbelievably scary and deeply disturbing.

vacri 10y ago

> my mother's Windows 10 laptop has reverted at least one of the changes I have made. So, having moved house recently, I had no internet for my win10 gaming PC, not even the cable plugged in. Most days it'd be turned on for a bit of a play. After about a week of this, Win10 then told me it had updates to install, and took me through the install process!

barbs 10y ago

> Too many users changed a setting you don't agree with? Just block access to that setting or call it something else to confuse enough people to the point that the numbers are "good enough" for management. Ergh, agreed. Ever try to change the default search engine in Edge to something other than Bing? Hoops galore.

AckSyn 10y ago
How is it a hoop to go to https://www.google.com https://www.google.com and click your mouse a few times? You make it sound like a chore!
- barbs 10y ago
  It's a hoop because it's an unnecessarily complicated process for something which should be so simple, but we're forced to do it because Microsoft deems it so. Also, that process is not immediately obvious and certainly not intuitive. I can definitely imagine many people just giving up and using Bing.